The Garden Thread

[Stovepipe]

I've got weeds growing in this heat. Makes me want to plant a few things. Looking forward to the last freeze so I can start planting. I have a new property this year where I can actually plant in the ground instead of pots. Also scored some tomato seeds from my grandfather that he planted every year when he was still here.

 

Congrats on the new property, keep us updated on how you get setup in the new space!  If you need tips on how to get that soil in shape we'll be glad to help.

 

I've only done cool season gardening for about 4 years but this has been a very interesting winter for it so far.  As of right now, lettuce is starting to play out finally.  Not from hard freezing of course but just from yielding over and over again since early fall, the plants are worn out.  We've gotten a ridiculous amount of cuttings from those plants.  Mustard and turnip greens and kale are still going strong and collards are are not far from being ready to eat (they were choked out by the weeds, now that weeds are removed I'm hoping they really take off).  Garlic, which would usually be in sort of hibernation at this point looks like what you'd expect to see in April.  The 45 day cabbage came and went and the cover crop of crimson clover and winter rye is rocking.  It's just amazing to see everything so vibrant and growing.

 

Weeds like creeping charlie (or henbit, not sure which it is honestly) have been a frustrating issue with the relative warmth and abundant rain.  It's particularly a pain because if you don't rip them out early the roots go deep and interfere with everything.  I've finally gotten around to ripping most of that stuff out.  One odd thing is a general lack of pests.  I've not seen a single white fly this season.  Just a few aphid type things that the lady bugs seem to be keeping in check.  Haven't even had to use Carver's Dipel Dust.

 

Knowing the warmth won't last, I'm trying to get a final covering on all of my beds.  I was fortunate to get my neighbors' bagged late fall yard clippings (leaves and grass) so that has been a nice addition.  Also my wood chip pile that's been sitting there since spring is very nicely composted so I'm putting that on top.  There is a ton of free manure (rabbit and horse mostly) on craigslist that I'm going to take advantage of too this winter.  I'm trying to get the soil in top shape for spring planting.

 

Another project that I'm super excited about is my chicken coop.  I have all the lumber ready to go, just need some rain free days to work on it.  Once that's built I'll need to get the run setup then hopefully get the baby girls in March (aiming for six birds).  Super pumped about having some country eggs and chicken poop for the garden!  I've been toying with the idea of putting solar panels near the coop for indoor lighting, water dish warming during winter, and door automation.  But first thing first I've got to get this coop built.  I'll post pics of the progress once that is under way.

 

It's also almost time to start tomato seedlings.  My folks got me a small green house for Christmas that I'm going to put on the deck.  Depending on arctic outbreaks I may try to start some seedlings out there; certainly it will be nice for hardening off plants later on when frost would otherwise be a threat.  I may look into putting some kind of heat source in it.  The bulk of my heirloom seedlings will be grown under grow lights again though.  We're very much missing those fresh maters.  The jars we have canned are nice but of course there is no beating fresh.

[Coach B]

 

Another project that I'm super excited about is my chicken coop.  I have all the lumber ready to go, just need some rain free days to work on it.  Once that's built I'll need to get the run setup then hopefully get the baby girls in March (aiming for six birds).  Super pumped about having some country eggs and chicken poop for the garden!  I've been toying with the idea of putting solar panels near the coop for indoor lighting, water dish warming during winter, and door automation. 

Good luck with the chickens. They were my first foray into farm animals, and now several years later I've still got them. Make double sure to keep them out of the garden. They are awful on seedlings, but great on post season cleanup. They can make a mess if they get into places you don't want and it is a balance to find the right amount of free-range/pen time. Once you get used to fresh greenery fed eggs the store bought ones are hard to go back to.

[Stovepipe]

Nothing super impressive but I figured I'd post a few pics of the winter garden. 

 

Finally got most of the weeds out of this bed so the collards can hopefully take off, some mustard greens hanging on the side there:

 

Here's the main mustard and turnip green patch.  We've already gotten several cuttings from these but they'll die off if that arctic outbreak comes so it's getting about time for a neighborhood green cookoff.

