23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
My family built me raised beds from free or cheap used concrete blocks. The growth was amazing our 1st year. I posted some photos last spring on the accessibility forum after I broke my ankle.
Check out the winter sowing forum for an easy way to start your seeds because indoor lights & watering is a pain. Milk cartons or cake trays are easy & free!
Here is a link that might be useful: concrete raised beds
There is nothing wrong with a pH of 6.0. Many of us would give anything for a soil pH of 6.0 IF it is accurate. It would not require the addition of any lime. But was this a professional soil test or simply one of those famously unreliable home test kits?
All soil routinely tests relatively low in N, even professional soil tests, in the early spring as it vaporizes into the air over the winter. Replacement of N is easy to accomplish with any number of soil amendments.
Dave
That looks about right for the tomatoes except that mine were almost always eaten when almost completely ripe, and so the result was a lot more mushy. The melons were eaten from above the soil. So maybe I don't have voles, which is good because they sound hard to fence out. Squirrels, though, could be trouble. I doubt even my 7' deer netting will deter them much. They'll just climb the posts. I honestly have not seen squirrels nearby in this area, though. There aren't a lot of trees around. I've seen deer, rabbits, possum, foxes, and coyotes.
I don't think voles live this far south. We have two feral/fixed cats that take care of our rodents and grasshoppers. Two years ago something ate all of our best grapes overnight. They were Scuppernongs. I'm thinking it was rats. That was before we had the kitty cats.
Even though they share the same common name they are different species, are in different plant families, and have very different growth habits. Comparing the two would be like comparing apples to oranges. Kinda surprised that not even the Burpee website has the botanical name.
The one you have is a vine related to morning glories.
Rodney
celeriac root is different, as far as I know it is round with several long roots attached(at least it is what my mother grows, it called apple celeriac). So couple of extra roots I guess wouldn't change much on celeriac root. Root parsley looks more like carrot, and spited root is not good, same as for carrots. It is night mare to clean it when you have a root 1 X 1 inch with 4-5 attached long "tails" less then 1/4 in diameter. I think I am going to try, but with some preparation. I am making 5 inch tall 1.25 inch wide tubes from brown craft paper. They fit snugly into standard plastic cells for the trays. I will fill them with mix, start parsley, and when it is time to go in the ground will plant them with paper tube on them - hope this way the plants will have enough length for their root and roots will not be disturbed during transplanting. This is a plan) Will see how it goes.
I guess I was thinking because I heard the two will cross-pollinate that they were similar. But thinking about it, you're probably right because parsley root does resemble a carrot more than celeriac. Sounds like you have a good plan. Good luck & let us know how it works--always looking for new things to try...
Supplemental lights only help when they are several inches away from the plant. But depending on the position of the area, you may provide some light with large mirror, placed to reflect sun that you get on your bed. Also, on sunny days you should get at least some sun around noon, when the sun is in the highest point and shadows are short.
Yes, sorry but the need is for inches, not feet. And LEDs are normally even closer to the plants than fluorescents. Mirrors as suggested of other reflective materials for whatever sun exposure you can tap will help a bit.
Dave
Glib, I'm sitting on 6.2 ph, which I figure to be pretty good for potatoes. Soils a little compacted, maybe more clay than I'd like... but I have access to large amounts of free compost and I'm adding a lot to the new beds. I guess I've never really seen firsthand what happens when ph is out of whack. Low yields? What else can improper ph provoke?
6.2 sounds great to me. Green with envy! :) Shoot I'd even envy glib's 7.6 as a starting point. But it takes a lot of work to get mine down to 7 with lots of compost, peat, oak leaf mold and sulfur.
As for effect of pH - skewed pH retards nutrient uptake - especially N - even when ample nutrients are available. Reduced top growth equals reduced production. In my vegetable gardens the most effect is on the root crops - garlic and onions, turnips, radish and carrots, etc. Doesn't bother much else as long as I can keep it in the 7-7.5 range.
Dave
I would also suggest that you stick to a single type, as opposed to salad blend mixes. I grow lettuce indoors year round, and find that with the blends, some kinds overgrow and kill off others. Asian greens tend to crowd out leaf lettuces. Chard and baby kales grow at different rates. I'm trying to use up the blend seed and will then switch.
I just called Dixondale, they said both the onions and leeks will hold for 3-4 weeks just left in a cool dry place. They said the leeks should be OK to transplant when we aren't expecting temps below 20, so next weekend I will transplant and hopefully they will be ok. They said if I put them indoors in pots they will probably die being transplanted again.
IDK how dry I can expect, they still have moist dirt on their roots, and are all stuck together. I put them in an unheated room, they should definitely stay cool at least. It's probably 55 in there.
The snow looks like it will be all melted by tomorrow, and I can plant if I wanted... Dixondale says the onions should be planted now according to their generic advice, but not sure it applies to a climate like this one where it can be in the low 20's a few weeks before last frost (and in fact it will be 19F tomorrow night.) The ground will also be soggy.
Maybe I will do some tomorrow and some next week?
On another note, should I rake the leaf mulch from the garlic I planted? It is extremely wet. About half the bulbs sprouted. They definitely took a beating this winter and have yellowed a bit.
Let me search... I can't make any pictures now - it is still covered with tarp and snow)
here, found one, but from the distance(look for a blue barrel on the top left). The big white pipe in it was used to fill with manure. (I hopped it will hit the barrel up in winter. Didn't happen.) I removed it and replaced with planting mix to let more space for roots. Small watering pipes are adjusted to the big one and almost invisible on this picture.