Garden Update

It's been a while since I posted pics of my gardens. Many of you may remember this thread when I was really a green newbie.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/563042/

Thanks to all of you who have advised me over the last couple of years

All these are pictures of my gardens in the rear

Here are the tomato beds. I tried yet another staking system this year. I nailed 2x4s on each end. I ran a length of 14 guage wire at the top and bottom of the 2x4 and ran vertical lengths where each tomato plant was.

Jury's still out. Handles the wispy and easily twistable plants but the large plants like beefsteaks and cherry needed additional staking

Greenhouse is a new addition as is the piping to carry water. I put in a series of 5 spigots

Close up of the staking system. Those are elephant garlic with the purple tops

We had a problem with Bermuda grass going wild in our paths so we put down a thick layer of cardboard and then covered that with black plastic. We'll cover this with either pine straw or wood chips.

Pic of the greenhouse.

As you can see, carpentry is not my strong suit.

Another greenhouse pic

Here are some of my potted hot peppers.

They are sitting in a modified swale I built. My gardens sit at the bottom of a fairly steep slope and the ground under the slope is pretty much rock. So a heavy rain pretty much send a river down the hill in various places, washing away the soil and paths and everything.

Very Nice BB! Your plants look vibrant and healthy. Wish your market was nearer to where I live. Good luck with all your crops this summer!

I cut a 1 foot swale the length of the beds and filled it with gravel and wood chips. It has improved the problems significantly

Here's a pic of it under construction

Thanks Rose!

Wow! Not familiar with a swale until now. Looks like you're not suffering with the extreme drought we had last year. We've had some good rains but still it's very dry here.

Starting to put in the drip irrigation for the tomatoes. I had to hand water 200+ plants this morning and I was not happy about it.

It's been hot and dry the past few weeks. Rain has been hit or miss

As usual, I grew way too many tomato seedlings. After giving away what I could, I tries to devise a way to plant them in areas where I didn't want to put a permanent raised bed.

I came up with this idea: A PVC support supported by rebar driven into the ground. I will just dis-assemble at the end of the year.

Here is a new set of beds behind the tomatoa beds. I added a ton of new beds over the past year. These are where I grew in hay bales last year.

These are small beds ranging from 2x6 to 4x8. Manily onions and peppers now

I wanted to manage my beds more efficiently this year so I divided each bed in to 4x4 quadrants.

This has really helped as far as planning and crop management.

Here are some pole bean trellises using the same PVC set up as the tomatoes.

The black garbage can is one of my alfalfa tea brewers



This message was edited Jun 11, 2008 10:13 AM

Here are some more new beds that I'm growing corn in. Looks good thanks to FarmerDill's tips.

Most of my rear gardens are watered using overhead irrigation. After I get the drip done in the tomato beds, I'll work on these back gardens

ANother corn pic

Right behind the bean trellises are some melon plants. I built a lasagna bed behind it and planted some Jubilee and Petit Des Ris Grennes melons.

This is a early picture. They are very large and happy now.

Wow! You have a working farm going? Can you take care of all that by yourself? I remember you when you first joined us. What a remarkable accomplishment in such a short time!! I assume you will sell excess at market? Keep goin.....

Maximizing usuable but not readily adaptable land was also a major goal this year. My property has topographical challenges that required to me to be creative

Here is a second bean trellis tucked into a perfectly usuable piece of land near my shed. Those are butternut squash

Thanks Tplant!

It's getting tough. Mrs Bronx has been making noise about how un-fulfilling her day job is :-)

Here are some pole bean supports with melons at the bottom

Here's another strip of land that was being unused and wasted. We covered it with black plastic and mulch and are growing potted tomatoes now.

Now the space is usuable.

Here's a an herb garden behind our greenhouse

Peach trees, dill, lavender, basil, sage, rosemary, thyme and potted herbs

Those of you who remember when I first started this project, I have to remove a ton of pine trees. When I had the stumps ground I composted the areas and planted in them.

Here's a cutflower bed; sunflowers, 4 o clocks and sedum

I also have mounds with a bay laurel and melons, Lemon verbena and another herb garden. I grew some fantastic melons out of these mounds last year

Here is a pineapple sage with more 4 o clocks

All of my plants have benefitted from the rasied beds this year. My eggplant are massive this year

Bush cukes and Rutgers tomatoes

And I'll just put this here to make you hungry......

Grilled Lime marinated mojo pork.............mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I'll post mor epics when I get a chance

BB

Very fantastic!!! I see the flea beetles have not done the "Dance of the Seven Veils" through your eggplants as they have mine. Everything looks yummy! We are on spring water here in both the house and garden with no well. Have to be very careful not to run the cistern dry. I'm watering half the garden in the a.m. and the other half in the p.m. and praying for rain. We have had none here for almost two weeks.

L

Hi Laurel:

Hope the repairs are going well

Funny about the flea beetles. I put these rows covers on some of them and some of them I didn't. The flea beetles did get some of the ones that were uncovered but some they didn't bother with. The ones that I showed went uncovered. Don't they look great?

BB

Makes my head spin to see all you and the Missus have accomplished in such a short time. Very impressive! Amazing! Once again, good luck with everything.

Holy cats, BB, that is some incredible garden! An enormous amount of work.

I am glad to see that someone else is having to deal with trees! I am experimenting this year with growing a bunch of things in shade, including some tomatoes. Like you I started too many, but not anywhere near as many as you did.

Paracelsus;

Actually I started so many because we intended to sell them.

But after going to several conferences this winter where I heard numrous speakers say not to plant until you have a marketing plan, I planted anyway.

Next year we'll have a plan

It did help in that the sheer number of plants really helped me to unintentionally stagger my plantings. This should help us have maters over the entire summer

BB

BB, your garden looks wonderful!!!!! Where are the maters??? grin Don't tell ME you don't got no maters.......LOL

Lordy! I'm on pain killers for my back........I meant where are the taters, not maters.........sheesh..... I just love quality pharmaceuticals! LOL

This message was edited Jun 12, 2008 12:31 AM

I cannot wait for the first one to get ripe.

I think its going to be a Costoluto Genovese but others are stepping up to the challenge.

We had a mortgage life grow to close to the ground so we picked it so the snails wouldn't get it.

Mrs Bronx surprised me and fried it up and packed it with my breakfast the other day.

IT.....WAS.....GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!

BB

Oh yes, it's FGT (fried green tomato) season. Mrs. Bronx is a honey to "fry you up a share" as a surprise. Were holding off 'til the weekend when DD's serious interest comes to visit from D.C..

I only have a fraction of your 'mater crop but, many years ago and many 'maters later, that's when this girl from Miami Beach learned a bunch of takes on country cooking as well as how to can. (lol).

Laurel