Gardening Thread

[|iR|Focalor]

I'm only doing 14 tomato plants this year, spacing them 4 feet apart to hopefully prevent them from spreading mold as fast and to harvest easier. Just sowed the okra last week, nothing showing yet. I've got about 16 to maybe 22 California Wonder bell pepper plants. 3 jalapeno, 1 mild tam jalapeno, 1 cowhorn pepper, 1 pablano pepper. I decided not to do any tabasco peppers this year, those bastards were too hot for eating. In the pasture on the other side of the creek, I've got several rows of sweet corn. Shit takes lots of fertilizer too. Haven't started any squash or anything else I usually do. Maybe if it don't rain tomorrow and I'm sober long enough to give a fuck, I'll get out there and chuck some seeds in the dirt.

Cherry 100's are nice, they tend to grow pretty crazy though. If you have a normal sized cage to support it, chances are it'll outgrow it and start running vines off to neighboring cages. They produce assloads of little grape sized fruits too, perfect for salads.

[[BTF] Reflex]

Been in cups outside for weeks and weeks,  first day in the ground and something took one of my 2 green peppers,  and demolished one sunflower.


Night vision and a .22 coming right up,  muhahahahaha

[[BTF] Reflex]

3 beds are all done.

17 tomatoes of assorted varieties (2 per spot)

10 jalapenos (clumps of 2-4 per spot)

6 regular banana peppers

3 yellow squash

2 hybrid banana peppers

2 yellow sweet bells

10 or so sunflowers (few doubles going)

Giving fish emulsion every 2 weeks or so,  and the rain has been good.  Haven't really had to water last 2 weeks.

have a 4th tiny bed on the side of the house I had put the 4 sweet corn that miraculously started,
They lasted ALMOST 2 hours before the bunnies got to em,  looks like 2 or 3 might come out of it but the one is toast.
Tossed 4 reject jalapeno plants in there,  1 squash and 1 sunflower that started in the seed tray I thought was trash.

bunnies have also stripped 3 sunflowers - 1 of everything, 1 with just the bottom 4 leaves left,  and one with just the top left.
Such inconsistent eaters.   I caught one chomping a length off of a tomato plant and sprayed him with the dish hose thru the window.

I have 50 feet of 3 foot mesh fencing to put up,  hope that helps with the deer later in the year.  (they ate ALL our tomatoes last year)

Pics to come I'm sure

[|iR|Focalor]

Fencing for rabbits usually needs to be buried about a foot or more below the surface to keep them from digging under. They WILL dig. I've been worried about deer and coyotes ravaging my stuff. I've shot 3 coyotes already on the other side of the creek. So far so good.

[Whirlingdervish]

it wouldn't hurt to go out and regularly piss on every tree around the perimeter of your garden and put up a couple of scarecrows (scaredeers?)

Sadly fencing doesn't really stop a deer that can jump 10 feet in the air from a standstill.
An electric cow-fence might work tho.. A bit of wire fencing with a couple of hot wires threaded along it can do wonders to train animals not to bother.

The other option is set up a stand, put out a salt lick and then proceed to paintball every deer you see until they're deathly afraid to go near your property.

[|iR|Focalor]

The other option is set up a stand, put out a salt lick and then proceed to paintball every deer you see until they're deathly afraid to go near your property.

  So that's what happened to that damn deer. I was fixing to call National Geographic and tell them I found a rare Greentail Deer species.

I prefer just to blow their guts out with a .270 or a .30-06 and leave the carcass for their friends to see, the more permanent solution.

[[BTF]Sigma]

You need this ...

[[BTF] Reflex]

They have a version of that with a sprinkler.

Been pissing the perimeter here and there.  Fence will go up anyhow,  I bought it and I'm bored.
Maybe try rabbit repellent along the base if they give me any trouble,  been quiet last few days.

[Krlll Mule]

I have a small plot cleared and plowed in the back 14.  I decided to try a solar charged fence to keep deer and the occasional cow from munching my corn, beans, and squash.  When I bought the charger at the local co-op I asked the old guy helping me if I was going to need a four strand, 12 ft. fence to have any success.  He said people were telling him they put up one strand, about 3 ft. high (mine's ~2 1/4) and rub peanut butter on the wire at spaces all along the fence.  Supposedly, deer love the smell and taste of it.  They either get hit on the nose or tongue and decide to go elsewhere.      It's been two months and no deer tracks in the garden yet.   

