2017 garden thread

[BilletHead]

2 hours ago, Seth said:

How often do you guys water maters in raised beds when it's warm like this? I usually let the soaker hose run a few hours a couple times a week, but thinking maybe I need to do it more often? Those raised beds drain pretty well if they get too wet, but they also dry out faster than a regular tilled garden.

           Seth just about every three days for me. Also depends on the soil mix I have in each container of bed. We here in BilletHeadVille are not very scientific and some tub's/ beds have some good moisture retaining mixes, others pretty much crappy dirt. Our plants show the differences too but good dirt mixed can be pretty expensive so we kind of update a little each year. All in all cheaper to buy veggies from the store but we all know how much better home grown is.

BilletHead

[ness]

I think it's kinda hard to just answer 'how often' because of all the variables. I water with a wand and soak each bed until it starts to pool, then I go on to the next, and so on. Then I go back over all of them again, etc. until they're pretty-well saturated and immediately pool. 

I'll check the soil with my finger every day or two and water again when it's dried out to about 2-3 inches. I think this is better than a superficial, shallow watering every day.

Consistent watering is important for tomatoes because they'll crack with inconsistent watering. 

[tho1mas]

No watering today for me - got a nice rain last night in Nixa. Now the lawn is too wet to mow (lucky me). Lettuce is about finished & spinach bolted to seed. Time for summer garden.

[BilletHead]

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 7:10 PM, ness said:

 

How are yours coming along? I get the feeling you're sand bagging on us. 

   No sand bagging here. Getting tried of snipping yellow leaves off the bottoms of some plants though. Not all of them are doing this but a few. Besides the fungus or whatever being in the soil I blame part of this on the wet Spring. I even have one new tub that has brand new soil mix from wally world that has never had contact with my existing soil doing this. It has some bonnie brand  Arkansas travelers in that tub. I did notice this is prevalent with this plant in other places in the garden. I did water yesterday as some plants were really saggy and dry. Then early this morning about three AM the storm hit and watered them again. I have two gages out and we had over two inches in them. I swear this morning when I went outside I could hear the soybeans south of me sucking the rain up. It came at a good time we were very dry. After lettuce was out reworked a bed and put in two straight neck squash and two burp less cucumbers. Some shots of what is growing in BilletHeadVille,

    BilletHead

[ness]

Getting a few Sun Gold cherry maters -- those things eat like candy. Beans are coming in too. I let these go a few days too long, so a little bigger than is ideal. Kentucky Wonder bush and Dragon Tongue wax. Had some of the wax ones with dinner tonight -- delicious! Probably will pull the beets this weekend and pickle them.

 

[Stein]

Wife pickled half of her beets last week, finishing the rest this week.

We had a pretty good storm last weekend.  Here's the corn after the storm.

Figured it would be pretty much a loss but after one week here's what it looked like last night.

Pleasant surprise.

Garlic is starting to dry back so almost ready to dig up and dry.

 

[BilletHead]

4 hours ago, Stein said:

Wife pickled half of her beets last week, finishing the rest this week.

We had a pretty good storm last weekend.  Here's the corn after the storm.

Figured it would be pretty much a loss but after one week here's what it looked like last night.

Pleasant surprise.

Garlic is starting to dry back so almost ready to dig up and dry.

 

  That is quite a recovery on the corn! We have never planted garlic but may sometime. Right now we have it growing wild all over the back roads. Some of it gets brush hogged down bit there are some patches untouched. I have my eyes on them. Some of the tops starting to open. Stein, when you harvest do you wash your heads before drying? I did last year with no problems but read where you are not supposed to do it? I had no loss and had wild garlic through the winter. Only difference I found compared to domestic was the size of the head  and maybe a hot bite,.

   BilletHead

[ness]

I would brush off the excess dirt and let it dry as is. Don't think you want that extra moisture in there. 

[Stein]

Correct, do not wash garlic.  Dig it up, brush off the loose dirt, don't remove even the outer layer of skin.  Hang by the stems to dry in a warm, dry place with free air movement but out of the sunlight for 5-6 weeks.  After that I cut the stems off and put in my wife's canning cellar (a dark room in the basement on outside walls that I built an interior wall and insulated).  This year I'm going to try to braid some up in clumps of 6 or 8 with the stems to be able to give away to people.  Will be easier to hang to dry and looks nicer when you give them away.

All of this came from two bulbs that I bought at a farmer's market a couple of years ago.  First year I saved back 6 to plant, last year 10, this year I'll save back 40 so I'll have around 400 plants next year.  That will likely be my limit.  As you can see in the photo I don't bother with weeding.  I literally watered it twice this year when it was really dry.  That's it.  Otherwise ignored it.  Pretty easy to grow.

One other thing - you see the stems that have the white flowers on them?  Those are called scapes.  They come out right before harvest.  When I dig the garlic I save them.  My wife will saute them.  They taste like garlic flavored asparagus.  So if you like asparagus it's excellent.

[Stein]

Just saw your other thread.  You have it down on drying now.  I also trim the hair roots after drying when I cut the tops off.