[Gardening] What are you growing this year?

[RobC]

I'll start only with my non-failed plants so far:

- Radish ~ they grow super fast, and easily. A very greatful plant. Not a big deal though taste-wise. But if you want at least some success, if all fails, plant this root vegetable. The leaves can be used, too, apparently.

- Lettuce ~ again, the seeds grew crazy fast. There's like 60 Panter type (what was I thinking...); 10 "May's King"; and I plan to plant 10 "Ripping Lettuce" ~ where you can just rip off a few leaves for a sandwitch or similar, any time.

Less successful, but they are on the way:

- Basil ~ about 10-20; these are great both for seasoning, or as a lettuce substitute, excellent in hamburgers. Also, great against mild stomach aches.

- Tomatoes ~ 20 for starters. 30 more coming at least. The first 20 already started either germinating, or are tiny plants with 20 leaves. However, we have the terrible, cool, May-type rainy weather... in March. Very little sun. They might not be useful, so I prepared new ones.

- Carrots ~ Just started germinating. I used a tray, with about 120 tiny slots. I'll start planting them out soon in a flowerbed, probably. Gladly, they don't need too much space. (You know, I really wanna get a pet bunny, come to think of it.)

Now for the failures: peppers, eggplant, strawberries, cucumbers.

As for the ground, I built 3 small flower beds; 1 area for the 60 lettuces has a large fence structure on it, so the cats can't ruin it, nor can birds, or deer. Snails though... There are TONS of them... Not sure what's gonna happen. I'm tempted to try to cook them.
I planted radishes and a few of the Panter lettuces in one of the flower beds. About 18 or so radishes (about 2 per small flower pot, so there should be 36 at least). I covered it with a slab of fence, and put mosquito web on it. At least those should be safe. That said, the ground still has bugs and such pests in it.

Seriously, growing vegetables is tough. There can be illnesses, fungi; you need anti-air defence; further defence against ground attacks; and be prepared against sub-terrainean attacks as well. Oh, and weed. Plus it needs soil, watering, and maintenance.

But if anything grows at all, it will be tons better than anything you can buy anywhere. At the end of the day, it's worth it, right? Bullshit. You gotta be crazy to start gardening. : D
But then, I feel a ton better. And my weight went down by almost 8 kgs in a month!

I also plan to plant a lot of other vegetables. I prepared 3 californian pepper's seeds, that I originally bought at the supermarket. We'll see how that goes. : ) Onion seeds are soaking, too.
What else is there... Well, I actually prepared a lot of seeds by soaking them, including the failed plants. Apparently, if you soak them, they are far more likely to germinate. I will then put them in pots, containing generic flower soil; add a piece of paper towel; put the seeds on; maybe cover them with another paper piece; and then spray them with warm water + bottom water them likewise with warm water. I would start "open- germinating", and cover with a bit of soil, when they started growing.

Gee, I need to hurry up planting potatoes and peas. The ground is only half prepared. Very stressful due to time...

There's also an area prepared for a foil covered greenhouse. But that's for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, etc.

So, what are you growing this year?
Any tips and tricks?

P.s. I really hate my cats now.

[motuscott]

Good on you! I lurves me some vegetables.

[selig]

I always have hit/miss success with gardening. One year I feel like an expert, the very next year I feel I'm back to beginner status! So I just go with the flow and plant on intuition these days, leaving some decisions up to my wife!
We invested in roll around beds so we can bring stuff indoors, or start things earlier than typical since I have about two months shorter growing season here in New England compared to when I lived in the south/Nashville area. Living out west was another story, relied on my local friends out there and did pretty good with many things.

Got peas, carrots, tomatoes, and beans in the ground. Will do some flowers too - starting seeds indoors has been fun lately (only ever tried it once before), got a simple little indoor light setup for starts that was pretty cheap.
May add some raised beds this year for longer term plantings such as potatoes or melons/gourds.

So easy to get attached to the plants, and then get depressed when the pests invade or things just die despite best efforts. Just another way to experience the unpredictability and impermanence of life!

[Arpeg]

Tomato : Grow Marigolds next to Tomato as they deter Whitefly, Thrips and Aphids but also attract the right insect like Ladybirds n' Wasps that take out the bugs.

Snails n' Slugs : Use copper strips.. If you limit the way they come in then you know where to place them. Snail n' Slug's experience a mild electric shock if they go on them due to the mucus.
Also, get yourself some Frogs and make a lil' pool for them and make sure they can get out although they can jump some, not too clean water so add a lil' bit of mud n' scrub.

Strawberry Patch : Loose, nutrient rich soil.. So add sand to compost and don't compact down and layer with nutrients like seaweed, bonemeal, plus, add perlite for drainage, aeration but it also holds moisture well.

Try to feed all pot plants from the bottom/root. Rotate your beds each season so Potato for example goes in Bed A then the next season Potato goes in Bed B and replenish of course.

