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I'm starting to think about what I'm going to do with my gardens this year. They were a total flop last year so I'm thinking about just redoing the whole area. I had 3 4' x 4' boxes and I got hardly any yield. I didn't even get anything from my zucchini plants! The only thing that produced well were the chili peppers I planted. My tomatoes were doing alright until they would start to disappear once they were getting just about ripe. We caught our lab squeezing under the plastic fence and eating them.  I remember reading about a method somewhere where you make rows that are sort of mounded up with different layers of stuff in it, but I can't remember what its called. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I live in Durham, NC and we've been getting unusually cold and freezing. I'm so scared my fig tree and the grapes I planted last year aren't going to make it.  Edit: I'm also thinking about buying a tiller since I have a lot of ground I need to chew up all over my yard. I don't want to break the bank though. Any recommendations? Alterian fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Feb 4, 2010 |
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Feb 4, 2010 03:32
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Marchegiana posted:A lot of places will let you rent a tiller by the day. I'm in Richmond VA, and in my area we have a place called Rental Works that rents equipment like that, a tiller from them is about $40 a day. One day should be enough if you've got a standard suburban-sized plot.
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Feb 4, 2010 16:06
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Zeta Taskforce posted:If it’s a one shot deal, you might still be better off renting one. If you will be doing a lot of tilling throughout the year, you probably do need to invest in one. Go for a trusted brand rather than comparing specs and getting the cheapest 30 horsepower tiller that goes 6 inches deep. Troy Bilt is a fantastic brand, but you will pay more than whatever Home Depot happens to have on sale. I live in a zone 7 - 8. I'm hoping what we just had this past weekend is the worst of it. We got 6" of snow and ice which is pretty unheard of. It was a dry summer and I think I just didn't water them enough. I lost half a box of plants early on before I got my plastic fence up around it and my dog rolled in the box. I think I'm going to totally redo the area this year and do it a little nicer and not on the cheap. (Like put up a fence my dogs can't crawl under) I'm thinking about possibly relocating it to another part of the yard. Here's what the yard looks like (taken the year before last when we moved in so the gardens aren't actually there) http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v688/alterian/?action=view¤t=2a7303c0.pbw
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Feb 4, 2010 18:36
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I see people posting their seed companies. Does anyone know of any good ones in the raleigh/durham/nc area? We're looking at growing some heirloom or organic vegetables that'll grow well in our region. We picked up our pest killer and fertilizer yesterday. (crosspost from PI)http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3204353&pagenumber=4#post372974608
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Feb 24, 2010 17:44
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I'm hoping in about a week or two I'll be able to put together my new raised vegetable box in our yard  Its going to be a 4' x 8' box. Any recommendations for ratios of dirt and other stuff to go in there? The first things in the box are going to be cabbage, onions, beets, and radishes.
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Mar 17, 2010 14:02
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mischief posted:Started expanding the garden today. Took up the sod off about another 300 sq ft, tilling in compost and soil conditioner tomorrow. Heat really snuck up on us here in NC, I'm still a little nauseous from over exertion digging in that damned clay. Wheeeee. The weather here is great, isn't it? I was able to get my herb garden and my "bird garden" tilled yesterday. I did end up buying a tiller. I went with this one http://www.lowes.com/pd_167652-6548...?Ntk=i_products$Ntt=tiller and it chewed the poo poo out of the clay. I was so pleased. It took a little while and I had to go over it all a couple times and then mix good dirt into it, but now I have usable gardens! I went to the Raleigh farmer's market this morning and picked out my herbs, another fig tree, and an apple tree. I'm probably going to have to go back next week to get a second apple tree. My herb garden is bigger than I really thought. I still have space for about 10 more varieties. I'm trying to go with as many perennials as I can and any annuals are things I will most absolutely use (like basil and parsley) I also have a separate mint garden I started late last year and I'm happy it survived the winter. Its totally separated from any other piece of land in hopes it won't spread out of the area. I still haven't had a chance to put together our new vegetable bed so for now my cabbage and onions are still in large pots on my deck. The problem is we have to build a fence first to keep our drat dogs out of the vegetables this year. 
