Thread: In the Garden 2017

@xiaotuzi;

I really like your bucket approach. Would you mind telling how you did this?

How many holes in the bottom
Bottom rock for drainage
Type of soil ie. potting soil, garden soil etc. There seems to be an endless variety of packaged soil at the nursery.
Are they 7 gallon or 5 gallon buckets.
Do you let the soil get fairly dry before watering

Our soil here is clay with really crappy backfill. It is a wonder anything besides crabgrass will grow.

Thanks in advance.

Originally Posted by rolodave

You are lucky to find corn adapted to Idaho. That makes all the difference.

I started to order some "Wisconsin" tomato seeds. They were grown by the University to do well in our climate. Did not pull the trigger on them, though.

What kind(s) of beans are you trying?

We had good luck with the Local Seed Blue Lake Bush Beans and we loved the taste so I am leaning toward them again at least in the Half Acre

I might try something different in the Garden, we experiment there more..

Originally Posted by gssixgun

We had good luck with the Local Seed Blue Lake Bush Beans and we loved the taste so I am leaning toward them again at least in the Half Acre

I might try something different in the Garden, we experiment there more..

There are two gardens? Our whole lot is .25 acre. Not much room. Hence, my interest in xiaotuzi's buckets.

Originally Posted by rolodave

There are two gardens? Our whole lot is .25 acre. Not much room. Hence, my interest in xiaotuzi's buckets.

Wellllllll that is a stretch hehehe

We have a nice fenced 5 year old garden that we have been working with... That is 20'x25' and pretty well set up now

Glen's Half Acre - Calling that anything other then a cleared plot is giving more credit than should be due

I started by pulling Stumps and Slash Burning in April 2014 rough leveled and cleared by Oct 2014

In 2015 I bought an actual Plow for the Kubota and started breaking the soil and of course found more buried stumps also added more area to it.. I planted cover crop (Clover) for the winter

Spring 2016 I plowed it under, and planted rows of Corn, and Pumpkins and some left over carrots .. I bought a Row Cultivator but the weeds had taken over the area by the time I got it, and learned to use it
So I practiced Weeding/Cultivating for the next few months of last season then plowed in under for the winter and tossed out Clover again..

So I am hoping this year to plant a few rows of Corn and the Beans and one row of the Wife's Pumpkins and now that I have the tools and hopefully know how to use them I can get the now much larger Half Acre growing.

I have to do more reading and studying but there is a theory of growing Beans Corn and Pumpkins all together called "The Threes Sisters" that also interests me..

So reading between the lines we have a Garden and then we have a Plot that Glen gets to play on with his toys hehehe

Originally Posted by rolodave

@xiaotuzi;

I really like your bucket approach. Would you mind telling how you did this?

How many holes in the bottom
Bottom rock for drainage
Type of soil ie. potting soil, garden soil etc. There seems to be an endless variety of packaged soil at the nursery.
Are they 7 gallon or 5 gallon buckets.
Do you let the soil get fairly dry before watering

Our soil here is clay with really crappy backfill. It is a wonder anything besides crabgrass will grow.

Thanks in advance.

Yes, the buckets were 7 gal except for a couple that were 5 but 7 gallon is better. I used buckets so I could control the soil, drainage and nutrients. I used Pro Mix BX (black bag) for the soil because it has great drainage. I mixed the Pro Mix BX with Perlite about 4 soil to 1 perlite ratio. It's all about drainage, drainage, drainage for the peppers. I put six or eight 5/8 inch holes around the sides of the buckets at the bottom, not through the bottom. I did not use any bottom rock as the Pro Mix BX drains very well on it's own. The thing about the Pro Mix BX is that it has very little nutrients so you have to control that on your own, which was what I wanted to do anyway. I fertilized with a mild fertilizer about once per week and added a tablespoon of Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) about every other watering. When the soil was dry on top it was time to water.

In my opinion, most "garden soils" sold at big box stores are either not good drainage or are preloaded with slow release fertilizer which you don't want because it could force the plants to grow leaves and stems when they should be putting out flowers.

Glen, I would like to see the Three Sisters if you do it. I had a friend that tried it one year but the rain drowned their garden.

I have really good soil because the original owner was a well know flower breeder. The whole back yard was a giant flower garden connected to the neighbors garden. He must have brought in loads of top soil because most of the ground around town is clay. Unfortunately for us, the yard is now walled in by trees. Our container garden was dismal last year due to a lack of light. We are going to move it late this winter.

Has anyone started their seeds yet?

I would recommend growing your corn in a square not a couple of rows to help with the pollination. No matter which way the wind blows it will hit some of the others.

I personally will not bother to grow corn in my garden because it is not worth using up the room for the relatively low yields.

I tried growing Zucchini under corn one year and that sort of failed. The zucchini needs sun and only grew out of the ends of the rows. I still had enough zucchini!

I have known a couple of people that have had Horseradish in a corn field that they claimed worked if you don't spray the corn with weedkiller. Dig what horseradish you need and then plow the corn. The Horseradish roots then replant themselves and it is a continuing thing....

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

Glen, I would like to see the Three Sisters if you do it. I had a friend that tried it one year but the rain drowned their garden.

I have really good soil because the original owner was a well know flower breeder. The whole back yard was a giant flower garden connected to the neighbors garden. He must have brought in loads of top soil because most of the ground around town is clay. Unfortunately for us, the yard is now walled in by trees. Our container garden was dismal last year due to a lack of light. We are going to move it late this winter.

Has anyone started their seeds yet?

Oh crap. Seedlings.!!
Totally forgot where we were in the season, gotta get the peppers started here soon. Still got plenty of time, but thanks for reminding me.

Originally Posted by 32t

I would recommend growing your corn in a square not a couple of rows to help with the pollination. No matter which way the wind blows it will hit some of the others

Corn is self pollinating, anything less than six rows it's a waste of time. The outside rows will yield the least, but inner rows will do well

I have known a couple of people that have had Horseradish in a corn field that they claimed worked if you don't spray the corn with weedkiller. Dig what horseradish you need and then plow the corn. The Horseradish roots then replant themselves and it is a continuing thing....

I had horseradish once. And you're correct it will grow the next year if you don't harvest ALL there is

As the snow falls gently on the Cedars hehehe

We had 3 days of Sunshine so I was looking at seeds I am ignoring the 4 feet of snow on top of the gardens

Going to start the seeds in the house on Mar 15th this year giving myself 2 extra weeks to mess up

Going all Heirloom seeds, in the garden want to try it out..