That's all I can think of at the moment without going too in depth and I hope it helps.. Good Growing, Rob

[Rising Night Wave]

TOBACCO - Virginia Gold - 40-50 seedlings

this year will be 3rd year in a row where i am going to plant a tobacco. virginia gold that is.
it's very amazing how good tastes this tabacco. it has some weird interesting fruity / cake aftertaste. slightly sweet if i may say so.

i am going to plant around 40-50 seedlings.

they grow very high. till 2,5 meters. amazing.
but since we do not have so many place around the house i will plant them relatively close.
so they wont grow in width that much. but still leaves are very big. hehe.

interesting fact is that this tobacco i am producing is not squirted with any pesticides or herbicides but it is all natural / bio / eco.
even not fermented. all 100% natural herb.

then i will harvest only yellow leaves. slice them fresh. and straps will be dried.
then i store that dried straps into paper bags. and i will put these bags into a store box in my room.

that's it.

thumbs up!

smokey smokey

[RobC]

Good on you! I lurves me some vegetables.

Shouldn't we normally hate vegetables since childhood? : D Though there indeed is a quality difference between freshly picked, carefully grown ones; and what we can get on the market.

I usually finish the day at 00:00. Crazy time consuming, but oddly enjoyable home work.

[RobC]

I always have hit/miss success with gardening. One year I feel like an expert, the very next year I feel I'm back to beginner status! So I just go with the flow and plant on intuition these days, leaving some decisions up to my wife!
We invested in roll around beds so we can bring stuff indoors, or start things earlier than typical since I have about two months shorter growing season here in New England compared to when I lived in the south/Nashville area. Living out west was another story, relied on my local friends out there and did pretty good with many things.

Got peas, carrots, tomatoes, and beans in the ground. Will do some flowers too - starting seeds indoors has been fun lately (only ever tried it once before), got a simple little indoor light setup for starts that was pretty cheap.
May add some raised beds this year for longer term plantings such as potatoes or melons/gourds.

So easy to get attached to the plants, and then get depressed when the pests invade or things just die despite best efforts. Just another way to experience the unpredictability and impermanence of life!

I try to do semi-professional amounts, and do my best, although with a difficult start, usually. Especially remembering how to do things; and figuring them out on the way. This time, I try to give the plants the best possible life, hence I did smaller flower beds. I also raised a greenhouse, made of foil and half circular plastic pipes.
I'll give the plants plenty soil - however, I lack a certain powder for the ground, that kills unwanted bugs and alike. It's either we have everything, or it won't be a 100% chance for success. But I have transportation issues; and I stupidly try to cut costs.
It's good to keep the plants' possible illnesses in mind, and have some chemicals ready, to spray on them when needed. Tomatoes can have an illness, where the leaves turn yellow and spotty, which can kill all of them in only a few days. Yeah, there goes the organic label, but it's better than zero fruits and vegetables. Of course, gotta spray them only when necessary. Then again, the quality doesn't get worse, but it takes usually 1-7 days, before it becomes organic again.

What sucks here is, that the weather changed. Especially the summer is too dry.

I started indoors, too, but it wasn't worth it this time. At least the strawberry seeds started finally growing.

Ah, the light is always a problem for me. It's awful when the plants start stretching, becoming all thin and leaning towards the window. That's why I decided to go for the greenhouse. It's bright, warm and humid, so the growing seeds/plants feel a lot better there.
I heard that some use UV lights. When I get rich enough one day, I hope to have some hi-tech tools for all the gardening projects.

Ah, watermelons and flowers are planned for me, too. However, the melon seeds just won't start. I tried soaking them for a few days now, and then wrapped each seed in super thin toilet paper. I did this for 10 different seeds, actually. Then I put them in pots with flower soil in them. I try to germinate them without covering the seeds at first. I spray warm water on top of them. Supposedly, this method can result in 100% germination. The paper helps the seeds keep wet.
I might do some video on it sometime. The regular method without paper, just open germination with warm water spraying, and warm water bottom watering, only resulted in 80% germination.

Hmm, flowerbeds/raised beds for potatoes? Depends how many you do. I have 50 potatoes waiting to plant, and they need a pretty big area.

Oh, pests and alike aren't as painful. I once had a lovely tomato garden going on. I would have needed to buy poles for them, cause there wasn't enough wood branches, and I kind of lacked strings, to tie them up. I told relatives, but they cheaped out, so we didn't get them. Then there was a strong wind, and it broke pretty much all of my tomatoes' top. That's where I left the whole garden to rot. It broke me for months. And of course, I was the ass in the eyes of family. They had the guts to say, that there's nothing wrong with the plants, and that I'm just being a jerk. Since then, I try to rely on their help as little as possible, and don't count on them at all.

Many pests can be kept away, but currently, cats are the biggest problem. Including damn strange tomcats that spray at night. That's why I will switch to a pet bunny, or two, eventually.

