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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 ·
Planning for the 2016 garden really began this past fall when I sat down with the garden map and figured out crop rotation among the main plant groups of legumes, brassicas, nightshades and cucurbits. I use Excel spreadsheets to keep my garden records for each year. One spread has a to-scale map of the garden for each year and a sheet for each year where I've listed what has been planted in each bed going back to 2005. It's kind of a puzzle juggling stuff around to maintain a three year rotation on everything.

The real garden itch began back in December when the first seed catalogs started arriving. It’s always like Christmas when they arrive and kind of like Ralphie finding the decoder ring in the mailbox. It helps me to have a pad of paper handy when I look through them so that I can write down new stuff I might want to try or maybe try a different variety of something I already grow to perhaps trial them against "the usual".

Seed orders were sent off the first week of January and came back pretty quickly. While that was happening it was time to figure out how much of each I wanted to grow and then assign them space in the designated bed.

All of that info gets entered in (what else?) another spreadsheet. Columns contain variety names, seed company ordered from, how many plants to start or feet to sow, what date to start, when the seeds came up, date of transplant, date of first picking, and date when plants were pulled up. At the bottom of the page there are three sections for notes: Successes, Failures and For Next Year.

I know all of this sounds like anal record keeping but I enjoy it (I’m a data junkie) and believe that, at least for me, failing to plan is planning to fail. And boy, does that info come in handy when figuring start dates (“when did I start that last year?”) or when the old memory just can’t recall something. After all, I’m not getting any younger!
 
#4 ·
I sure would hate to have to move it, too! But if the need ever arises, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. If the SHTF I'd harvest most of what was ready and leave some stuff growing right in the ground for trespassers so they'd think they got it all and move on.

The garden tool shed is right next to the garden and in it are a lot of duplicates, like two dirt rakes, two shovels, etc. so in a worst case scenario, I can move most of them and leave a few behind. Or take it all and leave a note saying something like "You're too late. It's already been stolen!" :rolleyes:
 
#5 ·
After several days in the 70’s and then 1.8” of rain yesterday, it’s back to mid-upper 50’s to low 30’s. Much more seasonal.

Two years ago I started to make a “production plan” by numbering the weeks and then adding to each week what planting, seed starting, bed turning, etc should be done then. It really helped organize stuff and prevented that “Oh @%&)&, I need to plant x next week and don’t have the bed ready yet” type of scenarios.

The first week of January I started four kale plants. Four is plenty for two people considering all the other greens to follow. I found out last year there really is such a thing as too many greens all ready at once.

The second week of January I started four market packs of onion seed, one each of Australian Brown (bulb), Red Creole (bulb), Barletta (small pickler) and Shimonita (scallion). Each pack will make a lot of plants. There’s already a pack each of Shimonita and Guardsman (another scallion) started in December out on the porch hardening off. The bulbing and pickling varieties are new to me.

Nothing was scheduled for the third week of January.

Last week I crawled under the fence into the neighbor’s cow pasture and collected cow pies for the compost bin and planting hole amending. The guy who owns the field and cows lives elsewhere and lets me fish in the pasture ponds. Yay!

Some of the manure (halfway composted) then got dug into planting holes where the broccoli and summer squash will be going and I marked the hole locations. I still need to amend the future pepper, eggplant, etc holes.

This week I forked up two beds. One will have beets in one half, turnips in the other half, eventually onions down each side and a trellis for cukes on the end of the bed.
The other bed will have spinach in one half, collards and kale in the other half, onions down the edges.

Next week I will sow some spinach, maybe a third of the total amount so I can get some sucession planting going. It will also be the week to start the broccoli, collards, cabbages and Napa cabbage plants.

Note to self: stop by the Egg Lady’s house and pick up some chicken manure.

The season is almost ready to take off. ☺
 
#6 ·
Fortunately yesterday's rain dump only left a few puddles at the bottom of the garden. This is what it looked like after we got 7" of rain during the last two weeks of December.

That last bed on the right had the overwintering carrots ('Autumn King', 'Bolero' and 'Nelson') down each side and some were ready to pick. But when pulled up, the whole lower halves of the carrots had rotted off. Fortunately the remaining cabbages in the bed above the carrots were in very soggy soil but ok. Such is life...

 
#8 ·
The green you see isn't grass; just winter weeds. But the green of weeds, pines and cedars takes the bleak edge off of winter. I'm originally from up north and so remember the absolute bareness and brown of naked hardwoods.
And snow. :)

Stay warm and reread those seed catalogs. There's always something you missed the first three times through. LOL!
 
#9 ·
Dreaming is a good thing-helps us plan for next year! One thing good about living in this kind of weather I suppose. I'd like to say that the hood rats don't like it much either.

