BYC gardening thread!!

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Who here is gardening this year, or is planning a garden? I sure am! We all love our very own fresh fruit and veggies right? Well, that is why I started this thread.This thread is for sharing ideas, giving advice, having fun, sharing pics info etc!
So lets start!

Today I planted some Asparagus, some beans, and a few Squash seeds! (Planted indoors, and I will transplant to garden later in the year) I also hope to plant carrots, Potatoes, and Lettuce as well!

What are you going to plant?

(Flowers and flower gardens are welcomed to this thread)

 

[Peep_Show]

A garden of earthly delights....

BEFORE

AFTER



Some produce from within.....


Black Beauty eggplant


Gypsy peppers


Sweet Banana Peppers



Pickles in the wild!


Red table grapes

 

[NotAFarm]

Black tub holds the water.
There is a float inside the pvc pipe to keep the water level within the pipe constant.
The holes in the pipe are to accommodate a 2 inch net cup (from hydroponics) that is in the bottom of the baskets.
Baskets are used (with landscape fabric to hold in potting soil) because roots are "air pruned" instead of growing in circles around a solid pot.
Keeping the tub full means no watering of the garden (self watering) and it is slightly elevated which means rabbits (and chickens) don't seem to notice/bother it.
google/search "rain gutter garden system" and you'll find links for it.
I found out about it here on BYC from a post by @chickadoodles .

 

[NotAFarm]

Heading out to do some weeding...

 

[mymilliefleur]

A couple of the flowers are I have blooming right now:





I'm working on my ''weed propagation'' project right now. I have Violets, Curly dock, Burdock, Dandelions, Mullein, Chickweed, Plantain, and many others. (as well as my other plants) Most of these ''weeds'' have medicinal properties, so I hope to be able to propagate them for both my flock and for wild salads. (You can find out more of why I'm such a big wild plant fan here: Spring greens for your flock (and you))
I'm also getting my flowers started, and I need to get some more garden beds made up.

 

[hippiestink]

Well I dunno about what to plant for a place that HAD squash, but to keep squash bugs away in the future there's a lot you can do.

1) Interplant with dill, tansy, catnip, radishes (especially the podded rat-tail ones), marigolds, beebalms, mints and nasturtiums. These plants either repel squash bugs or attract their natural predators. This method has reduced my squash bug problem to less than 10% of what it used to be.

2) Cover plants with floating row covers until the flowers appear and then uncover for pollination, or leave covered and hand pollinate. This works really well if you can anchor the row cover to keep it from blowing away in our persistent spring and summer winds.

3) Spray your plants with Surround at Home kaolin clay. It is a fairly new product and research shows it works. You have to plan ahead and have it on hand, though, because it is not easy to find unless you have a nursery that REALLY caters to the organic gardener.

4) Handpick eggs and bugs and destroy them. This is very effective. I have never seen an insecticide/pesticide, organic or synthetic, that really works on squash bugs.

5) Plant the most squash-bug resistant varieties available.

 

[MeatTheFlockers]

 

[Guvnah]

... & do very poorly direct seeding fine seeds. ....

Here's a trick for that. This is how I do my carrots.

I prepare the bed as flat as possible. Then I distribute my soaker hoses and pat them into the soil a bit with the back of a shovel.

First trick: I mix the carrot seeds with sand. Mix it up as evenly as you can. Then lightly sprinkle the sand over the area. You can see your evenness of sprinkling if the sand is a different color from the actual soil. You don't need a lot of sand. Maybe 10x the volume of sand as the volume of seeds. I spread it as evenly as possible, and my carrot seeds are likewise evenly spread. And because I put the hose down first, seeds are not going to sprout under the hoses.

Pat this lightly with the back of a shovel. The entire plot. This presses the seeds into the soil.

Next I sprinkle a quarter inch (or so) of fine soil over the entire area. It doesn't take much. Essentially I just sprinkle until I can't see any of the sand.

Pat again. Then soak with a fine spray.

Then I sprinkle a light (very light) layer of fresh grass clippings. This helps retain moisture. Carrots take a long time to germinate and it's hard to keep the soil moist for that long -- especially in a dry climate like Colorado.

Finally (and this is the real secret) I cover the plot with a piece of old carpet. (I lay out the plot to fit beneath whatever carpet I have handy. Having a relative in the carpet business keeps me well supplied with old tear-outs.) I place it pile-side-down. I think it really doesn't matter, but to me, the pile side up would wick away more water to evaporation. Then soak the carpet. (I also place a few pieces of 2x4 or rocks to keep wind from blowing it off.)

This pretty much keeps the soil moist until the carrots sprout. Even in Colorado. But if I notice the soil underneath drying out, I soak the carpet again.

After a week or so, start checking for sprouting. The carrot variety I use actually takes 14 days (and 21 if I plant really early.) You just have to lift up one corner when checking for sprouts. They'll all come up pretty evenly. (This is also when you check to see if the soil is drying out.) At first sign of sprouts, remove the carpet. Most of the grass clippings will have emaciated to nothing.

Voila! You have a bed of well-dispersed, well-germinated carrots!

From there, I try to sprinkle very light applications of fresh clippings EACH DAY if possible. By "very light" I mean not much more than one grass blade's thickness each time. It's not enough to smother anything, and the carrots easily keep growing through the successive layers. But soon I have a nice mat of grass clippings between all the carrots. It results in very few weeds, and soon the carrot tops all grow together to create their own "mulch". Eventually the tops are so think that new grass clippings just stay on top of them. At that point I back off frequent applications. When the clippings start hanging on the tops, I just swish my hand around the tops and it falls through. (And continues to fall through as the clippings dry out.

Here is one of my carrot patches:

 

[Peep_Show]

 

[Ardj]

I made a herb butter three days ago , basil, oregano, thyme, garlic and salt.
Nothing better than your own healthy weeds to put in your dish.
Husband saw the butter and said - naaah , this green stuff naaaah. ..
And what happened today ? In the morning mister - no green stuff for me - came and ask where is that green butter?
We are out of it ! you need to make it again ! How about that... Healthy weeds won again ....