23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening
gjcore: Thanks for sharing a picture of your hail protection. I was watching the hail pummel my garden and they dont fall vertically down. As with rain, it comes sideways as well. So your plants at the front would still receive considerable damage wont they? I thought of just getting a huge piece of sturdy plastic and just put it over the entire tomato bed (doable since i only have about 12 plants). Obviously that means I have go actually go put it on before the storm hits, unlike yours which you leave on all the time. We do get weather warnings and that was how i actually saved 60 -70% of my plants this time.
Zackey: In June when we had the huge hailstorm, my car which wasnt parked in the garage was hit too - its perhaps more than 100 round dents all over. Surprised the windscreens didnt break! Insurance company said they couldnt assess our case till end of August because they were inundated with similar cases in the region!
In my experience here on the high plains of Colorado the most damaging hail falls mostly straight down certainly though there is some sideways action.
My setup certainly isn't perfect but it does afford a good degree of protection. If I'm at home when the next hail comes I could attach tarps, sheets or blankets to my frames. Really having any sort of frame that you could throw something over and secure would help a lot. Just covering with a tarp etc. directly on the plants only provides minimal protection.
Basically, can I do sheet composting on a garden that I am currently using?
Yes you can. Sheet composting is discussed in great detail over on the Composting forum here - check it out - and is a common practice.
While it isn't normally associated with a chip wood garden because of the lack of an active soil micro-herd in wood chips such as exists in soil, it can still work. It will just take longer to break down so might be more attractive to pests.
I'd suggest burying it in an unplanted spot and burying it deeper than one would in dirt to limit the pest/varmint access.
Dave
All of my veggies are grown in cedar boxes - 9 in all - so I can control just about everything. However, it is growing rampantly among the fruit trees. I've been putting down cardboard in hopes of - at least keeping them under some sort of control. Also have introduced a succulent ground cover - called aptenia - I think, which is used a lot to hold hilly areas to prevent erosion and as a fire retardant on weedy lots. It helps somewhat, but have often wondered about round-up - if just applied locally.
But, I've really done a lot of pulling and digging in the meantime. Nasty stuff! I think the birds bring in the seeds.
bejay
@Amy_of_PNW I love the idea of donating one plot to the local food bank and everyone takes turns taking care of it. I think I will use that as a suggesting. Much better than the way it was done at ours. Always something new to learn :). Thanks for sharing!
A quick update on my experience, for those who might be googling and are unsure about starting a plot...
In general, I don't think this has been a good year for gardening in the midwest. Lots of rain early on! My summer squash are doing well, as are my tomatillos, but other than that everything is quite slow. I've gotten a few cucumbers and peppers, and my corn seems to be doing well.
I think my tomatoes have blight, and I've noticed tons and tons of cucumber beetles. One of our plot neighbors says that in the evenings, the deer come out of the surrounding woods, wait until there aren't any more people left, and then just swarm! They have definitely gotten the best of my broccoli. There are quite a few plots that have been given up on, so there are lots of weeds everywhere.
BUT, even though it's been more difficult than just gardening in containers on my porch, I do think I've learned a lot. I started out trying to do it with minimal fertilizers and insecticides, but learned quickly that it's worth a few bucks to invest in that stuff. I think I'll try to figure out a good mulch to use a bit earlier next year. I might also go for two plots instead of just one (20x20), as I think the rewards might be a bit greater with more plants and more space per plant.
My favorite thing is to walk around and check out everyone else's gardens and see what is working for them! It also helps me not to get too frustrated, as it seems that no one is having a good tomato year.
farmerdill, I agree that Merit isn't very sweet, but I don't really like the super sweets! I grew up eating field corn, it didn't have an actual name just a number, that I don't remember!
My Silver Queen is almost ready, I'm hoping for a little more flavor from it.
A guy that I work with and lives close to me brought in some Hybrid Super-sweet Corn last week and we grilled it. It wasn't sweet either.
One of my neighbors, that has a dairy, has sweet corn for sale. I stopped by and asked him about how his tasted. He knows that I grow my own and wasn't buying any. So he knew he wasn't losing a sale. He said his was bland too.
I asked him if I could buy a dozen ears of the field corn he was growing next to his garden for silage. He laughed and said that it tasted better than his sweet corn. He gave me a dozen and it was better! LOL
I am kinda new to gardening. (well, anything more than sugar snap peat and tomatoes)
I Just got back from vacation- it was really rainy while I was gone and rainy before I left.
My butternut squash and watermelon- which were young/small- all seem to be rotting. thankfully, there are more flowers and the hope of drier days. (my zucchini is very HAPPY in this rain! I have frozen shredded zucchini to keep me swimming in zucchini muffins all winter!)
I planted garlic in the Spring about 3 years ago. Major fail. Then I planted garlic two times so far in the Fall. The scapes were awesome to munch on. The garlics I planted were from local grocery stores, and some from Costco. They all had scapes.
