Garden Thread 2018

My garden is already planted except for sweet potatoes. I live just a wee bit south of you though. Jalapeños, two types of habaneros, 2 types of sweet peppers, cukes, zukes, squash, and watermelons this year. 

FrostyEgg said:

Gulfcoastguy said:

My garden is already planted except for sweet potatoes. I live just a wee bit south of you though. Jalapeños, two types of habaneros, 2 types of sweet peppers, cukes, zukes, squash, and watermelons this year. 

We still have the last of the snow on the ground. We got pounded last weekend. It's been a brutal winter.

Oh and 4 types of tomatoes. We do have to run around putting pots over plants a week ago. There was a light frost nearly 3 weeks later than usual. Mother Nature has mood swings.

lkapigian said:

Calling @Chubbs

Not really a garden, but I keep up the flower beds

@lkapigian: That lawn is fantastically lush and thick. What is your secret?

GrateEggspectations said:

lkapigian said:

Calling @Chubbs

Not really a garden, but I keep up the flower beds

@lkapigian: That lawn is fantastically lush and thick. What is your secret?

Thanks @GrateEggspectations regular feedings preemergance etc, I have a company called The Weed Man that comes throughout the year, money well,spent so,I don't have the think about it

5 weeks before planting but i have crannberries, chives, thyme, mint, horseradish, and asparagus coming up. think i lost the kale this year. thinned back the high bush blueberries this weekend and pushed some garlic into the ground for next year.  raised beds are ready for a may planting, its amazing what comes out off three 42 inch diameter beds

Gulfcoastguy said:

My blueberries should be ready to pick within a month. I might make an attempt at canning salsa and pickles this year. I should have plenty of hot peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I also heard of Cowboy Candy this past winter, sweet pickled jalapeño slices. 

buy the jalapenos  and some Mrs. Wages® Bread and Butter pickle mix.  you want these for burgers now

SciAggie said:

I follow these threads closely. Now that construction is done on the structure of the outdoor kitchen, my wife and I are turning to the yard. We want to build some raised beds for gardening and install a new flower bed. I get a ton of runoff from my roof so we are also looking at water management ideas.

if you put enough mulch type material in the raised bed and have some of the runnoff go under it, it might work out. my three raised beds sit on a spring and i do not need to water it much at all. last summer i never watered it, the water sucks up from the bottom. i plant the tomatoes deep enough that the hole starts to pool up when they get planted.  my tomato cages are 8 feet tall at the end of august and some plants will go 12 foot.  i do everything wrong, plants are packed to close,  way over packed, 6 tomato plants, several heads of cabbage and kale, bush string beans, a few cucumber plants, herbs, all in each 42 inch circular raised bed. i never trim or top off the tomatoes, will get several dozen quarts of sauce per season. i start with the tallest cages they make, then wiretie more cages upsidown to the tops mid season and we have a very short growing season here.

fishlessman said:

Gulfcoastguy said:

My blueberries should be ready to pick within a month. I might make an attempt at canning salsa and pickles this year. I should have plenty of hot peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. I also heard of Cowboy Candy this past winter, sweet pickled jalapeño slices. 

buy the jalapenos  and some Mrs. Wages® Bread and Butter pickle mix.  you want these for burgers now

The fun is as much in the planning and making as in the eating. I can buy Wickle's Pickles across the street. Several years ago I made hot kosher dill pickles with:cucumbers, hot Korean Purple garlic, and Thai Hot peppers all grown in the garden. I am considering fermenting some dill pickles if I can can them for long term storage. I can't seem to find any dill seedlings in the store though and dill seed is expensive.

Hmmm? A dill plant search expedition sound like a good way to burn a retirement Monday. Better then pruning the neighbors bushes that are hanging over my fence anyway.

fishlessman said:

@SonVolt

i might try that trellising system this year,  some of my plants hit 12 feet last year and what a pain with the cages, sticks, wireties, rope etc.

Yup, mine always grew over the top of the cages and flopped over into a big mess. This string method works great because you can always cut a strand where needed and tie a new one as they grow. With cages you couldn't do that, you were kinda stuck. If you didn't catch a stray branch fast enough you couldn't always get it back inside the cage without risk of breaking it trying to bend it back in.  This alleviates all that. 

Peppers and maters. Plenty

Things started off slow this year in the UK. Cold and very wet through into April with waterlogged ground where we are (flat and heavy clay). The weather warmed up late, but really warmed up and we've had steady warm, dry and sunny weather since April. The tomatoes and chillies went in late, but grew fast and we picked the first few tomatoes today. This is 1 month ahead of schedule. Chillies are fruiting already as well, not ripe though. The hot dry weather seems to have kept the tomato growth under control as well - there has been less green growth and more fruit.

 At my last house I had a large garden. 25x75 feet. The soil here is sand. So I built these raised beds this year from pallets. They are filled with a base layer of rotten fire wood. Then a foot or so of cow manure compost and dirt. This is by far the best garden I've ever grown. The plants are over the fence now. Fruit everywhere.