Commentor RoonieRoo called my bluff:
My gardening is almost exclusively confined to my vegetable garden When I am good on the planning and diligent on spending enough time in the garden, I can produce a significant amount of our dinners in our small patch. My gardening style is best described as organized chaos.
Grumpy Code Monkey and I live and garden in the Austin area – zone 8b. We are specifically on the Blackland Prairie. That means I have to do raised beds as my dirt is what we call 10 o’clock dirt. It’s too wet to work at 9:59 a.m. and too dry to scratch at 10:01 a.m. Also called gumbo and F—— clay.
I’ve just finished planting the last bed for the fall/winter garden. I currently have 32 broccoli, 2 chard, Lortz garlic in the back (enough for 144 heads at harvest), and mixed beds of beets, carrots, lettuce, mustard, bok choi, radishes, arugula and cress.
Harvest is just at the very beginning where we are eating the thinnings of greens and radishes as “micro greens”. Another month I should start to get the beginnings of broccoli with the other greens. By December we will start getting carrots/beets in the small stage (the cold really slows the growth) and by January/February it will be carrot and beet madness as the broccoli starts to wrap up.
At the top of the post is my favorite rosebush in the yard. It’s called Republic of Texas.
The perfect example of our organized chaos. The garden is 8 years old in its current state and the fence and beds show it. One day, we’ll do a rebuild.
My brand new compost bin that Grumpy built me this season.
Typical fall/winter bed containing radishes, lettuce, beets, carrots, bok choi.
radishes are almost ready to come out so the carrots will have more breathing room.
I’m starting to see the very first shoots of garlic. In the south we grow soft neck garlic that will be ready in June.
The baby bok choi nestled in the radish leaves is going to be part of dinner tonight.
You can easily the order of the beds planting. They are each about a week to 2 weeks apart. #5 was planted today and the last one for the season.
I have to include the “Garden Dogs”. This one is Gregor, my old man.
This one is Isaac, he’s 18 months old and full of himself.
************
What’s going on in your gardens this week?
raven
Great garden and wonderful mutts! Gregor looks like he might have a little shar pei in him with that snout.
JPL
Wow, what a spectacular garden. I put my fall seeds in to late, so probably no kale this year.
Today is leaf gathering day. I’m going to start around 8:30 because the Falcons play at 9:30. Normally on Sunday, I’ll wait until after nine because the blower makes so much noise.
satby
Really impressive Ronnie Roo! Winter garden produce, a concept us northerners can only imagine. Looks great.
I’m not sure if I’ll start moving the mountains of leaves from my fast fading sugar maples or if I’ll finally cut back the rest of the morning glory and shrubbery around the deck. As long as we keep having decent weather I keep holding off because I don’t want new growth to start. I still have flowers blooming in spite of the 4 light frosts we’ve had. Not that I’m complaining…
Patricia Kayden
Love those dog photos.
munira
Today I plan to dig up the horseradish. After that, the only things still out there will be kale, swiss chard, lettuce and parsnips and various herbs which stay all winter. It’s been a crazy autumn with lots of changes in the weather but the leaves are mostly gone now and it’s starting to look more like November than October. A lot of my attention has turned to getting the firewood in.
Betty Cracker
Lovely dogs! Nice looking garden too!
JPL
OT.. Bill Clinton seems to think he had it worse than the current President but he got work done.
He should shut his trap because Fox News didn’t become a big factor in politics until late in his Presidency. He did get some things done i.e., NAFTA and repealing Glass-Steagall. Good job Bill.
tybee
what type of wood is the compost bin constructed from?
Cervantes
@munira:
Once “some place with no memories,” now home again breathing tang of horseradish and rhythm of fire and wood.
Lives are everyday miracles.
Joel
I see coakley is losing again. Why are the mass democrats so useless? The party apparatus needs to be stripped and burned.
debbie
@JPL:
Quite a world we’re in when everyone has it worse than everyone else.
JCT
@debbie: because everything is about meeeeee! “Public servants” – feh.
