It's A Start (Non-Cannabis Gardening)

[Nanu/Nanu]

View attachment 1134677
My glove got in the way...Picked this up a month or so ago, need to repair some rot. I also have a customer that does rain gutters. I raided his scrap from tear offs. I need to square the ends, they remove with tin snips. Got enough to do both sides of my shop building. I've wanted to do it as backup for the animals if nothing else.

We kind of doubled up on some things expecting failures. I'd also thought of things going to seed, and learning how to dry and store seeds. Lots of reading...don't know much about planting and farming.

We've don some flowers, and lemon grass in pots at the end of the planters...all based on reading. Your garden looks amazing! I hope to get to that point, but it will take a bit of time, and a whole lot of learning.

Thank you for the kind words. Don't be fooled. We know nothing about complex gardening. We just till in shit haha and keep things watered.

It's definitely a labor of love. We should swap crops sometime! Haha

 

[Taboma]

Just a little feedback, mostly for long term development.

Raised beds in the temperate zone mean good germination and high yields, but they are kind of encumbered when average day/night temperatures, and thus temperatures of the soil in the raised bed, rises above 70 degrees or so (say >80 daytime and >60 at night for weeks at a time). It gets REALLY bad if the temps rise to an average of 80 or more. What happens is that fungi and bacteria and other soil microbes are encouraged. Good and BAD ones. The bad ones eat your roots, or encourage rust/mold that feed on leaves or stalks or roots.

You either need to chill the soil when this happens, (dump ice in once or twice a day) or plan for it and install a shadecloth cover in summer/fall.

If you experience chronic fungal soil infection, you will need to throw out all the soil, wash out the containers with bleach a couple times, then rebuild.

The good about the temperate zone is that the growing season is SO long. I was able to harvest lettuce and kale and other leafy stuff throughout the year.

Radishes and other root crops when the days were cooler.

Never had much luck with Tomatoes because no matter what I did, tobacco hornworms would show up and those darn things can devastate a plant in less than a week - they double in size daily by eating 4 times their weight by eating both day and night. Moths are a problem as well...all kinds of them, so if you start to see chewed leaves, get some steel cloth or some mesh to protect whatever they seem to want to munch on. Try to examine your plants for their eggs of that happens too...the eggs look like grain of sand size white or green globs. You will find lots of the baby larvae while you do that as well.

Here is a pic of my 2020 winter crop
View attachment 1134557
View attachment 1134565

here is some that I transplanted to give to my neighbors when the pandemic hit
View attachment 1134558

I have a boysenberry bush that is about 3 years old now...we get two or three cobblers out of it every year.



Some radishes seemed to smile back at us when we harvested them and sliced them for salad




here's the 2016 crop. pretty much year round harvesting, I would go out two or three times a week and pick off grown leaves, bring them in and wash them, and refrigerate...the pickings would last two or three days (obviously) in the mean time plants had grown and more big leaves were out there to harvest.

we also have a few fruit trees. Oranges planted last fall have not begun bearing, but our lemon tree yields about 100 lemons every four months or so...enough for a few jars of curd and three or four gallons of lemonade. We have a California native Madrone that also bears edible fruit...they look (and taste, sort of) like strawberries, but are a bit astringent...which means they are good
for you.

View attachment 1134563

They fall to the ground mostly...I eat one or two a day when they ripen in the fall. I let most of them fall to the ground, though...cause these little fellers love them



Good luck.

We have several Arbutus Marina (Strawberry) trees and one large Arbutus Unedo bush, the squirrels and bunnies love the fruit and the humming
birds are always competing for the flower nectar. I read it was edible, but have never tried one, I will now

 

[Nanu/Nanu]

Thank you for this thread monkey I'm really enjoying everyone's insight

 

[bentprops]

WOOD CHIPS lots and lots of WOOD CHIPS!
Back to Eden

 

[Gramps]

Tomato planting almost weed free...........

