The 2014 Get Dirt Under Your Fingernails Thread

[88GT]

Also known as the yearly Garden thread.

This is where we document our gardens and share our successes, failures, what-the's? and whatever else might happen in the garden. As long as it's garden related. We don't want to know what happens in the garden for anything else, got it?

To kick it off:

I've got the indoor starts going: broccoli, brussel sprouts, 3 kinds of peppers, some herbs, and of course, tomatoes. My stupid dog that eats ANYTHING destroyed half of the tomatoes (thank goodness for Cox's). Planted half the peas in the beds last weekend; they are just started to peek above the dirt. And tonight I planted the second round of broccoli and brussel sprouts directly in the beds. Also planted the onion sets, lettuce, and spinach. I know it's late, but with the spring temps we've had, I was scared to death to plant any earlier.

And I found out that the outdoor spigot that I use to water the garden has busted. I got no water through the hose when I went to water in the seeds. So I checked the basement. Yep, water. Figures. We just finished that section of the basement and will now have to rip out some of the drywall ceiling to make the repair.

So there it is. The inaugural post for the 2014 growing season.

 

[yeahbaby]

Went thru the same crap last Saturday. Although not for my garden. Pulled the car out, got it all cleaned up inside. Turn on the outside spigot, no pressure. Yell inside for my youngest to check the crawl space. Water running in. Lol

 

[snorko]

Funny, just replaced an outside hydrant with a new frost free anti siphon one. Moving the garden this year, I've mulched over the new area and plan on renting a tiller in a week or so. Planning on broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, etc. Hopefully later fall potatoes, kale and cabbages.

 

[Fargo]

Was gonna till Monday night, but it decided to rain. Was running the smoker and making gumbo tonight so maybe tomorrow on the tiller. Going to go pepper heavy again this year, I just can't get enough of those things.

 

[Zoub]

The snow melted off the garden over the weekend and I saw rhubarb sprouts already starting. We had about 14" of snow on Thursday so all of that melted along with snow still on the ground so it's too wet to till yet. Probably burn everything I can find in the garden this weekend.

 

[88GT]

The snow melted off the garden over the weekend and I saw rhubarb sprouts already starting. We had about 14" of snow on Thursday so all of that melted along with snow still on the ground so it's too wet to till yet. Probably burn everything I can find in the garden this weekend.

I have to remind myself you are way north when I read your posts. You must find the shortened season exasperating. I know even here I am wishing for another month's worth of growing weather split equally on the front and back end of the season.

 

[snorko]

I have to remind myself you are way north when I read your posts. You must find the shortened season exasperating. I know even here I am wishing for another month's worth of growing weather split equally on the front and back end of the season.

And a little farther south we keep picking tomatoes almost to Halloween (almost)!

 

[eldirector]

I'm feeling way behind this year. Haven't even tilled the garden yet.

But, we did get the little greenhouse up, and my wife got the seed trays going. I'll get a section of the garden turned over this week sometime, and plant some cabbage, broccoli, and the like.

 

[spencer rifle]

Garden rototilled this week, peas and onions planted two weeks ago and coming along nicely. Put old carpet between the rows to keep the weeds down. Wide variety of indoor starts from seed doing well - no damping off so far. Trying new pea climbing frames. Rhubarb up but not ready yet. Reorganized the shed along with all the planting stuff, fertilizers and chemicals. Preparing new drip irrigation for installation - the old stuff was getting a bit shopworn. Organizing old canning jars for reuse. Storing all the maple sugaring equipment for next year. Moved the compost pile. Spread aged "product" from the chickens around just before tilling.

 

[Zoub]

I have to remind myself you are way north when I read your posts. You must find the shortened season exasperating. I know even here I am wishing for another month's worth of growing weather split equally on the front and back end of the season.

That is half the fun of posting in here, my new learning curve will cover your early and late season extremes. My Brother in VA litterally has two growing seasons broken up by an extreme heat period mid summer. He is zone 7 I am the tip of zone 3 but we have some similar weather patterns concerning lake/ocean effects, our temps are just about 20 degrees apart on most days.

Well, in the past decade I studied up on thermal mass and things like that so now I guess I will be putting them to use in the garden some how. The good news is my day job now puts me in a position to execute on creative ideas, as long as it involves metal or plastic and can be sold for a profit. That pretty much covers most of a greenhouse. Even if we fabricate ideas that suck, they will end up on my property. I am eyeballing a metric ton of scrap racks right now. I will post a pic later of a cool year round greenhouse not far from my home. You have to pay to play so that means heat. I am thinking pellet stove and also a rocket heater to take advantage of wood scraps.

I am writing this year off to learning so I may just plant a few types of plants but in larger numbers to see what works.

Here is something cool my local greenhouse uses. I stopped by Sunday and piked up a few things (left money on the counter) and saw these mats. I am going to ask them about it next time I see them.

http://www.aquamatsystem.com/en/products/aquamat/

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I've planted a bunch of Romaine Lettuce and Spinach plants and some Parsnip and Turnip seeds. Peas are a couple of inches high, the garlic is six or eight inches tall and I just put in Onion starts. I've been watering from my rain water tank and it's almost empty.

Also, gonna pick the first bunch of Asparagus this evening for supper.

 

[patience0830]

I've planted a bunch of Romaine Lettuce and Spinach plants and some Parsnip and Turnip seeds. Peas are a couple of inches high, the garlic is six or eight inches tall and I just put in Onion starts. I've been watering from my rain water tank and it's almost empty.

