McPurp's 2012 Garden

well i found a small spot at my house to do a smaller garden. it will only get about 8 hours of off and on sun in the summer but it will do. i am only spending money on the wood for a raised bed border and a cheap fence for deer. i might spend 40 bucks. the native soil is very red clay so ive been adding some xtra soil i had from my last garden, my own compost, and alot of chicken shit and chicken bedding so lots of straw and grass hay. the soil already looks alot better to.

i will be doing peas, broccoli green, yellow and purple beans, lettuce, garlic, a few tomatoes, most likely a heirlooms and a cherry tom plant, i might do some peppers, and i might try some water melon or catoloupe growing out of my gutter from the house to make a wall of vine. i will also be doing corn and sunflowers just for fun in the very front.

im planting peas very soon.
all i need to get is the wood.
any who just thought id make a new thread fr my garden. will post a pic of what i got so far later i think.

as always my threads are open to all and anything as long as their is no BS ( theri never is)
peace and keep em green

I'll be watchin'.
I've always wanted to grow those purple beans. Are they the long beans that can get 3-4 feet? Just short beans?

Can't wait to see how things go for you.

do yourself a favor and plant some Kamo eggplant. You won't be sorry unless you just really dislike eggplant. The seeds are hard to find and if you buy them online the shipping is more than the seeds but I got a six packages to defray the shipping costs and if you pm me I will send you twenty or so fo nothing. It seems like you're on a budget. Me too, but there are 250 seeds in a package with 80% viable seeds so I deff. have more than I need.
I just planted some cuc's carrots and peas. they all popped. I think I'm ok because several stone fruit trees popped there first blossom on the same day (yesterday) so I believe spring has sprung for us here in so cal.

PIPBoy2000 said:

I'll be watchin'.
I've always wanted to grow those purple beans. Are they the long beans that can get 3-4 feet? Just short beans?

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they get to be about 4-6 inches long, nothing crazy.

gonna be here from the beginning this time , i wanna see how you do ur tomatoes

To Doser:
i dont really like eggplant unless its in spaghetti, but i might do 1-2 plants just because ive never grown it. i will be doing a few trays of eggplant starts to sell in spring time though. i hope they sell good.

Mugan:
glad your here for the ride.
i dont do much to my tomatoes at all. i just trim the suckers for the 1st 8 or so inches and then let them do theri thing. i dont fertilize as most the time the soil has more then enough to feed the plants all year, i do top them 1 time.
also i will be doing the dry farming tech on them. i learned it from my boss and it seems to work really good.

i always used to water my toms when they needed it and all year long and i always had split toms before i could harvest them. i then learned that tomato plants dont need near as much water when they are fruiting. last year i just gave them less water in fruit and they did very well, but this year as soon as i see the 1st set of toms setting i will cut back alot on water and then a week or 2 later i will take out water all together unless it is clear they need it bad ( wilting or getting crumbly). it makes the plants think it is near the end of the season and the fruit seem to grow faster bigger and stronger to make sure enough seed was made for the next year.

Hey this is gonna be a good garden, nice variety of stuff you got on your list for the 2012 yr. The wife and I are gonna be doing a garden or two this yr also, our budget is almost 0$ were pretty broke ass. So I found a great way to get free seeds, and some really good varieties and if you already have seeds it's even easier to get more. Just go to a garden forum and find their seed exchange thread, there are quite a few ppl who will send you seeds to start off your garden if you send them a self addressed stamp envelop, or you can trade seeds you have for other ppls seeds. We don't have a seed bank yet and just answering the SASE posts we managed to get some rare peppers someone got from a trip to japan, some other lady sent us a bunch of flower and spice seeds and another lady liked my profile blurb and e-mailed me saying she's sending me an envelop full of different seeds to start us off if I send her a mailing address. I dunno it's been working good for us so far, we just keep the trades and such to within our country.

i just hope i can get all i want planted in my small plot.

and the seed thing is pretty cool.
i wouldnt mind getting something rare.

i might get a cotton plant this year as well, we are growing them on the farm to see how it does and sells.

You ever try green manuring your soil, it seems like you have a garden every year and I see more and more ppl planting a manure crop such as alfalfa sprouts and tilling them into the soil to condition it prior to planting your crop. The guerrilla guys should look into this form of soil condition and fertilizing.

I would try the Tyfon for your clay soil it's tap root breaks up heavy soils.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_manure

Why are we going out of our ways to fertilize and amend the soils when natures got a crop for everything lol. Go green fertilizing.

i dont do cover crops on my soil as it is just to much work for small gardens. on a farm i would for sure do a cover crop though. i do however add dry alfalfa and composted alfalfa to the soil. it has alot of good stuff in it. i would like to get some sea weed next time i go to the coast to add in the soil as well as use it as a foiler spray.

i do use green manure to, well fresh any way. i pretty much use any and all organic matter

so when you say you add alfalfa ,, is it companion style ?