Here is what I do with the planting of the tomato plants, it eliminates a big part of the weed problem. I bury a 3 - 5 gallon nursery pot leaving the top inch or tow above ground level. These pots have drain holes on the bottom edge. Plant 2 tomato plants 180 degrees from each other right next to the pot...plant them DEEP. I make my own cages out of 3' high wire mesh with 2" x 4" holes ) this takes about a 5' length of wire. Secure the cage to a small "T post". When you water fill the pot and keep the water off of the ground...............makes a huge difference in the weed issue. I use a dry plant food, dump the food in the bucket and it will dissolve and go directly to the roots.

 

[Christopher Lucero]

Arbutus Marina

For sure. They are pretty good with ice cream on a warm autumn night. Wait til they fall off the tree if possible...at a minimum very red. Keep em on the counter til they soften, then in the fridge for a few days while they ripen and sweeten.

Our tree is Arbutus Menziesii. Local CNPS docents at Descanso say you should be grateful if you have a Madrone as they are not easy to grow, but locally our city has grown many Arbutus in the roadway medians, so IDK .

We also planted some Santa Cruz Island Ironwoods (Lyonothamnus Floribundus) after we visited a native grove on Santa Cruz Island while with the UC Berkeley Jepson Herbarium , we have a Honey Mesquite (Prosopsis Glandulosa) that bees LOVE (on a quiet spring day they are all over the tree, and we enjoy a constant 'buzz' ), a California Bay Laurel tree ( Umbellularia californica), some Toyon trees (Heteromeles arbutifolia), a Schinus Molle and a small Arctostaphylos collection.

Locally, we go to Theodore Payne to get natives.

 

[Christopher Lucero]

rain barrel for watering

YES! no chemicals. Its a chore to collect, but worth it.

 

[Christopher Lucero]

Picked this up a month or so ago

you probably know this, but...one tiny detail,

if you're gonna bury it, or even if not, be sure to put a catchment basin between the water collected and the pipe into the cistern. It will help maintain capacity for much longer by preventing silt accumulation.

 

[monkeyswrench]

you probably know this, but...one tiny detail,

if you're gonna bury it, or even if not, be sure to put a catchment basin between the water collected and the pipe into the cistern. It will help maintain capacity for much longer by preventing silt accumulation.

Not going to bury it. One of my customers/friends owns a few small water companies out here. He has a 3500gal poly tank that will be heading this way in 6-8 months due to a system upgrade. At which point, this one will be moved to the horse area, and gutters places on the shade cover...it's a 35x40ft. I want everything to stay somewhat mobile, in case of failure one can be relocated to maintain redundancy with the well.
Weird stuff I'd never given thought to while living in the city.

 

[Willie B]

Not going to bury it. One of my customers/friends owns a few small water companies out here. He has a 3500gal poly tank that will be heading this way in 6-8 months due to a system upgrade. At which point, this one will be moved to the horse area, and gutters places on the shade cover...it's a 35x40ft. I want everything to stay somewhat mobile, in case of failure one can be relocated to maintain redundancy with the well.
Weird stuff I'd never given thought to while living in the city.

…Living in the middle of 100 acres above Lake Oroville…had to invent or learn all kinds of interesting stuff…

 

[Gelcoater]

Another thing you should consider is planting flowers. We do this to help bring in bees for pollination. We also plant plants that help repel bugs. Its not a one all cure all but we haven't had crazy issues being overwhelmed by them.

Welp here are some pics of our garden!

View attachment 1134643 View attachment 1134644 View attachment 1134645 View attachment 1134646 View attachment 1134647 View attachment 1134648 View attachment 1134649 View attachment 1134650 View attachment 1134651 View attachment 1134652 View attachment 1134653

Dude!

Any by the way, that brindle coat dog looks scary as fuck

 

[Gelcoater]

Tomato planting almost weed free...........

Here is what I do with the planting of the tomato plants, it eliminates a big part of the weed problem. I bury a 3 - 5 gallon nursery pot leaving the top inch or tow above ground level. These pots have drain holes on the bottom edge. Plant 2 tomato plants 180 degrees from each other right next to the pot...plant them DEEP. I make my own cages out of 3' high wire mesh with 2" x 4" holes ) this takes about a 5' length of wire. Secure the cage to a small "T post". When you water fill the pot and keep the water off of the ground...............makes a huge difference in the weed issue. I use a dry plant food, dump the food in the bucket and it will dissolve and go directly to the roots.
View attachment 1134953

You’re basically doing a modern version of Olla irrigation which is a millennia old technique.

