Gardening |OT| Herb Your Enthusiasm

[Nostremitus]

hugelkultur: the ultimate raised garden bed

richsoil.com

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Yeah, my 4x8 raised bed has a chopped plum tree at the bottom of it.

I had a multi-level spinal fusion a few weeks ago, so my little "garden" hasn't been tended as well as it should be, but my wife has done a decent job keeping it alive.

Storm pushed over the Jerusalem Artichoke. Carrots are doing very well, as are the peppers and parsley, but something has demolished the rutabaga (far left).

I have 4 little watermelons. My wife made hammocks for two of them.

Tomatoes and Egyptian spinach.
The little beefsteak never grew very tall, but it's producing.

Bell peppers, Egyptian spinach and purple hull peas

Carrots and purple hull peas. Had to cover this one because something kept getting into the carrots...

Lettuce going to seed.

Grapes are finally making some progress.

Sweet 100s producing well. Top one snapped it's central stem in a storm, but seems to be able to push enough through the small piece still holding together to keep producing.

 

[sgtnosboss]

Nostremitus have your sunchokes flowered yet? I planted mine late and wasn't sure if I just missed it or if they just flower late in the year. Mine are very tall, but haven't see them flower yet.

 

[Nostremitus]

Nostremitus have your sunchokes flowered yet? I planted mine late and wasn't sure if I just missed it or if they just flower late in the year. Mine are very tall, but haven't see them flower yet.

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Yes, they're flowering now. They're so damned tall I couldn't get the blooms in the shot, but they started a few weeks ago.

 

[Nostremitus]

 

[Poppy]

my tomatoes are finally fruiting, next time i will know to hack the suckers off earlier before they eat all my precious carbohydrates

 

[GoldenEye 007]

Hey all, lots of great info in here!

So I recently got into some things for the first time and ended up building two elevated garden beds. One has been planted and the other, I'm just waiting on. Both are 4ftx2ftx12in using a tutorial I found on Youtube. Very simple design, but one structurally wouldn't work for much bigger.

Wanted to start small before committing to tearing my my yard lol. One will be in the front that would be more ornamental with flowers and a couple herbs. The backyard one, I'll be trying some more commonly used veggies/herbs. I was concerned about the heat and planting in July given I'm in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but so far some things have sprouted after a week or two. Some haven't so far, so those may be temporary failures. But the nice thing is with my location, I should have plenty of other opportunities this year to plant.

I planted: Cherry tomatoes, green onions, a couple of marigolds, shishito peppers (wanted jalapeno but that's what the local garden store had), carrots, yellow squash, and basil and thyme. I have a number of other seeds, but I am holding off planting them due to the extreme heat. Everything was from seed directly outside because I don't really have the space inside to have those seedlings. The only things to not really sprout at this time are the tomatoes and carrots.

My total lot is about 7500 sq ft, with a house at 1000 sqft. So there is plenty of space for a raised bed or two on ground that's say 8 or 10ft by 4ft. But again, just want to see how things go before committing to that. Property came with a mulberry and pear tree, though! The mulberries might not have fruited this year or maybe I missed it, but the pear tree put out a whole bunch of them. Still a number of them on the tree and I took down a few for myself to eat.

 

[FliX]

We got our front lawn tilled today. Will tarp if this weekend till first frost to then sow wild flower seeds ready for next year.

 

[Nostremitus]

We got our front lawn tilled today. Will tarp if this weekend till first frost to then sow wild flower seeds ready for next year.

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Nice

 

[sgtnosboss]

We got our front lawn tilled today. Will tarp if this weekend till first frost to then sow wild flower seeds ready for next year.

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pictures when it starts working! that is awesome

 

[captive]

We got our front lawn tilled today. Will tarp if this weekend till first frost to then sow wild flower seeds ready for next year.

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You sowing, fuck yea!
you reaping, fuck yea!

 

[ParanormalFupa]

In a surprising change of events, our main focus has turned towards indoor gardening this summer thanks to a handful of really old bag seeds that we tried germinating out of COVID boredom.
I present you my sour dough starter

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I've learned so much about plants and flowering and so far it's been the most fun and rewarding gardening experience. I'm really excited to try some low stress training techniques and more defoliation to help increase yields in my next batch. I've been just kinda letting them go naturally to learn the various stages. I had no idea what an autoflowering plant was vs. a photoperiod one but we lucked out and got an auto that you can see there in the middle that is much further along. We had like ~30 successfully germinated seeds that were like 10 years old which was WAY more than we were expecting and we had them all in solo cups in a window before putting the tent, lighting, and HVAC together. It was really hard picking the best of the best out of those 30 seedlings as I was running out of space and some were showing they were female much sooner than others. It's really been a blast!

