Anyone do any gardening in here?

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

It's getting about that time to start seeds for next year's veggies. Anyone else grow their own plants for their garden? I've done it the last 2 years and have found it very rewarding. I do a variety of herbs, tomatoes, peppers, okra, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, strawberries, beans, and leafy greens like kale, lettuce, and greens. In the past, I've thrown together a grow station, but this year I bought a light fixture that I can raise and lower along with some heating pads to keep my soil warm in the garage. I'll post pics of my setup once I get it in place.

[SapperDawg]

We do. It has been a few years since I started seeds, as it seemed to take a LONG time. Last year I switched to heirloom tomato varieties, and they produced excellent results. This year I am looking at planting some vegetable guilds around some apple trees, herb garden, and then a salads garden. The guilds will have squash, running beans, tomatoes, peppers and some fragrant herbs mixed in with some ground cover.

Also going to experiment with a small hoop style green house to get a jump on the growing season.

[Treemydawg]

We plant a big garden and usually get more food than we need. You can't beat the taste of fresh garden vegetables, but I have never started plants for my garden. I always plants the seeds in the garden early to mid march. Sounds like something that would be very rewarding.

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

Excellent, thanks for the response. Please excuse my long response.

I do 3 tomatoes, all heirlooms...cherokee purple, texas wild cherry, and romas

I've saved pepper seeds from different varieties over the last couple of years and order a few hybrids to supplement. That has worked pretty well and I had a nice production rate last year.

I'm not familiar with a vegetable guild, but typically apple trees don't do well with competition around the root system. Have you ever heard of or constructed the 3 sisters garden? It consists of corn, squash, and beans that all help each other produce and grow? I'm going to try it out this year, but it's a proven technique.

three sisters (http://www.almanac.com/content/companion-planting-three-sisters)

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

I have never started plants for my garden. I always plants the seeds in the garden early to mid march. Sounds like something that would be very rewarding.

I've always started my own herbs, but just recently started the seedlings. It's something to pass the time after deer season and football season has ended. The hardest part for me is thinning my seedlings. It's just so hard to see them grow from nothing to only throw them away. I try to to give away all that I don't use or try to use it for teaching kids about gardening.

[Martianlander]

I have had a lot of gardens but never started seedlings. Would like to see pictures when you get them.

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

A photo update of the grow box and seed pots:
1785
1786

[Martianlander]

Thanks. I may give that a try.

[BrunswickDawg]

I used to garden before I moved to the coast. My lot just has too much shade, and the soil is so sandy keeping things watered was next to impossible so I gave it up. I miss it. I had a 50' x 50' plot at my grandparents with better boy tomatoes, okra, squash, half-runners, zucchini, banana peppers, bell peppers, and cucumbers. I took it over from my grandfather after he passed - he had taught me everything as a kid. My Dad and I were planting that garden for him when he passed.

Only thing I can pass along is if you fish, go out the weekend or so before you plant your tomatoes and save the heads, tails, etc. when you clean them. Throw some in each hole for the tomato plants. Best fertilizer you can get.

[TUSK]

It's getting about that time to start seeds for next year's veggies. Anyone else grow their own plants for their garden? I've done it the last 2 years and have found it very rewarding. I do a variety of herbs, tomatoes, peppers, okra, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, strawberries, beans, and leafy greens like kale, lettuce, and greens. In the past, I've thrown together a grow station, but this year I bought a light fixture that I can raise and lower along with some heating pads to keep my soil warm in the garage. I'll post pics of my setup once I get it in place.

since I was knee high to a grasshopper... various beans, peas, squashes, corn, tomatoes, egg plants, cabbage, lettuce, okra, alabama kush, cantaloupe, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelons, peaches, plums, grapes, apples, muscadines, vetch, peanuts, onions, carrots, peppers, etc... acres of it...

Don't do it much anymore, but if ya have any issues, concerns, or questions, feel free to ping me...

[BeardoMSU]

The lady and I love gardening. There is something so satisfying growing a plant from a seedling in a little sod puck, to pulling giant tomatoes and peppers off it a few months later. I'm addicted to it.

