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jvick posted:It sucks living in the desert, doesn't it?! Now stop taking all my water! I think I ruined my cucumbers in much the same way. They were quickly outgrowing their containers so I put them in a new raised bed I just finished, then they all wilted in the sun. Sad thing is, the bed is less than 10 feet from where the containers were sitting, but I didn't take into account that the original spot gets a little more afternoon shade from a big tree.  Actually, most of the things I started from seed are doing horribly this year, except the zucchini. I am going to be overrun with it this summer. My tomato and jalapeno seedlings all died, soybeans didn't sprout, and herbs are giving me a big "gently caress you" too. I do have one tiny oregano plant in a pot, from last summer. It just started putting out new leaves and getting bigger, so maybe it will like me. There's also a tiny jalapeno plant in one of my raised beds from last year. It never got more than about 8 inches tall, but it somehow survived winter and the frosts that killed the other peppers, so I left it there. On the upside, the starts I bought from the hardware store are doing great. I have three tomatoes, an anaheim pepper, red and yellow onions, and ~*patriotic*~ red, white, and blue potatoes.  (Seriously the bag actually said patriotic. I just bought it for the variety.) It's also raining a little bit right now which is great since we're in the middle of a drought, and our rainy season is stupid short. I just put Home Depot buckets under all my downspouts to collect rain for watering my ornamental plants.
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Mar 25, 2014 21:39
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TheBigBad posted:I have three kinds of mint. I wish the catnip would grow like the mint. Plant catnip on top of some organic material and it will go nuts. I planted one on top of spent grain hulls from brewing(I didn't even compost them first, just tossed them in a hole in the ground and threw a little soil on top then planted), and one in regular soil and the difference was incredible.
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Mar 25, 2014 21:59
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Ahhh, so I guess I was just watering my plants wrong. At first I was spraying in the morning/night but it seems the water wasn't reaching deep enough to not just evaporate in the daytime. I started watering slowly right from the hose tip at the plant base and the plants are perking right up. Sadly most of the leaves below the canopy have fallen away but the canopies are looking generally healthy and new leaves are budding. I'm sure I sound ridiculous to people that have done this a while but gardening is just one of those things you seem to have to fumble through yourself a few times. What should I do about browning leaves, are they best to prune, or just let them fall away naturally? I'm afraid to start cutting when it seems like the plant is taking care of itself.
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Mar 25, 2014 22:03
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I lied. We might be getting 24" of snow.
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Mar 25, 2014 23:34
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SpannerX posted:I lied. We might be getting 24" of snow. I'm sorry. The bulk of ours disappeared in today's [cold, 30F] sunshine. BossRighteous posted:Ahhh, so I guess I was just watering my plants wrong. At first I was spraying in the morning/night but it seems the water wasn't reaching deep enough to not just evaporate in the daytime. I started watering slowly right from the hose tip at the plant base and the plants are perking right up. Sadly most of the leaves below the canopy have fallen away but the canopies are looking generally healthy and new leaves are budding. Water deeply, right at the soil level. Consider a soaker hose. Getting the leaves wet like from a sprinkler or spray nozzle (when you don't have to) can invite all sorts of diseases from soil splash back anyway. When the browning leaves are at least halfway died back, I would just prune them. The plant has withdrawn enough nutrients and moisture back from them.
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Mar 26, 2014 00:43
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Big Beef City posted:Can I garden on uneven ground? This is my parents' raised beds, cut into a hill that's probably 5 degrees or so. 
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Mar 26, 2014 00:50
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What would be the best way to water in an area where sprinklers are verboten 99% of the time? I have a timer and I've seen a number of people here run soaker hoses from a pvc manifold on one side of the garden so I'm guessing that is going to be the best way to go? I know how to work with PVC so doing that shouldn't be that much of a mess, or I have a bunch of hose I could use to make short runs with to all bring it together at the spigot.
