Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

Anybody here keep a garden? Can be food or flower or tree; doesn't really matter.
I installed a pretty good-sized vegetable garden this past spring. We had a small two-bed garden at the old house, but we bought that one as a flip so I didn't want to have a huge garden in case the people who bought it didn't want a garden. We're planning on being in this place for a while, so I don't care what the next owners want or don't want at this point. So as soon as the snow melted in the spring I got to work cutting turf, building boxes, and hauling soil.
Here's what the house looked like when we bought it in the fall of '12 (courtesy of Google's street view):


And here's what it looked like by June of '13



We (by which I mean I) also built a coop and picked up a dozen chickens (which turned out to be 10 hens and 2 roosters) for fresh eggs.



The hens keep us in scrambled eggs, and the roosters make a pretty effective alarm clock, as long as you don't mind waking up at 5AM.

So who else keeps a garden?

 

Really?
Nobody keeps a garden?
Am I seriously the only person on TW getting the itch to get some seeds started?

 

We have a garden

 

Vegetable, herb or Flower?
Did you do raised beds to help counter all of that PNW rain, or did you find that you didn't need them?

 

Combo

Yes , raised beds

Right now it is being used to heel in all our bulbs and plants from around our house due to construction though

My wife tends a big garden for an old client of mine , it's really nice

 

My tomato plants grow year round.

 

Neat. Does he pay her in vegetables?

I'm hoping to expand mine again this year, if I can find the time for it. Less mowing.

Hydroponics, or temperate climate?

 

She gets paid like a regular job , we get fresh veggies / fruit / berries as a bonus

 

Hey OP, do you have any close up pictures of the wood boxes you use for planting?
I would like to copy your design if you don't mind lol.

I know nothing about gardening, however my gf been wanting to plant things in the backyard, but it is looking like crap....

 

Hm. I might on my home PC. I'll take a look this weekend if I remember

 

It's Mr Rogers

 

Not sure having pot on the brain counts...

Well unfortunately this is the closest picture I could get. I didn't stop at any point while I was building them and take a picture, haha!


The basic layout of each bed is a pair of 4'x8' boxes made out of cedar 2x6's stacked one on top of the other to make a box 12" deep. I picked up a few cedar 4x4's and ripped them down into 1x1's on the table saw for interior corner posts to anchor the boards to, and I used a cedar 1x6 cut to 12" at the halfway mark on each of the 8' sides as a stabilizer to keep the board from shifting back and forth. And then I ripped a 1x6 cedar board down into 1x3's tacked them on as trim pieces on the corners to "make pretty" since they're in my front yard.
I'd go out and take a picture of one close up for you, but right now they're buried under a foot of snow. Once it melts I'll be happy to get closer picture of one for you, if you remind me.

Gratuitous shot of a day's veggie harvest from this past September, since I'm itching to get dirt on my hands again.

 

Just got me some baby chicks to try my hand at it. Hoping to get some eggs one of these days.

 

That's a nice-looking setup!
What did you use for panels? Actual glass, or those poly sheets?

 

I officially have a 'black thumb' and a bad case of the 'rabbits' - which, prevents me from effectively & efficiently grow anything that resembles a plant.
I tried to rid myself of this rabbit disease with a BB gun, but unfortunately....it came back.

Moving to a new house in 2 weeks and leaving those rabbits behind (I hope).

I need a cure for my black thumb.

GIMME GARDEN VIBES!!!

 

I have a grove with 19 Avocado trees (17 Haas and 2 Fuerte). 16 of them are mature and three are newly planted this year. I also have three orange trees (1 Naval, 1 Valencia and 1 newly planted Blood Orange tree), two tangerine trees, a lemon tree, a Fuji Apple tree (new), a new Lime tree and a new Doughnut Peach tree.

Last year we pulled off about 800 pounds of Avocados. Most of them were small (about 2"). We picked late the previous year so I don't think they had time to grow big. We also picked about 200 pounds of tangerines last October.

We also have a flower garden in the back. It doesn't need much attention. We have the irrigation on a timer for most of the flowers around the property and also for two of the orange trees and the lemon tree.

The Avocado grove and the other trees need to have the water turned on manually, usually once a week. They each have their own sprinkler head and the irrigation system is divided into three zones. I can only run one zone at a time due to the large amount of water required. We use about 50,000 gallons of water per month.

Front shot: Avocado trees to the left and right of the picture


Avocado tree to the right:


Flower Garden:

 

Got some property, and planted a garden, raise chickens. Eat healthy.

 

Neat!
Sounds like what I want to eventually build, except that I'll have to use something that can handle snow load on the roof for mine. I'll probably end up going with a couple layers of that clear corrugated poly roofing they sell at Home Depot or something.

I'm jealous of the avocado's. I've got two trees that I started from pits that live indoors, but because of that they'll never get the chance to grow more than 8 feet high. Not sure if they'll ever produce or not (Honestly I'm leaning towards 'not'), but they're a fun experiment. Not jealous about that 50,000 gallons of water per month, though. That's crazy!
I've got a pair coffee trees and a pineapple, plus a pair of small lemon trees in the house that finally have fruit on them, so I'm pretty excited about that. I want to get oranges and grapefruit as well, but I just don't have the space for it right now.

 

My wife wants a pineapple tree. For your avocado trees, they'll almost never produce fruit when grown from a pit, or if they do, it won't taste that great. Many pit-grown avocado trees, if they do produce, won't start for about 10 years. My gardener told me to pull a leaf off the tree and rip it in half. Then smell the leaf. If it smells like black licorice, it won't produce. Avocado trees that you purchase have been grafted with the fruit variety from a producing tree. Usually the fruit will only grow after the graft point. Plus, because they're indoors, they don't have much chance to pollinate (no bees). Seeing that you're in Maine, you really don't have much choice as the cold will kill them (they don't like temps below 35 degrees). As for the size, most commercial growers try to keep their trees at 10-12 feet in height. If they get too tall, it makes it harder to pick the fruit. Plus a tree that's shorter but spread out will develop more fruit than a large huge tree because more light can get to the center of the tree. They like a lot of sun but not directly on the trunk. So they're usually cut in a canopy shape that blocks the sun from hitting the trunk (usually about 2' off the ground.

One thing you could do is keep them at a small size and move them outside when the weather is warmer. That way you'll get an opportunity to get some pollination. You'll notice tiny flowers that open two times per day. If it's a Haas, they should be flowering right about now. What's interesting is the variety of avocado you bought may not be the same as the tree you have and the fruit you'll produce.


One thing to be careful of with the avocado trees is watering. Too much water and you'll get root rot. The water has to be able to drain away. That's why most groves out here are grown on hillsides. I live on a hill so most of the water drains away. Too little and the tree starts taking up salt from the soil and the tips of the leaves turn brown. I water about once a week for 45 minutes and then let the soil drain. I don't water again until the soil won't clump when squeezed.

For the water use, fortunately I'm on an agricultural rate. If it was a residential rate, I couldn't afford it. The only caveat is I have to sell the avocados and show proof if asked by the water district. I also have to register with the federal government and fill out a growers survey.

 

Cool thread, I've always wanted a Greenhouse ever since I can remember. Cool gardens you guys have posted pics of.

Noel the pic of the Rooster, what type rooster is that, I forgot?
When I was little we had one that had the same markings, and named him Bubba, he was huge and mean as hell, he would flog the crap out of you. One time when I was about 7 he chased me around the yard and I started running faster than my legs would go down the hill turning flips and would come up running, didn't miss a lick, did two or three like that. lol
Funny thing is he didn't care who you were he wasn't intimidated lol. Had a Tom turkey that way too.