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Hey folks - I've had fairly successful gardening experiences up in western Washington, and have a compulsive habit of documenting everything I do... so this might be useful to some folks: http://www.newprotest.org/categories.pl?gardening In order to add to the whole community-of-gardeners meme, I set up a "wildfood WIKI" that includes wild food as well as garden food, here: http://newprotest.org/wildfood/index.php?title=Main_Page And lastly, I'm creating a handy gardening database that lets you easily track how when you grew an item, where it's growing (for people who forget to label their garden plots), when the plant sprouted, and when it was harvested, as well as any other notes you may wish to add to the thing you're growing. http://www.newprotest.org/projects/farming/ (woefully under construction: I just started working on this today; it's currently only set up for MY data, but I plan to soon add a user login feature so you can record your own data, as well as view other peoples' data on similar plants.) Feel free to browse around. I've been gardening for a few years now, and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I don't think I live on enough land to go full subsistance, but I'll do the best I can.
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Mar 2, 2009 21:34
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madlilnerd posted:Too many fricking seed companies, too many freaking varieties and I STILL couldn't find the varieties of anything that were recommended by "Gardening Which?". Seriously, I nearly burst into tears in the garden centre because there were far too many seed varieties. Sometimes, you just have to determine your goals and then randomly pick some that fit your goals the best, and document how it turns out. Could be great. Could suck. But documentation will help steer you towards your goal. For me, it's important that I pick seeds that will grow into plants that'll produce identical seeds. A lot of hybrids are either sterile, or they'll produce seeds from one parent type or the other, but won't produce the same hybrid type. That's not desirable for me, so I try to avoid the hybrids. A few years back, I bought some broccoli seeds, and I'm now on my third generation of broccoli from those original seeds. Every winter, I collect the seeds and immediately replant, and I should never have to buy broccoli seeds again. Same story with my radishes.
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Mar 3, 2009 19:15
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madlilnerd posted:Yeah, F1's can be a pain, but I don't collect my seeds apart from broad beans so it's not generally a problem for me. Last year I bought the cheapest generic seeds from Wilkinson (Wilko Quality Brand!) and I got viable plants from every packet, except the swedes that got insta-slugged. For those who don't know all the terminology (like me, who had to look it up), F1 refers to "filial 1," or the first generation from cross-bred parent plants. An F2 hybrid is a cross of two F1s. quote:Although some of these F2 hybrids may show some characteristics of the F1 parents most of this generation of seedlings will not show uniformity and will have a range of varying characteristics displayed by the original and genetically pure ‘grand’ parents. Here's the source article for the above paragraph and info: http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-f1-hybrid.html Anyhow, I collect seeds because for me, gardening is about taking steps towards severing dependency on other people for my food. In the end, I don't view depending on the grocery store for peppers much differently than depending on a seed company for pepper seeds. But that's my own goal, and like I said -- I started out by picking seeds that aligned with my goals. It should be noted that you can grow your own hybrids and create your own F1s, so I'm not entirely opposed to them. However, the sterile breeds (like seedless watermelons) are obviously not aligned with my goal. jovial_cynic fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Mar 3, 2009 |
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Mar 3, 2009 23:46
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Jovial, can you discuss a bit about collecting seeds for later planting? Are heirlooms the prefered veggies to do this with, how do you collect and store the seeds, etc. As far as I recall, heirloom veggies are supposed to be documented or officially registered as such, making it a bit like a purebred or something in domestic animal breeding circles. However, there's nothing about being heirloom that denotes simplicity of seed collection. It just means that it's been done with that particular strain. As far as simplicity goes, the easier the seeds are to access, the easier they are to collect, store, and replant. I mentioned broccoli and radishes because they form seed pods that dry up and sit there... like they were designed for us to just pick them, open them up, stick the seeds into baggies, and then stick into the dirt when we're ready. Pretty much the same thing with beans and peas. Tomatoes, peppers, and other such plants are also fairly easy, because you have access to the seeds as soon as you have ripe fruit. They're a little more work than the broccoli and radishes, since you have to soak the seeds for 24 hours to get the slime off of them, and then dry them out (set them on a paper towel until they're dry) before you can store them. Potatoes are easy -- you just take potatoes that are sprouting and them cut them into pieces (each with a sprout) and then stick them in the dirt. Cilantro is super easy, because you don't have to do anything. It just drops the seeds in the dirt nearby, and those seeds grow the following season with no involvement on your part. They can take over after a few generations, though... Carrots are harder. So is lettuce and cabbage, since the seeds are small and they're not conveniently packaged. I've never done those, but I plan to try and document my results. So... there you go. The "preferred" are generally the "easy" ones. The more difficult ones are a pain in the rear end, so most people don't bother. But I'm willing to try, in order to jam the process into my philosophical model.
