Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

A step maybe?

 

I just now started my seeds. A month late.
Tomato, zucchini, Summer squash, pole beans.egg plant, pumpkins,cucumbers, romaine,basil and cilantro. By the time I’m they’re ready I will have my boxes set and soil prepped. Also have last years ghost pepper buried to dig out in about 2 weeks.

I am going to try 15 gallon grow bags for my tomatoes for out front with full day sun. Anybody have any luck with these?

Grow bags are cheaper than plastic pots , are bigger and have better drainage than plastic and won’t have plant suffer to badly from high temps too badly

 

I don't think you are a month late for those veggies/herbs, maybe the eggplant. I started my tomatoes this past weekend. I did start broccoli, cabbage, and onions a month ago as well as most of my flowers. You should be in good shape.

 

Was thinking the same about eggplant

 

Looking for preventative measures on squash vine borers. Heard Captain Jacks is real good.
Also was told putting aluminum foil or nylon stockings around stems of my squash, zucchini, and pumpkins up to the first leaves (loosely oh course) won’t allow them to lay their eggs into stem. There are two life cycles where I am so it’s a long battle. Thoughts?

Glad I found this thread. Thanks @Noelie84

Took me three times to get that right!

Gotta get the hell out of bed. Got some things to do

 

I as wel just started seeds this past weekend, amazing how hard it is to find 30 minutes of spare time anymore

 

I'm way behind, just got one of my raised beds dug out so I can add the critter mesh I need to, even found one of the holes the little turds were taking in. Now I just need to weather to hold out so I can get this one lined and move the dirt back over from the other bed and mesh off that one, then get the dirt back evened out before I can plant seeds.

 

Type of wood? I have these pine wood crates that I repurposed into box gardens will post pic later when I finally get my arse outside ( also used them for firewood closer to house

 

Tired of buying tomatoes. Especially when they aren’t red enough for me

 

It's just standard Hem-Fir lumber. I didn't want to use treated for a vegetable garden and cedar is a little more spendy than I cared to spring for. After 2 years outside the wood isn't in bad shape at all even with the amount of moisture we get. If I stick around this house long enough I'm sure I will need to replace sides at some point but I hope they last 5 more years.

 

I just stripped the sod out of mine. I didn't want to use a weed barrier so anything with long roots could extend down into the soil under the beds.

 

What are your plans for drainage on those beds? I plan on building two boxes just like those this fall? Thanks.

My beds now from those crates I mentioned

 

The soil in the beds themselves is so loamy that the water just runs right through it. The dirt underneath is slightly harder and it will pour out the bottom and pool up a bit but it soaks in and drains away within 15-20 minutes of watering so no real need to be concerned about drainage. In general in our area, unless you are in certain places with a lot of clay, the soil is so used to constant rain that it takes a whole hell of a lot of water for it to start pooling and not soak right through.

 

Excellent, thanks

 

Looking to hear about anybodys woes with squash vine borers, cucumber beetles, and what they’ve learned. I posted something about foil or nylons around base from soul to first leaves to prevent eggs being laid into them. Need oil isn’t enough. Thoughts?

 

1) Crop rotation. Don't grow your squash in the same beds 2 years in a row; the bugs overwinter in the soil in very small eggs that you'll never be able to spot and remove.
2) Make sure you clean up ALL of the debris from the squash in the fall and get it out of the beds before winter, to minimize any eggs left in the garden.
3) Build up mulch or soil around your plants' stems to limit access to the moths
4) Sprinkle Diatomaceous earth around/on the plant's stems
5) The moths apparently are attracted by the plant blossoms, so if you scatter yellow bowls of soapy water around your yard this apparently can lure them in and drown them, but I'm not sure how effective it is.
6) Wood ashes scattered around the base of the plant supposedly keep the moths away, but I've tried it and still had borers

Another option too is to use the BT bacterial spray on the plants; apparently it is made of naturally-occurring bacteria in the soil, and isn't harmful to pollinators but is hell on squash bug eggs/larvae/nymphs. I'd only spray in the evenings if you go that route, but if you start seeing eggs or nymphs (the little grey beetles) this is the most effective method of getting rid of them before they wreck your plant, short of hitting them with Sevin (which I hate using). I've tried picking/crushing by hand, but you never get them all.

The best defense may even be to plant a 'sacrificial' crop of hubbards someplace else on the property, if you have the room. The borers prefer hubbards to other types of squash, so if you've got hubbards they may leave your other squash alone.


Edit- Woes:
A couple of years ago my garden got absolutely wrecked by borers and beetles. I'd had really good yields for a couple of years, just rotating from bed to bed, but that year I got absolutely zero squash, cukes, or pumpkins from my plants. I was out there crushing eggs and nymphs every morning and afternoon, but I couldn't keep up and they ended up destroying all of the plants, and then started on the few fruit that had managed to set on the vines.
So the next year I went full nuclear on them; I didn't plant any squash in my garden. I scattered individual 16"X16" boxes in sunny spots around the property and filled them with mulch and manure and planted the squash there. Then in my compost pile I planted two 'sacrificial' hubbards, waited until they well-developed and fully infested with bugs, and burned them. Since then I've alternated my squash between 'in the garden' and 'in the wild' (so to speak) and haven't had any more major problems with borers or beetles, but I've still had to deal with the occasional outbreak

 

Type O in first post Neem oil I tru using

 

Thanks . I’m not familiar with BT bacterial spray

 

It's short for Bacillus T-something-or-other...
Hang on, I'll find some

Edit:

https://www.amazon.com/Monterey-B-T...619&s=gateway&sprefix=bacillus,aps,150&sr=8-3

 

Tilling the garden today. The ground isn't completely thawed yet, but the top foot is thawed. That's all I need to till. No rush for most of the garden, but the spots I'm going to plant lettuce, spinach, beets, potatoes, carrots, chard and kale need to be done so I can plant. My normal planting schedule for that stuff is around April 6. In a couple of weeks I will put my onion and leek starts out so I need a spot tilled for those to.

The rest of the garden where I will plant corn, tomatoes, beans and squash I will cover with heavy plastic for now to help kill weeds. It will be almost two months before that stuff gets planted.