Let's see those '10 gardens

[HK3-]

Originally Posted by shilala

I knew you'd like the basil comment. I didn't even know I said it till I watched it, and it made me laugh, too.
The video thing is easy, brother. You just need a youtube account and then click on the "upload" link up top.
From there it's self-explanatory. My big HD files take a long time to upload, but if you set your camera to take a less insane size of file, it'd be a lot quicker. The HD video is really awesome, so I just leave it and then I b!tch everytime I upload something.
When the video is done uploading it'll give you the link and everything.

I guess I did one of these HD videos over the weekend and didn't know it was HD. Derrrrrrr... Going out to make a video Scott.

[Mr B]

This is the first time I have grown any sort of peas. I planted (2) 6 pks of 2 varieties of sweet peas. They shot up to about 24 - 36". They bloomed and put out 30-40 nice sized pods, not each but total. We ate those and they were great but they dont seem to be putting out any more. Are these a "determinant" variety of plant that shut down after a few bloom cycles?

Nice garden, Scott. We're supposed to be able to plant in mid April. This year both the weather and I were late. Now I think the new soil I got has too much sawdust (it is one of the ingredients) in it, stripping the nitrogen. Yellowish, weak growth. I just gave everything a shot of fish emulsion and a foliar spray of dilute Miracle Grow. If indeed the nitrogen is low they will get more green and lush in the next week.
The garden soil is a mixture of sand, manure compost, sawdust and native soil. The compost is from the mushroom farm, so it is mostly spent.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

Nice garden, Scott. We're supposed to be able to plant in mid April. This year both the weather and I were late. Now I think the new soil I got has too much sawdust (it is one of the ingredients) in it, stripping the nitrogen. Yellowish, weak growth. I just gave everything a shot of fish emulsion and a foliar spray of dilute Miracle Grow. If indeed the nitrogen is low they will get more green and lush in the next week.
The garden soil is a mixture of sand, manure compost, sawdust and native soil. The compost is from the mushroom farm, so it is mostly spent.

Sawdust jacks the ph all out of whack, Lance. Turns the soil acid. That's why we put it on blueberries, they love acid. Test it and adjust it and you'll be golden. I never heard about sawdust tying up nitrogen. I can't think of a mechanical reason for that to happen.
A bunch of dolomite lime and you'll be good to go.
You're lucky, it's a cheap fix. You can't use too much, either.
If you think your nitrogen is tied up, top dress the lime with compost or composted cow manue. It's cheap, too.
The rain will leech all the nutrients to the plants and you'll be double golden.
I wish I'd have caught you before you used sawdust. It's the worst organic material you can use in a garden. You're seeing that now. Sorry, brother.

[Mr B]

Originally Posted by shilala

Sawdust jacks the ph all out of whack, Lance. Turns the soil acid. That's why we put it on blueberries, they love acid. Test it and adjust it and you'll be golden. I never heard about sawdust tying up nitrogen. I can't think of a mechanical reason for that to happen.
A bunch of dolomite lime and you'll be good to go.
You're lucky, it's a cheap fix. You can't use too much, either.
If you think your nitrogen is tied up, top dress the lime with compost or composted cow manue. It's cheap, too.
The rain will leech all the nutrients to the plants and you'll be double golden.
I wish I'd have caught you before you used sawdust. It's the worst organic material you can use in a garden. You're seeing that now. Sorry, brother.

Very good info. Thanks

[rack04]

Next year I plan on installing a couple 12'x3' raised planter beds. Should I add a course of gravel to the bottom of the raised planter to increase drainage or just fill it to the brim with good compost?

I will likely be growing tomatoes, squash, asparagus, cucumbers, peppers, mint, sage, oregano, cilantro, basil, dill, rosemary, and parsley.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by rack04

Next year I plan on installing a couple 12'x3' raised planter beds. Should I add a course of gravel to the bottom of the raised planter to increase drainage or just fill it to the brim with good compost?

