Your 2015 Garden, what are you doing?

I am building a new Greenhouse, and adding some new raised beds. The growing season is pretty short here and I need to stretch it out as much as I can.

 

What type are you building. I really only need cold frames where I live but I've been thinking of something more elaborate and for year round

 

We're split the raised beds and now instead of 2x18" high boxes (each 4x8) we have a total of 5 boxes. 4x6" high and 1x12" high. So far we're growing tomatoes (couple different types), lettuce (couple different types), spinach, peas, cucumbers, squash (couple different types) and peppers. It's obviously not a "feed the family" garden but it adds variety and we do love our fresh salsa.

Once the peas are all done we'll be putting in bush beans and after the lettuce and spinach are through we'll put in some more tomatoes (Roma) for sauce.

 

Waiting for it to stop raining in East Texas. Planted potatoes on 2/14 and they rotted in the ground. Have not been able to get the tractor back in since. If this was after the SHTF I would be in a world of hurt. However I have been foraging some. Ate cattail shoots for the first time and tried pine needle tea. Not bad, either of them.

 

Yep, between the rain and the frost we just had, anything in the ground would not be doing very well. I'm hoping to break ground soon.

 

Its 8'x12' framed with wood 2x4's and corrugated polycarbonate panels. It will have 2' wide planter boxes waist high full length down the sides and across the back. It has rained here the last two days, but cleared off sometime during the night and is 22 degrees this morning. Anything frost sensitive is never safe here until June (then you never know for sure). Then by the end of Aug. you need to pay attention to the weather forecast and be ready to cover things at night. This year besides the planter boxes, I plan to do more container planting and just move them inside when the forecast is iffy.

 

This year I bartered for a pop up mini green house in which I am using to start my seeds. I live on a small city lot so I tilled up and have partially fenced in (will be be bunny proof when time allows) about a 20'x 8 foot plot and in the midst of converting a sandbox into a raised planter. I have started Black Krim tomato, bush beefsteak, green zebras. Cabbage, summer squash, pumpkins,watermelon, cucumbers, jalepeno and an asian variety of hot peppers along with some red onion from seed. This is the first year on the property, so I'll see how this mad experiment goes.

 

Good luck! Keep us posted on your ad experiment.

 

This weekend will be spent planting watermelon, cucumbers, peppers and a new strawberry patch.

 

The last 2 nights have been down around 40-42 F. I brought my uber hot peppers inside and will keep them there through tomorrow night. Someone up north close da gate!!!!

Kajun

 

It's been a good spring here in SENM. I got the plum tree thinned out, but it just killed me to take off those healthy looking fruits. Ahrrhhggg!! Since we are at the middle of our hail season, I'm going to leave the peaches and apricots alone for another few weeks, just in case.

My super hot peppers are starting to produce! WOOHOOO! They are in ~1 gallon containers so I can move them indoors if needed....and it was needed last week due to high winds and hail warnings. So far the red ghost plant has given 3 peppers, my chocolate ghost has given one pepper but has 4 more growing on the bush, my yellow morunga scorpion plant has given me 4 peppers (3 small and one large.....haven't eaten the large one yet) and today I saw a new pepper on my Butch T Scorpion plant. I'm still fighting aphids. I spray with Neem oil every week and a half. It's helping, but hasn't gotten rid of them. I'm still looking for an ant hill to lay my plants in. I've been cutting the peppers into small pieces (not tiny pieces, small ones about 1/4" square) and have eaten them with rice and gravy and last night and today, I put some on a supreme pizza. They have definitely lit me up!! WHOOO BOY! But once you get past the burn, the taste of them is like nothing else I've tasted.

I bought a couple of heirloom tomato plants at Lowes a couple of weeks ago and they got transplanted into larger containers last weekend. They are looking good. I've got some canning cucumber plants started from seed that also got transplanted from the seed starting tray to 4" pots last weekend and 2 kinds of dark heirloom tomatoes still in the seed starting tray....Black of Tula and Cherokee Purple (my wife's favorite)

Temps here are still pretty mild. Mid 50s to lower 60s at night, 80-90 for highs during the day. We've lived here for 14 years now and this is the longest spring season we've had. Loving it!

Take care everyone and happy gardening!

