My organic garden, 2009

[BailOut]

Despite some initial rockiness my organic garden is off to a great start for this, my second season, 2009.

The rockiness came from my first attempt at indoor seedlings. I could not find any prepackaged organic starter soil and for reasons I cannot fathom now I decided to not use my own soil. I let an employee at Home Depot talk me into creating my own soil-less mix of sphagum peat moss and organic plant food 1:1. To make a long and painful story short this concoction was toxic to my seeds and I lost 2/3 of them - and a month of indoor growing time - to the attempt. Zero sprouts.

Thankfully I still had some seeds left, my food coop had their annual seedling sale and I was able to trade some pedal power (delivering a big poultry watering can from the south side of town to the north side of town using my bicycle and trailer) for a few plants from a friend.

Now, a few weeks later, things are in full swing.

I have expanded my garden in two ways:

1) I will be training all of the vine squashes to trail out of the raised beds. This increases their available space exponentially, though it will take moving them around when I have to mow the back yard.

2) I added 4 5-gallon terracotta pots for overflow.


I have enhanced my garden in 4 ways:

1) I have planted lots of flowers and better placed together those flowering plants that require pollination in order to attract more bees.

2) Today I added something that's been on my wish list for a while: grapes! A 6-foot pyramid trellis with 1 canadice (red seedless) plant and one himrod (green seedless) plant. These replace 2 of the original ornamental landscaping plants that never did well.

3) Strawberries! Some of you may recall a silly issue I had last year where I bought a windowsill strawberry planter whose seeds turned out to be cherry tomatoes. This year I bought organic seedlings from a local gardening place that my wife and I transplanted into two strawberry pots (the kind that have little cups around the sides), and the leftovers went into one of the overflow pots.

4) A dwarf Japanese apple tree. We actually transplanted this last Fall and have been told it should produce this year. This replaced another failing ornamental landscaping plant.


I have prepared for my garden better this year by:

1) Attempting indoor seedlings long before the last frost. I did not succeed but I learned a lot.

2) Getting the proper tools and equipment to better control and expand the automatic water drip system.

3) Reading up on each plant to learn better how to care for them.

4) Lots of compost.


It is still early in the season and the late start will set back my overall production a bit but things are looking good so far.


Lost to the moles:

Cucumber x4
Dill x2
Cilantro x1
Hungarian pepper x1


Death toll:

Moles: 8 plants
Dogs: 3 moles


Here is what has sprouted and is growing well:

Corn x6
Pumpkin x2
Watermelon x2
Zucchini x5
Cucumber x2
Summer squash, vine x4
Summer squash, bush x2
Scallop squash x4
Cilantro x1
Sweet basil x2
Bib lettuce x6
Butter lettuce x8
Multicolored carrots x30
Finger carrots x20
Snap bean x3
Bush bean x3
Snap pea x3
Slicing tomato x2
Cherry tomato x2
Chard x1
Spinach x3
Strawberries x27
Bell pepper x2
Broccoli x3
Cauliflower x3
Nasturtiums x10 (edible flowers)
Chives
Green onions
1 large onion-like plant that I cannot identify but that grew from a sprig handed to me by a friend last year


I intentionally planned to overproduce by a bit for 2 reasons:

1) I want to be able to give some food to the local food banks and programs.

2) I want to learn how to can this Fall.


The tomatoes and strawberries have required lots of pruning lately as they are growing like weeds, the zucchini is already budding, my dogs have 3 confirmed mole kills (I didn't even know we had moles around here and couldn't figure out what was digging in my raised beds until our wolf mix brought me one as a present a couple of weeks ago), I have compost coming out of my ears, I have a ton of wildflower seeds on standby to fill in any gaps and to help attract bees, and the drip system is dialed in.

So far there have been no pests other than moles. No squash bugs, no aphids, etc.but I am ready for them if they show up. The local gardening center sells lady bugs and I know what the squash bugs look like (and they are relatively slow so you can catch them by hand and squash them).

I'm still a rookie but things are looking promising indeed.

[Kaotic Lazagna]

Wow. That's a large garden. Got any pics? hehe. This made me hungry for some reason. Time to eat.

[Shroomster]

where were you for my garden question last week Brian!!!


ok I have a question for you,

my wife bought 6' bamboo sticks and cut them in half to attach our cucumber vines to, I don't know how this will work out (they're already growing cukes about 3-4") she planted the vines inbetween corn that is relatively the same size height right now, thinking the corn would act in a way to help the vines.

any suggestions?

I was thinking a trellis maybe 10' wide and 3 or 4 foot tall

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by Shroomster

where were you for my garden question last week Brian!!!


ok I have a question for you,

my wife bought 6' bamboo sticks and cut them in half to attach our cucumber vines to, I don't know how this will work out (they're already growing cukes about 3-4") she planted the vines inbetween corn that is relatively the same size height right now, thinking the corn would act in a way to help the vines.

any suggestions?

I was thinking a trellis maybe 10' wide and 3 or 4 foot tall

I totally missed your garden question last week, though I'm no expert so maybe that's not a bad thing.

Expert or not I know that cucumbers are a ground vine, not a climbing vine. As such the corn stalks will definitely help it by providing anchor points but the bamboo will only be good for the same purpose, not for climbing.

