I’ve not heard of the Big Jim’s before. I do have a couple Anchos for things like you mentioned. Once we figure out which ones Hubby likes best, next year we’ll reign it in also.
GARDEN 2023
- Thread starter Pearl
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Anchos are used in Kansas for rellanos, takes some getting used to after eating Big Jims for so long in the years we spent in New Mexico. But the New Mexican food is different than the Mexican food in Mexico, and there are a few Mexican hole in the wall restaurants here in Kansas that have Mexican cooks.
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How many barrels/capacity do you have? I've got five 50 gallon barrels which were overflowed. We've been without any appreciable rain for a few weeks now and those barrels are going down fast. Currently, I hand water, just the plants and the rows where I put the seeds for direct sow.
It's been very cool overnights--in the 50's. Very unusual for this time of year in northern NJ. Usually by this time of the year, I'm trying to cut electricity use so I can run the AC without too much additional cost. The last few days I've been wearing a lightweight jackets to work in the morning.
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I
I have a dozen of the larger 60 gallon barrels, I bottom tapped them all and have them feeding a 1" manifold pipe to an irrigation boost pump. I have 5 circuits on my drip system and I use about 50 gallons of water per 15 minute watering....
3# of peas today and some collards. @Bacpacker get some oregon sugar pod 2 seeds and yates collards.i think you will be happy with them.
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Harvested my chives and got them put in the dehydrator.
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I lost most of my beans to the gophers and armadillo. I really need to get in and pull weeds. That'll wait till after the chicken run is finished though. Started getting some squash and tomatoes. Peppers are still being slow but trucking along.
Gosh, all these gardens. I am just planting mine. The survival rate is one night.
First day, I put out broccoli, cauliflower and Pak Choi. Completely erased from the planet the next morning. Put out squash plants yesterday. Frost got them. 80°F and no low overnight temperatures in the forecast, but gone anyways. limp and black.
Put out the pepper and tomatoes that were sitting outside up front last night and perfectly fine. I am expecting a meteor strike tonight.
First day, I put out broccoli, cauliflower and Pak Choi. Completely erased from the planet the next morning. Put out squash plants yesterday. Frost got them. 80°F and no low overnight temperatures in the forecast, but gone anyways. limp and black.
Put out the pepper and tomatoes that were sitting outside up front last night and perfectly fine. I am expecting a meteor strike tonight.
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Maybe you should put a bucket over your plant each night, Clem. That's terrible.
Looks good Elk. We picked 2 banana peppers Friday, and nearly a quart of 1st picking blueberries
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Today after work I started my outdoor vertical gardening for the year... Just a bunch of quart sized containers but I have 8 things planted. I have room for about 18 lettuce/spinach plants. I also have 5 herbs ready to go outside. Lots to sort out and very little time.
Watered again. Every other day right now. Sweet tater slips every day. I've got shut off valves to where I can shut off individual beds. I'm not gonna be happy with next months water bill. But the food will more than make that up
Have you ever used garden fleece?
Yes, I use it.
The problem is there was frost when there shouldn't have been. I am pretty sure mice got at it and ate the broccoli and stuff. I removed it for the night as it was being chewed through and it should have been safe enough. But nope, the weather is not predictable this year. Yesterday it was close to freezing and twenty minutes later it would be close to 80F and then swing back again. I wasn't expecting that.
I have never had a mouse problem in a garden before. It's OK I will get the measure of the little boogers.
The garden is literally being carved out of a packed play ground of clay. It's going to be years before I even have decent dirt. No, I won't be building raised beds. It's too expensive to do here and there are other things I would rather have like a freeze dryer.
I am doing it the old school way of hard scrabble digging and amending the dirt where the plants go. I should have just left it another year and planted mangles to break it up and rot in place over winter.
I managed to get 60 tomato plants and 56 potatoes planted today. That was a bunch of digging and clay lump removal.
The good news is that I am getting some physical fitness back again.
Doesn't look like we'll be seeing any rain this spring/summer either
The problem is there was frost when there shouldn't have been. I am pretty sure mice got at it and ate the broccoli and stuff. I removed it for the night as it was being chewed through and it should have been safe enough. But nope, the weather is not predictable this year. Yesterday it was close to freezing and twenty minutes later it would be close to 80F and then swing back again. I wasn't expecting that.
I have never had a mouse problem in a garden before. It's OK I will get the measure of the little boogers.
The garden is literally being carved out of a packed play ground of clay. It's going to be years before I even have decent dirt. No, I won't be building raised beds. It's too expensive to do here and there are other things I would rather have like a freeze dryer.
I am doing it the old school way of hard scrabble digging and amending the dirt where the plants go. I should have just left it another year and planted mangles to break it up and rot in place over winter.
