Gardening Thread

[Sumatra503]

A place for gardeners to gather and talk about gardening, ask and answer questions.

Didn't see one yet and thought I'd start one.

 

[Sumatra503]

I have a small flower bed in the front that I have a few plans for. I have a few mixed wild flower seed packets I will be planting there. I also have a large veggie garden in the back that has a large deer(chicken mostly) fence around it and trellice for peas.I plant carrots, squash, peas, and bush beans every year and then whatever else I can throw in for the rest of the space.

I am an organic gardener and never put anything but rabbit poo and some good compost on garden. No commercial fertilizer or pesticides. I use my ducks for pest control.

 

[ranchhand]

BYC has a sister site, all links are at the bottom of every page here. It's www.TheEasyGarden.com

Same admin, moderators and for the most part, BYC members! Lots of fun and good info there!

 

[vfem]

HOORAY For The Easy Garden!!!! I'm such a junky over there

Seriously, a LOT of us BYC members are over there daily.

 

[Kassaundra]

They do have a lot of good ideas, but it isn't as active a site as BYC.

 

[Sumatra503]

Since BYC is more active why not start a thread here.

We have BYH, but there are still threads for cows, goats, and sheep.

You guys never mentioned what you grow in your gardens.

 

[Kassaundra]

I am having a MAJOR garden overhaul this coming season, so my gardening is in flux. I have always had a small garden w/ the usual, tomatoes, peppers, cukes, and squash, all planted basically traditionally. But this year I have spent doing a lot of research into different gardening methods. I have come across 2 in particular that I am trying/ adapting to my area (eastern OK, wild temp swings, hot dry summer, hail storms, late killing freeze in the spring, high tornadic winds storms any time, but mostly in the spring.)

My garden plans for the coming growing season is fashioned after Linda Woodrows mandala gardens w/ chicken tractors, but I wanted a more sturdy home for the chickens so I have altered hers to a chicken "hub" type system where I move the chicken yard not the chicken house. I have the chicken house in the center and the garden beds radiating out wheel spoke style from the hub, making a total of 8. 4 are going to be for short term plantings and 4 for long term plantings. The short term planting areas will be planted, harvested, and chickened a total of 3 times in the year, but the long term only once. I plan on planting both for the girls (chickens) and ourselves in a guild type arangement, and as I can afford it adding fruit trees to the edges of the garden. This year is a massive experiment so I plan on planting a lot of different things and keeping good notes to see what works well here and not. I want to stay away from hybrids and keep my own seed for the things that are most successful here.

The other project garden wise I am working on is a vermi/aqua ponics system. I am experimenting w/ that this winter in the house, so far it has been great, if it continues to be successfull I will do it on a larger plan outside, but that will be more money intensive, so it will probably be next growing season before that is up and running on any level. My page on BYC has some pics of the vermi ponics system I have right now, but I don't have any pics of the "hub garden" yet.

 

[NanaKat]

My garden is also going thru a work over this winter. Hubby made lots of compost from hay and maure from our cows and we have a composting hen house. In the hen house we add bags of leaves and vegetable litter for the hens to scratch thru, crush and mix with their droppings. Not only does the leaf litter form a nice warm dense layer insulating the ground, we have wonderful compost for the garden.

The garden beds are 4 by 16 feet raised beds made with treated lumber. Makes is more comfortable with back, knee and neck injuries to "play" in the garden. These beds have been in place for 10 years and need some re-work. Each bed has a 50 foot soaker hose laid out and covered with 3 inches of soil.

The compost will be double-dug into each bed thru the winter months as some hired highschoolers have time. Then in the spring, the beds will be planted and mulched with wheat straw.

Over the past few years we have added mushroom compost and dry maure, but the beds need more organic material to be more healthy and fertile for veggies.