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Mar 26, 2014 03:17
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Cimber posted:Is there any reason why you can't simply use onions purchased from the grocery store as starter for the next crop? I have wondered about not only onions, but garlic and potatoes as well.
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Mar 26, 2014 12:30
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Fog Tripper posted:I have wondered about not only onions, but garlic and potatoes as well. I think you can do garlic: it's multi-headed, so you can sprout a single clove and eventually it'll grow into a plant. I think grocery store onions are single bulbed annuals, so short of trying to get it to blossom to harvest seeds, I don't know what having the bulb in the ground would do. You can totally grow potatoes, for propagation tips see every 5th grade science class in the US. Just kidding but they're super easy to sprout and then I suppose you could plant it. Tsinava in the Sustainable Agriculture thread had a lot more propagation tips for grocery store vegetables. I've been meaning to do scallions for a while.
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Mar 26, 2014 12:46
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vonnegutt posted:I think grocery store onions are single bulbed annuals, so short of trying to get it to blossom to harvest seeds, I don't know what having the bulb in the ground would do. Supermarket potatoes may be treated with something that retards sprouting. Not sure if you can wash it off or something. I would not recommend trying with a potato you don't see the start of a single sprout on -it may just never happen. Had some reasonable success in getting more weight out than I put in and that was after harvesting way too soon after growing in a smallish bag of poor quality dirt and doing nothing to it than watering occasionally.
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Mar 26, 2014 13:46
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Shifty Pony posted:What would be the best way to water in an area where sprinklers are verboten 99% of the time? I have a timer and I've seen a number of people here run soaker hoses from a pvc manifold on one side of the garden so I'm guessing that is going to be the best way to go? I know how to work with PVC so doing that shouldn't be that much of a mess, or I have a bunch of hose I could use to make short runs with to all bring it together at the spigot. Can you afford to set up a genuine drip system? It is generally the best way to water your garden.
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Mar 26, 2014 14:14
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Fart Car '97 posted:Can you afford to set up a genuine drip system? It is generally the best way to water your garden. I can but don't want to spring that much on a first-year garden, if that makes sense. The garden is covered with white fabric to reduce solar heating so that should cut down on water loss a bit, and the silty-clay has a good affinity for water.
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Mar 26, 2014 17:10
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Shifty Pony posted:I can but don't want to spring that much on a first-year garden, if that makes sense. The garden is covered with white fabric to reduce solar heating so that should cut down on water loss a bit, and the silty-clay has a good affinity for water. Actually, I was confused and for some reason "soaker hose" didn't trigger "drip system" in my mind. I think what you described initially would be perfect.
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Mar 26, 2014 17:32
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Flipperwaldt posted:
I've heard anecdotal stories of people growing supermarket potatoes only to discover that they were infected with late blight, which the farmer had been keeping under control using fungicides. I mean I've done it before with no problems, but unlike seed potatoes, there's no guarantee that you're getting disease free seed potatoes.
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Mar 26, 2014 19:04
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Has anyone read the Square Foot Gardening book by Mel Bartholomew? Is there any credence to his soil mix which is 1/3 vermiculite 1/3 compost and 1/3 peat moss? In it he says you mix this in the spring, put 6"s in the boxes and then plant. I'm about to give it a go, just wondering if I'm wasting money.