Season just ended for our first spring-summer garden out here in the Sonoran desert. Husband came in with a couple of pints of grape tomatoes and a few lbs of eggplants. Now that the temps are finally in the 80s will be re-tilling the garden and figuring out what to grow this “winter”!
gelfling545
Planting daffodil, grape hyacinth & tulip bulbs today. This is the the first time in years I’m trying tulips as the squirrels seem to love them above all other food sources but I was tempted by all the colors & shapes. We’ll see. Then I’ll do what will probably be the last mowing of my tiny lawn for this year.
That is one lovely vegetable garden. Mine is never that tidy or organized but at this point is only about 3×5 & a few pots of things.
munira
@Cervantes: So true.
mai naem
I couldn’t read the NYT hostage story all the way through. Now,I see Kornacki discussing it and Foley’s parents weren’t impressed with Obama’s condolence call “made during a golf game” – I don’t even want to know how Fox is going to deal with this. And I guess the mom told Obama Foley worked hard to get him elected. Jeezus. Just put a fork in the Dems already. I know this isn’t just about politics but I am sick and tired of Obama being blamed for this sheit when this crap all needs to be laid at the feet of Cheney and Bush. It absolutely pisses me off that Cheney is actually even asked to comment on any of Obama’s policy. And they had Good Job Brownie on CNN talking about Ebola! Really? WTF? Are they going to have Anthony Weiner as the expert talking about how to correctly deal with a sex/no sex scandal?
monkeyfister
Gregor looks like he’ll be ready to pick in a few days. What do you plan to plant in that space after harvesting the dog?
Are there any crop rotation issues?
rikyrah
Chicago Folks and Suburban Cook County Folks?
Haven’t registered to vote and want to vote?
Want to vote to get it out of the way?
Yes, you can do EITHER ON on SUNDAY.
Take your Soul to the Polls!
For more information about where to vote:
Chicago Folks:
http://www.chicagoelections.com/en/early-voting.html
Suburban Cook County Folks:
http://www.cookcountyclerk.com/elections/earlyvoting/Pages/EarlyVotingLocations.aspx
Glidwrith
It looks like the compost bin boards on the front are held up or in as the bin fills. Is that correct?
monkeyfister
@JPL: Using hoops and some clear visqueen, you can make mini greenhouses, and get your Kale jump started and big enough to survive.
Baud
@mai naem:
Quite apart from Bush and Cheney, it’s stupid to think that Obama can guarantee the safety of every American abroad, much less those captured in a war zone. Foley’s parents are hurting, so I can have some sympathy for their misdirected anger. But it’s ridiculous for any news network, much less a supposedly liberal one, to treat it as a serious critique.
Violet
Gorgeous! You’re far ahead of me. I’ve been busy and haven’t had a chance to get in the garden. Took out volunteer sweet potatoes yesterday. Have another bed to do today. They came up in the summer when I was so busy with my parents’ health problems and I just left them. Then I had to clear them out to put anything in and that never happened. So now I’m behind.
I’ll be putting in some brassica transplants today. I’m ever-optimistic with brussels sprouts but they never do much. Too far south. I’ll probably give it a go again this year. Last year I had the most amazing purple cauliflower. Couldn’t eat it fast enough and had to give some away. I don’t know if I’ll be able to repeat that this year but there is nothing like home grown cauliflower.
I miss radishes. They’re going in today. And onions have volunteered. I was too busy to harvest, they went to seed, and seeds scattered and now I’ve got my own sets coming up in one bed. I’ll transplant those today too.
monkeyfister
@Glidwrith: I’ve built this design before. Yes, the slats slide into a channel made by the front styles and a spacer board the width of the front slats. You can also see the little angled spacers on the slats themselves that allow air and drainage. I made mine with deconstructed pallets. It’s a great design. “Mother Earth News” has the plans in their archive. http://www.motherearthnews.com/
MomSense
Gorgeous garden, Ronnie Roo. I enjoy seeing your helpers Isaac and Gregor.
My mom is visiting so that means I am forced to watch the Sunday shows. Chuck Todd talked to a dozen real voters in Iowa and Wisconsin. Of course it’s good news for John McCain.
