23,594 Garden Web Discussions | Vegetable Gardening

Oh, good, Dave. I was outside doing my chores and suddenly thought, "what if what I wrote came off the wrong way? Crud!" Glad to see it didn't.

I think that's why I included experience in the mix. I know you are right, but with everything I'm learning( a whole new soil type, all the ins and outs of growing produce for the restaurant, etc.) I just haven't been able to hit my stride on the soil improvement yet. But the seasons keep rolling and I want to grow things and learn even though my conditions leave something to be desired. Maybe it is hard to explain, but learning to mulch still takes learning.

Sweetquietplace- your dead spot sounds alarming, unless you know what is causing it, maybe? The way you described it I imagine this circle of yellow, dying plants right smack in the center of your garden. Eek!

"Successful gardening requires effort on the part of the gardener. There is a well documented correlation between the amount of effort put into the garden and the success of that garden, the more the better; the less the worse."

I agree 100%. IMHO this is the number one issue new gardeners need to understand and it encompasses all the issues brought up by others here, including the OP. A gardener can have the best soil, the best varieties, the best weather, even the best of intentions, and if the garden ends up becoming a dense stand of 3 foot tall weeds and grass due to neglect and inattention, it will surely fail.

I want every new gardener to be successful but, unfortunately, lack of commitment or simply comprehending that a commitment is necessary are the primary reasons why I have seen most new gardeners fail or simply just give up after a year or two because they feel gardening is too much work for them.

Rant ON/
BTW I hear it all the time, and I find the excuse of not enough spare time available to be a big bunch of baloney. It all comes down to proper personal time management. People will tell me that they can not find the time to do proper garden maintenance but then I find out that they do have the time to sit on the couch in front of the television to watch the latest pathetic installment of some lame reality McShow or tasteless sh*tcom. Life is all about priorities, and that speaks volumes...
/Rant OFF

Have a good day.
-Tom

Thnx everyone

Last year, my potato patch lost all of its leaves from a cold snap that wasn't even freezing temperatures (33 degrees F) in late April. They came back but it took them a while to get going again.

I agree that some cover will definitely be helpful.

Might be better just to start over ;) less back breaking work!

ok, thanks all for the input!

cool idea
I agree with sunnibel7...need to speed it up. Less time for each exposure.
Seedlings need the light RIGHT on top of them. This video is good to show how seedling reach for light (which wasn't there)
Love the sound track
Keep the experiment going

Thanks all and I aggree it needs to be sped up by at least 2-3x. It was neat when I just put a regular desktop lamp with a standard 40 watt bulb and saw the seedlings go to it in the darkness of the main lights.

I think the next one I will make them dance in sync by moving the light around every hour or so lol. But next one will be with my grow light, right now it is all taken up by my other plants waiting to go out in May, so I got to wait.

But I guess in the meantime it would be fun to do some experiment light tricks to make them move with my extra seeds and even find some music to sync with the movement.

Thanks again all for watching and advice.

-Mr Beno

Thanks for your post! But you don't have to tell me, trust me my friend... Was just using it as an example...

Joe

metal roofing installation can be used for roofing for rain water harvesting and its better to use water for other household purposes, than drinking...

I have never had any trouble with these varmints until last year, when they took everything I had except for just a few of my zucchini, acorns and butternuts. My pumpkins and patti pans were a total loss. Unfortunately, having never had any issues I wasn't prepared during or after, so I didn't remove the afflicted vines, or perform any of the other post-event actions. I am terrified of what might happen this year.

Tromboncino, butternut and Long Island are all moschata. That means woody stems and no SVB. They all die of frost in October. I see from wikipedia that there is a number of edible pumpkin types which are moschata, it may be worth for me to expand into pumpkins, since most of our squash ends up in soup anyway.

I would love to hear any suggestion to this too!

I have shrubs over 6 feet away (and trees over 12 feet away) from a raised bed. Underneath the bed, a thick layer of newspaper plus two layers of thick weed barrier from Costco. After a season, the roots still came through all layers just like your photo. I really wanted this to work because this is the only raised bed that's on flat ground...

I would dig it over to break up the roots. There's no sense leaving that space open.

My first question is which direction is which? Like, is the elm N, S, E or W of the garden? That will let me better picture where all the shadows are going to go over the seasons. But from my experience removing limbs from a tree that was shading my old garden, getting those two limbs gone will indeed make your garden much better. You may not ever get the results you would with a garden with no shade, but you may get good enough.

I'm not sure what about your set up you don't like visually, but it will soften up its hard lines once you have plants growing in it. You could put decorative finials on the the posts I suppose. A couple of clumps of ornamental grass outside the fence to give the winter a bit of interest without competing too much with the garden? A happy scarecrow or some garden decoration? It looks good to me. Cheers!

It looks like you put the garden in the shadiest part of your yard, and then attempted to grow plants that need a lot of sun.

Cutting the branches will help. You should also move the tomatoes, and maybe the cukes, to the beds farthest from the trees. Grow the lettuce and parsley in the shadiest bed, and the rest in between.

If your tomatoes still don't do well, focus next year on vegies that like part shade -- kale, chard, broccoli, etc.

For your fence, I think it needs some vegetation :). I would grow climbing beans and nasturtiums (edible leaves and flowers) in the sunny areas, and runner beans like 'Painted Lady' on the shadier side/s. Careful you do not get the bush varieties of nasturtiums and beans :).

In our zone, the best performers and favorite to my taste are: Blue Lake, Northwestern, and Fortex. I purchase Northwestern and Fortex seeds.

My favorite is Blue Lake. Though a bit late, they do exceptional well in our weather. Each year I save a few Blue Lake, and allow them to either self seed, or scattered to another bed. What's interesting is... though being open pollinated, they came out true after years of group planting of 4 beans. I'm not a bean expert so not sure why... but they just do.

I haven't learnt how to do canning yet so my rating is only for fresh eating.

I agree that Fortex is an excellent snap bean. It is not especially high yielding however.

Jim

I don't think many of us here have experience with tropical tree crops. I have attempted to grow some of those on the list in north florida with not good results other than citrus.

Such a different set of challenges! I don't know what varieties of trees you can choose from ,but a friend had a dwarf date tree (at least I assumed it was a dwarf) that did well for her for years. It was in a really sunny spot in her house. So other kinds might do well too. Maybe ask at the nursery?
I would also stick with heavy mulch if you can to keep the soil from drying too fast.

Thanks both of you I will be carefull, speaking of watering though, what is the average amount of water and how often for a 3 week old sedling to be watered with organic potting mix?

Thanks again,
-Mr Beno

It isn't a formula, a fixed amount, or a set schedule. The plant's environment is a flexible thing so watering needs to flex accordingly. Failing to do that quickly leads to over-watering.

It is as the plant needs it. You determine that by sticking your finger deep into the soil and if it feels at all damp then you don't water. When in doubt you don't water. When the air temps are low you don't water. If the leaf and stem turgidity appears healthy you don't water.

More seedlings are killed by OVER-watering than by anything else.

Dave

If they sit in wet, cold soil for too long you may have a problem, but the snow won't do harm on its own.

Thanks folks! There was a recent post (which I'd overlooked) on this topic, however their potatoes had already sprouted........ Supposed to be in the 60s by midweek, so I'm hoping mother nature is done with her tricks! We need the moisture badly, but I prefer rain to snow........ ;)