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Apr 3, 2010 23:14
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kid sinister posted:FYI basil grows like a weed. Good luck with keeping the mint contained! I honestly really don't mind all that much. This is all in the front of our house around our flagstone patio. I just want something that looks decent with the minimum amount of effort, and can be functional! When we have fresh basil, I go through a lot of it. The mint patch is surrounded by our driveway, our flagstone patio, and a concrete walkway that goes down pretty deep. On the other side of the walkway is the rest of the herb garden. If the mint manages to get into that, oh well. If it manages to get around our driveway then my husband can just mow over it. We're not really big on having a green, pristine grass lawn anyway. We had a really bad drought here a couple years ago and it killed a lot of the grass. Some new type of grass has grown in along with a bunch of other various low growing cover. A little mint wouldn't hurt it  We don't put chemicals on our lawn so we can use our clippings as compost/mulch. We'd rather have the free awesome compost than a pristine lawn.
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Apr 7, 2010 02:26
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We're going to try growing corn this year for the first time. My mom was warning me that its hard to grow corn. Any tips? We're just growing it in our backyard. Its not like we're trying to grow a whole field of it. She kept telling me I needed to grow a lot to make sure they're fertilized well. I was really confused and was asking her if I should mix a lot of compost in with the soil or if I should water them with fertilizer often. Until I realized she meant pollinate and not fertilize. It didn't help that right before I was telling her about growing corn she was asking me when I plan on giving her grand kids.
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Apr 12, 2010 02:48
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Marchegiana posted:I grew corn one year, just a little bit, to see what would happen. I had 16 stalks planted in a 4' by 4' block, and got 1-2 ears per stalk. However, I also got hit hard by corn earworms, and ended up throwing away nearly two thirds of the ears because the damage was so extensive. So now I just buy corn from the farmers market, and use that space for growing something that the bugs don't eat the hell out of. We're growing it partially as a blocker so we don't have to see the neighbors as much too
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Apr 12, 2010 15:45
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I'm posting this in this thread since the other thread I asked in nobody responded! My husband and I are interested in getting into backyard farming as a hobby. We already keep decent (but not large) vegetable garden, some fruit bushes/trees and some chickens. We have an area of land in our backyard (25' x 35') that we can dig up/fill with a large vegetable garden. I'm looking for some good books about going about keeping a larger area of gardens, maybe more info on better more efficient ways for having fruit trees/bushes, and other stuff like that. A good guide to crop rotation would be great too! (like...at the start of the season, plant this plant...when its done plant this plant etc etc) ..and espeically a planting guide for when certain seeds can be started. I'm not a fan of square foot gardening. I've tried it for a few years, and it just doesn't work nearly as good as it claims. The vegetables totally seem to crowd themselves out. Ultimately in 3 - 5 years we'd like to move to a place a little farther out in the country and have more land. We're not looking at it as one day becoming farmers. Its a hobby for both of us. I've also been looking into aquaponics. I'd LOVE to have a large set up someday (when we have more space). I think in the next couple months I might do a little indoor set up. If there's any good books out there about it, I'd be interested in that too!
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Jul 5, 2010 21:28
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I've read only the first one, but the other 2 look interesting and might be what you are after. I got The Backyard Homestead and its pretty much what I was looking for. Thanks! We're now planning our fall garden. Does anyone have any tips for growing beets? It seems like the only vegetable that we've had issues with.
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Jul 7, 2010 23:14
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Tell me if this sounds a little crazy or not: I've been having problems with growing things in raised beds. Is it possible the hot carolina sun is heating up the soil in the raised beds too much and drying it out too fast? The ph and quality of the soil is fine. I finally have a test going on. I planted some green beans in one of my vegetable boxes and some in another area planted directly into the ground. The ones in the ground are doing great. Only half the ones I planted in the box actually sprouted, and they look pretty gross. I only have 2 raised boxes, but I'm thinking about switching to straight in the ground.
