Virgin Gardener

[slannesh]

So sorry to read about your back, Murphy is clearly stalking you...

It's all good. Feeling much better today, still a bit stiff but I'll be right as rain in a few more days. Gotta get those seedlings transplanted soon though.

[prepper7]

Sounds like Slannish and I are in about the same boat... Friday, I got six bags (1 cubic foot each) of chicken manure from Walmart (3.28 each I think), and mixed them into my garden soil. All ready to plant, right?
Then, I decided to have a fantastic minibike crash at my buddy's house (not even any alcohol involved!), and dislocated my shoulder, cracked a bone in my foot, and badly sprained my ACL. Actually, it's all healing up fairly well, but it's gonna delay the whole kneeling-in-the-dirt-to-plant thing.

HOWEVER, I didn't entirely waste my weekend. I went through all my seeds and starters and a list of companion plants, and planned out the entire bed.

Glad to read that you're healing apace. And well done not allowing the results of your Evel Knievel / Johnny Knoxville antics to completely derail your gardening.

[prepper7]

And just for fun... here's my little garden troll helper (niece):

Okay, that's just too damned cute! Once the seedlings are stable, are you going to give her a little plant of her own?

[tripleryder]

Yep! already got her a little salad garden kit thing. Has videos that you watch online that use animated characters and teach them about what's happening. She loves it, she was so excited to follow me around and "help"

I'm healing up fairly decently, hopefully this weekend I'll be good enough to get the plants in.

[prepper7]

Yep! already got her a little salad garden kit thing. Has videos that you watch online that use animated characters and teach them about what's happening. She loves it, she was so excited to follow me around and "help"

I'm healing up fairly decently, hopefully this weekend I'll be good enough to get the plants in.

Thx for doing your part to train the next generation!

[tripleryder]

Doin my best!

My little niece is an amazing little person and super smart. At 3 yrs old, she is soaking everything up like a sponge. She is the only child of a single mother, and I try to hang out with her as much as I can. You know. To spread my *manly* influence and teach her about things like poop and farts and dirt and knives and fire and zombies and guns and building and camping and... and... and...
...and if only I could get her mom (vegetarian) to let her eat meat!

[ZombieGranny]

At that age, she's getting all the protein she needs from cheese and milk.

[prepper7]

Doin my best!

My little niece is an amazing little person and super smart. At 3 yrs old, she is soaking everything up like a sponge. She is the only child of a single mother, and I try to hang out with her as much as I can. You know. To spread my *manly* influence and teach her about things like poop and farts and dirt and knives and fire and zombies and guns and building and camping and... and... and...
...and <snip>

And--not to wax too seriously--you're giving her what she can only get from the men in her life like you; loving, male attention that will teach her she doesn't need to "purchase" a man's affection. And yeah, guns.

[slannesh]

Doin my best!

My little niece is an amazing little person and super smart. At 3 yrs old, she is soaking everything up like a sponge. She is the only child of a single mother, and I try to hang out with her as much as I can. You know. To spread my *manly* influence and teach her about things like poop and farts and dirt and knives and fire and zombies and guns and building and camping and... and... and...
...and if only I could get her mom (vegetarian) to let her eat meat!

Good on ya man. Having a positive male role model will do her worlds of good in the long term, i'm sure your sister (in law?) appreciates the effort too, odd food choices notwithstanding

[tripleryder]

Yes, sister-in-law, and yes, he definitely appreciates it. I just like to tease her about the vegetarian thing. Honestly, she's such a picky little eater than probably the one "meat" she would eat would be chicken nuggets and corn dogs, and you're probably better off without haha.

[tripleryder]

... where'd everybody go?

[slannesh]

Still here, just nothing new to report Had a busy week with other stuff and haven't had a chance to do much garden stuff. My fence gutters are still sadly unplanted but I do have a bunch of spinach sprouts that i'll be transferring soon and want to get the lettuce in them this weekend. I also have Roma and Cherokee Beefsteak tomatoes that have sprouted well and I think I'm seeing some action in the cucumbers and strawberries as well. Bell peppers so far have no action.

The seedlings that I posted earlier this week have again almost doubled in size and I NEED to get them properly planted. Hopefully some tonight and the rest over the course of the weekend. I was really hoping that I was going to be able to get at least one raised bed in but if it doesn't happen in the next week or so there's really no point for this year as it will be too late to plant much with a realistic chance of harvest. I still have a few containers I can use and will be as well as another round of all the bakeries in the area to see if I can get any more food grade buckets. Pics will be forthcoming!


**UPDATE ADDING PICS**

Got some stuff done tonight. Unfortunately i'm out of compost so i'm pretty much stopped till I can get more. Just have to find a way to get a yard of it from the local landfill.


Anyhow, on to the pics from tonight. I'll start off with the seedlings that have been growing like crazy


And my new sprouts that are coming along nicely.




I had wanted to do some self watering planters, but the food grade buckets i've been acquiring from the local stores aren't big enough. These are 2 gallon but really only would have about 2 cups of capacity if I made them self watering so it pretty much defeats the purpose. So I just drilled some holes in the bottom and filled them with the last of my compost/peat moss mix







I got some help later on in the project. I ended up using some of the soil I had delivered for my raised bed and mixed it 60/40 with peat moss and added some fertilizer to get the brown planters going too.





