STARTING OUR 2012 FALL/WINTER VEGGIE GARDENS - PT. 3

We came from here:
(Part 1) http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1263349/
(Part 2) http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1272354/

The FALL/WINTER VEGGIE growing season is just about underway!

Some of us have already direct sowed seeds and/or have started seedlings for our veggie gardens! We're fine-tuning our lists and deciding what will go where! So, jump on in to give us an update on the progress of YOUR fall/winter 2012-2013 veggie garden. Posting the veggie variety lists you're growing is a good place to start!

Linda ^^_^^

Here's what I accomplished over the long weekend:
►Repotted 45 more seedlings (cabbages, broccoli, cauliflowers)
►Unloaded 2 yards of garden soil and finished filling RB #2
►Began building RB #3, cause I filled all the available containers I had with the extra garden soil, and still have 1/2 yard left on the trailer!
►Scored enough FREE cedar pickets to face the outsides of RBs #3 & #4, so all RBs will match the fence
►Cut up the pieces to build RB #4 next week
►Went on a mission to find and relocate one HUGE Harry Hornworm. If he makes it back to the veggie patch, he deserves to live...

►Fed all the plants with Mary Demeny's fertilizer recipe:
2 cups alfalfa pellets
2 cups Epsom salt
1 cup fish emulsion
1 cup Hasta Gro (lawn food fertilizer; Google it)
20 drops SuperThrive

Fill a 20-gallon garbage can with water and add all ingredients above. Mix with a shovel to keep the alfalfa pellets from settling on the bottom. Use rubber gloves to avoid skin contact. Use a watering can with the sprinkler removed to apply to the base of plants. Amount to apply: Pour for 3 to 5 seconds for large plants, less for smaller plants.

Most importantly, I managed NOT to hurt myself in the process, although I was dog tired every night!

I actually feel quite good today!

Garden Pics:
#1 is RB #3 in progress
#2 Harry Hornworm
#3 Pot Black Eggplant
#4 RB #1 still cranking out bell peppers, eggplants and okra

Hugs!

Linda

Gretyl (white) Eggplants (Asian). Hansel are black, and look just like the Gretyls.

mostly I am just struggling with just trying to keep everything alive during this round of 3x digits everything I have is direct sown right where it is going grow if I can only keep it alive>>winter radish>aragula >kale >collards>turnips>mustard>Chard>carrots>lettuce and some fall Romas and Alaskan peas have to really keep a close eye on it But it is too hot do do anything else

I'm trying to avoid West Nile Virus and heat stroke when I go outside.

That's exactly why I started my seedlings INside!

I shoveled garden soil off that trailer Friday from 10am until 7pm. The heat index at high noon had to be over a 100 degrees . I took many water breaks inside to cool off. Didn't have any help, but I got it done.

I'm not going out there to water seeds this go round. Probably start hardening off this batch on the weekend, and start another batch. It feels soooo good to look over at RB #2, filled, and ready for seedlings!

When should I pull the stuff outta RB #1? The veggies are still producing.

Linda

Wow, Gymgirl, I wish I had half your energy. I barely got one bed made and transplants in. The corn's 2" tall already. We usually get first frost the second week of September, so gotta move faster. What accomplishments you are making! That's encouraging to others. Thank you for the great pictures and the info.

SCORED at the lumber yard!!!! They give away the unusable lumber, and guess who showed up at lunchtime yesterday for the whole pile of cedar pickets? I got enough usable pieces to face the outside of RB #3 AND #4!

I have a wonderful teacher named BUBBA, who taught me to "save every piece of your lumber," cause you'll never know when you might need a piece here and there. It was because of him that I saved the leftover cedar fence pickets in the first place. Then I saw how I could use them to face the pine boxes so they'd match the fence!

THANKS, BUBBA! (I know you're lurking...)

P.S. My dear neighbor is gonna offload the remaining garden soil for me, today!

Linda

Good for you, Linda!

I took the day off and picked up a few things for my landscaping. I'd plant them, but it's like a sauna out there. It's supposed to cool down this weekend, so maybe them. I'm not supposed to be doing anything physical right now anyway.