In fact, cucumbers, like other ground vines, are supposed to be planted in mounds so that they get a running start, so to speak. That's one reason I got so mad at the moles... to get to 2 cucumber sprouts of 6 they tore apart 2/3 of the mound, nearly killing another 2 sprouts by proxy (I was able to successfully transplant one of them but not the other after rebuilding the failed part of the mound).

[Shroomster]

hmmm, so leaving them on the ground will be the right idea. hopefully we'll get a modest amount. we have at least 10 actual cukes right now and a lot more flowering....

[IllusionX]

my god.. that's huge variety...

[highwaypass]

wow seems you have a huge garden..
pics please

[IllusionX]

Question though.. how do you know your seeds are not GMO?

[kurokoma-kun]

Originally Posted by BailOut

1) I want to be able to give some food to the local food banks and programs.
2) I want to learn how to can this Fall.

Congrats Bailout! Canning is a very rewarding activity. From childhood, I helped my dad put up dozens of jars of garden produce every fall until he passed away. Soon you will be making your own jam/jelly, pickles, relish, and more. The food bank folks will be so grateful. Good luck, and Death to Moles!

[CTScott]

Excellent!

We plant a good sized garden (20' x 50') and freeze as much as possible. We plant corn, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, green beans, edamame, peppers, cucumbers, squash, lettuce (8 different varieties), broccoli rabe, kale, Cichorium (Italian Dandelion greens), radish, garlic, herbs (basil, parsley, dill, thyme, mint, chervil and chives) and pumpkins.

We also have an orchard where we grow apples, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, black berries, goose berries, grapes, strawberries, hazelnuts, and chestnuts.

We try to keep organic when possible, and thanks to our chickens and ducks all of our fertilizer is organic.

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by IllusionX

Question though.. how do you know your seeds are not GMO?

I'm fairly certain because:

1) I get 90% of the seed I bring in from a superbly managed local farm, Mewalt Organics.

2) I get the other 10% of the seed I bring in from a USDA certified organic producer in California.

3) I produce roughly half my own seeds. I have never had a plant fail to produce seed, or had those seeds fail to germinate. Evil companies like Monsanto typically "turn off" the reproduction genes in seeds in order to lock you into buying from them for each crop.

4) There is no large scale GMO-based agribusiness near me nor the places I get seed from. At least not yet.


I'll get some photos this evening, all.

[BailOut]

Originally Posted by CTScott

Excellent!

We plant a good sized garden (20' x 50') and freeze as much as possible. We plant corn, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, green beans, edamame, peppers, cucumbers, squash, lettuce (8 different varieties), broccoli rabe, kale, Cichorium (Italian Dandelion greens), radish, garlic, herbs (basil, parsley, dill, thyme, mint, chervil and chives) and pumpkins.

We also have an orchard where we grow apples, peaches, blueberries, raspberries, black berries, goose berries, grapes, strawberries, hazelnuts, and chestnuts.

We try to keep organic when possible, and thanks to our chickens and ducks all of our fertilizer is organic.

Wow! That's a huge setup! I'm envious.

My garden is not that big but I manage the space well. 48 square feet of raised beds, 4x 5-gallon pots, 2 strawberry pots, one trellis and one tree.

[Shroomster]

I'm envious of both of you.... and to top it off now knowing that even seeds can be purchased organic....sheesh, looks like this crop may be a one time shot....

I'll have to do some investigations into local co-ops/organic growers and the cush here in orlando...

[50MPGDream]

TTIWWOP :)

[SeaYa]

Brian, what is the total area of your garden? Just trying to get an idea of how spaced out everything is...thanks!

[BailOut]

It rained all through yesterday evening but I was able to get some pictures this morning.

My garden:


This was (is?) the gopher's favorite bed. You can see the areas they dug out recently:


Here are the cucumber seedlings I was able to rescue but each of them has been damaged by the gophers. I've rebuilt that mound twice but have since given up on it:


This is our new grape trellis:


And here are the strawberries that we keep on the patio:

[CTScott]

Grass is evil. The more vegies you plant the less you have to mow. I have over an acre of lawn, so every time I expand the garden I think "Yes!, that's 2 less minutes of mowing every week".

[CTScott]

Here's a few shots of mine. We have two main garden areas, and then the herbs and fruit and nuts are spread out in various parts of the yard.

Main garden (20'x50') - Raised beds on left with sugar snap peas (front), tomatoes and peppers (middle), lettuce and greens (rear). Cultivated area on right contains corn, squash, cucumbers, beans, edamame, garlic. Two 30+ year old blueberry bushes in the rear center.
Garden.jpg

Second garden area (more tomatoes) to left of chickens and ducks. Pumpkins, raspberries, and blackberries behind. Grapes growing over chicken run, like a trellis, also shades the chickens. Peach, apple and chestnut trees to the right of chicken coop (behind the bamboo). Concolor Fir trees to the left of the duck run will be xmas trees (in about three more years).
Chickens.jpg

Strawberry bed by pool deck. More blueberry bushes to the left of and behind the perennial flower bed on the left.
Strawberries.jpg


Hazelnut trees (behind red maple), apple trees, and more xmas trees in orchard area off side of driveway.
orchard.jpg