My first raised bed garden for vegtables

lol, NO, And thank you dearly for the mother's day wish! I did get a nice dinner out, and than proceeded to come home, and being me, went out to the yard to check on all my baby's! I think my dear DH is coming to his wits end! I'm always outside, he's always in the garage, he has that Hot Rod that he's restoring, we both seem to be going in different directions, lol, but Love is Love, we love each other, I didn't get my rose bush, but we are getting ready to pull the camper out for a trip to NY to see the kids next month. I'm very happy with that! Than we leave from there, and head out west, to see the Grand Canyon, from there, back up to Pa. for our son's wedding in Sept. I am blessed! My dear neighbor will keep a watch on my gardens, and reap thee rewards, she has been giving me all kinds of plants, one of which is the milk weed for the Monarchs, she has also given me a Florida Poinsettia, and some Buttercups?, I think that's what they are.

I hope your day went well, I "think" you have a better half?, and hope her day went well! Thank You so much for the input you've given me, I really do appreciate it. You have an awesome garden, and I look forward to more advise from you, and many more picture's. It give's me inspiration, and idea's! Thanks David!! ☼☼ Have a sunny day tomorrow !♥♥ Jami

Jami - where in PA? I'm orig from outside Pittsburgh.

A shame you did all this planting & will gone when most is ripening.

The Grand Canyon is AMAZING!!!! You must see both the sunrise & sunset at the rim. Words just can't describe it!!!!

Q, I'm originally from outside York ! Jacobus, Pa. My son still lives there, Put it this way, my old home was 1/2 way between The Maryland Line, and York. About 20 miles from Harrisburg, and around 30 from Lancaster! All country, plenty of corn fields, and apple orchards! I loved it, but couldn't take the winters! We had more cold, a tiny bit of snow, being in between the mountains, and Susquehanna Valley! I was in the valley, and never a lot of snow! Every thing was always gray, damp, and cold!!! I moved to Florida in 1990! And almost moved from here to Thailand. We spent a year there, and than DH brought me home. I was so sick over there, I didn't want to come back here, but had no choice. I'm back, my health has gotten 95% better, I love my home here, but I do miss Thailand! I don't miss PA. But, I'll be going back for the wedding in September. We're breaking the trip up. We leave in June to go to New York for a week, than out to the Grand Canyon. Than in September we'll head to Pa. for the wedding! We take the camper because of the 3 dogs we have. Heaven forbid should we let them behind! lol. We've been camping with them before, in the Smoky Mountains, we've stayed in Hotel rooms with them, they behave really well. Lets put it this way, they are well traveled!!!!
As far as seeing my garden grow, it's growing!! I've been picking cukes' zuquinni's , sugar peas, peas, green beans, lettuce, radishes, onions, basil, and chive's. Plus I have some strawberry plants and have been getting a "few" from them. My sweet corn was either drowned in the 1 garden, it came back, and in the raised bed garden, other than the worms, or cats getting to them, they are now producing the silk stalks. Things seem to be going OK. Till I leave here things should be setteling down. ( I hope:)) No matter, we have the plans in place, and my neighbor is willing to keep an eye on things. She has been giving me plants left and right, we seem to be on the same wave length. We met each other when DH and I moved in, and once we got to talkin, we haven't stopped! lol! Q, have you heard of Hog Maws? If not, I'll tell you about them. lol!
Ok, time to get to bed, I have a dentist appt, early in the morning! yuck!
See you all on the sunny side of tomorrow!!!

Well, I came here from MD. Used to go fabric shopping up in Intercourse. My cousin lives in Red Lion. Very familiar with the area. Went up last fall & came back with a suitcase full of fresh apples.

Not a clue about Hog Maws???

WOW, sounds like your garden is doing very nicely. I had tomatoes till the steaming disaster. Now I have lots of green ones. My lettuce is about at its end. Zucchini plants look happy, lots of blooms. Some small peppers. I never got my peas or beans planted. Will do those in the fall.

QI may have gotten my Zucchini, Cucumbers, Radishes and some other stuff in earlier than you, I don't know, I started my seed in January, and put it in the raised beds sometime around March, I know we had 2 major freezes after I put them in, but everything is coming along nicely. As of right now, I have 5 zucchini in on my counter, going to make bread, plus we've been eating it every way I can think possible to eat it, my pole beans have been producing enough for a meal each night, as so with my sugar snap beans! I've pulled maybe 5 cucumbers so far with maybe another 7 ready to come off the vine's. Plus more zucchini coming in. My radish are gone, as are my peas, that crop was terrible, the vine's started drying up on me, I have slowly pulled all my romaine lettuce as we ate it, second crop coming up from the roots I left in, same for my head lettuce, I have spring onions in, so slow to grow, haven't had any yet on the table, and as far as my tomato's, O my gosh, vines full, all green, I feel like they'll all go red at the same time, and I have 11 different types in! So, my fingers are crossed, we leave here for about 2 weeks in June, my neighbor is more than willing to water and harvest what ever is ready while we're gone, I hope she save's us some tomato's, I don't know why they are so slow to turn red. I have all types of pepper's in too. But I know they will keep growing till the cold come's back. Plus, they.ll keep till we get back. The garden is doing great, I got rid of the worms, and so far, the mold that I thought I was getting has backed off. Tonight I checked the garden and things look good, NEEM OIL and DE, has taken control of the beds. Thanks to all the advice I received on here!!! My sweet corn has no signs of the horn worms or what ever they were, they are gone, and the tassels and silk are going strong, even though I planted in blocks, I still go out and shake the tops of my stalks, spread that pollen around, haha! Anyway, it all sounds good, let's hope it stays this way!!! I pray to the garden gods, I have my spirit house sitting in the NE side of my garden, to protect my gardens, and so far, the Gods are Blessing me!

