Claud The Backyard Farmer (self proclaimed)

[CooperDragon]

My garden is still having technical difficulties despite much warmer temps. Please stand by.

 

[Claudiusx]

Oh boy that is unfortunate Liam LOL!

I usually love the cold (cold here is 60's...) but this year all i've wanted is some sun and warmth for my garden. My peppers that I planted aren't liking these 60 degree temps. I've kept a few of them in my greenhouse and those ones are doing really well.

I have a lot of stuff to do today, but I stopped by home depot and they actually had a bunch of decent looking onion sets. 5.99 per bundle of them and it looks like each bundle has about 50 bulbs. I picked up a red, white, and yellow bundle (150 onions~ total) and had to look up each variety as I was unfamiliar with them and I didn't trust home depot to know which type of onion to sell in our location. We need short day varieties and much to my surprise, they all were. 15 bucks for 150~ onions is fine by me.

-Brandon

 

[CooperDragon]

That's a good haul. How much space do onions take up in the garden? I've been going through a ton of them all winter cooking soups and stir frys. My garden focuses on herbs and stuff Darwin can eat, but if I have room it would be nice to have some onions on hand.

 

[Claudiusx]

I've read that 4 inches apart for each onion is about right. But I think these onions I got don't get as large (bummer) so I might try 3 inches apart depending on how much space I have for them.

I'm making an excel sheet right now that I am going to use to plan where to plant what in my beds, and to make sure they fit.

I have a lot more plants and wants than I have space... lol.

-Brandon

 

[Claudiusx]

Well, I didn't have as much space to plant onions as I thought. Still got about 20-25 of each variety in. Although maybe a bit close. I went a bit more space on the yellows as those are my favorite, and I'd like them to get big.

My problem is I'm doing way too many dang tomato varieties. I couldn't help myself, I just want to try a bunch and see which ones I like best. Next year should be better. Maybe only 2 or 3 varieties.

I made up an excel sheet to help plan out my beds and what I am going to plant where. Each square is a 6x6 inches. So it's semi-to-scale.

Might be hard to see since all I did was take a picture of it, but you should get the idea. I will be planting potatoes in big pots/containers that will stay on the patio. And I have 1 more tomato variety that will be in a pot too. Both not shown in that picture.

Have some progress pictures to show I suppose.
First picture is a week or two ago? Second is today.

Here are the onions. They are all in about a 2 and a half by 3 and a half foot area.

Next to them a determinate Roma variety, and there will be another roma variety in that empty spot.

And the peppers. 2 of the weak plants ended up dying. That's ok, I have 2 pepper plants already ready to go in the green house, just waiting till the weather warms up a bit. Plus, I have some seedlings started... kinda late but they are here and I'll try to keep them going, even if I have to keep them in pots or the greenhouse.

Here are the peas. About half have sprouted. Trying out this type of support instead of the cruddy rope one I used last season.

And some pictures of the greenhouse

-Brandon

 

[kingofnobbys]

Claud ,since you have little kiddies , I came across these strange flowers that I thought your kids might get a kick out off seeing ( and growing )

They are called Monkey Face Flowers , and I reckon they look like little monkey Santa Clauss-s .

Called White Dove Flowers .

 

[kingofnobbys]

Yeah, that's the only positive thing about that, I know what a potato plant should look like now haha.
Funny thing is it did better thrown out as scrap in my bed then it did when I actually tried to grow it. Maybe I had the wrong timing, or wrong soil mix?

Anyways, spring is around the corner so I have been getting excited. Bought a bunch of seeds, and been buying plants here and there because I get impatient and just want to have plants instead of wait for seeds to sprout lol!

Although I am really trying to sprout quite a bit of stuff. We picked up this really cheap walk in greenhouse from amazon for like 60 bucks, and I am very happy with it! It was so cheap and it actually fits quite a bit of seedlings, and it's staying quite a bit warmer than outside air. Probably a good hot and humid 75-80 in there with outside temps being around 50.

That's the cheap ol thing but I love it!


-Brandon

2

How do you stop it from being blown over in storms ?

Tent pegs into the ground or did you ranset it's bottom rails into the some concrete footings or into some heavy pavers ?

I've been looking at getting one of these for germination of herbs and vegs

Product Dimensions : 68.5 x 48.5 x 158 cm; 5 Kilograms
Manufacturer : LUVODI
I think it would be prone to being moved about on the concrete slab or lawn unless secured using heavy duty tent pegs or weighed down with a couple large concrete pavers or fixed in place with some Ybar stakes driven into the ground first , we get cyclonic (hurricane) force gales here in summer and in winter most years.

ATM I don't need a "greenhouse" , but the planter trays are starting to take up too much space on my front patio , so I've invested in 2 of these

Brand: Levede
Material: Steel
Dimensions: 90x31x106cm (LxWxH)
Height of each shelf: 32cm
Weight Capacity of each shelf: 10kg

Pretty easy to convert to microgreen houses if I decide I need to, unlikely as we never get frosts here and it never gets under 6 degC overnight in winter.

 

[Claudiusx]

I live in probably the most windy area in all of freaking California thanks to some foothills just behind me i'd imagine.

