Garden 2012 thread.....BARGAIN ALERT

I put my cucumbers outside a few days this week to start hardening them but some of them have started to wilt. I think I may have put them out there a little too early...
 
I got my broccoli in last weekend, seems to be holding up ok against the cold nights, I puts some started squash in I think it was a little early 2 of the plants look sad, 3 of them look ok still.

Oh and my garlic is ROCKIN this year after the early spring.
 
tomatoes, scotch bonnets and ghost chilis are all up, been putting them out in the shade during the day to harden them and then take them in at night. so far so good
 
I haven't planted a thing. Garlic I planed last October is dong well. Trying to fend off winter moths from my Blueberry plants and Apple and Pear trees right now. Chickens are rototilling my garden as we speak.
 
It seems we have to wait until May 2 before transplanting cukes. Even after Wednesday I’ll keep them under plastic cap for few weeks. You must pay attention to both night actual temp and feels like temp. If it’s under a plastic cap, feels like temp is almost irrelevant, plus inside temp is few degrees wormer than outside. So lots of mulch + plastic cap and you should be ok to transplant on May 2 if you are near metro west. But tomorrow through Sunday will suck. I sure hope my tomatoes make it. I’ve transplanted them about a week ago and they were fine, but next 3 days will be a true test. I’ll probably have to put some blankets on top of the caps.
 
Getting a bit of late start. Building chicken and rabbit coops, so that slowed me down. I've got warm soil seedlings growing in greenhouse that I put out during day. Tilling garden today, and mapping out plantings. Attempting the 'three sisters' style of planting corn this year. It looked kind of cool. Will direct seed hardy stuff soon.

http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html

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5-0 said:
Getting a bit of late start. Building chicken and rabbit coops, so that slowed me down. I've got warm soil seedlings growing in greenhouse that I put out during day. Tilling garden today, and mapping out plantings. Attempting the 'three sisters' style of planting corn this year. It looked kind of cool. Will direct seed hardy stuff soon.
Click to expand...

Three Sisters this year… other companion planting next year… Before long you’ll be into no-till gardening, and then hugelkultur and then… Tree hugger! [laugh]


Just joking. 3S works well and so do many other companion plantings like peas/basil or tomato/marigolds. So I think you’ll like the results.
 
Wasn't a good seed starting year for me. Only zukes/summersquash/cukes have made it... there may be a tomato plant or too that does as well..

counting on direct sow at this point.

Finished putting up a fence around the garden to keep the chickens out.. its looking good.. they did a good job tractoring it all winter. Hopefully the father in law pulls trough and gets National Grid to drop me off a dump load of mulch. Mulching and chickens seems to be the way to go.. I've never seen soil look better with so little work.
 
Hiltonizer said:
...there may be a tomato plant or too that does as well... counting on direct sow at this point.
Click to expand...

At this point, if I were you, I’d get seedlings. If you feel like going down to the Cape, I can recommend a private grower. There must be some locals near you who have quality seedlings too. If all else fails, HD has some limited, yet acceptable variety and they seem to be mostly disease free.
 
OPM said:
Three Sisters this year… other companion planting next year… Before long you’ll be into no-till gardening, and then hugelkultur and then… Tree hugger! [laugh]


Just joking. 3S works well and so do many other companion plantings like peas/basil or tomato/marigolds. So I think you’ll like the results.
Click to expand...

Haha. We've got tomato basil dill box going too. Tree hugging ftw! Lol

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OPM said:
At this point, if I were you, I’d get seedlings. If you feel like going down to the Cape, I can recommend a private grower. There must be some locals near you who have quality seedlings too. If all else fails, HD has some limited, yet acceptable variety and they seem to be mostly disease free.
Click to expand...

I likely will for some things if I can find some good pricing on large trays... I was hoping to have 40-50 paste tomato plants. Most other stuff its not too late.. i'll forego onions probably and pick up a few pepper plants.
 
Hiltonizer said:
I likely will for some things if I can find some good pricing on large trays... I was hoping to have 40-50 paste tomato plants. Most other stuff its not too late.. i'll forego onions probably and pick up a few pepper plants.
Click to expand...

Yes, I too was mainly talking about tomatoes. With paste tomatoes you still might get a reasonable harvest, but with salad/sandwich stuff, you are 2+ months behind –-> 3+ in my world. [smile]

HD had a sale 1.35/plant. The plans seemed well over a foot tall. But do not hold me to it, I was not really paying close attention. A greenhouse reseller near me sells similar size for 1.70-1.80. I doubt you’ll find 50 plants, foot or taller, below 1.25 each. You could get a 4 pack for 2.50-2.70, which should save you a month or so. But I always bury my seedling really deep, so 4 pack is just too short for my liking. If money is a real issue, you might want to get a few foot plus plants and clone the hell out of them. Not an optimal solution, but cheaper and faster than seed.
 
