2010 Vegetable Garden Thread
 

I posted on another thread the other day and now realize it was from last year...boy, did I think I was behind schedule. I grew tomatoes for the 1st time last year and it was fun to check on the plants daily and reap the benefits too (they were in normal clay pots on the ground).

This year, I'm doing it a little different. I'm going t take the same photo angle every Sunday to monitor my progress and post to my facebook album. This is week #1

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1272586488.jpg

4 Varieties of regular tomatoes (2 per planter)
2 Varieties of Grape Tomatoes (yellow & red)
Zucchini Squash
Yellow Crookneck Squash
Japanese Eggplant
Japanese Cucumber
Strawberries
Red, Yellow, & Orange Bell Peppers
7 Varieties of hot peppers (Jalapeno, Habinero, Cayenne, Poblano, Sweet Yellow Wax, Seranno, & one more I can't remember)

These are hanging from a multi-trunk tree that I am taking out. I figured it will take me all year to get the stump removed and that will be too late for building a raised planter box(s). So this is going to be it this year and it makes a great conversation piece. It's on the sunny side of the house and out of the way. If these do well, I may keep my multi-trunk sculpture.

Many people make these planters out of 5-gal buckets bu I got anxious and there only $9 at Home Depot.

I've got spices planted in pots at the bottom.

too dark now. photos manana!

there is a sale on saturday at OSH. i'll have the rest of my garden (Except the heirloom tomatoes WESTY is growing for me) ready by then. i fenced it in, so my chickens can go eff themselves. they ate everything last year.

My grandfather had a "home garden" that was over a 1/2 acre. It was his hobby and kept him busy all summer. He gave away tons of food all summer long. My dad had a small garden in his back yard for years. There is no comparison to fresh from the back yard vegetables to anything from the store.

Put them in the ground about 10 days ago. This is facing west at the fence line. I cut the branches hanging over the fence off as they were shading my stuff. You can see about a dozen pepper, dozen tomato, 4 zucchini total of 20 pepper, two dozen tomato. Looked at my pics from last year, a little behind, a lot behind really.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274249738.jpg

We have tomatoes, peppers and cukes in the ground.

Been a couple weeks now.


KT

Yes indeed!

Dad had a pretty big garden, but is away most of the summer, so we replaced it with 4' x 4' raised beds. They were built and went in last weekend, we shall see. The rest of the space was tilled and sown with grass seed.

what is the benefit of raised beds? i have them..ghetto ones. i want to build some sweet, huge redwood ones. besides the bending over, part..benefits?

i need to shoot some pics of my setup. finally warming up around here, and things are looking better.

A raised bed helps define the border between garden and lawn or deck or whatever. Easier to mow around and maintain.. I used half buried hemlock 3" x 10"s that do not do very well in the ground. But surrounded it with bricks. By the time the wood rots, the bricks should make a nice border.

was thinking of starting something small and saw this while searching for growing organic veggies...what do you guys think?

Welcome To The Wiki Garden

jeff. that is wierd! never seen it before. i love working the earth. working a panty hose stocking full of engineered plant soil? not so much..

you have a land shortage? i would grow things in pots, if i lived in a condo. tomatoes do surprisingly well. herbs rock in pots too.

not so much of a land shortage, but since we're renting and a move may be imminent, figured something "contained" (more or less) would work good in the mean time.

The Wiki Garden looks like a nice clean way to get started. Personally, I wanted to build raised boxes like some that I've seen on this board. But, as usual, I wasn't prepared and spring got here. For me, I need to do some clearing before I can build raised boxes so it's more than just wood, hammer & nails (or screws).

So, I started with the hanging kits. But, since I've planted them, I find myself checking on the progress almost daily and I feel that this will motivate me to build the raised boxes next year. I have a great spot for the boxes and I will probably have the hanging pots in addition to the boxes.

So, in summary, if the Wiki looks good to you, I'd get a few and get started. It will probably motivate you for more gardening in the future.

Vern

Progress Photos of my Hanging Garden:

It's been a slow start since we've had a fairly cold spring but it will be in the 100's in a month, so the cool weather has been appreciated (by us humans).

Week #1

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274400811.jpg


Week #3 (planters are in a different order since I have rotated one spot clockwise every week)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1274400993.jpg

Learned a neat trick for growing potatos recently. Actually, I'd forgotten that my parents did it years ago...

Stacked tires. Fill one with dirt and potato sprouts (?)
When green bits start to poke out of the dirt, put another tire on, and repeat.
When green bits start to poke out of the dirt... put another tire on...repeat...

When you want potatos, just remove a tire from the top or dig down a few inches....

Saves ground-space.

From a few weeks ago, cleared some stuff, cut back the almond tree. Cold and rainy lately. Not enough to knock the blooms off the tomatoes so far, cherries came through the wet okay too. Garden looks good, just not taking off like it usually does. This is from last week.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1275007184.jpg

Making progress. Warm weather is finally here and growth is really starting:

Week 1: (a few days after planting)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1275146905.jpg

Week 5:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1275146933.jpg

9 Tomatoes, 16 Grape tomatoes, several baby eggplant, cucumbers, strawberries, and lots of peppers (all in the baby stages)

At this point, my upside down tomato plants are starting to produce fruit.

My strawberry plants have produced three strawberries, two which were destroyed by local pests and one went to the family.

My basil was attacked by something, first the leaves started disappearing, then the entire plant.

No other plants have produced (squash, melons, peppers) as of yet, and I am not holding out hope.

Did I mention I have tomatoes?

^^^my money is on snails.

i planted my stuff too close together..but it's doing pretty good. my homemade compost is working GREAT!

We certainly have snails in our yard. Would they eat the stock too? The entire plant (from the soil up) is missing! Pretty funny actually, watching the leaves slowly disappear, then one day noticing the entire plant was gone.

Well, last year was my first attempt with weak results (three peppers and one strawberry) and while this year is nothing to write home about, it appears as though I am headed in the right direction.

Most of my stuff is doing pretty good so far. The grape is doing fantastic this year.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1276364228.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1276365041.jpg
In these beds, three different varietys of tomatoes, Italian parsley, basil, and onions.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1276364378.jpg
Salad greens and herbs in this one.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1276364440.jpg
The old beds here. Three more varietys of tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, bush beans, and a couple of volunteers that we don't know what they are yet.
The soil is getting really tired in them. Need to ammend the soil for next year.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1276364602.jpg
These are the beds that I built for my neighbors. We share our driveway and their side yard. This was an unused dirt strip and I was tired of looking at it for the last twenty years.
Five different varieys of tomatoes (all different then ours), basil, green and yellow peppers, egg plant, bush beans, pole beans, zuchinni, flat squash, parsley...etc.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1276365183.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1276364735.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1276364801.jpg