Pandemic Gardening Thread. 2020–Onward

[Carhole]

One of the best things about folks going nuts over this present situation is a reinvigorated interest in food production at home. I’m seeing plots in people's front yards, and talking to many other folks who’re not usually into botany or gardening at all, all taking up the spade.

I hope that this thread inspires some to do a bit of cloning at the very least—or experimenting with seeing what roots brought in from the last grocery store run they can get to set new shoots.

Wife and I started a victory garden ten days ago. We are still in the sprouting phase for everything, though will have beans in the ground by end of next week. We are also still waiting on a couple of dozen other seed varieties to arrive, so it’ll be a staggered deployment here.

Anyone else taking an early or keener interest in growing out some noms this year? I’ve taken this as an excuse to torture myself with heirloom tomato experiments again, which I haven’t tried since 2008. It’s torture due to massive harvest losses incurred from stings, and fungal blights are also inevitable. But WTH, I’ll be focused far more on growing things so perhaps I’ll crack the code there.

As of yesterday we had sprouts in our trays, and today many more varieties of seedlings emerged. I’m going big on Kabocha squash this season, as it’s a long-game harvest and Kabochas both need time to ripen after harvest and store very well. I don’t think much else is too clever about our setup, aside from some permaculture additions around the home. And going a bit large on numbers.

Our first sprout is a Sweet 100 cherry tomato! Here’s encrypted Crom:

 

[Carhole]

Here’s a first for me which is cloning various sweet potatoes. This is really easy, if you’ve got a yam or sweet potato in the pantry it is probably trying to grow. Simply cut off ‘slips’ and give them some strongly filtered sunlight and a jar with some water, and in about three days you’ll see roots. After a week you’ll be looking at this. These are ready to be planted, and just waiting on me to have time to till a lot for them. You could also do containers for smaller patio spaces, and use your favorite potting mix:


This is a Hawaiian sweet potato plant that I cloned into dozens of slips. You can see the roots developing through the recycled plastic container. The purple cultivar is quite different from the yam slips in that root development is taking twice as long, though both have 100% rooting rates which is excellent. I know some farmers will just shove cuttings into the soil and call it a day, though this seemed like a good way to get the plants going while we get the lots organized and prepped:

 

[Carhole]

Kabocha seeds harvested from a fruit. They are related to regular pumpkins so the seeds are familiar (and plentiful from one mature squash).


You plant these pointed side down and in our case, they took four days to sprout:
Edit: incorrect image


Here’s a flat of sweet basil. Doing an herb garden is high priority for us since we lost our last plants to slug damage, so we are starting over with the other veggies, and will plant these in raised containers:


As of tonight we have a lot of cherry tomato seedlings, about one hundred corn sprouts, these ones above, and these freaky-fast bush beans pushing skyward:

These were put in the soil the night of March 27th

 

[Deleted member 14629]

Oooh! I'll get some photos of my garden this weekend. The radishes should be ready to harvest. Everything else is coming up strong. I have 4x4 raised bed plots that are a very convenient size for me.

As an amusing aside, we also have some avocado seedlings we starts from store-bought. By the fall, I'm going to have to get a greenhouse solution for them, because there won't be a place for them in the house, I don't think. Not sure if those will survive being in Georgia, but since the effort of trying so far has been near-zero, can't be mad if it doesn't work.

 

[Thorvard]

I'm here to orange.

Last fall my wife decided she wanted to be serious about gardening. As such she's started to build a garden house/enclosure thing and has a whole bunch of fruit and vegetable seeds starting.

 

[GaitherBill]

Doing our usual garden stuff.

Got a fenced in area out back to keep out. the deer, groundhogs, and bunny's, about 3,750 sq. ft.

Started some tomatoes and peppers way too late. The original idea was to go to the local farm place again and buy our plants like last year, but with the virus I wanted a backup.

Also putting together a small 8x8 greenhouse this week to get a little bit of a jumpstart on things.

What are we going to grow?

14 tomato plants, various varieties, almost none red, mostly orange and yellow slicers

14 Bell pepper plants, Cali wonders, maybe a banana pepper plant

Pickle sized cukes

Yellow Squash

Zucchini

Spaghetti squash

Butternut squash

Green Beans

Peas

Lettuce up in our little greenhouse on the deck next to the kitchen.

