Anyone growing any veggies?

Sproutage! (Lettuce on the left, spinach on the right and peas in the middle.)

Yeah ! You are ahead of me, this is where I started yesterday morning....

LOVELY raised bed!! Looks like today's weather will be great for working on it---at least after it warms up. It's still only 40 here...and I'm an old wuss...LOL!

and out front my delivery of garden soil.

- I did get it filled just over half way before I had to pick up the kids from school. Hopefully today will fill it and plant if I have any energy left to actually put seeds down. !

DIG IN ! whew, it's way heavier than mulch, I've got blisters on my blisters.

Nice-looking soil!

Great looking soil, just wish I had more room. Last year we put in a raised bed, 8 ft. long and 4 ft. wide. Soil is so bad I had to try something new so I could have tomatoes and squash. I'd like to put in a drip system this year. Digging in the dirt getting ready for this year I found a million cut worms, well seemed like that many. I spent a lot of time with my little shovel and container picking them out. Cut worms gone and time to think of planting.

well been out since this morning...with my helper (she has on my ipod and was singing LOUDLY "My Sharona" tee hee

and mission accomplished... I put in peas, spinach, leaf lettuce, some beans (might be too early so I just tried a few seeds, french and kentucky blue) carrots, and green onions.

alot of the bed is still empty... I got the soil from Cochran's and it is nice, I added poultry compost as well.

oops forgot the pic ! I am a wee tired.

Nice job! Your beans will probably sprout when it gets warm enough for them.

Oh boy Redtootsiepop, you're going to get a lot of goodies out of there!

Here's some pics of my container gardening I took today.

And here are some of my tomatoes in the backyard.

Pugz, how big are those tomato containers, and are you going to plant them in larger containers as they grow? I ask because I've decided I can only to 'maters in containers (I don't have the space to rotate crops). I'm still trying to figure out how many and how big and where. Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated!

imapigeon, those are 5 gallon grow bags. I've followed another DGer's advice here. What I did was transplanted the tiny sprouts when they were about a month old into these growbags, they are half filled with potting soil and coconut coir mixed together.

What I am doing is, as the tomatoes grow taller, I keep adding some more potting mix/coir into the bags and will continue to do this until the bag is completely filled with 5 gallons of soil. I will not transplant these into larger containers. Then I will put up Tbars at each end of the yard, string some clothesline across it. Then I will tie twine to the clothesline and let it hang down. As the toms grow, I will tie or clip the vines onto the twine hanging down. I am so restricted on space, this is the best thing I could find or come up with to do with the toms since I want to grow a bunch of them. :)

What you see here are the bags half full and the top is rolled down. I roll up the top as I go. (hope that makes sense). These bags already have holes in them when you get them and are really cheap!
There's no way I could buy enough plastic or ceramic pots to grow all the things I want to grow, so I chose these, even though they are not the most attractive things in the world.

They are in their permanent home now. Just fertilize and water and support them is all that you have to do once the bags are completely filled.

The filling of the bags as you go promotes a huge strong and healthy plant due to the tom's rooting all along the stem.

AHAH! I see it now! Do you have a thread started somewhere I can follow to see them as they grow?

Hmmmm----Maybe I can do something similar in my big plastic pots.....start them with a few inches of soil, and then fill in as they grow and put support in for them as they reach the top of the pot. I might be able to start seeds with a garden bell over the top---it's a little too cold here yet for them to be happy under "normal" conditions.

Thanks for posting the details!

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/947858/

Here's where I got the idea to do this. There are several pictures of their progress here. I have pics but they are not as good as these and don't have them organized in sequence like on this thread.

You can do the same thing in any container, doesn't have to be growbags, main thing is to have at least a 5 gallon pot for the tomatoes, bigger is of course, always better, I guess, but I don't have the room for anything bigger than these.

5 gallons should be ample room for good production for the tomatoes.

