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Weedinhoe's 2016 & Beyond Garden

314K views 4K replies 79 participants last post by  Weedinhoe 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hello! I am a Georgia veggie gardener and, weather permitting, try to have something going in the garden all year long. I don't have enough space to put up masses of any one thing because I grow a lot of different stuff so the aim is to put up what I can and eat seasonally and fresh.

When I retired five years ago I decided to convert the whole garden to 4'x18' raised beds using 2x8's and lengths of 1/2" PVC pipe around the bed perimeters as stakes to hold the sides and end pieces upright. That will allow me to disassemble and move the beds to another location quickly should the need arise. It's also handy in that I can just remove the end pieces, run the tiller through the beds and then replace the end pieces.

Since I am located on a road and the garden is visible from the road, the plan is to move the beds to the back of the property behind the woods if the SHTF. There's a creek back there for water and a pond uphill from which I can siphon water through hoses.

Here are some shots of my garden.

This pic is from last year but is pretty much what the garden looks like right now:


This is the south side of the garden as viewed from the top of the garden:


And this is a view from the other side:


And finally, this is a view from the bottom of the garden:
 
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#2,268 ·
It was 24 here this morning and the adjacent pasture had such heavy frost it looks like it had snowed. Late January in Georgia. February usually brings the worst of winter weather if we're going to have any which would probably be in the form of ice. Never a good thing. Then we turn the corner into March, spring and tornado season and off we go into garden season.

The seed box has been inventoried. I've got all my start dates and tentative plant out dates scheduled and, at least so far, everything has designated footage on the garden map. The first brassicas are up under the lights and the second round will be seeded on Feb 2.

I am still waiting for my Pinetree seed order to arrive. It was shipped Jan 11 and has slowly wandered south. Yesterday the message on the post office tracker said that on Friday the seeds finally landed in the black hole that is the post office's Atlanta Distribution Center. Today it says it's in transit to the next location which is normally my local post office. We'll see.

Tomorrow I'll hit the feed 'n weed to get the year's bag of seed starting mix and also pick out my seed potatoes, just 12 red Pontiacs or Norlands (whichever they have this year) and 12 Yukon Golds. I like small ones so I can plant them whole without having to cut them up. They'll go into the ground Feb 21-22 so they'll have plenty of time to chit up ahead of time.
 
#2,269 ·
Well, well, well. The wandering seed order finally landed in the mailbox today after its 14 day journey from Maine. 5th Gear and I are both playing with celery this spring, she with two Chinese celeries and I with a western type called 'Tango'. The seeds are soaking overnight for starting tomorrow. Such tiny seeds! They could take 18-21 days to germinate.

Old Koonie cat crossed the Rainbow Bridge this morning. She was a ripe old 20 years old, maybe 21. Lately she had stopped eating but would lick up some of these liquid cat foods and had dropped a lot of weight. There were some good days where she'd come out of her house and be semi sociable and other days where she'd avoid contact and eat very little.5th Gear took her to the vet this morning and it was for the best to say goodbye. RIP, old gal. As 5th Gear said, Koonie did it her way. She refused to come indoors, took notice of you when she felt like it and tolerated the two boys all the while living the life she wanted. RIP, old gal.

This afternoon 5th Gear started dismantling the fancy digs she built for Koonie down in the back by the woods and will be cleaning out another house or two that Koonie used. The houses will be donated to a local rescue group that can always use them.

That leaves the two boys, Herman and Lester. Herman's diabetic and middle aged and Lester's just getting into his prime. They should be around for a good while unless Herman's pancreas decides to quit.
 
#2,270 ·
RIP Koonie! I’m sure you’re running & playing like a kitten again. Death comes to us all but is hardest on those left behind. I’m sure the rescue will appreciate the houses. I know my outdoor cats do!

Celery, hey? Always something new to play with! Who needs video games when we have a garden?
 
#2,271 ·
For all of you snowed under and/or living in sub zero temps, you need a shot of encouragement that spring really does exist and is ever so slowly creeping your way.

Within the past week there have been signs of spring. The iris are starting to poke up.



The winter daphne (Daphne odora) is blooming, that sweet scent drifting on the breeze.

