23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I know the timbers are not 2x4 :) closer to 6x6 I believe
there are 2 beds that are 2' high x 4' wide x 16' long.
Ed
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Ed, nice beds. Did you make them yourself ?
I am asking because :
It cannot be 2' tall (!!). Even if 3 nominal 8" x8" lumbers are stacked up, will not be 2 ft tall , Three 6" x6".stacked will be no more than 17" tall.
But whatever it is, looks very nice but it must have cost a fortune.

My costs on square foot basis of area(12" height ) is $1.20/sqr-ft. In other words, I spent about $130 . to make a total of 110 square foot of garden. from 5/8" thick cedar boards. And I spend about the same on top soil, compost, manure, peat moss. I approached the simple natural lood with the most economical option. With the lumber, hardware, filler, TOTAL COST less than 300 bucks for 112 square foot area. Of course, I did not pay myself anything to do this..hehe

hi seysonn,

I did make them and they are about 2' tall... its four courses not 3... i'll attach another picture that might be more clear.

you definitely got me beat on the cost/ft2... these took 40 timbers at 20 a piece... the rest of it was pretty cheap. 10" timberloks tie it together. the overhead parts are just emt and some deer netting and I borrowed a bobcat from a buddy to fill them with this 'vege blend' soil I had trucked in.

Ed

No, I live in a rain forest. It is pretty rainy most of the Winter and Spring. I wonder if a row cover would work during the Winter and Spring when I am getting lots of rain?

The row cover would likely cause more problems due to lack of air circulation.

Garlic doesn't seem to mind lots of rain throughout the winter/spring. I'm in Western Oregon where it comes down similar to in BC and we can get heavy rains all the way into late June some years.
It's right around harvest time (beginning of July) that the rain causes the most problems for me. If I dig the garlic when it's wet, there's often surface discoloring and some of the neck rot issues you're talking about.

As I can't control the weather, the best i've been able to minimize the problem is hang the garlic in small bunches and keep a fan on them right after harvest to get them drying fast.

-Mark

I pulled mine after nursing them along for several weeks in extreme heat with no results. The problem with keeping them in was that temps are not expected to moderate here until the end of September and that's a long time to try to support the plants without any yield. Now I have time to plan for my fall planting and the garden has time to rest. I live on the Gulf Coast and I think of our down time as being July and August, whereas in cooler climes, it would be December to March. Also, my experience with fall plantings of the veggies that are usually Spring planted has been inconsistent because of the nature of the seasons' turning here. We will have extended spells of mild temps followed by abrupt temp drops when the cold fronts blow in, followed by yet more mild temps. It plays havoc with the spring type vegetables. I will be planting things that can tolerate these kinds of fluctuations. Getting them to germinate in the still hot days of late summer and early fall will be a challenge, but I have some ideas and am slowly amassing what I need to implement them.

I'm with ya there about the difference in gardening philosophy in the south compared to the north. Exactly right about July and August. I agree about fall plantings, in that the seasonal temperature profile in the fall is different than in the spring. It gets cooler in the fall faster than it gets hotter in the spring. Fall plantings are therefore somewhat more of a challenge than spring plantings.

Most years, I am unable to keep crops going through July and August, but this year seems better, perhaps because of occasional rain and slightly moderated temperatures.

I'm putting in bush beans in the next few days, (for the first time in mid-summer) and I think the challenge will be getting the seedlings to survive. But if they do, I'll be sitting pretty in October.

In an attempt to "rotate" my crops, I just don't plant the exact veggies in the exact spots as the year before. Although it probably does not benefit anything, it seems like a good idea to me to alternate crops so that they remove and replenish different nutrients during different years.

It helps by reducing the amount of "specific" fertilizing that I have to do (e.g. amending the soil with extra of certain chemicals because the veggies grown there consume it all). Heavy feeders like potatoes are moved every year in my garden. This year I grow zukes and squashed in the same spot as last year the it seems that the borer bugs remembered where to find food, sadly ;)

If you have a small space for actual garden bed, but have the potential for buckets and containers, that's another possibility for literally rotating the crops...

No.. Same reasons, even when I had a much larger veggie garden plot, I never really did that.. I made a 40 foot long trellis fence system for beans, its not like I could tear that down and move it around easily.

Comparisons to decades ago is pretty moot, as both invasive bugs and fungal desease has spread tremendously since then. But they at least had it right, mix in the manure and good things happen next year.

But I mostly agree with everyone, each fall my compost pile goes from my summer collected spot to my veggie beds, then augmented with more compost or manures.. this has to be done yearly. I took a year off 3 years ago and my garden the next year was pretty pathetic.