These are a few pics from this past summer...

http://s16.postimg.org/cw46n2tw5/image.jpg

http://s11.postimg.org/m56ekgs0j/image.jpg

http://s18.postimg.org/uy09yatft/image.jpg

http://s28.postimg.org/dxyvt4w9p/image.jpg

http://s9.postimg.org/w2via9ajj/image.jpg

http://s28.postimg.org/78scd4axp/image.jpg

http://s11.postimg.org/6fzuxzzyr/image.jpg

http://s8.postimg.org/63w6zp6ed/image.jpg

http://s17.postimg.org/yagp7p067/image.jpg

http://s24.postimg.org/w0fewyzlg/photo_5.jpg

http://s13.postimg.org/t2jgmovt2/photo_6.jpg

http://s30.postimg.org/r9pnf1vgw/photo.jpg

[starkvegasdawg]

I badly want to do a garden this year, but right now my tiller is DOA and the last couple of times I have tried all I have ended up doing is creating a buffet for all the woodland critters. Maybe if I can get my tiller fixed I'll give it another try. But I will not be starting things from seeds. My thumb isn't that green. But i definitely agree with those that have said there is nothing better than eating fresh veggies out of your own garden. I know my mom has planters called earth boxes that are specifically made for growing vegetables. I may see if I can find some of those somewhere or something similar so I can keep them on my patio and maybe out of the mouths of hungry deer and raccoons.

[Uncivilengineer]

I plant a big garden every year. I still have veggies in the freezer from last year. I put up about 15 bags of okra, squash, butter beans, purple hull peas. and several quarts of pickled peppers and pickles.

[Martianlander]

I badly want to do a garden this year, but right now my tiller is DOA and the last couple of times I have tried all I have ended up doing is creating a buffet for all the woodland critters. Maybe if I can get my tiller fixed I'll give it another try. But I will not be starting things from seeds. My thumb isn't that green. But i definitely agree with those that have said there is nothing better than eating fresh veggies out of your own garden. I know my mom has planters called earth boxes that are specifically made for growing vegetables. I may see if I can find some of those somewhere or something similar so I can keep them on my patio and maybe out of the mouths of hungry deer and raccoons.

Definitely a problem. My brother in law lives in the country and he quit planting a garden because he said all he was doing was feeding the deer and raccoons.

[starkvegasdawg]

and several quarts of pickled peppers

Your name Peter?

[Uncivilengineer]

Thats' what the ladies call me, ZING!!!!!!!!!

[Barking 13]

I am going to do bucket gardening this year, if I can find some reasonably priced buckets. $5 a bucket is a little steep. I need about 30-50. I plan to raise these on cinder blocks and timbers.

[starkvegasdawg]

I had some fried squash last night made from some squash I got from Kroger. It was almost sad. No comparison to the fresh grown stuff. This thread has convinced me I am going to have to do something this spring. I've heard you can spray malathion on your veggies to keep the critters away as they can't stand the smell and taste. It'll throw the organic label right out the window, but so long as I can get some veggies to eat I don't care.

[BeardoMSU]

I had some fried squash last night made from some squash I got from Kroger. It was almost sad. No comparison to the fresh grown stuff. This thread has convinced me I am going to have to do something this spring. I've heard you can spray malathion on your veggies to keep the critters away as they can't stand the smell and taste. It'll throw the organic label right out the window, but so long as I can get some veggies to eat I don't care.

I plant a bunch of marigolds and basil plants throughout the garden to keep some of the bad bugs away; the smell they give off is a deterrent. I just put them in and around my tomato and squash plants. Works really well. Also, the marigolds attract pollinators, so that's another plus of having them around.

[starkvegasdawg]

I plant a bunch of marigolds and basil plants throughout the garden to keep some of the bad bugs away; the smell they give off is a deterrent. I just put them in and around my tomato and squash plants. Works really well. Also, the marigolds attract pollinators, so that's another plus of having them around.

I did not know that. Learn something new every day.

[BeardoMSU]

I did not know that. Learn something new every day.