The Ebola discussion was all about how some say this and some say that and the President didn’t act so Republicans can use it to point out how bad he is.
I’m eagerly awaiting his in depth discussion of big money in politics. Do they expect anything from their contributions?
LahDeeDah
As a fellow Centex-an and gardener, I must congratulate RoonieRoo and GCM on their gardening prowess. I’ve got kale, collards, chard, lettuce, garlic and shallots sprouting in my various raised beds. If you’re dealing with gumbo, you must be near or east of 35. The further west you go, the soil turns into rocky caliche, which also calls for raised bed gardening. Gardening in this area is quite the challenge, and for me, a labor of love. Gregor looks like a sweet guy I rescued from the streets a couple of years ago. He is now living on a 300 acre ranch with his mama, who is a good friend.
RoonieRoo
@raven: Pretty much ever person that is dog savvy looks at him and says he has to be part shar-pei. He has a fun story though. A friend of mine went to our local shelter and picked out his mom. His mom was sweet but she had been running around for a very long time and she was very ill and very skinny. She was too sick to be spayed so they adopted her to my friend with the agreement that when she was well enough, they would spay her. Well, with care, she started to look healthier and then she popped out a litter of pups! Nobody checked if she was already pregnant! The shelter was mortified that they had adopted out a pregnant dog. Gregor was one of that littler of pups. The shelter kindly paid for all the pups initial puppy care and vaccinations to help my friend in finding homes for all 7 pups. If you look at the litter, all the dogs look like they had different fathers. They are a pretty motley crew.
Glidwrith
@monkeyfister: Most excellent. I have been thinking of a variation on this to use as a potato cage. I understand potatoes need to be buried as they grow and my first attempt resulted in a huge mound of wasted soil and a dried out plant because moisture didn’t get down far enough.
tybee
@monkeyfister:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/recycled-wooden-compost-bin-ze0z1404zcov.aspx#axzz3HG9Hz95v
RoonieRoo
@tybee: Grumpy used untreated cedar.
Josie
Your garden is an inspiration for me, Ronnie Roo, since I have just moved to central Texas. I am too disorganized at this point to do much gardening, but I am making notes for next year. Thanks for the pictures of your two faithful helpers. I have two who will be busy chasing off the two squirrels who visit my back yard on a regular bases.
ETA: When will you start planting your spring garden?
raven
@RoonieRoo: Love it!
RoonieRoo
@gelfling545: My Texas Gardener magazine just did an article about the many ways to attempt to defeat squirrels from stealing your bulbs. It was a depressing read as it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of ways to win that war.
RoonieRoo
@monkeyfister: A nice ripe Gregor usually takes 220 days to maturity. I’m hoping to try a little bit of corgi next.
RoonieRoo
@Glidwrith: The front boards are removable. The bottom one is a bit out of kilter in that photo. But I have boards that go all the way up as I fill it. But I’m finding that I will probably never get it really above 5 boards as much deeper than that is very hard to turn. But the rest of the boards server to keep curious Labradors out.
monkeyfister
@Glidwrith: I grow potatoes in *big* flower pots. Four inches of soil, then the pieces of seed spud, then three inches of soil. Cover them up to new growth (leave ~3″ of plant sticking out) as they grow. When soil reaches the top, plant in a few Bush Beans to keep away Potato Beetles. After the spuds bloom, and start going yellow, harvest the Beans, and dump the pot over for spud harvest. Don’t re-plant into same soil.
Old tires with sides drilled out work too. Stack them up.
monkeyfister
@RoonieRoo: EXCELLENT!
RoonieRoo
@Violet: I have never had very good luck with Brussel Sprouts. I’ve tried every thing to get a good harvest but I just don’t get enough for the space they can take. I decided a couple of years ago that I get more from a single broccoli plant or cabbage than the Brussel Sprout attempts.
monkeyfister
@Glidwrith: Also– I can’t re-state this enough: NEVER re-plant potatoes in the same soil/place. Blight and other diseases soon follow, and once Blight is in your garden, your tomatoes and eggplant, and everything else in the Nightshade family will suffer.