Ok, Hog Maw's !!! Because I lived close to the Amish, we always had a really nice market to go to, fresh everything!!! Potato chips, in a brown sack, fresh vegi's, straight from the vine, cheap plants, .25 cent, .50 cents, any kind of plants you can think of, from vegetables, to flowers. Plus fresh butchered meats. My grand mother use to buy the pork belly, cleaned, it's what they make pork rinds from here in the south! Instead of chopping the skin and fat up and frying it, from the stomach, the Amish scrape the fat off the stomach skin, similar to hot dog or sausage casing's, and use the stomach casing to stuff it with potatoes ,farm fresh pork sausage, onion, eggs, garlic, and basil, mixed all together, than shoved into the casing of the pork stomach, you take cooking thread and sew all the openings together, puncture a few holes in the lining to allow steam to escape, and bake in the oven at 300 degree;s till all is soft inside, and the sausage is done. Takes around 3 hours to cook it fully, the skin of the belly becomes like the skin on a turkey, crispy and very delicious!! Everyone wants the skin, but the inside is better, all the seasonings melted with the sausage and potatoes, plus your spices, to die for!!! Thanks to the Amish for this recipe!!! That's what the north calls Hog Maw! I saw it here , close to where I live, and was jumping for joy, till I realized, it looked funny! I don't know what it was, it was labled as Hog Maw, but it didn't look like I was use to, it looked like an unbaked lasagna! I don't get it! lol!
Anyway, there you have it Q! I hope your garden is coming along, now if I knew how to get all these tomato's to turn red, I'll be really happY. I have a feeling they'll all turn red at once! omg, what than, Spaghetti sauce, here we come, lol!

See you all on the sunny side of Wednesday☺☺☺ !!! With just a tad of rain thrown in for good measure! Jami

Q, for got to tell you, My son went to school in Dallastown, very close to Red Lion!!!! He still lives in Jacobus, PA. If you look at a map, you'll see how close they are, with in a few mile's!

I plan on doing raised beds for this fall. And moving the vegs to the other side of the yard.

here are some recent picture's of my gardens! The gardens look so different than when I posted the picture's when I first started this thread!

The first and second picture's are at opposite side's of the raised bed garden, the corn, and cucumbers in this garden are doing great. I did have a problem with worms in the corn, but managed to eradicate them before they ate all the tassels before they were tassels, lol,! I need to go to another post to add more picture's!

In the last post I forgot to add that I planted some cucumbers in and around the corn, that worked out well, the corn stalks are shading the cukes! And providing the cukes with support, something to climb on. I do have some cages around the cukes also, but they out grew the cages and now are hanging onto the corn.

Here are some more veggie's I have in the raised bed grden. Toms out the gazoo, BUT, they're all green, and I have a feeling they're going to turn red at the same time. I plan on canning some, but was hoping to eat them for awhile, I'm now wondering if I pick some of the bigger one's, and set them out in the direct sun, if the sun would turn them red quicker. I did clear some of the unneeded leaves from them yesterday, so maybe that'll help. I've been picking 2-3 squash a day, plus 2 -3 cukes too ! I have 6 or so cuke plants, and probably a good 9 squash plants. I have yellow summer squash, and zuquinni's in both of my gardens. I've made bread, casserole's, fried and grilled squash, every way it's possible to eat it, we've done so! lol ! We love cucumber salad, I make 2 kinds, 1 sweet, and one a little sour. I take onions and cukes, add vinegar, sugar and mayo to them, some celery seed, salt and pepper, and let it soak for a day, than we eat it. The sour is made the same way, just with more vinegar and no mayo. My DH also likes to add tomato's to the cuke salad. And we love them plain, dipped in a salad dressing as a snack. We do that with the squash too, raw, dipped in a salad dressing. mmm good!

Here is the corn garden, this is on the opposite side of the yard, away from the first block of corn I planted, they're 2 different types. the corn in the raised bed garden is a sweet bi-colored, this is a sweet white corn. I also have cucumber and squash plants in this one. I also have watermelon, and cantaloupe in this garden. The cantaloupe is about the size of an egg now, the watermelon look like a small green pea right now. This is my first time growing the corn, watermelon and cantaloupe so I didn't know what to watch for. I'm amazed at how fuzzy the cantaloupe look! I would have never expected that!

And the last picture is my spirit house, It houses the good garden spirits, who keep an eye on my gardens! lol ! I like to think they live in it, and do keep an eye out for everything!!!!


I hope everyone is having a great gardening day, keep the rays of sun shining, and the gentle rains coming ! Jami

Pick the (less) green tomatoes & put them in a paper bag on top of the fridge. They will ripen.

Q, thanks, it's on my list for tomorrow! I did read about this somewhere, just can't wait to taste the sweetness of a garden tomato! And believe me, I have plenty, all different kinds, and size's! I'll pick a few tomorrow and do just as you said. I'll let you know how it works out! Thanks! ( a big Hug to you)!!

