The Joy of Gardening

[j9c]

@mindysan33

raised beds

• heat up faster, so can plant earlier
• can drain faster, so may require more water in some cases
• easier to maintain, kinder to a gardener’s lower back, harder for bunnies to chomp delicious greens, for dogs to dig into, groundhogs to devastate
• may help exclude some kinds of weeds
• may exclude some pests
• cost more bc they need [good] soil to fill them (even if one doesn’t fill half the depth with logs and leaves) and more to purchase if you are getting one of the pretty corrugated ones as seen in Epic Gardening etc.
• must be edged with a weedeater if one is maintaining a lawn (as opposed to mulched paths) next to it

@mindysan33

working the ground

• cheaper
• you may just need to amend existing soil w compost and leaf mould
• may have plenty of weed seeds in the seedbed
• may have some pests or diseases in the soil
• easily the better choice as fall goes into winter, bc the soil in the ground stays “warm” for longer than a raised bed
• unless adequately fenced to exclude whichever critters are interested in what you are growing, can be an open invitation for every stray cat, hungry gopher, groundhog, rabbits, etc.
• careful mowing is required if bed is in lawn
• cheaper
• can stay hydrated better in hot dry times
• also: cheaper

@mindysan33

start small

Good!

I forgot an important list item that I will append here:

• observe through the year the number of hours of sunlight and shadow you have in the prospective spot you are thinking of putting a planting bed in, because sunlight is everything and if you don’t have a minimum of 6 hours full sun during growing season, your plant choices are going to be tailored to what light conditions you do have

[KeybillyJefe]

raised beds are the only thing that allows us to have a garden at all, so i have to use them. there is no ground to work, as it is coral rock all the way down! we currently have four active beds and one that is now - 8 years after putting it in - too shaded to produce anything but ginger.
so, as @j9c wrote:

@j9c

observe through the year the number of hours of sunlight and shadow you have in the prospective spot you are thinking of putting a planting bed in, because sunlight is everything and if you don’t have a minimum of 6 hours full sun during growing season,

that is solid info, man. the trees on my neighbor’s fenceline are tall, thick, and fast-growing. that, plus a workshop shed he built have totally shaded out that one bed and my own mistakes in placing fruit trees, is leaving me with more garden shade than is needed, thus adding to the troubles i have been having of late. (who knew a starfruit tree would grow 10 meters in only 8 years?! and the mango planted at the eastern end would get to be almost the same height, shading two of the original beds?) a whole lot more pre-planning would have gone a long way on our small property.
the soil needs working every season, as oirs is drip irritated, the soil nutrients tend to leech downward, beyond the depth of most veggie plant roots. compost and manure teas are added throughout the season, and generous new composted soil gets worked in between plantings.
one last thing that i often do wrong is, i tend to overcrowd. the limited space means i have to forgo certain creeping vine plants like some squash and melons that won’t climb, and opt for more upright veggies like peppers and pole beans, or anything i can get to climb a trellis.

[Docosc]

Ok, adding on:

(No clue what number we’re on)

• Keep a journal or somesuch of what you are doing when, and then come back later to note if it worked, or needs adjusting. That’s the best way to figure out you own private microclimate (or Idaho, if you are if a certain age) I use a calendar planner book for this.

• Separately, keep an idea book for when you hear about some new variety or technique so you can remember what it was when you have to decide yay or nay.

• Don’t be afraid to experiment with new things. Some work out great, some get voted off the island. Trying cardoon this year for the first time.

• Figure out a way to grow from seed if you can. A sunny window works great for small numbers of seedlings, seeds are way cheaper, and the varieties available are way more diverse. (This can be addictive, and can lead to occupying you cellar to build a grow room and daydreams of a greenhouse. Just a warning.)

ETA: Also, this can lead to getting into seed saving and even stumbling onto you own varieties, which is not just incredibly economical, it’s also great fun!

[Grey_Devil]

A good mindset of tinkering, and trial-and-error is helpful. Expect to kill things, a lot. That’s ok, it’ll help you fine tune things and get into better gardening habits. Make your plants part of your daily routine (or every other day), even if its just swinging by and doing a quick visual inspection.

If you want to start cheap, save cuttings and seeds from produce that you can root/germinate and put them in a garden or containers. Costs you nothing and its great for getting experience. And if you have friends that do gardening ask them for cuttings or baby plants, once a person gets going they’re often overladen with plants and don’t mind giving some out.

