Comments on: Getting Ready To Garden: 2011 Edition

By: Kelly H.

Kelly H. — Thu, 19 May 2011 03:42:18 +0000

I am truly impressed Say…

By: Sayward

Sayward — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:17:28 +0000

@ Alley – hmm, I water every day but I think a lot of it depends on air temperature and humidity where you are. Seedlings do need to be well-watered, but it’s a fine line because you don’t want to drown them! I’ve never done the hothouse but it seems like it would work . . . though it may be a pita to remove it to water each day.

No sprouts at all yet, huh? How often are you watering now?

By: Alley

Alley — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:29:47 +0000

Oi Sayward! I made your pots for my garden this year. (Absolutely the easiest thing and a great project when laid up on the couch sick.) My husband and I have absolutely NO CLUE what we are doing, we both have a black thumb. But I kept a house plant alive all year, so I’m saying “Why the hell not?” So we are endeavoring to grow a lovely assortment of tasty things. Tomats, radish, cucumbers very basic stuff. BUT, I’m having one issue. My mother said I’m not keeping my plants wet enough. And true to form, I have *NO* sprouts. I’m not totally downhearted as I haven’t even sown everything yet. I did a test run of two different kinds of herbs. But do you have any tips on how much/when to water? She suggested a canopy of plastic wrap with a rubber band to make a little hot house. What’cho think?

By: @tishushu

@tishushu — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:25:10 +0000

Here are some other organic tips for various garden lurkers, including deer!

http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/organic-garden-pest-control.html

By: @tishushu

@tishushu — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:16:26 +0000

@Meredith and everyone! A suggestion I have found for critters, meaning insects, is diatomaceous earth, or DE… NOT DEET! Diatomaceous Earth is fossilized algae, and pretty much dehydrates insects right thru their exoskeletons… My gf and I are having issues with ants inside, and found this out, but you can use it outside directly on plants… The stuff is FOOD GRADE and is harmless to humans and pets… Use it for fleas, ants, cockroaches, bedbugs (running rampant on the East Coast, YUCK!), ticks… The stuff is amazing… I got mine at Whole Foods for 8 bucks. Ace didn’t carry it. I’m trying to get some of the more local (and not commercial) markets to carry it.

By: Sayward

Sayward — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:35:13 +0000

I just love hearing about everybody’s plans! I think it’s gonna be a *really* good garden year. =)

@ Meghan – OMG, you’re excitement is palpable and it makes me SO HAPPY because I know how long you’ve been waiting and dreaming of this garden. I am just thrilled for you! And a little envious, as it sounds like you have a super fly set-up going on. Love the rain barrel! (and all the rest) CONGRATS!

@ Kathryn – Supposedly you can just plant them as is, and it should biodegrade. But I find it’s so easy to just tease them open that I do it, just to make sure there’s no obstruction for the roots.

YAY EVERYONE IT’S GARDEN SEASON!!!!!!!!!!

By: Pat

Pat — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 19:05:01 +0000

unfortunately I do not have a garden, but I have a BALCONY :-). I am a positive thinking creature, I think its better then just a window….
hopefully soon we will move houses, and I am having high hopes that the new place has a garden.
I started planting the first seeds a couple weeks back (http://creativespiderbite.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-little-garden-on-our-balcony-its.html) and yesterday, I also planted 6 strawberry-plants out into my balcony boxes…keeping fingers crossed it wasnt too early…

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:33:00 +0000

I have a question. Do you just open the bottom of the paper planters and then put the whole thing in the ground paper and all? I love this idea and really want to try it next year.

By: Meghan

Meghan — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:56:01 +0000

Oh, does anyone around here have any tips for squirrels? I guess we’re lucky that squirrels seem to be our biggest pest problem, but seriously, they are a pain! They dig up all of my bulbs, chomp on my strawberries and do dances on their plant-corpses, dig up bits of yucca root and spread them everywhere… not to mention the chewing on the house and invading my attic! BAH!

By: Meghan

Meghan — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:51:56 +0000

OMG. You are posting too fast for me to keep up with commenting. ;-)

I AM SO EXCITED!!!

My husband built me a planting table. I am so proud of him. He built two saw horses from plans he found on the internet, except he made them a little taller. Then he put a piece of plywood on top. THEN he hung florescent lights from the ceiling. It looks so legit! I love it!

I love the idea of your newspaper pots, but it is just not something I am willing to dedicate my time to doing. This year I bought peat pots, but next year I want to get a reusable planting tray. I just couldn’t find any locally and was to impatient to get planting to order them online this time!

I have about a bazillion varieties of tomatoes, kale, peppers, cabbage, that fibinachi vegetable, and herbs started. I already planted lettuce outside, one batch about 3 weeks ago, and another variety two days ago. I will start my squashes/cucumbers in the next day or so.

I’ve been spending lots of time preparing my yard for a garden. The previous owners didn’t do much in the yard, I don’t think. In January I put down cardboad, with leaves on top in two places to kill the grass for garden plots. On the south side of the house I’ve just been hand tilling because there wasn’t as much grass. (I had to dig up and transplant a bunch of bulbs there though) After I dig everything up I’ll put down a layer of coffee grounds and leaves, then a bunch of store bought cheap top soil. Our soil here is mostly clay. In future years I’ll have plenty of compost to work in, but for this year I’m just takin’ the easy way out.

I ALSO planted three fruit trees; a 2-in-1 apple, 2-in-1 pear, and 2-in-1 cherry tree. And grapes! I have 3 muscadines and 3 seedless concords.

Oh! And the rain barrel! The future tomato bed on the south side of the house always got super swampy! SO we put a rain barrel at the down spout. Amazing! No more swamp, and we have free water! A co-worker of Aaron gave us that rain barrel, now we are going to make some more from barrels that the local Pepsi plant sells for $10. Woot!

I’ve been trying to spend at least an hour a day in the yard. It can be tough, because we can’t really work the clay soil when it is wet or it’ll turn to bricks.

SO YES I THINK I AM AS EXCITED AS YOU ARE!!!

It helps that this is the first season that we have a YARD. Wooooooo!