We have a small yard (1/10 of an acre) taken up in the very back by a small tree. I want to create a raised bed closer to the house, but we have a mostly-sunny large bed by the garage. In addition to this, we have a few pots with herbs and small pepper plants. Tarragon, basil, cilantro, dill.
The items in the bed are cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes (Roma and sun golds), tomatillos, and more hot peppers. This year I’m doing Serrano, chocolate habanero, purple jalapeño, ghost and Carolina reaper, plus one called lemon something, which is new to me.
I use all this stuff to make things that are canned and put in the pantry to last all year. I use canning safe recipes and they are all acidic enough to use hot water bath canning. Both green and red salsa, hot sauce, various pickles (bread and butter, kosher dill, spicy dills), and sometimes tomato jam or tomato purée. I use the herbs throughout the summer for pesto, salsa, pickles and vinaigrettes.
The lettuce is ready to cut about every two weeks and probably takes the place of one 5 ounce (plastic) bag of lettuce when it’s ready.
I never do anything except weed and water, and we use the cardboard weed suppression method discussed in the other thread, plus we plant with soil made from our own compost.
I’m also zone 5, SE PA. I like to get everything out by the beginning of May and the garden will produce into October.
We have tree moths (not gypsy moths) that show up every few years in our tree and currently our yard is over run with caterpillars. 🙄 anyone have experience or solutions for this?
Post by 2curlydogs on May 17, 2019 10:07:47 GMT -5
Last night I was out mowing the lawn and, during a pause, I heard tiny chirping. The baby birds hatched!
Also, I was able to get a good look/shot of the male bird to confirm they're house sparrows. And this is one stinking smart one. The nest is so perfectly located that the only thing that can get in or out is a house sparrow. I got up on a ladder to see if I could see the babies from up top and NOPE. There's maybe an inch between the horizontal beam and the house soffet
For those of you that have raised gardens, what is your ideal size? DH is building some next week and I just can’t decide.
One of ours is 6 by 3 ft but against the house wall. If I did it again I would make it 2ft wide because it’s hard for me to reach over on the far side and o didn’t leave enough walking distance around the back.
The other is a free standing one.
Last pic: all our tomatoes from all our volunteer plants.
Ours is probably 4 by, I dunno, 16 sounds right? Since it runs next to our garage. But there's a rose bush and tulip bulbs from the previous owner in the middle. We can plant two rows of plants, though - tomatoes or cucumbers in the back, since they get tall, and the lettuce and peppers in the front.
I'm having a discouraging garden day. So many weeds and projects and I feel like I can't keep up. I'm trying to focus on the native rose hedge behind me literally humming with bees - saw at least 4 different kinds (I'm not great at bee identification). I've seen lady bugs, humming birds and butterflies this week too.
I just need someone to tell me that it's okay if I never win the war against the crab grass that sneaks into the veggie and flower beds and that even if the weeds are always with us, the garden still looks great.
For those of you that have raised gardens, what is your ideal size? DH is building some next week and I just can’t decide.
Ours are 5' by 25' long. They came with the house. If I were to do it again, I would turn the 3 into six and have them be 5' x 10 or 15', not withstanding lumber considerations.
Our yard is overrun with 60-year-old invasive wisteria. I try to pull it up (some of the vines are larger than my not-small arm), but it is insane.
We love to grow tomatoes, but the squirrels eat them. Ugh.
We've had to use bird netting to keep the squirrels from taking one bite of everything. We bought a huge metal frame garage with a tarplike cover for our garden area and put bird netting over it instead of the tarp. We even put in a zipper for the door opening.
Our yard is overrun with 60-year-old invasive wisteria. I try to pull it up (some of the vines are larger than my not-small arm), but it is insane.
We love to grow tomatoes, but the squirrels eat them. Ugh.
We've had to use bird netting to keep the squirrels from taking one bite of everything. We bought a huge metal frame garage with a tarplike cover for our garden area and put bird netting over it instead of the tarp. We even put in a zipper for the door opening.
We did the same. Built a giant cage out of PVC and bird netting. No luck. These monster squirrels also chew through our giant trash cans, so a little netting was a joke to them. So sad. I love growing tomatoes.
We’ve got Russian sage, lavender, butterfly balm, coreopsis, yarrow, and columbine, plus some mums and a few annuals to help it fill in. I think it’s going to look great once things start getting bigger!
My DH wants one really bad (also could be attributed to his love of Batman).
Huh, interesting. I just got a bee house; do bats eat bees?