I will likely be growing tomatoes, squash, asparagus, cucumbers, peppers, mint, sage, oregano, cilantro, basil, dill, rosemary, and parsley.

It depends on the soil underneath. If the bed will drain well without the gravel, no need. If it won't, gravel is a good idea. Earth fabric between the gravel and the soil will keep the gravel doing it's job.

Originally Posted by shilala

Sawdust jacks the ph all out of whack, Lance. Turns the soil acid. That's why we put it on blueberries, they love acid. Test it and adjust it and you'll be golden. I never heard about sawdust tying up nitrogen. I can't think of a mechanical reason for that to happen.
A bunch of dolomite lime and you'll be good to go.
You're lucky, it's a cheap fix. You can't use too much, either.
If you think your nitrogen is tied up, top dress the lime with compost or composted cow manue. It's cheap, too.
The rain will leech all the nutrients to the plants and you'll be double golden.
I wish I'd have caught you before you used sawdust. It's the worst organic material you can use in a garden. You're seeing that now. Sorry, brother.

Sawdust and wood chips require more nitrogen to decompose than they contain.
I will check the ph but the tomatoes, potatoes and a couple of squash got planted with fish emulsion and worm castings and they look good so far.
We have chickens but the manure is mostly pine shavings and is good only for a top dressing mulch. The shavings resist composting.
Our neigh-bors have horses so I should hit them up for some sh!t.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

Sawdust and wood chips require more nitrogen to decompose than they contain.
I will check the ph but the tomatoes, potatoes and a couple of squash got planted with fish emulsion and worm castings and they look good so far.
We have chickens but the manure is mostly pine shavings and is good only for a top dressing mulch. The shavings resist composting.
Our neigh-bors have horses so I should hit them up for some sh!t.

Then you have a double whammy. If the sawdust is fixing the nitrogen and the ph is off, the plants can't eat. It doesn't matter how much food you put in there. I honestly don't think the sawdust is tying up the nitrogen, you put tons of food in there. It takes very little sawdust to goof the ph, though.
I had hundreds of chickens for years, I bedded with straw specifically because I didn't want to compost sawdust for years to make it usable.
The plants that look good in the worm castings, once they root out past the worm castings and reach the sawdust, they may go yellow on you, too.
Like I said, lime the hell out of everything. You cannot put enough lime in the beds to hurt anything. I'd use powdered stuff to correct the ph, then get a truckload of the lime chips they use for underneath sidewalks, and you'll never need lime again. You can work those chips in and you'll never know they're there.
I'd tell you to add nitrogen, but once again, I don't think you need it, and you're real likely to burn the plants.
I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

Nice yard, Haliburton.

[Gonesledn]

shilala, it looks like to me in your video that you strawberries are trying to root new plants. the "tentacles" will root into the ground and grow more plants. at least thats what mine do every year.

looking great everyone.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Gonesledn

shilala, it looks like to me in your video that you strawberries are trying to root new plants. the "tentacles" will root into the ground and grow more plants. at least thats what mine do every year.

looking great everyone.

Whatever kind of strawberry this is, it's setting out a zillion runners. That's good. If it runs far enough, I'll train the runners to more holes.
It's a volunteer, I didn't plant it, so I have no idea what variety it is. It's too late for it to be a June bearing or Adirondack, so I'm hoping it's a day-neutral. I'm in no hurry, I'll know soon enough.

[thebayratt]

A friend of mine owns a huge Talapia fish farm and has a filter on the tanks that filter out the fish poo. He gave me a 5gallon bucket of fish poo/watery goo from when he cleaned the filter. I put it in the valleys of my garden and then watered it in. I did this about 3 times a week apart and my beans where about twice as high as they were this year without the pooey water.
I wish i could figure out the PH, nitrogen, amonium etc... things yall talking about. Maybe I could have a supergarden if I did. Maybe next year I should read up on all the plants I plant to see what they need the most of and give it to them.