Various herbs, like thyme, basil, rosemary, oregano, sage, mint.

Not sure on root veggies, that's going to be solely my wife's responsibility this year, I made a mess of them last year.

We'll plant on May 1. Any sooner and we risk everything to the freaky late frost we always get.

 

[Carhole]

GaitherBill, that's a nice asst. We need to dedicate our plans to paper here. Many more things arrived today and my journal is falling behind my actual planting progress, though here's what I've found thus far:

0/32 Chadwick cherry toms from 2018 stock sprouted
0/32 Rainbow chard from 2018 stock has sprouted
0/100 Coriander seeds from 2018 sprouted
---
12/16 Kabochas from seed harvested 3/12/20 have sprouted in six days
16/16 Tender bushbean hybrid seeds 2020 stock
32/32 Sweet 100 cherry toms 2020 stock
32/32 Sweetie heirloom cherry toms 2020 stock
100/100 Bi-Color Hybrid corn, again all 2020 seed stock. This is impressive!
62/100 Sweet Basil have emerged
0/24 lilikoi have sprouted, seeds say I harvested them in 2019. Six days and counting.
0/32 Solo Papaya have sprouted. Too soon for sure here. 2020 stock
26/32 U oh H Healani toms have sprouted. 2020 stock
---
Zero root growth visible on lilikoi cuttings at 10 days
---
All potato slips are ready for planting at 10 days, all three varieties, with a bit of lead going to traditional yams.

We received our cabbage seeds, some more tomato varieties, long beans, two types of eggplants, and fifty seed flat nursery trays today. I will be busy tomorrow after work getting these all in perforated solo cups as I'm out of nursery pots, though the next load should arrive next week. My other challenge is a lack of nursery space --at least horizontal and safely sheltered from heavy rains-- at this point will choke the mass plantings back into a more serial progression. Perhaps I can locate another folding table or two, and that'll be a moot point.

 

[Thorvard]

Ok, my wife has a question(or 2):

Is there a way to saved waterlogged seedlings? She thinks the radish seedlings in pods that went leggy but after using grow lights some stems got stronger but some are now droopy as if they are waterlogged. Same with the cucumber plants.

Some pods have 2 seedlings for space saving would it be possible that the droopy one just lost the viability fight with the other one?

 

[Hound of Cullen]

Ok, my wife has a question(or 2):

Is there a way to saved waterlogged seedlings? She thinks the radish seedlings in pods that went leggy but after using grow lights some stems got stronger but some are now droopy as if they are waterlogged. Same with the cucumber plants.

Some pods have 2 seedlings for space saving would it be possible that the droopy one just lost the viability fight with the other one?

Water them less, prop them, if they've completely fallen over. If not, put a fan on low blowing towards the seedlings. That will make the plants strengthen their stems in response.

 

[Vince-RA]

We moved from a house that had a great big yard where we installed several raised beds to one with a tiny yard and lots and lots of trees. We have enough sun on the deck for container herbs, but probably not much more :| So I'll just hang out and live vicariously through you fine people.

 

[leet]

We moved from a house that had a great big yard where we installed several raised beds to one with a tiny yard and lots and lots of trees. We have enough sun on the deck for container herbs, but probably not much more :| So I'll just hang out and live vicariously through you fine people.

Our north facing deck (so not a ton of direct sunlight) is our best option for gardening too. We've had good luck with container gardening, including tomatoes, lettuce, herbs, cucumbers, radishes etc. Something like this is helpful to keep the container from drying out when it gets really hot:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/CITY-PICKER ... /204339321

 

[halse]

Grow flowers for a meadonw/cottage garden and a cottage garden.
Have 12 trays of 50 cells each, the earliest were started first week in January.
Have heat mats and LED seed starting lights.
The seedlings then go to plots in the community garden, in late April, where they grow to full size (see pics showing some of them last year).
Then they are transplanted into their final homes. This is year four of a five year plan.
Can post pics of the seedlings if anyone is interested, take pics once a wee so as to have a record.

https://phbolton.smugmug.com/Other/Augu ... -FLfWbRg/A
https://phbolton.smugmug.com/Other/Augu ... -zcxZZhZ/A
https://phbolton.smugmug.com/Other/Augu ... -xhdQ88W/A

 

[dferrantino]

Ok, my wife has a question(or 2):

Is there a way to saved waterlogged seedlings? She thinks the radish seedlings in pods that went leggy but after using grow lights some stems got stronger but some are now droopy as if they are waterlogged. Same with the cucumber plants.

