2022 Garden Thread

[begreen]

Very nice Dan! You certainly have accomplished a lot.

 

[clancey]

Hey free --Just wondering about all that filling of your new Garden Tank and wondering "why" you could not just fill it with maybe river rock on the bottom and the rest just soil from your yard? Would your way grow the plants better or something or maybe you want it lighter for I just do not understand. Could not you rent a cat or something and just put "dirt" into it? Just curious on why you are doing it this way? Beautiful video and well done....clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

The hügelkultur method is a very economical way to fill these high beds and will feed the upper soil and hold moisture for less watering for many seasons, as opposed to filling the bottom with non-organic material (rocks) or "soil from the yard". I don't know if I put a link to this article earlier but give it a read Mrs Clancy. It's all about hügelkultur.

How To Fill Raised Garden Beds With Soil And Save Money

Once you have assembled your Vego organic gardening raised beds, the next task is filling the raised garden beds before planting. One of the most common questions we get from new gardeners is how to fill a new raised bed and still save money. There are many different methods out there that work...

vegogarden.com

 

[clancey]

Thanks I missed it but will give it a read...clancy..

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@Dan Freeman,

I just sat down for a few minutes while my beets and greens (a very small harvest from the garden) are cooking on the stove and meat and potatoes are finishing in the oven and watched your food forest video. You put a lot of work into that, and I hope it bears much fruits (and many flowers, herbs, and vegetables) for you in years to come. It looks like a great project.

 

[Prof]

Going to use hugelkultur. Only the top 10" or so will be soil. https://vegogarden.com/blogs/academ...ds-and-save-money?_pos=1&_sid=29d2d0565&_ss=r

View attachment 303554I

I use this method exclusively. My land has a crazy amount of rock in it. Digging a post hole can take more time than it is worth. So the raised bed method was a logical choice. I built one hugelkultur that is about 30 ft long and 3 ft high and have several raised beds using hemlock boards (more similar to what you are planning). I have no shortage of rotting wood since my beech trees are getting slaughtered by a few diseases and pests. Both methods work well for me, but the raised bed method is my preferred way to do things. Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Dan Freeman]

@Dan Freeman,

I just sat down for a few minutes while my beets and greens (a very small harvest from the garden) are cooking on the stove and meat and potatoes are finishing in the oven and watched your food forest video. You put a lot of work into that, and I hope it bears much fruits (and many flowers, herbs, and vegetables) for you in years to come. It looks like a great project.

Thank you, DG. It has been a lot of work, but it has been a new challenge and fun. We're hoping to improve upon it each season and can't wait to see it in another few years when it really begins to resemble a food forest.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I use this method exclusively. My land has a crazy amount of rock in it. Digging a post hole can take more time than it is worth. So the raised bed method was a logical choice. I built one hugelkultur that is about 30 ft long and 3 ft high and have several raised beds using hemlock boards (more similar to what you are planning). I have no shortage of rotting wood since my beech trees are getting slaughtered by a few diseases and pests. Both methods work well for me, but the raised bed method is my preferred way to do things. Good luck and enjoy!

LOL. I see you live in PA, too, where rocks are our Number 1 crop. We started using raised beds a number of years ago. This will be our first experience with the tall ones and the hügelkultur method.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I started trimming roots yesterday and also trimmed the plants where they are touching the lights.

I think my tiny Tim’s are on steroids. The pics of tomatoes don’t look like this, lol. That’s 1 tomato with weird bulges.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Looking real good, Limestone!

 

[Prof]

LOL. I see you live in PA, too, where rocks are our Number 1 crop. We started using raised beds a number of years ago. This will be our first experience with the tall ones and the hügelkultur method.

I've made some great stone walls around my place!

 

[Dan Freeman]

I've made some great stone walls around my place!

Same here, but that was over 20 years ago, and I have the two carpal tunnel surgeries to prove it! No more rock walls for me.

 

[begreen]

The hügelkultur method is a very economical way to fill these high beds and will feed the upper soil and hold moisture for less watering for many seasons, as opposed to filling the bottom with non-organic material (rocks) or "soil from the yard". I don't know if I put a link to this article earlier but give it a read Mrs Clancy. It's all about hügelkultur.

How To Fill Raised Garden Beds With Soil And Save Money

Once you have assembled your Vego organic gardening raised beds, the next task is filling the raised garden beds before planting. One of the most common questions we get from new gardeners is how to fill a new raised bed and still save money. There are many different methods out there that work...

vegogarden.com

Looks like it will take a few cords of wood to fill all those new beds with a foot of wood. Do you get this for free?

 

[begreen]

I started trimming roots yesterday and also trimmed the plants where they are touching the lights.