OPM said:
Yes, I too was mainly talking about tomatoes. With paste tomatoes you still might get a reasonable harvest, but with salad/sandwich stuff, you are 2+ months behind –-> 3+ in my world. [smile]

HD had a sale 1.35/plant. The plans seemed well over a foot tall. But do not hold me to it, I was not really paying close attention. A greenhouse reseller near me sells similar size for 1.70-1.80. I doubt you’ll find 50 plants, foot or taller, below 1.25 each. You could get a 4 pack for 2.50-2.70, which should save you a month or so. But I always bury my seedling really deep, so 4 pack is just too short for my liking. If money is a real issue, you might want to get a few foot plus plants and clone the hell out of them. Not an optimal solution, but cheaper and faster than seed.
Click to expand...

I might never get to 50 tomatoes lol... last year a wind storm took out my green house... this year they all scorched.. then the replants never germinated because it was too cold. curses!

The rest of the stuff is acceptable to buy a few plants... the reason for the large number of tomatoes is because I wanted to put up a few years worth of spaghetti sauce and kethcup.
 
My broccoli has been in the ground 2 weeks now and is doing great! lettuce is meh, squash was too early and died.

Overall a good start, probably do tomatoes next weekend.
 
Here is my garden of 20 tomato plants in four gallon buckets. I also did 6 pepper buckets. It's the best I could do being a lazy bum. I also setup a 55 gallon rainwater barrel

100_2702.jpg 100_2701.jpg

So I was wondering people's opinions on Aero Gardens Does anyone own one? Are herbs just as easily grown outside? Thanks!
 
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kman said:
Here is my garden of 20 tomato plants in four gallon buckets. I also did 6 pepper buckets. It's the best I could do being a lazy bum. I also setup a 55 gallon rainwater barrel

View attachment 32626View attachment 32627

So I was wondering people's opinions on Aero Gardens Does anyone own one? Are herbs just as easily grown outside? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I've got chives that I have run over with the mower and hit with the tiller and they are still alive and thriving. So chives are a good one :)
 
kman said:
Are herbs just as easily grown outside? Thanks!
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Herbs grow very well outside. But, I found out how much woodchucks like parsley a couple weeks ago. It didn't bother anything else though - Scallions, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme all untouched.

On a separate note: My peas are pushing 6' tall. Had the first serving tonight.
:)

My lettuce has been stagnant since I planted it more than a month ago - no growth.
:( - If anyone knows why that may be, I'd be interested. Romaine, green and red leaf are all just staring at me.

Broccoli is producing heads, green beans are flowering.
 
What did you grow there last year? Could be simple lack of nitrogen or other earth depletion. Last year in one bed I had broccoli and this year lettuce refused to grow. I put a few bean plants in between and now it is growing. It will never reach its full potential or grow as fast as a young plant, but sure much better than if I did nothing. Also, does it get enough of direct sun? FYI, right next I have a freshly established 16x2 bed full of lettuce that is growing like weed. We’ve been eating it daily for 2 months now and still have 2-3 weeks to go.
 
IMG_2522.jpg


My first pea pod!!!
 
I didn't think I'd get my field plowed and harrowed in time, but I ended up getting it done. 80 tomato plants 50 cucumber plants, some peppers, about 300 Kabocha squash, 100 pumpkin plants, and a bunch of sweet corn. I have the irrigation done. Next year i'll be running drip, but I used sprinklers. I have atleast four cows coming soon (maybe July).
 
i've got 2 4x4 raised beds and a 4x8, they'd been growing well for a few years now, but last year was less the spectacular...
'course it wasn't a spectacular summer either.... so i've loaded the 4x4s with assorted garden/lawn cuttings and compostables and covered them over for this season.... the 4x8 has potatoes, red and yellow bell peppers, jalapenos and habaneros...

(ETA photo)
oh.... and we had a couple of onions that were growing in the pantry, so i planted them too...
IMG_20120528_123152.jpg


the raspberry bush is taking over my yard, the blueberries are coming in nicely (but the birds get to 'em before i can)

the bay tree is nice and leafy, had it under lights all winter but now it's exploding....

cranberries in the container on the deck survived our... uh... "winter"

deck boxed sage, cilantro and thyme all came back from last year....


kman said:
So I was wondering people's opinions on Aero Gardens Does anyone own one? Are herbs just as easily grown outside? Thanks!
Click to expand...

i have a couple of Aerogardens... they're great... and the company's customer service is top notch, they go above and beyond.... herbs grow just as easily outside... but not in december ;)
 
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