[|iR|Focalor]

Sweat a gallon tilling a 2x10 section along the house,  gonna do some more beds and get some of these in the ground this week.

Hmm, you must have a "manual" tiller like me. I use a pick axe. Man, I dread the fuck out of having to till that shit every spring. The tomato plot is 9 feet by 35 feet and the okra plot is 3 or 4 feet by 35 feet. Always have a sore back for a week afterwards. I have to do it too. Not because I'm afraid that shit won't grow if I don't, but if I don't till it, I can't get the tomato cages into the hardened soil. Even after tilling it with a pick axe and running an iron rake through it really good, sometimes it's still a mother of a bitch to get half of them down into the dirt far enough.

Anyways, here's some pics I took on May 27th. Still in the process of weeding the tomato bed, so I'll try to get some new pics tomorrow. They've gotten a good bit bigger since then. The okra hasn't grown too much bigger. Probably another 2 or 3 weeks before it starts getting thick. I need to start some yellow squash bushes in seed trays I guess. The seed I sowed directly into the ground never popped up. One or two of the zucchini squash seeds in each of the 3 hills I did managed to sprout even though I did 5 or 6 seeds per hill. Most of the cucumber seeds I put in the dirt came up. Should have more cucumbers than I know what the hell to do with before August. Hopefully any yellow squash bushes I start will survive being transplanted, it's getting pretty damn late in the season now to be fooling with it.

[[BTF] Reflex]

   I almost picked up the pickaxe,  but just did it with a regular soil shovel.
Neighbor's mantis helped with the other 2,  but I still had to redo them by hand.

Think the small plot you have is bigger than everything I have done.  Nice property.


Still working on pics

[|iR|Focalor]

Hmmmmm. Is this the first year you've ever done a garden? If my okra plot is bigger than the area you have all that you mentioned planted in... you're in for a surprise. That shit's gonna overgrow your area. I learned that the first year I tried a garden. I tried cramming two rows of tomatos, a row of cantaloupe, and a row of okra all into the plot where I have only tomatoes right now. It didn't work out worth a damn. The cantaloupe vines grew into the tomatoes, the tomatoes all fell over and grew into the cantaloupe. Really the only thing that did well that year was okra. I space my tomatoes further apart than what is recommended in hopes of preventing the spread of molds so bad late in the summer. I usually get black mold that kills off the leaves around July and August, probably from watering them overhead instead of soaking the soil. Then again, I don't think it really matters what I do, it's so humid in Georgia in late summer (usually 100% humidity) that molds thrive no matter what. Nevertheless, space is the name of game in vegetable gardening. They need plenty of room to grow out and receive light, and having more space around the plants makes it easier to maintain and harvest.

[[BTF] Reflex]

  Second,  sorta.  Figure about the third or fourth year we'll start getting some things right 

Already figuring out they needed more room.
Toms are definitely going to be monster crowded along the house,  they looked so cute and cuddly when they were small.
The 2 smaller beds should turn out ok,  mostly peppers.


Found 2 pics,  the one showing all 3 rows was very early,  the toms are just about up to the siding now.

[|iR|Focalor]

HAHA, god yes you need more room. That yellow squash will bush out like hell and cover everything within a foot or two of the main stem. The peppers are fine, you can always bunch peppers together closer than recommended and they'll still grow fine. The tomatoes will end up flopping out into the grass which will make mowing around it a pain in the ass. If they're laying on the ground, they're more susceptible to molds and especially worms. Worms are pretty hard to get rid of once they've gotten established, they'll lay eggs all over the undersides of the leaves. Aphids can aid in spreading mold too. They get worse every year if you don't spray to help kill them off. In late summer, ants will carry the aphid eggs or larvae into their colonies and babysit them until next summer when they hatch out.

You mentioned having corn pop up. Corn isn't really something you could do with an area that small. In order to have them pollinate correctly, it takes probably 6 or more rows. That shit grows quick as hell too. Takes a steady regimen of fertilizer every 2 weeks to produce good fat ears.

[|iR|Focalor]

Some pics from what I have near the house. Taken this evening. Some of them look kinda hazy because it was so humid out there tonight that I was having to wipe the lens off every 15 seconds.