Mr_Yan 2015

[Mr_Yan]

OK guys I need to think hard about this year's garden.

My initial thoughts for what to grow:
Greens (kale, collard, chard, mustard)
Green beans
Pea Pods
Tomatoes
Pumpkin
Winter Squash (butternut)
Summer Squash
Basil
Broccoli
Carrots
Eggplant
Spinach
Turnips
Beets
Rutabega
Lettuce
Leeks (maybe just for young leeks)
Marigold & Dwarf Sunflowers
Cantaloupe

Again some will be grown just outside my kitchen door and some up at my community garden plot at church. I still have three or four weeks until I can start seeds.

To complicate matters we're expecting our third crumb-cruncher to be born mid to late June. Normally at most Mrs Yan picks a few grape tomatoes - that is doesn't do much of the garden work - but three kids under 5 for most the season will limit my garden time.

I'm also tossing around the idea of growing green onions. Green onions from seed or sets?

 

[w_r_ranch]

Sets. They're more reliable & you aren't going to have time from the sounds of it... and 'Congratulations'.

 

[Rahab222]

I've decided to limit what I plant this year to what I really like and that grows well in my garden. I've never had any luck with squash, so that's out. But I've really increased my number of onions this year - dedicated a whole bed, 12' x 5'. Same with peppers. I'm also going to plant my purple hull peas earlier this year vs. putting them in after I harvest my potatoes. Although I don't want to go back to container gardening, I did buy some cherry tomatoes that the Master Gardeners said grow well in pots. I couldn't get my "Juliet" tomatoes that I grew for the first time last year and LOVED! This was probably my biggest disappointment at the sale, as I guess everybody else liked them, too, as they cleared them out really fast!

 

[Rahab222]

BTW, Mr. Yan, I saw my first community garden a couple of weeks ago. I've read a lot about them and was interested in finding one in my area in order to increase my growing space for onions and potatoes. They have 20' x 6' raised beds lined with concrete blocks. Some of them were planted and some weren't. So, I got out of my car to see if I could locate any information on getting a plot. They had their website posted and I was FLOORED that they charge $300/plot/year. Plus, you provide all your gardening supplies - seed, fertilizer, etc. They basically provide water hookups and the plot. So you can thank your church for providing this really nice privilege for you and your family. I was at least glad to finally see and inspect a community garden in my area. They had a big sign that said, "Please don't pick our crops," as this field isn't fenced off. How tempting

A friend of mine lives nearby and I asked her about it. She said it's mostly retired people or Boy Scouts who participate. She told me they have "hold-ups" there all the time, so I shouldn't go out there by myself. The world just continues to grow more insane when you can't even tend to a garden on land that's visible to the public. Guess I'll be sticking to my backyard garden.

 

[Mr_Yan]

@Rahab222
Theft from gardens is a near universal at community gardens. Others have outright crime problems as they're built in areas with high crime already. There are several stories where changing vacant city lots to gardens reduces crime though.

This city has a large population using the local food pantry and the food pantry has a good distribution system for getting fresh produce out fast. Our church garden has a gentleman's agreement to donate half of what is grown there. Word is the produce is gone within hours of being dropped at the pantry. On the other hand the local "plant a row" campaign was not good at this. I know of several other community gardens around here and our neighborhood association has a grant to change a vacant lot to another garden. The park district here also has community gardens $20 a year for an inground plot 20'x20' water spigot is within 100 feet of the plot. Once you have a park plot you get that plot year after year until you don't sign up or abandon it mid-season.

Every garden has it's own culture. Our church is in a very busy area and has high visibility to a major road. We have two open / unlocked (during daylight hours) sheds of tools and a tractor. Rather than things getting stolen I've noticed tools get "donated" and left behind. There's a few unused acres still but at some point things just get too big 100 12'x4' raised beds and 18 large inground plots...

 

[Mr_Yan]

I started seeds indoors now:

Eggplant (3)
Tomato - yellow grape (1)
Tomato - red grape (1)
Tomato - Celebrity Short Vine (1)
Tomato - Brandy Boy (1)
Tomato - Oregon Spring (1)
Pepper - California Wonder bell (4)
Basil (6)
Marigold (6)
Kale - Red Russian (2)
Kale - Dwarf Siberian Blue (2)
Dill (2)

I still need to get peas and carrots direct seeded.

Forsythia bushes, maple trees, Jane magnolias are all in full bloom. Tulips and daffodils are up in the neighbor's yards. We've been in the 70's for daytime high for a few days now but next week looks cool and wet again.

Peach tree has about half the flowers open - went around pollinating what I can reach with a small natural paint brush today as I have yet to see a bee this season.

