Any of you have vegetable gardens?

[jpinard]

It is freaking amazing what you can get out of a little area. Basically our tiny detached garage (which you can barely fit a single car in) had a raised flower bed next to it. Our experiment was to throw a bunch of small vegetable plants in there, and see if we could get food.

We got going 3 weeks late since I was ill (2 week after Mother's Day is when stuff got planted), and though the weather has been miserable, we've had great results.

I just ate a ham sandwich, half of the contents were from the garden (tomatos, lettuce etc). Made cucumber salad from our garden to round out the meal, and when my wife gets home I'm going to grill some yellow squash for her.

I'm guessing "gardening" isn't up there with gamer's hobbies, but am still wondering if anyone else here does this. It's pretty rewarding, and it feels like my fresh vegetable intake this week has eclipsed my previous 12 months combined.

[Sidd_Budd]

I'm guessing "gardening" isn't up there with gamer's hobbies, but am still wondering if anyone else here does this.

I both garden & game happily. Didn't do vegetables this year, because I finally realized we don't eat much of what we grow, and we have a great locally owned fruit & vegetable market within a mile which I go to weekly.

I still plant a lot of herbs, though, because those are pricey in markets. And since I threw out my manliness card long ago, I freely admit enjoying planting mixed shrub and perennial gardens. One of the great things about the hobby is that you don't have to upgrade like you do with computer hardware. I can take a year off from tinkering with new layouts and buying more plants, which allows the existing plants to fill in more, giving me more stuff to split or trade at the end of the season.

[Bill]

I started gardening a few years ago and it's become my 3rd vice, after drinking and reading. 4 years I didn't care a whit about plants; now I'm excited to leave work and work in the garden "optimizing" my tomato and cucumber builds.

With a couple each of tomoto, cuccumber, and squash plants I have plenty all summer long. Too much actually, and I give probably away half of it. I also have a bunch of mint, rosemary, lavender, and thyme going.

My trip to Ireland a month ago was heavenly, seeing all of the exquisite, plentifully watered gardens. I'm now trying to learn about flowers, but so far I just have some daisies and lillies.

[Bad Neighbor]

I have a small 3x8 garden and several potted herbs. I planted rhubarb last year and this year have been on fire making jam with it. This year I planted citronella, grape tomato, big boy tomato, habanero pepper, and garlic. I just pulled up the last of the garlic because the recent drought made it impossible to keep them well enough watered through the summer. They're small, but much more flavorful than store-bought. I also tried to grow okra, strawberries, and lettuce, but the local fauna made sure that wasn't going to happen. I'm too cheap/poor to properly fence it in, but my goal is to eventually have a walk-in greenhouse.

In pots, I have spearmint (I dare anyone to plant this in the ground), mint, rosemary, thyme, lavender, basil, sweet basil, lemon verbena, oregano, sage, and lemon grass (I might be forgetting something). There is a local nursery here that has an excellent potting soil that I mix with the organic stuff you can buy at home depot. All the potted herbs look like they're far too big for their pots. It gets to be a chore having to water them so often, but I'm far from complaining. Getting to walk 30 feet and pick the spices you're using to make spaghetti, etc. is a wonderful feeling.

I don't really do much with flowers other than a line of pansies in the front that look like peppermints. I surrounded them with lava rock, which matches the brick on the house and does amazingly well to keep the soil underneath from drying out. I hardly bother to water the flowers.

[arctangent]

For the past ten years or so I've been growing peas and tomatoes (and the odd sunflower) in 3 gallon plastic buckets I get from the supermarket, and oodles of Miracle-Grow. It gets messy, but we get dozens of tomatoes and hundreds of snow peas from a small area:



The white lattice and the door-as-table are a result of letting my inner redneck escape for a moment.

[GregB]

I built 4 4x8' raised beds in my backyard this spring and we're grownin' mad vegetables. Tons of tomatoes, basil, beets, snap peas, green beans, lettuce, tomatillos, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, brussels, and kale. Everything's doing great except for the broccoli. We failed at broccoli.