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Mar 4, 2009 03:58
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HeatherChandler posted:jovial_cynic: Your organization is seriously enviable. The only time I ever collected any seeds I forgot where I put them. Forgetting where I put the seeds, and then forgetting where I planted the seeds was me, last year. What you see is a correction from last year's mistakes. This is the first year that I've really gotten organized, and got books to learn more about crop rotation, crop pairings (what plants grow well together to ward off pests), etc., etc. And I like sharing, so I'm posting everything for other people.
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Mar 4, 2009 07:08
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madlilnerd posted:What's "bolting"? All the books I read tell me that with species like beetroot, leeks, carrots etc, I have to lift them out before they bolt. Is that when those species go to seed? So, if I wanted to collect leek seeds or whatever, I'd leave the a few leeks in the ground until they bolted... right? Bolting is when the plant goes to seed, generally prematurely, and often caused by extreme heat. Here's a quote I found: quote:Another explanation is that bolting occurs when a plant goes to flower and seed prematurely - ie before you can use the parts of the plant you really want to use! Coriander and lettuce are good examples, and are notorious bolters. Coriander will often bolt before you can get to harvest the leaves; lettuce will often bolt before a heart is formed.
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Mar 4, 2009 16:18
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Cakefool posted:What do people advise for carrots? I've been told a bucket of sand, stick a broomhandle in to create a space for the soil, plant in the soil-tubes. Does this sound right? I've never really tried carrots, but I plan to do so this year. I heard from a friend who grows carrots regularly that mixing in wood ash into whatever soil mix you use makes the carrots much sweeter. As for a particular method... my friend says she doesn't care about the carrots looking pretty, so she just scatters the seeds and lightly overs them up with a bit of dirt. She says she hasn't had any spacing concerns.
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Mar 15, 2009 17:53
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:: sigh :: Many of my starts have died. I placed some of them outside overnight, trusting the weather report, and a snap frost killed off a lot of my seedlings. And the lack of sunlight isn't helping any of the plants I kept inside. I think that, without a grow light, I won't be able to keep many of my plants going for too long. Sad sad. I may hunt around for a grow light, but that may end up meaning that I'll grow fewer plants at a time until our "actual" growing season starts... which isn't until May, pretty much.
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Mar 24, 2009 15:48
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Kimthecute posted:My question is, my cucumbers are doing great, they all have little buds that should open any day (week?), and I even have one fruit that is about an inch long. The only problem is that the leaves of the cucumber plant look all wilted. I have heard that over watering can cause this, but is there any other reason I should no about? Also in the pacific northwest. My cucumbers have all done best in the heat, and I find that to be true with most of the "juicy" plants (tomato, berries, melons, cucumbers). They need lots of water, but lots of heat so the roots don't end up rotting/molding.
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Apr 30, 2009 23:52
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Kimthecute posted:Thanks Jovial, I am waiting for the weather to stay nice here before I actually put them in the ground, I am hoping with your comments and more room they will perk up, but we will see! No prob. Here's a history of my successes and failures in gardening in the pacific northwest: http://newprotest.org/categories.pl?gardening
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May 1, 2009 02:13
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krushgroove posted:I have one of those bamboo bug houses which are supposed to attract ladybugs and things that eat other bugs, too. This also attracts orchard mason bees (non-hive forming, very cute bees) which are early pollinators if you have any blossoming trees. That's a better solution than what I've done in the past, which is to simply drill holes in a big 4x4" block of wood and leave it hanging in my tree. I may have to make one of those bug boxes....
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May 15, 2009 00:23
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Hopefully this hasn't already been covered... But can somebody tell me more about "True Potato Seeds?" I'm doing some research, and I guess they're supposed to be disease/pest resistant (huh?) and because they're not clones (grown from existing potatoes), you end up with the potential for variety, in terms of size, shape, color. Anybody have any experience with this? My potato plants have flowered and given me a handful of berries, which apparently contain lots of seeds within.
