The old timers around here say no more frost after the last full moon of February. Which was a week ago. So I just planted the first experimental garden today. Gotta love being in Florida. I'm trying to follow the square foot method but may make some modifications as I go. It's 10 feet by 6 feet, I made the little squares 14x14 inches, little biggerthan the sq foot method. It's 6 inches above 6 inches below grade. Started working the soil 3 weeks ago. The soil is very sandy here so I worked in some top soil, manure, vermiculite, and pH adjusted with some lime. planted: Corn sunflowers onions carrots tobacco basil catnip romaine and Bib lettuce peas beans marigold/geranium (pest control) bell peppers banana peppers stevia We'll see how it goes. If it goes well I may expand it a bit to add cucumbers, dill and tomatoes.
I think I love hearing about your garden...We're expecting a big snow storm on Monday. Prediction is that it will be our deepest of the season. While I'm shoveling snow I can think about you shoveling peat and manure.
The ground around here will turn the tines on a heavy duty tiller, it is solid as ice can be. Another couple months, maybe --
LOL, glad it'll brighten your day. I'm all done shovelling so neener neener next time I'll have to work the soil will be at harvest time which varies and it'll only be ~ 1 sq foot at a time. The next tasks will be keeping it moist and some minor thinning in a week or two. It's just dirt now, but I'll post up more pics as things develop. Now I'm out to go kill those weeds in the yard. enjoy
Well, I've got until the 22nd of March until our last frost (according to the farmers almanac). BUT, today - well, Memphis is finally white!! Yup, the ground is covered in that white stuff that falls from the sky. Good thing I haven't started the outside portion of the garden yet. I do have a couple of dozen seed started inside and that is doing well. MAYBE this will be the first year I get my own tomato plants growing instead of getting some hybrids from the store
i just got the rows finished in my garden it's about 40'x40' i have 14 rows most are right at 40 ' long and a few are about 20 because i had to go around the graves of my two ole friends my golden retiever "rosie" and my black lab "buddy" i buried them in the middle of the back yard so i had to go around them.but i should be planting the seeds in a few days.the soil down here is nice and sandy top soil it pays to live in the miss,delta area.
Watch out for those danged sunflowers! They'll kill a lot of veggies if theyaretoo close! They poison the soil somehow...I found out the hard way, after I let my son plant some in my garden! BTW: they will also take out trees in some cases! Bill
as for as weds and grass i am putting down that weed cloth but first i'm gonna zap the soil with a round of roundup and give it a week to wash out then i'll roll out the cloth . after the cloth is out i am gonna use canned goods cans and go about every 18" and pop a hole in the cloth and put a can then plant a seed. although i was thinkin of skipping the roundup i have been havin second thought about it and just might go ahead and do it . does anyone know where i can get some nice strawberry plants???
I planted 4 sunflowers in my garden 2 years ago (didn't last year due to space limitations) and I never had a problem with other plants dying out. Could be just the type of sunflower, dunno
Dragonfly must've planted the Arizona Killer variety of sunflower . I have heard that there's something in the sunflower seed shell that is toxic to grass. I bet that it might do some damage to other plants as well. There are a lot of sunflower varieties. Make sure to get one that local gardeners have had good luck with. I've never had a problem, nor have friends of mine that have included them in their garden. Could just be dumb luck .
Well this is my experimental garden, since it's the first one, so we'll see what happens. actually if there is a chemical in sunflowers that eradicates other plants, that may be an organic, natural herbicide. $$$$$ cha ching
UPDATE: at day 6 the romaine and bib lettuce have all sprouted ( not there this morning, but they where clearly there this evening, very cool) the catnip has sprouted a few of the peas have. also I put two pea seeds in a indoors potted plant and they're 3 inches tall already WOW soil temperature makes a huge difference. I think the basil has sprouted and a few of the onions and carrots, but not sure if they're weeds yet.
My Garden This is a continuation of my previous thread, (if a mod can move that here then cool) moved -melbo Here is the garden progression from day 1 all seeds, except two flwoers for pest control at 3 weeks, at 4 weeks and 4.5 weeks. We've actually gotten rain the past couple days, nice long steady ones. Everything is deep greeeeeenn. The corn is up but with pests, ( tobacco will rid the corn of the worms) the sunflowers are jamming and the corn still lives!!! The tobacco is being a pain, but I have some sprouts finally (had to replant them about 2 weeks ago) peas are jammin the basil, nip and stevia are going the peppers are starting but accidentally killed one weeding, no biggy as the season isn't long enough here for peppers, going to have to transplant them into buckets later. carrots, onions and lettuce is going, romaine is starting to jam. beans not many sproutted about 6 of 18, moved one it appears to be struggling.
Re: My Garden OUCH!!! the corn borer got the corn. Those bastards are crazy. no corn fields for miles and they find my little patch and decimated it. about 1 inch from ground they all fell over all goey and slimy. I sprayed sevin all purpose 4 times prior and even plucked worms and squished em. I replanted seeds and I am going to try a tip I got and if it works I'll let you know.
Re: My Garden oh yeah, I did read that some varieties of sunflower can kill other plants. Also, the sunflowers have attracted a beneficial insect that eat aphids. and I'm about to eat some yummy looking romaine.
Re: My Garden cool, thanks for the updates. We've had 2 nights of near freezing lows, so I'm hoping everything in the garden is still growing good (worked the last 2 nights at the PT job so I haven't been out to the garden yet, should get there tonight)