 

[Rahab222]

So, I wonder if I start tomato seeds indoors now, if they will be ready for planting in August for a fall garden? I've already put my tomatoes for the summer garden in. I need to learn to grow tomatoes from seed.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Starting tomatoes in late summer will be fast. I would say start them in containers no smaller than 32 oz yogurt containers (with drainage holes cut in them) and put the seeds in the pot about 5 or 6 weeks before you want them in the ground.

 

[Rahab222]

Mr. Yan; How fast? It's really hot and humid in Houston during the summer. I have started lettuce before transplanting it because I still had something else producing in its place. I wonder if I would have to go through all the light setup to grow these from seed since we have sunlight from about 6:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. in the summer months? Our calendar says to plant fall tomatoes in August, which I assure you are the dog days of summer here. That's why I've never planted tomatoes for fall, it's just too hot, but I would like to try this year. I'm also going to plant potatoes this fall since WR had such great luck with his this year and isn't that far from me.

 

[Mr_Yan]

I have no clue about gardening in the extreme south. If I start broccoli in late August it will be hit or miss whether I get anything before we freeze solid.

 

[Rahab222]

Mr. Yan, Yes there is a big difference in gardening throughout the various states. I've yet to make a head of broccoli or cauliflower, so I quit trying due to having limited space.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Rhotodendron, Jane Magnolias, and peach in full bloom. Frost for the last few nights but 44° F when I hauled out of bed at 7:30 today. Expecting rain.

Some of the tomatoes I started are breaking the surface so I need to get my lights going. The kale I started is now up and I have been putting it outside in the sun during the day but bringing it in at night.

This weekend I hope to top off some of my small boxes, get onion sets in, start melons and other cucurbits, direct seed beets, peas, and more greens.

If I get really ambitious I need to caulk and paint the front entry and upstairs and start to get rid of more crap from this house (basement, upstairs, and sunroom), replace the light in the sunroom, and something else I've forgotten. I also need to repair my good coffee maker - jumper a thermal overload fuse that popped.

 

[Rahab222]

44 degrees F. That sounds pretty good right about now in Texas.

 

[Mr_Yan]

In the last few days I have cleaned up my small boxes at home and started to plant some things. I have also gotten rid of some more round containers in hopes of simplifying and cleaning up my yard.


This year I am down to really my 4x7 bed with five smaller boxes around it plus my pallet and a 3x3 bed.

Yesterday we direct seeded carrots, more lettuce, snap peas, and put in onion sets. I'm late this year but a vacation got in the way. We also started some soil blocks: 25 georgia collards, 25 mixed colour beets, and 25 Monstrueux de Viroflay spinach.

The last few years I tried variations on square foot gardens. I usually just made a mess with this and had trouble following my plan. This year I am doing 4' long rows across my main 4x7 bed. To remember what I planted where I have wrote my plan on a scrap of 2x and nailed it to the side of my garden bed.

 

[w_r_ranch]

How wide are your rows in the 4X7???

 

[Mr_Yan]

How wide are your rows in the 4X7???

It will be tightly planted but just doing single rows. I am also banking on the fact that some things will be out before the adjacent row gets large.

From north to south

1' - Cucumbers (3 going up a trellis) spinach in there now
1' - Eggplant (3) spinach in there now
1' - Pea pods up a trellis to be replaced with green beans
0.5' - Carrots
0.5' - Lettuce
1' - Peas up a trellis over onions
1' - Bell peppers (4)
1' - Beets under pea up a trellis

 

[w_r_ranch]

Seems like a tight fit although that is a southern point of view... I'm sure your spacing requirements differ from ours since the growing seasons are so different... I was just curious.

I may try growing carrots here this fall... I tried peas a few times ( i love peas), however I was unsuccessful with them.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Seems like a tight fit although that is a southern point of view...

It's tight by almost anyone's view. I can get away with it to some extent because the bed is 18" tall and I can reach in from either side. Have you ever read Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Garden book? If you believe it I am not even as tight as he spaces things.

I have had good luck with snap peas and snow peas but have not tried garden peas. For me I try to get them in around 15 April (typically safe from frost here around May 15). I've started them in gutters where you slide out the whole trough and it works really well to get a jump start. Mine usually start to produce heavily in mid June and go to about July 4. A string of 80° F days will just about shut them down. My beg problem is usually something happens in June and I can't keep up with the harvest. This year I have kid-3 due in late June.

Peas were the first thing I started saving seeds from. At first I was just selecting for purple flowers but two years ago my crop got away from me. I let it go to collect seeds and had over a pound of dried peas.