The BF forked dirt, hauled mushroom compost from where the delivery truck left it and mixed everything up in most of my new raised beds this weekend. There's 2 left to do, and then I'll have leftover compost to top off beds and side dress my existing beds. It's starting to look like a garden out there. Then we'll drive the hoop sockets in the ground and I'll do as much of the walkways as I can. Finally, move one of the existing beds to a new spot. The fencing and edging will have to wait until after frost. (I fetched iced lemonade and supervised.)

We also grabbed a load of city compost this weekend and he hauled and shoveled while I spread it under the plants in front and berries.

My luffa gourd has a very large fruit and they may even ripen before frost. Between it and the runner beans, the sunflowers they were growing on finally collapsed under the weight, but the vines seen unfazed.
My late set of tomatoes are starting to produce, but they don't taste very good.
Peppers are still going like crazy. I took 5 pounds of just banana peppers to the community garden that takes food to homebound seniors this past weekend.
I'm harvesting turnips and radishes should be ready soon.
My regrowing celery from a stump experiment is going very well.

I find myself looking forward to winter's arrival this year, which is odd because I hate cold weather. Perhaps it's only that spring arrived so early that I think it's "time."

Nicole,
What're you doing to your walkways? I don't have any yet. Been thinking about laying down some flagstone pavers. My yard won't require a whole lot of them. Slowly shrinking the lawn with raised beds and pathways.

I'm using heavy duty nursery fabric. The mulch I was using before was just helping the weeds, not hurting them. The fabric is breathable and porous, so I'm not killing the dirt under it, but the weeds can't come up through it except around the edges. Some of the tougher weeds -- like creeping charlie -- do a pretty good job of that! I don't think it would conquer bermuda grass, but I have edges around the outside fence where there's a possibility of bermuda that are 2' deep. One side has perennial herbs and the other is still whatever suits me, although eventually herbs will probably get put there as well. Right now potato cages (which are doing awful) and marigolds and next spring I'm doing 2' tall sunflowers there. Anyway, it gives me a demilitarized zone to fight back the weeds.

I have pavers at the garden entryway and in some other spots -- plus heavy use to create mowing edges. I didn't mortar then, I just put down sand, and yet I don't have weeds coming up under them. I thought I wanted pavers in my walkways, too, but now I am thinking the pavers may cook the ground too much in my sun. I'd rather have extra healthy root space for plants that can handle it.

This is the final design I'm working on. Under the apple trees (the blue part) at top I'm either doing mulch or some kind of groundcover; I haven't decided which. It's already mulched in the shady spot behind the shed and that's where I keep my cages and trellis' and such when not in use. To the right is a chain link fence with the pasture/orchard on the other side. To the bottom I'm eventually putting in a creekbed/walkway. To the left is lawn (and septic lines.)

Gotta get back in the game. You guys are having too much fun. Hello, Linda! And everyone else!

After hiding in the house away from the summer heat, I am getting excited for a fall garden, and starting to do a few things.

DH is putting in 3 skinny raised boxes (frames) for me at the bottom of our side yard fence. He made one this morning, and 2 to go. I already have wire grid fencing affixed to the wooden fence from when I grew cukes and watermelon there last year. It was a struggle to keep the dirt hilled up, though and weeds were a problem, so I'm looking forward to having dedicated RBs to work with, and I will be mulching/weed blocking all around the boxes.

In other parts of the yard, I have some tomatoes, squash and cukes planted -- hope I have time between scorching hot and freeze weather to get some nice fall veggies. Also planted a row of beans, and started a flat of herbs to go in my line of cinder blocks (64 little holes to fill).

I guess I should read the preceding parts of this thread to see what else I should be doing (or should already have done!).

Nicole, I hear you about the taste of those late summer tomatoes -- blech! Ours were terrible. I pulled my plants just to be done with it. I guess there is an argument to be made for keeping the vine varieties around until cooler temps, but mine were getting rangy and buggy and I was just "done" with them.

