Garden 2021

[MoBookworm1957]

My raised beds-herb garden

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Raised beds

 

[UrbanHunter]

I have a lot of garden stuff that needs to be done. I got a shipment of Ben's helper bug eggs today, I put the eggs in the fridge to slow down their hatching.

Tonight, I transplanted 100 bush beans into 16oz plastic cups that I had drilled holes in the bottom of... I will try to clean out some more containers to hold the cups before I start transplanting the tomatoes into them. The plants are using so much water it is becoming a chore to keep up.

It was nice outside so I took out the cabbage plants and the older bush beans to give them a bath and wash away any aphids I could find. We are now getting about 1 harvest of bush beans a week.

I figure I have 8 weeks before I can move the majority of my plants outdoors... I can feel the pressure starting as the time to get things done starts to get short...

The bulbs and onion sets I put out last fall are all sprouting up now, I saw a critter had dug up some onions, it seems that there is always someone or something that wants to eat my vittles....

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Will be adding 3-4 raised beds this year.
Also a small hydroponics will be added,just about got everything needed.

 

[Neb]

I have a lot of garden stuff that needs to be done. I got a shipment of Ben's helper bug eggs today, I put the eggs in the fridge to slow down their hatching.

Tonight, I transplanted 100 bush beans into 16oz plastic cups that I had drilled holes in the bottom of... I will try to clean out some more containers to hold the cups before I start transplanting the tomatoes into them. The plants are using so much water it is becoming a chore to keep up.

It was nice outside so I took out the cabbage plants and the older bush beans to give them a bath and wash away any aphids I could find. We are now getting about 1 harvest of bush beans a week.

I figure I have 8 weeks before I can move the majority of my plants outdoors... I can feel the pressure starting as the time to get things done starts to get short...

The bulbs and onion sets I put out last fall are all sprouting up now, I saw a critter had dug up some onions, it seems that there is always someone or something that wants to eat my vittles....

What critter mucks with onions?

Aside from wild turkeys making nests in my onion beds, they like garlic can protect themselves.

What critter?

Ben

 

[Bacpacker]

Past week I've gotten my blueberries pruned, 3 bunches of onions (different types) planted, 2 garden beds plowed. Also got a dozen cabbage plants, 1 thyme, and 6 spinach plants that need to go in the ground. Also order several more tomato seed, all determinate types.
Hope to start building 3 new raised beds next week.

 

[Neb]

Re: demands of watering

Harbor Freight sells small submersible pumps intended for fountains and waterfall features. They can be plugged in to a programmable timer to water on a schedule. You could keep a 5 gallon bucket with pH adjusted water topped off to reduce your effort.

Harbor Freight also used to sell drip irrigation kits.

Mind you adjustment for pumping to multiple elevations on your shelves still has to be addressed but you can figure that out.

Ben

 

[SheepDog]

Needle valves!

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

What critter mucks with onions?

Aside from wild turkeys making nests in my onion beds, they like garlic can protect themselves.

What critter?

Ben

Chickens! If they find a row of onions they will dig them up and leave them to die a horrible death. Don't ever let a hen in a garden with a patch of onions.

 

[WVDragonlady]

Checked my containers on the back deck and found that all 6 of my celery plants are trying regrow along with 3 strawberry plants that survived and one swiss chard plant.
Also my thyme,sage and rosemary plants all wintered over.
Not sure about the marjoram or mint yet

 

[Terri9630]

I got my onion seeds started last week. 3 of the 4 varieties have sprouted so far. To early to start anything else.

Oh, my garlic is in the garden but it's just not as exciting as seed starting.

 

[UrbanHunter]

What critter mucks with onions?

Aside from wild turkeys making nests in my onion beds, they like garlic can protect themselves.

What critter?

Ben

Stray DOGS & CATS..... and then there are the ever present squirrels.....

I was at my basement desk and saw a black and white cat digging in the bed through the window...

 

[sonya123]

Son finally plowed up one of the gardens a few days ago when we had a day of dry enough weather (tractor is not 4 wd). Now we have ice and snow on the ground again but it is raining ice pellets at the moment, and is supposed to turn into all rain later today. Yuck I SO wished it would dry up !!!!
Have seeds started indoors but who knows when I will get to plant them

 

[UrbanHunter]

The weather outside right now is in the low 40s may get into the 50s with a soft rain that should end by noon. As part of my never ending battle with the aphids I took out some of my plants out to hose them down and to let them enjoy the rain.... I want to get all the DE off them so I can switch over to using ladybugs -

One of my indoor containers of spinach is starting to bolt, so I will harvest it completely today and transplant new young plants (actually they are the same age just been living outdoors in the cold) in the container....

Later today I plan to transplant some more tomatoes. I have found that I can gently wash them off in a bucket of water, using a soft flow of water can separate them into individual plants (also does a good job of removing any aphid types). I am planting 2 plants per 16oz cup but at this rate I will have way more tomatoes than I can use.

