Recession Proof GLP...Veggie gardens

This is my second year of growing veggies.

I am trying my hand at cotton this year also.

I have string beans, radish, strawberries, cucumber, watermelon, cilantro, spearmint, onions, cabbage, turnips, and tomatoes.

I also grew a flower garden just for the fun of it.

All of them are in containers except the flowers and cotton.

I was having a problem with worms and sprayed on soapy water as recommended by my neighbor. Think that will work, or is there another natural remedy?

My mum grows potatoes, peas, beans, blackberries, redcurrants and walnuts. We also have various herbs in the garden.

not earth worms?


what could be better for a garden? i find earthworms to put im my garden...

another hint for excellent fertilized dirt:

make a box(needs to have holes like for air and so moisture can get in and out,mine actually has no bottom but is countersunk into the ground pretty deep) and fill it with dirt and worms and put in like yard waste and stuff like produce like you were composting...

leave the worms to eat it and poop it and you get worm dirt... the best fertilizer i know of... perfect.. will never burn but is very powerful essentially it is 1-1-1

perfectly balanced for every season and every stage of growth(green flower fruit)...

ps: i could live off of a watermelon patch... no experience necessary..lol throw a melon in the back yard and watch out

I have limited space where I'm living now so have set up raised beds based on techniques I learned from old Robert Rodale books on organic gardening including companion planting, living mulch, etc. I'm by myself now but the garden will produce much more than I can use so plan on doing canning, drying, etc.

Before my husband died he implemented a great idea for a self fertilizing garden. He took a large area of land and dug it out about three feet deep. He then laid chicken wire down before putting amended soil back in. He then built an eight-foot fence around whole area with a roof of wire on top making it bird and rodent proof.

He then built two chicken coops on each side and ran a fence down the middle. So 1/2 of the area was used as active chicken coop and the other half as a garden.

During the year we would compost right inside the chicken coop area using the chicken manure straw as we cleaned their area and coop and also added other composting materials.

At the end of Fall we would move the chickens over to the other side and prepare the area they had been in for the next year's garden.

Our yield was fantastic and the vegetables and fruit were huge and tasty. It was truly a dream garden.

We lived in a rural area so with the excess we didn't use or can we shared but also bartered for milk, cheese, meat, services, etc. Our area had a loose bartering system, meaning that even if someone didn't have anything to barter with at a certain time they still got food. At some point they would usually be able to contribute something. No one worried about exact prices/values, etc. I hardly ever went to the food store.

What kind of worms?

This is a commercial site that offers interesting solutions for organic pest control:
[link to www.ghorganics.com]
Golden Harvest Organics: INSECTS

[link to www.nopesticides.org]
Texans for Alternatives to Pesticides

My favorite Organic Gardener is Howard Garrett (he's in the DFW area)
[link to www.dirtdoctor.com]
He's got a tremendous amount of information on organic pest remedies.

No they are like small caterpillar things, not earth worms. Earth worms don't eat that much lol.

OMG...that's absolutely brilliant!!! I'm going to copy your post and send it to my sister. I've been trying to talk her into selling her house in CA (before it loses any more value) and moving closer to me. I want to buy a little bit of land and live off it. I figure we could be self-sustaining on about 15 acres...if we split the work.

The split-garden and chicken coop concept would be AMAZING. Thanks so much for the idea!

Tomato worms glow in the dark if you shine a black light on them.

Hubby rigged a portable shop light (very inexpensive purchase from our builder supply) with a long extension cord and a black light (the light was left-over from a Halloween display...lol). Last year, I was out there in the dark, picking the danged horned worms off my tomatoes. I used surgical tweezers to pick them off the vines.

The trick was to wear my reading glasses and get my nose right up to the plant so I could actually see the little boogers.

I didn't have any more trouble from them...but it's a new year and a new garden.

Yeah, I picked off whatever ones I could find, but I think they hide under the plant during the day and come out at night.

I practically tore up my cabbage looking for these damn things lol

Maybe the soapy water thing might work.

Who'd have ever thought that the critters would also eat the strawberry leaves, there aren't any strawberries to speak of, not yet anyway, I am just trying to get this plant established.

Almost anything planted will grow if given adequate nutrients, water and sunlight. Plant what you like to eat (why plant cabbage if you hate it, why plant more beans than you can eat if you don't want to can or freeze them). Plant fast growing greens in succession for a continuing crop through the season, and don't sweat the small stuff. Bugs and other critters will take their share, just expect it. Oh and don't forget to sunshade yourself when outside for hours, day after day.

