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@Amish Heart asked what am I planting now...
I want to respond with a caveat, I am only trying to feed 2 people and I only want to reduce the fresh vegetables that I need to buy by about 75%

That being said I have 3 main areas for growing over the winter:
The growing station (s) - 2'X4' wire metal shelves (6 feet tall, 4 shelves per) with led grow lights on each shelf
The high bay - a 4'X4' area with LED grow lights in rows every 6" where taller plants can grow,
The outdoor raised beds - 3'x7' raised beds with retractable plastic tops, kind of like mini greenhouses, I can grow there except January & February.

I am currently planning to grow:

Growing Station(s):
Cabbage (rotating between green, red, and savoy)
Cauliflower
Broccoli

High bay:
Squash
Cucumbers
Cherry Tomatoes
Bell peppers

Raised beds transitioning to tubs at the growing station(s):
Radishes
Green onions
Lettuce (leaf lettuce with some smaller head varieties)
Spinach
Parsley

I may have overlooked something, but this is my current vision for this year's winter garden.....

I had some luck with indoor bush beans this year, but they took up a lot of room so I am still debating if they should be on my list.
The other things that are iffy are beets and carrots, they may be best kept outdoors

Anyway, there's my plan
 
Our gardens don't look too great this year. I always complain when it rains all the time ( last year, most of the time here) but now that it is just humid and warm but no rain the garden looks bad. I do water but it's a huge hassle. We have 2 large gardens ( probably about an acre all together) and I have to put 3 hoses together to reach .
Plus something is already eating some of my plants . My zuccini plants have tiny holes in the leaves ( they are only a few inches so far) , and my Chinese cabbage has lots of holes also. My tiny green bean plants look like rabbits ate pieces of them.
It;s weird too, we went shopping a few days ago in town about an hour away, and it absolutely poured. Thunderstorm like I have only seen in Florida before but not here. The roads were flooded, I must have drove through at least a foot of water in some places. But we get home, and it's bone dry. We must be in a weird location. It is either only raining were we are, or only not raining. Maybe the mountains block the clouds not sure.
 
The many hoses for watering are not fun. I tend to unscrew each hose, but keep them lined up, so I'm not dragging a whole 200 ft of hose. Hose on/off splitter switches work well if you have to water and turn alot of corners. We've used one of those that had four off branches to it, smaller 25 feet hoses running off of it and it worked well. I just assume I have to water every day.
 
Went out and checked the garden after last night's rain storm, the tomatoes were beat down a bit and I had to support some of them. But overall the plants just seem to be jumping out of the ground! Rain water has a way of just making everything perk up.

Happy day.
 
My lettuce and spinach bolted so I pulled it to give the cabbage more room. They are all headed up, but I noticed tonight I've got something eating the late cabbage. Didn't get it covered in time.
Here is a few pics.
Onion Bed.jpg
May Maters.jpg
1st Onions.jpg
Pecan Blooms.jpg


This last one is my pecans blooming
 
Bacpacker said:
My lettuce and spinach bolted so I pulled it to give the cabbage more room. They are all headed up, but I noticed tonight I've got something eating the late cabbage. Didn't get it covered in time.
Here is a few pics.
View attachment 67280View attachment 67282View attachment 67283View attachment 67285

This last one is my pecans blooming
Click to expand...
My heart skipped a beat with that last image because that is similar to what I want to find on my walnut trees but yet to see.

Tonight as we were tour or backyard garden/nursery we stopped to observe the walnut development but sadly we could not find the fruit I had photographed earlier this week. Try as we will The Princess and I could not find them. We had good time playing word games;

Were Are me nuts?
Can you find my nuts?
Maybe a deer ate my nuts ?
...

Those onions look good!

I see t least 10 onion casseroles in that image.

Are those tomatoes in image 2?

Ben
 
Yes they are going nuts after I pruned the frost bite off them. And I'm afraid it may be too late to install my cow panel for them to climb. Got lots of blooms in the undergrowth.
I've got 2 beds of onions like that, plus a row in the lower garden and a few more in the mater bed. The ones I picked sure tasted good.
The pecan trees are 6-7 years old. 3rd year of blooms, but yet to have any nuts. Lot more blooms this time, so maybe this is the year.
 