.


And the first wild daffodil.



But there's a fly in every ointment. Yesterday a 6' section in the middle of the 18' carrot row had been deer-munched during the night. I failed to get my butt out there with netting and so this morning the whole row had been mowed. Oh well, it's happened before and the greens will grow back. Meanwhile the carrots themselves are safe and sound in their underground bunker. :)

 
#2,273 ·
One week ago I posted:
"Here are the new micros 15 days after sowing. Left to right with current height: Mohamed 3", Pigmy 1.5", Venus 1.5", Florida Petite 1.5", Baby 1" and Monteka .75". Mohamed sure is winning the "fastest growing" prize. Descriptions say 7-8" for that one and it seems to want to get there in a hurry."

!

Here are the micros yesterday, one week later. They are arranged in order of size. Mohamed is now 7" tall having doubled in size. The rest range from 2.75" (Pigmy) to 1.75" (Monteka). Right to left: Mohamed, Pigmy, Florida Petite, Venus, Baby, Monteka.





This 'Mohamed' is going to be interesting. I'm beginning to wonder if the person who gave it to me gave me the right seed!

Meanwhile the parsley I seeded is coming up and the Chinese Pink, Chinese White and Tango celery seeds have been started. Celery is supposed to be a slow germinater so we'll see.
 
#2,274 ·
Yesterday 5th Gear was in the kitchen area and started exclaiming about a hummingbird in the house. Then she said it wasn't a hummer but a butterfly! I came and looked and sure enough there was a small butterfly flitting around the rosemary plant on the kitchen table. It was a small black swallowtail. I had brought the rosemary inside about two weeks ago due to the cold temps outside.

The first inclination was to let it out of the house where maybe it could find some nourishment. Fern opened the door and it flew out, landing on the porch where it sat. 5th Gear gently scooped it up and carried it over to the blooming camellias in the sun. Good deed done. But then later I thought how cold it was going down to (22) that night and that it probably wasn't going to make it. :(

Later both of us saw the few papery remnants of what could have been the cocoon. It was attached to a rosemary branch by a tiny little stub. That rosemary plant had been sitting on the porch all summer right next to the parsley that got munched down by butterfly caterpillars. I don't doubt one decided to pupate in the rosemary. Maybe several weeks in the warmth of the house triggered it to come out.
 
#2,276 ·
This is a pic of the Pinocchio Orange which I think is my favorite of the six micro dwarfs currently producing.



They were seeded in two sets of three, one on Aug 22 and the other three on Sep 18. The thought was to stagger them but it seems to not have made much difference. They are all still producing although slower and I think the cherry tomatoes are smaller too. The Pinocchio Orange has just put out another round of five flower clusters! The others are still making flowers too.

Today I will be potting up the Mohamed into one of those white pots. Someone is going to have to make way for it under the lights and I think it will be the Red Robin, the tallest of the six. Robin put out a good round of cherries the first few tines but has been slower than the others after the fact.

These have been pretty easy to care for, just watering and an occasional snack of Miracle Grow. I also prune off any old foliage that is thinking about yellowing and that's mostly the oldest branches. Tomatoes being vines, that would make sense and the smaller varieties are now hanging over the edges of their pots. It's been a nice winter play thing. :)
 
#2,277 ·
This morning I started the second round of early stuff. I'm still trying to optimize a staggered harvest.



Broccoli - 4 more Packman. 4 DeCicco (trying this one for the first time. A bit later than the Packman)
Cabbage - 2 more Stonehead and 2 more Early Jersey Wakefield
Collards - 3 Vates
Kale - 3 Premier
Basil - 1 Blue Spice (a freebie pack of seed)
Fernleaf dill - 1

Meanwhile, the three 6-packs of celery are poking up seven days after seeding. Yes, three 6-packs! I bought Tango just to play with it as the DTM isn't as long as others and it's also self-blanching. Pickles decided to play too and ordered Chinese White and Chinese Pink.
:o


In a few minutes I'm going to get out the Mantis and go do a first tilling of a strip along the garden fence for Zinnia seeds received in the MMMM. This strip hasn't been used for a while so it will need a few subsequent tillings before zinnia time in early May.
 