Have you tried vertical gardening to increase available space? That's almost mandatory in an urban setting.
 
#10 ·
Have you tried vertical gardening to increase available space? That's almost mandatory in an urban setting.
I have some trellises (four last year) at the ends of a few beds. They are 4' wide and about 6-7' tall. One had a 'Eureka' cukes, one had "Christmas' lima that was all vine and no bean, one had 'Spacemaster cukes (deer ate it) and one was snow peas. That trellis made more snow peas than I could eat and a lot were given away. 'Red Noodle' yard long beans were fantastic on a trellis and produced tons!

Here's a shot of trellises from last spring. I use scrap 2x2's that I get free from where I worked. Then I hang two 4' wide panels of field fence from nails and tie guy lines to steady them against the prevailing winds that come across that pasture. Haven't had one blow down yet.



Snow pea trellis from last year. They eventually got to the top of the trellis.

 
#11 ·
I have one cherry tomato plant from a seed germination test I did in December. It's just plain old Ferry Morse "Large Cherry Tomato' from seed I bought on a whim at WalMart in 2011. Seed still viable! Anyway, I couldn't throw it out and potted it up to a 6" pot. Well, it has outgrown the lights so today I potted it up to a bigger pot. Now what? A mini greenhouse, I guess.

There happened to be a piece of 6 mil plastic in the garden shed (have I mentioned I'm a pack rat?) just big enough to wrap around a tomato cage so I played with that this morning. There's also a thermometer hanging inside. I make my tomato cages from 10' of the 40" tall field fence with the 6"x6" mesh.

This will be an experiment. It's 54 degrees out there with a 15 mph north wind but it's 65 in the sun on the front porch plant table and 70 inside the wrapped cage. So I guess the tomato will be happy enough today. I will bring it inside tonight and monitor internal cage temp tonight and tomorrow morning just before sunrise.

Tuesday it will get down to 28 with a high of 39 so I guess Miss Tomato will have to stay inside for a few days. That means I need to rig some kind of lamp over it somewhere in here so she doesn't stretch. Time to MacGuyver something else.

Here's the cage and plant sitting on the porch plant stand.



Here's the cage with the tomato inside and secured by good old baling twine looped around it so that the wind doesn't blow the thing over. Duct tape and baling twine... two of the most useful things out there. :thumb:

 
#13 ·
Yesterday I got a tip from a Canadian gardening friend of mine that might solve the lighting quandry for the tomato. She said that she has hung a shop light vertically before to overwinter some things. You have to keep the plant turned but it worked.

As I have an extra shoplight for my seed starting stand, I used an s-hook to hang it from the edge of a plant stand shelf and will see how that works. Today I need to add more soil to the pot and maybe bring in half a cinderblock or something to raise the plant up some more.

In the pic those are onion sets growing on the top shelf and lower down a few pepper plants that were also leftover from the December seed germination tests.

 
#14 ·
Trellises are wonderful things, aren't they? I made mine by stapling chicken wire to the side of my garage and securing the bottom with some stakes. I got more vine than melon one year, but a Ton of cucumbers! I'm not a huge bean person but what I do grow, grows well there.
 
#16 ·
Today I started the first seeds for this year's garden. Woo hoo!

Cabbage, 'Charleston Wakefield' (small, pointy, 70 days)
Cabbage, 'Stonehead' (somewhat small, round, dense, 50-60 days)
Cabbage, Napa (Chinese type, rather barrel shaped)
Cabbage, 'Michilli' (Chinese type, more open shape)
Collards, 'Flash' (55 days)
Collards, 'Alabama Blue' (75 days)
Broccoli, 'Packman' (50 days)

Since I can get 12 cabbages down the side of a bed, I did three each of the Charleston and Stonehead and will start three more of each in four weeks. That will hopefully give a steady supply without getting inundated.

I grew the Charleston last spring and again in the fall and they did well. They were tried because they were supposed to have been bred for the warmer South but they’re more for fresh eating and not kraut. Not real tight or dense. I’m trying the Stonehead hoping to have an early kraut cabbage before the weather gets hot.

The Napa and Michilli were grown last spring and I made kimchi with the Napa. The Michilli was a more open plant suitable for stirfry. They were freebie seeds. I’m just growing one of each and will have each in a pot up here at the house to cook outer leaves and then let them go to seed for seed collection.

Only three of each collard were started as six collard plants will provide all the collards two can eat plus some to can or give away. I had been doing just the Flash but last year tried the Alabama Blue next to it just to see if it was better. I haven't decided so will be growing it again this spring. Sure do love the Flash though, but the Blue is pretty with gray-green leaves and a touch of red to leaf veins.