I did the bag "trick" with the ones on the vines when my plants got steamed. They were very green. Some have ripened & some are in the process. We used the bag up north when COLD came with the green tomatoes still out there.

Jami it all looks so good, your hard work paying off. For your first year I'd say you've done very well.

Thanks Everyone, My ♥ swells with pride☺☺☺☺!!! I keep telling myself next year will be so much easier than this year. My body can't keep up with my mind. When you move somewhere new, it seems like you want everything "now", as I did, once my DH got the beds built, that was, after he built the shed, and the green house everything just got crazy from there. I had what I wanted, and didn't stop there. The cooler weather at the time helped, but since everything is finished ( for now, chuckling) all I do is go out, look around every morning, pick what needs to be picked, than water, by that time the heat is on ! I come inside till later in the evening, than back out to close up the yard, do some more watering, hook up the scarecrow for the night, and I'm beat!! Really, I look around and really enjoy what I see, but I can't imagine doing it all over again, ever!! This was my last hurrah ! What it is, is what it is now! I have the pool up, and am waiting for the water to warm up. Once that happens, I'll spend more time outside. I'm not one for AC, or a closed up house because of it being on all the time, but being outside all day with the Florida humidity isn't a feel good feeling either. With the pool, I can be outside, and enjoy what I created.
I did do a little garden out front over one of the cloudy, look like rain days one weekend. It's just flowers that I grew from seed, plus I put some hanging pots up on the front of the house, my neighbore told me the house actually looks like someone's home for once. I guess for about 5 years the people who had the house really weren't the outside gardening type of people, and all the home's here in the cul de sac we live on have beautiful landscaped lawns, this house needed a lot of sod put into the bare spots, still working on that , I fed the lawn, and gave it a good dose of epsom salt, much cheaper, and the lawn is looking 75% better. But I really don't know what else to do with it, I have enough to do in the back with out adding to it. So, I'm thankful that I did what I did.

here are a few picture's of the front lawn and flowers, everything you see, we put in! I posted some picture's previously on this thread, and if you look at the than and the now picture's, you'll see a big difference!!

I always wanted a white picket fence when I was growing up, I have one now ! lol ! I may change it out for a natural border, similar to what's in the back yard, but for now, the picket fence stays! Gotta keep the mulch in place somehow!

Have a happy smiley kind of day! Jami

You sure have accomplished a lot. I have a lawn guy coming over tomorrow to let me know what I need to do to get grass to fill in out front. Where it grows its BEAUTIFUL. Then the bare areas that are again turning into a mass of just weeds. Too mush for me to handle by myself. Once I have grass, I can do the work to maintain it.

Goal is for the entire back to be just planting beds & walkways.

I spent all day today cleaning inside - have been ignoring that to work on the gardens. Could not handle the dirt another minute. Even washed inside of all windows & outside of the door glass. I was disgusted by how dirty the water was. Dumped it on potted plants.

Just checking in at lunch, and I have to say your place is looking great! Everything looks fresh, tidy and beautiful. Your mosaic ball is pefect in your Island bed.

Keep up the good works and have a beautiful weekend!

David

I was in the yard all day. I have a tomato plant that would be over 6' tall if I had a way to have it stand straight. As big around also. I have 4 old trash cans to hold all the green tomato laden branches up off the ground. It is 1 of 2 plants that survived the storm last month. I need to get the camera out tomorrow & get a pic.

Hi All, Look what I found this morning in one of my zucchini. My DH brought it to my attention, than, after checking some more vegetables I brought in from the garden, all my sugar snap peas have hole's in them too!! WORMS!!!
Does anyone know what this pest is. I also noticed something is eating the crap out of my cabbage leaves. I can't find anything though. I have looked and looked, in the dirt around the base of the plants, and up and down the stems, and under the leaves, Nothing!!! What is going on, what am I looking for, how do I find the culprit ? Thank goodness my sugar snaps are almost completely harvested, I have a few more new plants that have been in for about 2 weeks, hope they are going to be OK. I'm having these problems in the raised bed garden. The other garden seems to be pest free. Is there a possibility I'm too close to the woods, and may be getting things because of the location? Anyway, getting the DE out and attack once again! So far my tomato plants are hanging in there. Plenty of good looking toms, and no holes in them!!!!

Well, just wanted to jump on here and see if i get some kind of feedback, it's a beautiful holiday weekend, hope you all having a great time with your family's, and I want to give a big salute and a bigger Thank You to all those who have served in our armed forces, or are serving, and to the Family's who have loved one's serving! This is your week end! Have a wonderful weekend!! Jami

My Dad used to say "worst thing to find in an apple is 1/2 a worm"!!!!!
Those worms seem to hide during the day. You might try putting a plate of beer out in the garden. Mom used to save old aluminum pie plates for that purpose. The beer will kill some worms if they crawl in and is harmless to birds looking for a drink.

Q , lol, yuck! 1/2 a worm means you ate the other half!!!! LOL!!!!I'll try it, but today I went out after treating with DE. everything was dry, needed water, but while watering I checked all my toms, Found one that was squishy on the bottom, I cut the tom from it's stem, and opened it up, I found the biggest, plumpest fattist worm, he was so fat, he could hardly move, till I put a stick up his side, and flicked him into the woods, how long does it take for this stuff to work? I looked it up, but couldn't find anything to tell me! omg , my garden is being ravished by these worms! I can't believe it!!!! I thought it was only the squash, and peas, but looks like I'm invaded!!! From the looks of things it's my pepper's, squash, and now a tomato! I want to cry!!!