Glidwrith
@monkeyfister: Hmmm. Might be easier than constructing a bunch of cages. Just to play dumb, why wouldn’t you use the same soil? Or maybe use for a different crop? I have very limited space so there wouldn’t be much space to dump soil.
Edit – and you beat me to the answer. So noted. Does the same hold true for tomatoes?
monkeyfister
@tybee: That’s the very one!
RoonieRoo
@Josie: Welcome to Central Texas!!! Are you near Austin? If you are, I highly highly recommend Natural Gardener. It’s quite a drive out to for me but it is very well worth it as they are diligent on only stocking what does well in our area and in the precise time frames for correct planting.
March is when we start our spring/summer plantings of tomatoes, summer squash and the like. You can expect our last freeze to be sometime in March. But if you wait until after the last freeze, you might be too late. So it’s a good idea to be ready to plant tomatoes in early March and have your freeze blankets ready at the drop of a hat.
Patrick
@JPL:
Of course Clinton got work done. Unlike Obama, he actually managed to get health care reform through Congress…
Oh and by the way, when Bill took office in 1993, the economy was much, much worse than than in 2009 when Obama took office. So it was harder for Mr Clinton.
WaterGirl
Wow, your gardening is an inspiration.
P.S. I seem to have developed a kind instant crush on Gregor.
@monkeyfister: So clever. This is why I come to balloon juice.
RoonieRoo
@monkeyfister: No freaking kidding! What I’ve resorted to is growing potatoes every other year and only in a bin to the side that I can completely empty out. This year the bin contains some purple sprouting broccoli. Next year, it will be potatoes again.
Sadly, I haven’t had the best luck with my potatoes even though. But I keep trying.
monkeyfister
@Glidwrith: You can re-use the soil elsewhere. Just not with Nightshades. Same thing with members of the Kohl family (Cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, etc.) . Clubroot is the disease to avoid there. Also, NEVER follow a Kohl crop with a bean crop (or visavis) or plant within two-feet of each other. They hate each other. Crops will be stunted if they grow at all.
Also– consider window boxes as tiny raised-bed gardens. I had a wonderful garden on an 8’x15′ balcony once. Used hoops and visqueen for itty-bitty hothouses for early and late plantings.
WaterGirl
Once again I have failed to mark my flowers, and once again in the spring I will be wondering exactly where my bleeding hearts and other flowers are planted. That led me to think I would like to document my garden using software, but googling was not very successful.
Does anyone here use software to either plan or document their flower beds? (My computer is a mac.)
WereBear
@RoonieRoo: Gregor and crew beat some high odds! Abandoned moms have a really tough time.
The good side of 7b is the looooooooong growing season.
chopper
@JPL:
In bill clinton’s world, everything is about bill clinton.
monkeyfister
Here is my VERY detailed, long-form flower pot potatoes guide: http://politicook.net/2008/04/12/growing-potatoes-in-containers/
Gotta love the internets. Forgot I wrote this!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@WaterGirl: LibreOffice includes a pretty-good drawing package (Draw) and a pretty-good PPT clone (Impress). I occasionally use it to make skethes, draw room layouts, etc. It’s easy to use, and free.
There are lots of versions – pick the appropriate one.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
shelley
Beautiful garden! Looks pretty damn organized to me.
Love Gregor. Why, you tilled and smoothed all that nice sun-warmed soil just for me, didn’t you?
monkeyfister
A bit more on small-space gardening: http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-on-small-space-gardening.html
My old blog is a font of gardening tips. Use the search (top-left) “gardening” or plant of your choice… I should have something good for you there.
Cervantes
@WaterGirl: Pencil and paper should cover the basics but there are, indeed, some fancy gadgets you can use if you are so inclined. (The first one requires a subscription to use; the second is free (I think). Let me know if you want me to mention other possibilities.)
WaterGirl
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: No sketching or drawing for my – if you asked me to draw a picture of a person in front of a house, it would still be a stick person and a square house with a door and a couple of windows, completely indistinguishable from a child’s drawing.