After our discussion on drip manifolds and pumps earlier this week, I pulled the trigger on some manifolds and fittings, to re-supply my garden and to equip my indoor garden this winter.

I still need to buy the pumps (I estimate 3 will give me optimal control, still need to calculate the proper flow rates) I hope to have the indoor garden fully automated by fall ;)

I have got to be the laziest person on the planet.
 
I have to confess, I started some bell pepper seeds this year, but between aphids and not watering them (back a couple of months now) I ignored them to death. But, the wife loves bell peppers (I don't, I can smell them a mile off, like burning rubber to me), TMI - back on track. Even though I would rather eat poison ivy, the wife loves those things and I love my wife. So this morning I went to HD and they had some (I have been told that they have been very low on garden plants this year) which I brought home and planted, I put 2 plants in a 20" container, they are planted deep (I actually covered the bottom 3 sets of leaves) so they should have a sturdy base.

Side note: The HD here usually has about 8 rows of garden plant stock, this year they have 2. They have lots of flowers, but not garden stock. Also the prices are just scary, $6 and up for little plants. Her 2 Bell Peppers were $7@ and the flower I bought her was $11.

I also picked up a lot of that velcro tape to support the tomatoes, the store only had 6 rolls... so now I have enough for a couple of seasons. ;)

I picked up some warm weather spinach, lettuce, and onion seeds because I am growing multiple crops now and I know in a month there will not be any seeds left on the floor.

Some of my bush beans are now over 9" high. I plan to make space for some more hanging plants (flowers and cucumbers) so the wife will have something to focus on from the kitchen window.
 
Our lowes and CoOp has a good supply of plants this year. Much like normal. Even TSC and Rural king have plenty. 4" pots and 6 packs are still 3.78. Same as last year IIRC. they are all grown and sd by Bonnie Co.
Urban on a side note ill post up some stuff about the drip system (tubing and tape) afterwhile. It might give you some ideas on your indoor plans.
 
My biggest strongest seedless grape vine is starting to form grape clusters.

20210530_154544.jpg


So I decided it was time to try out the air layering gizmos I learned abou (in this thread?). I pruned of a branch that had the young grapes thinking the vine would favor saving the grapes over creating roots. That cutting got stuck in the ground just see if it would root.

20210530_155615.jpg


I then stripped off the bark for a 1" section and scraped off the green stuff (forgot what that layer is called) and installed the dirt filled gizmo.

20210530_155912.jpg


Lather rinse repeat for the next branch.

In theory all I have to do now is keep them wet and watch for roots sticking out.

I will you know how it goes.

Ben
 
UrbanHunter said:
I have to confess, I started some bell pepper seeds this year, but between aphids and not watering them (back a couple of months now) I ignored them to death. But, the wife loves bell peppers (I don't, I can smell them a mile off, like burning rubber to me), TMI - back on track. Even though I would rather eat poison ivy, the wife loves those things and I love my wife. So this morning I went to HD and they had some (I have been told that they have been very low on garden plants this year) which I brought home and planted, I put 2 plants in a 20" container, they are planted deep (I actually covered the bottom 3 sets of leaves) so they should have a sturdy base.

Side note: The HD here usually has about 8 rows of garden plant stock, this year they have 2. They have lots of flowers, but not garden stock. Also the prices are just scary, $6 and up for little plants. Her 2 Bell Peppers were $7@ and the flower I bought her was $11.

I also picked up a lot of that velcro tape to support the tomatoes, the store only had 6 rolls... so now I have enough for a couple of seasons. ;)

I picked up some warm weather spinach, lettuce, and onion seeds because I am growing multiple crops now and I know in a month there will not be any seeds left on the floor.

Some of my bush beans are now over 9" high. I plan to make space for some more hanging plants (flowers and cucumbers) so the wife will have something to focus on from the kitchen window.
Click to expand...
I can't say for certain but planting peppers deep like tomatoes usually kills them. You might want to check in to it while you have time to bring them back up.
 
