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You can bang out a wall with cinder blocks and some rebar and concrete pretty drat quick. It won't be pretty but it would be cheap.
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Jul 19, 2013 05:30
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medchem posted:Literally, the plants are sprawling all over the place with nothing to show. This is what is happening to our 6 armenian cuke plants. The zukes next to them are huge, with sparse veggie appearances. Nothing but flowers on the cukes however.
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Jul 19, 2013 14:23
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Viscous Soda posted:I've had a similar problem, I just switched to hand pollination after I had a half dozen female flowers refuse to set fruit. Maybe you should give it a try? I try to do this as much as possible. It's all dependent on having actual female flowers, which have been hard to find. Sometimes, the female flowers will stay open for less than a day before rotting, and I just don't catch it in time to hand pollinate. Fog Tripper posted:This is what is happening to our 6 armenian cuke plants. The zukes next to them are huge, with sparse veggie appearances. Nothing but flowers on the cukes however. I did start seeing a few more females now after I added some heavier phosphate fertilizer. I actually found one lemon cucumber in a plant that's about 15 feet wide already. I think I might have had too much nitrogen. Parts of my garden were tilled with my homemade compost which had a lot of coffee grounds. I guess that's rich in nitrogen, plus I had tilled a lot of cut up clover, another good source of nitrogen, into the soil. Last year, my soil test showed low nitrogen, so I guess I went overboard? I don't know. Also, it's finally started to get hot and dry instead of raining so much. I wonder if that might also be an issue.
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Jul 19, 2013 15:25
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medchem posted:Also, it's finally started to get hot and dry instead of raining so much. I wonder if that might also be an issue. We went from hot and dry to warm and regular daily showers. I may pick up a soil analyzer.
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Jul 19, 2013 15:30
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The little soil testing kits from any of the big box hardware stores are really useful and inexpensive. My mother in laws garden was growing 8' tall tomato plants with only a handful of actual vegetables and I finally talked her stubborn rear end into testing the dirt. Low in phosphorous and not getting long enough sun. We cut a few trees back and amended the dirt and the plants are off like gang busters this year.
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Jul 19, 2013 15:57
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mischief posted:The little soil testing kits from any of the big box hardware stores are really useful and inexpensive. My mother in laws garden was growing 8' tall tomato plants with only a handful of actual vegetables and I finally talked her stubborn rear end into testing the dirt. Low in phosphorous and not getting long enough sun. We cut a few trees back and amended the dirt and the plants are off like gang busters this year. Yeah, I know the soil needs amended in a big way. But it's for all intents and purposes the same soil as last year, beyond the addition of compost at spring tilling.
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Jul 20, 2013 04:03
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Can anyone recommend a soil test kit? I tried to narrow down possibles on amazon and reviews are all over the damned place.
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Jul 21, 2013 03:23
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Fog Tripper posted:Can anyone recommend a soil test kit? I tried to narrow down possibles on amazon and reviews are all over the damned place. Have you talked to your county ag extension? Most of them are pretty good and will have some suggestions, if not the kits themselves at a very good price.
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Jul 21, 2013 03:42
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Motronic posted:county ag extension I haven't the foggiest idea what that is.
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Jul 21, 2013 04:38
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Fog Tripper posted:I haven't the foggiest idea what that is.
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Jul 21, 2013 05:43
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What they said. In my county, the extension office has materials for a soil test at the local library. It's basically a small box to put your soil sample in and instructions on where to ship it. The ag extension charges $10 for the test but it's also way more comprehensive than one you can do at home.
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Jul 21, 2013 12:21
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Found it.