Linda -- beautiful eggplants -- both types! I have yet to grow any but it's on my list. (Ditto okra). You are an inspiration with all your hard work, and so much to show for it.
Lise

Hey, LiseP!
Been missing you, girl! Glad to see you're back.

Don't let the pics fool you. That's just a snapshot of a VERY small growing area in the yard. Most of my RB veggie garden is in its first season -- THIS season, since most everything I grew before was in buckets/ebuckets.

I have flats of cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli seedlings growing inside. They'll go out for hardening off this weekend. Almost finished constructing RB #3, a 3x10 -- need to face, place, and fill. RB #2 is sitting empty, just taunting me to put those seedlings in! But, I'm not gonna jump the gun on the cool weather the cole crops need, cause I'm NOT going in for constant watering just yet, and the RB irrigation systems are NOT in place yet!

Much to do, and burning daylight!

Linda

Peaceful Valley farm is having a 50% off seed sale online. I was only supposed to be looking at their Garlic bulbs, but I got sucked into buying other things. The thing that really got me was the "Siberia" tomatoes claim it can set fruit at 38 degrees. Visions of Tomatoes in January. I thought I was done sowing Tomatoes until December, now it looks like I will be planting a few next week. Can't resist the urge to experiment. Has anyone else grown this variety?

Also I have never grown garlic before. Any one want to recommend a favorite variety? Music seems to be popular. Everything I read says it is a cold hardy variety. I wonder if Las Vegas would provide it with enough "chill" hours.

Recently I have planted corn, broccoli, parsnips, and chard.
Planning on sewing lettuce, cabbage, carrots, and radishes soon. I love fall!

Both Lorz Italian and Broadleaf Czech did very well for me and taste great. The climate is very different here, though, than from Las Vegas.

Garlic in general doesn't need many chilling hours but it does need some. (About 200, I think.) Gilroy, CA is zone 9a and they grow tons of garlic there.

I grow elephant garlic. We don't get a lot of cold here and it performs beautifully. There's a garlic farm west of me and they grow all kinds of garlic there. Again, not a lot of cold weather.

There are two similar in that they produce early and in the cold tomatoes varieties that I know of. SIBERIA and SIBERIAN. I am not sure which of these my local nursery carries but I have bought plants. Usually put my tomatoes out around May 8th. Have set these out mid April. They do fine and I have tomatoes by early to mid June. They do set in the cold very well. But they stop producing and die out as soon as the weather turns hot.

At least that has been my experience.

I'm not trying to cause trouble, honest, but I feel I must again point out that botanically-speaking, "Elephant Garlic" is not a variety of "Garlic", it's an entirely different species. It just happens to superficially resemble Garlic, and some people imagine it smells a bit like garlic (as do other species of the genus Allium).

-Rich

I understand, Rich and no offense taken. I was just mentioning that since there was a concern about the cool time needed for garlic.

Thanks everyone! I keep hoping one of my local nuseries will get Garlic bulbs in stock. So far, no luck. I think I will just bite the bullet and order some online.

You might find bulbs at your local farmer's market. if push comes to shove, buy a bag at Sam's Club or Costco's and plant the biggest cloves.

Another DGer does this with great success.

You can buy the organic variety from the store and plant those, too.

We can grow garlic here, we are zone 10a, less than 150 chilling hours. I have planted garlic cloves from the grocery store. They did well for me.

My fall planted Cascadia peas growing nicely.

We had a "cold" front come thru last night, it's only going to be 92 today instead of triple digits.

Cala, isn't it lovely? There's another one coming this week, too!

My black eyed peas are blooming and putting on pods.

Broccoli seedlings are doing well. I have now put mulch around them and they are very happy with that and the cooler weather.

Nicole,

Few days late with comment on walkways, but I am really likeing some pathways i built a few months ago. First one I put a couple of inches of sand down on top of garden level, to keep water from carrying dirt on to the walk, Then i folded some Weed Barrier length wise and stapled it down with the wire hairpins they use to hold drip tube in place. Then when i built the second one, i used heavy mulch to get the height, and then covered the same way. Very neat and clean and will be easy to move as the gardening requires it.

