What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

I do let them get into the compost pile/bin. They love it . I live in town so am not able to let them roam all the time and don't really have a good way to put the scraps in their run. But I love the idea!!

The compost pile is the town gathering place for my chickens....

 

[WthrLady]

We are in a serious drought and more houses keep going up I’m ready to get out of here.

3 years of extreme drought, and if I see one more car wash opening up in the city I'm going to scream!

 

[igorsMistress]

3 years of extreme drought, and if I see one more car wash opening up in the city I'm going to scream!

I’m in the desert southwest, I’m quite familiar.

 

[jerryse]

Bucket of doom. A bucket with water and a few leaves + 1/4 mosquito dunks. Put in a shady spot. Leaves are nutrient to get mosquitos to lay eggs. For flies I use fish guts in a bucket and imaclorprid insecticide. Safe for mammals. Dunks may work but I have not tried it.

 

[gtaus]

I do let them get into the compost pile/bin. They love it . I live in town so am not able to let them roam all the time and don't really have a good way to put the scraps in their run. But I love the idea!!

Some people just build a small frame inside the chicken run and put all their compost material in it. The chickens can jump in and out as desired. It does not have to be 3 or 4 feet high like a compost bin because the idea would be to have the chickens scratch and peck the material, so they need easy access.

My chickens love scratching and pecking in the compost litter out in the chicken run. It's what they do naturally. In the summertime, my feed bill goes down about half because they are outside all day finding food in the compost. I eventually converted my entire chicken run into a composting system, but I started off with a simple frame type system to toss in kitchen scraps, etc...

 

[gtaus]

And all that seems ridiculously overpriced when you can pick up a load of garden soil from your local landscaping company for much less. I get a load here that fills up the entire bed of my pick-up truck (Dodge Ram 2500) for $50.

I typically buy a load of high-quality Red River topsoil from our nursery every spring. It is about $50 for a Bobcat scoop full, which fills up my 4X8 utility trailer. Of course, that is cheaper per cubic foot than buying potting soil in a bag.

Having said that, I thought the best method to start seeds and plants inside the house was to use a light, fluffy, potting soil or seed starting mix in starter pots.

I tried to use topsoil a few years ago for starting plants inside the house and it did not work out very well for me. The topsoil had too much life in it, and I got bugs on the plants. The plants did not grow all that well in the pots which I think was due to the topsoil being too heavy. I also had problems with mold, but I think that was because I overwatered the pots.

Anyways, I switched over to using a potting/seed starting mix in my starter pots. I use the 3-inch net cups and bottom water my pots. The potting soil mix wicks up the water and I don't end up overwatering my starter plants anymore. The added growth fertilizer or ingredients used in the potting soil has resulted in plants 2X-3X taller and stronger than the plants I started in topsoil only. Since then, I have not even considered going back to topsoil for starter pots.

I am open to better options, especially if I can save money. I grow my tomato and pepper plants for 8 weeks inside my house. I don't have an outside greenhouse. Do you use regular topsoil for your seed starting in pots inside the house? Are you successful with that method?

Maybe I just did it all wrong with the topsoil when I used it. But I have had great success with using high quality potting soil mixes. I know a small bag of potting soil is very expensive compared to a load of topsoil, but if the starter plants don't do well in the pots inside the house, they don't do as well in the garden outside when I transplant them.

When it comes to gardening, I have probably had more failures than successes. I am always looking for better ways to start my plants, which I think is probably the most important thing for better harvests at the end of summer.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I typically buy a load of high-quality Red River topsoil from our nursery every spring. It is about $50 for a Bobcat scoop full, which fills up my 4X8 utility trailer. Of course, that is cheaper per cubic foot than buying potting soil in a bag.

Having said that, I thought the best method to start seeds and plants inside the house was to use a light, fluffy, potting soil or seed starting mix in starter pots.

I tried to use topsoil a few years ago for starting plants inside the house and it did not work out very well for me. The topsoil had too much life in it, and I got bugs on the plants. The plants did not grow all that well in the pots which I think was due to the topsoil being too heavy. I also had problems with mold, but I think that was because I overwatered the pots.