[jpinard]

Wow, you guys are awesome.

arctangent - that is a fanastic idea vs. spending $30 per plastic pot. I also think the table is a good idea. One of the reasons I never tried doing this earlier was the dreaded thought of weeding. Containers and raised bed solved that issue. How often do you water them and how many holes do you have in the base of each?

Cat master - would you take a few pics and post them? I'm curious how one would manage so many herbs, and it sounds cool. Herbs are expensive, so that would be pretty nice. Can't you just set up one of those gentle sprinklers to get them all watered at once?

Greg - Radishes, Beets, and other undergrounds. Do you stagger their planting times so they all don't come up at once?

Bill - awesome way to think about tomatos and cukes as builds. I planted Yellow sqaush right next to cucumber not realizing how gigantic squash plants get. The cukes have now eeked out vines many feet away so they can get some sun. It's pretty cool how those little finger-things curl around our arbor to pull itself up.

Sidd - I'm a ground cover fiend (trying to get nice stuff to surround our little pond) though we also planted Altheas to try and draw hummingbirds. So far they're not growing worth a crap, though at least they're still alive.

[Bad Neighbor]

Cat master - would you take a few pics and post them? I'm curious how one would manage so many herbs, and it sounds cool. Herbs are expensive, so that would be pretty nice. Can't you just set up one of those gentle sprinklers to get them all watered at once?

I'll get some online. I've got some from when they were small, and I'll see about taking some current ones. I water them with a can, every day or two, depending on rain. If I forget, they tend to dry up, but always perk right back up when I water them again. This is primarily thanks to the potting soil.

I planted Yellow squash right next to cucumber not realizing how gigantic squash plants get.

I did this exact thing last year. Completely covered the herbs I had two feet away. It turned out to be mislabeled as yellow squash and was actually some sort of gourd, instead. Big, bumpy, and totally inedible. I wasn't happy at all about having taken care of it for months.

Also, I got the flower wrong. They're petunias. Here is one not long after planting:

[arctangent]

arctangent - that is a fanastic idea vs. spending $30 per plastic pot. I also think the table is a good idea. One of the reasons I never tried doing this earlier was the dreaded thought of weeding. Containers and raised bed solved that issue. How often do you water them and how many holes do you have in the base of each?

I drilled 4-8 1/2" holes around the base of each bucket, and put in an inch or two of pea-sized gravel in the bottom for drainage and filled them up with potting soil. If it doesn't rain I water them once a day or maybe twice if it's really hot and dry. If you leave them for more than a couple or three days without water the plants start to wither, although they usually spring back after a good watering.

Weeding is a lot easier with the containers at waist-level, and so is harvesting the peas.

The containers come from the bakery department of the local supermarket - they usually contain frosting and pastry fillings. Wegmans will wash them out for me if I ask them, and they are free. Mostly they are 3 gallons although you can find smaller and larger ones.

[Jeremy Johnsen]

I built 4 4x8' raised beds in my backyard this spring and we're grownin' mad vegetables. Tons of tomatoes, basil, beets, snap peas, green beans, lettuce, tomatillos, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, brussels, and kale. Everything's doing great except for the broccoli. We failed at broccoli.

I built raised beds this year as well. We love them, and tight now the corn and tomatoes are growing like ganbusters. Corn takes up a lot of room, we may get rid of it next year and stick with Farmer's Markets. We're going to try a couple of new things every year, this time we're doing eggplant and tomatillos.



Right now I'm trying to solve the mystery of rotting tomatoes. We are starting to find some, ripe or not, that have totally brown undersides that rot soon after. Grrrrr.

[GregB]

Oooh, those beds are way prettier than mine. Nice work!

We ditched corn because the ratio of yield to space isn't great and it never grew well for us. Tomatillos rock. One or two plants will get you lots of slasa verde for the winter months. I've never encountered any strange ripening issues with tomatoes. I assume your vines are tied up so the fruit isn't on the ground?

Greg - Radishes, Beets, and other undergrounds. Do you stagger their planting times so they all don't come up at once?