I shopped around for some and no one local carries them. So I made my own.
Unglazed clay pots, siliconed together and a small piece of ceramic tile siliconed over the bottom hole.

Leak testing after they dried and they do what the YouTube geek said they would.
Slowly “sweat” the water out.

I’m experimenting with them for the first time this season.
June 19,2022
Garlic, radish (the ones going to seed) and carrots...and arugula. The arugula was all volunteers.

 

[Gelcoater]

And in other resent developments...
And, I know this is a non canibis growing thread, but bear with me here.

I have a 6-7 gallon pot out back that has a nice pot plant growing in it, another volunteer.
I decided to plant some potato around one side of the pot as there was plenty of room.
Also started 3 grow bags just to the left of this big pot with more potato starts.



And they really took off


One by one they disappeared.
I suspected maybe a rat? Grasshoppers? We did have a bunch roll through the last couple of weeks.
Or? Is it Millie the Doberman?
Little witch loves finding my cabbage and carrots, why not potato plants?
The thing is she usually is a sloppy thief and leaves a remnant or some evidence.

Today!!!
My boy Rocky solved the riddle.
A fuckin squirrel!!
He happened to poke his nose under the sugar cane and pow! A squirrel is running for his life!
Had Rocky been 7 year old Rocky rather than 10 working on 11 Rocky, I’d no longer have a squirrel problem today
But now I at least know my target
Lil bastard is going to DIE!

 

[Gelcoater]

 

[Nanu/Nanu]

Dude!

Any by the way, that brindle coat dog looks scary as fuck

Hahaha he's the most gentle non aggressive dog we have. Runs for cover if anyone raises their voice. He's a bull mastiff rottweiler mix. Rescued him as a puppy.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Ok, little update: My garden is lazy, and a bit slow! It is producing though. My soil mixture is way off, but have been composting for the next go around. Learned about tomato worms...and learned to check for them twice a day and feed chickens! Right now the battle is with grasshoppers...something biblical going on. With the monsoons, we get them.
Here was this morning's haul. About this much every couple days. Beets are miniscule, a few cucumbers and zucchini...but damn, we have a salsa garden this year!

Also getting some bell peppers as well. Jalapeño and tomato omlettes from our yard are pretty good! Learned how to pickle and can a couple weeks ago too

 

[retaocleg]

Raised planting kicks ass when you live on property. Up here (Shasta Co.) the enemies are gophers, jack rabbits, ground squirrels and deer. Livestock troughs are broadly available, sturdy and, and competitive cost wise compared to other alternatives (unless you score surplus big-ass drain pipe). 10 foot tall fence keeps the deer out but they lie in the shade about 10' away, wifey talks to em...

Todays bounty: tomatoes and peppers done blowed up.
View attachment 1134470

View attachment 1134471 View attachment 1134472

Onions did good this winter too. I smell some killer salsa in my future. View attachment 1134473

tomorrows baller status

 

[retaocleg]

planting flowers all around to bring in pollinators is a solid play and not just bees, they have been decimated by glyphosate and nicotine based pesticides

 

[Gelcoater]

 

[ltbaney1]

View attachment 1152860

Pineapple?

 

[Gelcoater]

Pineapple?

Yep

 

[retaocleg]

wonder when the plan will be to stop home gardens, you know, for sustainability.........but it is funny, most go organic

 

[Gelcoater]

wonder when the plan will be to stop home gardens, you know, for sustainability.........but it is funny, most go organic, thus home growing

Catch up with the times, man.
Do a search for Michigan Right to Farm act.

 

[retaocleg]

Catch up with the times, man.
Do a search for Michigan Right to Farm act.

i am an organic guy.........no need to add what has sustained us for generations........trying to add genes to something to stop being able to reproduce is enough for me..........which they are adding gene edits, it only stops us from reproducing food

 

[retaocleg]

grow food, feed your family............sounds drastic now, but it will make sense later............

 

[retaocleg]

i get the laughs.................hahaha, yuo will see...........look at the crop reports...............stilll laughs.............but you were warned

 

[retaocleg]

funny how you can warn, be recency bias is more powerful...........buy it now, it will never be cheaper

 

[Gelcoater]

grow food, feed your family............sounds drastic now, but it will make sense later............

