Your 2024 Garden

[gtaus]

I picked out a few to try, I figure worst case scenario, they either don't grow or I don't like them enough to repeat growing.

That pretty much sums up my approach to gardening! But it's fun to try different foods.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

That pretty much sums up my approach to gardening! But it's fun to try different foods.

I just love all the different shapes and colors. So many different possibilities withing the same plant family. Before last year, I didn't know there were so many tomato, cucumber or peppers. This year I learned about all sorts of melons

 

[NanaK]

I've almost finished packaging up seeds I've saved from last years garden and tucked them in the fridge. There are many dog-eared pages in my catalogues and been browsing seed sites. I know I'll change my mind many times until I order which will be shortly after Christmas.

Already moved a lot of stuff to compost in place in the spot for green peas and melons. Need to add more to the melon bed.

Got to go through my seed box and make a plan. I'm going to rotate a few things this year in the garden.

I do enjoy the planning.

Did you trellis them? Or mound them?

I like to trellis. I think it helps to slow foliage diseases. Makes them a lot easier to find and pick too.

 

[Sally PB]

I don't have a diagram yet, but I'm planning to turn my entire front yard -- about half an acre -- into a new wildflower field. This will be year 1 of probably 3-5 to begin establishing it, but it'll be a fun project that does't require significant maintenance.

That sounds beautiful! Bees will love it!

A lot of work today because we neglected it for years.

I used to plant half, rest half of my garden. I'd plant the resting half with rye or some other cover crop. One year I planted alfalfa. Big mistake. That stuff is hard to kill. I don't use weed killers. I tilled it up, half of it came back. I tilled it again, half of that came back. (See the progression?) I still have some alfalfa growing in the edges of the garden. It gets string trimmed down to the dirt 2-3 times a season.

One year, I left the resting half fallow. Even bigger mistake. The grasses and weeds were very happy to grow that summer.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I've almost finished packaging up seeds I've saved from last years garden and tucked them in the fridge. There are many dog-eared pages in my catalogues and been browsing seed sites. I know I'll change my mind many times until I order which will be shortly after Christmas.

Already moved a lot of stuff to compost in place in the spot for green peas and melons. Need to add more to the melon bed.

Got to go through my seed box and make a plan. I'm going to rotate a few things this year in the garden.

I do enjoy the planning.


I like to trellis. I think it helps to slow foliage diseases. Makes them a lot easier to find and pick too.

Okay. I use a lot of totes and planning to get some pools too this year for gardening, so I would MUCH rather trellis as many as I can.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I'm growing a small amount of corn, I think if the chickens hadn't discovered it last years, I'd have had some success. I know it needs a lot of nitrogen, so should I plant pole beans in the same space with the corn, or should I rotate corn spots each year and plant clover in the prior corn spot next year?

 

[gtaus]

I use a lot of totes and planning to get some pools too this year for gardening,

Are you familiar with the Larry Hall gardening channel on YouTube? He has a number of great videos on using totes, kiddie pools, rain gutters, etc... for gardening. Larry passed on a few years ago, but his videos are still on YouTube and well worth your time to check some of them out. Sounds like you might have some of the same gardening interests as he did.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Are you familiar with the Larry Hall gardening channel on YouTube? He has a number of great videos on using totes, kiddie pools, rain gutters, etc... for gardening. Larry passed on a few years ago, but his videos are still on YouTube and well worth your time to check some of them out. Sounds like you might have some of the same gardening interests as he did.

I'll have to check him out.

 

[Sally PB]

@JacinLarkwell, Have you heard of The Three Sisters? Beans, corn, and squash. It is companion planting at its most historical. Bean vines climb the corn stalk and supply nitrogen to the soil. Corn stalks support the beans. Squash vines/leaves help keep the weeds down by shading the soil, which also keeps it cooler in the scorching heat of summer.

Yes, corn is a heavy feeder. The farmers around here rotate their crops between wheat (light feeder), corn (heavy feeder) and soybeans (soil builder), and alfalfa (another soil builder). Right now, the fields around us are planted with winter rye, which they are using as a cover crop to protect the soil, as well as feed it.

I give them good marks for that. They also use manure as fertilizer (STINKS!), which they get from their cows.

It's not organic though; they use glyphosate to kill the weeds/alfalfa/rye when they want to clear everything out (and other chemicals too). I wish they didn't, but it's their land.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@JacinLarkwell, Have you heard of The Three Sisters? Beans, corn, and squash. It is companion planting at its most historical. Bean vines climb the corn stalk and supply nitrogen to the soil. Corn stalks support the beans. Squash vines/leaves help keep the weeds down by shading the soil, which also keeps it cooler in the scorching heat of summer.

Yes, corn is a heavy feeder. The farmers around here rotate their crops between wheat (light feeder), corn (heavy feeder) and soybeans (soil builder), and alfalfa (another soil builder). Right now, the fields around us are planted with winter rye, which they are using as a cover crop to protect the soil, as well as feed it.

I give them good marks for that. They also use manure as fertilizer (STINKS!), which they get from their cows.

It's not organic though; they use glyphosate to kill the weeds/alfalfa/rye when they want to clear everything out (and other chemicals too). I wish they didn't, but it's their land.

Yeah, if I can get deep enough pools, I'll definitely do the three sisters. But if I have to stick to totes, I'm not sure I'll have room for squash in the same tote as corn stalks