#2,279 ·
I had been growing Daffodill (yellow) and Will Rogers (red) but I'm not happy with them and was going to change up this year. This past fall I participated in a big seed swap and received some seeds of twelve different kinds, all tall which I had asked for (easier deadheading) and some of the 12 are mixes; Benary's Giants, California Giants, State Fair Giants, Wild Mix, "Tall Mix From My Garden" . Love that last one! Then there are some individual ones; Double Violet Queen, Polar Bear, Queen LIme, Scarlet Flame, Giant Double Enchantress and a couple unidentifieds.

I think I'm going to do the mixes. This afternoon I lined off a 22' x 3.5' strip by the fence and got a third of it dug and de-weeded/de-grassed. Rather than just till it I decided to dig it in clumps and shake the soil out of each clump. That takes a good while to do but it gets the Bermuda out, roots and all. Tilling would have just cut up the Bermuda roots and generate even more! I can plant five 4' sections, each with a different kind so I can compare what they look like.

Besides, through digging I found I had forgotten there were some daylilies there and so far I have a 3 gallon pot half full of small clumps! They'll get stuck in the ground somewhere else.

What kind do you grow and are you happy with them? Any plus and minuses?
 
#2,280 ·
What kind do you grow and are you happy with them? Any plus and minuses?
I primarily grow Zahara and Profusion... they are good for edging, because they stay relatively low to the ground and fill out their space well. I also grow some State Fair zinnias at the back of the garden bed, because they get much taller and have very large blooms. They all do well for me.
 
#2,281 ·
The first flower buds are showing up on the new micros. This is Day 33 after seeding. Height x width given.

This first one is Monteca, now 4" x 6".



This is Baby, 4" x 5".



Venus is also showing buds but the photo was poor quality and I didn't feel like retaking it and running it through Imgur tonight. A bud is a bud is a..... Venus is 6" x 6".

Pigmy (not shown) is 5" x 7" and Florida Petite is 4.5" x 8".

I did pot up Mohamed to its final home and made a space for it under the other lights with the producing micros. Mohamed got planted deep to shorten it a bit so it's now 9" x 11" with no buds yet.

 
#2,283 ·
Yesterday I saw aphids on my little broccoli sets that are under the lights! How the heck did they get there? I noticed them when I was watering all that stuff. This is an absolute first time for those showing up on anything under the lights. Harumph!

I mixed up a very small amount of insecticidal soap, poured it into a little mister bottle and spritzed them good. It was just a four pack of broccoli and the aphids hadn't bothered the parsley sitting nextdoor. The parsley got spritzed too just in case. You can't let those little bastiges get a toe hold anywhere especially indoors where there aren't any lady bugs! :rolleyes:
 
#2,287 ·
A few days ago I started digging a new 3.5'x22' strip for zinnias this summer. About a third got dug before I quit for the day. Then it got rainy and chilly (no fun to dig in) so I will pick up where I left off this afternoon when it's sunny and 67.



It's slow going as I'm digging up one clump at a time and shaking the soil out of that clump of grass. I had thought about just tilling it but then remembered that all those cut up pieces of Bermuda grass will grow back with a vengeance. Digging and shaking is a lot slower but the end result is much more effective in the long run. Besides, it soon became evident that there were daylilies planted where I'm digging so as I find them I'm tossing those clumps of tubers in a bucket for re-homing later.
 
#2,289 ·
I finished digging the zinnia bed two days ago but it still needs to be covered with leaf mulch.



While I was in digging mode it was a good time to dig out all those volunteer purple cone flower plants left over in a vegetable bed where I had planted some just a few two years ago. Remind me to never put perennials in veg beds again! Since it's hard for me to toss out perfectly good plants, the dug up roots got heeled into the damp leaves of the leaf pile until I can figure out where to put them. As I was doing that I noticed that new shoots are wanting to emerge from the crowns of the plants.



Meanwhile, the seed potatoes are chitting up nicely. The Yukons are on the left, Red Pontiacs on the right.



I don't have a favorite in tonight's Super Bowl. We have Georgia Dawgs playing on both teams. But I think I'll skip the halftime show.......
 