Some pods have 2 seedlings for space saving would it be possible that the droopy one just lost the viability fight with the other one?

Are you keeping the radishes in the pods, or starting them inside? Radishes go straight into the ground, with the window opening about 2 weeks ago even in the coldest areas of NJ.

 

[Vince-RA]

We moved from a house that had a great big yard where we installed several raised beds to one with a tiny yard and lots and lots of trees. We have enough sun on the deck for container herbs, but probably not much more :| So I'll just hang out and live vicariously through you fine people.

Our north facing deck (so not a ton of direct sunlight) is our best option for gardening too. We've had good luck with container gardening, including tomatoes, lettuce, herbs, cucumbers, radishes etc. Something like this is helpful to keep the container from drying out when it gets really hot:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/CITY-PICKER ... /204339321

That looks great - it does get damn near impossible to keep things hydrated in the depths of summer here, that could be very helpful. I might try a few more things this year, after all what else do I have to do right now?

 

[leet]

We moved from a house that had a great big yard where we installed several raised beds to one with a tiny yard and lots and lots of trees. We have enough sun on the deck for container herbs, but probably not much more :| So I'll just hang out and live vicariously through you fine people.

Our north facing deck (so not a ton of direct sunlight) is our best option for gardening too. We've had good luck with container gardening, including tomatoes, lettuce, herbs, cucumbers, radishes etc. Something like this is helpful to keep the container from drying out when it gets really hot:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/CITY-PICKER ... /204339321

That looks great - it does get damn near impossible to keep things hydrated in the depths of summer here, that could be very helpful. I might try a few more things this year, after all what else do I have to do right now?

The pots with built in water trays underneath seem to be good for maybe two days. The one I linked can go for a week I'm pretty sure (based on experience when on vacation, etc.).

 

[Thorvard]

Ok, my wife has a question(or 2):

Is there a way to saved waterlogged seedlings? She thinks the radish seedlings in pods that went leggy but after using grow lights some stems got stronger but some are now droopy as if they are waterlogged. Same with the cucumber plants.

Some pods have 2 seedlings for space saving would it be possible that the droopy one just lost the viability fight with the other one?

Are you keeping the radishes in the pods, or starting them inside? Radishes go straight into the ground, with the window opening about 2 weeks ago even in the coldest areas of NJ.

She started them inside in pods with everything else.

yeah they will be underground outside, i guess i should transfer them now
ask if it's too late/missed the window?

 

[Tom the Melaniephile]

Yep. Ramped the gardening back up. Still very small scale compared to Carhole . Most of the work has been making/processing biochar (charcoal) using old/dried trimmings, plus trimming back trees and shrubs to get more sunlight to the garden again, plus digging. My soil is scanty and clayey.

Tomatoes and pole beans have started off nicely. Flowers on one tomato already, pole beans have true leaves showing now.

Radishes looked good when they sprouted, but something (most likely pillbugs) ate most of them

Got a couple spare starts of eggplant and peppers from a neighbor, they're in the ground now

Got a few zucchini and watermelon sprouts up.

Just started germination testing some old corn seed. Whatever starts to sprout goes in the back bed.

Trying to get some sweet potatoes to sprout, should have bought them months prior and forgotten them in the pantry

 

[Carhole]

Grow flowers for a meadonw/cottage garden and a cottage garden.
Have 12 trays of 50 cells each, the earliest were started first week in January.
Have heat mats and LED seed starting lights.
The seedlings then go to plots in the community garden, in late April, where they grow to full size (see pics showing some of them last year).
Then they are transplanted into their final homes. This is year four of a five year plan.
Can post pics of the seedlings if anyone is interested, take pics once a wee so as to have a record.

https://phbolton.smugmug.com/Other/Augu ... -FLfWbRg/A
https://phbolton.smugmug.com/Other/Augu ... -zcxZZhZ/A
https://phbolton.smugmug.com/Other/Augu ... -xhdQ88W/A

Wow, that’s an amazing collection. It’s rather inspiring to me personally, as we could definitely improve the floral interplanting strategy with the edibles here. Thanks for sharing.

