Gardening Thread- Show me your gardens!

Fermented pickles are awesome. They'll keep in the fridge for 6+ months, and stay crispy if you empty the brine and make new before storage. We usually use one gallon jars and they last well into the winter. I use a family recipe, not sure where my Mom got it from, though she's very particular about sharing it.

 

Making some salsa.

 

I havent noticed overwatering being harmful unless it was saturated all the time. I notice if its cooler than normal they dont do as good. They usually like a lot of sun/heat to really take off.

 

Its funny how people are about their recipes then when they pass on the recipes are lost. Unless you are a proprietary company I'd think people want to share stuff.

 

We had rain today!! not much so far but enough to calm the dust a bit!

 

We had the wettest July and August I can remember. I don’t know if it officially broke the record, but it was wet. Mine are in elevated boxes so I didn’t think it wouldn’t impact them too bad. We had a cooler spring that seemed to stunt them from the start.

 

My parents are in north central PA. My dad usually has a huge garden, but the constant rain basically killed everything off. This is the first year in my 38 years that he just gave up on a garden.

I was just up there last weekend for a funeral, and driving from Montoursville area to Sayre, the devestation from flooding was like nothing I'd ever seen when I lived in PA. Rt. 220 was closed for over 25 miles, peoples houses were broken up and in creek beds, barns decimated, roads washed out all over . . .it was really sad. I hope all those folks who lost property are able to easily recover.

 

It’s been horrible in some places. We didn’t have it that bad down my way.

 

Got busy yesterday and didn't get my salsa finished up until today. Tomato production is less than a quarter of normal this year. Hopefully they will produce enough that I can get another batch of salsa made up. I have plenty of onions, garlic and peppers, just short on tomatoes. I plant my peppers in the greenhouse. Even in normal years I have a hard time getting ripe peppers outside the greenhouse, so I quit trying. Tomatoes grow great in my greenhouse, just don't have enough room for them.

 

I’m trying a late summer/ early fall garden.
Pumpkins, zucchini’s, cucumbers, gourds, and tomato’s

 

One jar of my pickled banana peppers I've ate about half of it already ...I put in a couple Thai peppers but they arent too spicy but you can tell they have a little kick.

 

I planted a black Watermelon plant from a 2" container a few months ago over by the citrus trees. I kept checking it, lots of flowers but nothing happening. My wife calls me over and said you have to see this.
HA! how did I not see that other than it was up the fence hiding behind the Blood Orange tree.

 

So Gents (and ladies too), I just moved into a new home and it has no gardening space, so I must make one.

I’m looking at doing some raised garden beds. Two boxes 5’x10’.
I’ll lay them on the lawn and dump some soil into them.

It will be done next spring so I’mgetting a little ahead of myself but I’d like to plan my design and approach.

I’m thinking of using 5x10x2s and stacking them two deep and using 4x4 for the corner posts.

A design I saw had the 4x4s going into the ground... is that not going to rot?
I mean I bet no one does concrete footers for their gardens and I don’t want to but is there a better method or product I can use to help prevent that inevitible desaster of sitting wood in the ground?

Also do you guys just dump dirt in your raised beds? I assume no killing of the grass undernieth needs to be done as the soil will just kill it. I’ve seen people lay cardboard in the base of the bed before laying soil.

 

I used all cedar for my raised beds, including 4x4 posts. They have been in for about four years now with no sign of rotting. I didn’t spray to kill the grass, but did lay down some weed barrier on the bottom before putting top soil in.

 

I stripped the sod before I set my raised beds in place, but I also tilled the existing soil up a bit by hand and worked a fair amount of old wood mulch, manure, and lime into it before I filled the beds with soil and repeated the process. That way I had a good deep bed for the plants to root into. My beds are made of wood and are in direct ground contact, but they're cedar and are now 5 years old without showing any signs of degradation other than having grayed up.

 

Use pressure treated lumber. Just make frames, nothing going into the ground, just set on top of it. Staple weed barrier onto the bottom before setting it down. Check out the book "The All New Square Foot Garden"

If you can find some used sliding glass doors, make the frames the right size that the door can lay on top. Attach it with hinges and you have a cold frame. Put them on the south side of a building and when the weather warms enough that you don't need the top, lift it up and secure it to the wall of the building. Or you can just remove the door, and store it elsewhere.

 

Good morning,

I used cedar on my raised beds, kids sandbox, and water valve box. Cypress is also a good choice, do a little research on treated lumber leaching chemicals into the soil and veggies absorbing it. I put a good bit of peat moss, leaf mulch and compost in the very bottom. I like to make it just wide enough to reach the middle from both sides, also you can run an irrigation drip main-line underneath everything and move drip nozzles around as needed.

You're on the right track doing homework and prepping!

-Good luck

 

I agree, do some research. I did and for me I consider the worry way overblown. But yes do the research and decide for yourself.

 

A fair point. The new formulations on PT lumber eliminates the risk of arsenic leaching. The worst that would happen with the new ACQ PT would be that you'd have higher levels of copper in your soil.

But, if you're worried about it (even a little) cedar is well worth the investment for your peace of mind.

 

Ok I will look into that.

Do you have an irrigation set up?

What pipe do you use and do you leave it in the garden all winter or take it indoors?