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Jul 13, 2009 05:38
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coyo7e posted:I've never done this with potatoes, however any plant which comes from seeds rather than cuttings, will be more disease resistant due to basic genetic differences from the parent.. A pure clone crop runs the risk of being felled by something relatively minor which happens to affect that plant, but since that plant has been duplicated a ton of times then all of the plants could potentially fall to the same affliction, at essentially the same time. Aha. That makes sense. When is a potato berry ripe and ready to harvest for seeds? My berries are about half an inch across, but I've seen some pictures online of berries that are an inch and a half, and I imagine that there are different sizes of berries for different plants. Is it like most fruit, in that it's ready when it's about to fall off the plant?
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Jul 13, 2009 16:54
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Slung Blade posted:You guys all busy harvesting or something? Full writeup: http://www.newprotest.org/details.pl?1429 Relevant photos: Wheat harvest (for amusement only. i don't grow enough to do anything relevant)  Potato harvest  Ginger  Soy  Rhubarb (getting cold... better make pie)  Grapes - YUM  Salvia (yes. that salvia) 
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Oct 2, 2009 00:28
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Slung Blade posted:Nice stuff Jovial, looks like the family had a fun time Yeah, the kids seem to dig it. ha.
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Oct 2, 2009 04:58
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madlilnerd posted:Where did you get seeds for the salvia? I know of a million places to buy pot seeds, but I've never seen salvia ones around. I didn't. I bought a whole plant on ebay a while back and have been growing it in doors for a while, and just this last spring, I put it outside. No seeds.
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Oct 2, 2009 15:00
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clam posted:This ginger is impressive! I'm at a loss with ginger... from what I can gather, you just plant the ginger 'root' in the ground, and keep it warm and moist, and it will start to sprout? The ginger i'm about to plant has been soaking overnight in some water, and has some knobbly bits that look like they MIGHT sprout in the distant future... what now? Actually, I started my ginger in a cup, suspended by toothpics, about 3/4 submerged in water. I didn't put it into dirt I actually got a green shoot to come up.
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Oct 7, 2009 15:54
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FINALLY. I moved my family down to central California after living in Washington for seven years, and we had to leave our wonderful 1/4 acre garden behind. It's been over half a year since I've been able to get into a new house (we were living with my in-laws while our house was being built), and my wife and I finally got some plants for our back yard...   Seedless "Flame" grapes. I have confirmed that they are delicious. I plan to have four of these vines planted at the four corners of my garden to serve as an edible wall. Yum.   Lemon (top) and lime (bottom). My wife goes through a lot of citrus in her cooking, so we may end up having to buy another one of each of these. Visible in this picture is a PVC pipe sticking out of the ground. The dirt around here is pure clay, so it's difficult for the water to penetrate deep, which is no good for trees. I took a piece of PVC pipe, drilled some holes into the bottom of it, capped it, and have an irrigation valve running inside of it to water the dirt at and below the roots. Cheap, easy.  Raspberry. You probably never need to buy more than a single stalk. They tend to spread.  Sad little basil plant. We go through quite a bit of basil, so I may need to start a patch from seed instead of spending lots of money on adult plants. That's all we've got so far. It's a little late to start from seed around here, where it's 95+ degrees all summer long... but I might try some indoor herbs and see if I can get some traction that way. I'm still trying to get used to the growing seasons around here... it's very different compared to western Washington. Also, it rains in Washington. Not so much in the central valley of California. Irrigation systems are a must, and this is the first time I've worked with one. The whole thing about drip lines and running small 1/4" lines to mini-sprinkler heads and all that... fun! I went to an irrigation shop today and they have all kinds of neat irrigation components to play with. Fun fun fun. jovial_cynic fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Jul 3, 2010 |
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Jul 3, 2010 21:46
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Madama Butterfly posted:Are those dwarf citrus trees? If not, one of each is plenty. Might want to wait until you go through one harvest with these, so you can see how many you get at once. In fact, they are dwarf varieties. How many will they produce at maturity? I've been looking through some growers on eBay who offer banana and pineapple plants. Anybody have any luck with growing those?
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Jul 5, 2010 22:26
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Anybody know much about asparagus? I've read that it's hearty in all zones, which is good. I'm visiting family in Montana, and there's the "old asparagus ditch" near the home where there are thousands of mature asparagus plants that grow like mad. I'm gearing up to dig up as many crowns as I can take back down to California to grow, but I want to make sure that I get them set up properly so I don't end up killing the plants. Mature asparagus crowns aren't cheap, and the ones you buy on eBay are generally 2nd year crowns, which means that it's their first year of production. As far as I know, these crowns will produce a BOUNTY of asparagus every year... fun!
