The Rednecks garden.

[redneck647]

The place where plants come to die. Lol.
Here's how my garden is starting off. I'll try to keep posting updates as the season goes on.
I'll take any praise, advice, criticism or tips that anyone has on it. I'm still fairly inexperienced and am trying to learn.

Indoors I have my habanero peppers doing very well and about ready to get thinned out and a tray with bell peppers, yellow pear tomatoes and roma tomatoes. One of the yellow pears is starting to sprout.

I don't have a picture of them but I also started another batch of bell peppers, cayenne peppers and some wild flowers that all seem to have been complete failures. Mostly due to mold.

Then we have the garden itself which has been edged with cut stone this spring.

Each bed is 6'x6' and divided into 2 3'x6' plots. And yes mostly hold weeds at the moment.

First is my root vegetable plot. As of now it only has one row of turnips planted which are just starting to sprout. I plan on also growing carrots and beets with the main portion made up of radishes.

No picture but along with it I have my nightshade plot. So far its scattered with seeds for a radish cover crop but they haven't sprouted yet.
After the frost passes I’ll be growing peppers, a handful of different smaller tomatoes and potatoes in this plot.

Then I have a plot just to work on. Right now it has a radish cover crop that has sprouted and will not be harvested. I plan on growing more cover crops and mixing everything into the soil with compost.

Next to it is my melon plot.
So far it has a radish cover crop which is just starting to sprout.
Later I will try planting a watermelon, pumpkin, and spaghetti squash in this bed but its questionable how it will go. I'm also toying with the idea of a few cucumber pants but am afraid it will be too much.

The last bed starts with the bean plot that currently has another radish cover crop. These radish seedlings appear to be the best in the garden so far.
Later it will hold peas and green beans.

The last plot is for my leafy plants.
I have half a row of spinach that's sprouted and a row of turnip greens which are just sprouting in the weed covered edge.

I also have half a row of cabbage seeds planted here along with broccoli seeds in one corner and collard greens in another. 2 rows of lettuce have been planted with a 3rd planed to go in. one of the lettuce rows may have sprouted but I'm having trouble telling from the weed sprouts.

[applestar]

Color coded toothpick labels! I love it.

[imafan26]

Did you add more organics to the bed. It will help with the soil tilth and hold moisture in the summer. What are you amending with. It looks like it has a lot of stones but not that much organic matter. If you plant root crops you might want to try and rake out the bigger stones or the roots may be a bit deformed. Beets will grow mostly above the soil so they are less sensitive to rocky soil. I know you want to be organic. What are you using for fertilizer?

I too think the color coded labels are really cool!

[redneck647]

Thanks.
The labels are bamboo skrewers cut in half.
The top color shows what kind of plant it is. Green are peppers and Red are tomatoes. The second color shows the type. For the tomatoes the yellow ones are yellow pear and the green ones are roma.
The lines under that are my numbering system. Each cell has its own number to make record keeping easier.
I mostly just use it for the plants started inside but sometimes move the labels out with them.

The rocks I'm working on. The big ones have mostly been removed and tossed below the garden and has formed a nice sized rock pile now. I raked a lot out this spring and last fall but this is what I still have. Its a slow proses here.

The root vegetable and nightshade bed is the one I really worked on last fall and got a lot of rock out of it and dug down a few inches to a solid layer of clay. The radishes and beets should grow above it. The carrots will be shorter types. Nantes and some Denver half long. I'm hoping the carrots will help to break into the clay a little but I know the harvest won't be the greatest from them.

Organic isn't a true concern. I'm just too broke to buy many chemicals. Lol.
The first bed had most of my compost from last year mixed into it in the fall with some 10-10-10. after that a cover crop of radishes were planted and before going to seed I covered them in leaves and left them rot in place over the winter.
The other 2 beds had the left over compost and some 10-10-10 mixed in this spring before planting. They also had fall leaves and some cut weeds left in the be overwinter but I don't think it helped much.

Over the season I will be adding pond water and basically fish emulsions after each of my many fishing outings. I'm also considering trying my hand at compost tea this year.

On another not it snowed last night and I now have about a 1/4” of snow on the garden. I'm hoping the radish seeds that were just sprouting will be alright but I have concerns.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, turning dirt into good rich black loamy garden soil is a process that takes working on for a few years. If you keep adding lots of compost and mulch, your garden will be better each year.

[redneck647]

Yesterday I planted seeds inside for the last 3 varieties of tomatoes. Large red cheery, tiny tim, and ace 55.
Tonight the garden will face a cold front with temps expected to drop as low as 22 and I don't have any real garden covers. I covered most of the leaf plot with a cut open black plastic bag. The radishes and turnips are unprotected. Hoping for the best.

