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This thread is awesome. I am reading through it all to try to get a handle on what I want to do this year. My plan is to do a small plot - 100 to 150 square feet. I live in Northwest Arkansas zone 6b, and have plenty of sun in this spot (about 80%) - I watched the spot pretty closely last year and planted a lonely tomato plant, which exploded towards the end of the season. Assuming ordinary not-worked-in-years-and-years suburban yard soil, what should I be prepping with? The area is grassed and I'm wondering if it is a good time, or too late, to hit the area with black plastic to kill it all off. I have an okay book knowledge of gardening but haven't seriously tried it yet, and we all know that plain old experience is best. Compostable kitchen scraps are rare for me - we are just a family of two and don't eat/waste much. Suggestions?
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# ¿ Feb 18, 2010 17:58 |
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# ¿ Mar 28, 2024 20:00 |
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That's a great post and exactly what I was looking for. And yeah, I'm not trying to save money for the first year, I know that tools and soil prep will far exceed any veggie savings this year, but if I get set up this year, next year should go off with minimal fuss (hahaha, right).
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# ¿ Feb 18, 2010 21:45 |
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kid sinister posted:^^^^You can add grass clippings to that list. Good call on grass. I am also taking home the coffee grounds each night from work for a bit, i heard those helped. Neighborhood is right around 50-60 years old. Thinking about the dirt quality over time?
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# ¿ Feb 23, 2010 16:11 |
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I am SO tired. This weekend we took down the shed in the back, evicted one (1) live possum from the foundation, removed one (1) dead armadillo from the same foundation, and burned the giant pile of brush (that fell during the Jan 09 ice storm) in my back yard. I've got at least two five-gallon pails of good quality wood ash.
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# ¿ Mar 1, 2010 16:50 |
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Dug up my plots today. 3 of them, 4x10 apiece. The dirt in my yard is beautiful, I can tell I'm going to do well. About to start seeds indoors.
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# ¿ Mar 7, 2010 00:19 |
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Dug out more plots today, reloaded on topsoil and compost for mixing in and loaded 72 coco pucks with veggies and herbs. I'm dead tired. Adventure begins! Edit: the big list: radishes, zucchini, carrots, oregano, catnip, sweet basil, lemon basil, snap peas, spinach, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers and green onions Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Mar 8, 2010 |
# ¿ Mar 8, 2010 02:21 |
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I'm definitely going to need to repot the stuff I have in coco pucks right now before I'll have the weather to plant. Thinking the old classic Solo cups. Any reason why I shouldn't? They're easily cut off when done, and cheap.
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# ¿ Mar 17, 2010 23:11 |
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I have three happy zucchini plants in my starter tray. And I'm going to grow them all out. drat the delicious green torpedoes....
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# ¿ Mar 19, 2010 00:29 |
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Zeta Taskforce posted:You will be up to your ears in zucchini, but they are fun to grow. Once the hot weather starts, the plants practically explode from the ground; its neat to check them in the morning and then come back at home in the evening and suddenly they are another foot bigger. They're two weeks and a day now, probably today I'm going to transplant them into 6-8 inch pots of topsoil/perlite mix with a little peat thrown in. Our plant date is between April 15 and 30 about so they will hang out in the pots for roughly a month. I'm in Arkansas, 6b if I recall, and I'm planning for two growing seasons of everything I can manage. Perpetual plantings/harvests of stuff like carrots and radish.
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# ¿ Mar 22, 2010 20:05 |
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I'm sure you could do it by 'digging big' and knocking dirt off until you hit significant root mass. Be careful, though. Also I would try to match the soil formulation that it has been growing in at least somewhat. A slightly more aerated mix of what it's growing in should be okay.
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# ¿ May 16, 2010 18:31 |
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Here is what I have so far this year. My first year, by the way. Top to bottom: Cherry tomato, 2x rhubarb, chives and rosemary, a forgotten veggie and peppers. Carrots between rows. Squash, squash, squash, Thai basil, oregano, regular basil, mint, boxwood basil Garlic and white onions on the left row, roma/Black Prince/Mr. Stripey tomatoes and bell/Mucho Nacho/New Mexico 6-4L peppers Ginger geranium, ornamental curry and patchouli. Catnip, elfin thyme and my favorite, pineapple sage. Front yard plots. Freesias and lilies on the right, sunflowers on the left.
