52 replies to this topic

[BullsEye]

Here are a few pictures of my garden. One of the things that I love most about my apartment complex! I have Zucchini, Cucumber, Mint, Oregano, Rosemary, Jalapenos, Tomatoes, Serrano pepper, Anaheim peppers, Blueberries and I am trying to grow a few pineapples.
 

[Bisley]

I don't have a green thumb, but I do have a brown finger .........But I don't really think you want to see it

[sagedog]

Here's our backyard garden in boxes I made earlier this year.



We've got early girl, roma and better boy tomatoes... jalepeno, anaheim and bell peppers...

zuchini and yellow squash...



spring mix lettuce, red and yellow onions, carrots, corn...



and watermellon, cantelope, string beans, cucumber, tomatillos... and on the other side of the yard some potatoes, chives, basil and peas.So far we've got about a hundred tomatoes popping out!

[mac]

sweet! (not talking about Bisley's brown finger either )...we had a couple of raised planter boxes put in as well...1st year trying them out (too much sun, too much shade, see what grows). we have jalapenos, tomatoes, squash and an assortment of herbs...

[Rimrock]

Here is mine. I have onions, potatoes, tomatoes, corn squash and hot peppers. The radishes are gone but will plant more. Just planted some later corn.

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[ShooterJohn]

Nice gardens guys. It's great to see people growing there own food.Here are a few things from my yard and garden. I've been fishing more this year since the folks are gone now and my responsibilities are greatly reduced. We normally have a huge garden and I would help some neighbors with theirs. But this year the weather has been so chilly nothing is really going and what with all of the rain we've had the plants didn't get put in till late. It's only going to be 68 degrees out today and it should be in the upper 80's something we just haven't seen. Then we've had hail storms something we almost never have at all and never this time of year. The hail beat the heck out of some vegetables to the point I had to replace them because their leaves were battered beyond coming back.So here's a few of what I have starting off with our crop of onions. We have Stockton Reds a sweet slicing onion that is a favorite of ours. I also have Walla Wallas and they did the best this year ever. We had just pulled them when this post started but here they are out drying before we cut the tops. There are 200 onions here and we'll store them into the fall in my makeshift root cellar under the house.







Tomatoes are next. We have nowhere near the numbers of plants we had last year. Last year we had 29 plants of Sausage tomatoes that we made salsa out of. But we wasted allot of them and people don't seem to want to make their own salsas and tomato sauces like we do. I have most of my odd tomato plants spread around the yard in nursery buckets. The reason for the buckets is that I asked a local nursery about their tree pots and what they did with them. They said how many do you want and I ended up with a pickup load of them. So here are some of my tomatoes.One of my bucket plants.



Tomatoes in the silver cages in the raised beds. There are cucumbers in the raised bed in front along with some pole bean and radishes. The bead on the far right also has tomatoes growing in it.

Cherry tomatoes that will grow over the wire arches.





Here are the radishes I spoke of above. I usually find little strips of unused beds to plant them every few weeks as they are a fairly quick growing item.



Here are the cantaloupes and they are a bit beat up by the last hail. We only grow Ambrosia melons because we haven't found any other that are as prolific and sweet as they are. We'll get close to thirty melons per plant.



My artichokes, I wished I had planted them somewhere else but they do well here so I leave them. I've already taken about 10 off of them so far.



Here is a mixed bed of fennel, chives, basil and peppers.



A bell pepper.



Here are some of our potatoes. As I said I have a bunch of tree pots so I grow my potatoes in compost we make from all of the leaves, grass and chicken droppings we accumulate over the course of the seasons. We grow Red, purple and Yukon Gold potatoes this way and we can grow them year round.



Next aren't vegetables but it just said show us your garden. Here are some of out grape vines we grow red flame seedless grapes. Most of them go to the chickens who sneak in and help themselves. Fencing has become more important since the hens have gotten older and our rooster shows them what's good around here. The owl doesn't work so I have to net them when they ripen.



Blue berries are next and we have nine varieties I think maybe ten. Notice the netting here to keep out the blue jays and mocking birds mainly. Starlings were a problem one year but they died off.





Last for now are a few new things I've added this year, thorn-less blackberries and two raspberries. I have six other plants growing in back of my horse stalls. The blackberries are supposed to produce two gallons of berries for each plant the first year. I hope so.

[BullsEye]

Very nice gardens guys! If my landlord didn't mind I would turn the whole front yard into a small farm. hahaha Seems like the neighbors dogs are the only ones who use the grass around here.

[ShooterJohn]

I forgot my cherries in my above post. We have several varieties and I had to pick tonight. These four are three years old and producing like crazy. We tried what the grower of the trees said was a good way to grow them in a raised bed with four to a box. They said a three by three foot box but I made this one four by four feet. When we got the trees three years ago the trunks were the size of your finger. They are now the size of your arm so they are doing well and really producing.



Some of the cherries before picking.







Today's harvest of cherries.



That same batch of cherries pitted and vacuum sealed ready for freezing with lemon juice and sugar for cherry pies.



One cherry pie worth ready to go.



We try to seal and then freeze any leftovers or things we can't or don't want to use up quickly. Here is one of my most used kitchen tools my chamber vacuum sealer.

[Bisley]

Damn, are you THE Farmer John? I thought I recognized you on my hot dog package. (Better than recognizing you on my milk carton)

[Hipshot Percussion]

Have to replant ours--after the weekends hail storm, the tomatoes went bye-bye. That's what we get when you plant up here before memorial day. More weather predicted for the weekend---look's likfe it will be a late year for ours.

