# Its almost Garden time



## Jim

Love when its time to plant the summer garden. \/ 

My "main" garden consists of an area of 1.5 feet by 50 feet that gets sun for 80% of the day. This year I'm digging out all the soil and putting in new, fresh, nutrient rich soil.

Cukes, Tomatoes, Zucchinis, Peppers, are on deck. Also pots of spices and "one offs" like ghost peppers.

Anyone else planning a garden this year?


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## lckstckn2smknbrls

Garden no, I'm trying to kill off a lot of creeping charley.


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## BigTerp

Put in a "square foot garden" this year. 4' x 4' divided into 16 1'x1' squares. Currently have 2 squares of peas, 3 squares of spinach, 4 squares of onions, 2 squares of carrots and 3 squares of lettuce. Everything but a square of carrots and a square of lettuce have germinated and is growing. Might replant if they don't show signs of life soon. Will be planting 2 squares of potatoes this weekend to fill up all my squares. Once my cool season plants are done I'll replace with my warm season plants like tomatoes, beans, etc. I used to do the standard row garden, but it just took up too much room and was a lot of work. Anxious to see how this space saving method will work.


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## Johnny

There is a horse ranch across the road from me. so all winter, I collect horse manure in 50# bags
and let it cure for a few months before tilling up my wife's garden.
She is from China. Only been here three years. She has never messed with a garden - ever.
So last year, I made her a 30'x50' garden with sprinklers and that is her haven. LOL she is so involved in it.
Everything all layed out just so - will not let me plant ANYTHING !!!
So, when she is at work, I go out and plant *MY* little lines of okra, field peas, cherry tomatoes, 
sweet bell peppers, etc. and now they are starting to come up !!
Not to mention the Georgia Giant watermelons all over the place !!
LOL LOL LOL gonna be fun fun fun in a week or so when MY stuff starts coming up !!!


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## Insanity

Fixing to turn in some horse manure in mine this weekend or next. 
My mom saves it for me till it's cold black. Man that stuffs great.


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## muzikman

Barefoot_Johnny said:


> There is a horse ranch across the road from me. so all winter, I collect horse manure in 50# bags
> and let it cure for a few months before tilling up my wife's garden.
> She is from China. Only been here three years. She has never messed with a garden - ever.
> So last year, I made her a 30'x50' garden with sprinklers and that is her haven. LOL she is so involved in it.
> Everything all layed out just so - will not let me plant ANYTHING !!!
> So, when she is at work, I go out and plant *MY* little lines of okra, field peas, cherry tomatoes,
> sweet bell peppers, etc. and now they are starting to come up !!
> Not to mention the Georgia Giant watermelons all over the place !!
> LOL LOL LOL gonna be fun fun fun in a week or so when MY stuff starts coming up !!!


BF Johnny;

Boy, are *YOU* in trouble!
:LOL22: :LOL22: :LOL22:


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## Zum

Were a month behind...raked my lawn two days ago, then woke up to 4"s of white stuff...
Worse yet there is still over a foot of ice on most lakes, I've never seen that much ice this late.


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## JMichael

My snow peas were in the ground 4 weeks ago, my cucumbers came up 3 days ago, radishes been up a week, my tomato plants (2 varieties) went in the ground two weeks ago. 4 of them have put on a bloom since then. :lol: This is the first time I've ever gotten my garden to this stage this early. :mrgreen: Now I have to hope we don't get some crazy late frost.


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## JMichael

Hey Johnny, you know if she's never messed with a garden, she'll probably figure that if anything she didn't plant pokes it's head up, she'll rip it out root and stem as a weed. :lol:


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## Johnny

Muzikman - Michael - - - - 

I think my worst fears have just come to light this afternoon.
Wife is out in the garden, yelling a bunch of stuff in Chinese.
(I know it can't be good just from the sound of her voice) LOL

and her garden hoe is going CHOP CHOP CHOP CHOP in a frantic manner.

I think I've been found out LOL


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## muzikman

:LOL22: 

I think Mike was right!

Sorry Johnny! :roll:


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## lovedr79

i have spinach, collards, kale, peas and potatoes in the ground. i planted a bunch of seeds yesterday in the house for planting in the beginning of may. planted tomatoes, cukes, okra, zucchini, squash, sunflowers


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## FishingForSupper

I've got peas, radishes, rhubarb, and kohlrabi up already. Will be putting in tomatoes, bell peppers, jalepenos, zucchini, squash, and maybe asparagus in our 4 new raised beds along with zinnias. The raised beds are new since we tore up most of our yard and started over. Did away with the strawberry patch and a lot of the old growth unknown shrubs. Can't wait to actually have a usable garden for a change.


