Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Anyone got any updated pictures??

Here is my container garden for the Fall 2010 season:

Week 2 in the containers (Week 1 was spent in cups for germination):

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_6430.jpg

Week 3:

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...IMG_6467-1.jpg

I still have 2 more buckets with California Wonder Bells in them, but they haven't hardened off yet.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Between the non-summer out here and the poor soil it wasn't worth taking a picture of my garden. Add to that the mite infestation and it was even sadder. I am going to work on getting the Ph down and the nitrogen and potassium up during the winter so next year I'll be ready.
We got some tomatoes, squash and peppers, some snap peas but few beans, no corn, small melons and pumpkins, few cucumbers, some beets and radishes, and it looks like there will be some onions and leeks. So not a total loss.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Got tired of eating tomatos so they are just falling off in the garden now. Still getting some peppers here and there.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I made one batch of spaghetti sauce. I'm picking peppers to make red sauce peppers.
Those are the peppers in kethchup and vinegar and stuff that you slather over crackers and cream cheese during football games. They're extremely addictive and incredibly good.
I got too hot and my back was killing me, so I came in to take some dope and put on a pair of shorts. Now I'm gonna crawl around on my belly and finish up. Then I'll spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning peppers and watching bad movies on Netflix. :tu

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Got any pics of the garden?? Or a video update?

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

:tpd: Video!!!!!!! :)

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Week 4 of my bucket Garden:

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_6603.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_6608.jpg

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I have no idea where my video taking camera is. I've been traveling all over creation for weeks. I leave here Sunday for Ohio, then Washington Pa, then Pittsburgh, then Nashville. That's over a span of seven days.
All I really have track of anymore is my suitcase.
I think it all calms down after this. All my doctor appointments will be done and all my torture tests will be done. That'll be right in time for frost to ruin my garden. :tu

If I can find my little camera, I'll try to get a video up. No promises though. :)

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Dolomite Limestone or lime chips for the PH, Potash for the potassium, and tons of organic material for the nitrogen.
People here use wood ashes for the potassium, I don't.

The only way to get soil to balance so you never have to fight it is to add tons of organic material. Compost, straw, cow manure, anything.
It takes an incredible amount, but it's the only way to build and maintain good soil.
You live in the woods. Your dirt is just like it's supposed to be. It'll take some work to make your garden soil good, and it'll take a couple years.
If you gather all the stuff you can, build a giant compost heap, and get that started, you can use potash and nitrogen fertilizer and crap like that till you bring your soil around.
Don't use powdered limestone. Use limestone chips and work them rocks right in the soil. Powdered limestone lasts for a minute. Chips last forever.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Oh yeah, you can use greensand for potassium, too. It's rock. It's like using limestone chips. It's a one time solution that lasts forever in your garden. :tu

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I have lots of compost, worm castings, mulch, etc. My garden used to always get this stuff added every year. I filled the raised boxes with the mixed stuff from a landscape supply. I am hesitant to add ashes because how much it will raise the already borderline high ph. Greensand sounds like a good way. We have kelp meal around here as an organic fertilizer that is high in K but it is also high in $.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

It's kinda hard to make suggestions without knowing what your area is like. I lived in a farm community. Limestone is everywhere. So was organic material like leaves, crop leftovers, straw, compost from our half dozen chicken coops, rabbit poop and bedding, stuff like that.
I kept a huge compost pile and trucked home everything I could get ahold of.
I agree completely on the ashes. I don't use them, never did. Lots of people here do use ashes and tons of powdered lime. It's a tempoarary solution to a permanent problem.
If you had lots and lots of limestone chips in the soil you could use all you want. Thing is, it's still a temporary solution, just like commercial fertilizers.
That stuff is money down the drain, literally.

On the organic material and compost...
Imagine that your garden soil is 100% composted organic material. That would be the ideal. Perfection.
Then add the dirt you have to it. Every shovel makes it worse.
That's not a rub, it's just that forest soil (along with lots of other types of soil) is depleted. It's just the way it is.
I said that to illustrate that no matter how much compost or organic material you've added, it ain't enough. It took me a lot of years to kinda get my head around that.
Your test results are what shows that. It's fixable, and you can fix it for good. Just keep working at it. :tu

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I took some video yesterday. It's lousy, but it'll do. :)
I'm sending it up to YouTube right now, it says it'll be done in 77 minutes. It's only 10% done.
I have to start cleaning the garden up now. It's time. I need to get everything in the compost bin, but it's slap full. I'm not exactly sure what I'm gonna do, but I'll figure something out.
I'll link up that video if it ever finishes up. :tu

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Behold. The last video of 2010. :)
If you look around 3:19, you can see a couple volunteer tobacco plants.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Thanks for that. I would love to do that big of a lot, but the nematodes around here are crazy!

If all goes well for my little containers, I am going to scale up production in Feb.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Fall update:

I'm down to a few straggler tomatoes. The okra is still doing so-so. The jalapenos and bells are going nuts. I have 20 or so pint and quart jars of pickled jalapenos so far and many to come. My biggest jalapeno is close to 4 feet tall. Our first frost is around the first of November, so I'm going to try something new this year. I'll dig her up and continue growing her in the house during the winter. I'll self-pollinate the flowers (with my hands ;)). I'll get a picture soon.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Great video as always man! Your garden is loaded!!!!! I'm still getting a few of the habaneros on mine but not many.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Well I got me a big steamin' pile of sh!t in my yard now.
About 1 1/2 yards of fresh, watered down horse manure. I'm waiting for it to compost some before I start to add it, after we pull everything up.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I bet it's rained 6 inches here in the past two days. It's supposed to rain the rest of the night into tomorrow. Before this weekend, it hadn't rained in FOREVER. Feast or famine...