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Jul 21, 2013 15:58
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Local ag co-ops/extensions are awesome resources. The one in the next town over for me also oversees their yard waste compost and top soil manufacturing operation so we get great dirt or compost for about $20 a ton. Plus they have an awesome little terrier mutt that lives in the compost yard and rides around in a skid loader all day and he rules. We also have one at NC State that publishes a mind boggling amount of information about gardening in the Southeast. - http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/ Edit: In spite of working 14 hours a day and only seeing the garden in the morning it's still doing garden things. My cucumber trellis has plants over 9' tall on it and the zucchini pretty much told the lettuce on either side of it to go gently caress itself. I've got a turf war shaping up in that corner between four zucchini plants, about sixteen pole beans, and god only knows how many actual cucumber plants. My money is on the zucchini.   
mischief fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 16:04
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Uck, potatoes are too much drat digging. 3 hours this weekend harvesting them from my little 8x8 raised garden. Got ~27lbs all said and done. Though, a couple pounds are really too small to use they will work well as seed potatoes next year, though. Still, that was way too much digging for my taste and this might be the last year I do potatoes... no clue what else I would put there though, and they did do awfully well for how much I neglected them.... uck. In other news, the blackberries I planted 3 years ago are producing well over 1 lb of fruit a day now. Bird netting seems to be generally effective and we are harvesting enough to allow for giving fruit away to friends and family now. Next year the 2nd row should be producing heavily and we should have enough to make jam or maybe juice.
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Jul 22, 2013 00:29
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Anubis posted:Uck, potatoes are too much drat digging. 3 hours this weekend harvesting them from my little 8x8 raised garden. Got ~27lbs all said and done. Though, a couple pounds are really too small to use they will work well as seed potatoes next year, though. Still, that was way too much digging for my taste and this might be the last year I do potatoes... no clue what else I would put there though, and they did do awfully well for how much I neglected them.... uck.
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Jul 22, 2013 02:07
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I have trouble justifying growing potatoes when I can buy a 5-10 lb bag for a dollar. 
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Jul 22, 2013 05:06
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coyo7e posted:I have trouble justifying growing potatoes when I can buy a 5-10 lb bag for a dollar. I understand that sentiment, but if you follow that line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, pretty soon you won't have a garden at all. If you think it'd be fun to grow potatoes, then grow them. If not, concentrate on the stuff you do enjoy.
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Jul 22, 2013 14:26
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Both last year and this year I put a single potato in a garbage bag with dirt. It's a learning experience more than anything else. You'll find out about its space, water and fertilizer requirements, what potatoes taste like really young or old or at least when they're very fresh. Yeah, I'm not saving money. But I gain knowledge and skills at practically no cost. It has no practical application, unless society should collapse or whatever, but it counts as personal enrichment to me. It's also simply more interesting to grow a variety of stuff.
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Jul 22, 2013 15:06
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Flipperwaldt posted:It's also simply more interesting to grow a variety of stuff. And varieties of stuff that you simply can not get anywhere, including local farmer's markets. There's a lot of really tasty stuff out there that simply doesn't stand up to any kind of shipping or storage and much of it is delicious. The only way you're getting that is with a garden nearby. That's why I encourage people to stray from the Burpee/whatever mainstream commercial catalogs and find some interesting stuff.
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Jul 22, 2013 15:10
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SubG posted:Grow your potatoes in potato towers instead. Higher yield per square foot, and less of a pain in the rear end to harvest. I'm trying these potato towers this year. I didn't give them enough attention, mainly not hilling them nearly enough, but they are growing up out of the cages like crazy. All I should need to do for harvest is cut the zip tie and pick potatoes out of the dirt the spills out. I'll try to get a picture today but in the meantime here is one of my happiest little apple trees:  I also picked about 50 pounds of sweet cherries on Saturday and canned some of them in syrup yesterday.
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Jul 22, 2013 16:46
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Try to grow what you eat. Find out what grows best in your yard. Then grow the things that you eat and what grows best in your yard. Don't waste time, energy, money and fertilizer on non-producing vegetables.
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Jul 22, 2013 17:05
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Motronic posted:And varieties of stuff that you simply can not get anywhere, including local farmer's markets. This. It's why we grow a variety of heirloom tomatoes, not Big Boys. We grow purple and rainbow carrots, because they are impossible to find in stores. Variety, variety, variety!! Also, Cpt. Wacky, that apple tree is amazing! I can only hope ours look like that in a couple years. 
