GARDEN 2023

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Justaguy987 said:
And just like that, the end of the 2023 garden may be here. Just like every year, we improved
The soil and our skills. But this year the rain and hail is what we could not control. We enjoyed a little squash and some peas. Onions look ok-ish, but the rest is very depressing. We may have cried a little last night. I still have hope. Without hope, we have nothing.
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Sorry to hear about the bad weather. Hail will wipe a garden out quickly. Happened to us in 2011.
 
You guys are killing me. We’ve had nothing but rain continuously here. I’ve got tomatoes, but they’re not ripening. Everything else was slow going because Mr. gofer ate all my seedlings. The only thing that survived him was carrots, beets, and lima beans. He ate all my green beans. I replanted them and so far I’ve gotten a handful of beans. The only thing that I am getting regularly is cherry tomatoes. I actually don’t know what to do with all
 
Tommyice said:
You guys are killing me. We’ve had nothing but rain continuously here. I’ve got tomatoes, but they’re not ripening. Everything else was slow going because Mr. gofer ate all my seedlings. The only thing that survived him was carrots, beets, and lima beans. He ate all my green beans. I replanted them and so far I’ve gotten a handful of beans. The only thing that I am getting regularly is cherry tomatoes. I actually don’t know what to do with all
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RAIN??? What is rain??
 
Today’s pickin’. I didn’t get very far with it. The romas and san marzanos will be cut Jullian then go on the dehydrator then I jar them with herbs and olive oil- great over pork roast and slow roasted 🤤
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LadyLocust said:
Today’s pickin’. I didn’t get very far with it. The romas and san marzanos will be cut Jullian then go on the dehydrator then I jar them with herbs and olive oil- great over pork roast and slow roasted 🤤
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See, you needed a nice hot summer!! I miss it, it's cold here!😮
 
1 (singular) Old Mother Stoddard bean plant. Never mind the crab grass - it has sense been pulled and cleaned up, but has probably grown back to some extent because that's what it does 😵‍💫 PS - there were/are flowers planted in front of it but Old Mother Stoddard is being protective and sheltering them 😂
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We've been having a reasonable season, we are getting a few squash and cucumbers every week, we have been able to keep the lettuce and spinach going all summer. The new okra I chose for this year is putting on fruit, the leaves are so big that I missed the first batch and some of the pods were a foot long! Today, I planted a dozen new lettuce plants that should get us through the end of summer. I am seeing lots of green tomatoes and yesterday I found some red ones, so we will be harvesting them soon. We have not had a good year for rain, but the rain barrels are just large enough to carry us through...

On the indoor garden front I have been having trouble watering on a regular basis so I am going to an ebb and flow system. I am using HD seed starter trays and 1/2" bulkhead fittings, I am using a large HD tote as a water reservoir, the goal is to have 8 trays on 2 shelves. I would do more but I just don't have the time.

The Mr. Stacky system I set up in the house is doing well, but I wish I had a larger reservoir at the bottom. The vertical lights I made are working well and we are very near to being able to start harvesting spinach and lettuce from the system.

I have been so busy this year that I just didn't have much time to post.
 
Starting to lift stuff here, and clear the beds for winter. Fingers crossed for my butternut squash that seems to be doing ok so far. Thought it could be pumpkin! The tomatoes haven't ripened but I'll lift anyway and try them on a window sill. New chard, cabbage and kale for winter doing well, and I hope to start plaiting onions. They are taking a while to dry out.
 
Magpie said:
Starting to lift stuff here, and clear the beds for winter. Fingers crossed for my butternut squash that seems to be doing ok so far. Thought it could be pumpkin! The tomatoes haven't ripened but I'll lift anyway and try them on a window sill. New chard, cabbage and kale for winter doing well, and I hope to start plaiting onions. They are taking a while to dry out.
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Seems early.

So Hubby left for Montana this morning. The closest little town of 132 people has a restaurant. They are in growing zone 3 so don't have gardens. I sent a box of homegrown cukes, a few onions, and a bunch of tomatoes. It helped me stay caught up and hopefully they will like the home grown produce that they either have to travel to get or pay for store bought which is flavorless.
Also, have to stop filling the humming bird feeders. Tomorrow is the first. We've had quite a few this year.
 
So today I am starting to assemble my ebb-flow system, 4 trays, a 17 gallon reservoir, 1/2" delivery and return lines. I am using 10:20 growing trays that I have modified with 1/2" bulkhead fittings, the reservoir is a simple 17 gallon HomeD tub with lid, I placed a 1/2" bulkhead at the bottom for a return and one at about 1" from the top as the pump delivery line. I cut a large hole in the top for the tub to fit a 6" hydroponic growing basket so I can add water without taking the lid off. The tubing I am using is clear 1/2" id tubing and the return line will also act as a sight glass to monitor water levels. So far the only catch has been the bulkhead fittings, they do not hold the tubing tight enough for my comfort, so I had to order a few 1/2" hose clamps (I need 12 now, so I ordered 25).

I checked the Mr. Stacky growing station today, it has some beautiful lettuce showing and even some spinach, this is working out well but the homemade reservoir only hold about 3 gallons and is going low about every other day now. They make a 16 gallon reservoir for them but at $75 it costs as much as all of my ebb-flow system including the pump... What can I say, I'm cheap... But the more I think about it the more tempted I become...