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## Keystone

Have a 4' X 8' raised bed for Asparagus. 25 or so plants. They are just starting to poke their heads up out of the ground.....


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## JMichael

Just planted some asparagus this past week. Never grown it before. A friends has some thats on it's 2nd or 3rd year and it's about 2 ft tall. I know they say you have to wait 3 years to get anything from them but I love steamed fresh asparagus so it's worth the wait if it produces. Keystone, I've never grown it before but the instructions that came with the "roots" show a pic of a bulb with some planting instructions that said space 2" apart. Is this right or did they have the wrong instructions with them?


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## Keystone

2" apart is way to close together. Plant them 6" deep (8" if soil is sandy) and 1'-2' apart. They will spread out as they mature. They prefer full sun. You can start to harvest when the stalks get about the size of a pencil. Normally the 3rd year. Once they are established you should get an easy 25 years from them if not longer. When you pick them cut them off at the base right at the soil level. 8"-10" tall is what you will want for eating. After that they get a bit on the stringy or woody side.


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## JMichael

I only got one package as a test. They've been in the ground about a week now and they are very close to each other. The instructions also said to plant them 2" deep, which i did. Should I try to dig these back up and replant or just write them off as a loss? When you say plant them 6" deep, I'm guessing you mean the crown should be at 6"?


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## Keystone

If they were mine I would replant. Yes, the crown at 6".


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## FishingAggie

We raise about three and a half acres of organic produce each year. We are currently running behind because of so much rain. What has come up so far is looking good.


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## JMichael

Well, after the almost 3" of rain we got Monday night, it was a muddy slippery mess, but I got it done. :lol: They have now been replanted about 14" apart and the crowns are approx 7" below grade. The roots were a lot softer and easier to work with after soaking in all that mud and water. haha


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## lovedr79

well much to my amazement i was watering my seeds that i started on sunday morning i shocked to see plants sprouting already! so hopefully in 2 weeks when my 4 year old daughter comes up for the weekend it will be dry so we can start planting.


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## Moedaddy

Use to do a garden but haven't for years. Cuts into my fishin time to much


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## BigTerp

Mine is really starting to take off. Harvested some spinach yesterday and replanted. Also thinned out my lettuce. Potatoes are starting to come in as well. Spinach was GOOD!!







Giant spinach!!





Onions





Lettuce


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## Ictalurus

Going good in TN too. Had a half dozen or so little tomatoes show up this past weekend.


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## Jim

Just spent all day removing old dirt and weeds. If my vegetables grew 1/4 the amount the weeds do I would be OK.


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## JMichael

Just came in from outside doing a little weeding and picking some radishes. My tomatoes started off with a bang. Had 5 plants blooming a week after they went in the ground and 4 of them had tomatoes on them a few days later. Then the tops of all of them started curling up. I suspect it was some drift from my neighbor who was spraying weed killer of some sort on his yard 2 days prior. It brought all growth to a stand still for 2 weeks, but looks like they're pulling out of it now. I think the cool nights (in the 40's) put a hold on my cucumbers right after they got their first set of perm leaves. They haven't done much of anything for the last 10 days but hopefully that's over now as the cool nights are supposed to be history. Planted 4 rows of corn (peaches n cream) Thursday and I saw a few poking their heads up this morning. Will plant 2 more rows in 3 weeks to stagger the harvest.


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## lovedr79

well i finished planting yesterday. my spinach, collards, potatoes and peas are taking off. this weekend i planted tomatoes, string beans, squash, carrots, okra, zuccini, cucumbers, radishes and corn.


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## JMichael

lovedr79 said:


> well i finished planting yesterday. my spinach, collards, potatoes and peas are taking off. this weekend i planted tomatoes, string beans, squash, carrots, okra, zuccini, cucumbers, radishes and corn.


Nice variety. After I harvest my corn I intend to plant that patch with purple hull peas.


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## lovedr79

cool! i didnt have luck 2 years ago with the corn. i planted right along the fence. this time i happened to have an open 5' wide row in the middle and i had seeds. so we will see what happens this go round. at the very least the deer might get something to munch on if i get the tiny ears again.


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## JMichael

It's been a struggle trying to keep the birds out of my corn long enough for it to grow. They would snip it off flush with the ground. Most of them would continue to grow but in some cases they pull it out root and all. Well, it survived the birds and I'm going to plant the last two rows this week if it dries up a little. I've also planted 5 hills of watermelons in with my corn but they haven't germinated yet. 




My radishes have gone nuts and one of them escaped my attention for a bit too long.




Cucumbers are looking good. This one hill probably has about 15-20 little 1.5" cuc's on it already.




And this will be the first time I've ever harvested a ripe tomato before June 1st.