 

[JasterMereel]

No garden this year besides a basil plant, but my yard is going to look fantastic this spring.

I've already done a ton of clean up. This weekend, I have to tackle a bunch of weeds though. They're already pretty bad in one part of my yard. Once things open back up, I'm going to have a dump truck load of mulch delivered to my place and spread that around. I think it is too much work to remove the existing mulch, put down landscaping fabric, and put new mulch down. Oh, I should mention that my front yard and side yard are xeriscaped. My back yard is half grass and half mulch.

 

[dferrantino]

Ok, my wife has a question(or 2):

Is there a way to saved waterlogged seedlings? She thinks the radish seedlings in pods that went leggy but after using grow lights some stems got stronger but some are now droopy as if they are waterlogged. Same with the cucumber plants.

Some pods have 2 seedlings for space saving would it be possible that the droopy one just lost the viability fight with the other one?

Are you keeping the radishes in the pods, or starting them inside? Radishes go straight into the ground, with the window opening about 2 weeks ago even in the coldest areas of NJ.

She started them inside in pods with everything else.

yeah they will be underground outside, i guess i should transfer them now
ask if it's too late/missed the window?

You can keep planting every week or two, they'll grow until it gets hot (you'll know it's too late when they flower). Definitely no need to start them indoors, usually only have to do that for tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. Can start zucchini inside but it'll also grow fine outside.

 

[Carhole]

Two things I’ve learned over the years while growing stuff in many places of the world is that first, your herbivore, omnivore, and scavenger threats range wildly based on location and that fencing is paramount and second, unless you’re using a cold frame over a garden bed, that spot can and will get frosted.

Another thing to keep in mind that birds can and will steal your sprouts, anywhere, unles. They cannot land on your germinating flats or garden beds.

We experience our biggest losses to slugs after accounting for the above, and slugs are damn tricky to control without poisoning your land. Thus, plant 2(N) desired young plants, and 4(N) mature plants gets you somewhere in the middle. If your growing season permits, lose that week or two or transplant shock to starting hardy shoots in a protected area.

 

[Carhole]

Just did a bit of dividing. That heirloom cherry tomato cultivar called Sweetie went nuts, with every dwarf seed I discounted as a write off sprouting today so I took the 32 or so extra seedlings and interplanted them with the papayas. As of now we have 160 viable tomato starts with perhaps an odd extra in a flat or ten. We still have a few more hundred to plant when the gear arrives. Will be sharing these around

Tomorrow’s goals:

Start eight more cultivars of basil, Chinese long beans, orient express eggplants, black Brandywine tomatoes, and black cherry tomatoes. I will be amazed if I get a single mature black Brandywine fruit but WTH, could be rewarding. I will also do a hundred or so clones of our purple sweet potato since the pilot experiment has been successful. Cheers!

 

[KT421]

Some tomatoes and hot peppers inside, and sugar snap peas in the ground. The strawberry bed should produce a harvest this year.

And two large pots to be the kiddo's gardens, with radishes, carrots, and sunflowers.

 

[ecotone]

Currently getting lettuce, spinach, chard, dill from the greenhouse, and chives from the herb bed. Leeks and garlic ready by mid summer. Radishes, carrots, arugula, snow peas and onions in the ground. Chiles, tomatoes, sweet peppers, crowder peas, basil in trays, to be planted in May. Melons and cukes can’t be planted before July 1 due to f*cking squash bugs. Grape vines are leafing, cherry and apples trees are blooming. While we would do most of this anyway, we did up the square footage of the vegetable beds.

 

[dferrantino]

Peas (10x3'rows of 3 different varieties) have all sprouted despite the squirrels' and birds' best efforts. Squash and Zucchini are in the ground and looking decent, just need to get the ladders set up before they take off. Tomatoes wanted to be in the ground 2 weeks ago, but we've had a few light frosts so I've held off until this weekend. Unfortunately we lost a few starters to contact with the grow lights and too-windy conditions during hardening, so I'll probably need to get a few more started. Eggplants are being shaded by the tomatoes in the starter bin right now, so they're scraggly and will need another week or two to grow. Jalapenos have had no trouble growing, habs are...ok...ghosts and reapers (all old seeds) haven't germinated so that sucks.

