Around Waynos house

[DRIVEN]

I like that. I'm using cattle panels for my Cucumbers this year for the first time. They're just starting to climb.

[Taterhead]

I’m just letting mine run across the ground. Like I said before, all my stuff seems to be rotting. I assume it’s from all the rain we’ve gotten. Tomatoes are yet to be seen but are looking decent.



If you guys have any suggestions (judging from that pic) about how I could/should change anything up, I’m all ears.

[wayno]

I cannot tell from that photo other than it is a tomato plant, I sink a fence post in my tomato planter and then use one of them cages and strap the cage to the post to keep it upright, and even that was not enough for a couple tomato plants as they had so many tomatoes the cage collapsed under the weight, I stripped it of all the ripe tomatoes and straightened it up, I have never before or since had such prolific tomato plants, I think it was the celebrity type tomato.

This year I need to make fresh spaghetti sauce from them as I have jars for it, I tried freezing the Roma type but when I thaw them they turn to mush.

This year I only grew Tasty Green cucumbers (trellis type) as they are not sour no matter how large they get, and they do get huge, to large for me to eat one completely unless I take my time, my stomach is not that large anymore.

I will give a warning, do not ever buy the white strawberry type, it contaminates all the strawberries, I might have to start over all my rows with new plants, they were all the red type a few years ago, now they are mostly the white type and they do not get big or taste as good.

I am thinking I need to bring in fresh dirt/compost as my dirt is getting worn out or something, I used to have giant strawberries, not anymore.

[Taterhead]

I was mainly asking about the closeness of the plants or the fact that they’re in a raised bed.

After doing some research it looks like my problem is that I don’t have enough calcium in the dirt (potting soil which is actually just chipped up bark as it looks). From what I’ve read, once the plants start bearing fruit it’s too late to remedy.

We’re still learning as this is probably only the 4th year of growing but I know that next year a section of the yard will be tilled up and planted. With a fence far enough away to keep the dumb ass dog from pissing on the garden.

[wayno]

I have had a garden every year since buying the property in 1998, when I bought it the backyard was solid Junipers, it took time to get rid of them, and these were the type of Junipers with large roots that I could not wrap a chain around them and pull them out of the ground as I tried that and had to pound the added heavy duty rear cross brace straight again as it bent it, when the truck came to an abrupt stop my knee broke the key off in the ignition, and my head hit the windshield but did not break it(1947 Chevy truck), I had planned on rototilling the backyard, but I had to chainsaw the Junipers off at ground level so I bought a lot of Railroad ties(more than 20) and made a raised garden, too date I have likely bought and shoveled into place 80 to a 100 yards of 3way soil, half of it was relocated several years back so I could park a couple Datsuns back there, then I got them out of there and it was returned to garden status, it took 14 yards of 3-way to just cover it enough to grow stuff, maybe 6" deep, I need to add something to revitalize the soil, I have been growing stuff in my backyard for over 20 years.

My neighbor has a raised garden in a zigzag shape, everything is close together, the plants do not get very large compared to my plants, 4 of my tomato plants would fill his whole garden, when they are crowded together like that they do not get as big and he has a much smaller crop, but he has a lot of small trees with more than one type of fruit, meaning one tree has 3 different types of pears, but he might only get 9 pears total right now, I am into grazing in my garden, strawberries are almost over with, but raspberries are now ripening, tomatoes are going to be pretty soon and then I will be grazing on them, I also have one type of Raspberry that is a late type, somewhere in there the cucumbers will be big enough to eat as I have seen lots of small ones and the plants are less than 2' high, they will grow over my head by late summer and I have 7 groups of them.

There is nothing wrong with a raised garden, it is just more work and more expensive as you need to bring in more soil every year or maybe every other year, I tried growing tomatoes in pots one year, every time I got home all the tomato plants in pots were wilted, they do not do near as well when starving for water all the hot days, I quit growing that way after that 1 year, you likely have more soil than I would have in a pot per plant.

[DRIVEN]

I'm with you on that. I had raised beds the last 3 years and they were more trouble than they were worth. Everything is in the ground this year. It's a constantly evolving process. You've been at it 25 years and still improving. I'm only 3 years in. I'm impressed with what you do in a suburban back yard.

[wayno]

I'm with you on that. I had raised beds the last 3 years and they were more trouble than they were worth. Everything is in the ground this year. It's a constantly evolving process. You've been at it 25 years and still improving. I'm only 3 years in. I'm impressed with what you do in a suburban back yard.