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Mar 27, 2014 02:51
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Zone 7, checking in!  So my wife and I are renting and although the our duplex has awesome places to grow, most of these spaces have been fallow for so long you can roll the grass up like carpet, or have been buried by several inches of gravel. Why?  This aside, I tilled and amended a small veggie bed with peat moss from Home Despot, and some discounted garden soil found elsewhere. The remaining planters are much, much larger and I'm not sure I want to pony up the cash for that much peat moss. What would be the cheapest way to improve my terrible clay soil that would be readily purchasable and cost effective? I'm in Louisville so I'm not sure I want to venture out to the countryside to fill my station wagon with horse crap. I'd have the soil analyzed, but I'm assuming the quality of all of it is so terrible at this point from lying unused that it could just benefit from whatever organic material it can get. DuckTalesWooHoo fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Mar 27, 2014 |
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Mar 27, 2014 03:16
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I know many local dumps will compost any yard waste that is brought in, and we got a whole truckload for $6 from our local dump. The main issue with this is you don't know where it came from, what chemicals were used on the yard waste before it got to the compost yard, and what may have been missed when they sorted everything out. I've picked little bits of glass out of ours. I would also worry about tomatoes and that disease they get from soil that has had tobacco in it, because I'm sure there's a cigarette butt in there somewhere. But, if you're not planning on using the larger beds for edible plants, it's a very cheap solution if you can borrow a truck.
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Mar 27, 2014 04:28
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Both of you please consider not using peat moss. It's not sustainable and it makes a pretty poor soil amendment (it breaks down too quickly leaving your soil compressed). There are many better substitutes, most of which will depend on what's available to you locally. Ask your county ag extension!
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Mar 27, 2014 04:32
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Amykinz posted:I know many local dumps will compost any yard waste that is brought in, and we got a whole truckload for $6 from our local dump. That sounds so risky 
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Mar 27, 2014 13:37
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Fart Car '97 posted:That sounds so risky He probably meant waste management companies. Big difference. I was at one facility in BC that only handled food waste, and then used the compost on the farm it was attached to. It was a huge pile of compost, to say the least. I don't think they were allowed to sell it though, I think they didn't have the facilities quite set up to do that, legally. Too expensive, and they had enough property to use it all them selves anyway. IIRC, they were getting a 20% increase in yield from before they set up their composting.
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Mar 27, 2014 13:53
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The city dump in Boston composts and will let you get theirs. Well used to. They also test their compost and found out it had a lot of lead, so uh, yeah can't do that right now.
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Mar 27, 2014 13:55
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SpannerX posted:He probably meant waste management companies. Big difference. I was at one facility in BC that only handled food waste, and then used the compost on the farm it was attached to. It was a huge pile of compost, to say the least. I don't think they were allowed to sell it though, I think they didn't have the facilities quite set up to do that, legally. Too expensive, and they had enough property to use it all them selves anyway. IIRC, they were getting a 20% increase in yield from before they set up their composting. Even if it's a waste management company, you don't know what kind of poo poo is going into joe schmoe's yard waste bin. Especially if you're living in an Urban area. Breaky posted:The city dump in Boston composts and will let you get theirs. Well used to. They also test their compost and found out it had a lot of lead, so uh, yeah can't do that right now. Case in point.
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Mar 27, 2014 14:42
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Fart Car '97 posted:Even if it's a waste management company, you don't know what kind of poo poo is going into joe schmoe's yard waste bin. Especially if you're living in an Urban area. Well, yeah, that's true. And the reason why they couldn't sell it. Hell, even using composted manure is an issue now due to the stuff they spray on what they feed cattle. You could end up making your garden unable to grow anything. It sucks. The think about the facility that I went too was that it was food waste only. Collected from restaurants and cruise ships, so low chance of getting pesticides in there. Still can't sell it though.
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Mar 27, 2014 15:00
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Fart Car '97 posted:
True. Part of the point I was also making was that the city was testing it at least so it's worth asking your respective city dump about that at least.
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Mar 27, 2014 15:30
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Yeah, I mentioned in my post that you have no idea what's in it or where it came from or if some guy Roundup-ed his whole yard and tossed that in there at all. But for a few containers that we had sitting around to toss some existing plants in to look at, it was the cheapest option. From the website of our local waste management company ("the dump"): "Green waste is received at the Material Recovery Facility from the curbside yard and garden program, individuals, landscapers and the agricultural community. The green waste is cleaned to remove trash, debris and animal waste". My husband did ask about it when he picked it up and they said they test it. I would not use this for a veggie/herb garden, or any plants you care about because of the risk of chemicals and pesticides. (another thing I mentioned in my first post) It made a great solution for us to move a few plants we didn't care too much about, and to level out the yard under some bushes in the front. That's it.
