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Anyone else plannng 2013 garden??

16K views 150 replies 98 participants last post by  Dragonid 
#1 ·
I realize its a little early, but hey, why not? Anyone else putting together plans for their garden? Or "other " garden related projects?

I feel like for me the last couple of years has been really bad. If i was dependent on the food... well my family and I would most likely be dead. Or scavenging the forest floor for weeds. :rolleyes:

I seem to be stuck, all my seedlings start out great, I get everything planted, then the critters come. Last year was seriously looking up around midseason. Numerous green tomatoes, then the deer came along. End of story.

This year, well next season, I have some projects in mind that will hopefully re-inspire me and to keep my 2013 gardening thread alive. Shortly after Christmas I plan to install some 8 foot fencing. Hopefully the deer will simply look at and decide its not worth it. Next up, I plan to start growing some early crops in my green house. So that should be interesting as well. Green houses have their own sets of problems to deal with, so that should be something different to look forward to.

Believe it or not, I already started some seeds. 4 kinds of lettuce. As soon as I can, they will go out in the green house. Also, I started 6 kinds of pepper seeds. If yall recall, I have a love hate relationship with peppers. In all my years, my success rate has been less then worthless. I have been watching videos and reading up, looks like its time to start implementing other tactics to get a harvest. Clearly what I have been doing is not working. We will see how that goes.

So how about you? Any projects or plans?
 
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#66 ·
Basically, just google "seed catalog" and you'll be overwhelmed.

I've been pretty happy with stuff from:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/default.aspx?

I feel like I should have a compost pile. we only had a veggie garden once before and didn't get to see it all the way through because we had to move to take care of my dad. how would i start one? I don't have any trees so no leaves. my neighbor has a huge one. any suggestions?
It you don't have trees or a lot of veggie waste, it takes some scrounging. Some people rake thier leaves and throw them away. Ask around. Do you have a lawn? Grass clippings are good, and of course kitchen waste.

Hopefully somebody else will have more ideas -- having chickens, hardwood trees, and too much lawn, I'm a bit spoiled in the compost area. ;)
 
#65 ·
Google seed catalog, you'll come up with all kinds of options. Start the veggie garden first where you're living and by the end of the growing season you'll have plenty of good stuff to compost. Use the Search function to search these forums for this information and you'll find plenty. The Search function is your friend!
 
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#69 ·
The drought was bad in my area too. I had strawberries enough to eat but not enough to preserve for the winter. Same with tomatoes. I tied plastic shopping bags to fences to try to keep deer and other varmints away from what little produce I was able to grow. They worked pretty well I'd say. Something about the noise of the bags in the breezes at night and then the movement of the bags in the daytime kept birds and other critters away.

And yes I've already started planning for next years garden and planted more fruit trees this fall. New blueberry bushes coming in the spring.
 
#71 ·
Just to update my planning posts, I've been looking into greenhouse growing during the winter here and I'm coming to the conclusion that it isn't that great of an idea. I've talked to the local extension agent and the nice folks at Growers Supply, both of whom assure me that in order to grow anything other than the leafy stuff I'll have to heat my greenhouse. While I could certainly put it on my patio and just leave my patio door open to provide heat, I'm sure that I'll be looking at a major heat sink with heating bills to match. Plus I'll have to shovel snow from around the greenhouse AND the roof, the latter giving the possibility of having to chip off ice by hand. Those of you living in similar climates know how fun that is! :(:

I do have a kerosene heater that I could use but heating an uninsulated space will require a lot of fuel and easily becomes cost-prohibitive. Also, if SHTF and I don't have access to the fuel my greenhouse will be quickly frozen solid in winter. Lastly, the visibility factor makes me a bit nervous. Having the container garden on my deck was nearly invisible and very difficult to access. The planned expansion will be easily visible from my side street but not from the front. It'll be sadly accessible but no solution is perfect. If I stick with intensive gardening and work with nature rather than trying to change things I should be able to grow quite a bit with the stuff I already have.