I started a six pack of the broccoli and will start another one in four weeks. That succession planting worked out pretty good last spring. Last year they produced more side shoots than they ever had. The broccoli will take up the other side of the bed the cabbages will be in.

It felt good to play with potting soil again!
 
#18 ·
<snip>

I started a six pack of the broccoli and will start another one in four weeks. That succession planting worked out pretty good last spring. Last year they produced more side shoots than they ever had. The broccoli will take up the other side of the bed the cabbages will be in.

It felt good to play with potting soil again!
Doesn't your variety of broccoli produce florets all summer? Mine does, Calabrese Green. After taking the big head, side shoots form all summer. The plants are big enough to resist rabbit predation, which is kind of a trade off because obviously the side shoots are smaller than the main head.
 
#19 ·
I sure wish the broccoli would go all summer but it gets too danged hot here and the broccoli plants just can't take it. The collards and kale hang in there but they're not as tasty.

Thinking about all of you folks up north in dangerous temps today! Be careful if you go out. Our "cold spell" will consist of 26 low, 46 high and wind for a few days before getting back up to the usual mid 30's-mid 50's range.

The parsley and arugula boxes have been inside for three days so this morning they went back outside for a day of sunshine. The parsley can probably take lower 20's at night but that's pretty borderline for the arugula. The front porch does provide a few degrees of protection but I'd rather have nice salad additions than wilty gunk. :)

 
#21 ·
What a beautiful day out there! A gusty line of storms came through quickly last evening, dumping 8/10" of rain and chasing away the cold, windy weather. At 9:30 it's already 61 out on the sunny front porch.

Today I will prep the spinach area and sow some. I've got the old standard 'Bloomsdale Longstanding' and a new-to-me one called 'Space'. The 'Space' is supposed to be very bolt resistant with a high percentage of female plants, high yields and possibly a 3-season spinach. We'll see.

The brassica seeds sown the other day are all up except the 'Flash' collards. It was original seed from 2012 so I just now reseeded those cells with seed I collected in 2014. Since 'Flash' is a hybrid, it should be interesting to see what comes from collected seed! Another experiment. At least the 'Alabama Blue' collards are up and running.

Here are the newly popped seeds up under the light. I basically use 3" deep cell packs and some rust colored cups I got free from where I worked (grabbed them out of the dumpster). Both grow a really good plant without having to transplant (I'm lazy) and Jung is the only place I've found that carries that size. The sown packs sit in styrofoam trays (that meat comes in from the grocery) for bottom watering and get covered with plastic wrap until the seedlings emerge. I have a whole carton of various trays. Duct tape labels. :)

 
#22 ·
There's not much going on here but I'm starting to prep the four pea beds. Had other stuff to do yesterday (grocery run, etc) but I got one pea bed turned over yesterday afternoon and will work on more today.

The first turnips are popping up. They were sown on Feb 2 when the weather was nice and then it turned cold again so they took their time coming up. I'll probably sow more today as I'm trying to keep succession planting going and not have a ton of turnips ready at once.

Orphan tomato update: It must like the shop light because it's at least doubled in size and I see the beginnings of tiny bud clusters forming. A long time until April planting outside! There's also a flower on the 'Much Nacho' pepper (another germination trial orphan) and yesterday I tickled it with a soft brush for pollination.

 
#23 ·
The four pea beds are now shovel-turned and yesterday I got one forked with the Beast. What I call the Beast is a 30 lb steel fork with four 16" tines. It sure gets down there and loosens the soil deeply.

The bed I beasted yesterday is right about at the edge of the canopy of an old black walnut tree and so feeder roots develop over a year and so every year they need to be busted up and pulled out. It was slow going and afterwards, for whatever reason, my left knee wasn't feeling so good. I have two total knee replacements that are now 16 years old so if I overdo in the garden, one or the other usually lets me know. It's ok this morning. Good, because I have a few kale plants to set out ahead of the rain.

On top of that, Friday night the well pump wouldn't shut off. Why do things always happen after hours and on a weekend? Long story short, I called the family run well company (in business 48 years) first thing yesterday morning and although they don't normally work on Saturdays, the nice owner sent out the grandson who does the fixing.

The 30 year old submersible pump had finally died, got replaced and $1200 later we have water again. Just one of those things. He said that pumps nowadays last only about 10-15 years. At least the new unit was made in the good old USA by a company in Seneca Falls, NY. Saaaalute!
 
#25 ·
I bought it five years ago and can't remember who I got it from! I've been trying to find it online by searching "broadforks" and have found some but nothing like mine. Mine is all steel and has one handle. All of the others have two handles; and only one had 16" tines available.