But I appreciate your reply nonetheless. You are always so helpful!
WaterGirl
@Cervantes: Those would be perfect for a vegetable garden – I would love to find something like that for my flower gardens.
monkeyfister
@WaterGirl: I just use a basic spreadsheet to map out my raised-beds, as everything is based on Square-Foot Gardening the grid works. For irregularly-shaped flower beds out front, I just sort of abstract it down to squares. Easiest way I have found. Pencil and paper work.
RoonieRoo
@WaterGirl: I spent a lot of time looking and trying different software. But in the end, the best thing I found was a bunch of graph paper in a notebook and a plain old journal to keep track of my dates. Best part is I can take my notebook and journal into the garden with me.
Cervantes
@WaterGirl:
You might try this.
And good luck.
RoonieRoo
@shelley: Gregor is pretty positive the whole garden was built specifically for him. He was just a puppy when we started building it and we dubbed him the “Hole inspector” as he had to inspect every single hole we dug to make sure it was the exact right size.
Josie
@RoonieRoo: Thanks for the good information. The Natural Gardener is quite a ways from me, but maybe I can get a friend to make a day of it and drive up there to explore. Funny – my grandparents had a farm on Bee Caves Road back in the day when it was out in the country. I have always wanted to live in the hill country because of my memories of that farm. Granddaddy was a retired postal worker and the farm was his life long dream. It was a happy place.
Glidwrith
@monkeyfister: I will peruse it with joy. However, to all the wonderful experts here: there are so many varieties of vegetables that I am overwhelmed with what might work for me. (Whimper) Just one kind of tomato? I didn’t even know there was such a thing as soft necked garlic.
Tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, onion, squash. I am in zone 22 or 23 in San Diego according to Sunset.
Help? Please?
satby
@monkeyfister: Good stuff! Thanks! I wondered why my potatoes did worse every year!
WaterGirl
@Cervantes: I downloaded that and will try it out. Something someone said here made me think of my iPad, so I tried searching for iPad apps for flower garden design, and a couple of those look like they might be just what I am looking for.
Has anyone here tried iScape? I got the free version and was able to take a photo with my iPad, draw a circle where my circular planting bed is, add some cedar mulch, add a hydrangea to the center of my bed, and with a pinch, size it to be about the size of my hydrangea.
Very pleased so far! To add the other flowers I have, I need to buy the actual version for about 10 bucks, and that will have to wait until the first of the month because all my discretionary money has gone to political candidates!
I wonder if the software will allow me to remove all the falling leaves so I can see the grass underneath. If only actual mulching and leaf removal were that simple!
WereBear
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Excellent suggestion! When Mavericks blew up so many aspects of Numbers & Pages, Libre Office became a real GO-TO option that I use to this day.
WaterGirl
@Cervantes: This is the real Cervantes, correct? And by “real”, I mean the one who has been commenting here for a very long time. I wish there was a way to know who was who. I wish the new guy Would use a lower case “c” or something! :-)
Newdealfarmgrrrlll
Wonderful vegetable garden!
Yesterday I transplanted some volunteer prairie natives from the front “fancy” garden to the far back yard. With a bit more rearranging in front that will open room for the lily bulbs I ordered.
Today I’m going to plant lilies, asters, and crocus at my daughter’s house.
This coming week I will harvest onions and check the parsnip patch … anything else that gets done is a bonus granted by the weather staying decent!
Katherine
an inspiring garden ! thanks so much for all the pictures / i love it
WaterGirl
@WereBear: I like that Pages and Numbers are now free. Yay!
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I’m a little surprised that the system (Anne Laurie?) even allows that to happen.
On the other hand, I’ve been interested in changing my nym to WaterGirl, so it’s nice to know I have that option.
Violet
@RoonieRoo: I know, they’re constantly disappointing. I’ve gotten the really little sprouts but have never got around to harvesting them before they open up leaves. I should just go ahead and harvest them and have some sort of a dish with the tiny things. But I’m always hopeful they’ll continue to grow and get to a reasonable size. Of course they don’t and then I’m left with nothing.