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## Jim

Done and now the waiting game begins!








2 ghost peppers and a Caribbean red habanero.


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## JMichael

I'll never understand how any human could put either one of those peppers in their mouth and actually "enjoy" the results. :lol:


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## lovedr79

LOL! i didnt even plant peppers this year. they do not grow well in my garden. i have about worn out collards and spinach though. have cooked several batches. snow peas are starting to boom now.


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## Jim

JMichael said:


> I'll never understand how any human could put either one of those peppers in their mouth and actually "enjoy" the results. :lol:



Same here! :LOL2: 

Actually the habaneros I do eat, the ghosts I might do once or twice, but I enjoy giving them away.


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## JMichael

lovedr79 said:


> LOL! i didnt even plant peppers this year. they do not grow well in my garden. i have about worn out collards and spinach though. have cooked several batches. snow peas are starting to boom now.


I planted my snow peas in a new spot this year and they didn't do well at all. I've written them off as a loss but there are about 10 plants still struggling to stay alive. I looked the other day and I actually have a few pods on them. :lol:


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## BigTerp

Everyone's gardens are looking great!! Mine has really taken off as well. Considering building another 4' x 4' box for next year to increase my harvest.






Carrots with onions right behind.





Trying to get another harvest or two out of my lettuce and spinach. We'll see how what I recently planted will fair with the upcoming summer temps.





Yukon Gold potato. I had a red chieftan potato to the square beside it, but it was so large I was afraid it was going to shade the tomato plants behind it too much. So it got pulled.





Better Boy tomato and an Ice cherry tomato plant to the right.





Peas. To the right is a regular pea plant and the left is a sugar snap pea plant. They finally started to flower the last day or so. Hoping they hurry up because I want to get my beans in!!





It's amazing how much I've been able to cram into my 4' x 4' square foot garden. If it produces well I'll probably build another.


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## Jim

Nice job Big Terp! :beer:


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## JMichael

Is everyone enjoying the fruits of their labor now? My radishes were delicious and I enjoyed them a lot but now it's too hot to grow any more. My cucumbers are doing great and I'm picking about 4-6 almost every day. I give away a lot of what I grow to family and friends because I always plant more than I'll need for myself. Tomatoes are loaded up and just started to ripen the last couple of weeks. 

This past Tuesday I went out to weed and water my corn only to discover there were 30+ ears of corn partially eaten and strewn all over the area. Several stalks were broken and many others laying down. Needless to say I was furious. That evening I sat in the swing under my carport with my spot light and a 22 loaded with CB's and waited for it to get dark. 




Now I've got to deal with some mockingbirds that think my tomatoes are for them. They damaged a half dozen yesterday so I'm going to remove a couple of our state birds from the ranks of the living when I catch them in the act.


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## Johnny

I deal with varmints around here the same way ...... only with .22 hollow points.
The Mocking Bird is also the Florida state bird.

I bought some of the very fine plastic 1" mesh to fence out the chickens.
if you have a small area to protect, that might be an option.
LOL or buy tomatoes from your neighbors road side stand !! LOL
have you ever wondered why his veggies are like store quality ???
and ours are bug ridden and sometimes just plain pathetic ???

but oh well, gardening is FUN !!!


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## JMichael

I'm in town and it's illegal to shoot even a pellet gun in the city limits. so I have to resort to the CB's for things like this, if I don't want the neighbors reporting me. I did the mesh netting for a few years but what a pain that was. And the damn mockingbirds still managed to get under the netting some times. That's how I originally discovered what birds were doing the damage. Of course once they got under the net is was easy to dispose of them but I hated trying to take care of my plants and harvest with the netting. And I agree that gardening is enjoyable but I put way too much work into it to allow some animals to destroy the fruits of my labor. :mrgreen: My sister lives on the other side of town and she has 3 pear trees. For the last 5 years she hasn't gotten to enjoy a single pear though. The squirrels are so bad, they eat every single pear from all 3 trees before the first one is ripe enough to pick. So last year I started a campaign to regain control of her pears. Last year I took out about a dozen squirrels out of her yard. This year I've only gotten 2 so far (missed 3 times today  ), but the pears are about half grown right now and there's still about half of them left on the trees so far.


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## Johnny

LOL I had a friend in Down Town Jacksonville, FL where the squirrels
outnumbered people. They were ferocious - - - eating all the plastic
off their cars. My friend got a couple boxes of the CB ammo and a 
long barrel pistol and developed a taste for FRIED SQUIRREL !! lol
the neighbors that new about his clandestine hunting thing just turned
their head as long as he never hurt anyone or popped a glass .
The squirrels around my place chew up every thing plastic they can find.
I was told that most plastics have soy oil in them which attracts the squirrels and rats.
My neighbor across the street has a John Deere tractor with a plastic hood
and his horses have eaten most of it up - for the same reason.