 

[Cow Mengde]

A lot of flowers and vegetables growing. Our sweet potato sprouts are getting out of hand. So much to harvest. Already had 2 harvests of string beans. Also harvested the water spinach twice. Although not sure why it's now growing these really thin leaves. Never seen them before. Mom's bitter gourds are coming out a little small this year.

Just various flowers and a shot of the goji berries.

Our great wall of string beans! I love these. They create shade in the yard as well. Just a nice green wall and a green roof covered by leaves and vines.

Mom's handy work.

The sweet potato sprouts would have taken over everything if we didn't eat them! They're quite good stir fried. We're think of growing bean sprouts in the empty plot in front of it.

 

[sgtnosboss]

In a surprising change of events, our main focus has turned towards indoor gardening this summer thanks to a handful of really old bag seeds that we tried germinating out of COVID boredom.
I present you my sour dough starter

I've learned so much about plants and flowering and so far it's been the most fun and rewarding gardening experience. I'm really excited to try some low stress training techniques and more defoliation to help increase yields in my next batch. I've been just kinda letting them go naturally to learn the various stages. I had no idea what an autoflowering plant was vs. a photoperiod one but we lucked out and got an auto that you can see there in the middle that is much further along. We had like ~30 successfully germinated seeds that were like 10 years old which was WAY more than we were expecting and we had them all in solo cups in a window before putting the tent, lighting, and HVAC together. It was really hard picking the best of the best out of those 30 seedlings as I was running out of space and some were showing they were female much sooner than others. It's really been a blast!

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I just purchased my tent and my brother in law is giving me his old hvac system since he upgraded. I'm very excited. Currently I have 5 plants growing outside. Like you I have learned a lot. I thought I could grow them in a sunroom and it would be enough. It got really hot and humid so I had to move them outside. They had heat shock but recovered a bit. I hope that they will at least try to go to flower.

 

[FliX]

Thursdays is "find lots of cool free stuff on the side of the road day" and I picked up about 2 yards of old fencing.
Upcycled that over the weekend to build our very own compost. The front angled boards can be removed for easy access when we move it from one side to the other for mixing and airing.
I'm really stoked with the end result. Couldn't be more happy.

And our cyberpunk front lawn has now been fully tarped and is drawing lots of curious glances from the neighbours.

Wild Flowers are Coming​

 

[Nostremitus]

Thursdays is "find lots of cool free stuff on the side of the road day" and I picked up about 2 yards of old fencing.
Upcycled that over the weekend to build our very own compost. The front angled boards can be removed for easy access when we move it from one side to the other for mixing and airing.
I'm really stoked with the end result. Couldn't be more happy.

And our cyberpunk front lawn has now been fully tarped and is drawing lots of curious glances from the neighbours.

Wild Flowers are Coming​

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I wish I could do that to my front yard, city ordinances prevent it. You can't revert "improved" land back to what they consider to be "unimproved." Wildflower are considered to be weeds...

 

[Cow Mengde]

Thursdays is "find lots of cool free stuff on the side of the road day" and I picked up about 2 yards of old fencing.
Upcycled that over the weekend to build our very own compost. The front angled boards can be removed for easy access when we move it from one side to the other for mixing and airing.
I'm really stoked with the end result. Couldn't be more happy.

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That's really good work.

Our bitter gourds are climbing on a rack we built out of a bed frame that the neighbors threw out many many year ago. All of our vines climb on these things. You can see it in a few pics.

 

[FliX]

That's really good work.

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Thx

 

[Nostremitus]

Tonight's dinner is from the garden.

Various bitter lettuce with molokhia, sweet 100 tomatoes, and eggs with garlic and lemon seasoning.

 

[Cow Mengde]

Tonight's dinner is from the garden.

Various bitter lettuce with molokhia, sweet 100 tomatoes, and eggs with garlic and lemon seasoning.

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This is the best part of gardening!

 

[Raticus79]

I'm in Calgary trying to get a hedge going with alternating jostaberry and saskatoon berry bushes. The jostaberry ones were dying out a lot in the middle, finally had to do some pruning today to clear out the dead stuff. I sat down to do some homework on it afterward because I had never really learned much about it.

Here's a nice writeup on pruning to encourage growth vs pruning to thin out. Turns out I mostly did thinning on the jostaberries today, which was what they needed anyway, so that worked out. The parts about encouraging shoots were pretty interesting. The saskatoons are doing fine but have relatively few branches and they're smaller, so I should be able to help them fill out and catch up on the height if I do it well.

Basic Principles of Pruning Woody Plants

Pruning is one of the most important cultural practices for maintaining woody plants, including ornamental trees and shrubs, fruits and nuts. Proper pruning requires a basic understanding of how plants respond to various pruning cuts. The principles and guidelines in this publication will help...

extension.uga.edu

 

[Nostremitus]

 

[Cow Mengde]

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Water melon?

 

[Nostremitus]

Water melon?