I think my tiny Tim’s are on steroids. The pics of tomatoes don’t look like this, lol. That’s 1 tomato with weird bulges.

View attachment 304141

Nice. They're looking good. Our tiny tims are now within 2" of the lights raised all the way. I think I will need to do the same. Hate to do this when they are full of blossoms. Water consumption is now up to 1 liter a day or about a gallon every 4 days.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Looks like it will take a few cords of wood to fill all those new beds with a foot of wood. Do you get this for free?

I have a good number of trees (mostly white pine and poplar) that I cut down a few years ago that I have piled on the edge of my property/woods. They will be ideal since you want wood that has started to decay rather than fresh cut wood. I have a lot of ash that was cut around the same time, but that is still good for burning, so I prefer not to use it for the gardens unless I don't have enough poplar and white pine.

 

[Prof]

Same here, but that was over 20 years ago, and I have the two carpal tunnel surgeries to prove it! No more rock walls for me.

I hear you--I pulled more than a couple muscles (and other things) when I first moved to my place. I bought a skid steer about a year ago. It makes the moving of rocks easier (still not a pleasure though).

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I started trimming roots yesterday and also trimmed the plants where they are touching the lights.

I think my tiny Tim’s are on steroids. The pics of tomatoes don’t look like this, lol. That’s 1 tomato with weird bulges.

View attachment 304141

I think this can sometimes happen when multiple flowers are fused together. It happens on big tomatoes, too. I don’t know if that’s what’s going on, though. Are all your other fruits just normal cherries?

 

[DuaeGuttae]

We’ve had a couple of very foggy, misty days the past two days, and I had to be doing lots of stuff that kept me away from the garden. I had been surface watering seeds every day, but I was hoping that the mist was taking care of keeping the surface moist for me. It only measured about 1/10 of an inch of rain, but I was very pleased with how things looked today.

This is just one corner of a large bed where I sprinkled some lettuce seeds. I collected the flowering heads last year and left them in a paper bag in my garage. I never got to cleaning them, but I took them out last week before a forecast rain shower and sprinkled them. This corner got the largest concentration, I think, since it’s where I stared, but the whole bed has little green sprouts in it. I sure hope it’s the lettuce.

At about ten o’clock in that first picture, you can also see a sprouted acorn. I thought it looked pretty cool, so I took a closer shot before I tossed it towards the trees. I have lots of acorns that fall in parts of my garden, so I’ll probably pull some oak sprouts this spring.


These are some cover-crop Daikon radish seedlings that I sprinkled in two small square beds and in a couple of empty places in longer beds. I think I saw the first sprouts on Wednesday.


Back in mid-October I had sprinkled some bunching onion seeds in a pot where I had earlier transplanted some onions I had grown inside. Those onions fell victim to one of the diggers in September, so I just tried direct sowing. Nothing had come up for weeks and weeks, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to see lots of sprouts this morning. (The fallen leaves are basil that’s starting to shed in the cooler weather.)

 

[Dan Freeman]

I think this can sometimes happen when multiple flowers are fused together. It happens on big tomatoes, too. I don’t know if that’s what’s going on, though. Are all your other fruits just normal cherries?

I went back and looked at that picture a second time. I think DG may be right about 2 or more tomatoes fusing together.

Interesting...look up "fasciation of flowers" and "fasciation of flowers tomato plants" for further info/reading.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Could very well be! There are 3 on the plant that look like that. The rest look normal.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Never too early to begin picking up seeds for next season, even though I have tons of seeds already in my seed box.

Picked up some Glorious Gleam Nasturtium seeds yesterday



and some Victoria Rhubarb seeds (introduced in honor of Queen Victoria in 1837).



And got the 5th raised bed put together. 4 more to go.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I love rhubarb! I’ve got some plants that were split from my Great Aunt’s house and were planted in their current spot before I was born!

 

[Dan Freeman]

We used to have some on our property, but it eventually died out. I don't know what variety it was since it was here when we moved in. While some varieties will grow for 20+ years, some will only grow for 10ish years. We are planting Victoria (the gold standard of rhubarb varieties) (https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/victoria-rhubarb-zmaz10djzraw/). BTW...did you know rhubarb is considered a vegetable and not a fruit, although we treat it as a fruit the way we prepare/eat it. (I just found that out in the article I linked to.)

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Since I’ve only eaten the stalks I’ve never thought of it as a fruit!

 

[Dan Freeman]

Since I’ve only eaten the stalks I’ve never thought of it as a fruit!

LOL. I hope that's all you ate since the leaves are highly poisonous.

I think most folks think of rhubarb as a fruit since it is mainly used in tarts, pies, jams and other sweets, along with a lot of sugar.