I’m off to the garden center now to get transplants. I’m so far behind on fall planting it’s ridiculous but I figure why not give it a go.
Oh, do you have peas in yet–sugar snaps and snow peas? I usually plant those in Dec/Jan but have started them this early and have had some luck.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Baud: I always assume it’s the same person, just logging in from different computer/browser. E.g. aimai / Aimai.
Cheers,
Scott.
monkeyfister
@Glidwrith: San Diego is USDA Zone 10b.The drought makes reccos for the San Diego area a bit tougher than it should be. In normal times, there is next to NOTHING you can’t grow there (barring tropical exotics). Are you legally able to collect rainwater and dew? Make your limited water work for you, and help it to do so. If your area doesn’t have a Neighborhood Nazi Association, start ripping out useless ornamentals, and replace with edibles! If you dig out existing, compacted soil, and replace with a mix of 1/3 Peat, 1/3 Vermiculite, and 1/3 Compost/Composted Manures– Composted Seaweed is probably cheap in your area– your soil will be like a sponge– holding water for a lot longer than the compacted dirt, and will give your plants everything they need. **Don’t ever walk on that mix though**
Those (inedible) ornamental purple cabbages? Screw them! Plant REAL Purple Cabbages– they are every bit as lovely. Grow Pole Beans and Cukes up string trellises for attractive privacy screens that provide shade AND food! I once put windowboxes on the deck of a balcony, stretched and stapled twine to the deck and the overhead, and let the plants grow up them. composted the twine later.
Rosemary is drought-resistant, and grows into a rather large bush. Thyme and Oregano are too, and make excellent ground-cover if planted close. Most herbs will do fine started now and planted in. Good time to put in some strawberries, I’d think.
Now is a great time to plant in lettuces, cabbages, all the greens– Rainbow Swiss Chard will grow as a Perennial for two years, as will Collards, if you only harvest outer leaves, and clip off any bolt shoots. Both make lovely front yard plants. Bok Choy and Romaine Lettuces look awesome in the front yard flower gardens.
caroln
I love Sunday morning garden chat. In regards to tulips, in Michigan, they are planted 6-8 inches deep. No way a squirrel can dig that deep. They just wait til spring when they are in full bloom and all their glory to shred them to pieces. It’s fun!
chopper
@Glidwrith:
Depends on where you are in SD, but either way your biggest issue will be water.
Garlic isn’t the best idea, as garlic typically likes colder winters. You’ll do fine with greens over winter tho.
Mulching is smart for retaining moisture, but where you are you’ll have slugs the size of cats. You can fix that but it’s another thing to do.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Patrick:
Clinton was impeached; I’m willing to give him the point.
After the garden itself, the compost bin was my most ambitious construction project to date (I’m in software for a reason). I used 4 x 4″ cedar posts, 5 1/2″ and 3 1/2″ cedar fence pickets for the base and the sides, along with some 1/2″ and 1/4″ wire mesh to line the 3 fixed sides. As per usual, there was no detailed plan and the thing evolved as I was building it, but this time my chaotic construction methods worked out pretty well. The sides are actually square and everything.
Cervantes
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Two distinct people, one always linking the name to a web-site, the other not.
RoonieRoo
@Violet: Peas are a conundrum for me. In general, if I plant a lot than I get enough for it to be worth it but I really have to dedicate a lot of garden space. I have had better success with the fall planting than I have had with the spring planting. I always seem to be racing that heat no matter when I plant for spring. But peas got dumped out of my plan for now as I’m finding that I like broccoli better for the space it uses/amount of dinners we get/ease of growing, so I grow more broccoli now and no peas. One year, I know I will miss the peas and they will get added back into the plan for a while.
