Zones 8-9 Fall/Wntr 2010 IS UNDERWAY - Part III

Here's the veggie layout for the High Yield Garden.

oops!

John,
This is just an idea of how much you can plant in a square foot area raised bed.

This message was edited Oct 6, 2010 11:32 AM

Thanks for reminding me of that garden planner tool. I have been concerned for awhile because I thought I would have to sow my carrots in rows, and I did not think that was very efficient. Looks like I can sow 16 carrots/ sq ft according to this planner so I will give it a shot and sow a boat load of carrots.

My carrots do well with only an inch or 2 between plants. Sometimes if I have two sharing the same square inch, they twist around each other.
Beets, turnips, radishes and kohlrabi do well with several inches between plants.
When I plant squash, cukes, beans, peas, etc. they go down the center of the bed. Other things are planted along the outside edges such as microgreens, radishes, pearl onions(not with peas and beans, they hate onions and garlic), things that finish in less than 60 days and will be out of there by the time the main plants grow to the edge. Even my tomato beds have things planted along the edges like napa cabbage, bok choi, pac choi, spinach, garlic, onions.............anything that can take competition from the tomato roots and doesn't mind a little shade.
I plant cabbages 8 inches apart and start harvesting at one end. The transplants have to all be uniform, if one is teeny, its space will get taken by a larger seedling. Same goes for the broccoli and cauliflower on tight spacing, if a transplant is quite a bit smaller than the others, its space will get taken over, especially if it is in the middle.
When planting close, fertility must be optimum with adequate moisture. Because my plants shade the ground, I don't have a terrible weed problem between rows.
I need to go take photos, as soon as I finish these pesky taxes!

In case anyone in the Houston Area is interested, I finally have found a nearby supplier for the elusive? pine bark fines for Tapla's 5:1:1 container mix. Actually, Tapla himself located this supplier for me!

I'm heading out Saturday afternoon for a load for my eBuckets.

Linda

Yeah Calalily, take some pics for us!!

Ok, I sowed some seeds this past Sunday in a jiffy seed-starter kit that has 72 mini peat pots. I sowed swiss chard, rosemary, cilantro, and lettuce: calamar, red sails and majesty. The lettuce has already sprouted as of this morning and they look great. I will direct sow lots more lettuce in a couple of weeks, hopefully, and now that I have some experience under my belt (1 whole season) I should have a nice looking lettuce garden bed.

My big mistake with lettuce this past spring was that I did not thin-out my seedlings very well so my lettuce was jumbled together and most did not reach full size. However, they still tasted great and the bed was still visually pleasing to me.

I feel like I really get a return on my money with the lettuce because we usually buy the bags of lettuce at Kroger or HEB for $2.99 a pop, which goes fast. Plus, nothing beats walking out to the backyard with my scissors and a basket to harvest my salad for the evening!

This message was edited Oct 7, 2010 9:34 AM

SWEET, John!

I've been MIA too due to the heat, and after the crazy storms we had Tuesday I'm soooooooooo glad it was too hot to plant yet. Lost most of the leaves on the sweeties and the nanners and canna leaves are shredded. We had torrential rains and wind and hail the size of golf balls. For those of you that have seen my shade structure, the cloth was weighed down with big balls of hail, sagging about 3'. Trees down, power poles on top of houses - made the international news. The wind when the storm blew in sounded like those videos I've seen of tornadoes, that whooshing sound. It was scary.

A 30 year old probably 40' Mesquite next to my house uprooted and fell across the entire main road...

So I hope to be a planting fool this weekend. Temps are down - it was a chilly 64° this morning and in the 80s all week. Upper 80s/low 90s next week. Finally a break from the heat.

Oh, and I plant my broccoli 1/sq ft as well and they do very well.

With my luck I would have all my stuff planted and then the storm would have washed it away. Glad your OK

Sorry to hear about the storms, kelly. Mother nature is awesome and scary at the same time. My sis-in-law lives in Peoria (I believe) and it sounds like they missed all of that. They are in MT right now visiting friends & family so they must have had mixed emotions about the storms that passed through your area.

That shade cloth saved your bacon with the garden Kelly. At my house, the hail was coming in horizontally and with such force that it broke the a side view mirror on my car.

I'm glad the temps have broken, now to get some stuff planted so it can get started growing!

New sticky above on a PVC seed starter tray with wintersowing possibilities for TOMATO seedlings and spring flower seedlings! It is truly wicked!

Hugs!

And, thank you all for letting me be the thread-master here, and grow vicariously through you all, since all I have growing now is exactly ONE cabbage seedling...but there's still hope for me to set a fall/winter garden!

"Never give up!"

Linda

Sure did Mary - and to think I was going to take it down last weekend! Oh the horror! As it was I lost all the sweetie leaves and some pepper branches. The whole kit and kaboodle woulda been toast;o( Bummer on your mirror. My old car was on the north side of the house and was spared any damage due to the house being in the way - lol. FIL was not so lucky. Even under the carport his truck got all banged up.