I'll figure it out, if not I'll be yanking everything out ! Next year is another year! I'll let the deer and bear eat what I can't! I'm disgusted!!!! I took a young, yellow neck summer squash that looked a little funny, about 4 " long, 5"' in diameter, it had "1", mind you"1" little hole in it, I split it open, and inside were 2 very plump brownish striped worms, lack a daisy, from all they ate! The yellow summer squash is a new plant!!!!! What is going on, I'm going to turn my garden spirit house into a bird house if it doesn't start protecting my gardens!!! I'm so mad, I could hand feed these little cats to the first bird that wanted them!!!( to eat, mind you) And no, I didn't get any picture's!!!! UGH!!!!!!!!!! I'm spitting nails!!!!

Sorry to hear about the worms. I know nothing about worms. Guess they go in small & then eat their fill. I have to keep the squirrels off my vegs. Those buggers take 1 bite out of each but luckily the seem to not like the tomatoes!!!!!

Jami,
Are you saying everything in your garden has been hit by these worms? Peas, tomatoes, squash, peppers? Are these different types of worms or are they all alike? DE works pretty quick, DW sprinkled it on cabbage lopers one evening and next morning there were none to be seen. We've never had worms in our squash or peppers altho we've had borers hit the squash vine stems. The only other thing I can think of you might try is the Captain Jack's Deadbug brew, pick it up at Ace Hardware or order it thru Amazon. I'm curious as to what you're having to deal with.

Good Luck,
Charlie

Charlie, as soon as I can get some pictures to you, I will!! They all look different, but may be due to age! And they are in my Squash, cuke's, and some of my sugar snap peas! I'll get you some better picture's , but I did treat the garden yesterday morning, before I had friends over for Memorial Day! Treated with DE! Today I went out and still saw some hole's, but I didn't want to disturb anything, as of yet! They could be inside dying, I hope! I was in a total state of shock, because they weren't there the day before, but than again, I need glasses for up close! The holes were very tiny, but the worms, very fat ! No way did they enter the very small hole as big as they were, They got hefty once inside!
I'll get back to you! Thanks for the interest and looking forward to your insight! Jami

Maybe if you dispose of the infected vegs the next batch will be worm free.

A quick update ! No more worms, as far as I can tell. Most of the zucchini have been picked, waiting for the new batch to come in, and so far, no little holes, The yellow summer squash is just starting to come in, but nothings large enough to really look for hole's. I guess I'll wait and see. I did go out and pull the rest of what was left of the zucchini, and they all had the worm hole's, so I threw them into the woods for the animals, no way was I putting them in my compost pile! The peppers I took off the vine were also found to have the hole's, so into the woods they went. One pepper plant was totally eaten, leaves and all, all that was left was the stem. The cucumbers also had been hit, but I had already more or less picked them all, and was waiting for more to develope, so hopefully I caught this critter before more damage could be done!
I'll be checking my local ACE for the Captain Jacks Brew, sounds interesting. I no longer have faith in Neem Oil, forget it, useless!! Soemthing so organic that it doesn't do what it says it'll do, plus, I think with the dew in the mornings, it washes the oil off! Just saying!!!

I'll stay in touch, getting ready to do some inside work for a week or two , painting my bedroom, and deep cleaning. I've been ignoring this stuff while doing the gardens. I hate to be inside, ugh!!!

Have a great day everyone!! Jami

I never had any luck with neem oil. Did nothing. Had better luck with dish soap and cooking oil. Up north I used to boil garlic and take the juice and pour it on plants for bugs but we didn't have the amount of bugs we have here.
I have less bugs with a winter garden so I don't garden during the summer. Hope you have gotton rid of your bugs. I know its discouraging but don't give up.

Bonnie

Jami - I ended up in Flagler Beach yesterday. Nice little town. Tried to get to the beach but there was too much traffic & not enough parking!!!! We got close enuf that my friend (fm TX) got to see the Atlantic). Sure was rough yesterday.

Neem has its uses but is not good for everything. The watered down stuff you buy in the stores is worthless (10% Neem) but I use pure Neem that I then cut with water. It is great for gnats, aphids, and the like. If you need it to stay on you need to mix it with a bit of Stickee.

Glad your worms have moved on.

My baby zucchini are still too small to pick. Sure wish they would grow. I do need to get out & put fertilizer down.

Hi everyone, Have you all been as busy as me in the gardens??? I have been out there every morning and evening, wow, things are growing as fast as I can pick them. My toms are turning red, thank goodness not all at one time. My string beans are producing, my cukes have been doing great, I have so many, I guess I can make some kind of pickle's with them. My squash are kind of stunted at this time, either finished, or laying low because of the heat, and rain. The cantaloupes are growing, and for some reason, the watermelons get the baby on them, with the flower at the end, but when I go out and check them, the little green pea size ball has either turned black, or fallen off completely. I'm thinking about hand pollinating them, I don't see any bees buzzing around them. Weird, as they're in the same bed as the cantaloups, just on the other side of the bed. My corn is up, has been pollinated, the silk is turning brown, looks like I may have small ears or else they are still growing inside, I never grew corn so..... just waiting to see if the kernels are full and the husk get bigger!!

