Brian's (insaneintenti0n) 2010 Garden
 

I got a chance to start everything for this year yesterday. My porch is getting a good amount of sun, so, hopefully I'm not tooo early. It's still very cool at night, but I should be ok.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/img_0662.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/img_0661.jpg


I'll try my best to keep this up-to-date. Next update should be in about 2 weeks, if not earlier, when things start to sprout.


A link to my 2009 Garden Thread: http://ecorenovator.org/forum/lawn-g...3-my-turn.html

Hey Brian, I think I asked you this last year maybe but, why are you starting carrots, lettuce, cucumber, etc... in the pots? Are you just trying to start them early? Isn't hard to transplant some of those?

Carrots and Cucumber are new to me, but I had no problems transplanting anything last year. Just waited for everything to sprout, get ~2" tall, then took em outside and transplanted them into the ground exactly where I wanted them

I am also excited to get started this year, and it's still gets quite cool at night right now (below freezing), so I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to do anything outside yet. Plus it's easier for me to do the watering and everything while it's all inside.

Ah ok. I just usually wait until mid May and plant everything right into the garden except for the stuff that needs to be started early like tomatoes and peppers and the such.

Looking at your earlier thread, I see your lettuce bolted and went to seed. I have given up on getting lettuce heads. Our summer gets too hot, and it turns bitter first - a complete waste.

Instead, I go out and pick leaves as needed, and they keep producing more. They may never form a head, but I still get all the lettuce the family needs.

I did find that out. I now just pick what I want when I want it now for the lettuce. It was all part of the learning experience. But thanks for the note.

Not sure if you guys plant lettuce in full sunlight, but it's probably a good idea if you can plant it in partial sunny area rather then full sun. Lettuce likes the shade.

Update

After 3 weeks, I have a good number of sprouts, but no lettuce, and no green peppers.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/img_0703.jpg

I also started a staggered batch. This should tell me if my lettuce seeds are bad.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/img_0704.jpg

We have a good deal of sprouts too. The peppers were the last thing to come up.

I do have A pepper sprout now. they really did take a long time. might not have peppers as quickly as i did last year.

Update, 2 weeks after the 2nd set. The warm weather here has me tempted to put some outside, but it's still not past last frost quite yet. Last year this time was much cooler.

Batch1:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/img_0723.jpg

Batch2:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/img_0721.jpg

Wow, some of your 2nd batch looks better than your first batch already...

yea, i think there's a couple reasons for that...

the 1st batch missed some watering (I was away for 4 days)
I also only planted a few seeds in each container

the 2nd batch had some fertilizer mixed in the soil i used
i added many more seeds to each container, instead of only a few, and pulled some later.

No pictures, but i put things outside yesterday. I pretty much doubled the amount of room I have for planting (took over one of my wife's flower gardens in the back yard.) But watermelon and cucumber are both in the other garden, so i'll have to watch them for space issues.

I've been MIA for about 2 months. I've harvested some iceberg, and pulled a carrot today (see below) Here's a quick update:

Peppers & Broccoli/Cauliflower
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/IMG_3097.jpg

Broccoli/Cauliflower, Carrots, Celery, Lettuce
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/IMG_3098.jpg

Celery, Lettuce
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/IMG_3099.jpg

Broccoli/Cauliflower, Tomato
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/IMG_3101.jpg

Lots in here... Some Carrots, Watermelon, Cucumber, Lettuce, Broccoli, Cauliflower
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/IMG_3103.jpg

Carrot
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/IMG_3104.jpg

I broke it pulling it out though.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/IMG_3107.jpg

It seems your stuff is doing quite a bit better than last year?

Man, you must get warmer weather quicker then we do. I gotta post some pics of mine, but it's not nearly at the point where yours is yet. The only thing ready in my garden is spinach. And I'm pretty sure my watermelon is dead. :(

Good job this year though. Looks great.

It got hot here FAST this year. We had a weekend that was in the 90s in April. Last year was definitely a cooler year than we typically get too.

I did start about a full month earlier this year getting the seeds started an on my porch (March instead of April). So comparing pictures from my thread from last year, my plants definitely are about a month ahead. The only difference is that I started the peppers from seed this year instead of store bought sprouts, so they're at about the exact same spot.

my only concern though is the lettuce with how hot it is. what I harvested is fine, but some a lot of what's still outside isn't looking wonderful.

my watermelon took it's time once i got it outside. I thought two were dead, planted another one, and now all three are thriving.