This weekend we'll be transplanting the tomatoes and getting the radishes in the ground. If we have time, likely also getting the later roots (turnips, carrots, parsnips, beets) in as well. Need to check what wife's plan is for the beans, IIRC those need to get in soon as well.

Current status of the starter tray (LMK if it's blocked):

Spoiler

 

[Deleted member 14629]

It's blocked.

 

[Deleted member 14629]

Ok, as promised, here is my album. I'm putting it under a spoiler just because it's big.

Everything is in its platonic ideal of freshly weeded and watered right now. As you look, you'll see the soil is lower than it should be. It settled more than I expected, but I have plenty more to top it off once I harvest this stuff.

Spoiler

First off is the broccoli and the carrots. So far, one broccoli didn't make it, but everything else is going strong. The broccoli still has two months, but the carrots should only be a little more than a month from being ready.

Next up is arugula (rocket) and radishes. They're looking a little beaten down under the watering, but they're both really coming in nicely. I need to thin the radishes more. The arugula should be ready in a month, and the radishes are supposed to be ready in a couple days. But in a photo you'll see below, I think they've got a week on them.

Here are my snow peas, and they're doing quite well. You can see the strings on them starting to come out. I hadn't thought about if I need to stake these, but I'm betting that means I do. It's got a month and a half.

And the cauliflower! It's the only thing I bought as a plant. Everything else is raised from seed. As you can tell, it's a lot further along than the broccoli, even though they have the same expected growth time. Presuming it all comes up, I have enough to prep rice and flour from, and still have some for the neighbors.

An olive tree. We planted this one for fun a while back, and it's doing great. I have no idea when/if we'll get olives from it, but if we do I get to learn how to make olive oil.

The avocado my wife started. Super impressed she got such a nice seedling out of it. Two more started inside right now, that hopefully follow along.

Current state of the radishes. Loving the color, but there's a way to go, yet.

Lastly, the composter I'm using. It's 4 feet to get a sense of scale.

I didn't do a broad photo of the yard, but I easily have the space to expand this from 2x2 raised beds to 3x3 and a spot for an herb garden. Strongly considering doing that expansion in May after everything here is harvested.

Also, per Carhole's recommendation in the Coronageddon thread, I'm getting some clear plastic sheeting so I can clear the beds out for two weeks after harvest with some solar cleaning.

 

[Thorvard]

A couple more questions.

1) What kind of soil does everyone recommend? In the past we used regular vegetable soil from Home Depot/Lowes for our deck trays, but now with the garden house, I'm looking to fill it up with soil. Each raised bed is 8'x4' and I'm trying to find the best and most cost effective way to do it. I'm planning on using a combo of top soil/fertilizer/compost/potting mix with a mixture of vermiculite or perlite.

Of all those ingredients is there a combo you'd recommend/avoid for growing veggies/fruit in raised beds?

Also, tell them the radishes and cucumbers are doing much better with the fan. I also added a bit more water actually as they seemed very dry and they totally perked right up.

I hope I got that right, she was dictating pretty fast. I'm not a courtroom reporter.

 

[Deleted member 14629]

In mine, I just used this and nothing else so far: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Kellogg-Gar ... roduct_URL

My 4x4 beds take 4 of those bags to fill (I only started with 3, but clearly after settling 4 is the right count), making it not-cheap. It's about $60/bed when I include the frame to set it up. I could have gone cheaper on the frame by just getting some 2x8s, but I liked the composite frames. In theory they should last longer than just wood.

 

[Tom the Melaniephile]

OOh, olives! I didn't really get into the "permaculture" stuff in the yard, as that's not really affected by the Pandemic.

Anyway, it was a mild winter and both olives are blooming well (good for cross-fertilizing) - I'm hoping for a good crop of olives this year. Last year had a late cold snap that killed fruiting, year before just had a half-dozen olives, so not worth messing with. Trees are still pretty young.