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Jul 22, 2013 19:55
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AlistairCookie posted:This. It's why we grow a variety of heirloom tomatoes, not Big Boys. We grow purple and rainbow carrots, because they are impossible to find in stores. Variety, variety, variety!! We grew Dragon carrots this year, my kids have been begging me for them since we got seed catalogs last fall. Harvested the first ones today... they don't like them. Ah well. In contrast, they are really, really loving the Beam's Yellow Pear tomatoes, and those suckers are outproducing my Sweet 100's.
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Jul 22, 2013 20:26
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AlistairCookie posted:This. It's why we grow a variety of heirloom tomatoes, not Big Boys. We grow purple and rainbow carrots, because they are impossible to find in stores. Variety, variety, variety!! Thanks, but I can't take too much credit for it. The orchard was planted in 1974 and I just got started beating it back into shape this year. I'm getting really excited for the fruit to mature so I can start figuring out which varieties they are. Here are the potato towers at the garden. Just ignore the field bindweed that I've given up trying to control.  And here's a quick lunch time harvest: 
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Jul 22, 2013 22:11
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Frilled Lizard posted:We grew Dragon carrots this year, my kids have been begging me for them since we got seed catalogs last fall. Harvested the first ones today... they don't like them. Funny! I can't keep my kids away from the damned carrots. [Let them get bigger guys! Stop pulling them!!] But my kids don't like raw tomatoes.  My black cherry tomatoes have been really producing. I am easily pulling a dozen or more a day, and the plants are only putting out more and more. Tonight I hollowed out a bunch and stuffed them with feta and basil. They are toasting under the broiler as I type. Mmmm... They are also chomping at the bit for the purple potatoes. I think we're going to try chipping them this year. Homemade purple potato chips can't be bad, right? 
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Jul 22, 2013 22:49
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Gentlefolk, let me relate a tale for you. A tale of death, sadness and the empty place in my heart where a once young garden used to thrive. Our story begins with a crop of bright, eager plants. Just planted in a rich, raised bed of quality earth, their days of happiness were unfortunately soon to expire. For it was but one week before the skies laid claim to the land, drowning everything in sight with their unstoppable cascade. What insult provoked the ire of the mighty heavens? Perhaps it was the arrogance of our scientific studies - attempting to tame the wild and exploit nature for harvest of food stocks. Perhaps it was merely a whim. I know not, but I do know our punishment...and it is unceasing rain. Our plucky little plants were no match for the heavens. Suffering the deluge not once, but often twice per day, the plants struggled to grow. Battered with rain from above, and splashing, murking mud from below, the once-stout seedlings began to despair. The first signs of disease soon appeared amongst the lower leaves. Wilty and yellow, speckled with god-knows-what bacterial infestation. Basil leaves, once green and lush, turned coppery and dull, crinkled and yellow. Peppers, majestic, indestructible peppers! Reduced to slim stalks with naught a single fruit, and but a handful of leaves. Tomato vines reaching skyward, attempting to grow faster than the miasma spreading from below. Foolish, for the rain never ends, and the rot never relents. All manner of alchemical processes have been employed. Science! Yes, Science shall prevail! Alas, the heavens care not a whit for science, booming with laughter as they upended yet more tortuous rain upon the lands. Slick with rain, the fungicidals can find no purchase upon these leaves. And oh, do not forget the varmints! For even when the rain relents and the sun shines its loving embrace upon weary, wet and worn vegetables...the rodents and varmints come out to wreck havoc. Corn, once tall...hewn to the soil. Sweet potatos...ravaged. Lettuce, onions, sunflowers! All gone in a single night. No fence can keep these monstrosities out. For indeed, the rodents have conspired with the heavens and their reward are the plants that have managed to defy the sky. And yet, through these horrors, one plant has lived. Has prospered! Has grown, without a care for the rodents or the rain. A true bastion of hope amongst a sea of decay and misery. The majestic cucumber. But hope is just disappointment in disguise, for even the mighty must fall. The vine borers have come. Drilling tiny holes into the proud cucumber, slowly draining it's life's essence from the inside. Slowly, suffering, the cucumber shrivels as it fights, day by day, against this new horror. This, travelers, is a tale of woe. You would be wise to heed my words: never plant a garden in South Carolina before the rains come. 