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Jul 15, 2010 04:45
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Zeta Taskforce posted:You will get more, and thicker spears and because they won’t go to seed, your bed won’t fill up with little seedlings competing with the main plants. I'll have to consider the seedlings competing, but I do know that the spears here in this ditch are remarkably plentiful and thick. My wife's family has a tradition of harvesting from this particular batch of roadside asparagus, and they pulled plenty.
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Jul 15, 2010 17:12
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stubblyhead posted:Who's going to check his bags at the border, exactly? TSA don't give a poo poo about state laws, and besides they would be doing their thing in Montana, not California. Also, I'm driving. It won't be a problem to stuff asparagus crowns into a 5-gallon bucket with some moist dirt and shove it under the couch-bed in the motorhome. edit: Having read more on the california quarantine info, the concern is more with the dirt, and not with the asparagus crowns. To be a good citizen, my plan is to fully rinse out the crowns, and to transport them in wet newspaper instead of in dirt. I'd hate to bring an invasive species from Montana back to California. There's apparently an invasive beetle here in Montana that can wipe out a whole forest of evergreen trees. Crazy. jovial_cynic fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Jul 16, 2010 |
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Jul 16, 2010 17:38
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I've been running some thoughts in my head about ground-cover (specifically fine-to-medium shredded bark), and am wondering about moisture retention. If the surface area is increased (due to the bark), and evaporation is high (due to heat in central California), does the presence of bark keep moisture in the soil (by limiting exposure to light/heat), or does it wick away moisture by drawing moisture up into the bark which allows the water to evaporate more quickly?
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Sep 7, 2010 20:57
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Daddyo posted:What are you growing exactly? I've read that using red "mulch" (plastic ground cover) on tomatoes can not only reduce the amount of evaporation but also for some weird reason increase the yield from the plant. Weird science, but it works. Currently, small amounts of: artichokes, pomegranate, dwarf lemon, dwarf lime, pineapple, grapes, strawberries, basil, chives, potatoes, lemon cucumbers, cilantro, parsley... Pretty soon, I'll add lettuce, broccoli, and other cold-weather crops to the mix.
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Sep 15, 2010 19:32
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El Bano posted:Can I plant the garlic cloves from the garlic heads I buy in the grocery store? I do. It has always worked well. You can also grow ginger that you buy at the grocery store.
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Nov 12, 2010 21:13
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On the dirt trail to my kids' school, we've seen what we thought were watermelons growing. We hoped all season long that the school kids wouldn't kick them like little balls or smash them, and to our luck, there was a SINGLE watermelon that survived -- it was fortunately hidden under some dense growth. Here it is:  However, I cut it open tonight to enjoy some tasty watermelon, and found this:   It looks and smells like a cucumber inside. What's going on? What is this crazy thing? I looked up "round cucumbers" online, and found this article: http://glitter-and-gutter.blogspot.com/2009/04/great-cucamelon-mystery.html But the writer doesn't appear to ever identify the plant. Any ideas?
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Nov 20, 2010 06:50
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puffin posted:Could be just an F2 watermelon seedling. Supermarket fruits are mostly F1 hybrids which don't cross true. Say a F1 supermarket watermelon was obtained by crossing a disease-resistant wild type with a vulnerable but productive heirloom. Its offspring (F2s) will vary in appearance between both parents, so yours may be just an under-watered runt going towards the wild type. aha! I googled up "wild watermelon" and searched on images, and it looks like you are correct. Thanks! This might also be a "citron melon," by the looks of it. From what I'm reading, it isn't really edible. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/mv052 http://www.eattheweeds.com/www.EatTheWeeds.Com/EatTheWeeds.com/Entries/1947/5/22_Entry_1.html
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Nov 20, 2010 15:31
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Zeta Taskforce posted:My thought was that it is an under ripe regular watermelon that somehow managed to make a runt of a fruit in a marginal environment. The pacific northwest isn't exactly prime watermelon country. ... I'm not in the Pacific Northwest. Not anymore, anyway. I'm in California. Did I not update my profile? e: nope. It's updated.