More and more weeding. Finally getting caught back up again for a second. Few more tomatoes to go then back around to the corn.
Still working on our earwig problems but we’re getting them as we see them including night raids until we get new stuff to try from suggestions on the garden pest thread. Also have the strawberries buried in DE at night which is helping temporarily.
Found a gopher hole (technically 2) last night while weeding tomatoes. Oops. That’s what i get for not keeping up on the weeds. Set up the traps about 6:30pm. Checked before bed at 9:30pm and got the little bugger. Hubby has definitely mastered the trap setup we’ve had the best success with. I now let him set them for faster termination.
Hope to harvest our first zucchini and squash tonight for dinner. They’ve been a little slow to grow (slower than normal) so not sure what’s going on with that yet.
Hubby put up the panels for the cucumbers to climb. Bought a very expensive roll of concrete wire and built the tomato cages. Been putting off building good long term use ones for years. It was time. Think we’re set up now completely. Going to be over 100* today and closer to 110* tomorrow. Going to be checking everything close and watering accordingly.
 
Biggkidd said:
I can't say for certain but planting peppers deep like tomatoes usually kills them. You might want to check in to it while you have time to bring them back up.
Click to expand...
They don't look too bad, I'll leave well enough alone.
1622411388815.jpeg

Speaking of things that didn't work, I thinned some Turnips, tried to transplant what I pulled.... Now those are some dead turnips. :)
Looked out at my tomatoes, they are enjoying the rain.
1622411527534.jpeg

The flying cucumber plant seems happy too.
1622411609096.jpeg

This is where I had spinach growing, as soon as I got my last harvest off I planted Bush Beans to replenish the nitrogen.
1622411726064.jpeg

And here are my picnic table containers.
1622411796475.jpeg

It's still raining so the poor plants are swimming right now..

Happy Sunday....
 
Double R said:
Hubby put up the panels for the cucumbers to climb. Bought a very expensive roll of concrete wire and built the tomato cages. Been putting off building good long term use ones for years. It was time. Think we’re set up now completely.
Click to expand...
I've always wanted to switch to that, is the heavy wire with the 4"X4" squares, is it galvanized or did he paint it to control rust?

I think I could do everything that I need with 30' and it seems so expensive that I hate the thought of having it sit around. I guess I'll have to keep using the left over fencing that I was given about 8 years ago, but I am almost out of that and will need to do something different next year.
 
UrbanHunter said:
I've always wanted to switch to that, is the heavy wire with the 4"X4" squares, is it galvanized or did he paint it to control rust?

I think I could do everything that I need with 30' and it seems so expensive that I hate the thought of having it sit around. I guess I'll have to keep using the left over fencing that I was given about 8 years ago, but I am almost out of that and will need to do something different next year.
Click to expand...

Yes and no paint. Our uncle in law is a Wizzard with tomatoes and has been using the same concrete wire cages for longer than the 25 years I’ve been around the family. They are tall so no matter how tall his varieties get they work perfectly. We’ve not wanted to spend the $ but always regret it by mid garden season with silly cages. Now we will have them for a lifetime we hope and they actually came out cheaper than buying cages so win win for us.
 
Double R said:
Yes and no paint. Our uncle in law is a Wizzard with tomatoes and has been using the same concrete wire cages for longer than the 25 years I’ve been around the family. They are tall so no matter how tall his varieties get they work perfectly. We’ve not wanted to spend the $ but always regret it by mid garden season with silly cages. Now we will have them for a lifetime we hope and they actually came out cheaper than buying cages so win win for us.
Click to expand...
It was the $150 a roll stuff, right? I was wanting to use that for my trellis/arbor cage that I am trying out this year, but just too many other bills to cover. Did I tell you my dentist is getting a new car?
 