monkeyfister
@Glidwrith: Also– With your limited space, I encourage you to grow vertically. Cukes, Pole Beans, Cantaloupe, Squash and Tomatoes all grew great if trained up some natural twine. Link below shows some of my vertical gardening. You can make it look nicer. I live out in rural, Armpit, TN, where I can get away with my aesthetic. The twine is sturdy, and lasts exactly as long as it needs to last. Tie it at the top, allow a bit of slack for shrinkage, and the training process, and staple to the side of the box. This is very productive. Plant Pole Beans 3″ apart, Cukes and Squashes 6″ apart, and Melons 1 foot apart. Use old panty hose or netting to make slings to support the melons. When ripe, they’ll start parting from the stalk. Peerfect!
http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2010/06/time-out-for-gardening.html
chopper
@monkeyfister:
Do it yourself. In CA, winter is ‘go to the beach and harvest buckets of seaweed’ time. There’s a limit to how much you can take per day, but it works.
Get home, rinse it well and either dry it and grind it up or compost it. Insanely good for the soil.
raven
@chopper: Limited by the bulk of it or by some regulations?
chopper
@raven:
Regulation. It is CA after all. I don’t remember exactly but it’s some weight or volume per day. But in the garden seaweed goes a long way.
monkeyfister
Here’s a guide for a good 4’x8′ garden bed I did a few years ago.
Peas don’t really take space– grow them vertically. neat and tidy! replace with tomatoes, and grow them up strings, too!
I grew 80 “Oregon Giant” Snow Peas on the west long edge.
http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2010/03/early-spring-planting.html
raven
@chopper: Got it, thx. There are an awful lot of people there. When we moved there in 1957 there were nothing BUT orange trees in Orange County.
monkeyfister
Here is what that bed looked like a month or so later: http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2010/04/gardens.html
The Peas are growing up well, and I think cabbages look awesome as ornamental plants!
raven
Here’s a map of the last remaining orange groves in Orange County
Pretty funny comment about the Estate of William Lyon!
monkeyfister
@chopper: I’m glad that CA still allows “harvesting Seaweed.” It really is the best thing to put in your compost bin if you live on the Left Coast.
Glidwrith
@monkeyfister: @chopper: Thank you both. I had been thinking already in the direction of vertical growing and the tips for composting in thirds I just discovered – hell, yes to the retention of water!
I have three rain barrels in place. I finally got the system set up just last year. I am also trying to figure out how to directly incorporate it into my existing system. I am so pressed for time that I need to have this be as simple as turning on the system. I am also thinking of converting the sprinklers to a drip system as that seems more efficient.
Both of you have given me some great material to work with. Thanks!
Glidwrith
@chopper: I also have two composters. Haven’t been too impressed with the results. Don’t you have to worry about salt with the seaweed?
WaterGirl
@Baud: I would be honored if you changed your nym to WaterGirl! in honor of me. Though I’m pretty sure that’s not exactly what you had in mind. :-)
Sadly, no one would have trouble telling us apart because your comments are so clever and pithy compared to my humble remarks.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Cervantes: Hmm… Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Violet: Don’t despair. I got my second round of zucchini in 4-5 weeks later than I intended. People thought I was crazy to try – I not only got zucchini, but I am still getting zucchini when everyone else’s garden is mostly done.
raven
@WaterGirl: and then there is The Raven on the Hill!
WaterGirl
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I assume that with the example you gave, and when lamh has different numbers after her nym (I am guessing she didn’t like being 37 because she is still lamh36 even though she is about to turn 38. (I think!) Ah. the good old days when she was still a pup at lamh34.
I may be crazy, but I swear there are two different Cervantes, spelled exactly the same.
Cervantes (the original) you will have to let us know whether I am crazy or not.
Edit: Ah, I see that the real Cervantes has weighed in. Yay for not being crazy.
WaterGirl
@raven: Yeah, that almost gets me sometimes, but I am usually able to autocorrect and get that right.
monkeyfister
@Glidwrith: For watering, here’s what I did for my balcony garden:
I bought a Rubbermade container, a twice a day lighting timer, a submersible fountain pump, and by using various sized aquarium hosing bits, and some reducers, I made a watering system that watered the plants twice a day, and all I had to do was fill up the container twice a week (three times during the hot of Summer). Regular 1/4″ hosing connected to 1/4″ soaker hose at the window boxes, and to regular 1/4″ hosing between containers. The whole thing turned itself on and off with the timer.