My flowers that I grew from seed are doing awesome!! I can't believe how my garden fence's are getting covered, or hidden from the flowers. That was my intent, I didn't like the fences sticking out with nothing to hide them. I planted some morning glory's along the fence, they are climbing like crazy, and the blooms have started to open up. As soon as I get a picture with a " bunch of blooms" I'll post them, the 1 picture I have so far, is of the first bloom I saw, I think it was 1 or 2, don't remember which picture I took. My climbing vine's, the jasmie, honey suckle, and other's are doing great, I also stole some little vine's that were growing on my side of the neighbors fence, I used some root hormone, and they took, and are in pots for the time being. I'll wait till all the melons are done, than transplant the vine's. The melons seem to have taken over the one fence, and are now intertwining with the morning glory's, and the honey suckle I have in there already. Once I yank the old vine's out, I'll put the new one's in, for better planning next year. I have to say, I never expected to grow all this in a short time. I'm very surprised with myself! woo hoo!!! I have grown all these flowers from seed, echinacea- purple and white coneflower mix, petunia's, giant peony mix, pansy's, and my favorite cleome's rose queen. I love these flowers so much, such beauty! I also put in marigolds from seed, more of these than any of the others. Amazing to see how different they grow, depending on where I planted them. Some look like a bush, other's look like a large ground cover! I also have spearmint, chive's, basil, dill, and some other garnishes in as ground cover. I bought some buttercups, my neighbor gave me some bee balm, hydrenthis(sp?), and some succulent cactus plants,( I don't remember the names though). My bougainvilleas are doing great, I was a little worried as they lost their color, I thought they were dying, as I did buy the plant, not seed. I guess all it took was some time to get established in their new home!

Anyway, I'm sure I'm missing some plants, all I know is "all" my beds are filling in! I'm going to look and see what I can plant next for out Florida zone, I have room where I took out the last of the radishes, peas, sugar snap peas, and the rest of my spring onions just came out. I have a new batch going, but in a long planter. They took up too much room in my raised beds, with very little results! I think I planted the seed to early, and those last frost we had stunted their growth. Same for all my peppers. They weren't growing , than I found some worms in them, so I pulled all the fruit, and threw it in the woods, but in the last 2 weeks, wow, they have spouted up! Here again it had to be the cold weather, and planting out too soon. I also planted some later pepper seedlings in buckets, and they are just as big as the one's I put out in early March. I forgot to add, I have egg plants in, and they are starting to bloom, not sure if this is the time of the year for them, but so far so good. I need to get picture's of them. I have a late batch of cabbage, it didn't grow as fast as the lettuce did, it's been up and harvested for 2 weeks now. The cabbage ??? Still waiting! I have a Brussel Sprout plant, that was planted in a pot, around Feb, it's growing, maybe around 28" high, but know little cabbage heads showing! Here again, maybe the wrong time to plant, but if it's growing I let it be. This is my first year, having a raised bed garden, and I was so hyped up, I just went and bought what I wanted, planted it, and here we are today! Next year I'll put more thought into the gardens, actually, already planning it out, but haven't come up with a completed garden yet.

I have to get some things done in the house that I've ignored since we moved in here, painting, finishing up my craft room, which reminds me, I've been away from my mosaic's too long. I may not be here as much as I have been, My last 6 months have been getting the garden ready, and planting, an ongoing thing since Jan, 15th 2013, up till now, and from here on out I should have more time to do other things. Besides that , it's getting to hot and humid to be outdoors between 11am to 5pm, geesh, 5 minute's and my whole head is soaked from sweat, darn thick hair, I take my DH's old tube socks and use them as headbands, they do soak up the sweat that's running into my eye's. Looks funny though, but who cares, nothing worse than having sweaty hair stuff rolling down your face into your eye's. lol!!

So there you have it, an update on my raise bed gardens. I'm so glad I did it!

Oh, and BTW, I have had no encounters with Bear, Deer, or any other creature who lives in the sanctuary behind my house. I have been blessed, thanks to my scarecrow water shooter, and my Spirit House! More to do with the scarecrow though!! I see deer every night walking the dogs, around twilight they start to move around, I went out the front door one night around 10:30pm to let the dogs out for their last bathroom break before bed, and a deer was in my front yard! I know I see them about 5 time's a week! And yet, they aren't chomping on my garden stuff! A well spent $50+ dollars!!!!!
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OK, let's hear your updates on your raised beds, anything that you've been doing! I'd love to hear it, all you who read but don't post, this means you, I know you have things to share!!! Please.....DO !!!!
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Q, Glad you found your way to Flagler Beach! What day was it? I know it get's packed up there, this has been the case since 2005, Daytona has no where for anyone to park, they charge to get on the beach, and if the tide is up, or any other thing that make's it hard to drive on the beach, they close it off to cars. If you have little one's, and a cooler, and all the other goodie's you want to take with you for a day on the beach, it's hard to carry it all for a few blocks. They started coming to Flagler around than. When I moved here from Ormond Bch in 1998, the year of the fire's, there was never anyone parked further than N.10th St, or S. 10th. It was always pretty busy around the pier, but now, wow, you can't get a spot on the beach, you have to go in a block or so! And July 4Th, lol, they use to allow you to park your vehicle the night before, all you had to do was unload it the next day, and set up on the beach that day. Big motorhome's would pull in the night before, and spend the night along A1A, but they have now outlawed that! You have to get up early to get a space, but if your lucky, like us, you just walk to the beach area, or have someone who has no plans to spend the day on the beach, drop you and your gear off, and than after the fireworks, hang out for an hour or 2, all the traffic is headed out of town as soon as the FW are finished, than your friend or who ever come's and picks you and your load up! So much easier. We take our bike's so we can go back and forth to the house, potty breaks, refills on ice.....
I love Flagler Beach on July 4th, we look forward to it every year! This town ROCKS!!!! It use to be a 3 day event, if I remember right, Than it went to 2, now it's a 1 day affair! I think maybe it depends on when the 4th falls. Anyone else reading this remember??? Anyway, when ever you get over here again, d-mail me! We can meet, and have lunch, or?, and talk shop! LOL!!!