UrbanHunter said:
It was the $150 a roll stuff, right? I was wanting to use that for my trellis/arbor cage that I am trying out this year, but just too many other bill to cover. Did I tell you my dentist is getting a new car?
Click to expand...
Yes. That sounds about right. Usually comes pre Rusty. Works fantastic for trellis’s. We will be using what’s left for that. Very sturdy stuff.
Bet your dentist loves you! Ouch
 
Double R said:
Yes. That sounds about right. Usually comes pre Rusty. Works fantastic for trellis’s. We will be using what’s left for that. Very sturdy stuff.
Bet your dentist loves you! Ouch
Click to expand...
Yep, I think he and @Neb 's dentist a planning a get together when they finish taking us to the cleaners.... possibly a vacation in Hawaii or something like that. ;)
 
So this year we're trying to simplify our garden, planted two tomato plants in planters on the deck, already have 4 blueberry plants in large pots out on the deck, lower garden will probably only have black zuchini, yellow straight neck squash and hopefully a bunch of Bluelake bush beans. As it is I need to plant a bunch of apple and cherry saplings that have been growing in pots for a couple of years that need to be planted, as well as an English Walnut seedling. I also have two raised beds that I have planted a bunch of different types of potatoes in that my wife set aside because they were throwing out so many sprouts.
 
UrbanHunter said:
It was the $150 a roll stuff, right? I was wanting to use that for my trellis/arbor cage that I am trying out this year, but just too many other bills to cover. Did I tell you my dentist is getting a new car?
Click to expand...

It's what we've always used. It can even stand up to accidents!!

Late last summer I pulled all the tomato cages up and piled them in the edge of the woods at the end of the garden. Sept. plant growth soon covered them along with fall leaves.

I forgot about them. The first time I plowed the garden this spring I accidentally backed the tractor over them, more than once... 🤫 Oops!

I have a piece of 12" diameter steel pipe in the shop. I used a heavy rubber mallet to pound all the cages round again... knocked off a little rust, other than that you couldn't tell what happened to them...
 
Hopefully the cage will show up well. I made them out of field fencing. Since then I ran several over and had to bend them back in shape which was easy enough.

DSCN0794.JPG

Last years garden and yes the weeds were terrible!

Since I figured out how to do pics here's one of the greenhouse we started last year but haven't made anymore progress on since.

DSCN0828.JPG

The left hand side is the turkey coop. It dug 4 feet in the ground on the left to pretty much nothing on the right. I did all the digging with my little 354 Jinma tractor and it still nearly killed me! lmao

That frame and roof are parts of shopping cart covers from a grocery story that went out of business. Got them for the effort of taking them down and hauling them away otherwise they were headed to the dump!
 
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Today the sun is out and the plants are doing fine. I checked on my okra, it is now a blend of 3 types of seeds in a tiny space. I put a row of sunflowers at each end to mark where they are, I'm just thrilled to see them all up. I read that okra are self pollinating and they can be grown in containers..... :gardening:

I got the 13 poinsettias moved out back, now they can take up room in another part of my garden... Son over does it trying to make his mom happy.. :heart/flower

I need to move 12 tomato plants to their final homes, they are in their containers but they are too close to my Roma types and I want some space between them..... I also need to figure out how I will support them, I want to keep them in groups of 4.


The soonest I can do much is next Saturday but I get my 2nd Covid shot on Friday.... Hope it goes well....
 
Terri9630 said:
Did the tomato seeds sprout?
Click to expand...
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I think this is Terri laughing at me ~ Oh these seeds might not sprout says she. I had my mom plant and sprout them for me because she is good at such things. Told her they were older seeds so might not be a great germination rate. There were 12 seeds in the pack so she put 2 in each cell of a little 6 cell thingy. 11 sprouted!!!!! I had to give some away. I didn't have room for that many. They are now about 8-10" tall and out in the garden. For reals, thank you. Those are my favorites for tom. sauce. This year I've decided to make my enchilada sauce while it's already getting canned up. In case you are worried about your other seeds, might just be cautious that you might end up with a lot 😂
 
I got almost 3 inches of rain last week so the garden is a bit soggy. I went out and dug some red potatoes. I noticed my Jalapeno peppers are doing well. We'll have plenty of peas and okra. Finally got a so-so stand of sweetcorn up. Planted twice already, bad seed.

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