polyfractal fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Jul 23, 2013 |
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Jul 23, 2013 03:20
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cowofwar posted:Try to grow what you eat. Find out what grows best in your yard. Then grow the things that you eat and what grows best in your yard. This is so true. Last year, my best producing plant out of like 30 or so different plants was a Cherokee Purple tomato. It wasn't the only Cherokee Purple tomato plant I had. It just happened to be the one that grew way beyond anything else I had. FYI, it was about 8 feet tall and around and made nothing but awesome tasting tomatoes well into October. I collected the seeds from one of its tomatoes and started growing a plant indoors. It actually lasted through the winter and made a couple of tomatoes indoors. At one point, it even broke because the stem was too lanky and not sturdy because of a lack of wind. It managed to survive this despite half the stem being split. This spring, I put it outside in the garden. For a couple of weeks, it looked terrible because direct sunlight and wind was too harsh. Slowly, though, it became healthy, and then it just took off. It's arguably the best looking tomato plant I have out of the dozen or so I planted. The other plants are from commercial seed packets, but I don't see me saving any of their seeds. I also have some jalapenos that produced really well last year and the same seeds have made some really good looking plants this year. So, yes, growing what grows best in your yard is absolutely the way to go. Now is the time to keep track of what's growing well so you can plan on leaving a few fruits on the plants long enough for you to collect some good healthy mature seeds for the next few years.
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Jul 23, 2013 03:27
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polyfractal posted:Gentlefolk, let me relate a tale for you. A tale of death, sadness and the empty place in my heart where a once young garden used to thrive. Holy loving poo poo.  If you can't grow things, at least appreciate that nature has defeated you, as polyfractal has seemed to accept here. Thanks for this.
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Jul 24, 2013 02:32
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I just found out that the local deer now have some company in our yard. There's a mom rabbit with some buns in the back yard (so loving cute) and I'm wondering if I should be concerned about any of our veggies. They literally moved in next to the strawberries, so I'm counting those as a loss, but the veggie garden seems OK so far. We have tomatoes, green peppers, pickling cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini. Would any of those be attractive to our yard residents? And if anyone wonders why their hostas are getting beheaded every year, it's deer. Trust me.
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Jul 24, 2013 13:54
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Abbeh posted:I just found out that the local deer now have some company in our yard. There's a mom rabbit with some buns in the back yard (so loving cute) and I'm wondering if I should be concerned about any of our veggies. They literally moved in next to the strawberries, so I'm counting those as a loss, but the veggie garden seems OK so far. We have tomatoes, green peppers, pickling cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini. Would any of those be attractive to our yard residents? Our pet rabbits love sweet peppers, but I think tomato and pepper foliage are toxic to them. I think they'll also eat cukes, but I'd think their leaves are too spiny for them to bother with. I don't know about squashes.
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Jul 24, 2013 14:20
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It's hard to say with rabbits. I get rabbits in my yard every year thanks to the apparently permanent rabbit nest under my neighbor's deck. However they only seem to go after my clover during the summer months and don't touch my veggies at all. The only time I have problems is during the winter (every year I find a new plant I need to wrap in chicken wire as they subsistence feed- so far they've eaten bark off three of my trees and mowed my new quince bush down to stubs) and early spring (fuckers ate my pea shoots) when food is scarce for them. So during the summer I'm always "Hey girls, look at the cute bunnies" and then come winter/spring it changes to "dammit I knew I should've asked for a pellet gun this Christmas".