I'm in zone 5, in Ontario. I plant the first week of October. I would not just leave your spring planted garlic in the ground. When 1/3 to 1/2 of the leaves have started to turn brown, dig it up and let it cure. You probably won't get full sized bulbs, but it will still be edible garlic.
I bought my initial planting stock about 5 years ago from a little organic grocery store that was selling "locally grown garlic." I figured if someone else was growing it locally, it would probably grow for me as well. That was the last time I ever bought garlic. Each year I plant in October, harvest in late July and then plant the biggest cloves back again in October. It is some variety of hardneck and we get lots of lovely scapes each spring.
Also, toddlers are not usually allowed to forage at will. Plus, we are taught to never eat anything in the yard without parent's permission. I grew up surrounded by Yew shrubs with those toxic 'berries ' yet was trained to be afraid to even touch them.
You can raise children to be safe in the garden. You'd be horrified if you knew how many toxic plants grow in the typical landscape.
Sounds like hornworms. Look for their frass (poop) on leaves - just above the frass you will likely find the worm. Blends in very well with tomato foliage. Pull off and drown in a soapy bucket of water. They start out quite small but grow rapidly as they eat tomato (and pepper) foliage and fruit.
Get 'em off as soon as you see the damage. I just had quite a go around with them - pulled off probably 20 in a few days. Looks like they are done for me...hopefully.
Spraying with BT was not an option for me because it never stopped raining until very recently. I also have about 30 tomato plants.
Thanks CethK - so would it be okay just to spread directly over the vege garden (and then cover it up with compost that im already making, top soil, etc) or should I add it to the compost pile for breaking down first. I'm guess I'm a bit unsure about how invasive agave plants are.
I tried that trick with a Farmer's Market bought celery recently and had zero luck. Finally bought a four-pack of celery plants and was surprised at how well they grew without a swamp or any special care.
Celery root (celeriac) is altogether different. It is easy to grow but takes a long growing season to size up and is slow to bring up to planting-out stage from seeds. Seedlings are miniscule for a long time--not the sort of things I would try sowing directly.
Sure, dried grass clippings is a very commonly used mulch with one provision, well two. First avoid direct contact with the stems as it can burn. It remains high nitrogen even when dried. And second, it has to be multi-layered to block weeds.
Dave
PS: no herbicides or lawn chems allowed. They can kill the plants.
Thanks for the advice - I guess I will look a little closer at the flowers and squash. We have had so much rain the last few weeks I just wasn't sure if that might be causing something different than I've seen before. I have tons of 2-3 inch squash and lots of flowers so maybe all is not lost.
This is my first year growing a garden my yellow summer squash is doing great but I have realized that I was not getting full grown squash! It would get about 2-3 inches an dies! Well after doing research I don't have very many male flowers! I have self pollinated all I can but so far I only have 1 squash an 22 dead little baby squash! Is this normal?
I would suggest using all the cardboard moving boxes in addition to the paper. Multiple layers of cardboard laid down first is a common practice when making a new bed and is one of the best weed suppressors. Put it down and then top with the paper and compost.
Then skip the tilling and just keep adding alternate layers of compost and soil on top - each several inches thick - and let it decompose down. Much easier and you end up up with weed-free beds and good rich soil. The cardboard will decompose over time and then you can till in a couple of years if you wish.
Examine the local compost carefully first. Talk to other users first. There has been a sharp increase in herbicide contaminated compost issues over the past couple of years and some of them will survive the composting process for as much as a year.
Dave
Sorry you can't eat that soup! I have been craving that soup for about a month now. Not a common menu item in the south. I want to make my own, but I have no beef for stock. I enjoy chicken soup with fresh rosemary, thyme and parsley. Hubby made a great soup today in our new Vitamixer machine. Asparagus, broccoli and half and half. To die for!
rhizo_1 I see that you are posting from AL.
They do eat more fresh peas there than we do in SC. The milder winters and the gulf climate allow them to grow better there. I lived there for 2 years (in Andalusia) with a job reassignment. That is where my wife found out how good they taste! It's easy to grow them down there.
It is hit and miss here in the Piedmont of SC. We get too many mixed up cold and hot spells. But I can grow lots of cow peas here!
I grew some of the best peanuts while I was down there, they were huge. In fact I probably had the best gardens that I have ever had while I lived there!
I experienced a lot of great food while I was there too. The small town that I worked in, Opp, had a BBQ place that was only open Thursday through Saturday. They had the best BBQ ribs that I have ever ate. You had to make reservations for racks of ribs, they sold out quick!
There was an oyster bar that the guys talked me into visiting with them. I really didn't care for oysters since the only ones that I had ate were canned (oyster stew). The so called "fresh" oysters were at least 3 or 4 days old since we lived so far from the coast.
I became a regular, every Friday after work I would stop in and have a bucket! They had oysters that were caught that morning and steamed. Good stuff!