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rifleman

home gardening?

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4 minutes ago, rifleman said:

I would like to get ahead of this by months and consider a home garden. What grows well in 75% sun with plenty of water?

You're not "ahead" I plan on planting my seeds indoors today, actually a little behind schedule this year. 

 

What do you mean by 75% sun? 

My garden gets about 10 hours of direct sun light everyday.

 

It's not that plants need a ton of light to grow, obviously you get much more produce when they do.. but they need lots of sun to prevent things like mold and mildew.

 

My cucumbers grow up a lattice structure and I still have to treat them for powdery mildew once or twice a year.

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15 minutes ago, rifleman said:

12 hours but partially shaded. The grass in the area grows great and after 1 the shade is gone until sunset.

Direct sunlight after 1?

At my old house we had a similar garden placement.. everything grew pretty good, but we had a lot of tall tree coverage... i just had to deal with a lot of mildew. 

Even my squash in my current garden needs to be pruned to prevent it.

Gardens need a few things, good loose soil, enough sunlight to dry out the upper vegetation each day and enough water to supply the roots. And someone to tend it every few days.

 

 

I also grow lots of strawberries and cherry tomatoes for the chipmunks... tends to keep them occupied from the other garden items..

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7 minutes ago, rifleman said:

12 hours but partially shaded. The grass in the area grows great and after 1 the shade is gone until sunset.

"Full sun" is usually considered 6 hours of direct sunlight. It sounds like you have that already. However, fruiting veggies - which need extra energy to flower, set fruit, etc. - prefer 6-8 hours of direct sun. You'll probably be fine with what you described for MOST veggies, but the attached article actually breaks down what kind of vegetables thrive in various amounts of sun:

http://blog.growjoy.com/2019/01/13/how-much-sunlight-do-vegetables-need/

Also, is your shade something that can be altered (by trimming a few tree branches?) or is it permanent (like, the shade from the house)? Create environments where you can (like set up a teepee trellis for sun loving vining vegetables, and plant shade loving lettuces and other veggies underneath them). Also, is the sun consistent across the growing area... or is there one corner of the bed perhaps that is more bathed in sunlight than others? If so, you can strategically plant the tomatoes or other sun-lovers in that sunniest spot. Also, consider adding some modest-sized sun-loving veggies in containers to a sunny deck or patio, etc.  There's no need to keep the veggies restricted to the garden! In past years I have woven containers of tomatoes, eggplants and herbs right among the containers of mixed flowers on my very sunny deck - in addition to having 2 dedicated raised beds for veggies. Think outside the box.

And kudos to you... in the middle of this pandemic, I can't imagine a better time to grow vegetables - for a number of reasons!!!

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19 minutes ago, Mrs. Peel said:

"Full sun" is usually considered 6 hours of direct sunlight. It sounds like you have that already. However, fruiting veggies - which need extra energy to flower, set fruit, etc. - prefer 6-8 hours of direct sun. You'll probably be fine with what you described for MOST veggies, but the attached article actually breaks down what kind of vegetables thrive in various amounts of sun:

http://blog.growjoy.com/2019/01/13/how-much-sunlight-do-vegetables-need/

Also, is your shade something that can be altered (by trimming a few tree branches?) or is it permanent (like, the shade from the house)? Create environments where you can (like set up a teepee trellis for sun loving vining vegetables, and plant shade loving lettuces and other veggies underneath them). Also, is the sun consistent across the growing area... or is there one corner of the bed perhaps that is more bathed in sunlight than others? If so, you can strategically plant the tomatoes or other sun-lovers in that sunniest spot. Also, consider adding some modest-sized sun-loving veggies in containers to a sunny deck or patio, etc.  There's no need to keep the veggies restricted to the garden! In past years I have woven containers of tomatoes, eggplants and herbs right among the containers of mixed flowers on my very sunny deck - in addition to having 2 dedicated raised beds for veggies. Think outside the box.

And kudos to you... in the middle of this pandemic, I can't imagine a better time to grow vegetables - for a number of reasons!!!

I plant Echinacea and Chamomile in with my veggies and dry the flowers and make tea out of them. I also plant marigolds in with my veggies as it helps with some garden pests. 

The snow has been melting fast up here and my raised beds are just about snow free. In another week the soil should be unfrozen and in go the snow peas. 

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7 minutes ago, fishnut said:

I plant Echinacea and Chamomile in with my veggies and dry the flowers and make tea out of them. I also plant marigolds in with my veggies as it helps with some garden pests. 

The snow has been melting fast up here and my raised beds are just about snow free. In another week the soil should be unfrozen and in go the snow peas. 

Tea toddler 

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31 minutes ago, voyager9 said:

Seeds have been planted inside for at least a few weeks. Went to till the garden today.  The ground cover from the past year is insidious. Roots like spaghetti 4” down. 

You got a grow room in da basement bro?

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25 minutes ago, Zeke said:

You got a grow room in da basement bro?

Honestly, You want good produce in early summer you need to start in march... Most people dont have a green house so the basement with a makeshift light can get you a month and half head start.  Im usually started in mid march, but this year has me going a little crazy..

You wanna get a little more into it you can get grow tents for 100 bucks, I use a small one for Cerakoting.

