Results 1 to 11 of 11

Thread: Garden 3.0

  1. #1
    Senior Member grrlscout's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Hell City, AZ
    Posts
    752

    Default Garden 3.0

    As some of you might recall, near the end of last year, I went through a big break up, and I moved out in the Spring. I had to leave my garden behind, and now I'm in an apartment.

    I have a few plants in containers on the balcony, but other that the habanero and some chard, everything burned up, once the triple digits came, even being in the shade.

    In April, I finally got my plot at the nearby community garden. It's already stupid hot here at that time. But I put in some heat and drought tolerant plants, added some shade, and ollas, for watering.

    At this point, everything seems content. Now that monsoon season is here, the humidity is really making everything perk up.

    I have summer squash, cantaloupe, tomatoes, tomatillos, tepary beans, chiltepins, goji, and some unknown volunteer winter squash.

    Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

    I still don't know what to plant on the north end. Maybe amaranth?


  2. #2
    Senior Member nell67's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Southern Indiana
    Posts
    7,725

    Default

    sweet little garden grrlscout!, they could give you a intsy weentsy more space! The tepary beans you sent me were in the garden when I left, I did get to try them though before I left, they are a good little bean. You do grow things out there I have never heard of.
    My boyfriend and I have built some garden space here that required us hauling in some topsoil because this place is nearly completely clay. The cabin sits on the side of a small hill that was cut away for the cabin, and the yard is basically s small hills that meet in front o the house, I am trying to talk him into installing some type of tank system where the hills meet, and then cover that with top soil to have an underground water catch system, and also have an actual garden area. The underground tank would be used to catch water runoff from both the hill behind the cabin as well as the water run off from the roof, which we would use to water the garden and yard. Just some ideas I have floated around to him, it would be a little pricey I think to get the tank installed and the topsoil trucked in, but his son-in-law has a dumptruck so I think he could catch a break somewhere along the way. We have tomatoes, onions, green beans, cucumbers, swiss chard, kale, spinach, green peppers, turnips they are doing well.
    Soular powered by the son.

    Nell, MLT (ASCP)

  3. #3
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    North Florida
    Posts
    44,846

    Default

    GS - Earthboxes are perfect for patio gardening, and they have come way down in price. http://earthbox.com/?gclid=CjwKEAjwi...346hoCNGDw_wcB
    Can't Means Won't

    My Youtube Channel

  4. #4
    Senior Member grrlscout's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Hell City, AZ
    Posts
    752

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by nell67 View Post
    sweet little garden grrlscout!, they could give you a intsy weentsy more space! The tepary beans you sent me were in the garden when I left, I did get to try them though before I left, they are a good little bean. You do grow things out there I have never heard of.
    My boyfriend and I have built some garden space here that required us hauling in some topsoil because this place is nearly completely clay. The cabin sits on the side of a small hill that was cut away for the cabin, and the yard is basically s small hills that meet in front o the house, I am trying to talk him into installing some type of tank system where the hills meet, and then cover that with top soil to have an underground water catch system, and also have an actual garden area. The underground tank would be used to catch water runoff from both the hill behind the cabin as well as the water run off from the roof, which we would use to water the garden and yard. Just some ideas I have floated around to him, it would be a little pricey I think to get the tank installed and the topsoil trucked in, but his son-in-law has a dumptruck so I think he could catch a break somewhere along the way. We have tomatoes, onions, green beans, cucumbers, swiss chard, kale, spinach, green peppers, turnips they are doing well.
    Thanks Nell! Believe it or not, that's the "big" size. I originally signed up for a 4x8, but wisely switched my request to an 8x8, to account for vining plants. It still needs more dirt, but it's so hot, and I just ran out of steam. I'll fill it some more, come Fall.

    If I'm picturing your plan correctly, it sounds like a good one. But I think you can probably do something similar for free, using earthworks. Maybe Google around for "water harvesting" and "rain gardens", and see if you come up with similar ideas that you can use. Brad Lancaster is pretty much the expert on those matters.

  5. #5
    Senior Member grrlscout's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Hell City, AZ
    Posts
    752

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by crashdive123 View Post
    GS - Earthboxes are perfect for patio gardening, and they have come way down in price. http://earthbox.com/?gclid=CjwKEAjwi...346hoCNGDw_wcB

    Most definitely!

    I made a couple, using cat litter buckets. You can see them in the background here (along with a full view of the ollas).

    Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

    Back in March, I put a habanero in one (still going strong), and a volunteer tomato in the other (which finally gave up the ghost last week). I think I'll replace the tomato with a passion flower (maypops), once I get one started.