Green Bush beans, Sugar Snap Peas, Green Bush Beans and a Zucchini which I later changed my mind about and moved to one of the bigger brown planters



The Roma Tomato plant that I picked up from the Farmer's Market last weekend. It gives me about a 2 month jump start on the sprouts i've got going



And my next round of potential seedlings. I decided to try to plant a couple of the green onions too just to see if they do better in water or in soil



So that's about it for now, I also did get those gutters on my fence partially planted, there's about 5 feet each of Green Leaf and Romaine Lettuce on the outside quarters of each planter leaving the middle 5 feet on one for Strawberries and the other middle 5 feet for Spinach which is what's sprouting in my windowsill greenhouse right now. Hoping that those will get a move on and i'll be able to start hardening them off in a week or so.

I did bring all the transplants back in the house when I finished for the night and will put them back out tomorrow to continue hardening them off.

[prepper7]

Slannesh, you got quite a bit accomplished (I suspect it was because of your adorable little helper)

If you find any black-seeded Simpson lettuce seeds, give them a try. The lettuce grows fast, is tasty, and is quite attractive. The light green leaves look nice amongst the darker lettuce colours. I have planted two more plants (I just put the seeds in the planter outside and I already have seedlings) to accompany the existing two and will add two more in a few weeks (succession planting for a constant supply).

When you next get small buckets, don't give up on making them SIPs. I have been experimenting with using wicking material instead of a soil-filled wicking basket and whilst I've a bit of tweaking to do, I'm pleased with the results. My first two fabric wick planters used pantyhose I got from a friend, the second planter used a polyester winter scarf from the 99-cent store (I'd been looking for Pellon Thermolam Plus 970 interfacing after reading this (I probably posted a link above when I first learned of the technique), but couldn't find it locally. When I saw the scarf, it was a light bulb moment.

ETA: I didn't use the entire scarf as a wick, I cut strips down the length to create long wicks.

You could use a seperate container for a reservoir (or use a rain guttering system for multiple planters) and install wicks in the bottom of your existing planters.

[prepper7]

Another variation on the SIP bucket planter Alaska Grow Buckets.

[prepper7]

The Garden Tower (and an innovative funding model). More pix of the actual units here. Though I am not much of a fan of top-down watering, this is intriguing. I have written to ask them how one might convert this to a SIP.

[slannesh]

Another variation on the SIP bucket planter Alaska Grow Buckets.

Well now that's interesting.

I'll keep an eye out for that sorta stuff, i'm still hoping to get my hands on some 5 gallon buckets as they do see to be ideal for a SIP setup but at least I got some plants in dirt

[prepper7]

<snip> i'm still hoping to get my hands on some 5 gallon buckets as they do see to be ideal for a SIP setup <snip>

Well, most of the instructables use them, but fwiw, the largest I have are 4 gal (which I'm using for chard as they need a 12" planting depth. five plants fit happily; four in a ring, one in the centre). I've been thing how best to apply the fertilizer mound with such a planter... perhaps several small mounds? Anyway, most of my buckets are only 3.5 gal. Though since they were all free, I'm just grateful to have them.

Lettuce have such shallow roots that they'll grow in a salad bowl, so making one-bucket salad SIPs out of the smaller buckets would be easy peasy.

[tripleryder]

I'm all planted!










Left to right (north to south): Corn, beans, w/lettuce and carrots scattered throughout. Peas with squash and zuch and more lettuce, Cherry tomatoes x 2 on round climber, cucumbers x 6 (one doesn't look so well) on round climer, peppers x 5, tomatoes x 5, broccoli x 5, green onions, cilantro, dill, basil and spinach.

In on Saturday, nothing has sprouted yet, except starters of course.

Soaker hose doesnt work well. Sprays too far, not consistent coverage. Stuck with hand watering, at least until vegetation is tall enough to distribute the water spray. It's pretty dense, and will require a lot of thinning, I probably used way too many seeds.

[slannesh]

I'm all planted!

Looks Great!

[tripleryder]

Thank you sir! I'm really excited about all this haha. My wife keeps teasing me because I'm all excited like a little boy talking about the garden.

[prepper7]

Nice work, Tripleryder! Too bad about your hose, any ideas about how to salvage the system?

[tripleryder]

Nice work, Tripleryder! Too bad about your hose, any ideas about how to salvage the system?

Thank you sir.
you can flip it over, and use it as a soaker, rather than a sprayer. However, It soaks too much down and not enough out... the shallow roots wont get much unless they are right next to the hose.
I will try it again a a month or so once there is some vegetation. The streams are not powerful, just too thin and squirt too far. I think if there is some vegetation to hit, it will disperse pretty well. I suppose the other option would be enlarging the holes, thereby decreasing pressure and range. But man... that would take forever!

[zombiepreparation]

Nice work, Tripleryder!

Ditto!

[prepper7]

Posted on dealnews: Buy an Osmocote Outdoor & Indoor Plant Food 3-lb. Container from any retail location and get $10 off via this $10 mail-in rebate (until 30 June 2012). Walmart, Lowe's, and Home Depot offer this food for about $12 before the rebate.