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Nov 20, 2010 19:25
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Turkeybone posted:I have a lot of roof space.. I think this year finally Im going to create an awesome garden space up there. I think as well I will just use stuff that I find on craigslist for planters and architecture.. I see plenty of planters and clay pots, the occasional topsoil or compost. I guess one day I need to get up there and do some measurements. I'm not familiar with the kind of roof you have, but insurance companies generally aren't to keen on DIY roof gardening, on account of the potential for damage, leaks, etc. Just something to keep in mind.
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Dec 15, 2010 15:03
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Loving this California spring-time. I just threw down a bunch of seed yesterday, and I've already got buds getting ready to take off on my raspberry shoots and on my pomegranate tree. Also, I learned that cilantro survives California winters, just like parsley. The basil, not so much. So I've got some year-round herbs available here, which is pretty exciting. Gardening here is SO much better than the few months of gardening weather I had back in Washington. Fun!
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Feb 9, 2011 19:08
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Freak weather patterns are bringing 2" of snow this Friday to the central valley of California. I'm going to have to figure out a way protect all of my week-old lettuce sprouts! 
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Feb 25, 2011 05:38
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Welded up a metal grape trellis to replace the wooden one I threw together last year: 1" square tubing (vertical bars), 5/8" bar (horizontal bar), and a couple of leftover garden fencing pieces. Also in the photo, you can see the strawberry plants sprawling out under the trellis, as well as the boxes that my wife and I recently added.
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Mar 29, 2011 15:28
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And here's a video walk-through of my back-yard garden. I've typically taken a ton of pictures and posted them, but this is so much easier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzKr3lZYbE4
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Mar 31, 2011 03:56
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ToastFaceKillah posted:That would be awesome. Also, we'll be trimming it very often, the reason we even planted it is that we use mint one or two times a week. would that help keep it from spreading in itself? Nope. Mint sends runners under the ground surface and spreads that way. Trimming won't have much impact.
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Apr 7, 2011 21:01
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  This is my "heirloom" crop of wheat that I've grown since 2008. At that time, I found a few stalks of wheat growing on the side of the road that were ready to harvest, so I plucked the heads and harvested the seeds. By the end of 2009, I had my third generation of seeds, from which the wheat in the photo was grown. (I didn't plant those seeds in 2010, because I didn't have a yard to do any gardening.) This year, in February, I planted my wheat seeds together and hoped that they survived the year in a plastic baggie, and sure enough, they sprouted. I'm now on my third generation of wheat. And for some reason, that's really interesting to me - this idea of maintaining generations of a single plant. I suppose it's a bit like sourdough friendship bread, or yogurt - from a single batch, it keeps growing and spreading, and you can pass it down from generation to generation. I don't know if I have an end goal with this wheat. But I do like the idea of preserving it, and maybe passing it down to my children. And wouldn't it be neat if, years down the road, I'm able to gather enough of my wheat seeds to start a wheat farm or something? We'll see.
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Apr 20, 2011 04:14
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WORMS.  Anybody doing the whole vermiculture thing? I just started yesterday (I picked up a 1lb box of them), and I've got them in a plastic bin. Worms: check Moist newspaper bedding: check Veggie/fruit table scraps: check Has anybody built any interesting boxes for their worms? I'd like to have as much of a maintenance-free setup as possible, with multiple progressive chambers so the worms will simply move from one area to the next as the food-supply changes locations. So far, everything I've seen is single-area in nature, although the tub-on-tub setup may suit my needs. However, because the plastic won't breathe the way wood does, I may end up with sludge at the bottom that I wouldn't otherwise encounter in a wood box. Anyway, ideas?
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May 2, 2011 19:52
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ToastFaceKillah posted:
That's a fine looking husband you've got there. It's finally gotten hot in the Fresno area, and my peppers, tomatoes, and... well, pretty much everything has absolutely taken off. My cold-crop veggies, however, (lettuce, in particular), are not having so much fun.
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Jun 10, 2011 18:53
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quote:Bonus shot of chickens baffled by a two foot fence. They want to get in there and dig so bad! Those chickens will figure out that fence pretty quickly. My birds could jump/flap up to a 5' height to perch on top of their coop. I learned this after I accidentally locked them out one night. That 2' fence won't stop them for very long.
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Jun 11, 2011 00:44
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Got to love central california gardening. You get TWO seasons! Here's a video of my current garden setup. It's hot here now, which is great for most of what I grow. Lettuce isn't too happy right now, though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6GB1j8Choo
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Jul 18, 2011 04:48
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