[RobC]

Tomato : Grow Marigolds next to Tomato as they deter Whitefly, Thrips and Aphids but also attract the right insect like Ladybirds n' Wasps that take out the bugs.

Snails n' Slugs : Use copper strips.. If you limit the way they come in then you know where to place them. Snail n' Slug's experience a mild electric shock if they go on them due to the mucus.
Also, get yourself some Frogs and make a lil' pool for them and make sure they can get out although they can jump some, not too clean water so add a lil' bit of mud n' scrub.

Strawberry Patch : Loose, nutrient rich soil.. So add sand to compost and don't compact down and layer with nutrients like seaweed, bonemeal, plus, add perlite for drainage, aeration but it also holds moisture well.

Try to feed all pot plants from the bottom/root. Rotate your beds each season so Potato for example goes in Bed A then the next season Potato goes in Bed B and replenish of course.

That's all I can think of at the moment without going too in depth and I hope it helps.. Good Growing, Rob

I'll look into that!
Similarly, I heard that onions and carrots should go next to each other, cause they keep away each-other's pests, somekind of flies.
I wonder if there's some plant to keep cats a good few meters away...

There might be some old copper wires here. Good idea! Almost every plant has a limited little area. Apparently, slugs and snails also hate coffee rests, plus it's good for plants, too.
There's a 6000 L pool/pond next to the lettuce area. No frogs in it though. Time to clean it out, I guess. It would be good to collect rainwater from the house roof into it. It would be about time to build the pipe system for that.

Strawberries will be challenging; but I do have compost, and there's some really old piles of pork and cattle soil, so they are well matured. Grass and weed is huge on them. Of course, after really long time, they probably lost nutrient value, but still pretty useful. I actually work these with a shovel, then send through a 5 mm sieve, to get rid of bigger chunks and some bugs; then a 2-3 mm sieve, which makes it pretty soft and airy. The result is a smoother soil, as well as a rougher one. I use the smooth one, when I really need to get rid of every bug, mostly for seeds.
There's some hay/straw around here.
I might need to buy a few things for the strawberry raised bed.

Good to know about the bottom soil! Luckily, I did that so far, but didn't plan for peas and potatoes. Those will go into open ground, but I'll make sure to give them the attention they need. They go into bigger areas.
When it comes to my raised beds, I rather built them to have a protected area for vegetables that need little space. Stuff like basil, lettuce, carrots, onions.
I don't exactly fill them up with soil, but rather put a good amount of soil below plants. I also build a circular mud wall around some vegetables, like radishes, and tomatoes, so that especially water stays in place.

I don't understand, why we need to rotate the growing areas? I didn't know about that.

That was pretty deep already, thanks! I hope I can nail the strawberries, which sound difficult to grow. Sounds like they are as needy as mushrooms, in a way (which I hope to grow sometime - but I kind of fear, what if accidentally a wrong one gets among them, which I eat ~ I mean, yeah then game over x D but still.)

[RobC]

TOBACCO - Virginia Gold - 40-50 seedlings

this year will be 3rd year in a row where i am going to plant a tobacco. virginia gold that is.
it's very amazing how good tastes this tabacco. it has some weird interesting fruity / cake aftertaste. slightly sweet if i may say so.

i am going to plant around 40-50 seedlings.

they grow very high. till 2,5 meters. amazing.
but since we do not have so many place around the house i will plant them relatively close.
so they wont grow in width that much. but still leaves are very big. hehe.

interesting fact is that this tobacco i am producing is not squirted with any pesticides or herbicides but it is all natural / bio / eco.
even not fermented. all 100% natural herb.

then i will harvest only yellow leaves. slice them fresh. and straps will be dried.
then i store that dried straps into paper bags. and i will put these bags into a store box in my room.

that's it.

thumbs up!

smokey smokey

Oh my, damn, I wish I could have that, too, but I think it might be banned here to grow it. Plus my lungs aren't the best for it, but super rarely, I enjoyed smoking.

Kind of reminds me of some of my tomatoes in the past, that grew higher than me. : ) One year I grew 250 tomatoes, the next year 1000. The latter was a disaster though. x D Never again. I remember trying to squeeze 4 tomatoes around 1 branch/pole. What was I thinking... Needless to say, while there were still a ton of tomatoes, they grew worse than when there only were 250...

This year I'll grow all kinds of vegetables. I hope to have a lot of good salads.

[Bes]

we are restricted to gardening in pots, but we've a curry tree and a chilli tree that are doing pretty well

[RobC]

we are restricted to gardening in pots, but we've a curry tree and a chilli tree that are doing pretty well

Oh I'll do that, too! I want some basil and oregano in the kitchen window. My little vegetable farming efforts eat up time like crazy; so I regret not restricting myself to something smaller. It usually starts with just a few - then I go crazy and do semi-professional amounts.

I'm tempted to buy tobacco seeds. Looks like we have them, too. Didn't find anything that prohibits growing them. I guess the prohibition rather goes for growing the Snoopdog medicine. : D