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Jul 31, 2010 17:52
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Anubis posted:My guess would be either that or (depending on what you filled your raised bed with) fertilizer burn. How far above the ground is your gardens and what do you use for an outside barrier? I've seen people use tractor tires and the like which I know would trap heat. The bed is made from 10" wood boards. Its not filled to the very top though. I've never put any sort of chemical fertilizer in that soil. I mixed compost in with the dirt and I put grass clippings on top of it as a mulch (we don't spray or fertilize our lawn) I'll try to take pictures today of the difference.
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Aug 1, 2010 17:34
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drewhead posted:I'm not sure what kind of soil you're working with from your post. I've gardened in the Sand-hills where I couldn't keep water in the soil no matter how hard I tried and am now in the Piedmont where I build 8" raised beds because I can't get water out of the soil. That Carolina sun does fall on quite a wide variety of dirt. It's been pretty dry here over 4 of the last 5 weeks. What is your watering regiment look like? I just planted a second crop of Bush beans and a row of cow peas 7/18 and they germinated in ~5 days and look great. My spring planting of the same package of seeds took more like 8. Are you getting the same sub light coverage in each of your two areas? I live in the Durham area. My yard use to flood pretty bad, but I fixed it this spring so it actually drains pretty decently. I was watering the beans when I planted them to make sure they weren't getting too dry, but I also noticed the soil was getting HOT from the sun. (the heat index has been in the 110's here) The sad news is my chickens trampled most of the plants that actually germinated. I didn't feel like getting my fence up around them since most of them didn't even sprout. It wasn't a big area anyway  On the plus side, my other bean garden I got in is doing pretty good. Its not an ideal spot, but before it was just overgrown with weeds and sort of an eyesore. I'm going to try to grow amaranth in the spot next year for fun. I have 6 14' rows of beans going on  My chickens can't get in that area even though they want to so bad.
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Aug 7, 2010 01:42
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mischief posted:I want chickens and poo poo so bad. drat YOU HOME OWNERS ASSOCIATION AND SUBURB LIFE. drat YOU. I live in the suburbs, just not an HOA.
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Aug 7, 2010 03:53
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Has anyone done or seen any websites about doing vegetable gardening that still looks nice? I've been eyeballing my front yard. Its flat, sunny for almost 100% of the day, and we don't really do anything with it. I have an herb garden along our walkway, some fig trees along the side and 2 apple tree seedlings. I'd love to tear up some of the grass and use the area for *something*, but I'm worried about making our front not look very attractive. I have a small bird garden up front close to the house, but I'm thinking of turning it into a tea garden next year to go along with the rest of my herb garden 
Alterian fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Aug 12, 2010 |
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Aug 12, 2010 18:47
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I'm in the process of converting from box gardening to in the ground gardening (tilling the grass is a bitch) but I'm saving one of the boxes just for hot peppers because they did amazing and were the only thing to flourish in the boxes.
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Aug 28, 2010 17:15
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Emasculatrix posted:The first step toward a successful vegetable garden: euthanize your dog. There goes my lettuce, artichokes, peas and beans. My chickens ruined my bean patch. I thought it was secure, but they got at it from going under our shed to get to it. I came out and they were scratching away, digging up all my plants.
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Sep 4, 2010 19:44
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So far my latest attempt at chicken proofing my gardens seems to be successful! I'm probably jinxing myself saying that. My radishes, carrots, and kale are sprouting. Still waiting on the cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, and spinach. The nights get down to the lower 60's, but the days are still hitting the upper 80's.
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Sep 15, 2010 17:52
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Do I have aphids on my broccoli?   ...and is that a lacewing larvae eating them?
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Oct 11, 2010 17:50
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I've read that if you want to grow garlic in your garden, go to a farmer's market and buy some garlic heads from there and use that.
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Nov 14, 2010 03:45
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For food waste, have you considered doing a worm bin?