I haven't been keeping track of harvests yet really like i did last year. I was out of town for two weeks, but luckily my wife was around to water everything. and THEN we started having multiple days of triple digit weather. Things are about at the same point now that they were last year (give or take)


So, here's some of the latest:

Salad ingredients
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0n/photo-6.jpg

My 4th cucumber I've pulled
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0n/photo-7.jpg

First (red-ish) tomato (I've been eating the green ones though, haha)
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...0n/photo-8.jpg

I've eaten one green pepper, but it was small. I was just impatient. They're only really just now growing. Broccoli has started, and I haven't seen Cauliflower yet.

It sounds like your garden is loving the heat!

Picked myself a salad
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b3...n/photo-12.jpg

It's been a disappointing year. I know it's not over yet... but, it feels like it.

Count so far:
Green Peppers: 2, barely (only 2 1/2 on the plants right now)
Tomatoes: 6 small
Cucumbers: 9 (best plant of the year)
Broccoli: ~0.5-0.75 lbs
Cauliflower: 0
Celery: 2 dozen stalks. I cut off pieces when I want some.
Lettuce (Iceberg & Romaine): 2 'heads'?
Carrots: 3
Watermelon: one TINY one, one 4.5lb, that's it for em this year, they both split, so I had to pull them. :(

It's just been ridiculously hot here. It's back in the upper 90s this week.

I thought vegetables liked heat?

celery, broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce are cool weather plants. plus there hasn't been a lot of rain. watering daily keeps em alive, but they really need rain to grow.

Heat: Some like it, some don't.
Lettuce turns bitter and bolts. It's a winter crop for me.
Broccoli and carrots also.
Peppers love heat. Cucumbers as well, as long as they have water.

Tomato plants like heat, but the blooms don't pollinate when it gets above 90 degrees. It's kind of surprising, but in Texas we have a short spring season for growing tomatoes. Get them out after frost, but in time for a harvest before the heat sets in. Mine got a late start, and I've had two large tomatoes and a dozen cherries, from 20+ plants.

I'm going to whine now. My garden this year has been a parade of the pests.
Squash vine borers killed the pumpkins.
Squash bugs (stink bug) killed the neighboring squash, then moved to the cucumbers. I have squished probably 5,000 of them in the last couple weeks. I was getting 2+ dozen cukes a week before that, but now they're all dead.
Stink bugs making my tomatoes rotten, horn worms eating holes in them.
Roly-poly bugs eat all the little sprouts as they come up.
Earwigs in the corn.
Grasshoppers everywhere. I've been letting the chickens out more, now that's solved. :D
The pole beans got a mosaic virus and failed.
The unusual heat cut short the lettuce and carrot season.

There's always next year... ;)

Calling the season done.

I've pulled 1/2 a pepper since last post and a carrot. There two more carrots in the grouns, and I actually have two watermelons on the vines, but they haven't changed in weeks. Things got very dry here, I went away for a week, and lost what was left of my broccoli, and some other plants, and as of yesterday, we were still seeing 90 degree weather (high 70s today and throughout the weekend finally). Bad year, but there's always next year, and I plan on going pretty big.

I look forward to seeing the new setup. :)

One way to reduce the numbers of squash bugs is to catch and destroy the overwintered squash bugs (and their eggs) when they first show up on your plants in the spring as this greatly slows down their population build up and the numbers of bugs later on in the season. Ditto for potato beetles on potatoes. I'm seeing the amount of disease and pest problems on my garden drop as I build up the levels of micronutrients in the soil, (and also on me as I eat the plants grown on this soil, see truehealth.org for this microelement effect on human health). The wild type cherry tomatoes (Matt's Wild Cherry) will set fruit even in the hottest weather and they prolifically self-sow, so I have been eating these cherry tomatoes from mid-May until whenever the first frost arrives even though I never planted a one.

Now that it is cooling off, I am seeing self-sown seedlings of lettuce, carrots, parsnips, komatsuna, arugula, radishes, and kale popping up everywhere in the garden. Also potatoes, garlic, onions, and wild garlic are coming up from leftover tubers and bulbs. In addition I have been planting lettuce, radishes, cabbages, collards, broccoli, arugula, corn salad, and other cool season plants. Also I have planted some cool tolerant tomatoes, that (along with the potatoes) will overwinter under cold frames for late fall/early winter harvest.

Thanks! Matt's Wild Cherry was already on my try-out list. Now it's at the top of the list.

Give it lots of room as they will overwealm a typical tomato cage. They like to climb and can easily run more than 12 feet during the growing season. They aren't bothered by the usual tomato leaf diseases or by hornworms and rarely show the fruit splitting problem seen in many cherry tomatoes. As they self-seed through your garden you'll find occasional plants producing pink tomatoes and yellow tomatoes.