More Picture's Now and before, of the raised bed gardens, not the best views, so hard looking at little thumb nail picture's, and not being sure how much they show, or if it's showing the difference as much as you want it to! But the before's were taken around March, and of course, the now's have all the flowers up and blooming!


I'm going to add the before and after picture's of the side garden! A big difference there too. I may have to go out tomorrow and redo the picture's, depending on what I found in my picture folder!

Thanks for viewing, hope you enjoyed!!! And Also, Idea's for your own garden if your a beginner like me!!!

Thanks, Jami

Here is my side garden!! Now, and before!! As i was going through my picture's, I realized I don't have any up to date picture's! I only have squash, coen, and my melons in here, plus all the flowers that grew on the fence. I'll take up to date picture's and post, as this has really filled in, very nicely! It's beautiful, and the melon vine's, honey suckle, and morning glory's are taking over the fence!! And the marigolds, outstanding!! I'll get the picture's!!

Thanks for looking!!

Shed, before and after, this is amazing!!

BTW, The inside of the shed has the truck topper as part of the roof! I should have posted a picture of the inside of the shed, it's here somewhere in this thread, I think, or on the recycling thread, not sure! But , if you want I can post a picture here, just ask!

This message was edited Jun 6, 2013 12:48 AM

And last, my green house, started out as a dog kennel!!

I have to add that the shed was still being worked on when DH started the green house, but we needed it up and ready as we still had some cold days coming, thank goodness we did, as you can see it was used as soon as I could get in it, and get my shelving done. I do want to add some extra's, vents, heat and electric, I have it in the shed, but he hasn't run power over to the GH yet! Right now it's serving as a pool float storage room! lol! I also have all kinds of trailing vine's growing up and over it, no pictures yet, but I'll take some and get them on here, for those who are interested!

I want to thank anyone who has been following my thread, it has been a learning experience for me, and my DH, I read and learn, he does the manual labor, so sweet, but the last few post you've viewed, all this has been accomplished since January. I have had help from friends when I couldn't get my body to move, and they also have learned a lot from helping us achieve what we wanted to do! I'm very grateful for what I have, this has been a very good learning experience, taking things that would have went to the dump, and turning them into something useful. We haven't spent a lot of money, for the wood, the garden tools, etc. Everything came from friends, yard sale's, curb side pick up, lol, the best! Anyway, my point is, it doesn't take much to get started, just an imagination, a willingness to do it, and a need to achieve something from nothing, to reap the rewards afterwards!

Thanks for looking, I hope I've put a spark in someone's mind! Get started, small, and work up to your dreams. What you've seen on my thread is 6 months of work, now I can sit back and breath, and more importantly, ENJOY MY WORLD ! God Bless Everyone! Thanks Jami!!

After looking at the last picture, after I had published it, I remember now, I ran an extension cord from the shed over to the green house, and put a small electric heater in it to help keep the temps up. I think this was one of our coldest nights, and I checked through out the night, the temps in the GH never dropped below 60, a good feeling. as it was freezing outside of the green house! You can see it in the picture! It was a small heater, not anything hard core that could cause a fire, but I still kept an eye on it during the night!

This message was edited Jun 6, 2013 12:52 AM

This message was edited Jun 6, 2013 1:01 AM

Wow, you have been busy.
I was in Flaggler last Thur. Good thing my friend was here last week. Would need a boat to get there today.
I have small zucchini but they don't seem to be growing much. And my tomatoes are not as green. Have picked 2 ripe ones. Jsu t hope all this rain doesn't ruin them.

Jami, you've done so much in the past six months and your very lucky to have that hard working man make you such nice shelters for your plants and garden tools.
Seeing deer in the mornings and evenings must be wonderful...just as long as they don't eat your plants.

Thanks for sharing your new garden with us, you certainly took a big plunge all at once and looks like is has worked out pretty well for you as you have reaped the rewards. Enjoy eating all those nice veggies.

My largest Zucchini rotted away after 3 days of rain. The other 3 look OK but the zucchinis aren't getting any larger.

And I have these nasty spidery looking critters on the ripe tomaotes of 1 plant. Think I'll hit it with my "all natural" fogger & see if that gets them off. Figure it can't hurt them.

Overall, the tomato plants look wonderful. I cut the yellowed branches & leaves off earlier this AM.

Quilter, I haven't been on here lately, too much to do in the yard right now, keeping up with the weeds, grass, and all that is going on, But you mentioned the ugly spidery bugs you found on your toms, well, I had the same thing, they never did any damage, but I eventually got rid of them with neem oil, They would scatter when I shook my plants a little, but they were all huddled in a group on a few toms, not all of them. I think I got a picture of them, I have to go back and check my picture's. You last posted on the 7th, did you ever find out what they were, and did you get rid of them. The one's I had were reddish in color, with black legs, looked like a type of spider.