I got it to start loosening soil for building the raised beds. My soil has clay and sand mix. I usually stand on the fork and rock back and forth to get the tines down deep then get off and heave back. Some of the new bed areas were previous pathways and rock hard so those had to be pried up about 4-6" deep and then down another 4-6" until I got the tines all the way down. Those were booger bears to do.

Here's what I found online:

Two handles, four 12” or 14” tines
http://www.easydigging.com/broadfork.html

Two handles, four 12”, 14” or 16” tines
https://meadowcreature.com/broadforks

Two handles, 4 or 5 tines, 12” tines
http://www.valleyoaktool.com/broadfork/

Here are several pics of mine:







Specs (in case you have a welder in the family):

Tines - 16" long
Tine head - 18" across
Handle - 4' long pipe that fits down inside the head and is secured by two bolts (with nuts) that go all the way through the pipe.

It wasn't cheap (about $200) but my sister and I split the cost as a mutual Christmas gift and it's the best friend the garden's had. It'll last forever. It also has cut down on tilling as I can just beast up a hole or two for planting this and that or beast the whole bed. Once you've forked up a bed, subsequent forkings are rather easy and go a LOT quicker.

Hope this helps. :D:
 
#26 ·
The last few days I've had a case of gardenus interruptus with "stuff" intruding like rain, a meeting in another town and Find A Grave.com work. But last night, after a week of low 70's/high 60's, the weather report called for 29 this morning.

Having seeds just popping through and not wanting to take a chance, I decided to cover a few things in the garden. They were spinach, beets, turnips and radishes and thus pretty tough but still, just popping up and I didn't want to chance it. Might have been a good move as this morning we had a heavy frost. As soon as the sun cleared the trees I removed the covers.

Here's the tunnel I use with hoops made of the black plastic irrigation, 6 mil plastic and those clips that snap on to hold the plastic to the hoops.



Then for small area cover, I use tomato cages made of welded wire fencing by unhooking the cage, opening it up and sticking the ends in the ground to form a tunnel. I've also used these opened tomato cages over greens to keep the deer at bay until the plants are big enough that I need to start using the netting.



Over in the pasture the frost was still heavy in the shadow of a cedar tree while all the rest of it had melted with the rising sun.



Tomorrow I hope to get the peas planted.
 
#27 ·
It's a gorgeous blue sky day out there! A bit windy making 65 feel cooler but the sun's warm.

On Sunday and Monday I planted my English peas (as opposed to field or crowder peas) and sugar snaps. Did two double rowed beds of ‘Wando’ , one double rowed bed of ‘Sabre’ and half a bed of ‘Sugar Sprint’ snap peas. ‘Wando’ does well here since the weather can get warm in May and they do well in heat or cold. I tried ‘Sabre’ for the first time two years ago and they’ve done well too.

This is a pic of a double rowed pea bed. I use 18” tall strips of welded wire fence (2”x4” mesh) for support on each side of the bed and then plant a row of peas on each side of the fence. So for an 18’ bed I get 72 row feet of peas.



Today I planted ‘Melting Sugar’ snow peas on a 4’ wide welded wire fence trellis. I use two 4’x4’ panels hung from nails on the supporting poles and tied to the poles. That 4’ wide row of snow peas will make more than I need so this year I’m gonna play with dehydrating some.



Down the sides of the snow pea bed there are scallions ‘Guardsman’ and ‘Shimonita’ and ‘Carantan’ leeks that were set out early December. In late April when the soil warms enough I’m going to plant three ‘Tatume’ squash down the middle of the bed. I've already prepped the planting holes with manure and marked the hole locations. The seed came from Baker Creek. It’s one of this year’s garden “toys”. Native to Mexico, apparently it can be used like a summer squash when young and like a winter squash when older. Supposedly a rambunctious critter. Here’s a link to a great article about it:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/newsletters/hortupdate/2010/jun/tatume.html
 
#28 ·
Hopefully the scallions won't interfere with the growth of your peas, as members of the onion family tend to inhibit the growth of beans and peas. I always avoid planting them together, and always let at least a year (and other crops) go between planting beans and peas where members of the onion family have been previously.
 
#31 ·
I had never heard that! I actually looked up companion plants to see what is recommended. And I went to my picture file to see if I had planted my beans next to my garlic? I don't raise peas, so no worry there. Can't remember, but I do raise garlic and potato/Egyptian walking onions. Ah, no never mind. I do crop rotations, but never consider companion plantings. Not enough room in my little gardens. I do raise bush beans and pole beans. They're going where they're going. :D:
 
#29 ·
Yeah, I've read that too. This will be a good experiment as it's just a 4' wide strip of snow peas and not a whole bed of peas! But I do have a three year rotation on onion planting locations and try to do the three year rotation on all of the major plant families.

I like to push the envelope on stuff, "just to see." ;)
 
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