Checked the outdoor carrots today, I think I will need to harvest them and prep that bed for a spring crop. I was able to harvest a couple gallons of lettuce from outside. There are a number of spinach plants in one of the covered boxes that gets a little more sun and they are starting to really perk up, I will have to watch them closely or they will bolt. This is the time of year that I have to start opening the box lids, then by the end of April I will have to replace the clear plastic with shade cloth, the shade cloth has gotten very expensive so this year I will be using cheap/used bed sheets. When it is 50 outside, the covered boxes see 80+ inside, when it gets above 60 I run the risk of cooking my plants.

The weather forecast for this week only has 2 days where they are expecting hard freezes, so it will not be long before I start moving some of my plants out into the covered raised beds....

 

[UrbanHunter]

I checked the 10 day weather forecast this morning, major shift back to cooler nights, now they are showing 6 days with hard freezes..... So much for moving plants out doors anytime soon. We had a couple of weather fronts push though yesterday and my hips were killing me, or it might be the 6 large bags of potting mix that I carried down the hill to the back yards.... Not sure which was to blame, I'm guessing a little of both.

I got 3 bell peppers transplanted yesterday afternoon while it was warm outside, I washed them down to bare roots to separate them and then planted them in their own containers, they had some aphids on them, but between the hose and dipping them in a 5 gallon bucket of water not many stayed with the plants to the new digs.

I didn't get the tomatoes transplanted, I did 20 and then got distracted......

My Ladybugs arrived yesterday.

 

[LadyLocust]

Crates from work are becoming raised beds to try to keep some of the food away from the voles . Before and after.

These are only about 12” deep. The larger ones are a little deeper.
Added a layer of cardboard then vinyl screen stapled in. Next soil.

 

[Neb]

Crates from work are becoming raised beds to try to keep some of the food away from the voles . Before and after. View attachment 60174View attachment 60175
These are only about 12” deep. The larger ones are a little deeper.
Added a layer of cardboard then vinyl screen stapled in. Next soil.

Nice!

Carrots will be limited but everything else could like those frames.

Ben

 

[LadyLocust]

What critter mucks with onions?

Aside from wild turkeys making nests in my onion beds, they like garlic can protect themselves.

What critter?

Ben

Voles eat both

 

[UrbanHunter]

Voles eat both

Yes they do! the bottom of all my raised beds (except the ones on concrete) are lined with plastic coated wire mesh (1/2 squares), the first boxes got attacked and after that I up-armored the from the start.... no voles or goffers, now I only need to deal with dogs, cats, and squirrels....

 

[LadyLocust]

Yes they do! the bottom of all my raised beds (except the ones on concrete) are lined with plastic coated wire mesh (1/2 squares), the first boxes got attacked and after that I up-armored the from the start.... no voles or goffers, now I only need to deal with dogs, cats, and squirrels....

If there are favorite spots they like to dig, set mouse traps just under the soil.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

I have planted carrots in 12" deep flower pots.
But then again I had a farmer tell me you can't grow green beans in a flower pot.
Then I showed his wife and him a picture of my flower pots of green beans.
Hushed him right up.
I do believe his wife got him right on that little project.
I don't have moles,voles or snakes.
I have a dog named Strawberry instead.

 

[Bacpacker]

Thanks for the reminder about lining the bottom of the beds with wire. I forgot I had done that with them last year.

 

[backlash]

My garden is going to be a lot smaller this year.
A couple of tomato plants, 2 cherry tomatoes, peas, radishes, and maybe 2 peppers.
No squash because I have been invaded by squash bugs. I haven't been able to find a good method to get rid of them. They got all the squash last year. I think they also may have been the reason my cucumbers were so bitter you couldn't eat them.
A side note. Last year I put down a fabric ground cover and I had almost no weeds. This year the cover is still in good condition and I will not have to weed the garden. That makes me a very happy gardener.
This is the stuff I bought.
DeWitt SBLT4300 Sunbelt Ground Cover Weed Barrier

 

[UrbanHunter]

I have a bunch of old jiffy seed starter trays that I use year after year, but some of them leak, some on the first year, some later, but at this point over half of them leak.... so I ordered 10 heaver 1020 trays with high dome lids and they arrived last night. Looking at them you almost can't tell the difference, but the new ones are about 3 times thicker and they are slightly larger both in length and width. They were more expensive, about $2 more each but I think they will last a lot longer. The dome lids are much taller than the jiffy lids and that will allow me to leave the plants in them much longer before needing to transplant.

The only down side is that I set up each of my growing stations with 1 shelf spaced to just allow the jiffy trays to slide in on top of a heating mat, now I will need to move one of the shelves to make more room for the taller trays.

The weather man says there are 8 more days of freezing nights and then things will warm up.... I figure that sometime in the next 6 weeks I will be moving my gardening work outdoors, looking foreward to that farmers tan

 

[Bacpacker]

7 different orders, 1 half my onions have arrived and are planted. 2nd batch due late April/Early May, batch of Aspargus is due to arrive Thursday. 4 seed orders have arrived, one more still waiting on, but it's all tomatos so no rush for them.
Sorted thru all the seed I bought this year thats arrived. Need to get a container to keep them in for now. Need to go thru my old seed and seperate out the oldest stuff, then seperate by type whats left.
After I finished looking thru that I planted a row across one of my beds of Nantes carrots, 1 row of Harris Model Parsnips, 4 rows of Mammoth Snow Peas. I also ran across 3 garlic bulbs and some shallots. Broke the garlic up and planted 4 rows of that. Then 3 rows of shallots. Both beds are now full, but I have most of a row of parsnips left to pull from last year. That'll give me space for another couple rows of carrots in a few weeks.
Going to order my metal tomorrow and should pick it up Thursday. Need to start building soon after ward and get them ready to plant.