The growing season is so short here in Vermont, we just plant them all in the spring and hope for the best. Radishes grow pretty fast. Beet, onions, and especially carrots take longer, so we just pick and use whatever's ready when it's ready.

I've got to say, I'm getting a little tired of kale. But it's so darn good for you.

[Enidigm]

I've got roma and beef tomatoes, some basil, and for variety some acorn squash. Tomatoes are doing fine, basil is excellent as always. Acorn squash is mediocre but it takes a lot of room to grow squashes. Two are growing, one i've got protected and is hanging off the ground, but the larger is just laying flat on the ground, and i'm not confident in it's survivability.

I planted some bell peppers but only got a single one (!) out of it (and the other's peppers are retarded). That's actually more expensive than just buying them at the supermarket :).

[beecubed]

Right now I'm trying to solve the mystery of rotting tomatoes. We are starting to find some, ripe or not, that have totally brown undersides that rot soon after. Grrrrr.

That's "tomato end rot". It is caused by lack of calcium or irregular watering. It usually only occurs on the first few tomatoes of the season, so it should stop happening soon.

[wahoo]

I have a blast experimenting with different veggies to see what grows. Always have staples like tomatos (big and cherry) and jalapenos. I highly recommend green/red bell peppers. Had some red peppers last year that we could eat like apples they were so flavorful. Bell peppers and tomatoes give the best taste value over store-brought produce and they're much, much cheaper.

Usually grow a variety of hot peppers and then freeze some. Be careful with the habanero's. Had some crossbreed and made every other pepper incredibly hot.

Other cool thing is that when you grow jalapenos and tomotoes you can experiment with your own salsa concoctions. Slice tomotoes, onions, lime juice, cilantro and then experiment with other spices and level of heat with peppers. My other favorite from the garden is a nice creamy cheese(preferably mozzarello) on french bread with tomato and basil and either olive oil or balsamic vinegar.

Potatoes are very easy to grow and you can start them by slicing some store bought tomotoes up.

Been a rough year since it's been so hot. My cucumber died and I lost my yellow tomato too.

[Nellie]

Although we're about 40 miles south of having Lifeboats driving up the main roads my veg pots have fallen victim to the rain. I had potatoes, onions and a few outdoor herbs in pots. The herbs look like they'll manage by the Potatoes don't look good.

[Athryn]

I meant to start some veggies and stuff on my balcony, but haven't gotten around to it, and I'm worried that it's probably too late now. I suppose I could at least get some herbs going.

[cliffski]

grow grapes dude. If I can grow them in England, you can grow them anywhere. And fresh off-the-vine grapes taste amazing.

[Jeremy Johnsen]

That's "tomato end rot". It is caused by lack of calcium or irregular watering. It usually only occurs on the first few tomatoes of the season, so it should stop happening soon.

After some investigation, I figured it out. Everything I read said it takes a long time to get the calcium level up, so I'll just follow your advice and lose the first few tomatoes. I put in a timer as well for watering, that may help things.

Oooh, those beds are way prettier than mine. Nice work!

We ditched corn because the ratio of yield to space isn't great and it never grew well for us. Tomatillos rock. One or two plants will get you lots of slasa verde for the winter months. I've never encountered any strange ripening issues with tomatoes. I assume your vines are tied up so the fruit isn't on the ground?

Thanks, it helps when you have a relative that works at Home Depot so you can get cheap wood. Watch me build them in less than three minutes.

The tomatoes are mostly up off the ground, they are bigger than I expected though, so a few touch. The place I got the bad ones were at teh top though, so it's definately the end-rot problem.

[Euri]

I used to grow a lot of things, but now I don't have anything more fancy than hanging pots with my herbs and a few boxes on my deck railing. I tend to grow all my food herbs, especially easy and faster growing things like mint and parsley. I have some carrots and little squashes growing because they are a thousand times better home grown than at the supermarket.