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Jul 24, 2013 14:21
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Abbeh posted:We have tomatoes, green peppers, pickling cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini. Would any of those be attractive to our yard residents? That depends on how hungry they are. With the size I assume things are now and the abundant food supply elsewhere you'll probably be OK, but some hardware cloth folded at a 90 degree angle attached to your fence and slid underneath the sod (6-12 inches) will keep them from squeezing through the fence or digging under it. Abbeh posted:And if anyone wonders why their hostas are getting beheaded every year, it's deer. Trust me. It's always the deer around me. And if they still have leaves on them but they are full of holes you need to come count at night to see the slugs that just hatched there (and douse them with diatomaceous earth).
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Jul 24, 2013 14:26
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I've had rabbits nesting in my strawberries but they didn't touch anything else in the garden including the strawberries. It's the deer that get everything.
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Jul 24, 2013 14:54
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Monsoon 2013 has brought... cucurbits! Oh my God, the cucurbits. I'd actually written them off before we started getting proper monsoon storms; the neighborhood cats had taken up laying on the vines and pretty well decimated them. Then it rained. And rained. And cooled off. And rained some more. It had been my intention to trellis them if they came back from their near death experience; too late. My lonely cantaloupe at the far end of the garden has trellised itself all over a decorative fence and is starting on the tomato cages. (Fine by me; the tomatoes on the edges have been getting sunscald while the melons don't give a drat.) The cucurbits planted closer together—another cantaloupe, butternut squash, and pickling cukes—have now formed some kind of sentient, synergistic supervine. Assuming we don't rocket back up to 120 or get infested by whiteflies, this promises to be an amazing disaster of fruit-bearing living mulch. I'm sure CYSDV-bearing whiteflies will be by shortly to crush my dreams and leave me an empty shell of a man.
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Jul 24, 2013 16:14
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Abbeh posted:I just found out that the local deer now have some company in our yard. There's a mom rabbit with some buns in the back yard (so loving cute) and I'm wondering if I should be concerned about any of our veggies. They literally moved in next to the strawberries, so I'm counting those as a loss, but the veggie garden seems OK so far. We have tomatoes, green peppers, pickling cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini. Would any of those be attractive to our yard residents? I'm wondering the same thing. Our neighborhood has a ton of rabbits around, and I've seen them in our backyard. I've got cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, and asparagus growing right now. Do I need to guard any of these? (So help me god if they touch my asparagus, rabbit stew for dinner)
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Jul 24, 2013 18:52
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Abbeh posted:I just found out that the local deer now have some company in our yard. There's a mom rabbit with some buns in the back yard (so loving cute) and I'm wondering if I should be concerned about any of our veggies. They literally moved in next to the strawberries, so I'm counting those as a loss, but the veggie garden seems OK so far. We have tomatoes, green peppers, pickling cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini. Would any of those be attractive to our yard residents? If it's a ground level garden, I'd say get a pellet gun or borrow a dog for a few days. dangittj posted:I'm wondering the same thing. Our neighborhood has a ton of rabbits around, and I've seen them in our backyard. I've got cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, and asparagus growing right now. Do I need to guard any of these? (So help me god if they touch my asparagus, rabbit stew for dinner) coyo7e fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Jul 24, 2013 |
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Jul 24, 2013 19:48
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Do tell us what asparagus pee tastes like
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Jul 24, 2013 20:43
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Just like it smells, I'd assume.
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Jul 24, 2013 21:23
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coyo7e posted:If it's a ground level garden, I'd say get a pellet gun or borrow a dog for a few days.    We have a useless beagle who is so bad at finding rabbits that he once pissed in a bunny's face because he didn't see it there. Hopefully the chicken wire we put up will do the trick, but this does answer my "where did my asparagus go?" question.
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Jul 25, 2013 12:30
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theacox posted:Holy loving poo poo.  I went through all the stages. Anger. Denial. Bargaining. Severe depression. Eventually you just go "Eh, gently caress it" and accept what's going on. I go outside with my little bottle of neem oil, spray what leaves I can to protect them, trim the dead poo poo...sigh over the whims of the universe and go back inside. I think I found my first baby cucumber today 
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Jul 25, 2013 13:01
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