It doesn’t sound drastic to me?
My grandparents were from the depression era. Growing meant eating.

 

[retaocleg]

for smome reason ny comment got taken down cuz

It doesn’t sound drastic to me?
My grandparents were from the depression era. Growing meant eating.

apparently the mods think it threatened the life of another poster, deleted a post.......when have i ever done that?

 

[retaocleg]

craziness........i came back here to get away from the shadow banning for talking truth, i said nothing of the sort

post it.........let the board be the guide

 

[stingray11]

The wife Is the gardener in this family and she's Dang good at it. I hunt and fish she gardens

 

[monkeyswrench]

The wife Is the gardener in this family and she's Dang good at it
View attachment 1152890 View attachment 1152891 View attachment 1152892

Neither of us are gardeners here. This season for us has been primarily a learning expedition. I figure it's best to learn before being hungry.

 

[DarkJuJu]

we are getting overrun with these damn horned worms chowing though my peppers and tomotos, what do you guys do to battle these pests? Currently i go out every night pretty much with a black light and hunt them and those darn neon green crickets.

 

[Gelcoater]

we are getting overrun with these damn horned worms chowing though my peppers and tomotos, what do you guys do to battle these pests? Currently i go out every night pretty much with a black light and hunt them and those darn neon green crickets.

Well that’s good to know!
Had no idea black light lit up horned worms too.
Thanks

 

[monkeyswrench]

we are getting overrun with these damn horned worms chowing though my peppers and tomotos, what do you guys do to battle these pests? Currently i go out every night pretty much with a black light and hunt them and those darn neon green crickets.

That's the F'r right there! I ended up putting up netting. 1.5" square, maybe smaller. Top and sides of the garden. The moths that those turn into are huge, and can't make it through. They lay their eggs on the stems and bottom of the leaves, white dotted areas. I scraped them off with my thumbnail too.

 

[retaocleg]

good info here.......

 

[monkeyswrench]

Well, I apparently have a "condiment" garden. So far, all the stuff you add to a salad
Pepperchinnies are going gang busters, and so are the jalapeños and tomatoes. More than I can eat with salads, burgers and omelets. So, looked into canning "whole" cherry tomatoes, and also made a few jars of "RoTel from hell"...diced jalapeño and tomatoes, cooked and canned.

I figure the Rotel stuff will be good to use on whatever freezer burnt stuff is left for the apocalypse, but also works well with eggs and such. I think tomorrow I may be making pickles.

Pretty weird really. Not long ago I'd have been parking the water toys for the season, and digging the bikes out. Not many trips on the water this year...maybe another couple in the coming weeks. It's odd though, today my wife went into "town" to get groceries, and I worked in the garden and am canning stuff.

Life's full of surprises. I'd have never thought 15 years ago where I'd be now, and what I'd be doing.
Foods better on a plate than from a bag. My blood pressure is better than it's been in years, and thus my temper is in check.

Good weekends doing nothing in particular!

 

[Gelcoater]

Pineapple plant is starting to grow it’s own top.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Still putting along...still getting some tomatoes and peppers. Got some mini carrots too. As I said, it's a start. It's also therapy for me. Teaching me patience and that I can't control things. Been a lot more than a garden this year.

 

[Enen]

We picked up a tower garden a couple of years back. We can grow fruits and veggies right in our kitchen.
www.towergarden.com

 

[monkeyswrench]

We picked up a tower garden a couple of years back. We can grow fruits and veggies right in our kitchen.
www.towergarden.com

Looks like a hookah from space! Never seen one before. If I rearrange my garage/gym, that wouldn't be a bad thing to have in there.

We are shooting to grow more next spring. Learned more about soil and composting too. Trying to work a deal with a neighbor for another tractor. His is diesel, has power steering, and may come with a giant rototiller. If I swing that, I'll work some of the horse manure into a plot by the garden, and try some in-ground stuff next spring.