If others from my type of climate have input on heating the greenhouse I'd love to hear it.
 
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#74 ·
Yep currently trying to get my dad to sell me some heavy duty shelving that came with a 40 foot tractor trailer he bought for $400 (before you ask my dad always find super deals on things like that). I do have a small garden in my apartment and am wanting to expand it :).
Also the fluorescent lights I have been using I have balanced my electricity usage by turning off my computer when not in use.
 
#79 ·
That's not impossible though I have very few power sources down there. Also I'm gearing my preps as much as possible for a power grid down situation, in addition to not wanting local law enforcement to pick up on the heat signature & show up at my humble door with a warrant. I've read quite a few stories these days about preppers getting busted for trivial crimes and don't want to invite attention.

A solar powered greenhouse is an interesting idea though. :D:
 
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#81 ·
Planning my first garden for 2013. I've helped my grandpa with his. He only grew tomatoes and sometimes peas. But I have got quite a selection of seeds going. I might be going a lil heavy for my first one but I usually get in over my head with projects and usually get great results. The garden is going to be split up between my backyard and my friends backyard.
 
#82 ·
Ive been preparing for my 2013 garden since the bermuda grass won out this summer. My beds will all be raised cinder block beds. Lots of weed barrier and mulch in between and around them to keep that psycho grass from climbing in and taking over. I've also been planning on a drip irrigation system with a a timer. That would help A LOT with my limited time. I am so ready!! I always do Tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchinni, okra, and variety of bell and banana peppers. This year I'm adding onions, carrots, potatoes, strawberries and hopefully a raspberry patch.
 
#83 ·
My first gardening catalog arrived shortly after Halloween. "Stokes" I'm always gardening, so 2013's garden starts on January 1st--but if you're talking about in the ground gardening...I have my seeds lined up in the greenhouse ready to be planted around March 27th...the full moon, of course. LOL

I will NOT plant as many tomatoes this year. I promise myself that every year but so far it never fails that I have to find a place for the last few in the seedling tray. Then at harvest I have so many tomatoes I am finding cars with the windows left down to put baskets of them in. :eek::

Two new pumkpkin patches this year for 'pick yer own' sales.

We alreay worked up the strawberry patch and we have waaayyy more runners than what we need to fill it.

The kiwi FINALLY did so well this last year that I decided that we would put in six more vines near the orchard--pairing 2 females with a male in two groupings.

During a wind storm this late summer my big locust tree finally gave up the ghost and fell. And now that it's all cleaned up that spot looks empty. I'm thinking of putting in a small grape arbor for shade and just to make that corner of the yard not look so...empty.

Other than that it's just the normal planting rotation we always do, plus our now favorite potatoes in a greenhouse set up so we can have early potatoes when most people are just planting theirs in the ground around here. This way I don't have to look at the dwindling bin in the cellar with dispair anymore.
 
#85 ·
At my old house, my next door neighbor grew grapes every year. She had about a 20'x20' over head grape rack (for lack of the proper term) made out of pipe. I remember her saying that after the first 2 years or so she never had to care for it much, they just did their thing. They were some of the best grapes I've ever had, and their homemade wine was tops.

I hope to do something like that when I finially settle down at a place.
 
#86 ·
i hope your 8ft fence works for you. it did not for me theyy still jumped it ans eat everything that could be had. i ended up with an 11ft fence and from the ground up two feet i doubled chicken wire and since this i have had zero problems.im now working on a a garden shed and hope its done by next season.between my father in law and my self its all we can handle without help from the wildlife.its a 2 1/2 plot and now he wants to go bigger its great thinking about it untill you have to till and harvest.
 
#87 ·
I've been planning for 2013 since about half way through 2012 and the realization that I wanted a much bigger space. I did lots of fence work, broke ground, and spread several tons of old manure. Right now I'm just waiting 'til after x-mas to put in some seed orders - as I might get something garden related for x-mas. Several family members took notice of my surge in gardening interest.
 