Sunkissed, Thanks for the kind words, I think we all have nice gardens, it's great sharing picture's, and jumping back and forth between everyone's threads! That's what give's me inspiration!

Anyway, back to the yard I go, the work is never done and even though it's summer the days are shorter in the yard, to darn hot and humid to even breath! I try to get some stuff done in the morning, and always try to get something accomplished in the evenings, which takes away from my computer time. I already started amending the soil in the raised beds for fall crops, slow going, most of my beans, and peas are finished, so that bed is ready to go.The others are slowly starting to go to crap, too hot, next year am hoping for a shade cloth for all 3 beds. Can't afford it this year anymore. Maybe get the hoops done for all the covers I want, shade, frost, and what ever else may be needed.

To all reading this, have a great day/evening, try to stay cool especially in the hotter area's around the Great Nation we live in! Bye for now!

Someone said they were adult aphids. I used neem & DE, and some other spray. Killed most of them. I still see a couple but nothing like the infestation I had.

Right now I'm in a tomato lull. No more ripe but lots of green & flowers galore. In a week or so I'll be overwhelmed again!!!! I planted them in 3 areas & all seem to be doing equally well. All get a bit of shade during the heat of the day and I think that is a big help. Plus we have been getting a good amount of rain up here.

I have 2 very happy looking zuc plants but no fruits. All the blossoms must be male.

I'm also planning my fall garden. Would like to plant it raised, but near the fence so I can easily make a green house using the fence as a back wall. With it close to 90 it's difficult to think of COLD temps!!!!

Ok, here's a follow up of my raised bed garden's ! I have slowly been picking my toms, I had 14 plants in, and some of my name tags were lost in the dirt, but I can say I have harvested at least 30 lbs of tomato's, the best I've ever done. When I started I didn't know the difference between indeterminate, and determinate, now I do. I also know what a beef steak is, and roma's, but I also had a little of everything planted, so when they started to turn red, it was an amazing sight. I just didn't know what was what. I saw some of the littlest roma's ever , looked like cherry toms. I didn't plant any of those, we don't care for them, so in the picture's, what you see are my roma's. I have made sauce, paste, stewed, and also blanched whole tom's for use in my recipe's, as needed. I also gave away some to everyone who wanted a few. I had tom sandwiches for breakfast 2 weeks in a row! Made every which way I could think of. I still have some slow growing plants, some with fruit, and flowers, but I think the heat has slowed down. I cut back all damaged limbs, extra foliage, and am waiting to see what starts new growth as things die down, heat wise. I also took pieces of my best performers, dipped them in root hormone, and stuck the root to be in perculite, (sp?) and have had success with some of the transplants. They are now in pots, in shade, waiting to see what happens next.

My green beans were great producers, here again, not sure what the name is, they were bush beans from burpee, brought at lowe's. I will be sure next year to make myself note's and keep up with those note's, the only thing I did was mark in a huge desk calendar, when I planted things, when they flowered, and when I started to pick the fruits. I vow to be more concise next year! I froze them straight off the vine, no blanching, and I had my first pot of Ham and Green Beans w/ potato's, and it was the best I've ever had! My problem, I only had 12 plants, and know that next year, I need plenty more!

Pea's were a disappointment ! Burpee here again, early sweet peas, the pod's were lucky to have 5 fully grown peas inside, and for some reason, didn't produce many pods, all at once, so it was hard to get enough peas to make a side of. What I have will go into soups, or a casserole of some sort. Here again, not enough plants put in for 2 people. Same goes for the sugar snap peas I had planted. Awesome flavor, ate right from the vine. sweet, but here again , not enough planted for 2 people, plus I added seed 3 weeks after I did the first planting, and the second planting came up very thin, and really didn't produce at all. I have already pulled the beans, and pea plants, put into the compost, and started to amend the soil for this fall. I tested the soil, and it was lacking in everything, so it'll be a while till it is ready to be used again. I don't have enough homemade compost, and am off to the nursery to buy some good stuff!!!! In the mean time, I bought some N, P, and K, I think are the 3 letters, and added it to my soil as directed. Just need the compost.

Next on my list of harvest, squash, I planted yellow summer squash, and zucchini, all burpee seed again, even though I thought I planted an even amount of each, all my plants produced zucchini, I posted this in an earlier here, and so far haven't had but 1 summer squash, and the one remaining plant, that is still trying to produce, looks like the yellow summer squash. The others, I had 12 in, 6 of each, I had a good run on zucchinni, made bread, grilled it, cooked it in some casserole's, ate it raw in salads, so I'm quite pleased, but have nothing frozen for stews etc. I didn't give any away either. lol! At this time, I pulled the worst of the plants out, and put them in the compost, they were dried and plain dead, the one's that are still in are being drowned by all the rain. I have my fingers crossed, and I think next time, I'm putting them in containers, and under some kind of cover to keep the rain off, and will water as I feel they need it! I had better luck in the container garden I had, before the raised bed garden.