Good luck all! Anything that doesn't turn out just the way you thought it would is to be considered a learning experience (at least this is my philosophy LOL).

Enjoy!

LOL you don't know Texas then.

Ahhh yes. my favorite subject!


Doing the square foot method seems to be the best for me so far after doing about 5 years of gardening on an acre of land. Part of my square foot gardening section.
[link to i4.photobucket.com]

Garlic- Easy EASY to grow. you can even buy bulbs that you would eat at the store and plant them into the ground. It will take until next spring to notice them but they start to spread like mad. They are per annuals they they constantly come back multiply and come back multiply on and on. They will only show green during the spring in northern climates and the green will die off during hot summer. Here is what one bulb turned into (the kind you would buy to eat) after 2 years of sitting in the ground. [link to i4.photobucket.com]

Leek- Much easier to grow then regular onions. But taste the exact same. Another bulb type per annual. The longer you leave them in the ground the bigger the white meat will get. After the first year and the second growing season comes some of them will bloom and put out thousands of seeds per plant. Forest of leeks
[link to i4.photobucket.com]
Leek blooming
[link to i4.photobucket.com]

Asparagus- So simple to grow its not even funny. Just put the roots into the ground and wait for them to pop up. This year some of them are growing to over 3 feet large and 4 inches around. Extremely tasty but it makes your pee STINK! Another per annual. [link to i4.photobucket.com]

Mesclun Gourmet Greens- Absolute amazing flavor And easy to grow. Just make sure you give it proper amounts of water and well fertilized soil or your in for some tart stuff.
[link to i4.photobucket.com]

Blackberries- They pretty much grow like weeds around here. I make jelly with them every year. another per annual
[link to i4.photobucket.com]

Strawberries- easy to grow, per annual, depending on your type they grow all year. Get the ever barring variety.
[link to i4.photobucket.com]

Concord Grapes-Depending how how you want your crop to grow it takes very little to take care of these. I get about two 5 gallon buckets full of grapes every year from this vine.
[link to i4.photobucket.com]

fruit trees- what can i say but yummmmm. We have about 7 apple 2 pear 4 peach 3 blackwalnut just yummmmmmmmmmmm. People say to trim them but i think just let them be. Besides the pear tree. The limbs need to be short to support the 90 pounds of pears on 1 limb!

Mints- Cat nip Spear mint any mint is good! make tea with a little dandelion is very very good for you! Plus your rabbit hunter will love you forever! another per annual
[link to i4.photobucket.com]

I have a whole host of other stuff im growing as a test. Pak choi ,luffa and some spices just to see how they do.

Red you really used tweezers?

A suggestion for those tomato worms : Pick them off put them in a blender with water to make liquid and spray your tomatoes with it.

See if that helps.

Juice the worms?

opps a pictures of my garden + some of my fruit trees forgot to mention i have 2 sour cherry trees and an american plumb cherry tree. The smell of spring time is so fucking sweet in my yard. [link to i4.photobucket.com]

Some weeds and plants will make certain pests avoid going into your garden. I like growing marigolds and putting them everywhere in my garden. Some weeds will make them avoid it as well. I do not like to use chemicals of any kind to kill anything on my property.

A suggestion to novice growers is to get How to grow more vegetables by John Jeavons.

He uses the French intensive method which is very similar to square foot gardening. The difference is he uses only a shovel and never a tiller and the beds are dug to a depth of two shovel blades down.
He also outlines how to produce your own ferts and compost from the garden without a need to go to outside sources. Very helpful if things become hairy.

I also suggest a green manure crop in the winter many plants produce nitrogen with their root system.

The ladies of the house grow a kichen garden in the summer using a modified version of his methods. The difference is they double dig every other year and use a tiller to add compost and such.

The problem with tillers is they produce dead pan at the bottom of the tine stroke.

UD:
I used the long surgical tweezers. I'm a sissy. I can't stand to touch worms and bugs with my bare hands.

I think I need a dedicated blender for that kind of stuff. Eeeuuuuwwwwww. Is blending the worms something like rubbing a dog's nose in his own urine? LOL!

Care to explain more?

Great pictures! Thanks! You have a great set-up there. I don't have that much room and am having to rely on boxes on the deck, etc.

I'm trying to grow grapes, but I'm pretty sure I've got them in the wrong spot. I'm thinking about moving them to the front yard next year. Hubby teases me about having my own mini-vineyard. The grapes are the only thing I've got in the dirt...everything else is above-ground.

OK I'll cut you slack on that one HAHAHAHA!

Many bugs don't like the "smell" of their dead kin on plants. I don't know if it's pheromones or just the stink but it works with some bugs.