Funniest thing I ever saw last year was my wife's first garden and I watched the squirrels
cut the young stalks and quickly drag it up a TREE to enjoy their spoils.
LOL LOL and my wife out there throwing anything she can find at it. Now she has
her own personal CO2 pellet pistol. (but the varmints are safe) LOL


how tall are the pear trees ? can you trim the bottom branches or tie them up 
and wrap some aluminum flashing around the base? (higher than the squirrels can jump).


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## lovedr79

no varmits in my garden. i have 4' wire fence with an additional 4' of bird mesh on top. so 8' total fencing, the deer we have would have ravaged my garden in about 1 night. i now have a problem with woodpeckers dismantaling my deck after the carpenter bees. was going to start replacing stuff this weekend after spraying all the holes with bee killer, well that has changed as the dang woodpeckers are back.


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## JMichael

Barefoot_Johnny said:


> how tall are the pear trees ? can you trim the bottom branches or tie them up
> and wrap some aluminum flashing around the base? (higher than the squirrels can jump).



The trees vary from about 15 to 20 ft tall, but there are enough trees in the area that they can travel from tree to tree and never touch the ground. So blocking ground access wouldn't slow them down in the least.


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## BigTerp

Squirrel pot pie is some good eating!!!


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## JMichael

Well apparently another coon have moved in to the recently vacated territory that my garden is in. I lost a few more ears of corn last night so it looks like I'll be on night guard duty again tonight. :evil:


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## Johnny

Then you need to find an outlet for them.


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## JMichael

I asked all my friends and family on facebook if any of them wanted a coonskin cap but got no takers. :lol: I stayed up until a little after midnight watching the garden and the coon never showed. Finally gave up so I could get up at 6 am to go fishing. Luckily, there was no further damage last night so I guess this one doesn't hit this area every night. Might be a challenge to get this one.


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## lovedr79

Some of the first harvests


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## Jim

First harvest of 2015. I have the skills to pay the bills!


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## Jim

:LOL2:


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## bobberboy

JMichael said:


> The squirrels are so bad, they eat every single pear from all 3 trees before the first one is ripe enough to pick. So last year I started a campaign to regain control of her pears. Last year I took out about a dozen squirrels out of her yard. This year I've only gotten 2 so far (missed 3 times today  ), but the pears are about half grown right now and there's still about half of them left on the trees so far.



We've had a couple of good threads on here about squirrels. They're worth searching for, especially the links to squirrel launchers.

I take an extremely dim view of squirrels. There just rats with fuzzy tails. Not cute but destructive and breed like there's no tomorrow and no control. If my city was plagued with rats like it is with squirrels the public would be up in arms. As it is there are no predators to keep up with them. Being in the city I can't shoot them. Apparently it is legal to trap them but not transport them. What I've been doing is trap them and then try them out for the Olympic swimming team. You'd think after all these years and all the try-outs I'd have found just one that could swim... :mrgreen:


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## lovedr79

we call them tree rats


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## JMichael

It's illegal to shoot them here as well. Actually, it's illegal to shoot a gun in town, and that's my reason for using a 22 with CB ammo and making sure the neighbors don't have a problem with me shooting them or staying hid from the ones that do mind. I don't think I've ever heard anything about any restrictions on killing the squirrels other than what would apply from Game & Fish and killing them out of season. But there are laws that allow for taking out nuisance animals. So my total for this year from the pear tress stands at 6 right now, but based on the number of half eaten pears on the ground each day, there are a few more I need to catch up to. If I could stay over there all day for several days in a row I could probably end this problem pretty quickly, but that can't happen.

The hunt for more coons is still ongoing. I've been trying to go out and look around with a spotlight about every 25 minutes or so as long as I'm up. So far no luck and I've even tried some different trapping methods. Looking out the window this morning while making coffee, it appears that at least one may have visited my corn again last night, some time after my last check around 1 AM. I've got a "professional" grade trappers dog proof trap in the mail. I just hope it gets here before the rest of my corn patch is destroyed.


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## lovedr79

Todays harvest


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## Jim

All that effort and money is finally paying off huge!



That is a cherry tomato


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## Jim

Caribbean red habanero! First one so far and 3 fingers long!


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## VinTin

Just found this thread!

He's a shot of a part of our garden taken about June 9th, 2015







An earlier photo from May 11, 2015


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## JMichael

Yesterday and todays harvest.




11 plants = 63 tomatoes in 2 days and those are not cherry tomatoes. :lol:




Jim, my mouth is burning just looking at the picture of those peppers. :? 