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59 minutes ago, JackDaWack said:

Honestly, You want good produce in early summer you need to start in march... Most people dont have a green house so the basement with a makeshift light can get you a month and half head start.  Im usually started in mid march, but this year has me going a little crazy..

You wanna get a little more into it you can get grow tents for 100 bucks, I use a small one for Cerakoting.

I also start some seeds indoors to get a jump on the season. Just under a small T5 light and in window sills. I've thought about getting one of those small grow tents but can just imagine my daughter telling her teachers that "daddy grows veggies in a tent in our basement" 

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1 hour ago, fishnut said:

I also start some seeds indoors to get a jump on the season. Just under a small T5 light and in window sills. I've thought about getting one of those small grow tents but can just imagine my daughter telling her teachers that "daddy grows veggies in a tent in our basement" 

Oh I’m sure

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I have this contraption that takes little seed pods in each of about 10 holes where water hydrates the roots from below.  Above is an adjustable height grow light.  It works well for herbs and veggies, although they need to be transferred to a real pot before long since the max height of the light hood is only about a foot.

Its pretty neat...like something you would see in Sharper Image, and the various seed pods can be bought as a mixed set online, although you could easily make your own with a packet of seeds and a bit of potting soil.

The ourdoor garden is a 20x12 mess of thickets that I don't look forward to cleaning out.  Even a rototiller begs for mercy with that stuff.  Made the mistake of building up the beds with a load of topsoil from a garden center.  It became obvious that the dirt was packed with aggressive weed seeds, and the entire patch was taken over within a month.The bagged soil at the depot might be cleaner, but that would be about a ton of bags to lug home.

 

One thing I learned was that corn is really harder to grow than it seems.  Unless you have severaldozen plants to polinate each other, you get maybe 1 ear per stalk, and at a buck a pop, its much cheaper just to drive around the block to the Turkey farm and buy at their retail shed.  Or any roadside stand,which are all over the place in redneck country.

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On 4/10/2020 at 11:20 PM, Golf battery said:

All i have to say is.  Ughhhh fn ughh.  Homeowners stuck at home.  Ughhhh:facepalm:   Sooo many stupid questions.  Im available for advice. But its overwhelming.    Sorry 

Thanks for the great contact free order the other day!  The wife is formulating a planting plan for the veggie garden this week.

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Is it too late to start growing things indoors?

Still kinda chilly out.  45 at 8am this morning.   'm assuming a waste to plant anything outside yet.

What can I start inside in an egg carton? Guessing I have 3-4 weeks until safe to free to outside.  That should be enough for some seed to sprout right?

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7 minutes ago, Golf battery said:

Yup.  Frost deadline is may 15.  Id wait for three weeks before to seed starter plants depending on variety. 

They're calling for a frost warning tonight.  We're going to resurrect our garden this year.  My boss lady will drop your boss lady an email this week.

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52 minutes ago, gleninjersey said:

Is it too late to start growing things indoors?

Still kinda chilly out.  45 at 8am this morning.   'm assuming a waste to plant anything outside yet.

What can I start inside in an egg carton? Guessing I have 3-4 weeks until safe to free to outside.  That should be enough for some seed to sprout right?

I’ve got mater’s and cucumber sprouts inside. Also basil oregano and parsley sprouting. Topsy turvey this year!

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57 minutes ago, Golf battery said:

Yup.  Frost deadline is may 15.  Id wait for three weeks before to seed starter plants depending on variety. 

So start indoor seeds end next week?

What are some veggies that are easy to start indoors with high success rate once transferred outside?

I'm more of a flower / shrubs kind of gardner.  Has dabble a little with veggies but never started anything indoors before.

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We're bringing in all our starters every day.  They are getting huge though, got one athlete bean sprout that's about 10 inches tall.   Gonna run out of space in his container soon.

We also have the enclosure around our hot tub which acts something like a greenhouse.   The tub itself keeps the room a few degrees above ambient because it's not air tight or insulated.   

In a few weeks we'll move all this stuff to their permanent homes in the new garden plots.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, gleninjersey said:

So start indoor seeds end next week?

What are some veggies that are easy to start indoors with high success rate once transferred outside?

 

Start now.

Cukes and tomatoes are the easiest.   Beans and peas require a lot of plants.  Carrots and beets need DEEP soil.  Melons need space and mounds.      I think Eggplants will grow if you toss a seed into the yard but I despise that vile plant, so there is that. ;)

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2 hours ago, gleninjersey said:

Is it too late to start growing things indoors?

Still kinda chilly out.  45 at 8am this morning.   'm assuming a waste to plant anything outside yet.

What can I start inside in an egg carton? Guessing I have 3-4 weeks until safe to free to outside.  That should be enough for some seed to sprout right?

All my stuff has just sprouted inside, gonna be another few weeks before anything goes out, gonna be like 28 tonight, min mid may.

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1 hour ago, gleninjersey said:

So start indoor seeds end next week?

What are some veggies that are easy to start indoors with high success rate once transferred outside?

I'm more of a flower / shrubs kind of gardner.  Has dabble a little with veggies but never started anything indoors before.

You into flowers and asses bro?

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