opiate82
Bronze Squire
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I have a withered brown thumb and I still managed to grow more tomatoes than I knew what to do with last year. Plenty of sun, and a good soak every couple of days was all I did to them.
Gardening
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chaos
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So we're getting a sudden cold snap here. It was 80 today, it will be 30 tomorrow night.
I'm not really sure if one night of non-severe cold is enough to kill my plants or not. I read online to try covering the plants with a blanket, but it will be raining so that isn't really an option. It is only one night and should only be below freezing for a few hours so I am thinking I might just take the risk.
I'm not really sure if one night of non-severe cold is enough to kill my plants or not. I read online to try covering the plants with a blanket, but it will be raining so that isn't really an option. It is only one night and should only be below freezing for a few hours so I am thinking I might just take the risk.
Chaos,
Do you have any mulch around? It is the time of year to get the yearly load at least for me. If so just cover them in mulch during the cold snap. Then when the cold is gone spread the mulch out.
Do you have any mulch around? It is the time of year to get the yearly load at least for me. If so just cover them in mulch during the cold snap. Then when the cold is gone spread the mulch out.
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It was 70 here two days ago, we got 2 inches of snow over night. It's just too early to plant here yet. I'm getting itchy fingers, though. I want to get stuff in the ground!
Love this idea - planning on putting in a few beds over the next month or so. We get a lot of possums and the occasional fox out our way and I reckon running some kind of roll back barrier off the uprights on your boxes would still allow us to get to the veg and not be too hampered when pottering around planting etc. Top tip of the day!
Here is a picture of the garden boxes I built a couple of summers ago for veggies.
I need to get working on mine. General rule of thumb in this area is to not plant till May, but I think we are done with frost. This will be my 2nd year trying to grow my own veggies, so I am still learning. Had an amazing tomato crop with more than I knew what to do with. I still can't get over how much better a home-grown tomato is vs a store bought. Also had a great crop of green beans and will be doing that again. Had decent luck with kohlrabi. I totally failed at growing broccoli. And surprisingly my zucchini also failed. I thought is was supposed to be easy to grow, but I think it may have just been overpowered by my tomato plants (which were in the same box). Had decent carrots and radishes as well but I didn't thin them out properly so they never got to big.
My biggest challenge, my dogs. My black lab, who loves fruits and veggies, discovered the "magical boxes full of food" about halfway through the summer last year. My mini aussie made the connection that tomatoes look strikingly similar to tennis balls. It was weird because they pretty much ignored the boxes for the most part, but then I think they noticed I kept eating the green beans straight off the vine and made the connection. Going to put up some sort of fence this year. In addition to the stuff I had good luck growing last year I'm going to try some jalapenos. I may also try to dig up the grass in the corner behind my boxes and try some corn back there assuming I get it fenced off. I would love to also start growing my own hops but that is a whole nother level of challenge.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
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Yeah I ended up mulching the flowers we planted last week in our front yard and putting boxes over the veggies in back. Now they are saying it will freeze tonight and tomorrow so I am hoping that being under mulch for two days won't kill the flowers. From everything I have read, the veggies should have a good chance under the box and with the ground being so wet.
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As far as mulch, the city here offers free mulch, and if you pay 3$, they'll use their front end loader and fill your trailer in about 1 minute. The mulch is both good and bad. It breaks down into soil VERY quickly. We put it in Springtime, by fall it's about dirt. So that's a pain, we must do it yearly. It's good, because the composting mulch adds nutrients to the soil. By spring, it looks like there was no mulch there the year before, but there's nice, rich soil.
We need about 4 trailer loads to do all our flower beds. It's worth the money - 12$ and sweat equity.
We need about 4 trailer loads to do all our flower beds. It's worth the money - 12$ and sweat equity.
lurker
Vyemm Raider
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The problem you're going to have, the same problem I have, is that in a couple of months, it's going to be too hot and there is going to be too much sun. Pick a heat tolerant variety and try to figure out how to keep them in the shade part of the day. My garden gets 9-10 hours of very hot sun with no shade and it's just too much. I need to get some shade cloth up.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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I can post more details/pictures if you'd like, but concept is pretty simple. 4x4 fence posts for the lattice, use some smaller pieces of 4x4 in the other corners to secure up the other end, 2x8's for the sides, frame in some sort of of wire, bam done. I was worried the sides would bow out with all the dirt but so far it has been fine.
For the lattice I did use 8 foot fence posts and sunk them in the ground ~1 foot packed with gravel and sand just to give them some additional support. Might be overkill but digging a couple of holes was no big deal.
I started gardening in a community garden and I have had better and better results every year. I built a box that I hope will hold up for a couple years here are some pics
chaos
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That is awesome, I am in awe of your raised bed. I am planning on getting two going, most likely not planted until next year because I already have enough going on. But I imagine I'll go with something simpler than that.
BTW it was fucking sleeting and snowing when I left my house for work tonight. The universe does not want me to have vegetables, well fuck the universe.
BTW it was fucking sleeting and snowing when I left my house for work tonight. The universe does not want me to have vegetables, well fuck the universe.
haha thank you so much, I'm spending what little free time I have on trying to get it up so I can go ahead and plant some veggies. Plan to put a lattice on the back side so my cucumbers and cherry tomatoes have something to climb on.
you should look into making a hoop garden bed if you get a light snow it should be fine, you may need to get a stronger solution if you get more than that though.
you should look into making a hoop garden bed if you get a light snow it should be fine, you may need to get a stronger solution if you get more than that though.
Selix
Lord Nagafen Raider
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Nearly finished garden prep. lot's o weeds to pull out in one box. Had to dig deep to get those roots. Kept finding those little white worm larve things in the soil probably fungus gnat larvae? Going to have to let my soil dry out a bit before watering but I doubt I'll need to water till mid-late summer anyway.
Feels good to actually get all of those outdoor work done. Already starting to anticipate those strawberries. Really hoping my grapevine survived the winter and sprouts soon.
Feels good to actually get all of those outdoor work done. Already starting to anticipate those strawberries. Really hoping my grapevine survived the winter and sprouts soon.
finally finished my garden bed and planted some vegetables feels good!!!
haha the first pics are upside down sorry about that but you get the idea! It was a fun little project but it feels good to be done.
I plan on doing some vermicomposting in the space underneath the bed but I'm not sure, I dont want to attract rats and snakes and god forbid-spiders!!!
haha the first pics are upside down sorry about that but you get the idea! It was a fun little project but it feels good to be done.
I plan on doing some vermicomposting in the space underneath the bed but I'm not sure, I dont want to attract rats and snakes and god forbid-spiders!!!
Thanks for the offer of extra pics, but I think I get the general idea. I put in the first bed today, about 4 foot square, and will see how I get on putting some of those frames on one end. I don't need to go as high as eight feet, just need something high enough that I can get some wire in there and run a screen of some sort off it overnight to keep the rodents out. Off to get some extra timber and wire today.
Falstaff
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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It's probably too late in the season already but does anyone have any experience with dwarf citrus trees? I was watching Backyard Makeover or some show on HGTV and the guy planted what he called a Margarita Tree, which was a dwarf meyer lemon, dwarf lime, and dwarf orange tree in a huge ass pot. I'd like to try one or maybe two next spring but am also worried about Chicago winter absolutely destroying it.