The outdoor garden is still doing well, but vine borers have found my squash and cucumbers. It may be time to pull the squash and replant spinach for the fall. The green onions are doing wonderfully, I planted 4 small patches of them and am finding I can harvest a couple of larger ones from each every week and they seem to just keep going...
 
Any Texas gardeners starting stuff from seed now?
Hoping to get some of my Japanese type vegetables going…daikon radish, tatsoi, bok choy, as well as spinach and lettuce. I’m not going to fight the squirrels over it and might be able to figure out a security system to keep their little greedy paws out of it. :waiting:
Hope to go to Lowe’s to check out leaf blowers today. Get some plastic sheeting for the grass problem. It was just too hot for me to get it done but cooler temps are not far away. A friend who drops by to check on me suggested keeping up with watering and fertilizing to help keep good grass growing and the weeds at bay. He also has the grass burrs pop up in his beautiful yard and plucks them as they see them. I hadn’t considered fertilizing the lawn.
 
UrbanHunter said:
So today I am starting to assemble my ebb-flow system, 4 trays, a 17 gallon reservoir, 1/2" delivery and return lines. I am using 10:20 growing trays that I have modified with 1/2" bulkhead fittings, the reservoir is a simple 17 gallon HomeD tub with lid, I placed a 1/2" bulkhead at the bottom for a return and one at about 1" from the top as the pump delivery line. I cut a large hole in the top for the tub to fit a 6" hydroponic growing basket so I can add water without taking the lid off. The tubing I am using is clear 1/2" id tubing and the return line will also act as a sight glass to monitor water levels. So far the only catch has been the bulkhead fittings, they do not hold the tubing tight enough for my comfort, so I had to order a few 1/2" hose clamps (I need 12 now, so I ordered 25).

I checked the Mr. Stacky growing station today, it has some beautiful lettuce showing and even some spinach, this is working out well but the homemade reservoir only hold about 3 gallons and is going low about every other day now. They make a 16 gallon reservoir for them but at $75 it costs as much as all of my ebb-flow system including the pump... What can I say, I'm cheap... But the more I think about it the more tempted I become...

The outdoor garden is still doing well, but vine borers have found my squash and cucumbers. It may be time to pull the squash and replant spinach for the fall. The green onions are doing wonderfully, I planted 4 small patches of them and am finding I can harvest a couple of larger ones from each every week and they seem to just keep going...
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The water chemistry of ebb and flow is critical from what I know.

How do you plan tp monitor the water?

Curious,

Ben
 
Neb said:
The water chemistry of ebb and flow is critical from what I know.

How do you plan tp monitor the water?

Curious,

Ben
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I did buy a couple of the kits, I can pull water from the reservoir or from the trays during a flow period. Or I could just add a T with a 1/4" line and valve to use as a sampling line.
 
No rain expected for another 3 days.... Last night I connected city water to my rain barrel inlet (yes I made a way to fill them off city water) for 30 minutes, that should give me enough water for the next couple of days. My hose clamps arrived last night so I can finish assembling my ebb-flow system, including a sampling port on the delivery line....

As soon as the sun comes up, I plan to plant some more spinach and water everything, we are expecting it to be close to 100 again today...
 
Well our rain got pushed back another day or 2, not expecting anything before Sunday morning now... I may have to tap city water 1 more time to make it. The forecast is showing 2 more days above 90F before things start to cool down and the possibility of rain increases.
The last time I watered I found a couple of places that had leaking emitters or cut lines. After repairing those the water pressure to the rest of the system was much better.

My ebb-flow system is now assembled (except for the sampling port, short a valve...) I am planning to keep high domes on all of the trays, mostly to control the spread of aphids, in the past if one plant gets them they spread like wild fire.
 
My tomatoes have taken forever this year. Finally getting something resembling a harvest.

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The ones on the left I picked today —getting them in early before the pests get to them. Pest pressure has been insane this year. Pillbugs, slugs, whiteflies — I haven’t seen anything like it in the past three years we’ve been here. But we also got a ton more rain and cold weather this year, so that’s probably contributing.

All of the tomatoes are from the Dwarf Tomato Project — Eagle Smiley (yellow cherries), Velvet Night (chocolate salad tomatoes), Vince’s Haze (purple beefsteak) and Saucy Mary (green Roma-style). Overall I’ve been really pleased with how prolific and resilient they seem to be, now that things are finally ripening.
 
After adding 15 gallons of water I discovered that the plastic bulkhead fittings were a little small for the 1/2" line and leaked a bit, so I re-tightened everything and monitored it over night using a drip tray. So far it is looking "reasonable" today I am adding a few growing containers that have herbs, planting a few with lettuce and spinach. Hopefully I can cycle the pump tonight to time how long it needs to run to fill the trays.... then I can check for more leaks.... Have to love a new system.
 
i had planted two blocks of late sweet corn. they both looked fantastic..first one was just about ready to pick and block #2 was tasseling and silking. big storm just hit and its all flat on the ground now ! blank..blank..blankety blank bullblank !!
 
Today it is finally raining! I am hoping it will help my fall leaf veggies! The rain barrels can hold anything that comes our way today. I am a bit concerned about the high winds they are forecasting, it would easily take out my okra that just started producing well....
 
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