I don't think bats eat bees, but they eat mosquitos so for that reason, we have considered building a couple of bat houses. Any little bit of help with mosquitos is welcome here.
Our neighbors recently got bees. I am hoping that I will be able to talk DH into getting some by next year. He is kind of afraid of them, but it isn't a phobia like his snake fear, so maybe there is hope?
They have chickens too, but until very recently they weren't legal here, so we hadn't seriously considered getting them. We have been interested though so maybe now will look into it more seriously.
H built my raised beds today. Wildflowers in one, veggies in the other two. I’m hoping to get the soil this week, next weekend at the latest, and then get everything planted.
Huh, interesting. I just got a bee house; do bats eat bees?
I don't think bats eat bees, but they eat mosquitos so for that reason, we have considered building a couple of bat houses. Any little bit of help with mosquitos is welcome here.
Our neighbors recently got bees. I am hoping that I will be able to talk DH into getting some by next year. He is kind of afraid of them, but it isn't a phobia like his snake fear, so maybe there is hope?
They have chickens too, but until very recently they weren't legal here, so we hadn't seriously considered getting them. We have been interested though so maybe now will look into it more seriously.
My bee house is for native (Colorado) non-stinging pollinators. They don’t make honey; they lay their eggs in these little tubes, cover the ends with mud. I’m supposed to put it in the garage or shed all winter, then hang back in the spring for the eggs to hatch.
Huh, interesting. I just got a bee house; do bats eat bees?
I don't think bats eat bees, but they eat mosquitos so for that reason, we have considered building a couple of bat houses. Any little bit of help with mosquitos is welcome here.
Our neighbors recently got bees. I am hoping that I will be able to talk DH into getting some by next year. He is kind of afraid of them, but it isn't a phobia like his snake fear, so maybe there is hope?
They have chickens too, but until very recently they weren't legal here, so we hadn't seriously considered getting them. We have been interested though so maybe now will look into it more seriously.
We've had chickens. I would like to get bees. Chickens are easy, but you definitely need to create a rodent-proof enclosure for them. That's why we got rid of the ones we had. We ended up with rats and mice, and then we moved to a place where we couldn't have them anyway. We'll get chickens again, but will be more deliberate about their enclosure next time.
I would like to have bees, but I have heard they're quite a bit of work and can be pretty expensive to keep. So something to consider before you go all in on the idea.
I'm having a discouraging garden day. So many weeds and projects and I feel like I can't keep up. I'm trying to focus on the native rose hedge behind me literally humming with bees - saw at least 4 different kinds (I'm not great at bee identification). I've seen lady bugs, humming birds and butterflies this week too.
I just need someone to tell me that it's okay if I never win the war against the crab grass that sneaks into the veggie and flower beds and that even if the weeds are always with us, the garden still looks great.
ive never planted our entire garden. there’s only so much time and plus you need to sit back and enjoy your work!
I'm having a discouraging garden day. So many weeds and projects and I feel like I can't keep up. I'm trying to focus on the native rose hedge behind me literally humming with bees - saw at least 4 different kinds (I'm not great at bee identification). I've seen lady bugs, humming birds and butterflies this week too.
I just need someone to tell me that it's okay if I never win the war against the crab grass that sneaks into the veggie and flower beds and that even if the weeds are always with us, the garden still looks great.
ive never planted our entire garden. there’s only so much time and plus you need to sit back and enjoy your work!
Most of the yard is mulch. Which currently needs re-mulching. So the despair was clearing patches bare of crab grass and ^*#^#~^}}\\<%%%*** tree of heaven, layering cardboard and hauling over chips. The garden beds themselves are fairly under control and beautiful. So long as I just look at them I'm okay. We tore out the lawn years ago, and despite some frustrations, I'm happy with the choice.
*** I'm not opposed to swearing, I just don't know any swears strong enough
Does anyone else vermicompost? If not, I would highly recommend it for environmental and gardening purposes.
we direct compost in the garden. The soil has greatly improved and the number of earthworms too! Another thing we do is mulch our leaves (dh mows and bags). The leaf mulch is an awesome weed barrier and the worms love it!
Can anyone recommend a good fertilizer for veggies?
Do you actually need any?
The best way to figure out what you need is to do a soil test and amend appropriately. I believe you want to avoid any general-application fertilizer with phosphorous.
I've never used fertilizer in my garden though. I just focus on soil health - amending with compost, rotating veggies, using cover crops as a green manure, etc.