Dixie Chicks

[NotAFarm]

a lil spring for everyone

Thanks, Jem!! Lovely pictures!!

 

[chickisoup]

Me too!!! Thank you for the pics, reminds there really is something under all the white!!! We should be seeing lots of melting this week BTW, that's after tonight's snow.

Hi Highcotton!

(aka Hagar-wondered where you went)

Vehve- I'm not starting my seeds. With this whole move thing potentially looming, I just don't have time for my (

) gardens this year. I have to make a list yet as to what perennials I am going to want to take with me. Top of the list I already know. I have Rhubarb that I got several years ago from a sweet older friend. (now gone) This Rhubarb was growing on the property when they bought it back in 1960 and was mature at the time. It gets huge every year and the stalks are sweet and beautiful! I have spit it many times and it always takes off again.

 

[Beer can]

Concrete reinforcement wire sounds like it would work good. Those pre-fab cages are garbage. Can't get them in our hard rocky soil.
Best setup I had for tomatoes was a fifty feet long four foot high wire fence. Just tie them to it as they grow. I even put the fence posts on a angle so the got better sun. They grew so massive it was hard to pick the 'maters. Then the fence I used had small square holes and I had to cut holes in it to pick from the other side.
I just did a few five gallon buckets last year, get free buckets from work. I found putting the drainge holes low wasn't good. I put them eight inches up. This time.

 

[vehve]

@Highcotton Yeah, that's the stuff I thought I'd use. 6" openings should be pretty good for picking. I'm not sure if the 18" diameter is necessary though, I don't mind if the tomatoes grow on the outside as well. I was thinking of making the towers a bit taller though, about 2 meters or just shy of 7 feet. Ten liter buckets are dirt cheap, but I'd like something lower for a wicking system to work properly, and they could be pretty wide so that they hold a lot of water. I just started looking into building a connected system with hoses, that way I could water everything by just filling in one place. I might end up burying a self watering system in the ground and growing the stuff on top of that.

chicki, that's a bummer not being able to garden. When exactly is the move? I could draw you up some simple plans for a self watering starting greenhouse built into clear plastic containers, that way you could easily take the stuff with you and plant when you're settled in.

If it's unclear to someone still, my favorite part of gardening is building all of the things that make it easier, like shelves, raised beds, watering systems and mini greenhouses. The gardening itself is just an interesting study in how my ideas work. I'm glad to see that the self watering system I put together for the chilis is working nicely. The light I was using did break though, luckily it happened the day before we left for our trip so I had time to jerry rig something together. I need to get a new light, but I can't find any info on the warranty, so I'm waiting to hear back from the manufacturer first before I go buying something else.


The tallest ones are about 4" now. Those pots are 9cm wide, so about 3½ inches.

 

[vehve]

Beer, that's the other idea I'm pondering. Putting up something resembling a swing set and having the maters trained on lines suspended in between the two A's.

 

[tntchix]

Interesting story. It's sad when you're a teenager that's constantly correcting teachers. That's part of why I dropped out. I got really bored with the classes, they were really slow, and they weren't on my level. They refused to put me in AP classes because I refused to try in my regular classes. I wasn't about to dumb myself down to make them happy. I went to job corps and part of that was taking the same test they take in the military. I was promptly ask why I was there since I was so far above everyone else.

It's simple. Most teachers are too stupid to handle me.

Yet I act like an idiot.

Ah the education system has fallen too far behind to keep up with those who are "smarter than they should be"

not today....

do not be a fly today..


there were a few flies flying around the living room this afternoon.....

they were killed by blowtorch

holy crap! A blowtorch? Overkill?

Hey girlie!

One song!
I watched all of the series of Justified and liked there theme song

and figured it was a band from down south, heck no, Brooklyn!, you've gottta be kidding me! Downloaded some of there other songs, not as good, and played one for my oldest who does like rap, I don't. She said it was just 'so wrong', fiddles and banjos don't belong in rap... Lol!

I like it when things crossover into uncharted territory. Why not fiddles and banjos with rap, I say?

 

[bamadude]

I prefer stakes over cages. I grow cucumbers on lattice

 

[chickisoup]

Vehve - thank you. Problem is we are just getting started with the whole process. We don't even meet with the realtor to list the place until this week. DH just decided last week that "we're outa' here". We are just going to be too busy cleaning out all the sheds and outbuildings (note the plural reference), sorting thru over 20 years of accumulated household and property maintenance and garden "stuff" to have time in the spring (if it gets here) to do much else.

 

[hennible]

Depends on the tomato.... Some I stake some I chage. I grow all my vineing plants up on lattice, even melons.

 

[vehve]

Bama, what's the benefit of stakes over cages in your opinion?

Chicki, yeah, it can be quite a lot of work. Besides, it's better to nut rush the garden. Instead you can spend all summer and next winter planning your perfect garden.

Sam, how about the 6-7 foot tall tomatoes, what do you do to those?

The cages will be a pain to store over winter though, so maybe I might go with the lattice system, or stakes. I probably won't have that many to support anyway. I think 8 is an absolute maximum of what we can imagine eating from and giving away, if last years productivity is anything to go by. We had two last year and got more than enough from those. They were super productive though.