That's a whole lot of garden Vintin but it looks really well taken care of and very healthy.


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## Jim

wow JMichael! :beer:

Vin Tin, nice setup!


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## lovedr79

DANG! yeah my tomatoes are about to start turning red.........


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## JMichael

I've been loosing from 6 to 8 tomatoes a day to this pesky mockingbird. It has avoided my attempts to shoot it by flying off every time I open the door and it won't get close enough for a shot with the pellet gun if I'm outside. Yesterday I looked out the window to see that "momma" mockingbird has brought "junior" out with her and is teaching "junior" how to eat tomatoes. Big mistake. With mommas attention focused on junior, I slipped out the other door with my pellet rifle and put a stalk on them. Services for the two were brief and I look forward to being able to enjoy the fruits of my labor now. :mrgreen: 

After setting out my racoon traps, I haven't had any more visits from those pest. Although I picked my first ear of corn yesterday, I'm probably not going to get much corn off of the first 4 rows. They were hit really hard by the coons. I've got 2 more rows that just started showing the first signs of silk this past week so hopefully I'll get to enjoy some of that. I'm leaving my traps out until the corn harvest is over.


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## SumDumGuy

Carolina Reaper in DWC hydro.

I'm going to bring this one indoors in the fall and see how long it will live.


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## bobberboy

My garden is too pathetic to post a pic. I thought I was a gardener but compared to you guys I'm just a poser. Really nice gardens.

VinTin - man, that's a nice garden. I assume you live somewhere in the south. By June 9th I'd barely got my garden all planted. My soil is clayey and wouldn't dry out so I could get it prepared. I've really gotta deal with the quality of my soil this fall so I can get an earlier start next year.

BigTerp - looks like you are using the Square Foot Gardening method. Wondering what your experience has been. I've read the book but never have tried it. It seems good for limited space but maybe it's just a good way to make the most of any sized garden.

Jim - you like the peppers; I seem to remember you growing them in past years too. What do you do with them?


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## JMichael

Had to google that one, had never heard of a Carolina reaper. Now that I'm aware of what it is and it's reputation, what do you do with something like that? :lol:


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## BigTerp

bobberboy said:


> BigTerp - looks like you are using the Square Foot Gardening method. Wondering what your experience has been. I've read the book but never have tried it. It seems good for limited space but maybe it's just a good way to make the most of any sized garden.



It's been a learning experience. I had to do a lot of research to figure out what and how many of each plant I could plant per square foot. Also had to figure out harvest times to maximize my yield. I made a mistake by planting my carrots on the south side of my onions. Was figuring on my onions being taller than my carrots. But the opposite was true. Once the carrots starting shading my onions they pretty much stopped growing. I got a lot of pool ball and smaller sized onions that taste great, but they would have been much larger had I planted them differently. I get decent yields for the size of my garden (4'x4') but I'm considering adding another box for next year.


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## SumDumGuy

JMichael said:


> Had to google that one, had never heard of a Carolina reaper. Now that I'm aware of what it is and it's reputation, what do you do with something like that? :lol:



Good question.... I am going to feed them to my wife and see if I get the usual reply, "Spicy a little bit."
In the past I gave here a ghost chili, but it did not get the response I was hoping for. She took a bite, made the reply, and threw it in her somtam with a bunch of thai chilies.

She's Thai and likes spicy, but I may get her on this one. :twisted:


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## Jim

Today's bounty! Can there for size comparison!


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## JMichael

SumDumGuy said:


> Good question.... I am going to feed them to my wife and see if I get the usual reply, "Spicy a little bit."


To take a phrase from my kids, OMG! You've got to make a video of her trying that. I hope she don't beat the crap outta you but either way it should make a great video. =D>


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## JMichael

Jim, I've seen some absolutely huge Zucchini squash before but I've never see a yellow squash that big. What type of (squash I'm assuming) is that big yellow one. I see the typical crookneck in the back, I think, so the big one has me wondering.


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## Jim

JMichael said:


> Jim, I've seen some absolutely huge Zucchini squash before but I've never see a yellow squash that big. What type of (squash I'm assuming) is that big yellow one. I see the typical crookneck in the back, I think, so the big one has me wondering.



They are called Gold Rush....I guess they are supposed to be picked by the time they reach 8 inches? I was away and pulled it when I first saw it.

https://parkseed.com/gold-rush-hybrid-squash-seeds/p/05331-PK-P1/


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## lovedr79

You get asparagus the 2nd year. My mom planted some a couple years ago. She was not happy this spring when i walked through her garden eating all of it raw......
Here is a pic of yesterdays harvest. The squash, zucs and some of the beans went to the elderly couple across the street


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## JMichael

Those green beans sure do look tasty. I'd like to have some fresh from the garden and steamed. 