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Jan 5, 2011 17:18
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The Iron Fury posted:I also like to keep a pee bucket under the porch, into which I force gentlemen to urinate, and then I dilute it and use as a cheap (free!) fertilizer. I don't ever use other people's bodily excretions on my edible fruits and veggies, though. Also menstrual blood. Though this is not really an option unless you own a vagina cup (I dislike the brand name "diva cup") or like to hover, naked, over your plants for that special week. Coffee grounds also add nitrogen and goodness, and are beloved by certain plants, but then again this isn't quite as free as the first two options. Don't you have to worry about the salts in pee loving with your soil?
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Jan 5, 2011 21:21
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Zeta Taskforce posted:The squeemishness aside, its not toxic and assuming you didn't just eat a can of pringles, its not that salty. My husband likes to pee outside in our backyard if we've been drinking. I'll tell him to start aiming for the cabbages. 
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Jan 5, 2011 22:16
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ming-the-mazdaless posted:I'll agree with meat, oil and cheese though there are ways to compost those (Bokashi), but poop is awesome for composting with finely chipped wood. I compost my tree prunings (chipped with a bosch atx-25tc) with chicken and pet poop as well as my grass clippings. Do you have any more information on Bokashi buckets? I read a little on line that you can use them for composting animal waste on top of meaty and dairy type waste. We have dogs, cats, ferrets, and chickens at our house, and I'd love for an easy (and faster) compost system for getting rid of their waste. Right now we just throw the dog, cat, and ferret waste away and throw the chicken waste in with our large yard compost. A lot of places I read about composting dog and cat waste say you shouldn't use it on plants that you get food from, but its good for flowers and stuff like that. Is it different using a Bokashi bucket? We're trying to eliminate as much as we can as far as how much we throw away. We're down to about 2 bags a week between 3 adults living in our house. (its only one when its just my husband and me) If we could cut down to throwing pretty much nothing away and composting/recycling everything, that'd be awesome.
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Jan 9, 2011 15:49
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I know some places suggest using tires to grow potatoes.
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Jan 24, 2011 17:12
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I've been messing with this program today, and its a lot of fun. Its free to use for 30 days. http://www.motherearthnews.com/garden-planner/vegetable-garden-planner.aspx I might purchase it because its really handy.
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Jan 29, 2011 19:40
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mischief posted:The wait is going to kill me. The next two months are predicted to stay really cold here in NC. NC Goons!  I've been using this weekend to do yardwork too. I just wish I could really get started.
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Jan 30, 2011 15:21
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I'm looking for some advice on how to fix my yard a bit more this year. For reference, I live in Durham, NC. Last year, I got about 11 cubic yards of fill dirt dumped in my driveway and used it to fix a flooding problem in my backyard. This year I want to try to fix some erosion issues. This is one side of my yard  I just can't get any grass to grow. Its shady in the summer, and we have dogs/chickens that just mess it all up. I've tried shade type grass and it always dies off no matter how well I take care of it. Its a bit of a problem because when it rains, its eroding the soil away as it washes down hill. Is there something special I should do to get grass to stay there permanently or should I try another ground cover? As long as it doesn't mind being trampled, I'm open for it. Someone in another thread said part of their lawn is pretty much just mint. I'm really considering this. This is the other part of the yard I really want to fix this year. Its along the back end of the yard. I drew in red lines where our property border is   Its sort of hard to see exactly, but its a decent sized area. Every year it gets overgrown with weeds (poison ivy started to creep in last year) and every spring I go to clean the area a bit, there's always trash buried somewhere in the piles of debris (you can see some of it in the pictures I haven't gotten to cleaning out yet) The major thing though is that the weeds that are growing don't hold the soil very well and the banks are starting to collapse in. I usually have to go in every spring and dig out a bunch of sediment/debris so it doesn't clog it up. I want to cultivate the area, but I'm not sure what would be best. I would really like to use useful plants that could attract bird/butterfly/bee populations if I could. I was thinking about doing it in 3 layers with a low level plant along the banks, taller plants in the middle and some bushes along the back, and mulch the poo poo out of it. The big problem is the area is pretty shady. I'm not sure what plants would do the job well.