I'm thinking of brine-curing. Simplest one I saw was:

Soak green olives in a medium brine (1c salt per gallon H2O) for 1 week, drain.
Replace with a stronger brine (1c salt per gallon H2O) for 2-3 months, drain.
Optional: Replace stronger brine @ same strength after 1 month of soaking to further reduce bitters.

 

[JasterMereel]

Happysin

My old house, I planted 2 of those olive trees. I think they are called "sweet olive". Although they have "olive" in the name, they won't produce olives as in olives that you think of from Greece. It produces a fruit that looks similar to a Greek olive, but it isn't the same. However, they are awesome bushes. I love once they start blooming because the flowers smell fantastic, almost like a sweet apricot smell. They will get big though. When I left that house, they were maybe 4-5' tall. When I went back 4 years later, they were easily 12'. I probably planted them too close to my house.

 

[Deleted member 14629]

Ah, good to know. I really should move that one, then. It's fairly close to the house. I think it's definitely what you're talking about, because my wife got it more for the sweet-smelling flowers. I have a line of "trash" bushes from the previous owner against a retaining wall. I don't like them or their smell. I might just uproot them all, transplant the current sweet olive, and buy a few more to match. It will look a lot nicer, and my wife will be ecstatic that our entire entryway will smell like those bushes.

The one thing I haven't been able to do that I wanted to is plant blueberries and butterfly bushes. I was supposed to get them last week, but the supply chain on them has been messed up. If I wait too much longer, it's going to be stressful on the blueberries to be transplanted. That might have to be a "next year" thing.

 

[Tom the Melaniephile]

In mine, I just used this and nothing else so far: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Kellogg-Gar ... roduct_URL

My 4x4 beds take 4 of those bags to fill (I only started with 3, but clearly after settling 4 is the right count), making it not-cheap. It's about $60/bed when I include the frame to set it up. I could have gone cheaper on the frame by just getting some 2x8s, but I liked the composite frames. In theory they should last longer than just wood.

For those of us who need more/better soil, I suggest working on some home biochar (charcoal). It's a long-term (millenia based on the Amazon) fertility improvement. Some key points:

1) Use a variant of the "flame capped kiln" method. Your container should limit oxygen from the bottom and sides, and you feed more fuel as you start to see ash. The flame on top limits oxygen access to the lower layers, so you end up with volatiles coming off and burning, charcoal left behind. Steel washtub works well. Chiminea can be used in a pinch, though production volume is relatively low. Old fashioned steel fire ring would work. 5 gallon bucket is too tall - you need something wider, preferably with outward sloping sides. Heck, a ring of rocks or bricks with some dirt between them to limit oxygen.

2) Make sure your fuel is really dry.

3) Quench as soon as you have built up your full bed of coals/embers.

4) Break up the larger chunks of biochar.

5) You need to inoculate/age/fill the biochar - it's basically an empty matrix/sponge. If you put it in the soil directly it will absorb nutrients and water. You want to prefill it. Mix with compost (either as an additive with your fresh material in the compost heap, or with finished compost) - or manure, or urine. Urine is probably the easiest, at least for male gardeners or females with a Freshette (or equivalent) - Mostly fill a 5 gallon bucket with charcoal (not too full to prevent splashback) and locate it in a secluded area of the garden. Apply urine as it becomes available.

All of my woody trimmings (down to twig size) and scrap wood get cut to length, split as needed and piled to dry out. For quick biochar production, you want stuff ~2" diameter or less. Once the fuel is mostly dry, it gets transferred under shelter to finish drying. I'll use a couple larger logs at the start of a burn, gives them enough time to finish out. Toward the end I'll use my smallest twigs/fragments as fresh fuel while whatever large-ish chunks left finish converting.

A mix of biochar and compost made a fantastic medium for a potted tomato last summer. It kept producing through the 100-degree heat (it did get part day shade)

 

[JasterMereel]

Ah, good to know. I really should move that one, then. It's fairly close to the house. I think it's definitely what you're talking about, because my wife got it more for the sweet-smelling flowers. I have a line of "trash" bushes from the previous owner against a retaining wall. I don't like them or their smell. I might just uproot them all, transplant the current sweet olive, and buy a few more to match. It will look a lot nicer, and my wife will be ecstatic that our entire entryway will smell like those bushes.