I'm glad I don't have a big pile of sh!t in my yard. ;)

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Big STEAMING pile!
I stick a piece of rebar in it and stir it every day and it steams from inside. Adding chicken and kitchen compost to it this weekend. Next year I will top dress the boxes with more about a month before planting. I don't want a repeat of this year even if the weather is bad again.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Don't put no meat in there, broham.
That's the only thing you don't want. Newspaper is good for compost, too. That'll get that potassium up, as well. They say India Ink has good stuff in it for the garden, I don't remember what. I don't even know if they still use it for newsprint, either. It's still good stuff though. :tu
You can turn that pile into your garden asap.
Warning though:
Horsepoop has TONS of weed seed in it. Try to keep it at least three inches deep if you can, and don't till. The worms will come up and till it.
If you cover the beds with black plastic from this seasons end till planting time, the worms will get lots of extra time to work that stuff.
You should also know that plants grow in the top six inches of soil, so you can add that to your strategy.
I can't remember how deep your beds are from the pics, but it'd be a good idea to poke a hole in the center of the black plastic if you decide to use it.
I'd go with landscape material like DeWitt Sunbelt and be done for good. Same stuff that's on my garden. It holds weeds out and keeps heat in. It's a bit expensive, but lasts forever.
When I plant my plants, every other year I use a 1:5 mixture of hydrated SAP and composted cow poop and throw a handful in each hole. That keeps water and food to the plants all years long.
I actually cheat and don't hydrate the SAP. I know an ounce makes a gallon of hydrated SAP, so I just calculate it against the amount of cow poop I'm using.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

100% fresh stall sweepings. It steams during the day. It is so hot it's cooking the weed seeds. Too hot to hold your hand in. If it were drier it would smolder.
Maybe this weekend I will turn the chicken beddings before it cools down.
I use cheap weedblock from the garden supply. The same as under the pea gravel.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

The only thing I have in my garden is a Serrano chili plant. The squirrels eat everything so it has a body guard. :r

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/p...IMG_3008-1.jpg

Here's a closer view of the chili, but the cam is focused on gnomey cheese.

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/p...IMG_3009-1.jpg

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I have a picture of Lisa's garden basket. I told her that we generally use our shirt or a five gallon bucket to carry vegetables, but she thought this thing would be cute. It is. :)

http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/a...ala/basket.jpg

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Here is week 6:

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_6654.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...n/IMG_6658.jpg

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Are those all peppers, Wayne? They're lookin good!!! :tu

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Thanks Scott, it's my first "garden" since I was a kid.

In the second picture, the 2 plants to the left are California Wonder Bell Peppers. I had a problem with some sort of moth caterpillar, but after a night inspection and prompt bug squishing party, they have started to come back around. The other plants in the second picture are White Acre Peas. It's a Southern thang.

The First picture (L to R) is summer squash (2), and green beans (2).

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I think she's right. :D

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

She's always right, Justin. It's her rule. It's working out GREAT!!! :D

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

That is nice! What do you use on the ground? The black plastic? Is it a certain type or will anything work?

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Wow....great looking haul!! :tu

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

From G00gle's spyplane a couple of years ago.

http://fracstar.com/pics/southyard.png
The hill slopes down towards the bottom (south). The garden was the green lines on the right.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Finally broke down the rest of my garden this morning. I hadn't touched these plants in probably a couple of months, but as you can see by the yield, they liked the cooler weather. Now what to do with all of the peppers?

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I still have onions and celery that are not finished yet, but otherwise I should be getting ready to prepare next years garden soon. If the organic amendments don't work I am going to waste no time and go to regular chemical fertilizer, which are mostly just naturally occurring salts. I am not going to put up with another unproductive garden.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I pulled up my landscape fabric and that garden is a memory. I'll be fighting really awful soil with you next year, Lance. I'll fix it with composted cowpoop and SAP thrown right in the holes with the plants. Lots of Miracle Grow along the way, too. :)

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

I just cleaned a Jack be Little pumpkin out a couple days ago so I could save the seeds. It got pushed around and carried around for months till it ended up on top of the fridge where it got lost.
Lisa pointed it out to me last week and I set it down where I'd see Orval I'd remember to clean it. The seeds are just about dry enough to put away now.

My Park Seed catalog showed up a few days ago. All my seeds are lost right now, so I'll probably just order all my seeds for this year unless I get finished moving and unpacking and find my seed boxes. :)
I don't usually get stoked about garden season this early, but I'm already getting itchy. :D

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Tell me more about this Park Seed catalog. Do they sell heriloom varieties? I'm going to expand my garden next year and want to plant a larger variety of plants. I'm thinking corn, squash, carrots, maybe some potatoes. Not sure what yet, but I'm already thinking of next year.

I did get my garlic in the ground back in early November. Should have around 20 heads this time around. Not sure of the variety, it was something my sister gave me.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

Park seeds has a nice selection. They have all varieties of heirloom and hybrids. But if you want strictly heirlooms, check out Baker's Creek seeds. For my hybrids I'd go with johnnyseeds.

Re: Let's see those '10 gardens
 

New '11 thread started:
http://www.cigarasylum.com/vb/showth...15#post1203315