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Jan 31, 2011 14:35
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I'm putting up a fence in another part of the yard next to my vegetable garden and that one is going to be lined with butterfly bushes. Does mint do well with erosion prevention? I'd love to be able to plant a bunch of mint for a low level crop and just let it go. I'm actually looking at possibly using some hawthorne and witch hazel for my taller shrubs, but I'm not sure where I can buy them around here.
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Jan 31, 2011 20:16
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Those are really good shrub ideas. I'll probably take a list of names with me to the farmer's market /nursery when the time comes and see what I can get. I might even grab a couple extra and put some in other shady/damp parts of the yard. I do have 2 large gardenia bushes in my backyard, but they're in the most awkward place. I wish I could move them, but I'm scared I'll kill them. Despite the fact they're in the shade, they're 5' high and bloom awesomely.  I do like periwinkle! My only thing is, will it thrive even with dogs trampling them? Alterian fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Jan 31, 2011 |
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Jan 31, 2011 23:14
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Here's the tentative plans for our garden this year Click here for the full 1673x517 image. We're putting up a fence across the entire width of the backyard to keep our animals out so we're turning the rest of the area into gardens. The right half of the gardens are already in place along with the greens garden all the way on the left. Any type of flower or herb hasn't been quite figured out. I want to do some more research into what flowers go good as bug screens/pollinator attractors for various vegetables. The parts with cabbage and broccoli are going to have tomatoes and peppers planted amongst them as the weather gets warmer/things get harvested.
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Feb 2, 2011 17:22
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I'd be worried about it coming from people's lawns that spray/fertilize their yard a lot. I don't know how well that stuff breaks down.
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Feb 2, 2011 18:53
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Yeah. Its pretty easy to use. The thing I really like about it is it'll make a chart for you based off of where you live and tell you when you should start planting your seeds for different vegetables/transplant outside or start seeds outside/expect harvests. My husband started teaching CC full time this past semester instead of us both having jobs where it seems like during the growing months we're both working 50 - 60 hour weeks. Since he'll probably only be teaching one or two classes over the summer (if any at all) He's going to have loads of time to keep an eye on the gardens this year!
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Feb 3, 2011 13:43
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Are you growing them with a grow light or by a window?
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Feb 7, 2011 19:58
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Nettle Soup posted:Dug the garden today, first day it's been warm so far. Good luck! We have 3 chickens and we're building a new fence (hopefully finishing this weekend) so our drat chickens will stay out of the garden. We have just a 3' chicken wire fence right now and it doesn't work. They'll hop on over it. We're using this stuff http://www.lowes.com/pd_62294-307-84067_0__?productId=1094819&Ntt=wire+fencing&pl=1¤tURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dwire%2Bfencing We have a front fence made from it and they can't get over it. At least my observations is ours won't fly up onto something like that if they can't land on it and perch and jump down. For the wooden gate part, I'm going to attach some chicken wire to the top so they won't be able to land on it so hopefully this will keep them in.
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Mar 3, 2011 18:41
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dwoloz posted:Chickens will decimate your garden, it indeed needs to be fenced off somehow. I think light fencing would most likely deter them just fine. Theyll fly but tend to stick to the ground (depending on breed). One of our chickens is a buff orpington, a breed that's not suppose to be able to fly well. She flies the best. She routinely flies over our 3' fence.
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Mar 4, 2011 00:26
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Costello Jello posted:What about clipping flight feathers? I'd be scared they'd kill themselves because they love to climb the stairs up on our 10' deck and jump off! Taken this morning when they came to wake us up to come out and feed them   Edit: This might be of interest to people here. I know they talked about it on the Colbert Report last night. http://www.pollinator.org/guides.htm Alterian fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Mar 4, 2011 |
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Mar 4, 2011 17:16
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There's a lot of NC gardeners here it seems.
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Mar 4, 2011 23:43
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I always read you shouldn't use pressure treated wood in gardens because it has arsenic that can leech into your soil.
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Mar 13, 2011 21:52
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