Posted on 06/18/2010 4:59:42 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners.
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Regarding the picture — the cukes are to each side of some zinnias that need thinning. The cukes have the “horizontal” labels on them.
See picture below your post for my 10 cucumber plants. THey are in circles about 3-4 in. apart.
Nicely constructed raised bed!
Thank you. All credit goes to my husband. (my design.) We have 3 4’ x 8’ beds and one 2’ x 8’ bed. There are 5 perimeter beds to take advantage of the extra reinforcing he put around the outside of the rectangle which is about 17’ x 30’. The extra reinvorcing was to provide a firm edge to run the mower against. The perimeter beds are shallower — only 2 courses deep. The larger beds are 3 and four courses deep.
Everything is laid down upon thick cardboard to provide a weed barrier. The cardboard will eventually break down and turn to soil. Hopefully the weeds and pasture grass will have forgotten it was ever there, by that time. There are rubberized “mulch” mats laid in all the aisles to cover the cardboard and provide extra insurance against weeds.
There is a 6 foot wire fence surrounding all with an arbor gate as entry. There is 2 feet of rabbit fence around the bottom of the fence. We backed the gate with black, plastic, 1/2 in. mesh to further keep the bunnies out. The mesh extends over the threshold (pavers) and drags for extra protection.
I am so impressed. I love the mulch mats, along with everything else. Well done!
Your garden is very beautiful in addition to well thought out and productive.
Well, all the rain we’ve had will yellow leaves, and if it’s raining, the sun AIN’T SHININ’ either, so they get a double dose of bad conditions.
Miracle Grow soil is pretty heavy. I think the soil you used is not allowing enough drainage, either.
BUT...pray for dry sunny days and things should turn themselves around. Fertilize when you have a string of dry days.
Well, thanks to tubebender I got my fingernails dirty! THere were NO SEEDS in any of the mounds that I checked. NONE. All I can think is that birds carried them away and ate them.
So, I replanted, and we shall see. Perhaps I need to move my hoop house over the squash until it sprouts.
So far, I moved the peacock whirlagig.
I would thin the cukes to 3 and will your crafty husband marry me?
We finally got the aviary wire on the cage to protect the Blueberries and over night the green berries are turning to dark blue?
Does anyone grow celery? I have 3 squares of celery that is looking like it just about ready to havest. It’s about 18” tall and about 4” in dia. How much longer should I let it grow?
I checked the Web and I found all kinds of conflicting advice about harvesting celery. Boards, bags, blanching, etc. Or, just cutting it off and taking it indoors.
And what about the root? I used to have a recipe for celery root salad — booil it and prepare it sort of like potato salad. It has a a delicate flavor — quite different. The celery root used to be sold at the supermarket — sort of a big ugly blob like jicama. Is what I’m growing going to produce the same kind of root?
None of the advice on the web told how to harvest and utilize the root.
I’m so jealous. I don’t even have mine planted yet. The bed where they are going isn’t cleared yet because I need his help cutting and removing several large evergreens that were destroyed in an ice storm. He’s avoiding the task.
Hint, hint, honey — I’m about to lose 7 bare root blueberry bushes in the garage which is getting HOT these days.
PS. I had to make another run to the UPS over the weekend — it was gruesome because there were orange construction zones and festivals everywhere. But, I thought of your blueberry cages every time we passed under one of those over-the-freeway walking bridges.
My husband has been trapping and shooting coons over at a friend’s house. He’s gotten 7 now. I hope that the rest of the family doesn’t come over here and climb into my garden and steal all my corn. I’ll be looking for a “lid” for my garden area too, if that happens.
First off you have to promise it that you will respect it in the morning, then you must lie back and smoke a cigarette.
Be careful, you could go blind.
For blossom end rot; try throwing some egg shells in the planting hole.
used some epsom salts at the base of the plants as was suggested by several folks here on the thread...:)
tebebender mentioned hilling his corn, which he starts on a flat bed. I garden in rows, beginning with a flat surface. I start my corn in a furrow about 4-5” deep. I drop in the seed, then rake in soil from the sides to cover it about 1” deep.
After it has grown to about 8” above the surface of the furrow, I sprinkle my nitrogen fertilizer down the row, then rake in more soil to make the area level. The furrow is filled completely.
When the corn starts developing tassels, I fertilize again, then rake up soil from the 3’ between rows to make a raised row down the planted line. The corn roots are about 6” below the top of the soil hilled up around the stalks. The corn sprouts secondary roots, and, having a “foundation” well below ground level, withstands wind very well.
If you visit a farm where corn is grown, you will see that it is planted in furrows, rather than on top of raised beds. Cultivation, after planting, “hills” up the stalks.
First off you have to promise it that you will respect it in the morning, then you must lie back and smoke a cigarette.Actually, my first instinct was to grab my boots and run, but then I remembered I was not 25 anymore, and the plant was not named Yvette!
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