23,948 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

I just want to point out that if there are toxins in the finish, sanding it will most definitely put you at a greater risk of harm than using the wood as a garden. The worst thing you can do with a toxic finish is sand it, inhaling all that dust straight into your body.

However, from the original poster's description, these sound like particle board kind of bookshelves. Therefore, I'm guessing, probably post-1978 and if so, no concerns about lead at least. I'm not sure if there are other things to be concerned about (since furniture usually is pressure treated, either).

I do agree mckensie re 5' wide beds potentially being too wide. For me it seems fine. Mostly.

This is a Harvest Forum question. It is the food preservation forum here at GW and is linked in the Related Forums list above.

But I can tell you the basic answer is it can't be done. Milk, cream and other dairy products can't be safely processed at home, even in a pressure canner. The fats in them insulates any bacteria and prevents the heat from killing them.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Soup canning guidelines

You could do something like what Campbell's et al does-- prepare all but the dairy. That way when you want some soup, you just add milk and/or cream.

But what do I know? I don't even do any canning. Going to have to start though -- freezing and pickling just doesn't do the trick for many veggies.

Kevin

Maybe i should try Churchill downs...
Silver kelt- not negative, i totally agree that free would be the way to go... But I guess once i used the zoo compost, i was hooked and am willing to pay for my little pot of gold. Thanks for the advice on the horse track, i did not know that! I will keep that in mind!

"Seems when one alpaca poops, the others all come and poop in the same spot."

Well... I've learned something new today! :)

How about some GREEN MULCH?
right now I have lettuce, chards, onions(for greens) between my tomato/eggplant/pepper plants. So by the time the toms are grown those vegies will be gone.

Yet I have a permanent green mulch idea: FENUGREE. i have tried clover but did not work. But fenugreeg ( from alfalfa family) iworks fine. More than anything else, it is also a green manure. Fenugreeg produces nitrogen by its roots(like some beans) so instead of gettinh nutient out , it ads free nitrogen that it gets from air. What's more, its seeds and gree are edible and medicinal too.
You can buy the seeds real cheap from any Indo-Pakistany grocery store by the pound. Indians, chinese..use fenugreek and seeds in cooking extensivly....

Maybe lawn clippings use as mulch depends on the climate where one lives. In So. CA I spread the lawn clippings thinly, keeping them well away from the base of the plant. They dry out quickly and make a nice mulch. Some have warned that they will contain weed seeds, but I haven't had a problem with that. I stay on top of weeds pretty well anyway.

PS I would hate the extra step of spreading them out separately to dry. Too much work.

This post was edited by socks12345 on Wed, May 22, 13 at 10:46

Things look pretty good. As I saw above, squash are quite close. Do I see 16 squash???????? How many people are you feeding????? DH and I have 1 zuk and 1 crookneck and usually end up giving some away! Nancy

Thanks for all the advice.I pinched off the squash flowers. Nancyjane those 16 plants are not squash, but cucumbers (4 different varieties).

Dave, How deep did you plant them in the pots?

Just as you would in the garden - 6" or so. Make a hill of potting mix in center of pot, spread the roots out around it and cover with enough mix so that the top of the crown is just barely covered with soil. Add more soil as needed as it grows. Keep well watered.

Dave

You'll love that convenience this summer.

This cold snap might never end. Saturday I want to plant but lows in the lower 40s I can't wait no longer though

Going to be a common problem for many of this year because of all the delays in planting caused by the weird weather. Next year you can get around it by transplanting them to bigger containers if planting is delayed.

Dave

Thanks folks!

Last year I started my seeds too late and we had a warm spring. This year I started them a month earlier, but we had a cool spring!

Another year, another mistake!!

My seedlings that I grew from seed are already setting flowers as well, and they are also small due to the fact that I planted them deep when I set them out. I am leaving them be and will see what happens.

Flowers do not necessary end up to be fruits. Besides that, the plant will decide if it can grow fruits or not. I have a tomatillo plant that since I purchased it over 2 weeks ago, keeps flowering and then aborting. Because it is not warm enough. Tomatoes are like that too but they are more tolerant of cold.

Some plants become stunted as a result of exposure to cold temps early in life. It "might" recover but it is still early enough in the season to just replace it.

Dave

Thanks, I will throw this one out and plant another just in case. :) At least she'll have the other one until this one catches up.

I'm guessing first-hand Foster's has to do with first growing certain types of grains, no? ;)

Fosters lager. 2nd hand because it has already been used once. Excellent on the compost heap too. (In fact my opinion of Fosters is that it's only sensible use is on the compost heap or garden.)

Picked these today and I there are a few more still coming.

This year I had seeds for the Suyo Long which were left over from last year and I never even got around to starting. So I am trying Suyo Long for my Asian cucumber selection this year. In fact I already seeded it and some seeds are sprouting already.

Yeah, these were bulbs I'd ordered and DH had said that he would fix a bed for them last fall... never happened so in desperation I plopped them into my raised garden just before the snow started falling. My thought was that as the peppers grew the foliage on the tulips would die down and they could live in some kind of peace together but someone mentioned to me that they heard that tulip bulbs were poisonous and that it would affect anything planted with them. That's why I was wondering... thanks for the info - I will go ahead and let the tulips die down a little and then plant the peppers. Probably better to wait and let the soil warm up a bit more anyway... it's supposed to cool down again this coming weekend. Based on what donnabaskets said about spacing, the peppers and tomatoes would be too crowded if I tried to interplant them (tomatoes are already in the ground.)
Thanks again!
Edie

Tulip bulbs are poisonous when eaten, so you'd want to keep them away from pets or small children who might put them in their mouths. But that's very different from poisoning nearby plants.

Now if you wanted to plant those peppers near a Black Walnut tree, you'd have a problem. :)

"I think I've been reading WAY too many books and articles. :) "

I do that too, but I don't act on everything I read. It's more of a pleasant way to spend time in the recliner. In the garden my approach is "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

Jim

Thanks to everyone for your feedback. I'm going to back off a bit and just let them be for a while. :) This is my third year at it, but the first time I've tried raised beds rather than containers, which I live so much more! :D Also, I live in a small town and only have a Lowes and a Walmart to choose from for gardening supplies, which definitely limits me, especially in the organic category. I think I'm going to turn my attention more towards my compost bin for my main source of fertilizer. Thanks! :)