Cuke's, OMG, I had a great harvest so far, and still going, even though I had 10 plants to start, I have 2 left, some of the plants got powdery mildew, I fought it, the plants did give me plenty of cuke's, but than would curl up , get brown and die. I can't really say what happened to the one's that didn't get mildew, I think heat, but I have 6 jars of pickle's, gave away some, ate some raw, made cucumber salad, which my DH and all family and friends would look for when they came to visit, I didn't need snacks, they ate the cuke salad as fast as I could make it. Anyway, I'm down to 2 plants, looking a little dry, but as I type this have 4 cukes ready to come off in the next day or so, and more baby's on the vine's that still look healthy.

Next, my pepper plants! Not going well at all. When I did them in containers, I had so many I was making relish, stuffed peppers, poppers, and freezing them. I think I planted them to early in the season, the worms attacked what was growing, the leaves started falling off, looked like something was eating the leaves also, anyway, I did start more already from seed, and these are in containers, so hopefully I will have the same luck as last year, and will not be putting them into the beds next time. I can move the pots, if needed, can't move the plants if their in my beds. So far, nothing to report here other than what I wrote!

Cabbage, radish, garlic onions, basil, chive's, dill, spearmint, lettuce,( head and romaine) all did well, as of now nothing growing but my herbs I listed. I want to get some more radish in, and more herbs before it's to late, as I've been drying it, and freezing it, but I can never have enough of the fresh stuff. ( btw, I hate cilantro, as does my DH )even though we were in Thailand for a year. lol! Something about the taste, just can't acquire the taste for it!

My corn I planted, sweet, and bi colored sweet all went to the worms. I already pulled the corn from the raised bed garden, and will do the same in the side garden as soon as I can get to it. I won't ever grow corn again, too much involved.

My last planting, egg plant! ye haw!!!! I have some 9 egg plants growing out of 3 plants. I can't wait till their ready, hungry for some grilled eggplant on the grill, basted in garlic, and lots of spices, and some yummy egg plant parm!! They're about the right size to be picked, so looking forward to them any day.

And last of all, my cantaloupes, and watermelon. All doing well, I've picked about 6 loupes so far, and one watermelon, I'm not sure what I planted, went to look at the type, again by burpee, but for some dumb reason I cut the top of the package off, maybe to mark the place where I planted them, but the watermelon was white inside, with white seeds. It was sweet, but not the texture of a red one, with the black seeds. Now, I'm wondering what I bought. I have 4 more growing on the vine, and will wait till they are twice the size of the 1 i picked. These were marked to grow in a pot. As for as the cantaloupe's, omomom sweet! And I planted 4, again burpee seeds, and so far have picked 7, and have 2 more ready to come off the vine, and I see 2 baby's starting to form. I did have to treat both for the mold problem, some of the vine's look all dried up, but some of the upper leave's look good. We'll see what happens.

I think I covered everything I planted this spring, all my seeds went into seedling pots early Feb. and into the ground in March. We had some late frost, so I can see how that may have did in my peppers, I had problems with worms, and bugs, but because I had good, not great results, I'm happy, and have learned a lot from this first time raised bed planting, so I'll continue my thread, going into fall.

I'm posting the latest picture's I took, hopefully not repeats, most are of my harvest, after I brought them into the house, or on the patio table. I'll try to give a description of each picture, but most should be self explanatory!!

I hope everyone who has viewed my thread has learned something, I'm going to try to be more attentive to what I'm planting, I just received my very first seed catalog, so will start a new thread to see if any of my fellow Florida gardeners have advice for me before I order seeds from them. I won't be using a big box store seeds anymore, they did great for a novice like me, but now, I want more produce/ results, and since I learned how to do most things myself from the great DG, and other site's, I feel I'm ready to invest in some good seed! And hopefully have better results!

Thank you for following along with me, and to all those who have added to my thread, Quilter, David of Deland, Sunkissed, BonnieGardens, Plant_Thing, Wren, Shauna, georgiacat and CoastalZonePush ! You all have added your 2 cent's, haha, And I just want to give you all a big hug, and your 2 cents was worth a million dollars to me!!! I gave it my all, moved in here Jan 2. 2013. today is June 28th,2013 ! omg, 5 months, no wonder I can't move, lol, I wasn't thinking about time here, just was very busy, and another thing, my seeds were started at my town home, before we moved here, so I did have a head start in that area, but, I couldn't have done this with out those I mentioned, following their threads, David of Deland is Great with advice!!!! I know we have " stalkers" who read but never say a peep, I hope one day you share your advise on gardens, but in the meantime, I hope I've been able to help someone out there in the stalker world,(I don't mean stalker in the negative way) but sometimes we all need advice and don't always want to give up our identities, but your still learning from what we all post!I hope you have gotten the advice you were looking for!

Here are some pics!!!
#1 cucumber's, zucchini, and can' quitesee what else is in my sink
#2 bush string beans, one of many baskets
#3 another batch of harvested cuke's and Z's
#4 lettuce, I think it's my romaine
#5 a table full of different types of tom's

Last post, #1 was all cuke's, an onion, and some spring onions
#3 was a picture of my one and only pic of a summer yellow squash, the rest were zuchinni, and cuke's, and that day's worth of string beans!

In this post are some more picture's!!!

pic # 1 a bunch of tom's getting ready to be blanched and frozen
#2 my cantaloupe's
#3 cantaloups pulled from the vine
# 4 More tom's, and a few green peppers from my pepper plants, before the
worms got to my peppers!
#5 a baby watermelon!