Gardening 2012

[stig]

I use the same stuff for trellisses already, but I've never seen it made from so thin diameter rods that it can be bend over like that.
Mine are 8mm diameter, you don't bend those at all.

Great minds think alike, Stephen, I use a gasburner the same way

Too cold for cucumbers here, outside the greenhouse, but beans do fine.

That greenhouse was a big succes, but it sure got too small, fast.

So I'm going to plan B, this year.
Setting up an 18 feet wide polytunnel to grow stuff under.
Pictures will follow, when I get it set up.
I'm pretty excited about the project

 

[Al Smith]

Yeah I've had cucumbers on a trellis for years .Mine is just a wooden affair .

I just got the cucumber seeds a few days ago so they must be planted in peat pots for later transplant to the raised bed .No sense setting plants around here until around mid to late May .

 

[treesmith]

I use the same stuff for trellisses already, but I've never seen it made from so thin diameter rods that it can be bend over like that.
Mine are 8mm diameter, you don't bend those at all.

Are you referring to the stock panels, or the concrete wire? I'm not sure of their diameter of the stock panels, but they are rather stiff. For our goat pen, I have posts every 8' (panels are 16'), and even with the goats pushing on them constantly, they hold up well. My only concern with the bean trellis is high winds. Once it's covered with vines, it's gonna catch a fair amount of wind. I'm already contemplating how to guy it off.

I simply zip-tied the 4 tomato cages together at the top, each to its neighbor, then wired them to the logs in 3 places. They're fairly sturdy now.

 

[stig]

Concrete wire.

I set a couple of steel fenceposts to hold mine.
They are more than strong enough to keep the whole thing from keeling ower in a strong wind, and easy enough to pull out, come winter.

 

[Al Smith]

Anything will work .A piece of woven wire fence, couple pieces of rebar ,old section of ladder .

Once in town the cucumber vine shot a runner behind all my tomatoes and up the corner of my garden shed .Damned thing gave birth to a pickle under the trim board and blew it right off the shed .

 

[SouthSoundTree]

I was able to show Amy this thread last night.

She is often/ sometimes heard saying something about me watching chainsaw videos and spending too much time on forums (which is a way that I relax, learn, and socialize while talking shop). I rarely watch chainsaw videos, rather climbing/ tree work videos that happen to have chainsaws in them. Now I'll just say that we've been discussing the virtues of different ways of growing cukes. If only I were a cuke fan.


I like the mitered corners. I quartered some redwood logs that I had for landscaping garden bed edging, and mitered them too, 30's, 45's, and 90 degree corners. So easy to do the odd angles by cutting the one log, then laying the second log on top. Slide the saw under the top one, and against the side of the first edger log, with a quick cut upward. Quick, easy match at any angle.

The cats like them for scratching logs, too.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

We did like Stig did, Fence post stakes. We did use one side one the garden fence wired it to it I believe. We are still eating green beans from last year. I don't remember how many pounds we got. But they got blanched, shocked and frozen. Yummy.
Here are a couple shots of it.

 

[treesmith]

Do you prefer freezing green beans rather than canning them, Stephen? We prefer canning by far for beans. We like peas better from the freezer.

 

[stig]

We freeze beans, too. Not to mention pesto, tomatoes, readymade spaghetti sauce etc.
Nothing better in the midst of winter than grabbing a bag of frozen summer out of the freezer.

Only thing I can is jalapenos.
Traditional Mexican recipe with carrots , onion, garlic and fresh oregano.
That is one reason the greenhouse got too small. I had 10 plants last year, this year I plan on 30 + 15 TAM mild jalapeno, which I just discovered on the internet.

 

[Husabud]

I make my Pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays, once frozen pop them into a ziplock and you have ready made love in personal size blocks. I usually need two myself. I think this year I will try the concrete wire trellis, that is slick.

 

[treesmith]

I got some zucchini planted today, along with a few sugar peas.

We mucked out the goats' stall today, and put most of the muck around the blueberry bushes. I did put some in a 5-gallon bucket and cover it with water to start some manure tea. Anybody have any experience with manure tea? I know compost tea has been mentioned several times, but I haven't seen manure tea mentioned that I recall. The water was turning brown within 2 hours. I would think it had begun to pick up some beneficial nutrients as soon as it changed color.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Do you prefer freezing green beans rather than canning them, Stephen? We prefer canning by far for beans. We like peas better from the freezer.