Also, gonna pick the first bunch of Asparagus this evening for supper.

Wow! Your asparagus is off to an early start! Tilled early this year. Three raised beds and some hog panels set up for pea trellises. Peas about 3" tall, onions about 6". Broccoli got a bit burnt in the last cold snap but it's gonna be ok. Flowering kale weathered the same snap w/o damage. Go figure. Some taters in the ground and sweet potatoes in wet sand in the house to get some slips started.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Garden rototilled this week, peas and onions planted two weeks ago and coming along nicely. Put old carpet between the rows to keep the weeds down. Wide variety of indoor starts from seed doing well - no damping off so far. Trying new pea climbing frames. Rhubarb up but not ready yet. Reorganized the shed along with all the planting stuff, fertilizers and chemicals. Preparing new drip irrigation for installation - the old stuff was getting a bit shopworn. Organizing old canning jars for reuse. Storing all the maple sugaring equipment for next year. Moved the compost pile. Spread aged "product" from the chickens around just before tilling.

What kind of drip irrigation set-up do you use? I had gotten a couple of soaker hoses (with pressure reducers) a few years ago and put one right below the soil surface next to each row of pole beans. The first year, the end of the row closest to the source got very wet and the opposite end stayed dry. Last year, I connected the soaker hoses so that they made a continuous loop to combat that, but the moisture was even spottier. I think the problem is that the soaker hoses just clogg up easily and don't last more than a couple of years.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Wow! Your asparagus is off to an early start! Tilled early this year. Three raised beds and some hog panels set up for pea trellises. Peas about 3" tall, onions about 6". Broccoli got a bit burnt in the last cold snap but it's gonna be ok. Flowering kale weathered the same snap w/o damage. Go figure. Some taters in the ground and sweet potatoes in wet sand in the house to get some slips started.

I've never tried propagating my own sweet potatoes. How do you do that?

 

[spencer rifle]

Wow! Your asparagus is off to an early start! Tilled early this year. Three raised beds and some hog panels set up for pea trellises. Peas about 3" tall, onions about 6". Broccoli got a bit burnt in the last cold snap but it's gonna be ok. Flowering kale weathered the same snap w/o damage. Go figure. Some taters in the ground and sweet potatoes in wet sand in the house to get some slips started.

Ours is real drip irrigation. Larger hoses with smaller emitter hoses attached. Takes some work laying it out and plugging the smaller hoses into the larger, but it doesn't clog and gives plenty of water. If it gets kinked in storage holes will sometimes appear and need to be cut out or patched. Sometimes sheds small emitter hoses in storage, but usually they can be plugged right back in.
Drip Irrigation | Dripworks | Tubing (Mainline/Emitter)

Oops - mean to quote the post above this one.

 

[teddy12b]

Right now my prospects for a productive garden seem to fade away more each day. This year we committed to doing raised beds and I've got one out of the four complete. I haven't been able to get it completed yet because the raised beds are going in an area that's going to have the drain tile put in to get rain water away from the house. Once I get the drain tile work done, I can get my raised bed frames placed where I want them and get them filled.

I haven't really tried to get any seeds started yet because I seem to have a brown thumb when it comes to that. I think this year we're going to end up going to the local nursery and getting our starts there.

It's not really gardening, but I've got some cherry trees that I put in last year that look like they are really full of buds and if I play my cards right I may actually get to eat a few this year if I can keep the birds off of them. Last year I put in 2 Bing Cherry's, and one Black Tartarian. Those three are looking very solid. This year I put out 3 Montmorency Cherry's and 3 North Star Cherry's. I'm hoping the additional 6 cherry trees will help pollinate the others and supplement in production. I also put 4 plum trees in, 6 grape vines, 10 persimmon trees, 4 almond trees, and 1 more apple cocktail 5 in 1 tree. For whatever reason I have better luck planting trees than I do with a garden.

 

[AngryRooster]

]Right now my prospects for a productive garden seem to fade away more each day. This year we committed to doing raised beds and I've got one out of the four complete.[/B] I haven't been able to get it completed yet because the raised beds are going in an area that's going to have the drain tile put in to get rain water away from the house. Once I get the drain tile work done, I can get my raised bed frames placed where I want them and get them filled.... .

In just about the same boat. We were looking forward to doing raised beds this year. The buttclowns that were supposed to have our pole barn finished before Thanksgiving managed to stretch in until the middle of March with one excuse after another. That put us way behind on everything.

 

[K_W]

Built a shed last fall, "finished" it as the snow started flying, but not have to actually finish it. I have loaded the gas powered mowers, snow blowers, trimmers, their gas cans, a shelf to put them on, and the ladder... now to build an "attic" shelf for the camping gear and riding mower bagger tube and a fold up work bench with the extra wood.

I also have to clean up the leaves I didn't have time to pick up in the fall because of racing mother nature to finish the shed then reseed and water what died.

Plus... treat the weeds, mulch, mow, paint the garage trim, cut down a limb, and cut it and the pile of sticks I have built up for firewood for the patio firepit.

 

[red_zr24x4]

Tilled the garden last weekend, Started the indoor plants about 3 weeks ago. We did a tray full of pepperchini peppers.

 

[88GT]

Aaaaaaarrrrrggggg. I hate my dog. She got in the garden by ripping down the gate (to be fair, it's just wire fencing). And she dug up a bed. At least it didn't have anything growing in it yet, but I had planted my 2nd round of broccoli in it.