 

Protip:  Starbucks has free spent coffee grounds for the taking (I don't frequent the place but the wife studies there from time to time and gets them for me).  The grounds are wonderful for garden beds, the worms love them.  It remains to be seen whether this setup will caffeinate my garlic lol.  If I get wired on pasta sauce next summer I'll let you know.  One nice benefit of this is the constant aroma of coffee around this bed.

 

More garlic, these are smaller.  I recently packed the raised rows with neighbors' grass/leaf debris and smothered the whole thing in composted wood chips.  Hoping they are fertilized enough now for a nice early summer crop (and yes my kids were using that kiddie pool in the background a few days ago... in December!:

 

This relatively large bed is looking pretty rough due to the lettuce being played out for the year.  There is still some kale I'm using as well as some collards in the back.  I believe I'm going to weedeat most of this down and smother it in woodchips until tomato time.

 

Cover crop bed with winter rye and crimson clover.  I'll weedeat this down and cover in woodchips before the crop goes to seed.  Should be a nice nitrogen boost to the soil for tomatoes.

 

Another cover crop bed with the same stuff to be used for peppers and cukes:

 

This "L" shaped bed will be for maters, basil, and onions.  It has mushroom compost covered in leaves from the yard.  I may grab some free horse or rabbit poop from craigslist to give this a nitrogen boost.

 

Finally here's a shot of a small mustard green box with some plants I got from my uncle for Christmas; blueberry, blackberries, and raspberries.

 

This has been the best year for winter gardening I've seen since I started my first one 4 years ago.  Even if most of it dies off over the next few weeks it has been a heck of a run!

[Stovepipe]

Since I was snowed in with my inch of snow this weekend, decided to do a little canning.

 

 

We pressure canned 16 pints of chicken stock from 6 months worth of frozen bones, along with celery, onions, garlic, and a few cobs of frozen corn from the summer garden.  Also worked up 14 pints of pasta sauce based on a gallon of canned tomato juice from the garden as well.  Turned out pretty yummy.  Hopefully this stash, along with the existing jars of tomatoes, will get us though the winter and spring.

[Carvers Gap]

Since I was snowed in with my inch of snow this weekend, decided to do a little canning.

 

 

We pressure canned 16 pints of chicken stock from 6 months worth of frozen bones, along with celery, onions, garlic, and a few cobs of frozen corn from the summer garden.  Also worked up 14 pints of pasta sauce based on a gallon of canned tomato juice from the garden as well.  Turned out pretty yummy.  Hopefully this stash, along with the existing jars of tomatoes, will get us though the winter and spring.

 

Stove, looks really good!

[lugnuts]

Since gardening is about here was wondering if any of you know where one could find parts for some of the older model Bolens garden tractors..Thinking about buying a older Bolens large frame but can't find a tiller for it..Tiller models numbers are 18025..or 18090..or 18093..Getting to old for these walk behind's..They also make Bolens model's called tube frame's i would be interesting in with a tiller..If anyone knows i would appreciate if you let me know..Happy gardening..

[Carvers Gap]

Garlic is looking good - have four varieties in the ground.  Planted them last fall after reading about Stove's success.  I have to say, this may become a fall ritual.  Lettuce, onions, and kale went in a couple of weeks ago.  Also, planted some new strawberry plants(have several already).  The big news is the addition of more garden space.  Added about 400 sq ft more.  Sounds like a lot, but is a 20x20 area added to the old garden.  This area will get more sun.  Has been fenced to keep out deer and has some added protection against groundhogs at the base of the 6' welded wire fence.  Basically, I take 24" chicken wire and fold it lengthwise at 12".  I hang the upper 12" on the lower side of the welded wire fence and "kick-out" the rest on the ground.  The ol' groundhog does not like to crawl under 12" of chicken wire.  Works on rabbits as well. 

[LithiaWx]

Planted last Sunday. tomatoes, peppers, squash varieties. All in all 14 plants. First time planting in ground this year. I found a small space that has been used previously that has some extremely rich soil. This is a property I bought in December, the previous owner must have been a gardener.