Anyways, I switched over to using a potting/seed starting mix in my starter pots. I use the 3-inch net cups and bottom water my pots. The potting soil mix wicks up the water and I don't end up overwatering my starter plants anymore. The added growth fertilizer or ingredients used in the potting soil has resulted in plants 2X-3X taller and stronger than the plants I started in topsoil only. Since then, I have not even considered going back to topsoil for starter pots.

I am open to better options, especially if I can save money. I grow my tomato and pepper plants for 8 weeks inside my house. I don't have an outside greenhouse. Do you use regular topsoil for your seed starting in pots inside the house? Are you successful with that method?

Maybe I just did it all wrong with the topsoil when I used it. But I have had great success with using high quality potting soil mixes. I know a small bag of potting soil is very expensive compared to a load of topsoil, but if the starter plants don't do well in the pots inside the house, they don't do as well in the garden outside when I transplant them.

When it comes to gardening, I have probably had more failures than successes. I am always looking for better ways to start my plants, which I think is probably the most important thing for better harvests at the end of summer.

Totally get it! We are all looking for that magic seed elixir... And I feel it's different for everyone at a macro level because our environments are different (heat, moisture, humidity, etc...).

This year I'm using Burpee seed starter block mix which is basically just coco coir, I think. I'm reusing old starter cups, but also using cow pots. I am trying some tomatoes in net pots again. Last time this did not work well for me because roots became tangled in the net pot
This year I started my seeds really late so it's less likely I'll have that problem.

 

[Sally PB]

It's just frustrating it see it so big and lush and green and yet produce hardly any flowers at all.

My only other thought is soil pH? They like really acidic soil, 4.5-5.5 pH.

 

[gtaus]

3 years of extreme drought,

I’m in the desert southwest, I’m quite familiar.

Just wondering if you guys have tried the hügelkultur method, using wood logs as giant water batteries in the bottom of a raised bed, or wicking beds that have a water reservoir system contained in the bottom of the bed?

I have an elevated wicking bed that I probably only have to fill up maybe 3 or 4 times in a normal summer. Even in a drought summer, I was only filling the wicking bed maybe twice per month. I used a good mulch on the topsoil to protect the soil from the heat of the sun and to lock in that water from evaporating. I would think a wicking bed would be a great idea for drought areas and/or desert gardens.

The only thing I don't like about my elevated wicking bed is that the cost is pretty expensive for the plastic/rubber liners to hold the water reservoir. My small 2X4 foot wicking bed cost me about $80.00 in material. In comparison, my 4X4 foot 16-inch high hügelkultur pallet wood raised beds cost me about $2.00 to build.

Almost all my outside raised garden beds use the hügelkultur method. The logs and wood in the bottom of the bed soak up and hold the water for the plants. You still have to water the hügelkultur beds, but nowhere near as much, or as often, as a regular bed which allows all the water to drain through.

I don't live in a desert, but we did have a drought summer a number of years ago. All my in-ground plants died. All my plants in the regular raised beds dried up and died. However, all my plants in the hügelkultur raised beds managed to survive and made it to harvest with maybe 60-70% of normal production. That made me a believer in the hügelkultur method and since then, all my raised garden beds use logs and wood in the bottom layer.

Of course, my wicking bed had the best results because I was able to water it as needed. I have a water gauge indicator in my wicking bed fill tube that shows me when I need to refill it. The wicking bed grew normally as if there was no drought that summer.

 

[gtaus]

our environments are different (heat, moisture, humidity, etc...).

This year I started my seeds really late so it's less likely I'll have that problem.

Yeah, we still have snow on the ground here. I live in Zone 3B, so I won't transplant my starts until the end of May. The warm weather plants get set out mid-June. I won't start any seeds for another week or two, and then they spend about 8 weeks growing under the LED lights on my starter rack inside the house.

Last year I used a poor quality - off brand - potting mix and had terrible results. After about 4 weeks, I gave up on my starts and bought some MiracleGro potting mix and had to start all over again. You just can't buy back time in gardening, so my lesson learned was to give my starts the best chance I can even if I have to spend a little more money up front. It's still a lot cheaper than having to buy those plants at the nursery, which is what I had to do with a lot of my plants last year.