I've been giving a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers away to family and neighbors. But there have been a few times when I had more than they were taking. In those cases I have been taking a sack full of each out to the local rehab center/nursing home for their patients. They really enjoy the fresh veggies.


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## JMichael

Out of my first 4 rows of corn that I planted, I only got 4 ears of corn and the coons got the rest. :evil: The 2 rows that I planted later are showing good silk and they may have a chance of growing to maturity now that I trapped a second coon last night. It's taken a long time to get him, but hopefully he is the last. I'll leave my traps out for a few more nights just in case though.


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## JMichael

Not the most ideal kinda of day to do it but I tore out the 4 rows of corn that the coons demolished and after a good tilling, planted 4 rows of purple hull peas. I hope I get more from them than I did from the corn that use to reside there.  Have been thoroughly enjoying my tomatoes and cucumbers though.


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## lovedr79

1 day of 90 degree weather and the garden goes nuts. I pick maters early before stink bugs get on them


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## Jim

Nice job man! I have 100+ Green tomatoes.


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## lovedr79

Thanks Jim! i have a ton of green ones. they are starting to turn finally.


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## JMichael

Looking good, makes me wish I had planted some squash, but looking at some of the other stuff on here like the green beans, makes me wish I had more garden space. LoL I've enjoyed an abundance of tomatoes for the last few weeks. But it appears that I'm going to have a lull in production now. I've got about a half dozen or so tomatoes that are of any size and turning red right now but after they are gone all I have are some up and coming green ones that will take a while to reach maturity. I can only hope that they will produce enough to keep me satisfied but I definitely won't be giving any more away for a while.


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## lovedr79

if you lived closer i would more than gladly give you beans


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## Jim

Today's harvest!


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## lovedr79

looking good!


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## Jim

Today's harvest!


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## Captain Ahab

Nice job


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## BigTerp

Starting to get a bunch of cherry tomatoes. They are called ICE. Delicious!! They ripen to a yellow/whitish color and are super sweet. FINALLY starting to get some of my full size tomatoes to ripen up as well. Have a ton of green ones. Tomato sandwiches here I come!!!


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## JMichael

It's interesting to see the amount of delay in planting and harvesting times between the different areas of the country by paying attention to each of your harvest reports and your location. 

My tomatoes have gone from producing huge numbers of ripe tomatoes daily, to a big slow down in the amount, and are just now starting to get production back up to normal. (I consider normal to be somewhere around 8 tomatoes every other day from 11 plants). About half of my cucumber vines are dying right now. This has been the typical routine over the past few years and they always seem to be all dead by somewhere around mid Aug to the first of Sep. This year I tried doing a second (delayed/staggered) planting of cucumbers to see if that would get me more cuc's later in the year. My delayed plants are just now starting to show lots of small developing cuc's and new blooms, but I'm also noticing that some of the leaves appear to be dying the same as the other plants that die. So maybe it's just too hot for them to make it into the hotter months for this area.


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## lovedr79

yes, my cucs are starting to turn yellow. my zucchini and squash have seemed to slow down. my bean plants are taking a beating or should i say "eating" from the last remaining rabbit that lives in my yard. lets just say he gets out of dodge when i start making my way to the garden.


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## Jim

Caribbean red habaneros coming through!


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## lovedr79

Nice!


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## HeyItzCJ

First time gardener. Good stuff. Been in a losing battle with weeds and storms. Storm came through a couple of days ago and blew over my tomato cages, cucumber cage, and corn (3rd time for the corn). However last night we made a huge pot of salsa from a few bags of tomatoes. Canned 14 32oz jars of pickles also. Still have cucumbers all over the kitchen table. Really excited for next season. Learned a lot (cucumbers try to take over the world) and have some ideas!


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## JMichael

Yea, there's something about sweet corn that makes it fall over very easy in some wind. Mine, at least the part not eaten by the coons, blew over a few times. I always grow my cucumbers at the base of the chain link fence around my yard, so they climb that. Never have to worry about them blowing over although it is getting to be annoying having to clean the old dead vines out of the fence each year. It does make them easier to find/pick though, so maybe it's worth it. LoL


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## HeyItzCJ

I bet that would be a pain. But it also sounds like a good idea. I may have to try that next year and put my peas on it too.


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## SumDumGuy

Nice looking chilies Jim.

I fear I am starting to run out of grow time for some of my stuff. Plus there are several plants I want to keep through the winter. Somehow I got my wife in on this thinking. Perhaps it was mentioning that herbs and all those weeds she eats she calls "salad" can be grown all year... if you have a place and equipment to do it.