Yup. I usually buy my marigolds from Lowes. You can get a whole tray of them for just a few bucks. Basil, I just sprinkle a few seed packets around. Its nice having the basil by the tomatoes, since you can snip off a leaf, and wrap it around a ripe cherry tomato and pop in your mouth...can't beat that.

[Prediction? Pain.]

The lady and I love gardening. There is something so satisfying growing a plant from a seedling in a little sod puck, to pulling giant tomatoes and peppers off it a few months later. I'm addicted to it.

These are a few pics from this past summer...

That's a hell of a set up, Beardo. Complete with an Instagram-worthy fedora-on-a-pepper-plant shot and everything. Your back yard makes mine look even more half-assed than it actually is.

As for vegetable gardening, we've got a strong tradition of it in my family. My grandparents up in Marks -- any Quitman County folk in the house? -- owned a vacant lot behind their place and used to grow everything under the sun. And then off to the side of the garden, they had a few pecan trees. We had bags of pecans, okra, and field peas in our deep freeze at all times for as long as I can remember. My dad continued things when he was able, usually focusing on cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and okra. Things tapered off a bit a decade or so ago, but the past couple of years, he's coming back strong. Adding more beans to the mix, too. (He's also got a fig tree, a couple peach trees in their last days, and a couple of pecan trees.)

As for me now that I've got a family of my own, well, yeah, I've pretty much dropped the ball. My semi-urban 1/3 of an acre is about 2/3 covered in mature hardwoods, so I don't have much space and have been reduced to container gardening. (I used a small raised bed I made out of cedar planks for awhile, but not any more.) And I've stuck with the very, very basics -- heirloom tomatoes, herbs, and strawberries. Best performers in my little space have been two particular tomatoes -- Eva Purple Ball and Sun Gold. The former is a solid, though not outstanding, heirloom that's fairly versatile. Salads, sandwiches, pasta sauces, etc. The latter, little orange-colored grape tomatoes that produce prolifically for months, are like crack. Unless I had a few plants at a time, I would usually eat them all in the yard before I made it back to the kitchen. They're basically miniature candy trees.

Despite my limited experience as a vegetable gardener, though, years of regular, year-round hiking have turned me on to native gardening. Perennials, shrubs, vines, trees, ferns. Dabbled in it all in my little patch of forest. Some of it is edible, too, so I guess there's some cross-over. Passionflower, for instance, produces loads of fruit in late summer that I got really into a couple of years ago. Cumberland Rosemary, a short shrub that's native to northern Tennessee and southern Kentucky, is great to grow in containers in place of the standard stuff. And of course there are blueberries, mulberries, and blackberries that you can incorporate here and there (I haven't much because of my limited space). I really want to get a patch of native strawberries (Fragaria virginiana) going eventually, too, but I'm not sure when I'm going to make that happen.

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

Only thing I can pass along is if you fish, go out the weekend or so before you plant your tomatoes and save the heads, tails, etc. when you clean them. Throw some in each hole for the tomato plants. Best fertilizer you can get.


I plant a bunch of marigolds and basil plants throughout the garden to keep some of the bad bugs away; the smell they give off is a deterrent. I just put them in and around my tomato and squash plants. Works really well. Also, the marigolds attract pollinators, so that's another plus of having them around.


Yup. I usually buy my marigolds from Lowes. You can get a whole tray of them for just a few bucks. Basil, I just sprinkle a few seed packets around. Its nice having the basil by the tomatoes, since you can snip off a leaf, and wrap it around a ripe cherry tomato and pop in your mouth...can't beat that.

I agree...my experience with these methods have produced the same, great results year after year. Another good tip is once the tomato plants are established, give them a dash of epson salt for fertilizer.

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

For those interested in starting their own seeds, the farmer's almanac has an email reminder feature on it's website: http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/MS/Jackson

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

If you're limited on space, a good option is to go vertical. This weekend I put together a 2-liter coke bottle garden in just under an hour. Here's a pic of one of last year's bottle gardens:
1788

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

A companion planting guide that I've used with great success in the past:
http://www.groedibles.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Companion-Planting.jpg