Some ppl grow it then as it's growing they turn it into the soil then plant, so that the turned plant matter decomposes and enriches the soil with all sorts of goodies. Others just add the dry stuff kinda like blood and bone meal just turn it into the soil, high in goodies. Different cover crops for different uses.

kewl kewl , but the reason i ask. is cuz i got some alfalfa growing and after i pullem out , the roots i missed (very little) get more shoots its like the never dieing plant. but it doesn't spread , so would leaving it there next to any vegetable plant be fine (no competition i mean)

Many legume crops used for cover crops grow a bacteria such as Rhizobia around their roots which actually produces nitrogen in the soil by-passing the need to fertilize, this bacteria is a symbiotic relationship with the plants and doesn't compete for food it's quite the opposite it produces plant food from it's waste.

I'm thinking of growing alfalfa in my containers to try and by-pass having to buy fertilizer and will make the container nice to look at not just dirt. lol I think I would just have to continously pick the alfalfa as it grows or mix it into the soil before planting so the bacteria from the roots is in the soil making nitrogen.

This is a big thing with companion planting especially for sustainable living in small locations, I hear ya McPurps about the lack of land my yard is very small so were looking into many different ways to either grow them in a different way or companion style. This is a great example I found online of plants working together "The best historical example of companion planting is the "Three Sisters" in which corn, beans, and squash are planted together in a hill. Native Americans developed this system to provide food for a balanced diet from a single plot of land. Each of the crops is compatible with the others in some way. The tall corn stalks provide a support structure for the climbing beans. The beans do not compete strongly with the corn for nutrients since as legumes, they can supply their own nitrogen. Squash provides a dense ground cover that shades out many weeds which otherwise would compete with the corn and beans.

if i ever do a cover crop it will be peas, this way i can harvest the peas and have nitrogen fixed soil where they grew, i also like the idea of clover as a cover crop but it is a pain to get rid of it once it starts.

ive also tried the three sisters 2 years ago but forgot the squash, my corn and beans did good but the beans got to heavy for the corn and toppled them over, it was not the best place to grow corn though so they were not the best stocks

I have some heirloom russian tomatoes germinating in some rock wool atm. Much slower at popping than my god bud.

toms take awhile to get going good

mcpurple said:

if i ever do a cover crop it will be peas, this way i can harvest the peas and have nitrogen fixed soil where they grew, i also like the idea of clover as a cover crop but it is a pain to get rid of it once it starts. ppl do here a lot, mix corn/maize with peas before putting down something more hungry , they also like this dish called githeri (spelled it totally wrong) which is maize and beans, i hate it but its like crack to every one ive also tried the three sisters 2 years ago but forgot the squash, my corn and beans did good but the beans got to heavy for the corn and toppled them over, it was not the best place to grow corn though so they were not the best stocks

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smokey de bear said:

Many legume crops used for cover crops grow a bacteria such as Rhizobia around their roots which actually produces nitrogen in the soil by-passing the need to fertilize, this bacteria is a symbiotic relationship with the plants and doesn't compete for food it's quite the opposite it produces plant food from it's waste. I'm thinking of growing alfalfa in my containers to try and by-pass having to buy fertilizer and will make the container nice to look at not just dirt. lol I think I would just have to continously pick the alfalfa as it grows or mix it into the soil before planting so the bacteria from the roots is in the soil making nitrogen. This is a big thing with companion planting especially for sustainable living in small locations, I hear ya McPurps about the lack of land my yard is very small so were looking into many different ways to either grow them in a different way or companion style. This is a great example I found online of plants working together "The best historical example of companion planting is the "Three Sisters" in which corn, beans, and squash are planted together in a hill. Native Americans developed this system to provide food for a balanced diet from a single plot of land. Each of the crops is compatible with the others in some way. The tall corn stalks provide a support structure for the climbing beans. The beans do not compete strongly with the corn for nutrients since as legumes, they can supply their own nitrogen. Squash provides a dense ground cover that shades out many weeds which otherwise would compete with the corn and beans.

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got so many alfalfa seeds , am about to use em all what you think i should plant them with. i have a few companion planting guides but they all have it with maize and am tired of it

made a mistake and can't edit . CORRECTION

mcpurple said:

if i ever do a cover crop it will be peas, this way i can harvest the peas and have nitrogen fixed soil where they grew, i also like the idea of clover as a cover crop but it is a pain to get rid of it once it starts. ive also tried the three sisters 2 years ago but forgot the squash, my corn and beans did good but the beans got to heavy for the corn and toppled them over, it was not the best place to grow corn though so they were not the best stocks

Click to expand...

ppl do here a lot, mix corn/maize with peas before putting down something more hungry , they also like this dish called githeri (spelled it totally wrong) which is maize and beans, i hate it but its like crack to every one