23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Thank you so much Joe :-) And you're right, she and the two year old are both super excited!! Thanks for the boost, I really needed that and I'll be back here if I encounter any problems.

Thank you much and Happy Gardening!

I loved reading this as I am going through the same thing. ESpecially the bit about the strawberries :)

2-3 layers of carboard over the grass and leave for a years - or build the raised bed over.

Don't just put the raised bed on top of the grass and fill with dirt, some will come through.

For the past couple of years, I've been using 20% vinegar for weed and grass control. I like it. My jug says Maestro-Gro on it. Try googling it for more info.

Better yet, don't dig at all! Make a raised bed and plant your garden.. Save your back the work..

This is what i do:

-layer newpaper/cardboard on grass
-pile soil ontop of that
-mulch
-Plant!

I used a front tine to make my garden years ago. Just go slow. A little deeper each time.

Can't help with soaker hose information, but I sympathize about trees blocking the sun and limiting your options. We don't have any trees in our own backyard, but our neighbor to the west has three trees that are beginning to block the sun to our main vegetable gardens as they get larger. The previous owner had the trees trimmed regularly so it wasn't a problem for years, but the new owners don't even clean up storm damage when big limbs come down. (My husband and I finally just went into their yard and did some trimming ourselves since their fallen branches were damaging our fence.)

My advice would be to take notes to see where the sun is in various seasons. The 5-8 hours of sunlight you get now in the spring may turn into 10+ hours in the summer. OTOH, We have one bed that we built in May in full sun, only realizing months later that it's actually in shade from October-March. No problem for summer veggies, but it does mean I can't use it for fall/winter plantings. (On the plus side, by tracking the sun more carefully, we realized there are spots that are in shade from the neighbor's trees in the summer, but get plenty of sun autumn through spring, which would be a fine location for a cold frame.)

Thx both.

I'm actually thinking of setting up my camera on a tripod and timelapsing the area. Haven't paid attention to this area since I just got the "greenthumb" this year.

All I know right now is that the front edge of the area gets sun around 2/230p and the entire area is covered by 3p. Been cloudy so hard to say when it stops getting sun. I suspect right now I'm only around 4hrs direct.

The world record holder for tomatoes, Charles Wilber, used rusty old cages... All he did was torch them to disinfect them at the end of the season.. I would not worry about the rust.. He didnt have a problem, he grew 30 foot tomatos, yielding hundreds, if not thousands of pounds! If his heavy plants could handle it, so could yours.. If you really want houngan probably sand and buff all the sharp chips,etc.. But all that's really neccesariy is disinfecting them IF that.. No worries, have fun my friend!

Grow on,
Joe

Joe

Are these some kind of extra-great cages, or are they the kind you get for 79 cents? By which I mean.... less than the cost of a can of spray paint ;).

The blowtorch for sterilising sounds fun :).

Seems like you are doing just fine my friend.. I still would throw a fan on, beef up them suckers!

haha Joe, I am going to start hardening off the last of my starts next week when this yucky weather moves out. I hope to have them completely hardened off in the next few weeks and anxiously watching the weather until transplant time!

I haven't had any other problems with damping off--the area is well-ventilated. I think there was a problem because I was bottom-watering and thus the salts couldn't drain out. It's not a strong fertilizer by any means.

If you were bottom watering, how would there be a salt accumulation ontop the soil? How would there be a salt buildup in the first plant place, if you use a weak fertilizer as you mentioned? Even very strong fertilizers at the proper concentrate doesn't burn plants, nor have salt buildup after a few feeding,let alone scrapping salt off the top of the soil! Something doesn't add up..

Again- What kind of fertilizer? What concentrate? What potting mix? What water? Do you care for your other plants the same? Are they doing ok?

This post was edited by Raw_Nature on Fri, Apr 19, 13 at 23:57

Do NOT get the Harbor Freight GH! It takes a million years (and several web sites) to set it up, and about 3 years for it to blow away or get brittle and fall apart! Nancy

If you are concerned about wind,Look for something shaped like a dome.. It's much more aerodynamic.. You could make something similar to a hoophouse.. There's plenty of ways to resolve wind problems.. But, as far as I know, not to many people have wind problems with normal rectangular greenhouses..

Joe

I wouldnt go to the big box stores for my plants. They dont know what they are doing. The Home Depot near me had tomato starts for sale in late March, when the safe planting time is typically Memorial Day

My friend used to work at HD, and they stuck him in the garden center. When he told them he didnt know cr*p about plants, they told him "just fake it"

Ya, no kidding.. I walked in home depot nursery and asked the lady if they have blueberries in stock yet, she said no.. I walked a few steps, and right behind her was dozens of blueberries.. She then walked down the isles and took note of what they have, at least she's smart enough to learn...that's a good start.. That being said, big nurseries, people who know what they are doing ship plants to big box stores, they just waters them,etc... I would buy at my big box stores if I had to, they had very strong bushy plants.. I bought blueberries at home depot for $4, they would be 20-30 at my nurseries.. They are in great shape.. Keep an eye out for farmers markets/flea markets, they sell very cheap.. Just call around, you'll find something..

Joe

That's how I've started starting my seeds although I use coffee filter. I usually see peppers sprout in 6 days-ish. I don't use a heat mat or anything, I just put it on top of my fridge.

I also use the baggie/coffee filter method. Different varieties of peppers can take longer to germinate that others. I don't give up on them until the seeds mold or rot(sometimes after a few weeks). I take out any that have sprouted and pot them up, leaving the rest in the baggies to give them a chance.

Suggestion for growing melons on clay soils:

We didn't have room for melons in our garden until the guy who rents the farm ground around us started leaving a small field fallow. The ground was a pretty well spent corn field with heavy clay soil. Butâ¦

I found that I could grow good melons on the ground by giving just the soil for the "hill" some special preparation. I dig out a hole a bit over a foot in diameter and a foot deep, dumping the soil in a garden cart. Then I use my shovel or garden fork to work fertilizer, lime, and peat moss as deeply as possible into the bottom of the hole. I also mix a bit of fertilizer, lime, and a good bit of peat moss (about as much peat as the soil I dug) into the soil in the cart. I water the hole thoroughly, return the soil mix from the cart to the hole and transplantâ¦adding a bit more water with a bit of dilute starter fertilizer mixed in.

I mulch our melons with grass clippings, mostly from the part of the field we don't garden (and keep mowed as part of the deal with the farm renter).

We live in an area where much of the land south and west of us is clay soil where farmers grow lots of great, commercial melons. They're amazed we can grow good melons on our land. But doing each hole as I do is lots of extra workâ¦and the peat moss is expensive. But it just has paid off handsomely for us.

Here is a link that might be useful: Senior Gardening - Transplanting Melons

I agree that adding peat moss [and sand] to watermelon soil that is clayey, helps. I would spare the lime and give that to the cantaloupes.

Cucumber beetles can be a disease carrier for cantaloupes.

I find that diseases are a real problem if melons are planted into the same soil 3 years in a row. Orangeglo is a very healthy grower. Most of my favorite melons are hybrids.

Yeah, in my experience constant hilling accomplishes nothing. They don't seem to actually produce anything along the stems, just from the actual root cluster a little above. Hill them once just to help keep them stable, then let them grow how they want. When in doubt, have more dirt under them than over them.

If you want large potatoes, give them room, nutrients, depth, and good loose soil. If you want small potatoes, crowd them up, leave all the eyes on, and plant them in hard worn out soil.