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Thread: Garden 2020

  1. #1
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    Garden 2020

    Here in moderately southern climes, it's on. Planted lettuce seeds 4 weeks ago, transplanted to a raised bed with a plastic row cover over the weekend. Also scattered kale and carrot seeds, and started tomato seeds indoors.

    Anyone else started yet?

  2. #2
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    Seeds just came in last month, but peas is all we can plant at the end of March here, and that's a maybe; I'm in zone 3. Everything else waits until May; Garlic until October; Columbus day.

    We usually start everything indoors, except Peas and Peppers.

  3. #3
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    Seed catalogs showing up, neighbor is starting his plants.
    watch out for snakes

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Mike View Post
    Here in moderately southern climes, it's on. Planted lettuce seeds 4 weeks ago, transplanted to a raised bed with a plastic row cover over the weekend. Also scattered kale and carrot seeds, and started tomato seeds indoors.

    Anyone else started yet?
    I was just going to send you a PM to see how you fared in last nights storms. Good to see you posting!

    BTW: No garden yet but been getting the fields ready for planting. Wheat is doing nicely and onions are coming up.
    When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something." Rep. John Lewis


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  5. #5
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    Following! Last year we tried a garden at our (new to us) home for the first time and it failed miserable. I think the issue was calcium deficiency in our new soil, so trying hard to curb that this year with a super calcium-rich compost blend and a few other addendums.

    Utah Mags, when are you getting spring greens in the ground?

  6. #6
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    We're looking at the seed catalogs but won't start anything for a while. It was 17F here 2 nights ago... The freezer is still stocked with tomatoes and okra from last year, and we dig purple potatoes whenever we need them.

    Gardening is awesome.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T707A using TGR Forums mobile app
    ride bikes, climb, ski, travel, cook, work to fund former, repeat.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by tgapp View Post
    Following! Last year we tried a garden at our (new to us) home for the first time and it failed miserable. I think the issue was calcium deficiency in our new soil, so trying hard to curb that this year with a super calcium-rich compost blend and a few other addendums.

    Utah Mags, when are you getting spring greens in the ground?
    If you're just starting out, build some raised beds and fill them with a good soil/compost blend from a local place. Buy it in bulk and it will be cheap. I use redwood that i pull of of decks (it looks ugly and clients want Trex, but it's not rotten and the back side looks ok), but there are many other ways to build them for cheap.

    You can start greens really early. It's kind of amazing how they will freeze solid every night and then just keep on trucking.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T707A using TGR Forums mobile app
    ride bikes, climb, ski, travel, cook, work to fund former, repeat.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by climberevan View Post
    If you're just starting out, build some raised beds and fill them with a good soil/compost blend from a local place. Buy it in bulk and it will be cheap. I use redwood that i pull of of decks (it looks ugly and clients want Trex, but it's not rotten and the back side looks ok), but there are many other ways to build them for cheap.

    You can start greens really early. It's kind of amazing how they will freeze solid every night and then just keep on trucking.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T707A using TGR Forums mobile app
    Yep that's pretty much what we did for our soil - apparently the calcium deficiency is super common for first year gardens.

    We built our own soil because the soil from the garden center would have cost us $2000 for the size of beds we have, and instead we rented a flatbed from Home Depot, loaded it with compost from the dump, and mixed that in with topsoil - and then added a few other things. Clearly, we still have work to do.

    Do you till your raised beds?

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by tgapp View Post
    Yep that's pretty much what we did for our soil - apparently the calcium deficiency is super common for first year gardens.

    We built our own soil because the soil from the garden center would have cost us $2000 for the size of beds we have, and instead we rented a flatbed from Home Depot, loaded it with compost from the dump, and mixed that in with topsoil - and then added a few other things. Clearly, we still have work to do.

    Do you till your raised beds?
    You shouldn't need to do much tilling for raised bed, the soil never gets that compacted in there. When I had raised bed I'd dump a bunch of compost as soon as the ground thawed and worked it in there about 6-8" deep with the shovel and that was it. Now that I've converted the whole backyard to a garden tilling has become essential since the soil gets really tough from foot traffic and general lack of quality. We're going to dump yet another 1-2 yards of compost + top soil mix in there this year and till the living shit out of it to try to give ourselves at least 12" of decent soil above the impermeable clay layer of doom. I rent a Mantis tiller for a few hours and go to town tilling as deep as it will go in a criss-cross pattern. Used to do it by hand but now that the growing area is 50' x 30' it's a bit much.

