Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are planting.

Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

damn bunnies ate my thai basil this time...seems that i really need to close off the backyard now *sigh*

quail babies not yet born, so still staying away from the garden for the most part. Have new hot peppers and bell peppers coming in now. Trying to grow some lettuce and kale indoors (it's too hot already to keep them outside).
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

This is by far the best "sticky" I have seen. Pretty cool.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Bill got a "Big Beef" tomato plant yesterday, will be able to put it in the ground soon. He got 5 pepper plants too, red, green, orange, yellow and banana varieties. Will have LOTS of peppers this year! :laff: They do freeze well (if cut before freezing), so I'll be able to use them all winter long, am just now using up the last of last year's peppers from the freezer.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

I didn't know you could freeze bell peppers... Thanks for that tidbit! As for the brush and poison ivy in the back yard, I took my Husqvarna weedeater too it and while it took an entire spool of .095 cord it is all cleared. The only down side was all the briars, small trees, and branches that were cleared took a good toll on the spool itself too. It is fine for use but I think I may have to buy a new spool in 2 or 3 years now instead of 5 or 6
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Pilotforhire587 said:
I didn't know you could freeze bell peppers... Thanks for that tidbit! As for the brush and poison ivy in the back yard, I took my Husqvarna weedeater too it and while it took an entire spool of .095 cord it is all cleared. The only down side was all the briars, small trees, and branches that were cleared took a good toll on the spool itself too. It is fine for use but I think I may have to buy a new spool in 2 or 3 years now instead of 5 or 6
Click to expand...

Small price to pay for the smiting of ones enemy! Nice work. Do you have a before and after? I want to see if I can use that technique on some of my brush.

I have one large stump left to remove and then I can get to turning and cleaning the soil. With the amount of digging I have had to do to remove all the stumps I have basically tilled 70% of the area to a foot or more by shovel, so I am going to finish the rest that way and save the money on renting a tiller. I have just been taking the roots out as I go and filling the other holes in with the clean dirt. Plan to buy a few bags of good top soil and work it in then get to planting.

Great tip on freezing pepper, I had no idea you could do that. What else can be frozen? My parents will do blueberries, but they just purchase a large basket from a local farm once a year, they dont grow them.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Matt13C said:
Small price to pay for the smiting of ones enemy! Nice work. Do you have a before and after? I want to see if I can use that technique on some of my brush.

I have one large stump left to remove and then I can get to turning and cleaning the soil. With the amount of digging I have had to do to remove all the stumps I have basically tilled 70% of the area to a foot or more by shovel, so I am going to finish the rest that way and save the money on renting a tiller. I have just been taking the roots out as I go and filling the other holes in with the clean dirt. Plan to buy a few bags of good top soil and work it in then get to planting.

Great tip on freezing pepper, I had no idea you could do that. What else can be frozen? My parents will do blueberries, but they just purchase a large basket from a local farm once a year, they dont grow them.
Click to expand...

I don't have any pictures unfortunately, But I can say that it cleaned out heavy grasses, Poison ivy and Oak, A bunch of young oak and cedar trees, some up to 3.5 feet tall, briars and such... It even cut the fresh growth coming out of the oak stumps that are still in the yard. Just about the only thing I had out there is couldn't handle were the old dried out tree branches that were all tangled in one briar section... I was going to wait and buy the brush trimmer attachment for weedeater but we are on a tight budget right now so I got impatient and opened up hell on all the growth, I am pretty sure the brush cuter would have taken everything out.


I am heading out of town in the morning but I will take a pic of the after when I get back in town to post
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Matt13C said:
Great tip on freezing pepper, I had no idea you could do that. What else can be frozen?
Click to expand...

We freeze squash, pumpkin, green beans, beets, brussels sprouts, jalapenos, green pepper, sliced sweet corn and strawberry freezer jam.

We can tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, pickles and salsa.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Swen said:
We freeze squash, pumpkin, green beans, beets, brussels sprouts, jalapenos, green pepper, sliced sweet corn and strawberry freezer jam.

We can tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, pickles and salsa.
Click to expand...

You can freeze tomatoes too, but you have to blanch them in hot water first to remove the skin...
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Pilotforhire587 said:
I don't have any pictures unfortunately, But I can say that it cleaned out heavy grasses, Poison ivy and Oak, A bunch of young oak and cedar trees, some up to 3.5 feet tall, briars and such... It even cut the fresh growth coming out of the oak stumps that are still in the yard. Just about the only thing I had out there is couldn't handle were the old dried out tree branches that were all tangled in one briar section... I was going to wait and buy the brush trimmer attachment for weedeater but we are on a tight budget right now so I got impatient and opened up hell on all the growth, I am pretty sure the brush cuter would have taken everything out.


