Garden Thread

My "anyone planting a garden this year?" thread for last year was archived, so I'll start a new one.

This year, more than others, I have a crazy bad case of spring fever. And last year, my seedlings really weren't big enough to plant when I planted them, so I think I lost a few weeks of primary growing time, so I think I'll start a little earlier this year, especially eggplant, onion sets, etc.

I jinxed myself last year by saying that I had a really great eBay guy I used for the last 4-5 years to order seeds... and he promptly took 2 additional weeks to ship the seeds and closed shop, and sent me an apology email explaining how he F'ed up big time this year cause he was addicted to pain meds and he's so sorry, so he shipped me a shitload of extra seeds.

But now my source is gone, I used to buy a bunch of stuff, combine shipping, and he'd throw in an extra 4-6 packs of asst seeds. All said and done I'd pay about 80 cents each for a variety of heirlooms, organics, and hard to find varieties.

This year I looked and burpee and a lot of the other online stores are charging around $2-4 a packet. Wow!

But I think I'm going to use a lot of the leftovers from the last few years, plus a few "Staples" that I picked up at local stores. But I was hoping to get some other eggplant, okra, and hot peppers.

Anyone have green thumbs?

lol, I read that 3 times before I saw the last "vegetable"... I thought that stuff grew wild down where you're at?

We are skipping a garden this year, last year we had the worst run-in with animals. Deer gobbled up many of our young plants, and raccoons demolished our corn. We need to put up some kind of fence I think.

This is our first year in the new location and I am going to start going all out on a garden! We have a guy who is supposed to come in and plow and disk a 40'X50' area for me this weekend. I ordered all kinds of stuff from Gurney's, using two different $25 off $25 coupons. Plus, I ordered a bunch of fruit trees I still have to find out where to plant...

I will make my first foray into corn this year, since Sweet Hubby loves it (our garden in Arkansas was too small for corn). I will also plant carrots, bush beans, snow peas and probably sugar snap peas (great snacking!), basil, green and yellow peppers, green onions, salad mesclun mix, a couple different types of tomatoes, and probably a few other things I forgot. I also got a strawberry tower with 50 plants and sprinkler (also with a coupon), so that will be fun. I will definitely have to put up a fence since we have deer, rabbits and a big flock of Canada geese.

I will try to get set up to plant some berry plants (raspberry, blackberry, blueberry) for next year. I just don't have it in me to do it this year (too much gardening already!).

Best thing to do is check with your county extension agent. They can tell you what and when to grow and how to prep the soil, and it's all free. I would recommend having a soil test done through them (may be a small fee) - that's a really good way to find out what kind of fertilizer you need and how much, and if you need additives like lime. They also have all kinds of literature on how to garden and farm.

You will need to turn the dirt (6" to 8" is usually okay - the plants will need to be able to spread roots out into softer soil) and add stuff like peat moss (to improve water retention) and a basic garden fertilizer (I think it's 10-15-10 or something like that) before you plant.

I don't remember if you said you have gardened before - if not, or if you don't want to put a lot of effort into starting out, buy plants at Lowe's or Home Depot instead of trying to start seeds. They will have plants that do best in your area of the country.

Number one thing is to keep them properly watered. Be sure to spray/watch for pests. Another thing you might run into with tomatoes and peppers is end rot as the fruits grow - this comes from a lack of calcium. You can top-dress (sprinkle on the dirt around the plant root area) with a calcium fertilizer and water it in real well and that should take care of it.

Good luck!

DB, I'd recommend starting small, starting with seedlings from Lowes/Home Depot. A little more costly, but maybe buy 2 eggplants, 2 tomatoes, 2 sweet peppers, 2 hot peppers. Work a small area, and use the veggies as "suplemental", and maybe next year try starting from seeds.

I know too many people who go out and buy a new rototiller, $50 of seeds, and till a 50x100 garden, only to be overwhelmed by non-germinating seeds, rampant weeds, and poor soil... only to give it up. When you start small, it's really manageable, and you have good yield, which makes you want to do more the next year!

Oh, and I have 2 big recommendations: First is compost (peelings, cores, old veggies, bad potatoes, stems, coffee grounds, eggshells... dump them in the garden, cover them in a hole, hoe them in, whatever, you may not see much this year, but each year it'll get better... Second is hornworms. When the tomatos are finally growing well and you think that they look great, you'll find a twig the next day. Those worms eat like crazy, travel from plant to plant, and are hard to find. Spray the plants with cold water and they are easier to see sometimes, but the biggest thing is to watch carefully. You could however use some pesticide I guess, maybe organic? But I prefer to pull them off and stomp them. Gross, but satisfying.

well, the hornworms come from moths who lay eggs on the foliage, so I'm not sure what the cup would help with, other than maybe keeping them from going plant to plant?

every year I squish 2-3 per plant.

my garden did horrible last year. i plant tomatoes, yellow squash, zucchini, peppers, onions and occasionally other various items.
i also have an herb garden in my 1/2 wine barrel. i usually plant nasturtium flowers too. you can eat them. the leaves have a peppery taste.
on my back porch, i have a planter that is attached to the rail and i put a mesclun salad mix in it. the cats love fresh lettuce.