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# ¿ May 17, 2010 01:16 |
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Status: 40 cherry tomatoes green and on the vine. Peppers just started, tiny little fruits! And my radishes are about 4 days above ground and VERY juicy and healthy in roots and leaf. Carrots germinated too, as did my pink sunflowers and daisies for the front yard. Total casualties so far: 2 melon plants that went in too early. Total living plant count not counting carrots and radishes and flowers: 34 Also, something is munching on my squash leaves (pretty heavily) and basil (less so). Dilute dish soap spray to start? I wanna be gentle.
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# ¿ May 24, 2010 17:36 |
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Yep. First tree I ever had fall on a house was a Bradford pear. And oh god, the stink.
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# ¿ Jun 28, 2010 15:23 |
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No, no. But spring in the South is a unique affair - when "that week" comes around, everybody just kind of walks around with their nose wrinkled and a sour look on their face
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# ¿ Jun 28, 2010 17:39 |
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Hi, garden thread! I popped in last year, I think. This year is 100% containers. My back is going wild these days, and turning topsoil that hasn't budged in 60 years sucks. The list this year - one plant apiece -
Planted between 4/16 and 4/22. I'm in NW Arkansas, 6b or 7a depending on who you talk to. Containers are fun! We can move them out for sun, and then move them back in the carport when it rains hard. No pics as of yet because they're all little bitty and we're in the middle of a 10 day drowning, pretty gloomy outside.
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# ¿ Apr 24, 2011 19:17 |
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That's a happy little garden!
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2011 15:28 |
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Check out Blumat valves. They are magical after you get them set up.
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2011 18:27 |
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neogeo0823 posted:Wow. Yeah, way better than what I was googling. It's a bit expensive though... You could save a bit of money and get by with locally purchased hoses and connectors and just purchase the properly sized blumats. Yep, this is the way to go. I prefer to handwater at this point in time because I'm still under 40 containers total for the garden, and would end up sitting on a stump gazing at the plants for an hour a day anyways. It's good quality time between me and the growinthings. However, if I were setting up any sort of automated/low maintenance operation, or if I was doing it for production (e.g. $$$$) i would heavily invest in Blumats.
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# ¿ Apr 26, 2011 22:06 |
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See that squash plant? Cute, isn't it? It is going to explode. And by explode, I mean explode. Be prepared. One big thing that I ran into is that my squash plants crept, and I couldn't mow under them, giving me a big weedy patch right next to the garden.
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# ¿ Apr 27, 2011 16:59 |
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NW Arkansas garden status check: No rain for a month after last month's 22 inch downpour. Ugh. SPACE IT OUT, MOM. Onions fell over. But they're not dead yet? They're about ping pong ball sized down there in the dirt. I dunno. Potatoes are blowing UP. We just put 'em in a big old rubbermaid and hilled them up about 6" a week for a month. I am really looking forward to dumping that bucket out. Tomatoes seem to be holding off, just a few small fruits, and I have TONS of these little white bugs covering the plants. Aphids? Not sure. They're hard to wash off. The plants seem to be okay, though? Pepper are coming in. except my habanero. I'm so depressed about it. ONE flower so far. My cayenne has already produced its first round (which I picked off, so as to encourage more peppers). Herbs are mostly good, I have more lemon balm than I know what to do with. The mint is doing spectacularly in hanging baskets. And the catnip has the most adorable little flowers ever. Water consumption: ~10 gal/day. I'd take garden pix but it's 3am here. Just a buncha containers in the yard.
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# ¿ Jun 24, 2011 08:43 |
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# ¿ Mar 28, 2024 20:00 |
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I've got seeds about 10 days on in Jiffy cubes. Peppers are starting to sprout and the herbs are nicely along. The broccoli and cauliflower is growing WAY too tall! Falling over. Nothing else can keep up. The sprouts are seriously 2-3 inches long. What's my plan of attack? Are they starving for light?
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# ¿ Mar 10, 2012 12:30 |