Gardening Thread- Show me your gardens!

Here's the plan I drew up for the layout. Happy to help if you have any questions.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it. I went with 4'x8' boxes. I looked for pics on the phone but don't have any. I have five of them in an incomplete square shape around a 6' center "courtyard". Fill it with 5" of River Rock. It's enough for our needs.

 

I did 2'x8' boxes around the perimeter, and 4'x12' in the center (keyhole) boxes. The soil I brought in was a garden blend, but it really seems like it needs nutrients. Had the soil really built up at my old house, need to help this stuff out.

Mike

 

I had to buy 4 yards of topsoil. They way it looked, is thought I'd have to fertilize the hell out of it. Surprisingly, it did very well the first year, minimal inputs needed. I added peat moss last year to losen it up some, and a little fertilizer. Did ok, but that was probably lack of water. Going to add composted manure or mushroom soil this year, and give it a good till. I need to start a compost bin as well, maybe a worm bin too.

 

That's what I noticed - it dried out really fast. Added cocoa shells for mulch last year, and have been adding chicken poop this winter. Will till it in later this spring. Wish I had more leaf mulch - planted maples on the property, eventually we'll have what we need. It's a fun process.

Mike

 

I started clearing a couple small spots to plant maybe some potato's and possibly corn, I had to fight back some brush with the brush cutter but I got through it. Theres a bigger spot I would like to open up but its really thick, I may have to try and burn it later in the spring when stuff dries out some. I opened up two approximately 12x12 spots and tilled it up. The dirt looked really fertile and smelled good also. So maybe I'll get something growing in the spots.

 

It was zero at my house on Saturday...Yesterday we had a heat wave and hit 19.

 

uh yuck...you can keep that...Im getting excited I can actually see ground around here...

 

Lol. We've got 12-20" of snow on the forecast for tomorrow. I'm looking forward to starting my Garden, but it doesn't look like I should be starting seeds anytime soon.

 

My wife started some already, but I think its far too early as most of them sprouted already. We still get frost here until end of May. So hopefully it all works out.

 

Still getting down into the teens at night, so keeping myself busy with the 'coop deck' project.

 

Status pictures!

Corn



Peanuts - first time ever growing them




Tomatoes






Tomatillos





Moar tomatoes



First time ever growing garlic

 

Love garlic. It's the only thing going right now in my garden. Still need to wait a little bit for everything else.

 

my first time growing it - any tips?

 

Nip the scapes as soon as they start developing, other wise you'll have huge scapes and small bulbs.

 

whats the Scape?

and how do I know they are developing?

 

It's the central stalk that the flower develops from. It's tubular/round instead of flat like a leaf, so once it starts developing it's easy to spot. Plus they start out all curly-cue.

Edit:

 

Got it.

So by cutting the central stalk, I wont let the plant flower, at all?

How high or low do I keep it?

 

Correct. Keeping the plant from flowering means that it dumps more energy into the bulbs so that it can try again the following year.

 

thanks, the pic helps a lot.

Do I keep it as low as I can?