If you blanch them and then shock them in ice water prior to freezing, they keep a nice texture when you cook them and better flavor. More nutrients are left in them as well.
Have to be careful canning green beans as botulism is a scarey thing.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I have made manure tea, but I think you get more bang for your buck with a blend of various compost and additives, including manure. My current blend is compost with manure in it, fish emulsion, epsom salts, and some backstrap molasses. Aerate brew 2-3 days and get some magic stuff for spray or direct application at the base. The left over sludge can also be applied at the base of the plants with no fear of burning. Use it on anything, including ornamentals. The molasses feeds the good bacteria that you want to increase their numbers..

 

[Al Smith]

Do what you want but as a general rule you are better off with any manure if it's had some time to compost .If not it will "burn " up whatever you put it on .

The faster it decomposes in it's uncomposted state the "hotter" it is .Poultry is the hottest .Goat or sheep is probabley the best .Hogs is not good at all .

Horse or mule breaks down slow and is probabley the least apt to burn stuff up .You're better off if you can to spread whatever you are going to use in the late fall after the crops are harvested and let it decompose into the soil over the winter .If done this time of year make darn certain you keep the garden well watered .--chit trivia 101 ---

 

[MasterBlaster]

I'm loving this thread.

Manure talk!

 

[treesmith]

I know chicken litter will burn stuff, and I assume goat manure might if enough were applied. But when it's steeped in water, I don't see how it could burn the plants, as it's primarily water, with what nutrients it leached from the manure. And what I put in the bucket was a mixture of manure and hay that we scatter on the floor for bedding. I'd say it was 50/50. Anyhow, I'm gonna give it a shot. With the raised beds, (and the fact that they are manageable in size), I hope to sort of "study" this form of gardening this year.

Anybody here grow garlic? I'm wanting/needing some pointers on it. I'll save my questions til I know someone here grows the stuff.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Rob put some in last year and this year. The fresh garlic was nice to have about. I use tons cooking. We sat the whole family down and shucked garlic at the dinner table on night. I chopped it in the Robocoup (food processor) and used it up in no time. Some of the smaller garlic I just saved back whole for making stocks.
Pretty much take cloves of garlic and stick them in the ground... water.. pick... dry a bit.. shell/shuck and use.

 

[treesmith]

Do you plant cloves from the grocery store, or do you buy garlic prepared for planting? How late can it be planted?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Cloves from the store worked fine. We are trying the buffalo garlic as well this year. Just plant each individual clove. We are year round for the most part with garlic. Heck, it even snowed on the tops and bent them over. Snow melted and the garlic was fine..

 

[Al Smith]

Garlic will go to seed like an onion .It forms a little seed pod thing in the top of the stalk with little bitty garlic seeds .You can plant these if you like and they will grow .

We've got some that just comes up every year in one of the flower beds .Whatever kind it is though the cloves are rather small .

 

[Husabud]

Garlic needs to be planted in Oct. so it can overwinter. Then harvest the following summer/fall. I tried garlic several years and always ended up with little heads or nothing at all until I switched to this method.

 

[Tree Reb]

An old Italian guy told me that years ago, [March here] four in a circle and one in the middle. It's always worked.

I've never tried it with garlic but you can keep seeds in the fridge for five or six weeks to do a pretend winter, it works well with lettuce. I've grown them all year round but our winter is pretty mild.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Do any of you guys put lime on your gardens a few months before planting, it doesn't take much. I think that wood ashes will work to a similar extent to increase alkalinity. Pretty standard practice in these parts. Possibly depends on the soil in the region?

 

[stig]

I make my Pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays, once frozen pop them into a ziplock and you have ready made love in personal size blocks.

Good idea.
I just showed my wife your post and we are definitely going to do it that way this year.
Thanks

 

[Al Smith]

Wood ash does alkaline the soil . I had a dumbazz attack as few years back and forgot my high school chemistry and wood ashed the raised bed in hopes of raising the acidity .

Really screwed it up big time .Lime has a tendency to neutralize the soil .

I most generally add a few inchs of composted leaves to the raised bed and use some lime in the prilled or pellatized form which is a tilled in prior to planting .

On that accidently I discovered something .I had two early girl tomatoe plants which I ran out of space to plant so I dumped them in my wifes flower bed which was mulched with wood tailings .Evidently the high acidity of the soil agreed with the tomatoes and they grew over 8 feet high and were just loaded with fruit .

Fact I'm going to plant a few in with the day lillies which are also wood mulched just to see what happens this year .Maybe some big old beefsteak which if they did like the early girls will be 2 pounders .