Oh, just wanted to add, if you put them into the growbags like this and it gets too cold, all you have to do is roll up the top and tied the top with a twist tie and you've got instant shelter for each plant. Then you can open them up again the next morning. No lugging plants in and out of the house. The grow bags can be used year after year and take next to no space to store. The bottoms are pleated with holes already punched in the, so they stand up on a level spot. I really like them. You can also put them down inside a prettier pot if you like and no one will be the wiser. :)

Thanks for the link! All the pots I'm planning to use are plastic and at least 5-gal. Since I already own them, I'll try them this year & see how they do using a similar method to yours. If I can gradually get better pots (since I have to work these into my newly-landscaped back yard), the grow bags would be ideal! But for now I think I'll just stick them in wide spots on the gravel path, and on the side of my raised beds and see how I do. Everything's different this year, so I'm not even sure where the sun will hit....LOL! At least I can easily move these pots if it turns out I've plunked them in too much shade. Downside is I will have to limit myself on varieties. RATS!

Those grow bags are really cool! - you have them lined up so neatly I don't think they look bad at all. Being able to move them around or covering to protect is so great as well. I have seedlings started inside already, but I might try this next year - thanks for the link.

Once there are tomatoes on them, who looks at the container anyway !

imapigeon, I've got the same problem with the sun moving all around my yard. Last year I didn't pay attention to where the shady spots were when I planted about 3 months too late, there weren't any. LOL! So this year, when trying to plant earlier, I had no idea where the sun was and for how long. This has been a real challenge so far. But pretty soon the whole place will be blazing and full sun all the time.

Redtootsiepop, I keep looking at some of my ugly, plain plastic pots and those grow bags and was also hoping that no one would pay much attention to the container once the plants grow big. I agree, they don't look too bad if placed neatly. One thing I did figure out, I don't need to fill them all the way if I am only planting radishes and lettuce, things like that. Since I have to truck in all my medium, too, that's a cost savings there.

For those of you who made the raised beds, did you find it amazing how much dirt it takes to fill up such a seemingly small area? hahaha We made a semi-raised bed last year (mole has now taken it over) and I couldn't believe how much it took to fill up that little space.

I just finished putting a whole forest of little sticks into my raised bed to keep cats out. They've been digging up my seedlings. My cats know better, and they're in all night, but there are 2 or 3 that roam the neighborhood and every morning I've been finding more stuff dug up. Had a bunch of nice little straight sticks from pruning that I had set aside "in case", and I just cut them up into 1-foot lengths and shoved them into the soil. Let's hope they do the trick...GRRRRR!!!!

oh ima that is so frustrating !!! we just adopted a cat last weekend, and one squirt from the water bottle was all it took to keep her from chewing my seedlings. so, she's a keeper for sure.

Oh Pugzley - YES. I was going to have my DH make two of those raised beds. It is 20' x 4' wide. But after filling it, no way . I'm going to amend the soil behind it and grow corn there, so it won't shade everything else. Also, if I need to do herbs in containers I'm totally ok with that.

I had to order 4 cubic yards of soil.... I am so over wheelbarrowing right now! There is just a small pile left in the front.

Suddenly my neighborhood is overrun with stray purebred cats. There's a blue eyed Bengal, a lynxpoint Siamese and a Sealpoint Siamese all in a block with only 3 houses on each side of the street! I think someone has been fooling with some of my pots, I saw some pawprints in a couple of them, luckily not too much damage, but the plants are just sprouts. They do it when I am not looking of course!

Redtootsiepop, what is your cat like that you adopted? I have 4 adopted Persians, 2 are geriatrics. LOL! One is 14 and a half and the other, his daughter is 13 plus. I'll post some pics of them for you. Would love to see yours too.

This is the old man, Rolls Royce.

This is Taz, his daughter.

This is Whisper in his lion cut. Poor little thing weighs about 6 lbs and is 5 or so years old. This is a fake plant he's sniffing. :)

And here's my black and white Tuxedo Persian, Oreo.

We don't see many cats around our neighborhood - we have coyotes. At our old house, I used rose prunings to keep them out of the bed by our front door, which they were using as a loo. We have other critters crawling around here at night though, and for one problem, we used a plastic nursery pot holder - you know, it's a square thing that has rings in it to hold the pots? Put it just under the mulch, and whatever it was out there left the bed alone. I think anything that doesn't feel right under their paws will do the trick.

Awww, so cute ! Wow and four of them, they must be good company.