Hey Scott, I think you misunderstand. I bought 11 yards of commercial garden soil. It is sterile and well composted. It was made from those ingredients but resembles none of them. It looks just like the potting soil you get in bags. The stuff in the worm castings is just a handful mixed in when they were planted. I can see a difference there, though. So far I didn't feed anything when I planted except those few plants. I have to dig out my ph meter and do a test. Around here lime is usually oyster shells.

OK, I got out my fish tank electronic ph meter and checked it on a 8 ph cal pack and it was 8.04. My unsoftened tap water came back 7.78. I have a reverse osmosis/deionizer for fish tank water. It measures 6.74, slightly acid. This is right for very pure water. I used the RO/DI water to soak a big handful of the unused garden soil for about 15 min. It measured 7.75. Slightly base. I just checked it again and it's 7.67.
Somewhere I have a soil test kit for NPK. I should get a new one though, that one is, like, 15 years old or more. Waddaya think, Scott?

[Mark C]

Anyone here have any experience growing nut trees? I'm buying a new house in southern PA, hopefully the last house I'll buy ever (or at least for a very very long time). I've started thinking about landscaping, but I'm really not interested in growing things I can't eat. My grandparents had an apple tree, it made a huge mess, there were bees and rotting fruit everywhere, so I'm not interested in a fruit tree.

That got me thinking about nut trees. Walnuts are out because I don't want their toxic roots killing my tomatoes, chestnuts are out because I don't want to deal with the spiky balls of fun. Looks like hazlenuts grow well in this area, possibly certain cultivars of pecan and almond also.

So, anybody have experience with nuts?

[HK3-]

Originally Posted by Mark C

Anyone here have any experience growing nut trees? I'm buying a new house in southern PA, hopefully the last house I'll buy ever (or at least for a very very long time). I've started thinking about landscaping, but I'm really not interested in growing things I can't eat. My grandparents had an apple tree, it made a huge mess, there were bees and rotting fruit everywhere, so I'm not interested in a fruit tree.

That got me thinking about nut trees. Walnuts are out because I don't want their toxic roots killing my tomatoes, chestnuts are out because I don't want to deal with the spiky balls of fun. Looks like hazlenuts grow well in this area, possibly certain cultivars of pecan and almond also.

So, anybody have experience with nuts?

This whole forum is full of nuts!

Had a hazel nut tree one time. Fairly easy to take care of and they are nice looking trees as well. My aunt has a pecan tree and they are wonderful to eat. That's all I've got for you.

[Skywalker]

My first time growing anything besides flowers and trees:

Banana Peppers
Jalapeño Peppers
Cilantro
Cherry Tomatoes
Strawberries

Originally Posted by Skywalker

My first time growing anything besides flowers and trees:

Banana Peppers
Jalapeño Peppers
Cilantro
Cherry Tomatoes
Strawberries

I only get the top of that photo.
Welcome to the slope.
Beware, it's slippery.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by Mark C

Anyone here have any experience growing nut trees? I'm buying a new house in southern PA, hopefully the last house I'll buy ever (or at least for a very very long time). I've started thinking about landscaping, but I'm really not interested in growing things I can't eat. My grandparents had an apple tree, it made a huge mess, there were bees and rotting fruit everywhere, so I'm not interested in a fruit tree.

That got me thinking about nut trees. Walnuts are out because I don't want their toxic roots killing my tomatoes, chestnuts are out because I don't want to deal with the spiky balls of fun. Looks like hazlenuts grow well in this area, possibly certain cultivars of pecan and almond also.

So, anybody have experience with nuts?

Whatever tree you get, check into if it's self-fertile or needs cross pollination. If it's a cross-pollinator, make sure you plant two - one "male", one "female" or you could potentially end up with a tree full of nothing, or like what happened to a friend of mine with his avocado tree (which isn't exactly a male/female relation, but needs cross pollination to fruit IIRC) where it bore fruit for decades, until the neighbors cut down their tree, now instead of many hundreds of avocados, he's lucky if he gets 20 avocados per year off a tree with a 30' crown.