Kajun

 

We've had record rainfall. My plants are exploding. The fruit trees are loaded, grapes going nuts, I got blackberries coming up in the chicken yard even. Tater tote is coming on nicely, got cherry tomatoes all over the place, sunflowers getting big. Even got some itty bitty jalapenos and banana peppers appearing on the plants. Cucumbers almost big enough to catch onto the trellis. The bathtubs are full of onions, as well as forage kale that I pull for the chickens and rabbits. Corn, okra, watermelons, beans and cantelope just now coming up. Zucchini and spaghetti squash is taking off, going to grow them vertically this year. Still need to plant the sugar pumpkins, sorghum, and cotton, was going to do them today but heavy thunderstorms kept me indoors. Will get them in the ground tomorrow.

 

@ditchwitch you grow sorghum? For feed or brooms? And cotton? For cotton ball or weaving.... IM so curious how people use commodities.... IM not use to thinking of them in the garden

 

The sorghum is an experiment this year, going to see if I can't make sorghum molasses from it. It's called Honey Drip. Figured I'd give the seedheads to the chickens. My uncle used to make sorghum syrup, had this manual machine that crushed cane. Not quite sure how I'll do it without one but I have a few ideas.

The cotton is called Nankeen Brown. I'm growing it to use for nesting materials for my rabbits. They pull fur but sometimes it gets pretty foul or they may not pull enough. I have some patches of really awful ground that's not really accessible to the hose, no good for most veg but perfect for cotton. They have a green cotton too, may plant some of it next year. They plant cotton around the first of June up here so I'm still good on time.

 

ditch witch, outstanding post and incredible gradening!!!! Love the idea of old tubs for planting. I'm going to start keeping my eyes and ears open.

Kajun

 

A week late but I finally planted my boxes last night. The strawberries that I put in my boxes last year are spreading all over, covered with blossoms and if my netting works I should have a nice harvest. I have a lone green leaf lettuce plant that seems to be a volunteer. I always assumed that the seeds were too delicate to survive a winter.

This year I planted chamomile. I am really hoping it takes and that I have a bumper crop.

 

I've been pulling turnips all week. I didn't intend to plant turnips, but I had these packets of chicken crack that I tossed out earlier in the spring and forgot about. Now I have turnips coming up all over the place. I pulled a couple this morning along with a sweet yellow onion, will do them up for dinner tonight. Got my first cherry tomato the other day, sweet and perfect. The cherry tomato plants have completely taken over their bed and are reaching for the roof of the chicken house now. Sunflowers are all starting to develop heads. Tomatillo has gone mad, looks like an ambitious bush and is covered with paper lanterns now. Didn't get the slugs it usually gets, maybe because of the head start? Spaghetti squash just caught hold of the cage on the chicken water tank and are starting to climb. Or well, two of them have. The other two want to sprawl down the walkway so put a PVC sleeve over them to force them up for a little bit. Going to let them cover the tank and go up into the mimosa tree in the chicken yard. Their vines go 20 ft easy so take up too much space to let them stay on the ground, but they're welcome to that tree. I don't like it anyway. I'll get pictures when the tree has spaghetti squash hanging all over it, heh. The peppers look abused. All that rain, little sun, they all dropped their leaves. Basically a row of stalks now though some have little jalapenos and banana peppers clinging to a single leaf. Lots of sun this week though so I see new leafs coming on. Habaneros didn't care, they look fine. Another row of in-ground-seed-planted red bells is coming up but taking its sweet time. Two jack-o-lantern pumpkins are up and going strong, and the corn is taking off. Six zucchini plants, taking them vertical as well. Blackberries and raspberries are blooming, grapes are loading up... lost them all to caterpillars last year so watching them close this go around. Had to build a frame to support the peach tree branches... I thinned but barely made a dent. Apple has yet to bloom. Apricot lost half its load to hail and high wind but still heavy.

I am planning for our fall garden now. I've never really done one but I am this year. Turnips, leeks, cabbages, lots of salad greens. Carrots maybe. Not sure what else. Most will be out in the open but I have a few beds I'll be able to cold frame. Are rutabagas any good? Parsnips? There's a lot of root veg that I've never had and have no clue how to cook but I'd like to find out. Cherry trees are going in this fall. Pear too if I can find seckle or comice, and maybe another peach.

 

This covers rutabaga pretty well

What Are Rutabagas Good For? - Mercola.com

Soz I'm too lazy to type. And they taste kinda of like turnips just a bit sweeter but it they don't get sufficient water they can be bitter

Parsnips are yummy as chips
The peppers will recover ... plants don't commit suicide

Your garden sounds lovely.

 

LOL plants may not commit suicide, but they do die. Seen plenty of them go to plant hell in this part of the country.