I need to take a picture of ours, she's just a regular ol' kitty cat. About a year old, I think it's called "muted torti" which just means gray with peach splotches. Not anything special, but her personality is fabulous, learns really quick -we've really enjoyed her antics - and she's very affectionate with the kids. This morning she got trapped in with the olive oil in the cupboard, we heard her meowing and my son found her... I was worried she got outside.

That's terrible that people are dumping cats on your street! Siamese cats can be very pretty... who's feeding them?

Oh, we have coyotes, hawks, owls and cars to boot. Hate seeing those beautiful cats out there because I know they won't be there for very long. :( Great idea on the rose bush cuttings, I can use that here.

Aw, Redtootsiepop, they are all special. I happen to be partial to the Persians because they require so much grooming, hair, eyes and are very susceptible to getting different illness and I know how to care for them, otherwise, I'd have mixed breeds and definitely short or med. haired cats, they are much more versatile, easy to care for and have fewer ills. Your kitty sounds adorable.

I now know the lynxpoint belongs to the guy on our corner. The bengal is fed by his owner around the corner, I just found out where he belongs from another neighbor awhile ago. And the Sealpoint, I don't know but it looks well fed so far. But it takes them awhile to get thin looking if lost. I toss food out sometimes, but haven't had any takers other than the bluejays so far.

I just hate seeing them outside because I know something will get them if they are out there for long.

You are right, I think I've convinced my DH that she cannot go outside.

I am stuck inside today, my son has a bad flu :( poor little guy.

I transplanted my tomatoes into larger pots yesterday AND LEFT THem outside overnight! I was distracted because Vincent is feeling so bad. They look ok? maybe the bigger pots helped protect them, and they are in a thick -open-cardboard box. It is going to be cold again tonight, I'll have to remember to put them in the garage.

I've been leaving my toms out for a few weeks now. As long as it doesn't frost they'll be ok.

There have been a couple of nights when I couldn't sleep due to watching the thermometer, though. ;)
So far so good.

I'm in either zone 9a or 9b, or something thereabouts. I'm on the side of a mountain at probably 3,000 feet or so. If I drive down to the valley where the lake is, it feels much warmer down there in the spring, but it feels hotter up here once summer kicks in. I know there are microclimates that can exist within feet of each other, especially here in Cali. Mountain slopes and even concrete walls around property can create them. Amazing isn't it?

It is - the variance of temperature here is incredible. The tomatoes look great, I had pinched off the first leaves and planted deeper, so that prob helped too. I think I will bring them in tonight, just because it is suppose to get pretty cold... I'll go check weather.com.

Something is chewing on my tomatoes! On the margins of the leaves. I have no idea what it is, I don't think it could be cutworms, nothing is "cut", just gnawed on, the most tender leaves. Drat! Always sumthin'. If this keeps up there will be no new growth. I'm already spraying Stylet OIl for the sucker type bugs. I really didn't want to spray with anything else. Wonder what that is, I can't see a thing so they must be doing it at night.

Tonight I'll run a recon mission and see just who is having a meal on me.

slugs maybe? SAVE THE TOMATOES! - hope you find the critter.

It's down to 33 tonight, I'll definitely bring them in tonight.

If you see sliver trails on your leaves they will be snails or slugs. I have silver streaks by garage where slugs come out at night to eat dry cat food. When DH couldn't sleep he went out and found a lot of them crawling around so he takes out his salt and sprinkles them. They are so yucky!! Have to move my brug plant as I'm finding silver on the leaves. I'm always forgetting to put out the snail bait.

You could try beer!

No one will give up their beer for this good cause. LOL

It's not slugs. No trails. I've come to the conclusion it is aphid damage. I've been spraying with Stylet Oil. Looks like I'm going to have to spray every couple of days. There are lots of them out there this year. They are really going after the very tender newest leaf growth. Grrrrrrr! But I'm still going out there tonight and see if there is anything else going after them, because there are some teeny leaves that have been chewed on as well.

If it were a rabbit I think it would be doing a lot more damage, last year a rabbit got hold of my toms and ate all the leaves off. Surprised me when I just put them up high and let them go, they recovered but they were very slow to make any tomatoes.

Maybe I'll just cover them up with some jugs or something at night for awhile. Dunno what is going on.