I highly recommend ripping out the old bushes and planting a lot of those sweet olive bushes there. They are evergreen so they will look decent all year long. The new leaves come in light green and then turn dark green. And when they are in bloom, they smell fantastic.

The previous owner of my current house loved planting bushes with thorns. He planted a bunch around the cherry tree which is by the sidewalk on the side of my house (I have a corner lot). I absolutely cannot stand these bushes. They are an absolutely pain to deal with and people throw a bunch of trash in there. I'm thinned them out pretty well about a week ago, but I am thinking about ripping them out completely. However, I might wait to rip them out until I'm able to hire a pro landscaper in a few years. I just can't make a decision when it comes to landscaping so I'd like some help on what to plant.

 

[Hound of Cullen]

Soak green olives in a medium brine (1c salt per gallon H2O) for 1 week, drain.
Replace with a stronger brine (1c salt per gallon H2O) for 2-3 months, drain.
Optional: Replace stronger brine @ same strength after 1 month of soaking to further reduce bitters.

Those two brines are the same.

 

[Bravehamster]

My boys and I are making new raised garden beds to replace the janky ones. This is 1 of 7. After these are done, then it's time for a new 3-part lidded compost bin, then a new garden fence with misters and a gate.

 

[Tom the Melaniephile]

Soak green olives in a medium brine (1c salt per gallon H2O) for 1 week, drain.
Replace with a stronger brine (1.5c salt per gallon H2O) for 2-3 months, drain.
Optional: Replace stronger brine @ same strength after 1 month of soaking to further reduce bitters.

Those two brines are the same.

Whoops. Corrected here.

 

[Carhole]

In mine, I just used this and nothing else so far: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Kellogg-Gar ... roduct_URL

My 4x4 beds take 4 of those bags to fill (I only started with 3, but clearly after settling 4 is the right count), making it not-cheap. It's about $60/bed when I include the frame to set it up. I could have gone cheaper on the frame by just getting some 2x8s, but I liked the composite frames. In theory they should last longer than just wood.

For those of us who need more/better soil, I suggest working on some home biochar (charcoal). It's a long-term (millenia based on the Amazon) fertility improvement. Some key points:

1) Use a variant of the "flame capped kiln" method. Your container should limit oxygen from the bottom and sides, and you feed more fuel as you start to see ash. The flame on top limits oxygen access to the lower layers, so you end up with volatiles coming off and burning, charcoal left behind. Steel washtub works well. Chiminea can be used in a pinch, though production volume is relatively low. Old fashioned steel fire ring would work. 5 gallon bucket is too tall - you need something wider, preferably with outward sloping sides. Heck, a ring of rocks or bricks with some dirt between them to limit oxygen.

2) Make sure your fuel is really dry.

3) Quench as soon as you have built up your full bed of coals/embers.

4) Break up the larger chunks of biochar.

5) You need to inoculate/age/fill the biochar - it's basically an empty matrix/sponge. If you put it in the soil directly it will absorb nutrients and water. You want to prefill it. Mix with compost (either as an additive with your fresh material in the compost heap, or with finished compost) - or manure, or urine. Urine is probably the easiest, at least for male gardeners or females with a Freshette (or equivalent) - Mostly fill a 5 gallon bucket with charcoal (not too full to prevent splashback) and locate it in a secluded area of the garden. Apply urine as it becomes available.

All of my woody trimmings (down to twig size) and scrap wood get cut to length, split as needed and piled to dry out. For quick biochar production, you want stuff ~2" diameter or less. Once the fuel is mostly dry, it gets transferred under shelter to finish drying. I'll use a couple larger logs at the start of a burn, gives them enough time to finish out. Toward the end I'll use my smallest twigs/fragments as fresh fuel while whatever large-ish chunks left finish converting.

A mix of biochar and compost made a fantastic medium for a potted tomato last summer. It kept producing through the 100-degree heat (it did get part day shade)

I’m looking into this as well as IMO brews for foliage feeding of the orchard. Mostly, I want to jumpstart the farm this year by bringing in compost because I feed all that we make to our two young mango trees. A family member’s farm has an employee dedicated to making char, vermiculture, and some kind of hybrid IMO brew where he’s inoculating the char with fish scraps from a local fish farm. They are feeding 20 acres with it, and it’s probably far more expensive than bringing in compost would be, though their goals are to perfect a closed system in time and then begin to export it for area farmers..