[redneck647]

Well I'll be honist. With other problems in my life plus relationship problems and how I break up I'm falling behind on the gardening. On top of that it now feels more like a chore and instead of joy atleast at the moment brings me mostly sadness as many choises for this years garden were made with a woman in mind who is no longer in my life.

Anyway. As for an actually update. I finally thined out the habanero peppers and the tomatoes.

The bell peppers and Cayennes are considered a loss.
The spaghetti squash is sprouting and the watermelons are planted.

Also the cucumbers are sprouting.

I don't have pictures but out side the leaf bed has turnips and spinach sprouting as well as 2 lines of leaf lettuce. A 3rd row of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and collards have also been planted.
2 of the 4 beds with radishes planted as a cover crop seem to have died out in the cold weather awhile back. The other 2 beds are not doing well and have a few small radish plants. Some of which are now turning yellow.
The root bed still has a row of turnips growing in it plus I've planted 1 row of radishes and 2 rows of carrots.
Lastly the old wildflower seeds I tried to plant in pellets never sprouted and have some mold now. I've declared them a loss and gave away the fresh flower seeds I bought to replace them with.

[Allyn]

...I don't have a picture of them but I also started another batch of bell peppers, cayenne peppers and some wild flowers that all seem to have been complete failures. Mostly due to mold....

My only contribution to this thread is if you put a little apple cider vinegar in the water -- about a tablespoon per gallon -- you'll just about eliminate mold problems in your starts; that and don't overwater.

And hugs just because.

[redneck647]

Thanks.

[redneck647]

Well here's an update on the garden. Its still not good but its doing. kinda. lol

All 4 radish cover crops failed to help with the weeds and with my recent lack of interest those sections have been parly taken over. before planting in them I'll try to hoe out the weeds.

the root plot.
I have all 4 rows of radishes planted and 3 have already sprouted. And my row of turnips is behind in getting thinned. I've also planted a row of beets but haven't found it yet.
But the carrots..... The plan was to have 3 rows of carrots. I have 1 row of nantes that haven't sprouted yet. The other row of Nantes and a row of Denver half longs appear to have both been planted at the same place.... this row is sprouting though so that's a good thing. lol

The bean plot I planted a row of peas in but haven't found anything sprouting yet. I'm probably going to replace them with 3rd row of green beans when I plant them.

The leaf plots doing better.
I have 3 rows of leaf lettuce and have started thinning the rows. The plants could be doing better but I'm happy with them at this point.
The half spinach row is over crowded and needs thinned but its there and the turnips are doing well for being in a patch of weeds. but the cabbage, broccoli, and collard greens haven't sprouted that I could find.

But over all I have gotten some stuff out of the garden while thinning.

Inside my peppers, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, watermelons, and cucumbers are growing well but behind on getting moved to larger pots. I'm hoping it doesn't cause too much trouble.

[redneck647]

I'm still behind but I just finished getting everything started inside into their bigger pots. I'm hoping the delay won't hurt them too much. Now it'll be time to get them hardened off.

Also here are the radishes I've harvested. The plants that grew did well and I was surprised to get some nice sized ones too.

Also the lettuce isn't getting very big but I'm still thinning it out and getting some. I'm not sure when it will start bolting but hopefully it lasts awhile yet.

[cruisin_psu]

aww yea! nice radishes!

[applestar]

Some of my radishes are bolting without ever bulking in this heat wave. I'm disappointed because they were the purple Pusa varieties. But the leaves still looks good so I can use in cooked dishes. I think some people eat the leaves in salads, but they are too bristly for me to eat raw.

[redneck647]

So after pretty much giving up on it for this year I stopped posting updates.
However the garden did provide some radishes, potatoes, some really nice turnips, and a few bags of lettuce. I've also saved a few radish seeds some lettuce seeds and a lot of turnip seeds. On top of that I still have finished compost to add back into the garden. So it hasn't been a complete wast.

Also I do have one surprising outcome to report. Almost immediately after planting the tomatoes I pretty much stopped caring for the garden. I stopped watering them and they became overgrown with weeds.
However to my amazement the tiny tim plant that I planted as an experiment and which only grew to slightly over 6” produced 5 to 6 tomatoes. Which was about how many the other 8 plants produced all together.
I'm working on saving a few seeds from this plant to grow next year but I don't know if they're grow true or not.

Anyway now I'm just working on cleaning the garden up and hopefully getting the compost mixed in before the snow comes.

[applestar]

Sorry to hear things were tough for you this year. But I've had that happen, too, when keeping up with the garden became too much. I agree it's sometimes amazing what will manage to grow without our care. And those few harvestable treasures are fun to find.

I like that you saved seeds -- there's always next year!