Garden Updates Thread

Ricer2231 · Jun 20, 2013

I thought I would start up a thread for pics and updates of our gardens so far this year.
My little 8'x16' garden is doing great. My maters are getting blooms, the cukes are blooming and climbing like a coon on crack and my peppers are getting bigger every day.

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My first jalapeno.
Ya might notice the red geraniums in the window box. Those are in memory of my grandad, God rest his soul. For as long as I can remember back, my grandad would plant the most amazing gardens you could imagine. He planted just about anything and not only made it produce but made it produce like no other, and it didn't matter what it was. It could be anything from asparagus to watermelon. I swear that ole boy could make stuff grow on a bare rock. But he would always plant red geraniums in his garden and said "those are for the deer so they will stay outta the good stuff". So from the very first garden I ever put in there always has been and always will be red geraniums in my garden. I sure do miss grandad, especially this time of year.

bowhunter1023 · Jun 20, 2013

Love the story of your granddad Don. And the garden looks good!

I work in rural WV and just about everyone has a garden. Today I saw a few that were unreal. Manicured to the hilt and plants twice the size as I have seen anywhere else. There is also an older gentlemen around here that must be 90 and he grows the best and biggest garden I know of. I'd love to get to that point someday. Right now I just have two maters and some peppers. I'll have to snap a pic this weekend once I get my peppers in the new planter I am building.

hickslawns · Jun 20, 2013

Looks good Don. I thoroughly enjoyed the bit about your grandfather. Glad you had pleasant memories of him. I don't have many memories of the one grandfather who was still alive when I was born. Thanks for sharing.

epe · Jun 20, 2013

Ate my first cucumber last night.

Ricer2231 · Jun 21, 2013

Thanks guys! Hell yea on the fist cuke epe. Nothing like stuff outta the garden.

Diane · Jun 21, 2013

I sure do miss grandad, especially this time of year.

Me too. I was lucky in that until last year, I had 5 generations alive on both sides of my family. I adored my grandparents.

Anyway....... I didn't get a garden out, but am getting ready to try an experiment. I just learned about this yesterday. It's having a garden in straw bales.

My soon-to-be son-in-law is getting ready to thin his yellow squash and Zucchini, so I'm getting those from him. Supposedly, you take a bale of straw and thoroughly wet it down for 5 to 7 days, other wise the heat from inside the bale will fry your plants.

Once the inside of the bale has cooled, you simply use a trowel to open the bale, set your plant down in it, and let the straw re-close around the plant. That's it!

I'm going to see how it works and if it does well, next year I'm planning on making a garden maze similar to corn mazes! The grandkids will love it and I'll get a garden again!

If this works, I'll take pictures and post the progress.

Ricer2231 · Jun 21, 2013

xbowgirl said:
Me too. I was lucky in that until last year, I had 5 generations alive on both sides of my family. I adored my grandparents.

Anyway....... I didn't get a garden out, but am getting ready to try an experiment. I just learned about this yesterday. It's having a garden in straw bales.

My soon-to-be son-in-law is getting ready to thin his yellow squash and Zucchini, so I'm getting those from him. Supposedly, you take a bale of straw and thoroughly wet it down for 5 to 7 days, other wise the heat from inside the bale will fry your plants.

Once the inside of the bale has cooled, you simply use a trowel to open the bale, set your plant down in it, and let the straw re-close around the plant. That's it!

I'm going to see how it works and if it does well, next year I'm planning on making a garden maze similar to corn mazes! The grandkids will love it and I'll get a garden again!

If this works, I'll take pictures and post the progress.

Grandparents are awesome, cherish the time with them for sure!
Your straw bale experiment sounds like a good one. I am definitely looking forward to seeing how it works out. I hope it works out good for ya that garden maze idea would be cool.

Buckmaster · Jun 21, 2013

My garden died. First the frost, then the freeze, then too much water from late May and early June big rains. All I have left is beans.

Ricer2231 · Jun 21, 2013

Buckmaster said:
My garden died. First the frost, then the freeze, then too much water from late May and early June big rains. All I have left is beans.

Dang bud hate to hear that! That sucks!

yotehunter · Jun 21, 2013

I had too add mine too . And my grandpa taught me also. The garden and canning and putting up veggies its a dying art.

Ricer2231 · Jun 21, 2013

Dang yotehunter! That's a nice looking garden. Yes you are right it is a dying art. Very sad!

yotehunter · Jun 21, 2013

Thanks ricer, its sad too see people my age of 36 that wouldn't make it if times get hard. My kids love planting and picking. I couldn't be happier when the are beside me out there.

Ricer2231 · Jun 21, 2013

yotehunter said:
Thanks ricer, its sad too see people my age of 36 that wouldn't make it if times get hard. My kids love planting and picking. I couldn't be happier when the are beside me out there.

There's nothing better than seeing your youngins take interest in something that has such a tradition as gardening. Ya just kinda step back and smile and know that at least the tradition has a chance to live on. It's awesome that your kids have taken a shine to planting and picking,so many kids become hooked on so many things that are so much worse.

hickslawns · Jun 21, 2013

Good looking garden indeed Yotehunter! Glad to hear you have your kids learning along side you. I don't want my kids to think we are crazy doomsday prepper freaks, but I do want them to experience some of the basic skills our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and so on HAD to do in order to get by. Splitting firewood, planting a garden, and processing a deer from hunt to table are a few of these things.

yotehunter · Jun 22, 2013

Yea I agree
Phil kids these days kids don't realize how easy they have it. I try too instill good work ethics in them a make sure they appreciate the simpler things in life.

hickslawns · Jun 23, 2013

Sounds like we are on the same page yotehunter. Mine will be reminded how good they have it this weekend. We are going "home" (although I grew up here) to our family reunion. We will be sure to drive up the mountain to my great grandmother's homestead. It is a different walk of life. Many still live off the land down there. Pretty much work for yourself or in the coal mines.

Fullbore · Jun 23, 2013

You gotta a heck of a good looking garden Yote! We can see a lot of time spent and hard, but rewarding work there. I spend as much time as I can in mine TOO.

It is a dying art,as Ricer said. Glad to hear that your kids show some interest.

Buckmaster · Jun 24, 2013

This thread looks so good I went to a green house during lunch today. I picked up some replacement tomatoes and peppers. I'll get them in the ground tomorrow and start playing some catch up.

DJK Frank 16 · Jun 24, 2013

Took this yesterday. Learned something as a first year gardener, leave more space between rows. This is a side shot so you can't tell but the beans and potatoes are turning into one big patch.

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DJK Frank 16 · Jun 24, 2013

Here is a long ways view of the rows a week or so ago that shows our cluster.

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