• 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

;Worked on it a bit today, in between delivering plants and picking up stuff. A group donated an Earth Machine, a neat composter. Alas I had to pick it up and the place was way out in the boonies. Shouldn't be a problem - I Googled directions and wrote them down. Bad mistake - they said to turn right when the correct way was to to turn left. Wandered around farm land, curvy roads and saw lots of Sweet Corn fields and finally stumbled upon a store who gave me the right directions.

Got part of the rain barrel system built. Four 55-gallon barrels, hooked up so they will fill from one downspout /.(still to be built!). A valve that allow two of them to drain at a time, delivering an inch of "rain" at a time. While at the place I picked the Earth Machine up from, saw they are selling the barrels for $75 each. The barrels were donated to me, but I can build one f$15. Nice profit, since I have five barrels left over. I wouldn't mind selling one of them, just to cover my costs for the others.

Hoping to get my rotary tiller sometime this weekend. Currently, the ground is far too wet to use it. I had hoped to plant a lot of stuff this week but reality is that two weeks will not make much of difference, at least between now and August 10. Still need to get some seeds, I'll get them Tuesday,

Mike
 
I got my rotary tiller today and tilled the ground. Because the soil was not the least bit compacted, it was different! The tines went probably a foot deep - almost up to the guard. But it mixed the compost, horse manure and dirt completely.

This evening I started planting:
Jicama - 4
Cotton - 2 with two more coming
Eggplants - one each of Long Purple, Ping Tung and Black Champion
Sweet/Bell Peppers - one each of Crispy Hybrid, Black Beauty and Banana
Hot Peppers - one each of Jalapeno, Habanero, Black Pearl, 7-pod and Fish (forgot to take the Tepin)
Mennonite Sorghum - 4
Rice - 4
Tomatoes - one each of Legend, Red Zebra, Red Delicious, Better Boy, Red Stuffer, Riesentraube
Celery - 3
Calabrese Broccoli - 3
Herbs - two oregano, two parsley (still have Sweet, Honey and Lemon Basil to plant)
Silver Queen Corn - 8 hills
Lettuce - one row of Black Seeded Simpson

Tomorrow's list if the weather cooperates:
Peas
Green Beans
Spinach
Onions
Carrots
Kale
Cabbage
Beets
Turnips
Squash
Cucumber
Swiss Chard
Mustard

On Tuesday or Wednesday I'll add potatoes and hopefully do my containers:
Potatoes with corn and beans
Peanuts with strawberries

On a side note, we had very good, soaking rain last Friday night and a few sprinkles Tuesday and Wednesday. Since then, warmer and very sunny skies. The soil was damp but not wet which suggests it will hold moisture but not excessively. I did not add any fertilizer before tilling or when planting. I figure the large amount of compost and cow manure will be enough, plus I can side dress with compost tea if needed.

Pics tomorrow if it isn't too wet to plant/sow seeds.

Mike
 
SS,

I don't intend to eat a bunch of what I'm growing! Turnips, Kale, Mustard, 7-pod pepper!

Thanks to the rain being late, I got the rest of the stuff sowed:
Hungarian Hot Wax, Cayenne and Tepin peppers
Oregon Star and Lincoln Garden peas
Bright Lights Swiss Chard
Old Homestead, Chinese Red Noodle and Royalty Purple Beans
Patisson Panache and Tondo Scuro Squash
Dwarf Siberian and Blue Curled Scotch Kale
Japanese Giant Red and Southern Giant Curled mustard
Beets
Turnips
Potatoes
Telegraph Improved, Lemon and Sikkim Cucumbers
Tomatillo Verde tomatillo

I have two types of spinach to plant around June 10, plus some Genovese, Lemon and Holy Basil once they get hardened off. I also have to find some onion sets and plant the cabbage I had forgot about then the raised bed will be done. I want a container of peanuts and Alpine Strawberries and another one of potatoes, corn and beans.

Every row is planted 18" from the ones beside it. I ignored the spacing between plant recommendations - totally! For some things, such as beets, carrots, turnips, lettuce, etc., the seeds were just too small unless I wanted to take a month to sow them. I figure I can thin them out once they sprout.

Peppers, tomatoes, squash those plants are supposed to be way more than a foot - mine aren't. Some of the cukes, beans and peas are three inches between plants. I can see come fall time having a 160 sq. ft. root ball. But the soil is fairly fertile (compost and horse manure), and a bit on loose side so roots won't have to struggle. Plus I can keep it watered and fertilized with compost tea. The pH seems to be about 6.7-6.8 on my RapidTest meter and the soil temp six inches deep was 77-78 degrees.