[jpinard]

Well, before this thread date things were growing spectaculalrly. Then the super-hot & dry weather hit and there appeared to be nothing we could do. We watered as much as possible, but all our massive squash and cucumber plants shriveled up and died. First their leaves went yellowish-white, and then they just turned into tiny brown sticks.

Next year I think I want to set up an automatic water for morning. I'm thinking if I bury some pvc pipe just under the soil surface with little holes I can water more effectively. We're also going to get some of these selfwatering containers. They're not literally self watering, but they hold more water in a bottom plate than regular pots with bottoms. You only have to refill them every two days.

The problem I have to solve is... how am I going to get enough sunlight. Maybe I'll take a picture from my roof. I want to plant another tree, but it might block off all the sunlight to our gardeny areas.

[Jeremy Johnsen]

I put in drip lines to my garden. It's all on an automatic timer that goes of at 6 am. Not great when you have a variety of vegetables with different moiture needs, but it gets things close enough that I can just check up on the plants and hand water if I need too once or twice a week. So far sogood other than picking my corn a week too late. Yuck.

[Hans Lauring]

I have a small small garden and only grow herbs in the actual garde (mint, rosemary, sage, thyme, basil (4 variants), lavender, oregano and a few I don't know the English name for) but on my upstairs balcony I have 9 different tomato plants in cappillary boxes. That way I only need to water once every 14 days and can go on a vacation - the harvest is great right now.
I also have a minigreenhouse with six different chili-plants.

[Gremlinclr]

My parents plant a HUGE garden every year that keeps me in veggies all summer long so there's really no need for me to plant anything. But as they get older, the garden gets smaller and I decided I need to learn how to do this stuff myself.

So far I suck at it.

I have two (slightly) raised planting boxes. It's been so hot and dry this year that things didn't grow as well as planned. I had tomatoes, onions and cucumbers that did ok. Okra and corn died an ugly death. And everthing was kinda runty, I don't think my dirt was fertilized well enough. I'm going to start mulching this fall and use it next summer.

[Phil_Stein]

Hanzii - those capillary boxes look interesting. If I understand correctly, it seems to be a method to automatically draw water out of a reservoir to the soil/plant roots, thus minimizing the need to water.

I have a conventional garden that I water about once every 3 days or so (I gre strawberries, tomatoes, peas and lettuce this year, but I think I'll drop the lettuce and plant peppers next year.)

I'd like to do an herb garden, but am worried that the plants would need far too much care - daily watering. The location where I would put this box would be VERY hot. Would those capillary boxes work for this? Is there a way to control how fast the water flows, so you can adjust the dampness of the soil depending on plant preferences?

Has anyone seen these things for sale at a garden center in the US?

[jpinard]

Yea I wanted to ask if those are available in the US to. Are they expensive Hanzii?

[Hans Lauring]

No, cheap. I pay $16 for one (remember everything cost more here) and buy fitting bags of earth as well - they last for several seasons depending on where you keep them and the weather.

It's just a big reservoir of water with a lid on. The lid has three tubes going down into the water - you put the bag of earth on top, cut holes for your plants (three a piece) and holes so you can stuff earth down the tubes - the plants goes in the tubes - since the plants will be above the water level with only their roots going down the tubes, the earth won't be particulary wet and the plants will just take the water they meed.

Somewhere very hot the plants will use more water and you'll lose some to evaporation, but I see no reason why they wouldn't work.

[jpinard]

I can't find them anywhere (in the U.S.) via Google. Dang I'd love to get a few of those.

One question. Does the water ever get moldy or mildewy being in there for a long while?

[Hans Lauring]

Nope.
It's just water. They can be hard to clean because the tomato roots will go down and cling to the outside of the tubes, but a part from a bit of dirt and some thin white roots, they stay nice and clean (and they sell wooden boxes to put around them for those with nice looking gardens)

[KaoFloppy]

My mom used to cover the plants with newspapers on hot sunny days. Just 1-2 sheets thick over everything.

[jpinard]

My mom used to cover the plants with newspapers on hot sunny days. Just 1-2 sheets thick over everything.

Interesting. Wet or dry newspapers?