    If you need cheap compost that appears to be better than what you get at the dump for about the same price check out Oquirrh Mountain Compost Products. The stuff is like plant crack.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boissal View Post
    You shouldn't need to do much tilling for raised bed, the soil never gets that compacted in there. When I had raised bed I'd dump a bunch of compost as soon as the ground thawed and worked it in there about 6-8" deep with the shovel and that was it. Now that I've converted the whole backyard to a garden tilling has become essential since the soil gets really tough from foot traffic and general lack of quality. We're going to dump yet another 1-2 yards of compost + top soil mix in there this year and till the living shit out of it to try to give ourselves at least 12" of decent soil above the impermeable clay layer of doom. I rent a Mantis tiller for a few hours and go to town tilling as deep as it will go in a criss-cross pattern. Used to do it by hand but now that the growing area is 50' x 30' it's a bit much.

    If you need cheap compost that appears to be better than what you get at the dump for about the same price check out Oquirrh Mountain Compost Products. The stuff is like plant crack.
    thanks man. honestly, the dump compost looked GREAT. rich, terrific smell, great mix of organic material, dark, etc. but yeah, i need to figure out the calcium thing.

    tell me about this backyard conversion. how did you do it?? i fucking hate watering my lawn, and what i have is fairly big. i need like, 20'x20' for the dogs to poop in and that's it.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by tgapp View Post
    thanks man. honestly, the dump compost looked GREAT. rich, terrific smell, great mix of organic material, dark, etc. but yeah, i need to figure out the calcium thing.

    tell me about this backyard conversion. how did you do it?? i fucking hate watering my lawn, and what i have is fairly big. i need like, 20'x20' for the dogs to poop in and that's it.
    The house was unoccupied for 6 months before Ms Boissal bought it. That was spring/summer so the backyard went from low quality grass to sub-equatorial jungle then dried out and everything died. Instead of trying to coax a new lawn out of that wasteland then waste thousands of gallons of water to keep the fucker green we laid out black plastic for a summer to kill as much of the tenacious undesirables as possible. The following spring we spent a shit load of time pulling everything we could out of the soil (mostly bulbs from tulips, poppies, and various other random flowers which we relocated) the amended the whole thing heavily, tilled it, and started growing stuff directly in the ground. The soil is definitely of lower quality than what we'd get with raised beds but the cost was really low and there's no way we could grow as much in beds.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by KQ View Post
    I was just going to send you a PM to see how you fared in last nights storms. Good to see you posting!

    BTW: No garden yet but been getting the fields ready for planting. Wheat is doing nicely and onions are coming up.
    Yes, all good here. Tstorms woke me up at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep, which resulted in starting this thread, but that's all I had close by. There was some very heavy damage, but very localized.

  13. #13
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    I also mix in a little compost every year with a tilling fork. It's a great shoulder workout (we have 6x 4'x16'x18" raised beds, 3x 16' rows for potatoes in the ground (sandy, and amended with compost), and another collection of mini raised beds for squashes and melons). This year we'll probably add 2 more beds and move the potatoes to another area.

    Either you have a lot of beds or you're paying way too much for soil. My beds take a little under a yard each to fill, and the 50/50 mix that we get locally and have had great results with is $35/yd. The fancy garden center charges a lot more, so that's why I go to the tree place that the landscaping companies use.
    ride bikes, climb, ski, travel, cook, work to fund former, repeat.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by climberevan View Post
    I also mix in a little compost every year with a tilling fork. It's a great shoulder workout (we have 6x 4'x16'x18" raised beds, 3x 16' rows for potatoes in the ground (sandy, and amended with compost), and another collection of mini raised beds for squashes and melons). This year we'll probably add 2 more beds and move the potatoes to another area.

