Garden 2020

[BobMc]

Neighbors yard, although it seems flat my block has some elevation gain. Various ways to platt off yards have resulted in different strategies.

When I moved in here 21 years ago my yard was terraced,the railroad ties are starting to slide. At some point I’ll need to change things up.

I’ve been trying to reclaim my old garden area this season.



Set back from our crazy winds lately.



Things are coming along.



On another note, I’ve pivoted back to putting in a flagstone patio on the right side of that last pic. Local stone place has a 100 sf kit for $399. It comes with 100sf of stone, enough sand to put 2 inches over 100 sf, and weed barrier to service the area. Thinking of renting a sod cutter, $71 for four hours, probably better than jumping on a shovel?

[riser4]

what's on the other side of the retaining wall and the gray monster? That's a serious barrier you have there.

Meth lab.

[The AD]

Starting to get things organized in the garden Still a work in progress.

[gravitylover]

Is it weird that I'm all stoked for something that appears to be a success in the garden? I took 2 limp heads of celery from the fridge and instead of tossing them I cut the bases off. One I cut a fairly thin slice off the bottom then cut the outer layers off and exposed the leafy stuff but only the lowest 1" or so. The other I put the base and 1" leafy bit intact into the ground. It looks like there are 7 distinct clusters coming up! It's not a prime spot at all, a little on the shady side and a bit damp with very loamy soil so I had low expectations but boom, there it is.

The rain falling now is the first real rain since I set all of these beds so hopefully it really settles them, the new soil and mix is pretty fluffy. I'm also excited about how well my potato box idea seems to be doing, all 11 have sprouted with 7 really kicking ass. Cleaning out the sweet potatoes in the kitchen I came up with a couple that have sprouted and have 4-5" long plants already going so I guess I need to build another box or two and get some sweet potatoes going too. I think I also need to clean out that storage thing more often I just started the first batch of carrots to take the place of some stuff that will be harvested soon, what else should I start to go in the ground in maybe July?

[SB]

My awesome neighbor gave me a couple extra orange/yellow water melon plants he had. Never had one so I am stoked to try it.

In other news the frost burned plants are trying to recover. The snap beans are looks good again.

[irul&ublo]

Zucchini popping out and a few little tomatoes!!!

[tgapp]

Is it weird that I'm all stoked for something that appears to be a success in the garden? I took 2 limp heads of celery from the fridge and instead of tossing them I cut the bases off. One I cut a fairly thin slice off the bottom then cut the outer layers off and exposed the leafy stuff but only the lowest 1" or so. The other I put the base and 1" leafy bit intact into the ground. It looks like there are 7 distinct clusters coming up! It's not a prime spot at all, a little on the shady side and a bit damp with very loamy soil so I had low expectations but boom, there it is.

whoa dude that is super cool, i had no idea you could do that. wonder if the same would work in slc.

[pepperdawg]

Tomatoes, grape tomatoes; cukes pickling cukes; yellow straightneck squash; carrots; basil; parsley; chives; couple types of lettuce....sugar peas..

[gravitylover]

whoa dude that is super cool, i had no idea you could do that. wonder if the same would work in slc.

Yeah there are 4 coming up from the thin base slice, two from the 1" cleaned piece and one beefy one from the complete base. I don't see why it wouldn't work anywhere it's just a matter of keeping it wet enough, warm enough and make sure the soil is right. This pic is a week old, it's way more intense now.


Hey all, why do I have so many lower leaves on a few different kinds of plants yellowing? What's missing, nitrogen? The melons in particular are very unhappy

[tgapp]

Hey all, why do I have so many lower leaves on a few different kinds of plants yellowing? What's missing, nitrogen? The melons in particular are very unhappy

yep 100% that's nitrogen deficiency

[muted]

whoa dude that is super cool, i had no idea you could do that. wonder if the same would work in slc.

Defintely cool, I didn't know either.

I finished staining the garden shed door a few different-but-similar dark stains yesterday, to match the fence better, and I like it. Going from cedar stain to a dark stain (did the fence dark last year) put the whole garden in focus, now the shed and fence just blends into the background and the green plants pop better. Garden aesthetics, ha, so frivolous yet worth the extra effort.



Beans are 6" high, first strawberrys are ripe, planted some swiss chard yesterday...

[Mr. Mike]

[QUOTE=The AD;5990280]Starting to get things organized in the garden Still a work in progress.

/QUOTE]

how has that strawberry tower thing worked out for you? Pretty cool looking.

[tgapp]

okay so you guys clearly all have your shit together and well, i don't.

so uhh question for the general wisdom of you, since i imagine many of you's are like older and more put together versions of me: when we bought our (first) house a year ago, we tore out a silly playground (livin' our best DINK life) and put in kinda shitty raised beds - they get the job done but it was very much a "as fast as possible" solution because we moved in in february and wanted the garden up by march.

now we have all of this gravel around the beds and it's ugly and pointless. what should we do? tear out the gravel and convert it to garden space? what's the best way to even do that?

i can share pics tomorrow but tbh i'm a little embarrassed because of how put together y'alls gardens are, and mine, well, looks like a dirtbag garden.