Seedlings for hardening off. Broccoli and Cauliflower.

This message was edited Sep 9, 2012 9:09 PM

Cabbage seedlings.

Just go to the grocery store and buy yourself a pound of garlic stick it in the frig until you are ready to plant Works for me just call me cheap..

Grits,
I won't call you "cheap". I'll call you "SMART!"

Only two problems I can think of with this approach:

1) Not all varieties of garlic are adapted to all growing regions. Garlic at the grocery store comes from wherever it is currently available at the lowest price, generally somewhere with a warm, dry growing season (like Gilroy). That doesn't mean it is the best for your region (in fact it's unlikely), and since cost is related to volume it may not even be a particularly flavorful garlic. I've gotten store-bought garlic that had more of an earthy flavor than a garlicky one.

2) There is no way to know what diseases the garlic may bring into your garden. Garlic can be infected with viruses that are not visible but which affect future crops. Or they may have fungi or bacteria already in the cloves - who hasn't bought garlic with rotten cloves? Depending on the disease, it may end up being a permanent feature of your garden.

Just some things to think about...

-Rich

Good points, Rich...

#1 Purchasing garlic from the local farmers market would probably zero in on more local varieties

#2 Plant only the healthiest of the cloves purchased locally, and spray with a fungicide fairly early?

I believe the majority of grocery store garlic is now produced in China, so heaven knows what growing conditions the garlic is from; China is a big place. If it's still got the roots on it, it should be US grown garlic since the roots are (supposed to be) removed before import to reduce the chances of bringing in a disease or pest. Chinese garlic also generally drier and less flavorful. I don't know if they harvest soon, somehow grow it faster, or use shorter season varieties, but it doesn't give the garlic time to really develop flavor.

I ordered my seed garlic from Seeds Savers Exchange. $21 for 4 (huge) hardneck bulbs plus shipping seems expensive until next spring when you have a whole pile of garlic! No spraying, no fungicides; I just stuck them in the ground and watched the rabbits act like it was an electric fence.

Unfortunately, my dog discovered you can eat your garlic shoots. Talk about stinky dog breath!

NicoleC,
You're killing me! "Stinky dog breath"!

Since it's my first time, I think I'm gonna go with a bag of garlic from Sam's Club, just to see if I can even grow it.

Does it require full on sun for 6-8 hours? I have several planting zones in my yard, each with its respective light challenges. The southwest side gets bright morning sun; the west and north fences get the most sun, the most hours of the day. The northeast is bright, but not full on sun, except a small NE corner which gets much brighter after noon.

Lemme know.

Thanks!

"dog breath..." LOLOLOL!

In all fairness to the dog... the farts were worse.

I'm going to lean toward full sun for garlic. I don't see how it would develop large bulbs without a good bit of solar energy.

ROTFLMBO!!!!!

Ok. I have a line for full sun. 6" apart on the cloves, right?

I have patented Earthboxes on the sunny north fence line, and was going to use them again for bulb onions. But, if I build another RB, I can put the onions in there, and the garlic in the EBs. Or, would they play well together in the same RB? Two birds, one RB?

I'd go more like 8" to give them a little more space. Some of my bulbs were 4" across this year and it was the first time I'd spaced them a bit wider. I got a lot more usable garlic once you take off the paper shell. (But also different varieties so it may not have been the spacing.)

I can't help you with the onion question; I don't grow them. (Allergic.) But offhand I can't think of any issues with them growing together unless you are replanting alliums in the same spot as last year.

Linda, thanks for the welcome back (again). It's nice to be missed!

Today I planted some seedling trays with Green Magic Broccoli and Snowball Cauliflower.

Does anyone else get overwhelmed? Sometimes I just walk outside and stare at my empty RBs and stand there with my bag of seeds and hardly know where to begin. lol
Lise

LiseP, OMGoodness!

I thought I was the only one with the empty stare, wondering where to begin!

Great minds DO get lost together!

Are you coming to the RU in Hempstead? Right down the road from you...9/29/12.