#2,290 ·
And now an update on the currrent crop of micro tomatoes.

This is 'Baby' pre-potting. Amazing how many buds there are on this 4" plant!



Yesterday afternoon I potted up into one gallon nursery pots all of the five remaining micros.
LtoR: Baby, Pigmy, Monteka, Venus and Florida Petite



After potting they went back to the light shelf where the light is up as far as I can raise it. The old micros under the tall lights haven't finished ripening the latest round of greenies so it's a race between ripening the last ones and the newbies getting too tall for where they are. :shock:



Originally seeded on Jan 5, here are the current sizes:

Baby - 4x7" with five flowers and fat buds
Pigmy - 6x9" with the first two flowers
Monteka - 6x8-10" with tight buds
Venus - 7x9" and the first four flowers
Florida Petite - 6x11" and tight buds.

Mohamed was repotted about ten days ago and is now under the tall lights as it had outgrown the light stand. It's 13x15" and no sign of buds yet. I'm wondering if what's in the pot really is a micro!

 
#2,293 ·
Found it! It was a tomato I had started way too early. Here is the tomato on the bucket with the hanging light fixture! This was taken Feb 28, 2017:



Later when it went out onto the porch I put a plastic covered tomato cage over it like it's own mini greenhouse but I had to tie it to the porch pillars so the wind wouldn't blow it over.



The things we do for our plants! But lesson learned about the consequences of starting stuff way too early! It's an exercise in creative infrastructure. :rolleyes:
 
#2,295 ·
The first transplants of the new season are hardening off on the front porch. They'll get set out Monday. Four Packman broccoli, two each Early Jersey Wakefield and Stonehead cabbages and the next batch of Evergreen scallions. Another round of this stuff plus other broccoli varieties are under the lights for planting later. Also on the porch are the garlic bulbils along with sage, thyme, parsley, oregano and rosemary plants that have been outside almost all winter except for a few nights below 30.



The little garlic bulbils I collected in the summer and planted in October are coming along nicely. I'll have to check the growing instructions I copied off to see when I need to pull them up and when to replant at a larger spacing, In three years they might make regular size garlic bulbs. Just an experiment.



The September planted arugula has provided a nice addition to salads all winter but it's getting ready to bolt. It's only putting out small thin leaves now and starting to send up a seed stalk. Fortunately I have more started that need just a little more growing before they replace these old ones in the window box.



And finally, there's a mystery plant growing in the 4-pack of kohlrabi. It's REALLY big. The kohlrabi are only about 3" tall and this monster is growing fast! Maybe a mustard? For sure a stray seed in the kohlrabi pack. The kohlrabi aren't quite ready yet but I'm going to remove and plant out this mystery plant along with the other stuff on Monday.

 
#2,296 ·
I think you don't need me to tell you it's some kind of brassica. My Picture This app says cabbage, aka wild mustard, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower. It lists rapeseed as a lookalike, along with radishes and a couple of other mustards. I think burdock is pushing it LOL.
 
#2,297 ·
Two things harvested today for the first time! I've tried growing leeks several times in the past (maybe 10 years ago?) without luck and crossed them off the grow list. Since then I've grown onions and scallions with no problem so what the heck, try leeks again. They're just big scallions! And so this year I started some King Sieg leek seed in July and planted them in September. They're just an 84 day grow but the plants just never seemed to start putting on good growth until December. I decided to pull one of the larger looking ones today, day 143, to see where they are. Not too bad for a first effort. I did hill them up but next fall I'll start with a deeper planting trench to get a longer white area.



I also tried Jerusalem artichokes again after failure on my first effort about five years ago. Something dug up what I thought was all the plants just as they were popping up but somehow one survived. Today I dug it up so I could replant the bed and was shocked at all the tubers I found! Sucess! No wonder they have a reputation of spreading. I ended up with a bit more than 3 lbs plus what was replanted.



There were some clusters and a bunch of small ones.




I replanted seven 3-tuber clusters so there should be a bunch next year plus a lot more pretty flowers late summer. Now I have to figure out what to do with them. I read they'll hold ten days in the refrigerator but also about the hazards of eating too many at once. o_O I guess we'll eat what we can and give some away.
 
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