So yesterday I checked some stuff on ebay and noticed that I (meaning my wife with my account) have ordered a nice looking 4x8x6 foot grow tent and a few LED grow lights.

It is funny because a lot of this stuff is obviously marketed for mary production (stealth shipping, etc). I guess if Johnny Law comes to visit my grow I can part with some basil. :LOL2:


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## Jim

SumDumGuy said:


> Nice looking chilies Jim.
> 
> I fear I am starting to run out of grow time for some of my stuff. Plus there are several plants I want to keep through the winter. Somehow I got my wife in on this thinking. Perhaps it was mentioning that herbs and all those weeds she eats she calls "salad" can be grown all year... if you have a place and equipment to do it.
> 
> So yesterday I checked some stuff on ebay and noticed that I (meaning my wife with my account) have ordered a nice looking 4x8x6 foot grow tent and a few LED grow lights.
> 
> It is funny because a lot of this stuff is obviously marketed for mary production (stealth shipping, etc). I guess if Johnny Law comes to visit my grow I can part with some basil. :LOL2:



I am interested in this, I'm serious. Keep us updated.


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## lovedr79

Since i cant upload pics from my phone this week for some reason. I picked about 2 dozen matoes, couple squash, bunch of okra and a giant zucchini. I ended up having to use a ratchet strap to hold my cages up


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## JMichael

Well, it's been a good year for tomatoes and cucumbers but lousy for corn and peas, for me at least. We've got our first freeze tonight with the cold front that's moving through right now. I've got to get all my tomatoes (including the green ones) picked today. I'll continue to enjoy them as the green ones slowly ripen in the closet but I'm already making plans for next spring. Hope everyone enjoyed the fruits of your labor in the garden this year.


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## Jim

I hate buying grocery store tomatoes!


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## JMichael

Jim said:


> I hate buying grocery store tomatoes!


I hate everything about store tomatoes. I will buy them from the roadside stands/vendors (which come from local farmers), but I all but refuse to buy them in the store unless I just have to have them. They're never ripe by my standards, always green in the middle. I ended up with 12 gallons of green tomatoes and there was another 2-3 gallons of small ones that the mower mulched.


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## fool4fish1226

It's getting close for me to start my little veggie patch up again - I will most likely put some plants in next month.


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## BigTerp

I still have some carrots ready to be harvested. Hasn't frosted hard/long enough yet for me to pull them all up. Pulled one the other day and it was super sweet.


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## lovedr79

My buddy and i harvested a bunch of mustard greens last night


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## SumDumGuy

winter time growing...

https://goo.gl/photos/MQswKwest2v9dyFX9
https://goo.gl/photos/YwGPA6egEEUu5JYF7
https://goo.gl/photos/mqMnX1ezTroS9gKN8
https://goo.gl/photos/9fRkfowqXABJdSw4A
https://goo.gl/photos/bTfu8zV7VKAZ66Cb6


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## lovedr79

by gholly that is awesome!


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## Johnny

Central Florida, as well as the rest of the nation, is having one HOT winter.
My wife wanted to plant some cold weather beans and they think it is June.
Spanish Peanuts are a summer crop but they are doing well also.
One watermelon sprouted up from last summer's crop and I put it in a pot
so we can move it into the garage when and IF it ever gets cold here.
So, the garden has - - - -
Broad Beans
Sweet Peas
Peanuts 
Chinese Lettuce
and one Georgia Giant watermelon.


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## JMichael

Never heard of it much less seen any, so what is Chinese lettuce like? How does it compare to say iceberg or romaine? I'm surprised you can grow lettuce down there, seems like it would be too warm for it. Or am I wrong in thinking lettuce prefers a cooler climate?




Johnny said:


> Central Florida, as well as the rest of the nation, is having one HOT winter.
> My wife wanted to plant some cold weather beans and they think it is June.
> Spanish Peanuts are a summer crop but they are doing well also.
> One watermelon sprouted up from last summer's crop and I put it in a pot
> so we can move it into the garage when and IF it ever gets cold here.
> So, the garden has - - - -
> Broad Beans
> Sweet Peas
> Peanuts
> Chinese Lettuce
> and one Georgia Giant watermelon.


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## Johnny

The Chinese Lettuce is the same as Romaine, IMO - but the wife says differently. :roll: 
Not sure, but I think there are many Iceburg lettuce farms in South Florida near the Glades.
Also a main crop in Southern California. So it is a warm weather creature.



> Iceburg is a form of crisphead Lettuce, Iceberg comes in tight, dense heads similar to Cabbage,
> and is generally the most mild of the Lettuces. Ever wonder how it got its name?
> Back in the 1920s, Lettuce was transported on train-wagons, which were filled with crushed ice,
> making them look like icebergs.