#88 ·
Working on figuring out what to plant in the three raised beds we already have and the small green house. Also working on figure out how big we can go with the raised bed when plan on building in the spring(should be pretty big). also gotta figure out if I'm gonna try and raise quail again.
 
#89 ·
I too got my Bakers Seeds catalog -- it's like a beautiful picture book.

And I'm researching how to garden in a drought. My area is 16 inches below normal rainfall for the year. We haven't had rain since October and then it was only about an inch. Before that it was . . . well, I don't remember when it was.

Any tips on drought gardening much appreciated.
 
#105 ·
I'm in the same boat as you with the drought. Check out Steve Solomon's "Gardening When It Counts." It's a great general gardening book, but he also discusses how to garden with little or no irrigation. This year, I'm going to adopt a lot of Solomon's ideas on plant spacing, and also try to put at least a portion of the garden in the Back to Eden style to see how it works for my area.
 
#90 ·
We are new to the forum, but we grow a garden here on our farm since we've moved out here. We have an 80' x 90' plot that we plant food in, apple trees, pecan trees, pear trees that are 2 to 3 years old, Grape vines, Raspberry, Blueberry and Thornless Blackberries. We also have alot of wild blackberries growing here. The last 2 years have been bad for our garden with the severe drought and heat we've been in.

We were watering almost every night trying to save it for most of the summer with fan sprinklers and just bought a bunch of drip irrigation supplies at the end of the summer to switch over to manual control zones for watering next year and will rent a chipper/shreader to chop up an old round bale for mulch.

Right now I have a pregnant blue belly and two landrace piglets living in the garden plot, tearing it up and fertilizing it for next year.

I've also built mulch containers out of welded wire outside the chicken coop and 116 cherry eggers are producing litter for the compost pile.

We have tried to start plants inside before planting, but haven't had alot of success with it yet, hoping this year will be better as we learn. I grew up planting and harvesting a 5 acre garden at my grandparents farm each summer and enjoy raising and canning our own produce. Now that we have the chickens established and the pigs going with rabbits and honey bees soon to come, I'll plant more things to provide additional feed for them during the growing months.

I still want to build a green house and smoke house here on the farm.

We also raise 23 head of Scottish Highlander cattle on the rest of the acreage and sell their meat to the end user.

We've accomplished alot in the last 3 years out here since I bought the land in 2008. It had no roads, water, electric, house or fenced in on 3/4 of a mile of the border. Since then, I've put a house, drilled a well, built roads, put electric on the land, build a 10x20 steel chicken coop with 20x40 enclosed yard, built a mile of new barb wire fence and will hopefully start on my 40x80 shop at the first of the year that will house our commercial kitchen so we can process honey for our bees and other produce.
 
#91 ·
Just this week I said to my better half that we need to start planning our garden for next year. I had gardened in the past but had gotten out of it for the past 3 or 4 years. We planted a very small garden this year. I am wanting to do more and better this year. I am looking forward to planning!
 
#93 ·
I have been planning mine. My garden was no good last year because I just moved into this house and started the garden late anyways. I didnt keep it up because I was renovating my house.

2013 will be better :) I have a compost pile started. I have one raspberry and one blackberry plant that I got last year. They were frostbitten so I got them free.. they arent dead, but they really were damaged and did not even blossom, poor things. I have a mature, but overgrown pear tree that came with the property.

Getting the compost started was step one (and a very easy step). Now I need to clear out even more low branches and maybe a tree or two to let more sun into my yard. The pear tree definitely needs a good pruning.

Im not sure how many, but ill have long raised beds (4 x more than 8) without wood around the edges. Ill just rake the earth up into the raised beds and see how that goes. I have a long list of things i want to grow! but im not sure which ones ill end up planting.
 
#98 ·
Added 2 more 8'x24' beds. Lasagna style of straw, leaves, wood chips, sand, finished compost, chicken poop, egg shells, pecan shells, and 46-0-0.

Spread pecan shells and chicken poop over 2 other beds.

Tilled the big garden.

Removed several hundred lbs of finished compost from the big pile and repiled it and bagged some for later use.
 
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