 

[LadyLocust]

7 different orders, 1 half my onions have arrived and are planted. 2nd batch due late April/Early May, batch of Aspargus is due to arrive Thursday. 4 seed orders have arrived, one more still waiting on, but it's all tomatos so no rush for them.
Sorted thru all the seed I bought this year thats arrived. Need to get a container to keep them in for now. Need to go thru my old seed and seperate out the oldest stuff, then seperate by type whats left.
After I finished looking thru that I planted a row across one of my beds of Nantes carrots, 1 row of Harris Model Parsnips, 4 rows of Mammoth Snow Peas. I also ran across 3 garlic bulbs and some shallots. Broke the garlic up and planted 4 rows of that. Then 3 rows of shallots. Both beds are now full, but I have most of a row of parsnips left to pull from last year. That'll give me space for another couple rows of carrots in a few weeks.
Going to order my metal tomorrow and should pick it up Thursday. Need to start building soon after ward and get them ready to plant.

I have a wooden box that I keep my seeds in - in alphabetical order. Can't tonight, but will try to find a pix. It's the best/easiest thing I've found yet.

 

[UrbanHunter]

7 different orders, 1 half my onions have arrived and are planted. 2nd batch due late April/Early May, batch of Aspargus is due to arrive Thursday. 4 seed orders have arrived, one more still waiting on, but it's all tomatos so no rush for them.
Sorted thru all the seed I bought this year thats arrived. Need to get a container to keep them in for now. Need to go thru my old seed and seperate out the oldest stuff, then seperate by type whats left.
After I finished looking thru that I planted a row across one of my beds of Nantes carrots, 1 row of Harris Model Parsnips, 4 rows of Mammoth Snow Peas. I also ran across 3 garlic bulbs and some shallots. Broke the garlic up and planted 4 rows of that. Then 3 rows of shallots. Both beds are now full, but I have most of a row of parsnips left to pull from last year. That'll give me space for another couple rows of carrots in a few weeks.
Going to order my metal tomorrow and should pick it up Thursday. Need to start building soon after ward and get them ready to plant.

I've gone to keeping my seeds in 50cal ammo cans, stored in the fridge. I have 2 cans 1 for opened seed packets or packets that I plan to use soon and one for new seeds that I plan to use much later.

 

[Bacpacker]

I have a bunch of stackable plastic boxes i picked up where I used to work. Plastic with lids that we got 1000s of small parts in. They work out well for many things. My problem is that I hate to throw out old seed. I'm sure I have some from the 90s. Just need to spend some time and organize better.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I have a bunch of stackable plastic boxes i picked up where I used to work. Plastic with lids that we got 1000s of small parts in. They work out well for many things. My problem is that I hate to throw out old seed. I'm sure I have some from the 90s. Just need to spend some time and organize better.

I hear you on the hate to throw out old seed... I have been sorting my seeds by date anything this year goes in the "New" bin and anything older goes in the use now.... with the seed starter trays I can see which ones did not produce and replant..... some seeds I replanted 4 times this year.... but watch out for peppers they can be slow to sprout. I now have 9 large bell pepper plants and that is after culling half.. I wanted 3... I have gone to replanting in the same peat pot as the ones that didn't make, just add a pinch of starter soil mix over the new seeds, at least this way I only have a few containers to deal with if they all decide to pop at the same time...

I was very surprised to see that my "Heavy Hitter" Okra sprouted very quickly, I am glad that the domes for my new starter trays are so tall, the plants can be about 8" tall before I have to think about replanting them. I am using the very small square peat seed starter cups, but I drill a 1/2" hole in the bottom so the roots can easily grow out the bottom. The plan is that when I move them to their raised bed I won't have to remove them from the peat cup, just plant them with the peat cup about 2" below soil level....

My indoor tomato and cucumber plants are now drinking way faster than I would have ever expected, but I am getting some fruit.

I'm torn on my squash, I was planning to transplant them into the raised beds in early April, they have sprouted quick and are growing fast. I am beginning to feel like I should transplant them into large (10 gallon) containers indoors and then move containers outdoors when it warms up a bit.

It was hard to bring myself to releasing lady bugs in the house, but I can see that they are having an impact, I wish I had done that last fall. Next weekend I plan to release all the rest into the garden and the yard, I also plan to put out the praying mantis eggs at that time.

I was planning to work in the garden this weekend but got a call yesterday asking me to manage a range day on Saturday, so that ended that idea....

 

[MoBookworm1957]

I use an recipe box with blank alphabet dividers .
Back to tabs have dates, front side names.
Have several boxes, with various seeds in them in refrig.