Thankyou, I am weird about weeds, I just do not want to water weeds, but it took years for me to figure out how to do it without watering 90% of the areas that are not growing something I can eat, that other 10/20 percent can be weeded in a couple hours if I keep at it once a every week or two, some areas take a month or a rain to start growing weeds while others(new rows) need to be watched before the weeds try to take over, crab grass is a constant issue in my garden.

I killed it in my front lawn and now there are bare areas as there was nothing left in them areas, all that was there was crab grass, my front yard had crab grass and moss, my guess is the grass growing now is 10% of what was growing, the 90% I killed I did not want growing in the first place, I will need to seed some areas but I need to figure out a way that works as throwing seed in them areas does not work, it also does not work when I use a rake to loosen the soil after throwing the grass seed in them spots, I think I need to spread the grass seed and then put a thin layer of soil over the seeded areas.

I am going to try a new spot(semi local) at a school parking lot to observe tonight, it is rated as a Bortle 4.5 to 5, that is a lot better than my Bortle 8 or worse backyard, I am kinda worried about parking lot lights, a guy told me about the place and he thought the lights were turned off after school hours, but school is out now so I hope they are turned off all the time, it has no gates, it is half way to Battle Ground from my house or more and has a clear view southeast to southwest(no trees them directions), way better than my houses backyard, but my backyard is way more convenient, but sometimes I can see less than 50 stars.

[wayno]

I learned something today although I figured it out myself before today and confirmed it at the Nursery, I like Strawberries a lot, I have 7 or 8 20 foot plus rows, about 4 years ago a neighbor gave me a white type strawberry plant, well it took 4 years but that single plant contaminated all my other Strawberry plants, they do not get very big, and they do not taste near as good, so now I have to remove all my strawberry plants and all the roots also, if any new strawberry starts to grow outside the row I am going to plant in the next few weeks it has to be pulled out like it is a weed, it will likely take me 3 years to get back to where I am now, if you have strawberry plants do not buy the white type strawberry plants that look so good in the photo they have to show you how good they look, do not get pulled in by the ads, they will ruin all your red type strawberry plants that actually have good tasting strawberries.

[DRIVEN]

Good to know. I tried and failed to grow Strawberries here twice.

[wayno]

I have a couple before photos of the garden/strawberry rows, I have not finished removing them yet so have not taken photos after the strawberry plants were removed, I will have them all removed tomorrow.





I already have a blister in the center of the palm of my right had where the handle rubs it, I have a half fat row left to remove, I bought 18 strawberry plants to start one row, it appears I cannot get bare root plants(starts) anymore, I need to find a few Hood type strawberry plants somewhere.

[DRIVEN]

Might have to do some seed starts.

[wayno]

I finished removing all the Strawberry plants this morning, then I bought 3 yards of fine screened compost(1 yard a trip), in the photos below you see 2 yards of compost dumped in piles evenly around with my wheel barrow, I ran out so I went and bought the last yard which I will unload tomorrow, I will rake it out evenly and then I will roto-till it into the existing soil, the first photo area needs more volume/soil as when I roto-tilled it I was hitting the existing ground that was there before I removed all the Junipers and made it into a garden, I might have hit one of the stumps I chain sawed off at ground level as the rototiller jumped.





I think I am going to add a border board like is on the west side to the east side of the path, not sure yet as it will make rototilling more difficult, I will think about it some more.

[DRIVEN]

Great job, Wayne.

[wayno]

Thankyou Driven

I did the border board, it can always be removed, right now it is holding in the soil, the below photo is when I wheel barrowed the compost to the two sections and I ran out of compost, I bought a third yard of compost.





Here it is the big section with the compost rototilled in.



And here it is with the third yard of compost, everything was rototilled in twice, the rototiller with the front tines gets deeper into the soil and pulls up the lower soil, then the rear tine rototiller spins faster and grinds up all the dirt clauds/chunks, the tines spin way faster.



I made a new PVC pipe that is raised for watering, I put connections every 41", I still have not pressure tested it because the cement says to wait for 2 hours, I wanted to get to the library today because it is closed tomorrow, I will put in one row of Strawberry plants as I have 18 starts, they are/will send out new starts and I hope to get another row started using them starts before the growing season is over.