[muted]

The first year in our house, we had 3 raised beds that were falling apart. and that's it. Who cares, post a pic and let's see if we can help. not to say we have our shit together at all, but years later things have evolved slowly as we learn, and we still have a ton to learn which is the fun part.

[tgapp]

The first year in our house, we had 3 raised beds that were falling apart. and that's it. Who cares, post a pic and let's see if we can help. not to say we have our shit together at all, but years later things have evolved slowly as we learn, and we still have a ton to learn which is the fun part.

yeah, i'll post a pic and get over my own self consciousness. the garden itself is doing pretty well, all things considered - even though the beds look like shit.

i just want to convert the land and have more growing space, or figure out what to do with it that isn't shitty gravel.

you guys all have just lovely gardens. i'm not one to have home envy at all - there's a reason i can't have nice things - but i do have garden envy.

[Norseman]

Part of the fun of it is just fuckin around with different ideas, trying things and making mistakes, figuring out what works with your space and soil and light and weather. There are lots of ways to grow stuff. Building and improving the garden systems is as enjoyable to me as growing and eating the food.

I would advise, however, finding a region-specific book to keep on the shelf and continually reference. I wish I had done this sooner. Generic almanac-esque tips can fall flat in comparison.

For example, I picked up the book "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades" by Steve Solomon, founder of Territorial Seed Co. He addresses specific challenges with gardening in the region, detailing how to prepare soil for proper chemistry, how to manage garden space for the needs of specific food crops, succession planting for continued yield and soil fixing, etc.

I'm sure there's something like that for the Wasatch front. That area is amazing for growing/farming. My grandparents still live in an old house in Fruit Heights/Kaysville that was once on the edge of vast fruit orchards. Sad to see most of it now gone.

[BobMc]

okay so you guys clearly all have your shit together and well, i don't.

so uhh question for the general wisdom of you, since i imagine many of you's are like older and more put together versions of me: when we bought our (first) house a year ago, we tore out a silly playground (livin' our best DINK life) and put in kinda shitty raised beds - they get the job done but it was very much a "as fast as possible" solution because we moved in in february and wanted the garden up by march.

now we have all of this gravel around the beds and it's ugly and pointless. what should we do? tear out the gravel and convert it to garden space? what's the best way to even do that?

i can share pics tomorrow but tbh i'm a little embarrassed because of how put together y'alls gardens are, and mine, well, looks like a dirtbag garden.

Rome wasn’t built in a day... Just keep on making incremental improvements, eventually the whole of it will overcome the increments.

Soil is probably the most important, our soil here sucks, amend, amend, amend. I’ve got about four yards of good garden topsoil and another couple yards of compost in my beds. Put the good stuff on top, jump on a shovel and break everything up. I usually put a few bags of steer manure in each bed in the spring, then put some 10-10-10 slow releasing fertilizer on top and work it in.

We have a fairly long growing season here in the valley. You should still have plenty of time to get some stuff in the ground to harvest. There are probably starts available at most places in the valley, I’m going to Western Gardens mid morning tomorrow masked up to get some annuals for the wife’s needs.

Keep on it, watch your shit for bugs, I’ve been doing battle with them full scale already. Earwigs were crushing me for a bit and now I think I’m down to snails. I don’t like using chemicals, but after losing half of a 4x8 bed to earwigs I put the sevin on their asses. I lost an entire 8 foot row of beet sprouts last night, fuckers.

It’s fun, I like the gardening portion of it a lot better than the eating of it. I’m hoping the bugs are a formidable opponent and it gives me something to do. I’ve got everything on drip, that’s taken away my after work watering and weeding. I no longer have to douse my shit with water every evening, it’s taken care of deeply every morning. This also keeps my other entertainment “weeding” away.

I fear I’m soon to become known as that guy in his garden with a headlamp cursing bugs!

[Boissal]

I fear I’m soon to become known as that guy in his garden with a headlamp cursing bugs!

While all of the points you make in your post are very spot on (especially Rome, it took me 5 years to get satisfying soil quality & a good handle on the drip irrigation, proper plant spacing, trellising, etc...), that last comment made me laugh hard because that is exactly who I am. Kneeling in the tomato rows at midnight getting soaked by a rogue bubbler or training the cucs to stay on their trellis, defending the strawberry patches from the birds while my morning coffee gets cold, chasing the cats out of the beds where they love to poop...

The neighbors have commented on my dedication a few times. Ms Boissal flat out told them I was on the spectrum and should be left alone when I talk to the cucs. In French of course, it forces them to become proper cornichons.

[The AD]

how has that strawberry tower thing worked out for you? Pretty cool looking.

Thanks! Wife just finished building it probably a day or two before I took the photo, so don't know yet. We put a pvc pipe down the middle for watering.

Wife has been on a woodworking kick lately and I'm not going to discourage her, although the garage is getting pretty filled with tools!

[gravitylover]

Uggh 3 days in a row with dense fog overnight until about noon and this morning the place was filled with slug and snail babies I spent the last 4 hours drinking coffee and picking the off plants and out of the beds with tweezers and little shovels. Now it's supposed to be wet until sometime Saturday so what's better, to put a ring of diatomaceous earth around the beds or spray vinegar or neem oil...?