[Carvers Gap]

If we get the pattern change that Robert foreshadowed in his post yesterday evening...you can thank me. Been drought proofing the garden for two weeks. Added mulch to the paths to hold in moisture. Added a 2 tons of of composted cow manure - heat stresses plants less if they are well fed. Also planted early in an attempt to avoid severe heat late summer - two weeks early for me. Have some odds and ends still to put in the ground...but the lion's share of planting is completed. So, like washing my truck...it ought to bring rain by the buckets.

[Smokey_mountain_vols]

If we get the pattern change that Robert foreshadowed in his post yesterday evening...you can thank me. Been drought proofing the garden for two weeks. Added mulch to the paths to hold in moisture. Added a 2 tons of of composted cow manure - heat stresses plants less if they are well fed. Also planted early in an attempt to avoid severe heat late summer - two weeks early for me. Have some odds and ends still to put in the ground...but the lion's share of planting is completed. So, like washing my truck...it ought to bring rain by the buckets.

Go Vols.

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[Stovepipe]

My late winter/early spring project was to get up and running with backyard chickens and it has been a success!  We now have a flock of 3 Rhode Island Reds and 3 Buff Orpingtons, all around a year old and laying eggs like crazy.  I put composted wood chips in their 16x8 foot run along with a huge pile of homemade compost and they are in heaven.  It'll be nice to rake all of that out this fall and put it on the garden.  I'll get some pictures posted soon.

 

With all time spent building the coop and run, I've taken a very laid back approach to the garden this year.  I've spaced out my plants much more and have far fewer than previous years.  This will be easier to maintain which will be nice for a change.  As of now I have about 20 tomatoes, 10 peppers, 30 potatoes, 4 cucumbers, some onions and herbs, and lots of garlic.  I hope to put in a few swales to catch water and may put a few more plants on those berms.  Last year we canned more than we could eat or give away so I think this smaller garden will be just about right.

 

Oh yeah, I have a bunch of greens planted for the chickens as well and some crimson clover for nitrogen building in beds I'm not growing food in at the moment.  I may eventually build a hoop house over the largest bed that I can let the chickens scratch up, poop in, and prepare for planting in fall.  This would allow me to cover the house in plastic to get a jump start on planting in the spring.  Lots of plans and not enough time to do everything!  It's sounds like y'all have been busy too.  Try to post some pics when you can!

 

Ahhh I remembered one more thing we have going on; a mealworm farm!  Since the chickens go nuts over mealworms I decided to order 1000 of them and start raising beetles/eggs/larvae.  It's extremely cheap and easy to do and that 1000 could reach 40,000 by fall.  These will be a great protein rich treat for the chickens year round plus the kids enjoy messing with them haha.

[Carvers Gap]

My late winter/early spring project was to get up and running with backyard chickens and it has been a success! We now have a flock of 3 Rhode Island Reds and 3 Buff Orpingtons, all around a year old and laying eggs like crazy. I put composted wood chips in their 16x8 foot run along with a huge pile of homemade compost and they are in heaven. It'll be nice to rake all of that out this fall and put it on the garden. I'll get some pictures posted soon.

With all time spent building the coop and run, I've taken a very laid back approach to the garden this year. I've spaced out my plants much more and have far fewer than previous years. This will be easier to maintain which will be nice for a change. As of now I have about 20 tomatoes, 10 peppers, 30 potatoes, 4 cucumbers, some onions and herbs, and lots of garlic. I hope to put in a few swales to catch water and may put a few more plants on those berms. Last year we canned more than we could eat or give away so I think this smaller garden will be just about right.

Oh yeah, I have a bunch of greens planted for the chickens as well and some crimson clover for nitrogen building in beds I'm not growing food in at the moment. I may eventually build a hoop house over the largest bed that I can let the chickens scratch up, poop in, and prepare for planting in fall. This would allow me to cover the house in plastic to get a jump start on planting in the spring. Lots of plans and not enough time to do everything! It's sounds like y'all have been busy too. Try to post some pics when you can!