Edit: And i guess a really good suggestion is to be careful of overwatering. We tend to view watering as “giving the plant attention and love” and often times that’s the thing that is killing them fast. Underwatering is also bad but typically its easier to deal with, and easier to adjust the timing of it. Once you overwater though, it’s very hard to save the plant.

[j9c]

(long interval passes and then I see this:)

@j9c

air temps exceed 807°F

… er, that would be 80°F, and sorry for the typo!

[Kii]

If you have a botanical garden or community garden near by, check and see if they have spring plant sales. The live plants are typically cheaper and healthier than the ones available at big box stores and the selection should trend to natives and adapted species. They’ll avoid invasives.
It can also be a place to connect with some local gardeners.n

Before buying any plant, double check it isn’t invasive. The big box stores sell dozens of species that should never be planted.

Even if your focus is food plants, don’t neglect the opportunities to replace your landscape with natives and adapted species! They are good for the overall soil health, encourage beneficial insects, provide overwintering for native bees, use less water, etc. A healthier landscape will make for a healthier food garden too.

Also, dandelions are your friend. Native dandelions are the best though

Edit to add: dandelions are good in your lawn. Not so much the garden beds!

[Wayward]

COLD COLD COLD blast for the week ahead. Temps dropped from 50F/10C at midnight to 27F/-3C now, and still falling. I spent the morning fighting the blasted wind to get my bodged together insulation and supplemental heat “system” in place for North Alabama’s most expensive citrus.

Four moving blankets under one blue tarp all held in place by a bunch of cheap spring clamps and velcro straps. Inside is a not-at-all-rated-for-this radiator-style space heater resting on a boot tray and plugged into an outdoor rated remote switch and a 14 gauge outdoor extension cord.

[mindysan33]

Yeah, I had to go out for a bit in the late morning here, and it was colder by the time I got home… the wind is already whipping out over here…

[Kii]

They look snug though!
This is a good bit of why we have a single citrus tree in a half-barrel pot upon which I installed dresser handles. Anything below freezing but above 20, we shift the lemon 5 feet into the shelter of the front door alcove. Any lower, and we shift it 15 feet into the garage. The crazy thing has produced a third set of blooms over the last 5 weeks.

We had a supposedly cold hardy lime in the ground in the backyard. Paid $40 for it never expecting to see multiple days of under 10°F in North Austin. But then the big Texas freeze came and nothing but the root stock survived, despite all my efforts. Poor lime ‍:green_square: the freeze also killed the 5 year old Monterey white oak sapling.
It was probably for the best on the oak. Still pissed since it cost us a lot to buy and have planted. Turns out it was root bound and we didn’t know. It probably was going to grow too big for the space. The Mexican redbud that replaced it was a lot cheaper, is thriving, makes really pretty buds and seed pods we can eat, and should never grow too big.

We need to go out in the chill tomorrow and trim the Red oaks. We need to do it when the beetles that carry oak wilt are too cold to carry the fungus. So, tomorrow!

[gyrofrog]

@Kii

Also, dandelions are your friend

A local beekeeper asserted that dandelions weren’t even considered a weed, until the mass production/introduction of lawn care products, which kill dandelions along with the weeds - i.e., “I meant to kill the dandelions.” They’re beneficial to bees (especially in early spring), & also edible & tea-able(?), though I wouldn’t use any from my own yard (past application of fertilizers, runoff from neighbors’, etc.)

[Kii]

We had a late freeze a couple of years ago. Very unusual for central Texas and a lot of plants getting ready to bloom lost their buds. But the dandelions were blooming five days after the thaw. Taking advantage of the situation. We had hundreds of bees in the yard, 2 or 3 to each flower. I was glad we’d hada policy of leaving the dandelions alone for years previous. They’d always been the first blooms in our backyard but that year, it took a good bit for the other random flowering ground cover we’ve encouraged to create new buds and bloom.

[mindysan33]

Anyone got tips for starting compost? I was going to set up a hot compost outside, but was gonna have a thing inside for collecting scraps…

[Kii]

Whatever you choose for inside needs to be air tight and emptied daily. If not, you will have the gnat infestation from hell.

No meat or dairy. Egg shells should probably be rinsed. Be aware they take a really long time to break down. Be careful to remove produce stickers.

The tumbling bin thing didn’t work for us. Maybe we didn’t turn it enough or have the right ratios? The countertop thing didn’t work because it wasn’t airtight and we were not diligent about emptying it we also found rat chew marks on the tumbling bin. Despite the aforementioned precautions with no dairy, meat, or meat juice. A neighbor across the street had an infestation in his attic. They ate the wires in both his cars!