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yep, keeping them off the ground prevents rot.

 

[FliX]

Finished my latest project yesterday. Transplanted the lawn from there to areas that needed a lawn refresh.

And this is my next project, waiting on my spigot to arrive.

 

[Shiloh]

I started with a small patio garden this year. Will probably go a bit larger next year. I'm assuming this is a good baby step until I save up enough for a place of my own with, like, actual land.

Tomatoes and herbs did well on the patio, cucumbers did not. Any suggestions on good potted endeavors for next year?

 

[FliX]

I started with a small patio garden this year. Will probably go a bit larger next year. I'm assuming this is a good baby step until I save up enough for a place of my own with, like, actual land.

Tomatoes and herbs did well on the patio, cucumbers did not. Any suggestions on good potted endeavors for next year?

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Zucchini squash should work.

 

[dean_rcg]

Our great wall of string beans! I love these. They create shade in the yard as well. Just a nice green wall and a green roof covered by leaves and vines.





Mom's handy work.

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What is this!?

 

[captive]

My pepper garden is still rocking it.

Ripped out my cucumbers and replanted more cucumbers and carrots. Apparently we have two growing seasons, according to a friend.

A while back I pickled some carrots with jalapeños and the carrots are spicy! It's pretty crazy.

 

[Cow Mengde]

What is this!?

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That's called bitter gourd. It tastes exactly what it sounds like. It's an acquired taste.

 

[Cherubae]

My tomatoes are just now beginning to produce. The ones that do fruit are taking a very long time to ripen (i.e., it took about a month for one of my yellow tomatoes to ripen on the vine). The zucchini are also beginning to produce a lot of squash, despite the powdery mildew that takes over the leaves every autumn. Maybe the garden started out too late this year? I've been a bit disappointed with what came out. Even the herbs grew poorly, whether it came from my seed stock or already sprouted from a plant nursery.

Has anyone ever grown a cover-crop to try and reset their soil over winter?

 

[Nostremitus]

Anyone want some Egyptian Spinach (Jew's Mallow) seed for next year? It tastes like spinach, can be eaten raw or cooked, but it thrives in the heat instead of needing cooler temps like actual spinach or lettuce.

I have 20 to 40 times this many pods. Each pod has about 50 seeds. Free in the lower 48 states. If anyone else wants some, you can pay shipping.

 

[Anton Sugar]

These little. green. fucking. worms.

We've been fighting these guys off our pumpkin, cabbage, and now mustard greens the past week. We think they were responsible for our young pepper plants' demise, too (I swear they were stripped bare of their leaves in like 2 days, tops).

Is there any effective way to manage them? They're moth larvae and the moths just lay eggs on the vegetables, then you gotta deal with this? I'm checking them by hand 2x a day but if there's some kind of organic pesticide, please show me wear to buy it.

 

[Nostremitus]

These little. green. fucking. worms.

We've been fighting these guys off our pumpkin, cabbage, and now mustard greens the past week. We think they were responsible for our young pepper plants' demise, too (I swear they were stripped bare of their leaves in like 2 days, tops).

Is there any effective way to manage them? They're moth larvae and the moths just lay eggs on the vegetables, then you gotta deal with this? I'm checking them by hand 2x a day but if there's some kind of organic pesticide, please show me wear to buy it.

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Parasitic wasps. If they aren't flowering, diatomaceous earth. Food grade DE creates little micro tears in bugs soft spots, dehydrating them to death without covering your foods in anything that can hurt you...

 

[FliX]

I recently built a deck recently from old pallets and couldn't be more pleased. Will extend it next year to fit a table.
All in all it probably set me back $200 for screws and other bits & bobs.

 

[sgtnosboss]

Hello colder zone gardeners, have you all started anything for this year indoors yet? What are your setups? Show them off!

 

[Anustart]

Hello colder zone gardeners, have you all started anything for this year indoors yet? What are your setups? Show them off!

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I haven't started any yet, but I think I want to start a few tabasco plants and something else, I just don't know what!

You have anything going?

I recently built a deck recently from old pallets and couldn't be more pleased. Will extend it next year to fit a table.
All in all it probably set me back $200 for screws and other bits & bobs.

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Also a few months late, but I like that!

 

[W-00]

I've yet to start anything, but I've ordered some seeds and some new propogators (I really shouldn't buy new propogators every year, but I was highly dissatisfied with my previous ones) and they should arrive soon.

 

[sgtnosboss]

I haven't started any yet, but I think I want to start a few tabasco plants and something else, I just don't know what!

You have anything going?



Also a few months late, but I like that!

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several things but its our first time starting some stuff inside and I already want a better setup next year. I think the lights I bought are crap and we shall see if what we did to help them will keep things from legging out anymore.

I want to say my wife started some green peppers, rainbow variety pepper, rosemary, Brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, basil, mary golds, hyssop and a few other things. We will keep adding to that as things warm up here for sure.