I do not know why you cannot grow Strawberry plants where you live Driven, they do need a lot of water, if my timer quits working the row starts looking dehydrated, but they do survive, maybe it is the soil, I have brought in close to a hundred yards of soil over the last 25 years, but this is the first time I have used compost, maybe it has something to do with altitude, you are up around 2000/3000 feet above sea level as I recall.

[DRIVEN]

Yeah, I'm at 2500'. It's probably a number of things. The area I live would be a desert without the irrigation. Also, the spot my garden is has been pasture for the last hundred years. I brought in some goat manure a couple years ago but haven't done much else for ammendment other than till the weeds under. I know it takes a few years to get the soil right. After spending a bunch of money on strawberry starts that first year and losing all of them, I just gave up. My other vegetables get better every year though. Honestly, I don't spend the time that I should on the garden. But I do spend enough to appreciate what it takes to tend something like yours. You should be really proud of it.

[Taterhead]

Indeed you should. It can almost be a full time job. And your plot always looks well kept. As much time and effort that has been put into our menial garden vs. the yield so far I think it would be cheaper for us to just buy the vegetables we want.

I’m hoping next year turns out better

[wayno]

This I know, raspberries and strawberries grown in my backyard normally taste better than what is bought at the store, same with tomatoes, Blueberries are not as much of a difference, but they want so much for just a pint, I would rather what I call graze a handful a day, or eat a pint right now of raspberries than buy it at the store, and around here you cannot buy Sungold cherry tomatoes at a store.

This year I bought another cherry tomato plant(called Orange something) that is supposed to be even better than the Sungold, that plant took off like crazy, actually all the bought tomato plants took off like crazy, the Celebrity tomato plant has close to an inch thick limbs coming off the main stock, these plants I buy need a 6 foot plus circle around them, maybe more this year, I have already eaten a handful of Sungold cherry tomatoes, they actually have taste compared to regular Red cherry tomato plant, I do not grow the red or yellow pare tomatoes anymore as they are bland tasting to me.

I have about 8 volunteer tomato plants in the west garden area where I throw all my scraps and plants at the end of the season to rot, I do not know what type they are yet, and 2 volunteer cucumber plants also, although I suppose they could be Pumpkin, but I doubt it, I also started 8 seedling tomato plants(2 Roma, 2 Early Girl, and 4 Sungold), they are not near as large of plants as the bought plants, but the bought plants were started March while mine were started later, I will need to start them earlier next year, also all the Early Girls have weird leaves, but one plant has fruit(tomatoes), I was not sure if they were a Hybrid plants that produced no viable fruit like Hybrid corn, all you can do is eat Hybrid corn.

There is just something I like about growing my own Vegetables, I know where it comes from, and as I mentioned I like to graze in the garden, in the past I have eaten so much that I do not need dinner, oh I also got my first cucumber yesterday.

[DRIVEN]

Too bad you your plot wasn't big enough to grow your own meat too.

[Taterhead]

Oh yeah I agree, all my own fruits and vegetables taste better than store-bought. Like I said, next year my stuff will be in the ground and a little bit more effort put into the planning of it.

[wayno]

This garden has been changing over the last 25 years, it started out with railroad tie borders/raised beds, I had walkways with 8' wide beds, then I removed all the railroad ties in the middle filled the walkways, back then I was able to get my truck and truck/trailer in the backyard, now I have permission to use the neighbors side yard to park my truck near the gate and put stuff in my backyard, I could still do it from my driveway but that requires another 40'/50' more distance pushing the wheel barrow or rolling the tree rounds, not being able to access his side area just adds more time.

I had to clean/organize the neighbors side yard so I would not get flats, stack firewood and rake it, I agreed to mow it to be able to continue to use it, he keeps adding more shit like old barbeques/rotted out wheel barrows/ect. making it harder to mow.

I planted my first row of Strawberry plants.





I added boarder boards to the east side of the eastern area, I hated how dirt kept eroding away to the lower area, the boards are not staked in, they are just cut to fit between the fence posts and dirt holds them there, maybe next spring I will bring in another 3 yards of compost to fill it up to the same level, the tomato plants I bought are getting huge, it is getting hard to walk down that row, I might have to trim them back.



My corn is growing, it is a hybrid type, I am hoping it tastes better than the heirloom type that needs to be picked at the exact right time otherwise it starts turning into Indian corn and gets hard to eat.





Here is a photo of the trellis cucumbers(eaten 3 so far) and watermelon plants, I already have watermelon starts, we shall see if I actually get any edible watermelons.