How does your garden grow: 2012 Edition!

[OTTB]

I checked around and rather than start a new short lived thread I have a question. If I were to buy seeds how long will they keep or do I need to plant right away. Also how do I avoid hybrid plants since I've heard they don't produce seeds that will enable you to plant a new crop ie: need to keep buying them.

[Bridget]

I checked around and rather than start a new short lived thread I have a question. If I were to buy seeds how long will they keep or do I need to plant right away. Also how do I avoid hybrid plants since I've heard they don't produce seeds that will enable you to plant a new crop ie: need to keep buying them.

This is actually a great set of questions! Here's my two cents, and I'm sure others will chime in.
Most seeds will last a few years so long as you keep them in a cool, dark, dry place. Germination rates lessen as years pass, but you can generally expect 2-3 years out of most varieties of seed.
Any reputable seed company will list how long the seeds are good, whether on their website or the seed packet itself.
When looking for specific varieties with which you can save seed, look for a note saying they're open-pollinated. A good company will advertise this; while this means you don't have to keep buying from them, they place their bets on the quality of the product and expect you to come back in following years for new items.

Companies I love that will have what you're looking for include BBB Seed, Johnny's Selected Seeds and Victory seeds, but my true love is Territorial Seed Company. They have a wide range of great products, and their customer service head, Josh, is amazing for answering questions that you may have. This guy knows me by name and has suggested a lot of stuff to me that I continue to repurchase year after year (I'm not so much of the seed saving set yet).

[Dawgboy]

Interestingly, scientists recently sprouted seeds that were buried by rodents something like 8000 years ago. They were buried before the last ice age and had been in permafrost a long time. Need to find the source, as it was on NPR radio.

I keep mine in ziplocks and with silica all in a bigger ziplock in the back of the fridge. it's the hot-cold-hot-cold that kills the seed. I have sprouted stuff that was 5 years old with about 40% success.

Latest find for me from Craigslist is a bunch of crates for jet engine parts that are about to become planters. I have 22 in the trailer with the biggest being 3'x3'x1', and 6 in the car that are 2'x2'x4". These small flat ones are great for lettuce and other shallow rooting annuals All I have to do is drill drains and paint them. then half straw i the big ones and compost and soil for the rest. This will help with the gopher situation a lot...

[Dawgboy]

All those raw plywood boxes got drilled for drainage


painted with free paint from Craigslist (Checkout the poor choice in color naming)


And turned into this


Already have filler for this first set, just need to level their respective spots, fill them and get them planted.

[Anianna]

Those seeds are reported to be 30,000 years old.

[thefirebuilds]

Do any of you guys have issues with your dogs helping themselves to your gardens? My little shittums will stand and eat the tomatoes till he's full and I'm not. What's the most aesthetic solutions you have besides kicking your dog in the butt. Mine's edging on getting himself an electrified horse fence.

[Bridget]

Do any of you guys have issues with your dogs helping themselves to your gardens? My little shittums will stand and eat the tomatoes till he's full and I'm not. What's the most aesthetic solutions you have besides kicking your dog in the butt. Mine's edging on getting himself an electrified horse fence.

Yeah, my pit thinks that tomatoes are grown just for him.

Easy answer: plant a few extra plants to sacrifice to the dog.

Less easy answer: surround your beds with tall ornamentals, plants that dogs don't like to eat, or treat your border plants with a bittering agent like Bitter Apple.

PITA, responsible dog owner answer: make sure he has plenty of outside toys and areas suitable for play. Sit outside and watch the dog. Every time he approaches your veggie area, scold him with a stern "NO!" Rinse and repeat forever until he finally gets it.
This is what I did when I got baby chickens last year. It takes time and patience, but now my 65-pound beast thinks he's the chicken mama, and spends most of his outside time playing with or protecting them.

You could, realistically, fence off your garden area with a three foot fence. It does keep out undermotivated pests in addition to your dog. But really, buying a fence to protect some tomatoes seems like overkill to me.

[JesterODX]

Dawgboy, the thousand year old plants, you were refering to, I caught the artical on Foxnews.com last week. Very interesting. Amazing what nature and some squirrels can do. They are wanting to find some intact froozen dna from critters.

We've already started with some things. Planted some cabbage and something else (onions maybe). We'll do our standard garden with a few extras tossed in. Tomatos, green beans, the small white cucumbers (granny likes them for pickles), okra, and squash. Then the stuff mom decideds she wants, the cabbage, peas, maybe some carrots and raddishes and she is talking about potatos.

Our gardening is so fun (sarcasm). Grandmother wants what she wants and dont care to have what mother wants in the garden. And all that want me for is the heavy lifting and running the tiller. Which suits me. I'm planning on putting up a lot of dried vegetables this year, but I'm going the easy route and hitting the farmers market for a good bit of it.

[Birddog1148]

Built a cold frame

and have some letuce, spinatch, cauliflour, celery, and other stuff started inside.

using this

[FiftySticks]

I'm playing with this website right now, I think it'll be useful/fun to use. http://www.smartgardener.com

My wife and I just moved this past summer so we need to plan a new garden space. I started playing around with this site thanks to your link. It seems like it will be a useful tool! Thank you for the post!

[Dawgboy]

Sadly, after 3 weeks, most of my starts failed to germinate. Guess I will re-do the seed beds. Had a cold snap so that may have done it.

I did get my first set of garden boxes placed and just need to level and fill. All the soil is at the bottom so I am dreading it.