Mine came with tent type spikes to pound into the ground. They have worked quite well at holding it down. And we had a very nasty wind storm the other week. I also have almost all of the shelves filled with stuff, so that added some weight to hold it down too. It also came with some rope tie downs but I didn't use them. Just the pegs holding the structure at the bottom and the weight on the shelves has been sufficient.

I've used the one you've linked to in the past. It worked quite well. The one I bought was only like 10 dollars more so I opted for it, plus I had the space for it. If you have the space, I'd opt for one like I got. Trust me, you'll find stuff to put in it lol.

-Brandon

 

[Claudiusx]

Lots of stuff growing! Gotta update this once I take some pictures.

-Brandon

 

[Claudiusx]

Gah, life has been busy. Garden is booming. Lots of tomatoes are starting to grow on each plant. Even my yellow squash has 2 squash on it that I think got fertilized.

Hanging strawberry basket had a big harvest yesterday, picked over a dozen strawberries from it. They were great.

-Brandon

 

[AHBD]

Good for you ! I bet they were sweet + tasty ! Nothing better than strawberries that TASTE like strawberries. The ones from the store are so often tasteless or sour.

 

[kingofnobbys]

On the matter mulching .

Any tips on a most suitable mulch for strawberry plants ?

Read pine needles mulch is highly recommended , problem is , though there extensive radiata pine plantations ( for timber ) here in NSW , can't find pine needle mulch available ( here in NSW ).
So I'm thinking organic lucerne mulch or pea straw mulch instead , as I don't want to use a mulch as course as pine bark mulch for Strawberries.

I have 14 plants on order which I hope will be here by Friday.

Good mulch for greens like kale, buk or puk choy, mustard greens, cabbages, lettuces, tomatoes ?
I am thinking sugarcane mulch or Lucerne mulch .
I am planning on having another go at propogating some seeds in a few weeks once my Patio drip irrigation system is installed , using my seed tray racks to save floor space. Once the seedlings are getting big enough to transplant into the 3m x 1.5m bed/s , I'll have a drip irrigation system ready to go.'
'
Veggies and strawberries - thoughts on drip irrigation .
I'm thinking running with POPE DRIP IRRIGATION TUBE POPE 13MMX50M 1010279 ,
https://www.popeproducts.com.au/irrigation/drip-irrigation-micro-sprays/drip-tube-and-drippers
this has holes that drip at 30cm intervals.

Or a weeper hose setup ?

details
https://www.popeproducts.com.au/hoses/15m-water-weeper-with-flow-regulator#:~:text=Simply%20connect%20the%20Water%20Weeper,promoting%20strong%20and%20healthy%20growth.&text=Simply%20connect%20the%20Water%20Weeper,promoting%20strong%20and%20healthy%20growth.

or
a Weeper tube like this

it's porous and you lay it on the top of the ground or can bury it under the mulch close to each row of plants , no need to install dripper or spray nozzles.

Any thoughts ?
Any first hand experiences with this type of drip irrigation tube ?

 

[Claudiusx]

I would use the hay mulch. Only thing bad I've heard about pea straw is it can sprout pea shoots. Not that big of an issue really but it's there. It's actually hard to find hay mulch around here, you can go to the feed store and buy feed hay, but it's likely got a lot of weed seed in it too. Once again, not an issue I guess if you stay on stop of picking them out.

We only have a few strawberry plants this year and we have them in hanging pots. It's actually really nice and I wish I bought more of these pots because only the strawberry plant itself is in the soil, the foliage and fruits hang outside of it so they don't rot on the soil.

As far as drip, my grandpa had drip in the past and decided to change out to those mini sprinklers and misters, he said he didn't really like the drip much. So I took his word for it and installed the mini sprinklers and misters too instead. I've liked them but I can see in certain instances where drip might be best. But, I can still get by with the sprinklers instead.

If you're going to be heavy mulching, drip might be best since you can bury the line under the mulch to deliver the water right to the soil. However, I'd stay away from that weeper hose. Better to just have the drip line with holes pre punched into them at certain intervals in my opinion. I've never used those weeper hoses before but I've read that they are not too time efficient, takes forever for them to water the plants deep enough.

And some pictures from the other day.
Peas are doing great, pods are just starting to fill up with plump peas.

And here is a picture of one of my yellow squash plants producing like the world is gonna end.

-Brandon

 

[kingofnobbys]

We only have a few strawberry plants this year and we have them in hanging pots. It's actually really nice and I wish I bought more of these pots because only the strawberry plant itself is in the soil, the foliage and fruits hang outside of it so they don't rot on the soil.

>> the hanging pots a very good way of keeping the snails and slugs away from the strawberries, I'll never do strawberries in a bed or a pot or trough on the ground or close to the ground again after slugs and snails ravaged my first attempt - got no berries we could eat from the dozen plants .

 

[kingofnobbys]

I would use the hay mulch. Only thing bad I've heard about pea straw is it can sprout pea shoots. Not that big of an issue really but it's there. It's actually hard to find hay mulch around here, you can go to the feed store and buy feed hay, but it's likely got a lot of weed seed in it too. Once again, not an issue I guess if you stay on stop of picking them out.

>>>> Sugar cane mulch for the veggie & herb beds .

Organic lucerne mulch it is for the berry & finger lime pots and troughs , I don't fancy having to do more weeding than is absolutely necessary .