Ahhh I remembered one more thing we have going on; a mealworm farm! Since the chickens go nuts over mealworms I decided to order 1000 of them and start raising beetles/eggs/larvae. It's extremely cheap and easy to do and that 1000 could reach 40,000 by fall. These will be a great protein rich treat for the chickens year round plus the kids enjoy messing with them haha.

My wife has been trying to get me to raise chickens. Wow. That is a great read, man. Really interesting. How many eggs per week are you getting?

[Stovepipe]

My wife has been trying to get me to raise chickens. Wow. That is a great read, man. Really interesting. How many eggs per week are you getting?

 

You should do it, they are fascinating to watch, can turn a compost pile wickedly fast, their poop is awesome for the garden, plus eggs!  These 6 chickens have been giving us between 4 and 6 eggs per day.  It is my understanding that this summer they will be at peak laying age and production will slowly decline over the years moving forward.  A buddy of mine has a flock of 4 year old hens and is still getting regular eggs though so we should be set for awhile.

[tnweathernut]

Stove, you are amazing with gardening stuff.  I love reading this thread and think I will start a garden often, but then I just go to the store or farmers market and get good veggies there.  Hope you guys get enough rain for a bumper crop this year.

[nzucker]

Planted tomatoes, red onions, tarragon, basil, and thyme here in the northern Poconos at 1560'...I'm not from your region but I usually post about my garden near NYC. This year I'm up north and growing less but still trying...may get some arugula in, too. Already have lots of sage, oregano, and wild mint.

Red onions can take up to 150 days to mature, and I planted them May 24th here in northern PA. How will they handle cold weather in late October and early November? (We are in a sheltered valley at nearly 1600' in northern PA with an average first frost of 9/20...average last around 5/20). Any tips to speed the onions along?

[LithiaWx]

First harvest of the season! You can't really judge scale but let me tell you that zucchini is yuuuuugggggge.

Tomatoes are all green and most of my peppers are not quite mature.

[Stovepipe]

Planted tomatoes, red onions, tarragon, basil, and thyme here in the northern Poconos at 1560'...I'm not from your region but I usually post about my garden near NYC. This year I'm up north and growing less but still trying...may get some arugula in, too. Already have lots of sage, oregano, and wild mint.

Red onions can take up to 150 days to mature, and I planted them May 24th here in northern PA. How will they handle cold weather in late October and early November? (We are in a sheltered valley at nearly 1600' in northern PA with an average first frost of 9/20...average last around 5/20). Any tips to speed the onions along?

 

I would imagine the onions will handle the chilly October weather just fine.  If I lived where you live I'd keep onions in the ground year round.  You could put some in the ground in the fall for a mid/early summer harvest and plant some early spring for an early/mid fall harvest.  I mean it's possible you get so cold in the winter that they don't survive but it's worth a try since onion sets are cheap.  See if you can find a local ag extension paper on growing onions in your area and see what it says.

[Stovepipe]

Stove, you are amazing with gardening stuff.  I love reading this thread and think I will start a garden often, but then I just go to the store or farmers market and get good veggies there.  Hope you guys get enough rain for a bumper crop this year.

 

Thank you for supporting your local farmers markets!  Water bill is going to be higher here but the garden is looking good.  

 

 

First harvest of the season! You can't really judge scale but let me tell you that zucchini is yuuuuugggggge.

Tomatoes are all green and most of my peppers are not quite mature.image.png

 

Nice man, that's a beautiful harvest!  

[LithiaWx]

Me standing next to my banana pepper plant. I'm almost 6 feet tall. This guy did particularly well this season. 

[jaxjagman]

i keep reading this thread and get more hungry every time..lol

[Stovepipe]

Any bets on when the cold kills off the fall/winter crops?  Besides cover crops, all I have are relatively small patches of lettuce, kale, cabbage, and some free broccoli I got from Lowes.  Also garlic and onions of course for the long haul.  It would be nice to see that stuff grow out a bit, but winter will hit when it hits.  If it gets hit too hard I guess the chickens will have a big one day frozen feast on it.