I don't have many problems with bugs because most of our tomatoes are grown in the aquaponics greenhouse. The ladies do grow some specialty varieties in the kitchen garden but I haven't heard them complain about bugs.

I only have a small balcony so i just plant mostly herbs like basil, oregano etc. Plus mint for tea. This year i decided to plant tomatos and they went wild lol.. now im trying to figure out how to replant them in bigger pots and where the hell to put them lol. Wish i had a big garden.. but i have to do with this for now. What else do you guys plant when you dont have much space available?

I've been gardening for years and still learning.

Composted chicken or rabbit manure is really good. Mulch is good, unless you have lots of rain. I've never gardened in a heavy rain area, but would imagine that raised beds would be the way to go. I'm not into weeding, so do lots of mulch.

Sandy or clay soils need LOTS of organic matter. That's where the mulch comes in. The worms take it down into the soil. Mulch fruit trees, but keep the mulch away from the trunk. Water fruit trees very slowly overnight to encourage deep rooting.

I compost kitchen scraps by simply digging them into the garden. Any kind of nitrogen helps them compost.

If you've got bats about, build some bat houses, then put containers under them to catch the guano. Bats are GREAT for eliminating mosquitoes. Now this guano stuff is REALLY hot. Used sparingly, it will grow sunflowers almost seven feet high and 12" in diameter of the blooms. I had to prop them up with metal fence posts. Spectacular!

Row covers extend your season. Stick 4' rebar in the ground about 4 feet wide (I do 4 feet "rows" of solid plants.) and about every 3 or 4 feet. Then, get PVC pipe, cut and fit over the rebar (over the row). You'll end up with a series of hoops over the row. This makes a frame for a roll of clear plastic, which you can take on and off if it gets too hot during the day. Fill gallon jugs with water, set throughout the little greenhouse, they'll keep it warmer at night.

I plant garlic amongst my strawberries to repel pests. Check out "companion plants". Also lots of cosmos, nasturtiums and marigolds throughout the garden for the same reason.

Nasturtium flowers are edible. Also Johnny-Jump-Ups and day lilies. Nice in a green salad. For salads, try some mustard and arugula in small amounts, they're quite strong-tasting.

I'm discovering certain earth grid-lines; some places will grow just about anything well, other spots just won't. My Aussie friend, Gerard, the dowser, indirectly twigged me to this. See
[link to unveiling.18.forumer.com]

Fresh herbs freeze well. Plus, slightly frozen, they're easy to chop fine.

Carrots left in the ground over winter and mulched taste WONDERFUL. Cabbage can be stored in the ground with lots of straw.

Bugs on your tomatoes? Spray with tobacco and garlic water.

Potatoes like a rich sandy soil. Straw mulch is good. You can even plant the spuds in the mulch so you can harvest nice clean tubers whenever. NEVER put fresh manure on potatoes, or anything else, for that matter.

To encourage rooting, wrap the roots of, say tomato plants, when setting out, with algae. It provides moisture and nutrients, but, most importantly, encourages rooting. You won't read this anywhere else... Our here I find it by looking for windmills, that's where they water the range cattle.

When transplanting tomato plants, put them in quite deeply, with only a little of the leafy part above the surface. My tomatoes are fantastic, growing about 5 1/2 feet tall, circled with sheep fencing. TREMENDOUS production, so even six plants is too many. Tomatoes freeze well, just wash and put in bags.

A wonderful little cherry tomato is the yellow variety, slightly spicy.

Leave room for a second summer garden. Don't plant all that much each time, it all comes on at once.

The lazy way to water is to lay out multiple spigots on solar-powered timers, each spigot attached to a drip watering system. Takes a little effort to set up, but then you can pretty much ignore it.

But I need advice: I'm now in the middle of a desert wilderness, a new experience for me. And I've got RABBITS! Very hungry rabbits. The darned little critters were even gobbling up my baby strawberry plants. I covered the bed with chicken wire and, my, what a difference! I know, fencing. Sigh...

How do you utilize a green manure crop? Do you chop it up and add it to the compost heap? I've got about 13 pounds of alfalfa seeds and I'm seriously considering utilizing some of them this winter.

The area that my garden is in could be classified as swamp land. You dig 2 feet into the ground and the whole is filled with water. Make sure you give them plenty of water specially when the grapes start growing. It might be a few years after you get them into the ground before they start producing fruit.

Cilantro!

Think vertical. Peas and pole beans will grow in pots. And you can even grow things like squash by letting the plant sprawl out of the pot.

Green manure, just turn it into the soil right where it grows before it goes to seed.