Garden failed this year?

[Kassaundra]

My first batch of fall snow peas are up, now hopefully the 100' days will go away and give them half a chance!!!!!

 

[woodmort]

My hoop houses are just temporary fixes--covering seeds til they germinate, keeping bugs off seedlings, protecting from frost, keeping the chickens or other large pests away from the crops and protecting late crops from frost. I cover them with row cover, netting or plastic sheeting depending on which of the above I'm trying to accomplish. Once the job is finished I take everything down and store until needed. Most of the pvc pipe has been around for 5 years or longer--the row covering lasts about 3 if I'm careful, plastic and netting a bit longer. I build each hoop with one 10-foot length of 1/2" pvc per hoop as giving one the best flexibility in forming a good sized hoop without having it break and two 2.5' pieces to give enough height to allow one to work under it without getting a stiff neck/back.

I start with two 1/2" inch slip joints

and two 1/2" ground spikes

These are attached to the ends of the two 2.5' pieces of 1/2" pvc.

Before I connect these to the 10' piece of pvc, I slip one cross, slip-type joint for 3/4" pvc above the joint.

This will slide up the 10' piece and be used to connect two hoops together.

I then spike the ends of the hoop at 4 to 5 feet apart for a house high enough to work under--this will cover 3 rows of seeding--or 10-feet apart if I intend to cover hilled plantings like squash, cucumbers, pumpkins or potatoes(sweet or Irish). I join two or more hoops with 5-foot pieces of 3/4" pipe. You can use longer pieces but it sags and gets in the way. I suppose, since clamps can be purchased for 1" pipe, you could use this rather than the 3/4".

To steady the system I either duct tape or tie one side of the hoop to a vertical post in the ground--one at each end of the system is enough but use more if it is especially windy.

You can attach as many hoops in a series as you need.

The material is attached to the hoops and horizontal pieces using clamps sold for this purpose. I have found that these are not always reliable since they tend to lose their shape after a season or two but using a 1/2" sheet metal screw through them into the pipe will anchor them and the covering material very well.

BTW, the hoops shown are covered with netting to keep rabbits away from fall seeded lettuce, chard, carrots and spinach. I will cover them with plastic before frost and expect the veggies to be harvested up to Thanksgiving--after that it is too little light for them to grown any way and the ground will probably freeze.

 

[HHandbasket]

Quote:
Because of climate change, I have not had much success the last 2 years with anything that needs to ripen on the vine. It no longer gets hot enough in California to grow tomatoes here.

Tomato fields all over the state have dried up, and they even closed the Ragu Spaghetti Sauce plant down in Merced last year or the year before because California is no longer a good climate for growing tomatoes. Hundreds of people lost their jobs. I don't know where they're growing them now, but I had about 20+ pounds of tomatoes on my vine last year that stayed green. Out of 4 zucchini plants, I got 3 zucchinis.

Anyone who thinks climate change is a hoax obviously is not trying to grow anything.

 

[Two Creeks Farm]

Quote:
I disc my gardens and food plots, then lime, fertilize and broadcast the seed by hand. I use two pallets hooked by a rope to my ATV and drag the seed in, it doesnt need to be in the ground far, just lightly covered. I usually plant as close to Labor Day as I can and time it with a shot of rain to set the seed. Its up in a week and grows until a good frost then it slows, but will grow during warm spells in the winter.

 

[pbjmaker]

Quote:
I disc my gardens and food plots, then lime, fertilize and broadcast the seed by hand. I use two pallets hooked by a rope to my ATV and drag the seed in, it doesnt need to be in the ground far, just lightly covered. I usually plant as close to Labor Day as I can and time it with a shot of rain to set the seed. Its up in a week and grows until a good frost then it slows, but will grow during warm spells in the winter.

My current garden isn't quite that big

So I will just till it up then rake it in, along with the lime and some compost that has been sitting for a good year now (its nice and dark! )

 

[Two Creeks Farm]

Just dont seed it deep! A light raking is all it needs, basically just soil to seed contact and you will be green all winter. In the spring, mow it off and let it compost itself or till it under before it heads out. Ive disc'd food plots in teh woods and broadcast it and left...came back in 2 months to hunt and it was knee deep LOL!

 

[Carols Clucks]

Okay, bragging here

Mom says it is the biggest tomato she has ever grown.... (she also says it is cause of all the work I did on getting the garden cleared, laid out, dug, cover cropped etc)

 

[TerriLaChicks]

Quote:
AWESOME!!!Congrats to your Mom -- AND to YOU!!

 

[Illia]

But does it taste good?



Here's my brag of the day.

A Pineapple Tomato from today - Honest to goodness it tastes pineappley and very, very sweet. Though it may sound weird, ya just have to try one someday! Best thing ever to do with it is put it on a sandwich with ham and cheese.

Today's Luneville Melon. This one was actually a little over-ripe but still sooo good. Tomorrow I'll be cutting and opening our first ripe Orangeglo watermelon, but tonight, the remains of this melon will be turned to some Melon Sorbet.

Without a greenhouse, in our climate, it would be downright impossible to get these. I have a friend who lives down the road who's also trying to same watermelon variety as I, without any hoop or greenhouse, and sadly her plants themselves are about as big as a lemon.

 

[EweSheep]

My melons are the size of those grocery store dinner plate sized watermelons. How would i know when they are ripe? I hate to keep smashing them to find out if they are ripe and feeding them to the chickens if they are underripe.

I think I got two different variety...one is striped and the other one is solid green.