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## JMichael

Johnny said:


> Ever wonder how it got its name?
> Back in the 1920s, Lettuce was transported on train-wagons, which were filled with crushed ice,
> making them look like icebergs.


[/quote]
I actually did a LoL when I read this. I don't know that I've ever said it out loud, but several times I've asked myself "I wonder how they came up with the name". Of course I find myself wondering about how people came up with names for some items or even a word in some cases. :? 

As for the lettuce growing in cool weather, I guess I just figured it looked like cabbage so it must grow sorta like it too. haha

P.S. I'm down to my last half dozen tomatoes and they're just about ready to unwrap and eat. It sure has been a good year for tomatoes for me. Ate my first one in June and will eat my last one in January.


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## Hanr3

I'm really late on the bandwagon, or I'm really early.
I want to plant a garden in 2016, however I know almost nothing about it. Good any recommendations for reading material?


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## VinTin

Hanr3 said:


> I'm really late on the bandwagon, or I'm really early.
> I want to plant a garden in 2016, however I know almost nothing about it. Good any recommendations for reading material?



There is a lot of good gardening info on YouTube.


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## Hanr3

VinTin said:


> Hanr3 said:
> 
> 
> 
> I'm really late on the bandwagon, or I'm really early.
> I want to plant a garden in 2016, however I know almost nothing about it. Good any recommendations for reading material?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> There is a lot of good gardening info on YouTube.
Click to expand...


Thanks!!!! 8)


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## Johnny

VinTin - next time you are in one of your Big Box Stores, or local farm store,
check out the 2016 Farmers Almanac. You can also order one on line from
numerous sources. Everyone has a Green Thumb. Education and experience
is what makes a good garden. https://www.almanac.com/
It takes very little space to have a nice assortment of vegetables and herbs.

Git down - Git DIRTY !!


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## fool4fish1226

Just cleaned up my garden area today will be planting this coming week


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## Hanr3

WOW!
We are expecting another round of single digit temps starting this weekend. It'll be another 3 months before I clean up the winter debris. Keep us posted on your progress. I'll read them between ice fishing trips. :mrgreen:


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## JMichael

Temps in the 60's for the last 2 days here, but there's no way I can plant for probably 8 more weeks. This weather is doing some strange things and may prove me wrong, but that's the usual time frame for me to start planting.


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## fool4fish1226

Got some of my plants in yesterday I will post pics later


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## fool4fish1226

Heres a few pics of what I got going right now - I still want a few more plants


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## JMichael

Strawberries and some herbs?


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## lovedr79

jealous. i just sold my house, forced to rent a place where the landlord about died when i asked about tilling up the yard. so i will have to scale way down this year to a few potted garden plants.


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## fool4fish1226

JMichael said:


> Strawberries and some herbs?



Good eye on the strawberries and herbs - there is also tomatoes, peppers both sweet and hot, onions, radish, and lots of other seeds planted


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## JMichael

fool4fish1226 said:


> JMichael said:
> 
> 
> 
> Strawberries and some herbs?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Good eye on the strawberries and herbs - there is also tomatoes, peppers both sweet and hot, onions, radish, and lots of other seeds planted
Click to expand...

Ah I see the tomatoes now once I zoomed in. I didn't zoom on any of them originally. But now I'm seeing what looks like 4 tomato plants and a butt load of what looks like scallions/onions. Nice variety. 

I'm curious now though, so what's that draping down over your berry plants? Pampas grass maybe?


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## fool4fish1226

It is a ponytail palm tree


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## JMichael

All this talk of planting and my thermometer hit 70 on Tuesday. As soon as I walked out the door I knew it was time. I jumped astraddle that tiller and away we went. I made a few passes over the garden and it is looking real good to me. Satisfied, I washed my tiller off and put it away. 

Got up the next morning and it had frosted. Checked the forecast and it's a highs in the mid 40s for the next few days. Winter's back, gardens on hold, sit and read some more.  =P~


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## bobberboy

The fall here in my part of MN has been unusually warm - last weekend we broke our all-time growing season record. As of today we have had 212 consecutive days with above freezing temps. It's November in MN and I still have roses, zinnias and nasturtiums blooming in my garden. Our fall temps have been 15°-20° above normal. I decided this year to try to extend the growing season with a cold frame in which is planted lettuce, spinach and beets for greens. Eventually I'll have to hang a light bulb and cover it at night but I hope to have home grown lettuce for Thanksgiving.


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## fool4fish1226

My plants will be going in this weekend here South Florida I will update with pics


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## JMichael

My tomatoes are still rockin and we're gonna enjoy them until they stop. Had to cover them from frost a couple of nights already so it won't be much longer.


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