[tgapp]

Okay, to respond to a lot of the feedback and ideas of more experienced gardeners here.

Bugs.. maybe i'm missing something but i don't feel like we have that bad of a bug problem? sure, we spray down with soapy water, and there's always something eating our beets (don't know how to deal with that, so any advice is welcome), but I just don't have the same problem I guess?

Soil (BobMC and others)- yep, this is a big one. We started with 8 cu yards of generic topsoil, added in 3-4 of good quality compost from the dump, and now we add in about 1/2 a cubic yard of manure a year. Our first year we had major calcium deficiency (which we caught too late, really) so this year we planted all of our tomatoes and peppers with a calcium supplement and we've been doing a slow release organic fertilizer every two weeks or so. We also have a compost bin, but haven't gotten much out of it yet.

Plants - all of our spring greens are bolting, which is sad, and this weekend I need to figure out what to plant in their stead.

Watering (Boissal/BobMC) - so I have a fuckton of parts for a drip irrigation system but i'm a little overwhelmed by this. If anyone in SLC wants to come help, I will pay you in delicious alcohol, baked goods, and "baked" goods. Until I figure out watering, I do it all by hand.

Regional specific advice (Norseman)- we treat everything that comes out of the Utah State University Ag Extension program as gospel, but this is great advice. We'll look for a book about the Wasatch front.

Now for where I'm at generally..



Raised bed #1 - made out of leftover lumber from the playground we tore down. Tomatoes, cukes, and peppers. I have tomato cages but haven't put them out yet - will likely do this weekend. I also have a bunch of dry mulch I want to put on top to protect the soil and keep it cool since it's about to get baking.



#2 - cabbage (needs thinning) dill patch, radishes (they've bolted), onions, and beets. gonna tear our some of the onions to put other stuff in. i wish we had done more garlic this year.



Same bed different angle



Bed # 4 - the shadiest - has all of our greens. Sorrell (a perennial and also our favorite green), red lettuce, buttercrunch, arugula, bok choi, broccoli rab. The broccoli, bok choi, and arugula have all bolted now. We can't ever get actual broccoli (or broccolini), but we do eat the broccoli greens all the time, so it seems worthwhile.



shitty gravel around our beds with weeds... i don't want to roundup these guys, but pulling them seems very futile. what's the best option for replacement?

so - in summary, here is my short to do list:

- put in mulched leaves to protect soil
- pull out a bunch of shit and plant more summer greens
- cage tomatoes and peppers
- build drip system (this is more a medium term to do, since it's so intimidating, but i have everything i need)

and then long term...
- keep figuring out soil
- do something with the shitty gravel

[gretch6364]

We moved almost two years ago, leaving the wife's garden behind. These are the new raised beds I built her. I have to put in an edge and some pea gravel, then build a shed to the right for her tools, etc. I think the shed will wait till next season.

I put in a soaker system for her, but that left a lot of hoses laying around. Someday I will get a buried system for the garden and grass. We lost all the transplanted stuff we bought from the local garden center (2 tomato plants, 3 jalapenos and a basil) to the freeze that happened while camping night of 5/24. We seem to have less hail here then in the front range, and this spot gets a ton of sun (SE facing), but the growing season is definitely shorter at 7,000 ft.

[Thaleia]

that last comment made me laugh hard because that is exactly who I am. Kneeling in the tomato rows at midnight getting soaked by a rogue bubbler or training the cucs to stay on their trellis, defending the strawberry patches from the birds while my morning coffee gets cold, chasing the cats out of the beds where they love to poop...

The neighbors have commented on my dedication a few times. Ms Boissal flat out told them I was on the spectrum and should be left alone when I talk to the cucs. In French of course, it forces them to become proper cornichons.

Heh ya late last night I caught myself chasing a rabbit from the back to the front of the house and across the street. It was garbage night so a couple neighbors were out looking at my lunatic ass. My idea at the time was to scare i so bad it wouldn't return (lol) but I don't think ~245 lbs of sweaty and wheezy uncoordinated guy made much of an impression on him.

[Boissal]

Heh ya late last night I caught myself chasing a rabbit from the back to the front of the house and across the street. It was garbage night so a couple neighbors were out looking at my lunatic ass. My idea at the time was to scare i so bad it wouldn't return (lol) but I don't think ~245 lbs of sweaty and wheezy uncoordinated guy made much of an impression on him.

He's probably going to bring friends over to mock you next time...
Our neighbor peaked across the fence last night as Ms B and I were chasing hens around. She let them out of the coop for the first time and they were PSYCHED but had no intentions of getting back in. I told her to recruit one of the cats but she didn't think it would help. Turns out young hens that haven't been handled much are extremely skittish, fast as hell, and scream bloody murder when you catch them. It's embarrassing how easily they kept dodging the 2 of us while the animal-loving neighbor watched in distress, most likely ready to call animal control on us.

[Norseman]

They'll go back to the roost on their own, ya know...

Or if it gets dark and they're still out, they'll pick a spot to roost. Then you can just walk up and grab them, since they can't see well in the dark and have slowed down their metabolism for the night.