We don’t really have enough room for a compost pile on our property. So we gave up on composting. I wish we had enough land to place one more than 15 feet from the house.

Edit: I hope someone else has more hopeful advice for you

[Docosc]

Don’t overthink it. The spinny things are nice, but by its very nature, if you pile organic stuff up it will rot. All the rules and such will make it break down more efficiently, and the spinny things (i have 3) aerate really well which keeps smells to a minimum. The indoor collector does need to be emptied pretty regularly. My wife has a robonose, so i hear about it if the smells commence, but really only have to empty it twice a week or so. Of course, the amount of coffegrounds that go in there may hide the stench somewhat.

Compost spinner:

Her bakeshop generates amazing amounts of eggshells, cake scraps and fruit leftovers when budiness is booming, and all the coffe grounds and kitchen scraps go in. We don’t wash, rinse or measure anything, and some meat scraps sneek by, but honestly we haven’t had issues with pests. Again, i credit the immense amount of coffe grounds. And i try to turn them when i walk by, and always when i add another load. All 3 are full and ready to go by spring, and then we start over. Kind of a brainless operation. Unquestionably it would be hotter and quicker if we took care to balance the greens and browns, but we just don’t have time for that.

[Axolotl]

For the kitchen scraps I use one of these storage containers from IKEA. It gets emptied into the main compost around twice per week, and sits on the countertop next to the coffee pot. It doesn’t smell at all and only occasionally do we have fruit flies find it, usually when I’ve been processing garden tomatoes. It can get popped in the diswasher for cleaning.

[Kii]

Based on all this, we were somehow doing it wrong
I hated the countertop bin. We’d forget about the stupid thing for a week. It wouldn’t smell until we opened it but the flies could definitely get in an out.
The spinning thing we had seemed kind of small and had two compartments. The stuff just wouldn’t rot and decompose for some reason and then it got really hard to crank. We probably had the wrong type.
I love the idea of compost. But the execution just wasn’t working for us

[zfirphdn]

@Axolotl

For the kitchen scraps I use one of these storage containers from IKEA.

I’m wondering, since you said “one of these”, if perhaps you meant to add a link. (I don’t see one.) (Maybe you didn’t mean to.)

[Axolotl]

Oops

[gyrofrog]

@Kii

I love the idea of compost. But the execution just wasn’t working for us

I started a pile about 21 years ago (background) &… it looks much the same as when I started it. (I’m sure it’s smaller than when i quit adding stuff to it.) Maybe a year or so later, I came across the idea of drilling holes in a metal trash can & putting the compost in that, so I set that up, too (foreground). I filled it up & it’s stayed that way; last time I looked i could still identify whatever I last put in there.

(Sorry, it’s effectively a picture of household waste)

No, I wasn’t diligent about turning over the contents, figuring time would do the job. Anyway I gave up on maintaining my own compost.

Not long ago, the county gave us all compost bins (like smaller trash cans, w/ wheels) & they pick that up once a week with the yard waste (e.g. leaves or grass cuttings in big paper bags). The contractor turns the county’s compost into this product (now that I see the logo, I recognize it from some soil conditioner I’ve bought before.)

Between the county’s composting & the recycling, I don’t have much regular garbage left over to place on the curb.

Coffee grounds (when I had them - I haven’t really drank much, & hadn’t made any at home, since autumn), I would throw onto the lawn, or into one of the flower beds or pots.

Since we live in (ETA: well, in front of) the woods, I just haul leaves & grass cuttings out back, and leave that in a big pile by the ostensible compost heaps. I’d once read about letting that disintegrate into leaf mold (if not compost) and using it like a mulch, but it doesn’t take long before the whole pile disintegrates anyway.

(ETA)

@Docosc

The indoor collector does need to be emptied pretty regularly.

Along with the wheeled bin, the county gave everyone a kitchen container to hold scraps until putting it in the bigger bin. In the summer, it does not take long at all to get infested with miscellanea, & washing it out is particularly unpleasurable. What we’ve been doing instead is to use a leftover paper bowl, or paper bag (or a kitchen bowl what’s already dirty), throwing the scraps in that, until it’s either full or we’ve finished cooking.

The big bin gets nasty, too, but at least it doesn’t stay in the house…

[mindysan33]

Garden bed in construction…

And done…

with some cardboard down…

It’s gonna be small, but I’m gonna start small…