I am heading out of town in the morning but I will take a pic of the after when I get back in town to post
Click to expand...

Swen said:
We freeze squash, pumpkin, green beans, beets, brussels sprouts, jalapenos, green pepper, sliced sweet corn and strawberry freezer jam.

We can tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, pickles and salsa.
Click to expand...

Pilotforhire587 said:
You can freeze tomatoes too, but you have to blanch them in hot water first to remove the skin...
Click to expand...

All great info. Thanks!
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Well I ran out of room so I had to plant my squash, green beans, and cucumber in a partially shaded area today... But with those everthing is in the ground... am also happy to report that the first flowers on the tomatoes are blooming and the Corn has sprouted... woohoo.. I will post some pics when everything gets a little bigger
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Pilotforhire587 said:
Well I ran out of room so I had to plant my squash, green beans, and cucumber in a partially shaded area today... But with those everthing is in the ground... am also happy to report that the first flowers on the tomatoes are blooming and the Corn has sprouted... woohoo.. I will post some pics when everything gets a little bigger
Click to expand...

Thats awesome, I am jealous. Cant wait to see the pictures.

I will be skipping this growing season it looks like, everyone around me is putting in their gardens and I am no where near ready to plant. I just dont have time to get the last stump out and get the ground in shape to support healthy growth. I am disappointed, but I dont want to rush it.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Awesome Pilotforhire587! You are me about 10 years ago in this respect. I too moved out with the wife, and we started planting a garden when we got our first home. Been doing it ever since. Mostly tomatoes, but we pepper in some other things too.

I too had to deal with a heavy red clay soil, and not having a lot of $$$ at the time, I got a couple pickup loads of sand, sawdust, and chicken manure (all free but the sand - $35) and mixed that in right after the first growing season. I had to add a lot of fertilizer to break down the sawdust, and turned it over with a tiller (found a cheap one at a yard sale) several times during the winter, but it ultimately it resulted in an excellent soil bed that was not as sticky as the clay, and drained a lot better.

I start everything from seed in the house, harden it off, and put it in the ground. Last year we finally bought a canner, and canned tomatoes, green beans, salsa, sauerkraut (fun to make), and all types of pickles. It was something we had wanted to do for a long time.

We have since moved, and this year I am actually in town, but managed to turn over a small spot in the backyard and put out some tomatoes and cucumbers.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

sawdust is actually bad for soil which is probably why you had to add a lot of fertilizer...hay and horse/chicken manure also don't help much...I think i recall pig manure or some cow being the best out of all manures

sand is great for plants! what you want to try and create is a sandy loam (wet sandy soil).

Try alfalfa (it adds nitrogen to the soil) as a cover instead of mulch...mulch can be good for tilling *into* the soil as it offers some permeability with water (like rocks would) and eventually breaks down to create new soil.

I'm planting 2 new watermelons tonight in place of my dead broccoli's...they should do really well with the heat. My zucchini and cukes are growing nicely. My tomatoes stopped producing because once the temp hits 95 degrees, they produce flowers but no longer pollinate. I'll probably just take the tomatoes out, replant in a container so they can produce again in the fall...that way, i can re-nurture the garden soil in those locations and get ready for fall.

I had 2 nice mexican jim peppers come in and i know i'll get more of those this summer too. the only problem is i don't know what to make with them besides salsa :P
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Matt13C said:
Thats awesome, I am jealous. Cant wait to see the pictures.

I will be skipping this growing season it looks like, everyone around me is putting in their gardens and I am no where near ready to plant. I just dont have time to get the last stump out and get the ground in shape to support healthy growth. I am disappointed, but I dont want to rush it.
Click to expand...

Take the year to get your ground super ready. Start a compost and get ready... Its gonna rock next year
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

jasonb47 said:
Awesome Pilotforhire587! You are me about 10 years ago in this respect. I too moved out with the wife, and we started planting a garden when we got our first home. Been doing it ever since. Mostly tomatoes, but we pepper in some other things too.

I too had to deal with a heavy red clay soil, and not having a lot of $$$ at the time, I got a couple pickup loads of sand, sawdust, and chicken manure (all free but the sand - $35) and mixed that in right after the first growing season. I had to add a lot of fertilizer to break down the sawdust, and turned it over with a tiller (found a cheap one at a yard sale) several times during the winter, but it ultimately it resulted in an excellent soil bed that was not as sticky as the clay, and drained a lot better.