I managed to get 60 tomato plants and 56 potatoes planted today. That was a bunch of digging and clay lump removal.
The good news is that I am getting some physical fitness back again.
Doesn't look like we'll be seeing any rain this spring/summer either
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organic from bondie...it will smoke the bugs and after a couple of years now i hardly have them in garden. none this year so far. active ingredient is spinosad
https://www.jungseed.com/product/J50416/1028
I buy my seeds from them, good company
Will try this, we get those bugs also. I usually just put some sevin dust on them before they flower
southern states usually has it on shelf.
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I feel ya @ClemKadiddlehopper . Frost isn’t getting mine, although it is a bit nippy at night, but critters have been a horror. I had 8 broccoli plants in containers that are raised on milk crates (easier for dad to care for). This morning they were looking great, thanks to the cool temps here. This evening we went outside after dinner to water the containers and the broccoil had no leaves and were “topped.” It was squirrels and there are merciless.
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It may have been a ground hog, they climb like squirrels and eat like hogs...
Those rotten little buggers!
Something cleaned out one of the "holes" in my garden where I've planted melons & squash... the hole was chockablock with thriving new plantings, now it's empty, just bare soil! "HUH?" Other new plantings have died due to drought, but that's okay, I still have plenty of melon & squash seeds, lol. Every time a hole fails, I'll toss more sprouted seeds in there and add a little topsoil to the amended soil already in the hole. The good news is that some plantings are doing well, and once those goldurned monsoon rains arrive it'll be a different story where the root growth is concerned. My weed plants are down to half a dozen or so, but I just started those 'Purple African Magic' seeds, I'm trying to time those so they go in the ground once the monsoon rains arrive. I'll keep 'em in a plastic tray for awhile and take good care of 'em, they reportedly produce up to 35% THC in the buds, lol... 
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Deer is my problem, we harvested 15, two years ago, still have a few.
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I've never see a groundhog in my yard before. Usually just squirrels, chipmunks, opossum and raccoons. Heidi (my mountain cur dog) has a trophy for each of those except raccoons. She doesn't go out after dark. The opossum is the reason for that. She brought one in after being outside and placed it on my bed.
I was thinking it could have been birds. We've got some big ones here. I've seen crows pulling my green beans out or snapping them off. And now I've got ravens visiting.
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Yesterday I planted some of the stacking planters, 4 pockets per level, I have 2 setup 3 layers high. I planted half a dozen squash and half a dozen cuc's. I was forced to hand water because I only wanted to put water on the new plants.
I am anxious to see how the Mr. Stacky planters work out, they appear to be very heavy and hopefully they will last a while. They were a little pricy for my pocket book. I went to their website and they had some bottoms for hydroponic applications using pumps and timers, I think they might work well for indoor gardening.
I have lots of spinach and lettuce that needs to be transplanted, so tonight I will prepare about 18 containers, that will take care of about half of them....
I am anxious to see how the Mr. Stacky planters work out, they appear to be very heavy and hopefully they will last a while. They were a little pricy for my pocket book. I went to their website and they had some bottoms for hydroponic applications using pumps and timers, I think they might work well for indoor gardening.
I have lots of spinach and lettuce that needs to be transplanted, so tonight I will prepare about 18 containers, that will take care of about half of them....
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We have confirmation of the broccoli thief. @UrbanHunter was correct. Groundhog. Heidi chased it into the fenced area of the garden and it took refuge in my greenhouse. Got her back in the house, went outside, opened the gate to the fenced area and it was gone.
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Not exactly gone. Later I discovered it ate some of my cabbage. About 6 of them. The survivors have been sprinkled with cayenne pepper. Also sprinkled some around suspected holes. if the don’t belong to the groundho, I’m sure they belong to something equally dangerous to my food.
Here we have to get a special permit through fish n game. Dad got one the year before I moved back to the farm. He'd just set the peach orchard out and deer tried to destroy them. His permit was to take 30 deer in 20 days or vice versa. Got a couple then called a few of my cousins, they took care of the problem.
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I don't know where you are located, but a pellet gun or 22 could end the adventure. They like carrots too, I made a trap one time using a carrot as bait, sort of a dead fall sort of thing. It didn't kill the bugger but I watched as it jumped an 8' fence and raced for over 200 yards without slowing down. They are smart and when they are aware that something is trying to eat them they will move on.... Unless they get eaten....
I hate ground hogs the worst, I have watched them go down a row eating and killing every plant in the garden. I didn't realize how well they could climb until I watched one scale a fence, just amazing, they are in the same family as squirrels so shouldn't have been surprised..