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Mar 27, 2014 23:59
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What is the half-life for those sorts of chemicals?
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Mar 28, 2014 00:39
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BossRighteous posted:What is the half-life for those sorts of chemicals? Round-up (glyphosate) is really short, like days at most. The stuff being found in animal manures from pastures lasts much longer. Clopyralid and Aminopyralid are the two names I've heard about. One guy claimed to see them persist in the soil for 4 years. The other nastier stuff I have no idea. e: Regarding compost testing, that can mean very little depending on what they test for. Muni compost made with sewage sludge has federal and state laws about testing but only covers simple stuff like pathogens (e coli etc). The EPA does a survey every 4-5 years that tests for a lot more stuff all across the country and finds most of what they're testing for in every sample. It's called the Targeted National Sewage Sludge Survey and you can find the results online. I haven't seen any analysis of the results and the last samples were collected in 2006-2007. Cpt.Wacky fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Mar 28, 2014 |
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Mar 28, 2014 00:44
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TheBigBad posted:Has anyone read the Square Foot Gardening book by Mel Bartholomew? I went with perlite rather then vermiculite, but the end result is a loose, airy, fertile soil. I'm not sure it's as amazing and revolutionary thing as he claims, but it does better then the local "sand and rocks" soil I've got around here.
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Mar 28, 2014 01:27
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Will a 9325K bulb work as a grow light for herbs, or does it need to be a 6300k to promote leaf growth?
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Mar 28, 2014 04:48
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After going to the trouble of planting a nice corn spiral so I wouldn't have to hand-pollinate, one lone stalk has decided to tassel out early. Bastard. My attempt at the three sisters is also falling apart because it turns out neither of my squash varieties are prolific viners. Hyper-localized living mulch, hooray!  On the bright side, I've got such a nice unplanned microclimate at that end of the bed (intensively-planted marigold, dill, and tomato, each now 7 feet tall) that there's plenty of shade and moisture as-is. Molten Llama fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Mar 28, 2014 |
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Mar 28, 2014 18:49
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Molten Llama posted:After going to the trouble of planting a nice corn spiral so I wouldn't have to hand-pollinate, one lone stalk has decided to tassel out early. Bastard. My ground is still frozen 
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Mar 28, 2014 18:51
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Hey, at least you can't even get your hopes up! We've been swinging back and forth between the low 60s and the low 90s. The plants that are sticking it out are confused and my greens are all dead. That tasseling corn? It's three feet tall. I'm not even sure it's going to have silks to pollinate.
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Mar 28, 2014 18:55
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I'm totally new to any kind of gardening, and I was wondering if anyone would be able to give me some basic advice? We bought a house last summer, with a garden that's been unkempt for quite a while. At the moment I'm trying to find solutions to make it pretty and usable without having to dig up the whole thing. So here's the area next to the entrance to the house, the green bits on the ground are actually growing out a setup that I think is supposed to be rock garden gravel with a (plastic) fountain in the middle. Oh and some slabs of concrete behind them.   I was wondering if I could plant a herb garden on some big planters on a few levels on the gravel. The wall faces west, and despite the garage technically shading it it gets some hours of sun and the wall can get quite warm on a hot day. Lower parts might not get that much sun. The hardiness zone I'm on seems to be 5b, whatever that means. Does this in any way sound feasible? Any idea what kitchen garden type plants could be suitable? I'd prefer herbs, but I'll take anything.