    Either you have a lot of beds or you're paying way too much for soil. My beds take a little under a yard each to fill, and the 50/50 mix that we get locally and have had great results with is $35/yd. The fancy garden center charges a lot more, so that's why I go to the tree place that the landscaping companies use.
    Yep, our local garden center said something like $200/half yard? We balked hard. Got top soil from a landscaping company and compost and manure, and now we're adding more compost and calcium supplements to fix our problems. Also we have a fuck ton of clay in our soil, need to deal with that too.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by tgapp View Post
    Yep, our local garden center said something like $200/half yard? We balked hard. Got top soil from a landscaping company and compost and manure, and now we're adding more compost and calcium supplements to fix our problems. Also we have a fuck ton of clay in our soil, need to deal with that too.
    Nothing to do about the clay other than amending over time and hope it's not forming a completely impermeable layer deep down. In SLC that's pretty much guaranteed unless you're high on the benches (then your problem is rocks everywhere and no soil). Last year during our very wet spring we lost a bunch of plants from water not draining fast enough and pooling above that layer. Beds help alleviate that issue as they increase the depth of good soil and allow roots not to reach all the way down to the pool of water.

    When I first got my beds I looked at having top-soil delivered (those fancy cu yd bags you see in people's driveways in the spring). Prices were beyond shocking and I ended up leveling a couple of random bumps in the yard and using that dirt + compost in the beds. It's worked well enough... Keep an eye on KSL, there's always someone ripping out a backyard and trying to get rid of dirt. I've filled the back of my Forester more than once with free dirt, people will even help you load it! Used that dirt to create all kinds of flower beds around the house. If you have a trailer the cost of topsoil is 10x lower than if you have it delivered. Same for wood chips.

  16. #16
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    Yard is still covered in dozen snow.

  17. #17
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    Also frozen snow.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by riser3 View Post
    Also frozen snow.
    Return of the snow in SLC also. The arugula patch had already tripled in size during the warm spell. Gotta take the weed-wacker to it, it's as aggressive as mint when it comes to colonizing space in the yard.

  19. #19
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    I'm planting nothing but catnip in my personal garden this year then I'm going to dry it and felt it into cat toys. Not that I really need to plant it around here as it grows in abundance

    catnip fish:

    Name:  wool catnip fish.png
Views: 7676
Size:  370.4 KB


    Kitty Nugz:

    Name:  Kitty Nugz.jpg
Views: 4733
Size:  58.9 KB
    When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something." Rep. John Lewis


    Kindness is a bridge between all people

    Dunkin’ Donuts Worker Dances With Customer Who Has Autism

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by KQ View Post
    I'm planting nothing but catnip in my personal garden this year then I'm going to dry it and felt it into cat toys. Not that I really need to plant it around here as it grows in abundance

    catnip fish:

    Name:  wool catnip fish.png
Views: 7676
Size:  370.4 KB


    Kitty Nugz:

    Name:  Kitty Nugz.jpg
Views: 4733
Size:  58.9 KB
    omg these catnip nugs, can i buy some from you?? this is the best thing ive seen in a minute

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by tgapp View Post
    omg these catnip nugs, can i buy some from you?? this is the best thing ive seen in a minute
    LOL! You can buy them now from this gal: Meowy Janes. I'm just copying her idea.
    When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something." Rep. John Lewis


    Kindness is a bridge between all people

    Dunkin’ Donuts Worker Dances With Customer Who Has Autism

  22. #22
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    I have cat nip that volunteers in my yard every year
    watch out for snakes

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by SB View Post
    I have cat nip that volunteers in my yard every year
    I have what I call "the great catnip forest" that grows on the hill behind my house. During the summer the cats will sleep in it all day.
    When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something." Rep. John Lewis


    Kindness is a bridge between all people

    Dunkin’ Donuts Worker Dances With Customer Who Has Autism

  24. #24
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    Isn't catnip related to mint? We have it all around the house and it's slowly choking everything else around it. The cats are in there all day long in the summer, I've pulled Hobbes out a couple of time and it's how I imagine dragging a heroin addict out of a shooting joint would be: she's dazed and confused at first but when she realizes you're getting her out of the opium den she turns into a tiger.

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boissal View Post
    Isn't catnip related to mint? We have it all around the house and it's slowly choking everything else around it. The cats are in there all day long in the summer, I've pulled Hobbes out a couple of time and it's how I imagine dragging a heroin addict out of a shooting joint would be: she's dazed and confused at first but when she realizes you're getting her out of the opium den she turns into a tiger.
    Yes. It is a mint (called "Cat Mint" as well as "nip"). LOL @ Hobbes. Mine are the same way. Harshin' their buzz... harshin' their buzz............
    When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something." Rep. John Lewis


    Kindness is a bridge between all people

    Dunkin’ Donuts Worker Dances With Customer Who Has Autism

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