    The ones that burned up were these black buckets, also using ollas.

    Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

    In the buckets, the kale, chard and basil, survived the longest. In fact, I still have the chard, which is started in January. It just doesn't seem to get any bigger. I kept replacing everything with herbs, but they would die too.

    Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

    It's just too hot to use those suckers. I'm going to move the current survivors (chard, mint, and i'itoi onions) into my plot, and replant them with something else in the Fall.

  6. #6
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    58,832

    Default

    Are those watermelons? I'm a dismal failure at them. That's about the size of my mature fruit whenever I've tried to grow them. You can still grow an amazing amount of food in that size of a garden. No larger than the garden is I would think you could get by with a single olla or maybe one in each corner? I've never used them so I have no idea what the square footage rules are. It just seems lot a lot to me in a small area. Plant roots will gravitate to the wet soil no matter how many you have. Just trying to figure out how to get more growing space for you.

    EDIT: You posted while I was typing. It looks like you've mastered a lot of room using the earth boxes!

  7. #7
    Senior Member grrlscout's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Hell City, AZ
    Posts
    752

    Default

    Rick - I fail at watermelons too. But I've been pretty lucky with cantaloupes, which is what those are. There are currently three good-sized ones on the vine, with several babies on too.

    Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.
    (^ see that dang squash bug?! I've been squishing them and their eggs left and right!)

    I'm training some of the vines to go up the shade structure = more space.

    I think the watering distance for the ollas is only about 6" or so. I'm currently only using the three on the right, since nothing is planted near the other two, other than the goji. Being a desert plant, it only likes a little top watering now and again, so it doesn't need to use one.

    I think once I pile in some more soil up over the ollas, I'll get a lot more room. The whole left side is currently vacant. Just the choices of what to plant during this time of year are pretty limited. Eggplant and okra are options, but I don't really like them

    So I suppose I'll just use the space for the vines for now. And I have some more tomatoes started on the grow table, for Fall, and they'll need a place to go. Plus, a bunch of other things, I imagine.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Winnie's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Middle England
    Posts
    5,785
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default

    Congratulations! I see the difference between a community garden and allotment now. I hope you get better results as time goes on. It's good to get in the dirt again. Are you allowed to have multiple plots?
    Recession; A period when you go without something your Grandparents never heard of.

  9. #9
    Senior Member nell67's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Southern Indiana
    Posts
    7,725

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by grrlscout View Post
    Thanks Nell! Believe it or not, that's the "big" size. I originally signed up for a 4x8, but wisely switched my request to an 8x8, to account for vining plants. It still needs more dirt, but it's so hot, and I just ran out of steam. I'll fill it some more, come Fall.

    If I'm picturing your plan correctly, it sounds like a good one. But I think you can probably do something similar for free, using earthworks. Maybe Google around for "water harvesting" and "rain gardens", and see if you come up with similar ideas that you can use. Brad Lancaster is pretty much the expert on those matters.
    The idea bouncing around in my head for the water collection tank,or whatever would serve a dual purpose, it would collect all the water runoff on that side of the cabin, but also would fill in a portion of the yard and would need less topsoil to actually create yard there where now is two samllish sized hills, I would need some sort of pump to use the water in the holding tank, but it also would have an overflow, not wanting to actually stop the flow of water down the hill.We had an issue behind the cabin, where the hill was cut away for the cabin, with literal mudslides, and he found some concrete barriers for cheap his soninlaw put those back there to stop the mudslides, no that it is settling, he installed a garden box along the length on one.
    I believe each of the barriers are 6 ft long, and the garden box along that wall is 24 ft long, that one contains lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, and turnips. Those rain harvesting tanks from google look very much like what I have in mind. will take some doing, and will definitely have to save up the pennies to get it done. That would be awesome!
    Soular powered by the son.

    Nell, MLT (ASCP)

  10. #10
    Senior Member grrlscout's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Hell City, AZ
    Posts
    752

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Winnie View Post
    Congratulations! I see the difference between a community garden and allotment now. I hope you get better results as time goes on. It's good to get in the dirt again. Are you allowed to have multiple plots?
    You do? Wanna explain it to me?

    I don't think individuals are allowed multiple plots, as already, they are running out of room. There are some organizations who get several, like Native Health, and International Rescue has one huge farming area, that refugees can use.

  11. #11
    Senior Member grrlscout's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Hell City, AZ
    Posts
    752

    Default

    And the first melon is in. It's a little runty, but delicious!

    Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •