The Covid "Victory Garden" thread

Melensdad · Apr 3, 2020

So I think quite a few of us have gardens, or have had gardens in the past. Some of us have been known to dehydrate and/or can some of our own foods too.

It has been 3 years since we have used our garden beds due to extensive summer travel. But we are staying on the homestead this summer! I've been working hard to reclaim the old beds. Might not get the entire garden restored, but we are getting enough reclaimed that we will be planting several beds again this year.

This year the news is reporting a run on garden seeds, vegetable plants, etc. So my question to you is what are you planting this year? Odds are most of us are putting in gardens.

Purchased:

Sweet Potatoes ... never tried them before, it will be a new crop for us
Tomatoes ... Roma for canning. Cherry, Grape for salads/snacks
Onions ... mostly yellows and whites, but some reds
Peppers ... mostly sweet varieties
Brussels Sprouts ... just because I like them

Hoping to acquire:

Summer Squash ... yellows and greens
Pickles ... for pickling
Cauliflower ... great low carb substitute
Broccoli ... hate it but the lovely Mrs_Bob likes it

PHOTOS PLEASE :hammer:

Bannedjoe · Apr 3, 2020

Something many may not know...

Mexico doesn't allow GMO.
This means that seeds from Mexican vegetables can be collected and planted.

We had a garden about 3 years ago.
My wife collected seeds from everything we bought, from melons to peppers to tomatoes.

But gardens are a lot of work, and we found it a real heartbreak as we competed with all the bugs and critters that wanted in on our efforts.

The wife has started again, but on a much smaller/hobby level.

Melensdad · Apr 3, 2020

Bannedjoe said:
But gardens are a lot of work, and we found it a real heartbreak as we competed with all the bugs and critters that wanted in on our efforts.

The wife has started again, but on a much smaller/hobby level.

I used to plant a 1/4 acre of green beans. Rows of Sunflower. 1/4 acre of Sweet corn.

But so much work.

We transitioned to 10 raised beds. Then cut that back to 8. My goal this year is 5. But as of now I have 4 beds prepared.

Bannedjoe · Apr 3, 2020

Our last garden was about 1300 sqft.

We didn't have raised beds, just the amended ground.

Out here, as with many places, we had all the burrowing critters, tomato worms, and general the riff-raff.
I think the thing that really backed the wife up on the whole garden thing was the rattlesnakes.

We must have had a nest explode with them the last year we gardened.
Tried as we might to keep them out, (and take them out) there was hardly a day when the wife wouldn't come across one hiding in the cool damp shade under something.

But yeah, if we ever get serious again, raised beds would be the only way to go.

Melensdad · Apr 3, 2020

So 4 of the beds have been tilled.

They need to be raked smooth and level but they are nice and fluffy. So almost ready for planting. Took a bit of work to get them into this shape. They were overgrown for the last few years.

Look at the beds in the top left of the photo, that is the condition these beds were in a few days ago. Just out of the photo is a fallen tree that is laying over several more raised beds, some of the top branches are visible laying across the beds :smileywac

Sadly the ground around the garden is still very wet, not going to get the tractor down there until it dries a bit.

bczoom · Apr 3, 2020

Melensdad said:
Purchased:

Sweet Potatoes ... never tried them before, it will be a new crop for us

Tomatoes ... Roma for canning. Cherry, Grape for salads/snacks

Onions ... mostly yellows and whites, but some reds

Peppers ... mostly sweet varieties

Brussels Sprouts ... just because I like them

Hoping to acquire:

Summer Squash ... yellows and greens

Pickles ... for pickling

Cauliflower ... great low carb substitute

Broccoli ... hate it but the lovely Mrs_Bob likes it

You may need to use more beds if you're going to do all that.
I could see each of these taking up at least one bed each: tomatoes, cucumbers and squash. Maybe more if depending on how much canning and pickling you want to do.

If you want to save seeds from the plants for next year, look for "Heirloom" seeds. Be careful though. I planted about 20 heirloom tomato plants one year. I'd just toss the ones that are no good and left some on the vine at the end of the year. The next year, and for a couple years after, I had over 300 tomato plants all over the garden just from those that I didn't harvest.

EastTexFrank · Apr 3, 2020

I've been a gardener for most of my married life, 40 years, until lately.

My raised beds down back look just like yours Melensdad. They haven't been planted in at least 4 years. I'm not going to till up a bigger garden. We've actually been talking about making a small planting in my wife's herb garden outside the kitchen window. It's been abandoned for the last few years too. RVing took it's toll on our gardens but really it was the drought a few years back when it was over 100°F for over 60 days straight. It just became too much hard, hard work.

We can always grow stuff during the summer but I've been thinking hard about a small greenhouse for winter veggies.

I don't know when I'll be allowed to go in to town to get plants.

mla2ofus · Apr 3, 2020

We've been growing about a 600 sq ft garden for yrs so it won't be anything new for us.
Mike

m1west · Apr 3, 2020

Been thinking of a small garden again myself, last garden we planted we dug out the dirt and put chicken wire down to try to control the Voles and ground squirrels here. But the little fuckers ruined everything anyway, its even hard to start trees because they build nests right under the tree, drink your water and eat the roots. We have been fighting with them on our fruit trees we planted 3 years ago. Its not bad until around July when the ground really dries out. I have been thinking about a hanging garden in pots, thats should work for tomatoes and some other veggies. Anyone else have any ideas that don't include trying to kill the little bastards?I have found that to be endless and impossible.

bczoom · Apr 3, 2020

Hanging pots or pots in general don't hold water very well so you'll need to water those plants a lot more.

Melensdad · Apr 3, 2020

We are clearing 2 more beds today.

The one in the upper left corner by the fallen tree is almost ready to be tilled.

There is a Triple-Size bed (I was standing in it to take the photos so you can't see it) that we used for melons in past years, that one is getting cleared out too. That bed will hold the summer squash and cucumbers easily. The Cukes will be grown vertically so they take up less room and are easier to manage, we have grown them that way in the past.

m1west · Apr 3, 2020

bczoom said:
Hanging pots or pots in general don't hold water very well so you'll need to water those plants a lot more.

Im already used to that, the soil here is sand.

tiredretired · Apr 3, 2020

Shit, I'm still trying to figure out how to get mulch, much less plants and seeds.

m1west · Apr 3, 2020

TiredRetired said:
Shit, I'm still trying to figure out how to get mulch, much less plants and seeds.

Got my seeds coming from eBay

FrancSevin · Apr 3, 2020

Our Subdivision lot has wonderful flower gardens but no room or sunlight for vegies.

The Ozark ranch is too tempting for local wildlife. And the soil is crap. I imported IOWA barnyard soil and set one raised bed 16'X24'. Local critters ate it all. So unless we decide to live there no garden.

I do have about 300 sq feet next to the manufacturing plant. Fenced and filled with, again, IOWA barn yard soil. My BIL had a string of five ponies and they mad a lot of fertilizer in sawdust pens. Good stuff for vegetables.

Last year we did nothing but pumpkins. They did poorly so I must bring in more manure. The space is too small for potatoes, so we don't even try. part of the garden gets afternoon shade so leaf lettuce will grow well there.

We grow Tomatoes , Beans, carrots and Zucchinis. Anytime we do corn the racoons get the ears just before they are at peak. So we don't even try.

The employees get to take home whatever they want. But they always leave the big tomatoes and a least one zucchini on my desk.

I've tilled it over but haven't set any seed or plants. The weather is warm and stable here so,,,; maybe next week.

mla2ofus · Apr 3, 2020

M1, find some good mouser cats. Put 'em on short rations and a little milk each day.
Mike

m1west · Apr 3, 2020

mla2ofus said:
M1, find some good mouser cats. Put 'em on short rations and a little milk each day.
Mike

Thats how I got the 3 cats that I have now, they don't even put a dent in them. When I first moved here 11 years ago I put poison pellets down 1- hole in the front yard and later when we came home from lunch there was at least 30 of them out of the hole in the front yard. I shot them with a pellet gun and threw them away so the dog wouldn't get them. Point is there are thousands of those holes all over the property and they reproduce faster than you can kill them.

FrancSevin · Apr 3, 2020

m1west said:
Been thinking of a small garden again myself, last garden we planted we dug out the dirt and put chicken wire down to try to control the Voles and ground squirrels here. But the little fuckers ruined everything anyway, its even hard to start trees because they build nests right under the tree, drink your water and eat the roots. We have been fighting with them on our fruit trees we planted 3 years ago. Its not bad until around July when the ground really dries out. I have been thinking about a hanging garden in pots, thats should work for tomatoes and some other veggies. Anyone else have any ideas that don't include trying to kill the little bastards?I have found that to be endless and impossible.

Any of my hanging baskets with flowers tend tobe uprooted by squirrels

Melensdad · Apr 3, 2020

Well our garden is coming along nicely. The fallen tree was removed today and thrown onto the burn pile.

The 'triple size' bed has been tilled and is nice and fluffy. The bed in the upper left corner of the photo has also been tilled and prepared. We are working on 1 more triple-size bed now. It was last use for pumpkins. Done for the day and that bed is not finished, rain looks like it will be moving in based on the skies. It is forecasted to arrive at some point, I thought tonight but I'm hearing it may show up earlier than planned.

Too bad about the rain, the ground is wet and the tractor was rutting pretty deep just moving around some of the deadfall. We don't need any more rain right now, I still have standing water out along the creek.

XeVfTEUtaAqJHTqq · Apr 4, 2020

I bought a ton of seeds a few weeks ago. It's still too cold and I'm holding off until I'm sure I need to plant anything. My family is useless at helping in the garden so I would have to do all the weeding which I don't have time to do.