Sepo71 said: I want to garden...have never been really successful, but I try. Sadly, we don't have a yard here. I might get some herbs to try and grow on the balcony. I have this absolute need to grow things, even though I suck at it.

Some of my favorite memories are about gardening with my Uncle in his HUGE garden. We would sit in the middle of it in the summer and eat all of his cherry tomatos. I still get all nostalgic when I smell tomatos.

tomatoes are pretty easy to grow in a container. i had a really big container and put 3 plants in it (i don't start them from seed). then get some bamboo sticks and as they grow tie them loosely w/ material to hold them up. i usually just tear an old towel in strips. this way it doesn't hurt the plant.

also leaf lettuce grows really easily in a container. jsut make sure you water it often. you can harvest it as it grows.

DutchDutch said: last year, my squash/zuc did bad, tomato decent, peppers great, onions fantastic, cabbage fantastic, brocc decent, okra decent...

the only things of mine that did well last year were the tomatoes and lettuce that i grew on the porch. everything in my actual garden did horrible. even the squash and zucchini, which usually produce like rabbits, did bad.

i might try to grow okra this year. it's hard to find fresh okra that looks nice ... well, it's really hard to find it at all mostly.

Broccoli??? Really? Wow. Never seen broccoli in it's natural enviornment,

I grew pumpkins once, when I was homeschooling Jr. That was neat.

I'll have to try to grow SOMETHING. I seem to recall my Mom growing strawberries in these urn looking things.

Well, out of the 4 okra plants I planted last year (first year I planted okra), 2 died, and the other 2 peaked at only an okra, maybe two per day. Are you saying that my variety of okra was underperforming?

OK, your okra must have been really lush, mine was pretty much just one stem with leaves coming off, and the okra pods only grew from the top. So I just bent the okra one way, then the other and I was done. No rubbing against any foliage. We'll see this year though, maybe they'll go apeshit... never know...

has anyone tried the upside down tomato pot thingys? I want to try that so I can make my marinara without having to hunt for my romas (da kids kill every flower I plant outside - or dh weed-whacks them, so I have to find an alternative way to grow stuff.

I do have tons of houseplants & have grown basil inside with success.

I have a day lily and a ficus I got from my grandpa's funeral (2 plants that someone sent and no one else wanted). The day lily is way root bound, but always does really well. The ficus is huge now, it's doubled in width and 50% taller. When I move several years from now, I'll have to bring in a chainsaw or leave it behind!

DutchDutch said: your okra must have been really lush...
Dutchboy, you're really starting to worry me.

Ah...the seed catalogs have been arriving for the past couple of weeks (almost like porn for a hard-core gardener like me )

We've already got potatoes and onions planted here (they go in the ground as close to Valentine's Day as possible, according to old Southern gardeners' lore). I've got leaves composting on the other garden and I'm planning on squash, zucchini, some heirloom tomatoes, and okra. We're also going to do several pots of assorted peppers and I'm going to try a new variety of small tomatoes: TomatoBerry! I also want to plant a long row of small watermelons and some hills of pumpkins. There's a really neat new variety that I'd like to try out: the Gargoyle.

I'm sure I'll get in over my head and have too much going on (as usual), especially when grape season kicks into full swing. Ideally, I'd really love to have enough veggies to sell some when we have the vineyard open for U-Pick.

Got the seeds in the starter soil this weekend, maybe a little bit early, but at least it won't be late (like last year).
Anyone ever start onions by seeds? I figured I'd try to start onion sets by seed and then a month/month and a half from now, I'd plant the sets?

Really, just take your veggie peelings throughout the summer and throw them in a bin under the sink. When it's full, dig a hole in the dirt, dump the peelings, cover. Lather, rinse, repeat all summer. The next year your soil will be so much better.

shopliftinginva said: DutchDutch said: Really, just take your veggie peelings throughout the summer and throw them in a bin under the sink. When it's full, dig a hole in the dirt, dump the peelings, cover. Lather, rinse, repeat all summer. The next year your soil will be so much better.

Oh, I should have explained. Our "soil" is clay. Hard as rocks when dry, sucky like cold modeling clay when wet. It would take a ton of work to dig out an area and get real soil put in.

Try Lasagna Gardening.

Oh, I'm so happy to finally gotten my Taiwanese Bell Fruit tree flown in from Taiwan. (Also called the Taiwanese Wax Apple, depending who you ask). I hope it's all that plus some since I originally wanted the Taiwanese Star Fruit. Supposedly, the Bell Fruit is tastier.