I also ordered more fruits for our growing fruit forest. I ordered some seaberries, 2 types of figs, 3 types of hardy kiwi, 1 pixwell gooseberry, 1 blue berry, goji berry, wisteria vines, immortality herb, lemon balm, lingonberry, honeyberries, nanking bush cherry, some wild perennial flower mix, reliance pink seedless grapes, spice bush, boysenberry.

 

[Anustart]

We had some crappy lights 2 years ago as well, dunno where I've placed then now though.

But you reminded me I have a kit for growing stuff for mojitos lol. Grabbing that now and seeing what I can do.

Edit: planted Lime Basil, Lavender and Mint!

 

[sgtnosboss]

We had some crappy lights 2 years ago as well, dunno where I've placed then now though.

But you reminded me I have a kit for growing stuff for mojitos lol. Grabbing that now and seeing what I can do.

Edit: planted Lime Basil, Lavender and Mint!

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lime basil! Sounds interesting, I would love to get my hands on more varieties of basil, its one of my favorites.

 

[FliX]

I've been surprised by the resilliance of our herbs in the Michigan winter. I've been using Roesmary and Thyme consistently throughout and while they look a little dried out, they seem healthy.

 

[sgtnosboss]

Did you plant your Rosemary from seed? I am kind of worried what we planted wont sprout. I didn't read into it and it sounds like its something that has issues?

 

[FliX]

Did you plant your Rosemary from seed? I am kind of worried what we planted wont sprout. I didn't read into it and it sounds like its something that has issues?

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Na we got a small plant from the garden Center. It's really taken though.
we will be adding a proper herb garden this year.

 

[sgtnosboss]

Na we got a small plant from the garden Center. It's really taken though.
we will be adding a proper herb garden this year.

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maybe we should have done that instead lol

 

[captive]

Hello colder zone gardeners, have you all started anything for this year indoors yet? What are your setups? Show them off!

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im zone 9 so i literally started seeds in december.

these i started from seed, its 2 garden salsa peppers, 2 sweet banana peppers, 4 sweet peppers red and yellow

picked up a habenero, cheyanne and some other peppers from home depot

this is my inside setup, its a aero garden grow light you can get for like 100 bucks. the downside is it doesnt have a timer function, but i hooked it up to an insteon plug and easily created a schedule so it turns off at 4pm and turns back on at 11pm.

these are jalapenos. Unfortunately i didnt label my seeds, one failed to separate itself from the seed casing. So i ended up planting more. I guess i'll have a bunch, but they should be much bigger than last years jalapenos. One is called El Jefe and the other is Jedi both from johnnys select seeds.
im also trying sweet potatoes as you can see

i also have next to it an aero garden with herbs in it.

 

[Boondocks]

We had some crappy lights 2 years ago as well, dunno where I've placed then now though.

But you reminded me I have a kit for growing stuff for mojitos lol. Grabbing that now and seeing what I can do.

Edit: planted Lime Basil, Lavender and Mint!

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Lowes has 3 foot long LED shop lights for $17. I use two of them for starting my seeds. They are doing well and they are about 8 inches above the pots. I use a timer to have 18 hours of light for the plants.

 

[Boondocks]

Here in NE Georgia, I have some flowers started and some leeks started. Also eggplants since they take so long to grow. All the other stuff I'm starting in 2 weeks. Damn rabbit got in my garden and ate all the green peas and lettuce.
And I read that you can put your hot pepper plants in a pot in the fall and overwinter them in the house. Then replant them in the spring.

 

[Nostremitus]

I'm in North Alabama. I have turnips, cabbage, broccoli, and carrots in the ground. Tomatoes, squash, cantelope, watermelon, Egyptian Spinach, and bell pepper under a grow lamp.

 

[weemadarthur]

I started some seeds indoors last week. I'm in zone 3 or 4 barring climate change adjustments, so if I want to get a vegetable garden that matures across the whole outdoor growing season that's a necessary step.

Bummed a bunch of seed starter pods off family who bought it and didn't use it, bought a very cheap timed LED grow light off amazon and put it all on a random crappy plastic picnic table. Picked up seeds mostly locally and a few specialty ones online.

Already the chamomile is sprouting Very well, and I have a sunflower trying to be a thing. Got some chinese cabbage where I know nothing of the breed - not that I would know about any cabbage breed - in a pack of seeds I bought purely for thai basil, it's sprouting too. Which sums up as: everything I really want to grow isn't sprouting but the weird random extras I threw in for s&g are doing great. (But it's only been a week, some of these have a 3-week germination time)

 

[FliX]

I'm seeing all these greenhouses being used all over the place as "outdoor" dining, and eyeing them thinking: soon you will be on Craigslist and then in my garden for cheap. 😈