Also got my "hugelkultur" bed substantially built with all the brush from the dead tree that fell during the week, and a bunch of old yucca logs.

[Birddog1148]

[Dawgboy]

Nice cold frame!

I got 3 beds filled today. These have a lasagna mix of composted horse manure, yucca leaves, native soil, and then about an 8 inch top of the good stuff from the local dairy.

[daddykirbs]

I love the garden talk here. I've been looking for a way to plant the potatoes. Those hardware cloth pillars are just the ticket. This is my garden for this season.

[GentryMillMan]

Background: Two years in a row I have lost the battle with the weeds.

Year 1: Job change had me working in a different time zone with a lot of overtime. Being a boat mechanic summer is a killer for me most of the time, but working in a different time zone had me up really early and there really late. The garden had made the transition from grass field to garden and thus had a lot of weeds in it. Weeds eventually won the battle.

Year 2: Another job change, but back into the same time zone so I didn't have to be up so early, but it had more overtime. The wife also ended up pregnant (clearly it was all her fault ) So if I wanted to live, she needed more attention then the garden and yet again weeds eventually won the battle.

So this brings me to a question. I know a lot of people use plastic to help keep out the weeds, funding does not allow me to buy that black plastic or the weed cloth. However being a boat mechanic I can get large sheets of white shrink wrap plastic. Anyone know if there would be any issue with using this for my "suppressive fire" on my weed zombies?

The plan: Till up garden as normal. Put down large plastic. Cut holes in plastic and plant. That should mean that there is less time weeding areas that are essentially walkways, and more time focusing on the immediate area around the plants. No pregnant wife this year means I might get some help weeding. Oldest son (will be 5 in may) will be drafted into the weed slaying forces, and hopefully we win this year.

[Bridget]

So this brings me to a question. I know a lot of people use plastic to help keep out the weeds, funding does not allow me to buy that black plastic or the weed cloth. However being a boat mechanic I can get large sheets of white shrink wrap plastic. Anyone know if there would be any issue with using this for my "suppressive fire" on my weed zombies?

That black weed block fabric sucks! It decomposes within one season, leaving tons of tiny pieces of plastic crap all through your garden.
I don't see why shrink wrap plastic would do any damage.

But really, I use cardboard and a thick layer of mulch and it does the job much more organically. You don't have to worry about removing it at the end of the season, and it helps balance nutrients in the soil.

[2005RedTJ]

We are getting a little bit of a late start but this will be our first garden at this house since my fiance bought the place a couple years ago. I plan to start 4 of the 72-cell starter trays under a couple of 4', 2-bulb florescent lights sitting on heat mats. My soon-to-be-FIL is already prepping the garden area out back since he was already prepping his next door.

Probably gonna do potatoes, corn, tomatoes, peppers, onions, green beans, lettuce, carrots and maybe some herbs for my fiance too.

[OTTB]

I have a question as it relates to gardening...kinda. Out back of my apartment complex we have these plants growing and the nearest I can figure is that they are some type of wheat maybe? or barly? Is it A: safe to eat. B: actually a memember of the grain family and C: does that stuff actually still grow wild. Also I've increased my small apartment garden to include 2X lemon trees 2X small strawberry plants and 1X tomato plant. Any advice as to how I can increase my fruit yields. I'm just getting into gardening and while I like it thus far I'm very limited with being in an apartment.

[Anianna]

I have a question as it relates to gardening...kinda. Out back of my apartment complex we have these plants growing and the nearest I can figure is that they are some type of wheat maybe? or barly? Is it A: safe to eat. B: actually a memember of the grain family and C: does that stuff actually still grow wild.

We need pics, at least.

[OTTB]

http://s265.photobucket.com/albums/ii207/Kevin_G_/?action=view&current=IMG_1562.jpg

http://s265.photobucket.com/albums/ii207/Kevin_G_/?action=view&current=IMG_1562.jpg#!oZZ2QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs265.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fii207%2FKevin_G_%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMG_1560.jpg

[2005RedTJ]

Well, we got of our keesters and went to WalMart and got some supplies. I already had some scrap 2x4's and plywood laying around from our remodel and threw together an indoor seed starting setup. I had built one exactly like this one before so it took roughly an hour to build. Pics later when I get a chance. It isn't fancy-looking, just sturdy.

We ended up settling on corn, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, jalapenos, cayenne, bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, onions, and lettuce.

[2005RedTJ]

Didn't get the seeds in the starter trays tonight, but I did finish building this.



Seeds shall be started in starter flats tomorrow night.

[OTTB]

Didn't get the seeds in the starter trays tonight, but I did finish building this.



Seeds shall be started in starter flats tomorrow night.

That looks pretty good. What do you plan on growing. Is that your home or apartment. If apartment I would like to know what your trying to make.

Does anyone have any responses to what I asked?

[2005RedTJ]

Didn't get the seeds in the starter trays tonight, but I did finish building this.

Seeds shall be started in starter flats tomorrow night.

That looks pretty good. What do you plan on growing. Is that your home or apartment. If apartment I would like to know what your trying to make.

Does anyone have any responses to what I asked?

Looks like we will be growing carrots, bell peppers, jalapenos, cayenne, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, green beans, cucumbers, lettuce, banana peppers, and onions this year. It's a house, and we've got a decent-sized plot tilled up out back. This rack is just going to be for starting seeds on, just threw it together in a spare bedroom that just holds remodeling supplies right now. Gotta go measure the plot out back tomorrow and do some figuring. I created a SmartGardener account and will be trying that out for tips.