Posted on 09/27/2013 12:37:17 PM PDT by greeneyes
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Unfortunately, the pictures on the link aren't there any more but the information is most interesting.
“Thank you so much for sharing your discoveries! I’ve learned so much from y’all! God Bless!”
You sent that comment to “TEXOKIE; greeneyes; Marcella; JRandomFreeper; All”
Since I had never grown any plant in my life until starting about last March, I can’t imagine I have contributed to your “learning”. Perhaps you did find out what not to do by reading my posts.
It’s been trial and error and a lot of the error since I started.
“Maybe you could put the pots with onions on top of the old garden area, and let them walk over the side and all over the old garden patch?”
The walking onions are in a long planter sitting on top of that garden area. And, another one has popped up as of this morning, so that’s eleven of them in that planter.
Here’s the situation: When I bought this place, the dirt garden was totally covered with weeds and little trees from droppings of the two big oak trees behind the back fence. There was an actual tree in that small space and some kind of very large fern plant in the middle. A lady who was helping with my move, wanted the huge fern thingy, which was fine with me, so she dug that up. Then, we got a tree company to cut down that tree because it put shade over the garden and nothing would have gotten enough sun to grow.
Then, my son and a friend of his, cleaned out all the weeds and little tree plants growing. Then, they installed a permanent for life cover over the whole thing to prevent weeds from growing. When we planted all the roses bushes and climbing roses, we cut holes in that cover to plant those roses. Husband put mulch over the cover so it wouldn’t look like a bare cover over the whole garden, except where the roses were. Weeds have grown in the mulch, but one just pulls on them and they come right up as they aren’t in the actual dirt, just in the mulch.
If I put a walking onion in a pot and set it out in the garden, the onions would walk onto the mulch and not in the dirt since the cover is over the dirt. Also, I wouldn’t want a whole garden of walking onions even if the dirt was there for them to walk on.
When I planted beans against the back lattice, those beans were planted in holes where the climbing roses had been. The same with the two squash plants I planted in dirt, I planted them in holes where the bush roses had been. I didn’t cut any new holes in that cover.
If the SHTF and there was no food to buy, that cover would be taken off and the whole dirt area planted and the squirrels would be removed “permanently”.
Maybe that gives you a better idea how the dirt garden is set up.
When Wayne and his friend cleared the dirt garden of rocks and weeds, and installed that cover, his friend was his college roommate buddy and the friend is an engineer. He planned, in inches, the installation of that cover, and it was scientifically covered by his mathematical calculations and calculated numbers of stakes were put in and that cover will never move and fits perfectly to the inch.
There was a stump in the side forward area, and the engineer kept at that stump for two days until he got it out.
My job was to furnish drinks and food as they did that work.
Sarajevo said:
“My okra grows to about 8ft high and produces a couple pods every two-three days. They look like walking sticks, not bushes. What’s your secret?”
If I had one, I would certainly share it. Let’s see...our soil is a very dark black with lots of clay, only lightly amended, our patch is in full sun. I watered during the summer twice a day. I talked to them because I never had seen okra before. Maybe they just wanted to show off! LOL! I squirted neem on them often. I learned that ants really like them, and a couple times I had to really neem those which had gathered near the blossoms. I planted my mammoth sunflowers right next to them in the same plot, and they also seem very happy.
Sarajevo also said:
“Did you use the 3% rock phosphate or something else with a higher percentage? I use the 3% and I put a handful in every hole that I’m planting tomato’s in.”
Now, in front of everyone I have to give my full mea culpa on the phosphate death story.
I read that phosphate is a good idea if you are not getting blooming and fruiting. Sometimes I very unwisely subscribe to the philosophy if a little is good, a lot is a whole bunch better. That’s what I did.
I bought a product by Hi-Yield called “Triple Super Phosphate.” [Sounds great, doesn’t it???]
The dot-blurbs on the front of the package state:
* A concentrated form of super phosphate
* More economical than regular super phosphate
* Promotes vigorous plant root growth
* For vegetables, shrubs, flowers, shad and fruit trees
* 2 pounds covers 100 square feet
The contents label states:
0-45-0
Guaranteed analysis
Available phosphate (P2O5) .....45%
Derived from:Triple Super Phosphate
The product holds 4 pounds
[Here’s the confession part:]
I now have left in the bag roughly 1/3 of the contents.
I used this on about a dozen pots in varying sizes scattered on the top of the soil. When I saw that the vegetation was being burned, I scraped it off as much as possible and put it into a pot which had no plant in it. I don’t understand how any of them survived, but some did.
I’m sure that what you are doing and using is probably within the realms of sanity, but I have no direct experience of that! LOL!
(((((((Silentgypsy))))))) And thanks for sharing your adventures as well. I’ve learned a lot from you too!
LOL! Thanks for asking for God’s blessing on Darlin. I join you! And God bless all the Darlin’s out there who tolerate and support and love crazy gardeners!
/johnny
How's your neck?
Lord, please bring me rain.