 

[kimbalee]

Raised planting kicks ass when you live on property. Up here (Shasta Co.) the enemies are gophers, jack rabbits, ground squirrels and deer. Livestock troughs are broadly available, sturdy and, and competitive cost wise compared to other alternatives (unless you score surplus big-ass drain pipe). 10 foot tall fence keeps the deer out but they lie in the shade about 10' away, wifey talks to em...

Todays bounty: tomatoes and peppers done blowed up.
View attachment 1134470

View attachment 1134471 View attachment 1134472

Onions did good this winter too. I smell some killer salsa in my future. View attachment 1134473

wow - this is badass - love the trough idea. How cold/hot does it get up there and what material did u use for the sun shade?

 

[lenmann]

wow - this is badass - love the trough idea. How cold/hot does it get up there and what material did u use for the sun shade?

Thanks, this has been our best year so far.

We can get frost as late as April, but it’s rare and not too hard, usually a day or two max. Most of our plants go in the tubs in late March. Summer can get really hot, as high as 110, but it will cool off in the evening. We roll the shade cloth out in early May. It’s 70% cloth that we bought on eBay. It has helped keep the soil in the tubs cool, and keeps the peppers and tomatoes producing through the summer months.

 

[Nanu/Nanu]

Got a break in the weather for the weekend and maybe next week. Mrs. Nanu was wanting a green house last year but her mind has since changed and now she wants a chicken coop. We are not allowed to have chickens in our neighborhood (lame HOA) so im building this coup to look like a garden shed from the street. And on the back side we will have our run. My wife is super helpful and her dad is probably my second best friend and very knowledgeable about construction practices. So they helped out a ton!

So here is how far we got yesterday.

 

[Gelcoater]

Still putting along...still getting some tomatoes and peppers. Got some mini carrots too. As I said, it's a start. It's also therapy for me. Teaching me patience and that I can't control things. Been a lot more than a garden this year.
View attachment 1164017

I e had carrots grow like yours.
I’m still learning too.

A deeper penetration with your watering.
That’s what I learned there
Still learning it actually

Finding being less gentle( they’ll bounce back) and blasting water down deep is helping as long as it gets a good shower after to rinse away soil that splattered.

Sometimes I need to shake some water weight off the foliage so they can stand up.

 

[stokerwhore]

So I got half an acre back yard now and always had in mind that I would grow stuff. The info and styles of doing so seem endless. I think I need to reread wash11’s thread. Chickens are also in the list sort of. Will they chow down on everything in a garden or just eat the bugs? Starting to figure out where to put things in the yard among the other stuff that’s there already and wonder if chickens and gardens need to be separate areas completely. I like the split tube raised bed deal. I’ve had my eye on different raised bed ideas for some time now. Some seem really expensive which wouldn’t be s big deal if my confidence of success was higher lol. This thread is great because it reminded me that it’s march…. Already! I need to just bust a move.

 

[Orange Juice]

View attachment 1134677
My glove got in the way...Picked this up a month or so ago, need to repair some rot. I also have a customer that does rain gutters. I raided his scrap from tear offs. I need to square the ends, they remove with tin snips. Got enough to do both sides of my shop building. I've wanted to do it as backup for the animals if nothing else.

We kind of doubled up on some things expecting failures. I'd also thought of things going to seed, and learning how to dry and store seeds. Lots of reading...don't know much about planting and farming.

We've don some flowers, and lemon grass in pots at the end of the planters...all based on reading. Your garden looks amazing! I hope to get to that point, but it will take a bit of time, and a whole lot of learning.

That going to make one big still.

 

[Nanu/Nanu]

Went to work at 5 sunday night got home at 3 am Monday morning slept until 730 got up an got back after it again. We ran out of tar paper, haha ran out on the ridge. Sooooo close!!! Yeah its coming along.

 

[Nanu/Nanu]

So took last weekend off for a dune trip got back after it today.

Got 99%of the exterior trim done and all the doors hung and trimmed. Roughed in some electrical and hung some wall panels. Probably another day or two left.

If anyone was wondering Price point Compared to a tuff shed. We're about 2500 into this right now and can see it being about 3500 all together. And this is 10'x14'. Which locally was priced about 5000.

 

[monkeyswrench]

That's a nice chicken coop! Hell, that's a "casita" in some places! (For Cali folks, I think it's an ADU) Looking real good!