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Mar 28, 2014 21:32
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Suncut posted:Does this in any way sound feasible? Any idea what kitchen garden type plants could be suitable? I'd prefer herbs, but I'll take anything. You could grow just about anything in that type of raised bed setup except maybe corn and potatoes. Herbs would be very easy to grow there. I'd clear that area of any debris like chunks of rock or metal, mow it down and then cover with multiple sheets of cardboard to smother the weeds and keep them from growing up into your planters. Then build the planters and fill with soil. That part might be a little expensive with that rear planter being so tall. It's hard to judge the scale from the pictures but you could be looking at one or two cubic yards of soil. Expensive if you're going with bagged soil but not quite enough to make a delivery worthwhile. If you know someone with a pick-up truck and a place you could get it filled that would be the best option. With the eave of the roof right above it you'd have a good spot to do some trellising of peas, beans, cucumbers or tomatoes in the rear planter. Any kind of salad greens, carrots, radishes etc could go in the rest along with whatever herbs you want.
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Mar 28, 2014 23:49
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Garden is coming along nicely! Blueberries!  Potatoes!  Cucumbers!  And this weekend the peppers and tomatoes go in. I was thinking about going to the local garden festival to pick up some heirloom but have decided against it to instead use some more common tried-and-true hybrids for my first go around. Also beans are in the ground but haven't sprouted so I'll spare you the photo of dirt with some sticks marking their locations.
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Mar 29, 2014 00:42
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Shifty Pony posted:Garden is coming along nicely! What kind of soil mix did you use to fill up the containers? Someone else posted here a similar set up with blueberries in large containers. I started some Kiwis in a container last year in 100% compost in half a wine barrel and now the soil level has shrunk by half. I am concerned that there won't be enough space for the roots. There are three empty wine barrel halves sitting in my backyard because I don't want to plant blueberries, just to have to transplant them in 2 years when the container soil level shrinks too much.
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Mar 29, 2014 00:51
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Fozzy The Bear posted:What kind of soil mix did you use to fill up the containers? Honestly in CA if you amend the soil pH low enough and keep drainage good you likely could get away with just planting them in the ground or raised beds. Have you seen anyone with azaleas? They are a good indicator that you can grow blueberries. http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/5842/25993.pdf Here the soil is way too basic so the containers get 100% peat, mulched with pine bark or pine straw if you can get it. If you are in a wetter area a mix of peat and sand will work better. If you don't want to use peat blueberries need really acidic soil (5.0-5.5) to do well, as well as requiring something that drains well but doesn't dry out completely. Standing water or mud is bad bad. As the peat compacts or decomposes you just keep adding more acidic mulch, maybe some acidic compost. They require shockingly little fertilizer for the amount of fruit they bear. Because the peat comes compressed it actually tends to grow in size at first.
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Mar 29, 2014 01:24
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Shifty Pony posted:Honestly in CA if you amend the soil pH low enough and keep drainage good you likely could get away with just planting them in the ground or raised beds. Have you seen anyone with azaleas? They are a good indicator that you can grow blueberries. Oh wow, so that pdf confirms my fears "Replace soil with fresh potting mix, and root prune the plant every 3 to 4 years."
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Mar 29, 2014 07:45
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Cpt.Wacky posted:You could grow just about anything in that type of raised bed setup except maybe corn and potatoes. Herbs would be very easy to grow there. Thanks for the advice! I hadn't even thought about the soil yet, good thing you mentioned it. I know at least one place that sells it, and there might be others even closer by if I look. No pickup trucks, but it would be pretty easy to rent a trailer from the gas station and use that I think. I guess as the idea sounds feasible I'll just have to start looking into the specifics of actually building a planter. I'll probably just plant something in there when it's done this year and then come ask what I did wrong when it dies. The place is right next to the garden hose too, so at least upkeep shouldn't be too hard.
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Mar 29, 2014 10:25
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The garden is completely in! A local garden center had some really really nice looking 4" pot heirloom tomatoes and healthy peppers at $1.49 each so i just went ahead and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately I got a bit carried away on peppers so I had to stagger them and likely will be playing tomato wrangler throughout the season. 
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Mar 29, 2014 16:56
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