/johnny
AG said:
“Last year, I planted my buttercup squash too close to my pink banana squash—and only got ONE small banana squash off of 10 vines, most of which ended up dying mid summer—and thus contaminated my buttercups via unwanted cross pollination: they are both the same genus of squash. That meant that this year, the six I planted from my saved seed gave me 3 vines with squash that look like buttercups; and 3 vines with something that mainly looks more like a peachy-orange ribbed basketball, except for one that looks more like a crenshaw melon, with a few warts.”
LOL! How funny....and fascinating. What a wonderful lesson. Thanks for telling on yourself!
LOL! You are doing FINE!
Have a safe trip and we’ll look forward to seeing you Friday - God willing and Creek/creek don’t rise!
Almost all root crops with maturity date of 45 - 90 days: carrots , radishes, turnips , rutabagas,kohlrabi ,onions , garlic .
Also , leafey greens like swiss chard ,lettuce ,radicchio & chickory, endive & escarole, quick growing okra, peas , maybe some tomatillo.
Since you already have a wooden frame for your 'grow box', consider adding an angled lid of glass or plastic for a "cold frame".
A "cold frame" will retain heat and extend your fall harvest ; in the springtime , it will give you a jump on the planting season.
In much northern zones, the addition of a "Hot manure" under the top soil of a cold frame(ie.:fresh horse, fresh chicken)
will generate enough 'bottom heat' over the winter for more sensative plants surviving the winter cold under glass/plastic . At least , consider it .. as a 'poormans greenhouse'.
HOLY PHOSPHATE , Batman !!
All things in moderation .., at least until you know the effects on the plant material and soil types .
Clay is a heavy soil , and fertilizers , water , insecticides don't migrate much in heavy soil.
Even water puddles up, rather than soak through the soil .
We learn lessons better by our errors , than by our successes !
That's why we experiment with new crops , and new methods and techniques.
Much of that phosphate will remain due to the clay soil.
When you aerate the soil in the fall or spring , it will break up much of the soil and redistribute the fertilizer.
That would be the ideal time to add more organic matter and compost to break up the soil and lighten the soil even more .
Lesson learned !
I have baby carrots planted in a grow bag. Since they are baby size, I think the potting soil is deep enough for the carrots to grow. I have a mental problem with how much/deep potting soil something takes to grow and produce.
There is a grow bag that has plants growing and I don't remember what I put in there. That was the frantic day of potting soil bags on the living room floor and filling all the pots and bags. I am fairly sure those plants are turnips (maybe) and if so, the soil is not deep enough for them to grow. It's obvious to me now, but maybe that day I was anxious to finish and screwed up, again.
I've had enough rain that the plant soil needs to dry out some. Still have 30% chance of rain most days this week.
I wonder how many sweet potatoes are in the 10 gallon grow bag? The leaves are just growing everywhere, the vines keep getting longer and have fairly large leaves. I know to collect the sweet potatoes when the leaves/vines die - read that about sweet potatoes. Since I still don't believe plants make food, maybe there are NO sweet potatoes in that soil.
Another walking onion was up this morning, so that is 11 of them up. No, I don't remember how many I planted except I did manage to space them about the same so I think this last one fits what I remember planting.
I'm not doing a good job at all keeping up with the plants. I will think, “I'll remember when I did this”, then I don't. greeneyes asked how long the Mortgage Lifter tomatoes have been in the soil, AND I DON'T REMEMBER WHEN I PLANTED THEM. I must start a notebook like you told me to do. I have note pads but no notebook at this moment. I'll get one next time I go to a store and do it right.
My neck has recovered thank goodness. When it hurts and doesn’t want to hold up my head, it sort of consumes you because if you move your neck, you stop doing what you were doing and sit down again with the neck cushion thing around your neck. It just can’t be ignored like a wound or cut or some muscle ache could be.
I use tripe-super-phosphate by putting a LITTLE bit below where I’m planting potatoes, and pitting an inch or so of soil over where I scratched it in.
I also use it sparingly when I till in my initial fertilizer, because phosphate SHOULD be about double the nitrogen in a “complete” fertilizer; but other than high-N lawn (33-0-3 or such) stuff, all I can get most of the time for gardens here is 10-10-10. What I should have is more like 10-20-10, so I have to supplement with the 0-45-0, and do a bit of rough calculation to get it more or less right.
Marcella— How bout growing these in your container farm?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3072836/posts
Aint that cool?
I’m glad to hear that! Since, iirc, you’ve lost significant cartilage at C5-6, I thought you might have a more extended recovery, but if you used antiinflammatory agents, maybe it has a significant muscular/ligamentous/soft tissue component. (I have neck problems, too, that seemed to stem from an old whiplash.) Is it possible to recognize when a problem’s going to arise so you can head it off early? (I don’t practice what I’m preaching. I really think twice before I pop an aspirin lol!)
“Is it possible to recognize when a problem’s going to arise so you can head it off early?”
No, it is more a sudden thing - it’s okay, then it isn’t. I know it happens when the neck stays in a looking down position too long but I never know I’ve done that until it starts hurting. Do you know at every minute of the day where your neck is positioned? No, you just do your day not thinking about the position of your neck.
When it starts that pain, then I keep the neck in that cushion resting on the back of my recliner so the neck doesn’t have the job of holding the head up. A head weighs approximately five pounds.
This problem is a pain - a neck pain, that is.
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