Cover crop this year is a combination of rye, crimson clover, and (for the first time) bell beans.  The latter is like a fava bean that grows in the winter.  All of that should result in some nice fertilizer in the beds come spring.

[Stovepipe]

We may have hit 19 at one point, but so far the plants are still hanging tough!  

I have a small 4 shelf green house on my deck.  I think I may try to keep some stuff like spinach going all winter in that.  Maybe the daytime solar heat will keep the soil just warm enough to survive the brief arctic blast nights.

[Stovepipe]

I'm gonna get mater seeds started in the green house this weekend.  The weather is perfect!

[Carvers Gap]

5 hours ago, Stovepipe said:

I'm gonna get mater seeds started in the green house this weekend.  The weather is perfect!

Do you use a heated mat?

[Stovepipe]

1 hour ago, Carvers Gap said:

Do you use a heated mat?

This will be the first time I've started seeds in the green house and haven't thought about a heated mat.  That's probably a good idea, I'll have to look into it.  As a backup I plan to put some under my usual indoor grow lights as well.  

Getting pumped about the warm season garden!  This year we're gonna go all out, adding some new beds and new varieties of things.  In addition to canning and freezing I'm going to get serious with some dehydrating.  I've seen youtube videos of people dehydrating and rehydrating all sorts of things I never thought about and apparently the flavor and texture comes back decently well even years later.

The chickens worked out very very well so this spring we hope to expand our coop a bit to add more roosting room and expand the pen so that we can add a few more hens.  We're at 6 now, hoping for 10 or 12.  I think I'm also going to try getting into rabbits.  Been studying rabbit hutch designs.  I don't think it'll be too difficult or expensive to get setup for breeding meat rabbits.

What are you planning for the upcoming season Carvers?

[rbowman]

Take a look at the site linked below. They manufacture residential freeze dryers and claim that with a little water and heat the food tastes like it has just been made. They have videos on the site showing them freeze drying whole meals (including meats).

https://harvestright.com

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[Stovepipe]

On 2/16/2017 at 8:41 AM, rbowman said:

Take a look at the site linked below. They manufacture residential freeze dryers and claim that with a little water and heat the food tastes like it has just been made. They have videos on the site showing them freeze drying whole meals (including meats).

https://harvestright.com

Sent from my LG-H918 using Tapatalk
 

Freeze dryers are amazing, but way too pricey (10k or more) for me for the current scale of my hobby operation.  That being said, it wouldn't take much more production to rationalize the investment if one was really committed to reducing grocery bills.  The thing could potentially pay for itself fairly quickly.  If I could find a good used one, or get some family members to go in together on one I'd consider it down the road.  Apparently there is a fair amount of ongoing maintenance on those things too so that is something else to consider.  For now I'm content with my cheap dehydrator.  

Anyone built a smokehouse?  After seeing some relatively simple, inexpensive, and neat examples on YouTube I'm thinking it might be a nice project to consider before long.  My issue is that I'd like to build one that could both cold smoke as well as hot smoke meats.  

 

[John1122]

I've built a smokehouse before. We had one big enough to hang a dozen hogs at once in at once time.  Wasn't the most fancy thing in the world, my grandfather was the lead architect. Looked like something you'd have seen in 1925 in the back woods. But it worked damn well.

[Carvers Gap]

Everything is planted except my peanuts and sunflowers.  Ran out ot time before the deluge.  

[Stovepipe]

How's everyone's gardens doing this year?  I can't complain, overall my stuff has been thriving.  Tomatoes ripened 2 or 3 weeks earlier than last year.  It'll be time to start canning this coming weekend.  We've been dehydrating like crazy and already have a nice stockpile of various dried things for soups this winter.

There have been a few relatively minor problems.  Something has been eating my green peppers and okra.  I had to use some of Carver's Dipple Dust on the okra and that seemed to help, I think they'll pull through.  Squirrels did a number on my corn.  And of course with all this rain weeds are going crazy.  But I'm pleased with how the 2017 warm season is panning out so far.