So far our stores are all stocked and I don't see a need to panic plant yet.

bczoom · Apr 4, 2020

m1west said:
Thats how I got the 3 cats that I have now, they don't even put a dent in them. When I first moved here 11 years ago I put poison pellets down 1- hole in the front yard and later when we came home from lunch there was at least 30 of them out of the hole in the front yard. I shot them with a pellet gun and threw them away so the dog wouldn't get them. Point is there are thousands of those holes all over the property and they reproduce faster than you can kill them.

Instead of poison for the varmints, have you tried poison for their food? Most of these varmints eat grubs and bugs that live underground. If you kill those bugs using Diazinon or similar, it'll starve the varmints and they'll either die or move away.

bczoom · Apr 4, 2020

PBinWA said:
My family is useless at helping in the garden so I would have to do all the weeding which I don't have time to do.

I can't get any help for our large garden either. This is where I plant in volume for items that we plan on canning, pickling or freezing. My wife will tend the raised bed garden that she uses for direct garden-to-plate things.

To keep the weeds down in the big garden, I put down 12' wide road cloth. Does an excellent job for the weeds but being black, sometimes it hurts anything that lay directly on it as it burns/dries it out.

m1west · Apr 4, 2020

bczoom said:
Instead of poison for the varmints, have you tried poison for their food? Most of these varmints eat grubs and bugs that live underground. If you kill those bugs using Diazinon or similar, it'll starve the varmints and they'll either die or move away.

I had not thought of that, sounds like there may be hope.

Melensdad · Apr 4, 2020

Hit up 2 semi-outdoor garden centers.

Found several varieties of peppers, some pickling cucumbers and several varieties of tomatoes. All plants.

They had some cauliflower and broccoli but we've not had great luck with either of those in the past. Also seems sort of silly to buy things like cauliflower when you typically only get 1 head from an entire plant.

Did not see any summer squash plants, I had seeds in my hand but the lovely Mrs_Bob showed her disapproval (I could see it behind the mask) so I put them down. My past performance with seed starting is sub-standard :smileywac

bczoom said:
Instead of poison for the varmints, have you tried poison for their food? Most of these varmints eat grubs and bugs that live underground. If you kill those bugs using Diazinon or similar, it'll starve the varmints and they'll either die or move away.

Agreed

mla2ofus · Apr 4, 2020

There are strains of broccoli that produce one large head and afterward quite a few small ones. We grow ours in special cages I built to keep the cabbage moths away from them. We don't like the extra protein from all those little green worms!!
Mike

bczoom · Apr 5, 2020

On a side note for those that don't garden regularly.
If you're going to eat things fresh out of the garden, stagger your plantings. E.g. plant a few lettuce seeds every couple days. If you plant all your lettuce (or whatever) all at the same time, it's all going to become ready for harvest at the same time. Then you have an over-abundance that you can't eat before it rots.

If you're going to can, pickle or freeze a particular veggie, do them all at once so you can consolidate your harvest into a short period. If you're making sauces or other tomato based products, make sure you're other ingredients are ready at the same time. E.g. all the tomatoes come in but you want peppers added. Well, if they're not ready for another week or 2, you're screwed.

Melensdad · Apr 19, 2020

Looks like the last of the snow will be gone today and I can get back to the garden.

Our shipment of PREEN arrived but its been too cold and snowy to get back down there to apply it. Hoping that this afternoon it will reach the upper 50's and I can get down there rake the top and spread some PREEN to give me a bit of a weed block.

The transplants are kept in the garage overnight and taken out to get sun in the morning. It's still too cold at night to put them into the ground. I have trays sitting on the pick up truck cover. Back the truck out to the sunshine during the day, pull it back in at night. A lot easier than carrying the trays outside and then back inside.

EastTexFrank · Apr 19, 2020

Melensdad said:
Back the truck out to the sunshine during the day, pull it back in at night. A lot easier than carrying the trays outside and then back inside.

We don't have a garage as such but I may use some version of that idea. I like it.

My S-I-L found a good source of potted veggies and said that the buying process was very safe. My wife is going to check it out next week. We still need more tomatoes and peppers and she'll see what else is there.

While I was rummaging around in the barn I found one of those "walk in greenhouses" still in the box. We used them to overwinter my wife's outside plants. It's not big but I could possibly set it up at the house, run power for a grow light and a small heater and have green stuff, tomatoes and peppers next winter. I'd have to get a bunch of pots, containers and growing soil but it could be done. I've never done anything like that before. It could be interesting.

m1west · Apr 19, 2020

My seeds showed up, but might run down town and buy some starter tomatoes and whatever else looks good. I think I'm running late for seed planting.

Melensdad · Apr 19, 2020

Got the fuel line and the fuel filter replaced on the Ventrac tractor today.

Got all the garden beds "Preened" with weed suppressor. It will also prevent any vegetable seeds from sprouting in those beds too. So all veggies going into those raised beds have to be transplants. Temps today were supposed to be in the mid-50's but it is sunny and in the low 60's outside. All the snow is finally melted. Mud season is in full swing here, but the raised beds are in good shape. I figure the transplants can go into the beds on Mother's Day weekend.

Mowed some of the lawn today. Sister in law is finishing.

The Covid "Victory Garden" thread

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