Even if it does turn into a root ball, I'll mow the plants, till the very top and sow ryegrass for a cover crop. After a few good freeze/thaw cycles this winter, it should compact naturally and I'll have room for another six-eight inches of the dirt/compost/manure mixture.

What would be fun is to have a "Harvest Meal" this fall. Have someone donate a pig (there are a lot of 4-H kids who raise them) and then make a huge vat of vegetable soup, salad and greens. And sometime this summer, build another, albeit much smaller bed where I could raise stuff such as horseradish, rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, grapes, etc., plants that take a couple of years to produce or are annuals that should not be dug up.

I'm having fun!

Mike
 
I wanted to today, but the rain chased me away. Not that this is a bad thing - we have been promised rain - a heavy rain, for the last six days. We accumulated maybe, at the most 1/10 of an inch. Many of the plants were showing it. It has been sprinkling all evening, after the initial decent shower, so hopefully tomorrow all of the plants will be perky and standing up straight. I promise - by September, you all will be tired of the pics!

Mike
 
Mike I'm glad things are going your way for the most part. In my part of Texas things have been sucking big time !! Well as far as the garden goes . The wind has been crazy ..... 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 50 and more. Then it got nice for a few days ..... turned cold ... warm again and now it's gray and rainy !! Dang hard to harden off my pepper plants ...

Peace,
P. Dreadie
 
Pictures after 5 days

Rather than trying to upload a bunch of images to this site and having the thread take a long time to load, here is a page of the plants after four days. They were transplanted Saturday afternoon and we have had rain every day since!

Hopefully, by next Thursday I can add pix of seeds that have sprouted. I still need to transplant some basil and marjoram - they have not hardened off at all this week and sow some spinach - but it is a 50-day plant.

Mike
 
A little suggestion, not really sure if it'll be good. Since hollow blocks are "hollow" why not put soil in the holes too? Use the holes as sort of a pot for seedlings?

=D
 
franzb69 said:
A little suggestion, not really sure if it'll be good. Since hollow blocks are "hollow" why not put soil in the holes too? Use the holes as sort of a pot for seedlings?

=D
Click to expand...

I probably will in the future, as each year I want to add a bit of manure and compost to the top. They have a bit of dirt (and starting to get a bunch of rocks!) in them now, from tilling, shoveling dirt into the bed, etc.

Mike
 
Looking good Mike. So, you think everything is going to be "on time"? By the way, it looks like something really likes you broccoli.:)
 
Down River,

For the most part everything except maybe the Jicama and maybe the Tete Noir cabbage should be. I should have had it sprouted by May 10 and it is just now starting to grow. It's a 90-day variety so I'm about 15 days late.

Mike
 
Went down to check on my raised garden today - good news and bad news.

The bad: The Swiss Chard seems to be dying, at least some of the plants. Leaves are wilted, bottom ones are brown - they look pathetic.

2/3 of the carrots did not germinate. The ones in my backyard (different variety) took quite a while but they have been very good. But only about a foot of the four-foot space have plants growing in the raised bed. It may be the seed source - I sowed about 20 feet last year in my garden and had about ten plants actually grow. I plan to resow some with some shorter-season ones.

The so-so: the Jicama seems to be surviving but not growing very quickly. The peas are looking a bit bland - like they need something. Not sure what. The fertility level - I'm not putting a lot of stock into what my $14, 5-test meter says. I suspect it is like sticking your finger in your mouth to get it wet, covering it with a band-aid os something similar then holding it up to see if any breeze is blowing! The mix is compost, aged horse manure and creek-bottom dirt. The plants (excepting the above) are growing fast, have lots of foliage and are very green. I have to think the meter is not that correct.

The good: most of the plants are doing better than I could have hoped for. Several toms have blooms already, though they should not have ripe fruit until late July at the earliest. The cukes and beans have long tendrils looking for ropes to climb. Cotton plants are producing bolls, eggplants fruit, ditto for peppers. All the greens look great. My el-cheapo meter reported the moisture level (~5") was moist.

The ugly: that place is hot! Now, I love heat, unless it gets to 105 I don't consider it hot. It was about 84 in the shade according to the news station, but down there, on asphalt and with the sun beating off the concrete block building painted white, it felt like 110. It beat me like an egg in a blender!

Mike
 
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