When I started this raised bed I used the straw-bale idea and added composting worms to the mix. I have also never walked on the bed. Now I can shove my hand into the soil about 8 inches deep without a problem. Carrots, parsnips, and potatoes (I let a volunteer from compost go last year) are no problem to tease out of the soil.

 

[Rahab222]

Everything looks really tidy. I'm still needing to do some garden cleanup and plant a few more things. I love the purple hull peas and they grew really well for me last year.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Everything looks really tidy..

I did make an effort to get the tricycle, balance bikes, and other stuff out of there for the pic

 

[Rahab222]

Mr. Yan; All kids come with necessary clutter. You could have left all the tike trikes in and we would all get it. At any rate, everything looks great! Here's to a bountiful gardening year and good luck with your child laborers. It's very good training for them to know how to raise their own food.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Well it's been a while since I re-visited this thread but the home garden is coming along nicely while my community garden is slower as I didn't get it planted until late.

The pea vines have over grown the trellises. I have some nice looking pods that will go into stir fry tomorrow.

These are my three slicing tomatoes but I've forgotten two of the varieties I started. I have them under planted with shallots and just seeded a few carrots too.

Further back along that fence. You can see the mexican summer squash starting to climb.

Until last week this area of my main bed was heavily laden with spinach. Now I've transplanted egg plant and cucumbers in that space with spinach in between and just direct seeded carrots to replace the spinach as it gets pulled.

Basil with green onions. Grape tomatoes in the far back. This was taken from my mudroom door.

The pallet garden. From right to left: peppers, collards, lettuce, turnips.

Summer squash and zuchini planted under the peach tree.

As far back as I could get here without standing in another garden.

So far this year I have harvested and recorded 2244 grams of produce and I have spent $73.17. This means I have spent $14.80 per pound of produce.

This is my third year recording my expenditures and harvest weights. Counting the 2013 and 2014 seasons I have spent $329.84 and harvested 541.56 pounds. This works out to 61 cents a pound of produce.

My costs have been going down each year as a nearly half of what I spend has been going to trellising or tools that I can now just keep reusing.

 

[Mr_Yan]

This year has been generally cooler and wetter than the previous few years. Lettuce has been growing well but other greens are slower as they're not in as much sun as they really should be.

I've also had a lot of trouble with seed germination at my community garden. From the 40 feet of double row beets I planted only about 6 feet is growing. The Kohl-Rabi only had about 50% germination too.

At the community garden I mulched everything heavily like similar to the back to eden idea. But the area gets tilled each spring so I was worried about nitrogen deficiency so I spread white clover (N fixing legume) seeds over everything. The clover came in well and is compeating with the crops now. I also planted the rows just wider than the width of the lawn mower up there. The thinking was I could mow the clover down then rake it around in the mulch. Doesn't work as the plants are wider than the sown rows and the mower doesn't fit well. I'll try sowing a vetch or other cover crop this fall.

Peppers are only setting flowers now but everyone is late with peppers this year.

Cucumbers are just setting fruit now. Melons are full of flowers, both male and female. Summer Squash is just setting fruit. Tomatoes are about the size of golf balls. Lettuce is just starting to go to seed. Eggplant is just starting to set fruit. Peas are done and mostly down - holding off on one last trellis for more seeds.

Somethings I've learned this season:

• Plant the peas in a North / South axis trellis so they don't fully shade the plants to the north of them.
• Thin carrots with scissors - it disrupts the adjacent plant less
• Soil Cubes made starting and setting out plants really easy
• Don't sow clover in the middle of other veg seeds
• Marigolds work really well to mark each end of a row
• Get a pickup - a Chevy Cavalier is not cut out for the way I use it

 

[Mr_Yan]

So far this year I have harvested and recorded 18.76 kilograms of produce and I have spent $73.17. This means I have spent $1.77 per pound of produce.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Been hot and dry here. My rain pigs are empty now and the lawn is getting crispy. 85° to 90° F each day with no rain for 10 to 15 days now.

Things have seemed to stall in the last two weeks. No tomatoes have been pulled yet. I don't know if it is the heat or if the soil is getting depleted. Even the summer squash is getting stingy. I added some native soil on top of my large containers in hopes than minerals and such will leach in when watering from above. These containers are almost 100% compost.

All the peas are out of the garden now and I have nearly a pint of seeds for next season (will share). The lettuce is all harvested but I am letting some go to seed to try saving that.

I started using wine bottles again for slow release watering - a 750 ml bottle will meter out over about two hours.

Last week I made my first batch of pesto using my basil.

So far this year I have harvested and recorded 26.12 kilograms of produce and I have spent $73.17. This means I have spent $1.27 per pound of produce.