I start everything from seed in the house, harden it off, and put it in the ground. Last year we finally bought a canner, and canned tomatoes, green beans, salsa, sauerkraut (fun to make), and all types of pickles. It was something we had wanted to do for a long time.

We have since moved, and this year I am actually in town, but managed to turn over a small spot in the backyard and put out some tomatoes and cucumbers.
Click to expand...

Awesome post.

What does "harden it off" mean? Also, "Canner." I am comfortable with pickling (but not very good at it), but canning scares me. The local extension service offers canning classes, but if I can get this done on the cheap without poisoning myself dead, I would rather go that route.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

beasly said:
Awesome post.

What does "harden it off" mean? Also, "Canner." I am comfortable with pickling (but not very good at it), but canning scares me. The local extension service offers canning classes, but if I can get this done on the cheap without poisoning myself dead, I would rather go that route.
Click to expand...

Here is hardenning off in a nutshell. When you start plants from seed inside they aren't used to the harsh temps and the hot sun they will exposed to outdoors. The leaves and stalks are usually thin and transluscent to take in more light, your light inside doesn't offer as much as the sun so they have to take more in, so you have to slowly expose them to it to break them in. Through hardenning the leaves and stalk with thicken to survive the heat. Over the course of two weeks put the plants outside starting with an hour a day and slowly increase. If they start looking burnt, the leaves will take on a whitish color, bring them back in. After a couple of days to get used to the heat move them to direct sunlight for the time they are out.
Its kinda like getting a base tan before you go to the beach so you don't burn to a crisp.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Pilotforhire587 said:
Here is hardenning off in a nutshell. When you start plants from seed inside they aren't used to the harsh temps and the hot sun they will exposed to outdoors. The leaves and stalks are usually thin and transluscent to take in more light, your light inside doesn't offer as much as the sun so they have to take more in, so you have to slowly expose them to it to break them in. Through hardenning the leaves and stalk with thicken to survive the heat. Over the course of two weeks put the plants outside starting with an hour a day and slowly increase. If they start looking burnt, the leaves will take on a whitish color, bring them back in. After a couple of days to get used to the heat move them to direct sunlight for the time they are out.
Its kinda like getting a base tan before you go to the beach so you don't burn to a crisp.
Click to expand...


Thanks, man.

Btw, do you know a guy name Dana Duty? I went through boot camp with him and he was from Murfreesboro.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

beasly said:
Awesome post.

What does "harden it off" mean? Also, "Canner." I am comfortable with pickling (but not very good at it), but canning scares me. The local extension service offers canning classes, but if I can get this done on the cheap without poisoning myself dead, I would rather go that route.
Click to expand...

Get the Blue Book for canning, only $10 at Amazon. There is a ton of info on the web as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Ball-Blue-Book-Guide-Preserving/dp/0972753702

For most things, you will find it is the same canning technique/times. Safe preservation by canning is not hard, preserving the quality is the hard part. Some things have more tolerance than others. Green beans are a safe starter for canning, and difficult to screw up.

Two other things I learned that will keep you from getting sick/dead eating home-canned foods:

1. If it stinks, don't eat it. (Also a good general rule to live by)

2. Cook anything before you eat it, even if it was cooked before it was canned. For some high-acid things like salsa, this is not practical, nor necessary due to the high acidity of the mixture. Vegetables should be re-heated though as a good practice.
 
Re: Vegetable Gardens, sharing tips and what you are plantin

Kristie said:
sawdust is actually bad for soil which is probably why you had to add a lot of fertilizer...hay and horse/chicken manure also don't help much
Click to expand...

For clarification: yes, sawdust is typically bad for soil since it is a "brown" compost meaning it consumes nitrogen from the soil/and or plants. For clay though, it is excellent for adding texture, and reducing the "stickiness" of the clay. Of course, you have to counter the effect of the nitrogen depletion by adding more fertilizer. I should stress that this should be done in late fall, and long before you start planting so the fertilizer can break the sawdust down. In effect, it is "in-ground" composting.

Hay: same as sawdust, but not quite as aggressive.

Chicken manure: My experience with it has been fantastic, especially for tomatoes. Again, it has to be added well in advance of planting so it has time to "cool down". Otherwise it will burn up your plants. Not to be added directly to a planted garden unless composted first.

I also maintained a three bin compost pile which helped a lot, but took awhile to get going, and I could not use it until the second season. It is amazing to see a compost pile get over 100F in the middle of winter if you really work it, but it takes a lot to achieve that. The resulting mixture will really do the clay well though.
 
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