Linda - lots of time left to grow my friend;o)

Kelly,
I'm glad YOU'RE ok! When I try out that seedling tray I'll send you my extras!

Thanks friend! ;o)

That PVC seed starting idea really is da bomb. Thanks for the link Linda....and you're right, never give up.....the next try might do it!

Once it becomes an obsession/addiction you can't give up. LOL One day I'll tell myself "never again" and the next morning I'm back at it.

I LOVE the PVC idea. That would also make packaging and shipping them MUCH easier too. One less thing to think about when I start my veggie plants for next spring. I have tons of PVC laying around and I can cut it ahead of time, and customize the size.
Never expected to learn that today. THANK YOU.

I really like that PVC pipe idea as well! DH thought it was pretty cool, too.

I LOVE DOING THIS, GUYS!!!!!

And, didn't ya'll just love his STEP X STEP pictorial? How cool was that?

I'm most excited about wintersowing a tray of FLOWER SEEDS for the springtime.

This message was edited Oct 8, 2010 3:25 PM

Step-by-step picture tutorials are always ok with me. I find it difficult to visualize things sometimes so that really helps.

Here is a pic of my 12'x3' bed, which I am using to grow veggies by utilizing the square foot method. I have 6 pacman broccoli plants in the middle row, towards the back of the picture. Plus, 2 cabbage and 1 cauliflower to the right of those plants (the bigger plants.) In the foreground, I planted the sq/ ft on the right with green onions sets: 4 rows x 4 rows of bulbs in one sq/ ft. I also sowed 3 sq/ ft with "short n' sweet" carrots: 4 rows x 4 rows for a total of 16 carrots per sq/ ft. That's the plan so I will have to thin out the carrots as they grow.

Close-up of my cabbage and broccoli.

I direct-sowed 10'x1' of "summer glory" lettuce in my 10'x4' bed. I had to pull about 9 okra plants though, but they were not getting enough sun anyway and were basically a "bonus" planting so no biggie.

Hello ,

I've been lurking a few days. The PVC idea is good. Think I might try it for cuttings too.

I'm surprised that people are using pressure treated wood for their raised beds.

I'm new to gardening in this zone and have had a few problems. Timming for the summer instead of winter is one I've almost figured out. Looks like I'll get help on that here.

I found a germination-temperature chart for veggies I'm thinking of using to help, need to get a thermometer. If anyone is interested I'll send the link or PDF file. It's a study by Colorado State.

Dane

Welcome, Dane! You can pretty much garden year-round in your area of the world. Callalily's not too far from you and she'll probably be really able to help you. She's at South Padre, right in your backyard!

Love your Rottie! Very distinguished looking.

The wood that I used for my beds are non-treated.

Hi Tom, if you need help, just d-mail me. Our farm is open to the public on Tuesdays.

It's been posted all over DG that pressure-treated wood doesn't contain arsenic anymore, and is perfectly safe for use as RB frames...

Glad to hear that pressure-treated wood is considered safe. I vaguely remember hearing this, now.

Got a question Linda. Do you, or anyone else, know if the BB stores (Lowes, HD, et al) sell plain Jane, ordinary, untreated wood? I asked the guy at the Lowe's lumber dept to show me the selection of untreated wood, and I bought wood based on what he showed me. The signage for that selection of wood also said "non-treated". Are non-treated and pressure-treated different things? Thanks for any clarification.

Had a message all typed up and everything and must have not hit the send button.

Didn't know pressure treated wood was safe now, must not be spending enough time at DG's, or just haven't been here long enough.

Didn't know they had a farm at SPI. What do you grow?

Later

Dane

Dane,
It would be easier to list what Calalily does NOT grow! Her farm is awesome!

And, she is a TOTAL sweetie! ^^_^^

Linda

P.S. Any friend of a Rottweiler is a friend of mine. Except you gotta do something about those red eyes. Looks like the creature from the "Omen" movies! Get him some nice blue contacts, tee hee!

We bought our wood for our beds at HD John - untreated I believe they were labeled;o)

Kelly,
Could you post a pic of your setup, please? I'm struggling with taking up all the grass in my backyard to commit to being an urban "farmer." It's a big leap, and if I do it, I want the yard to be a veggie grower showstopper, so I'm researching different setups carefully.

Hugs!

Linda

These are old pics Linda but should give you an idea... 3 4'x4' beds, 1 2'x10' bed and 1 4'x10' bed (under construction in this pic)... The 4x4 beds are varying heights. I'll try to get some better pics after work today for you...

...another view. These beds total 108 sq ft...

GG-you can try googling edible landscapes. That's what I'm going for. I refuse to water grass (I live waaay out in the country) when I can use the space and water for something edible

I tried to doctor his eye, should of seen the picture before.

Yes Rottens are amazing dogs. He was our 4th one. They just don't live very long.
We planted him last Monday.
Hope you like this pic better.

Nine

Beautiful pup.....I'm partial to black and tans myself. This thread has been hijacked! Sorry Linda. Back to Fall Gardening.........