Anyone doing a garden?

Hajidub said:
Just going to reiterate for the seasonal, super small area garden, low maintenance folks like myself, the EMSCO Citypicker (this last summer) filled with 2 tomato plants (hothouse & yellow pear) and three chilli plants (jalapeno, serrano, habanero) produced 125 tomato's and 68 chilli's (4 month growing season from seedlings). It was on sale for $19.95.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/EMSCO-GROU...H-Earth-Brown-Resin-Raised-Garden-Bed/3341626
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I have looked and considered getting a few of those for the patio a couple of years ago. I have 6 30gal containers that I have used for several years and decided to just continue using those.

I then thought about getting one or two for each of our grown kids, but they seem uninterested. They are busy working and raising families, so they just leave the gardening to me and help eat the results. Maybe once
their lives slow down they will find the joys of gardening.
 
www.records said:
I have looked and considered getting a few of those for the patio a couple of years ago. I have 6 30gal containers that I have used for several years and decided to just continue using those.

I then thought about getting one or two for each of our grown kids, but they seem uninterested. They are busy working and raising families, so they just leave the gardening to me and help eat the results. Maybe once
their lives slow down they will find the joys of gardening.
Click to expand...

It's perfect for those who are busy, it has a fill tube with reservoir that only requires weekly or bi-weekly watering. The plants only take what they need.
 
I am getting a big load of mushroom compost delivered Thursday morning to put on the garden. It has tons of organic material in it and local gardeners rave about it.
I am getting 3 front loader scoops, which I envision to be about 1.5 pickup loads. I figure it should cover my garden with about 4" of mulch.
 
You going to till that in or let it sit on top as a mulch?

I've heard good things about mushroom compost. Hopefully it's well decomposed and not 'hot'. If it's steamy it could cause some issues, although it's still pretty cold for planting so it would have some time to finish.

In my neck of the woods it's so cold the ground is frozen and there is a couple inches of snow on the ground. Pretty tame compared to farther north but we're 15-30 degrees below average for this time of year! No garden work happening here yet.
 
toxcrusadr said:
You going to till that in or let it sit on top as a mulch?

I've heard good things about mushroom compost. Hopefully it's well decomposed and not 'hot'. If it's steamy it could cause some issues, although it's still pretty cold for planting so it would have some time to finish.

In my neck of the woods it's so cold the ground is frozen and there is a couple inches of snow on the ground. Pretty tame compared to farther north but we're 15-30 degrees below average for this time of year! No garden work happening here yet.
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I am planning on tilling it into about 6" deep. I went and looked at it and it's not hot and has an earth smell. No stink.
I also spoke to a lady that grows a beautiful garden that I have admired for years when I drive by her business. She just had a huge load of compost dumped and spread on her garden. I stopped and ask what it was and she said it was mushroom compost and she put a load on every 2 years. She said she's used it on her garden for 20 years with great results.

We have J-M Mushroom Farm located about 25 miles away, so their used compost is easily acquired. They will load it in your truck with a big front loader for $30 a bucket.
 
Bought some seeds. Sweet pepper, basil, oregano, coriander, green onions and lavender. I'll soon start germinating the guava, dragon fruit, lemon, bitter melon, star fruit.

Collected some macadamia nuts.

IMG_1306_Macadamia-sm.jpg
 
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Update on the mushroom compost. At age 65 it's not as easy to move into the garden as it once was. Due to rain and lack of motivation I am doing it a few loads at a time. Thankfully it is noticeably lighter than soil.

I have a 30 gal tub of 2 year old rabbit poop/straw that I will top it with before tilling it all in. Won't be too long until I will start planting lettuce and beans.
 
We worked at getting the garden area cleared off this last weekend; burned a lot of debris from the recent high winds and at least got around enough to see what's been going on in the yard. We have a great batch of compost started, and the last one looks ready to till. I got the asparagus bed cleaned up and my wife prepped the area for some various types of lettuce. The upcoming weekend looks like our first taste of nice warm weather in awhile.
 
Had a blast this weekend "unplugged" from the world making a raised garden bed. Dragged my daughter with me to Home Depot and she wasn't to enthusiastic but finally opened up and had fun.
Our weekend project with a little twist.
HD has these neat little concrete blocks which are expandable and fit a 2x4 within the slots perfectly without the need for tools. Sort of like Lego blocks which after I cleared the are took my daughter five minutes to put together. Not a lot out of pocket either.
The bed measures 4x4 all around and took a good healthy amount of mulch and fertilizer.
As I was putting this together I noticed the blocks had tiny hole in the center which got my brain ticking and I put it on the back burner.
Then it occurred to me as I associated garden>outdoors>camping that I could put a tent over the beb and those holes would come in perfectly.
Went back to HD and purchased 1/2 "PVC" pipe that's not PVC pipe according to the HD employee. Well the normal four cross T pipe was too big for my "not PVC" pipe and had to add 1/2 transition bushings to make the pipe fit snug. Worked perfectly.
Well, the rest is pretty self explanatory. Made a tent and was ready to put heavy duty plastic over it but ran out of time.
Had a blast this weekend watching it all comes together and doing a family project.
Almost forgot...
Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Jalapenos and cucumbers are what you see.
 

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So far this year I have beets, greens, pak choi, napa cabbage, potatoes, broccoli raab, seeet peas, broccoli, parsnips, radishes, and onions growing, as well as harvesting my purple sprouting broccoli and onions planted last fall. If nobody has tried it, I grew Pantano Romanesco tomatoes last year. Wow! Very prolific, incredible flavor, and great fresh or for sauce.
 
I already mentioned them in a previous post but I truly gotta rave about the Pantano Romanesco tomatoes. I’ve been growing tomatoes for a very long time but this variety is something special. Flavor at least equal to Brandywine, perfect for either sauce or fresh eating, ridiculously vigorous and prolific, well you get the idea. I will grow them every year for the rest of my life, they are that good. And no, I’m not affiliated with any seed companies... You won’t see these in your local nursery, order seeds next year, nuff said.
 
I’ve got small starts of four different varieties (all great) and I’m still seriously considering growing just these this year.
 
For several reasons, we decided not to do the full garden this year. It is supposed to be therapeutic, but it was becoming stressful. I composted and tilled because we are unsure if we will go back or enjoy all the free time and local farm markets.

In a moment of weakness, we planted a few rows of Lettuce, Swiss Chard and a patch of Scallions.

There are several thousand tomato plants popping up everywhere in the garden, so we will let a few random ones grow and trample the rest.

The last few years have been terrible for tomatoes here, peppers were so-so. The trees are all getting bigger and my hours of sun have decreased over the years and I refuse to place the garden in the middle of my yard.

Good Luck to all this year and I will still watch this thread.
 
2N697 said:
Well, we didn't get our nice weekend like I was hoping for; not to mention there is some talk of "snow showers" in the near forecast. I dug up a few photos of the yard and garden from last year to help set the mood.
View attachment 1458922
View attachment 1458923
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That's a very nice wooded lot you got there. I've been looking for some acreage near my house, but 10 years ago, I didn't have enough money, now, the price has gone up ridiculously high. Only thing I found these days is a 1/8 of an acre lot for $800k just outside of my town.

As for my garden this year, I've started seeds for basil, zucchini, cilantro, lettuce, spinach, cucumber, and variety of peppers. Planted a few tomato, dill, fennel, and sweet peas, but it's still too early for my area. Built a few cold frames/covers. I'll post some pictures once things sprout.

Got home and took a few pictures.

1.jpg 2.jpg 3.jpg 4.jpg
 
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