• Everything other than hot peppers. Questions, discussion, and grow logs. Cannabis grow pics are only allowed when posted from a legal juridstiction.

Started on the raised bed project

I have to be the second or third to luckiest person on earth, at least in terms of trying something new. As stated, I was asked to do this and I had zero experience but thanks to so many people, and Google, I seem to have done most things right, although not all things.

The cotton, eggplants, peppers, tomatillo, tomatoes, broccoli, most of the basil, oregano, sorghum, rice, Swiss Chard, squash, green beans, cucumbers, mustard, kale, cabbage, corn, lettuce, beets, turnips, onions and potatoes are thriving, despite the super-wet spring we have had. The celery is shaded too much by the corn, but the latter will be done mid-August and I can cut it down and add it to the compost pile. That will give the celery and 30-50 days to grow. Parsley looks like crap, only 1/5 of the carrots and none of the spinach germinated, the Jicama has turned green and started growing but I doubt there is enough season left to get the max production.

Pics tomorrow - by the time I finished driving stakes, weaving plants, and cutting off non-productive leaves it was beer time!

Mike
 
Wordwiz, you have done a great job! When I saw the long list of plants you put in this bed I thought it would be impossible for them all to fit and be healthy. Do you have to thin out leaves or branches to allow air flow (tomatoes)? I love how organized and well documented all the photos are. Can you post a few pictures of the entire garden? Keep up the good work, you should be proud.
 
chileaddict said:
Wordwiz, you have done a great job! When I saw the long list of plants you put in this bed I thought it would be impossible for them all to fit and be healthy. Do you have to thin out leaves or branches to allow air flow (tomatoes)? I love how organized and well documented all the photos are. Can you post a few pictures of the entire garden? Keep up the good work, you should be proud.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I appreciate the kudos!

I try to trim any leaves that start turning yellow though it wasn't easy to see between the tomato plants! I suspect that by the end of the year I will have a 168 sq. ft. root ball!

630bed.jpg


If I can keep visitors from raiding it, I want to keep track of the amount of produce I harvest.

Mike
 
Wow that sorghum looks scary. :shocked: It grabbed my attention right away. I came from a farm family. My dad would stop, we'd get out, cut the tops off the :flamethrower: Johnson Grass, and put them a bag to be burnt. I haven't seen much sorghum in my time. But is does have greener tops, not black like the baddies, so it's ok. :twisted:
Dude, That's the coolest fair display in the world. I wish I could be involved with something like that. :cool: :clap: You Rock!
:!:
 
I asked for and got an old wringer-washer (Maytag) that I plan to use to squeeze the juice from the stalks come the end of the season. I have another 18 plants in my garden so I'm hoping for maybe a pint or two of syrup!

Mike
 
Started harvesting today, a little late. Found several leaves to add to my Earth Machine, that will return favors to the ground next spring.

The haul was not great, in terms of weight, but it was all leafy veggies:
10.6 oz. of Swiss Chard
1 pound, 3.4 ounces of Kale
1 pound, 13.5 ounces of Mustard
5.5 ounces lettuce

Doesn't sound like a bunch, but it was enough to completely stuff a large brown paper grocery shopping bag.

The Chard, mustard and kale seem to like the Square Foot Gardening concept. I lost a few leaves at the very bottom, probably due as much to the beat-down rains we had for week as much as my inability to tend to it on a daily basis, though the lettuce did suffer for inattention. I should have thinned it two weeks ago.

I want to keep track of the harvest just to see the results.

Mike
 
An update, probably the next to last one! :onfire:

It didn't turn out as good as I had hoped but probably as good as I expected. Starting from the top, the Jicama (so far), Cotton (40 balls of cotton so far, with more forming), Eggplants and peppers did good to well. The sorghum looks great, the rice - not so. The tomatoes and celery so far are failures. The former were planted too close, the latter were shaded by the former! The broccoli is still growing but nothing to write home about. The herbs: at least the oregano and basil look good; the cilantro died. The sweet corn would have been great had I watered the plants in the last three weeks. The lettuce started out great but the heat got it back in July. Peas - worthless; they should have been sown at least a month earlier. The Swiss Chard is alive and vibrant, the green beans are now in the compost bin.

Nothing good to report about the squash, I might as well not planted it. Kale and Mustard did great early, then went to sleep once temps warmed. My beets were looking great, but someone stole them before I could collect them. The turnips were a bright spot, what carrots that grew look okay, the cabbage - thumbs down.

I had great looking cucumber vines, next to no cukes. They will make great compost. Onions were everything that could be hoped for, the potatoes - I don't think the harvest will be that great.

Some notes about the grow:

I planted some stuff, especially the toms, way too close. Don't believe all the crap about square foot gardening! Even though I knew better, I started several plants way too late in the season (I didn't have the bed built until the second week of May). One cannot grow cool-weather crops in 90+ degree temps.
Next year, the bed will have gone through a freeze/thaw cycle, several of them for the top part. I could only get to the site twice a week and there were a few weeks that even though I would give them what equals two inches of rain, three days later the ground was dry. It was much hotter there than here, and the number of Growing Degree Days we have had this summer is quite a bit above average.

One good thing - even though the pepper plants have not had hordes of pods, the ones they have seem to be way above average in heat - not that I would know because I canot eat them, but from people who have tried them! :mouthonfire:

Next year, I'm doing a Beer (and other beverages) Garden. The only plant that may be time sensitive will be dandelions (makes fantastic wine!).

Mike

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top