I have monster 4" long grey and black spotted slugs, plus the little regular ones. Fortunately I grow mostly in containers, but they will climb containers in a minute. This year I bought a roll of the conductive copper tape. The Chinese narrow stuff from ebay for a few bucks for 30 meters worth. Better than $11 for a few yards of the stuff Home Depot sells. I wrapped it around 3 containers, and have not seen 1 slug above (or below) the copper tape.

I have rather large Hosta in my backyard that doesn't get assaulted by slugs. I know that slugs are a problem in my area because of the chatter in the local garden center. However, I've found using the gum balls that drop off the gum trees in my yard are a HUGE slug deterrent.

Now I collect them and sprinkle around the base of my plants. The extra bonus is the balls are slow to break down so they act as mulch too.

Thanks for the input everyone. I bought this plant in early spring and honestly didn't do much reading up on them. I know the tag said mature size of cucs is 6-8" but they didn't look quite done to me. Obviously they were perfectly done and I just didn't know it! That's what I get for not ooking into this sooner. Maybe I'll make some slippery jacks :)

Thanks again

You shouldn't let a pickling cuke get to 8" - if it's not turning yellow and bitter by then, it's going to be seedy anyway.

Picked my first Little Leaf today! This was very prolific for me last year, this year I don't know (ask me in 2 weeks!), that is a great cuke, even if you do let it get bigger it doesn't get bitter. Sold a lot last year as "salad" cukes - just the right size for 1 or 2 people.

3 of us ate cucumber salad last night using 2 Picklebush that were a few days old (so too rubbery for pickling), a splash of vinegar, a pinch of sugar and salt to taste. Now to pickle the ones that didn't sell at last night's market.

I think it is something that underneath and it is a creature. Could be mole looking for grubs. Gophers and moles are active when there is nobody around.
Don't forget that cucumber has also lateral roots going on all direction and is not limited to just a single tap root. So it is possible that gopher ate some of it and gave the plant shocks and went away.

In the early stages of bacterial wilt my plants acted the same as yours - wilt, then perk up like they might pull through, then wilt again. If this is your problem, soon enough they will wilt and not perk up, then start to yellow and die. Hope your issue is different.

I was never able to get the sap test to work, but I have not had the problem since I switched to County Fair F1 as mentioned above. (I also tried Diva but prefer the county fair even for slicing.)

Ok, I will be sure to check. I think I am going to call the company where I got the dirt from and ask them where the top soil is from. I had my wonderings about it and you confirmed that I should be suspicious. If I keep it, I think I am going to dig everything in, add more compost and try to start over. There a few cooler months left!

A lot of what is sold as "topsoil" is subsoil with maybe some compost (or decomposed wood chips, commercial "composts" aren't usually balanced) mixed in to make it darker.

I thought it was roughly 60 days from flower to ripened fruit. Seems about right. I can only ever track the first flowers to the first fruit, though. Cherry tomatoes are a bit faster, which makes sense since the fruits are smaller.

Great thanks for all of your feedback! I'm not sure what kind of tomatoes they are I am a first year gardener so next year I will definitely look before I plant!

I agree with that Dave, but what about all the other bugs we ill like hornworms, SVB, etc?
How does your let nature take its course idea play out when those bugs are eating our crops?

but what about all the other bugs we ill like hornworms, SVB, etc? How does your let nature take its course idea play out when those bugs are eating our crops?

Crop protection is a totally different issue than killing bugs just because they bug you. Especially if they are not doing any damage to crops.

There are too many folks who would kill ANY caterpillar in their garden just in case it might be a hornworm rather then first make sure it is a hornworm. Kill any spider in case it might be a Black Widow or a Brown Recluse when, like wasps, common garden spiders are one of the best pest controls there is.

If it is a hornworm and it hasn't already been neutralized by wasps then you pick it off and kill it. If you don't know for sure then you watch and wait to see if it does any damage. It might very well be a swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. Either way you don't nuke the garden...just in case.

Same for SVB. If you won't use row covers on the squash then you risk SVB and you have to monitor the plants during the SVB egg laying periods. But that doesn't mean you have to kill any and all moths that fly by the garden on the off chance one might be an SVB mama.

So like I said, you don't kill a bug just because it is a bug. First you make sure it is a bad guy and is actually doing damage. If it isn't then leave it alone and let it do its thing and you often discover it is a big help in the garden.

Dave

If the stalks are skinny and the leaves not very deep green, don't get your hopes high for a good harvest.

In addition to knowing what variety it is, it would help to have a closer view of the corn that way we could tell better if its stressed or deficient in some way.

Yes, the male blooms are mostly in the center of the plant and the females out on the vines.

Thanks for the feedback