I’d do raised beds here for our annexes, but wood is too expensive. For small projects, I like Fox Farms Ocean Forest potting mix. It can support nearly a full season of intensively-interplanted veggie growth though anything with large fruits needs side dressing at about mid-season and beyond. That leads us to the hard decision, which is to till and direct sow some stuff, or try to import lots of composts—say two dump trucks full, and go no-till from the start. No till method is looking like the way (thisistheway) if we can source it during this time.

Ok, as promised, here is my album. I'm putting it under a spoiler just because it's big.

Everything is in its platonic ideal of freshly weeded and watered right now. As you look, you'll see the soil is lower than it should be. It settled more than I expected, but I have plenty more to top it off once I harvest this stuff.

Spoiler

First off is the broccoli and the carrots. So far, one broccoli didn't make it, but everything else is going strong. The broccoli still has two months, but the carrots should only be a little more than a month from being ready.

Next up is arugula (rocket) and radishes. They're looking a little beaten down under the watering, but they're both really coming in nicely. I need to thin the radishes more. The arugula should be ready in a month, and the radishes are supposed to be ready in a couple days. But in a photo you'll see below, I think they've got a week on them.

Here are my snow peas, and they're doing quite well. You can see the strings on them starting to come out. I hadn't thought about if I need to stake these, but I'm betting that means I do. It's got a month and a half.

And the cauliflower! It's the only thing I bought as a plant. Everything else is raised from seed. As you can tell, it's a lot further along than the broccoli, even though they have the same expected growth time. Presuming it all comes up, I have enough to prep rice and flour from, and still have some for the neighbors.

An olive tree. We planted this one for fun a while back, and it's doing great. I have no idea when/if we'll get olives from it, but if we do I get to learn how to make olive oil.

The avocado my wife started. Super impressed she got such a nice seedling out of it. Two more started inside right now, that hopefully follow along.

Current state of the radishes. Loving the color, but there's a way to go, yet.

Lastly, the composter I'm using. It's 4 feet to get a sense of scale.

I didn't do a broad photo of the yard, but I easily have the space to expand this from 2x2 raised beds to 3x3 and a spot for an herb garden. Strongly considering doing that expansion in May after everything here is harvested.

Also, per Carhole's recommendation in the Coronageddon thread, I'm getting some clear plastic sheeting so I can clear the beds out for two weeks after harvest with some solar cleaning.

That 4x4 looks like a handy arrangement—would be handy for vining things in need of staking or access for pruning. Hmmm. Oh, and wasn’t me suggesting the weedblock. I’d use an opaque tarp, scrape after two weeks, tarp again, scrape again, then top dress after weed sprouts are gone.

Edit: iPad doing its best to make me look illiterate.

 

[dferrantino]

It's blocked.

Thanks, should be good now.

 

[dferrantino]

A couple more questions.

1) What kind of soil does everyone recommend? In the past we used regular vegetable soil from Home Depot/Lowes for our deck trays, but now with the garden house, I'm looking to fill it up with soil. Each raised bed is 8'x4' and I'm trying to find the best and most cost effective way to do it. I'm planning on using a combo of top soil/fertilizer/compost/potting mix with a mixture of vermiculite or perlite.

Of all those ingredients is there a combo you'd recommend/avoid for growing veggies/fruit in raised beds?

Also, tell them the radishes and cucumbers are doing much better with the fan. I also added a bit more water actually as they seemed very dry and they totally perked right up.

I hope I got that right, she was dictating pretty fast. I'm not a courtroom reporter.

We started our beds with equal parts sand and dirt (mostly clay here...), supplemented with compost and like, 1.5 bags of Miracle Gro garden soil per 30 sqft. Since then we just till and supplement from our compost bin, with probably 2 bags of the same soil for our entire 120 sqft garden. I for the most part only fertilize when transplanting, using compost tea, fish fertilizer, or 8-8-8 powder.