You can make Organic fertilizer teas, and put them right into the container with the pump, and easily feed your plants. Once per month is good.
Syphon or pump the water from your larger bins into a big bucket, or as I used, a Rubbermaid container, and steep some dried seaweed in it for a day– like making Sun Tea. Use old panty hose or cheesecloth. Pump or gravity-feed that into your garden bed with 1/4″ soaker hose at the plant bases. Allow 1 to 1-1/2 cups of tea per plant and your garden will LOVE you!!
Baud
The winner of the NFC South this year is going to have a losing record.
monkeyfister
@Glidwrith: Best to let it dry, and grind it a bit, but surprising little salt. Kelp is not a plant, but an algae, so it’s top of the good list.
The people of the Aran Islands traditionally use nothing but seaweed/Kelp for gardening. no friable dirt there to speak of.
“Man of Aran” shows the gathering of it for garderning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iK2PaU_g7g
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I doubt I could fake your congeniality, so the likelihood of confusion is low.
We’d be like good and creepy Rob Lowe in that commercial.
chopper
@Glidwrith:
Not if you rinse the stuff well. Even so, you don’t need to use too much.
raven
@monkeyfister: What a cool film! Is that in the same vicinity as Roan Inish?
eta I guess Roan Inish was fictional.
monkeyfister
Aran Islands are on west coast of Ireland, so yes-ish. I think that movie was filmed in the area. Inishmoor is sorta famous. Towers of windswept stone. http://www.aranislands.ie/
They make incredible sweaters, there. Islands only support a type of grass that sheep can eat, so that’s their industry these days. http://www.aransweatermarket.com/
Corner Stone
Could someone please, please for the love of dog, teach Shane Lechler to stop fucking outkicking his coverage?
Cervantes
@raven: The book was set in Scotland, the film in Ireland.
monkeyfister
@Cervantes: Ahh!
Corner Stone
Gosh darnit, FitzPat! You ARE NOT a running QB. Throw the F’ng ball!
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
I’m the only Mnemosyne who posts on this particular site, but it’s a pretty common nym, so I’ll sometimes have people ask me if I’m the same commenter from another site. Usually, I’m not.
WereBear
@WaterGirl: I’m the only WereBear, the only one I’ve ever encountered, and yet, a lot of times when I sign up, on forums and such, there is another one… who seems to never use these accounts.
Is this my Internet Doppelgänger? Is this my Alternate Universe Avatar?
I may never know.
Another Holocene Human
Just looking at that expansive garden makes me feel a) tired and b) poor. Lemme sit down. Whew.
Another Holocene Human
@monkeyfister: I want to say my ancestors fled Ireland to get away from that shit but funny story, turns out they were landless drifters/travelers, although they did pursue an honest living after landing in the States. (Shit, maybe they were even … farmhands. Dun dun dun.)
Still, as a kid, I would see all the Ireland travel ads (grew up in Boston area, big business there, whole travel agencies devoted to it) and would secretly wish my ancestors had come from somewhere more exciting.
MomSense
@chopper:
I bring seaweed home in the Fall and put it on my flower and herb beds mixed with leaves. In the Spring I clean the leaves and seaweed out of the beds and put it in the compost. It’s amazing how much of the seaweed breaks down by the Spring thaw. My perennials love the stuff. I also compost mussel, clam, and lobster shells and mix it with manure from my friend’s cows. The soil was just sand when I started and four years later it is really getting good.
I also give my roses lots of coffee grounds and all the plants get fish fertilizer regularly.
Another Holocene Human
@monkeyfister: Good garden! I’m impressed by your yields. :)
Grumpy Code Monkey
@raven: He’s named after Gregor Mendel because it’s anybody’s guess what’s in there. We’ve had people recognize Shar Pei, Golden, Lab, God knows what else.
He definitely has a Shar Pei personality, though; very protective of us, aloof around other people.