[rude robert]

Yikes John, now i see why you have the tractor. How do you find time to reload and garden as much as you do

[ShooterJohn]

Thanks guys but it's not that big anymore. But like Hipshot said the hail and cold temps have really stunted the growth of the vegetables. We had a freak freeze earlier this season and it completely wiped out our fruit trees except the cherries. I thought it was just us at first but all of my neighbors trees failed to produce anything either. I was really looking forward to my apricots, nectaplums, peaches and well everything.Robert the tractor really does help out, especially in making my compost for the gardens.

[Shoot-it]

Sj it's good you never told me were you live or I would be jumping your fence......... I like that picture with your chickens they sure look good.......... The weather sure has been bad for gardens.it It's really hard to dry alfalfa to had one field get rained on last Sunday.

[Shoot-it]

TORNADO WARNINGS for Sac shooterjohn you better get your chickens cooped up!

[ShooterJohn]

You can't believe the weather system that came through. The lightning and thunder were bad enough but we got some hail the size of quarters. I had to go pickup my wife from jury duty when I heard the tornado and sever weather repot. My poor plants it's June 1st STOP this. It's only 49 degrees outside and it's just after 5:00PM.

[HOG]

I agree.....June this is more like southern hemisphere June.

[jawbreaker]

I haven't had time to have a garden in a while but we do grow tomatos every year, if you can consider that a garden.

[BullsEye]

WOW John! You sure know how to get those plants going. I have been meaning to try this but I figured you might be interested too. I assume you have a cherry pitter. Get a bottle of some liquor, 4 mason jars or glass jars with those flip top gasket lids and enough pitted cherries to fill them. Once your jars are full of cherries top them off with your favorite hard liquor booze and let them sit for a month or two or longer. Then pop those cherries in your mouth after a long day and pour yourself a cocktail. YUM!

[Bisley]

My grandfather used to do that also, only he used to use Vodka and would do it without pitting them. He would also let them sit much, much longer. I can still remember the story he would always tell us about him and my uncle eating them one day until they all but passed out on the porch. Along the same lines, I knew a guy that would use a very large hypodermic needle to inject Vodka into Naval Oranges a week or so before he would float the river. You weren't supposed to have alcohol (openly) on the river, but he had his instant, unnoticed screwdriver.

[ShooterJohn]

Alex, I'll try a small batch of cherries like you suggested.Robert, I've had and made the oranges you mentioned as well as watermelon. But that was in my younger days. We had them on float trips too.

[BullsEye]

Alex, I'll try a small batch of cherries like you suggested.Robert, I've had and made the oranges you mentioned as well as watermelon. But that was in my younger days. We had them on float trips too.

My mother use to make a drink that her father taught her called: "Liquor de los 40" It is a bottle of vodka or clear alcohol 40 coffee beans40 sugar cubesa sweet orange stabbed 40 times They would then mix it all together and let it soak for 40 daysIt's a good drink just a little too sweet for me personally when strait. However it is nice to mix it into a screwdriver or other libation. Enjoy your cherries!

[Pogo]

Wow, I'm impressed. You all have some beautiful and neat gardens! I love to garden, but with two young kids, a business and a couple of jobs on the side, and a cow herd, we just don't get the time. I've been planting an orchard over the last few years, and some other permenant crops.We had a low of 25* last night though, I should have had my sprinklers out but didn't. So the cherries and apples that were blooming are probably done for the year. Only thing that is really growing so far in our garden is onions, a little bit of lettuce and carrots. i.e. frost hardy plants, lol. Corn isn't up yet, which is a good thing. Sure is easier to frost protect when they are underground, lol. Driving home this morning I went by some potato fields guys where running frost water on, they looked like ice skating rinks.... brrrrrr.

[Brant]

Here's our garden. Seriously, we gave up years ago because the rabbits, raccoons, squirrels, deer, and who knows what else don't leave much. Any tomato not growing on our raised deck is history and even then it's at risk...

[ShooterJohn]

Harvesting onions today because of a fence project I want to finish. I'm taking them out a bit early but they'll be crushed if I let them go full term.Here is my onion bed with Wall Walla and Stockton Red onions.



Digging the onions I use a digging fork as the roots can be pretty firm and you can damage the onion just yanking them out.



Closeup of a Walla Walla onion growing. Notice how high they sit up on the ground. People often ask if I planted them deep enough and the answer is they just grow like this.



A picture of the Stockton Reds. If you notice they are equally spaced it because I made a planting stick with dowels set at the distance they should be spaced to prevent crowding. It helps keep a straight line too.

[BullsEye]

Your garden is always great looking. I am sure you eat off of it for a while. I have some snap peas, Mint, Rosemary, Oregano, Zuchini, Tomatoes, Chiles, Basil and pineapple growing this year. I wish I had a larger space and more sun. I am really compacting the plants together This year to take advantage of the sunniest place I have.

[Rimrock]

Here is mine, along with wife's "Prairie Corner." She has to have flowers. I have Walla Walla Sweet onions, lettuce, potatoes, green unions, carrots, tomatoes, squash corn, okra and sweet potatoes. Radishes are all done. Have been enjoying the lettuce, potatoes, and carrots. Had the first squash yesterday.

[ShooterJohn]

That looks nice Rod. Nice fences too, you've been busy since moving. My lettuce boltted on me finally but I've been picking it since November. I still have green onions and leeks in that bed.

[KNOCKED UP]

You guy's are real serious about this.Tom

[Rimrock]

Thanks, John. I enjoy the garden, but it doesn't hold a candle to yours. You have shown some great and I know that you have even more. You certainly have a green thumb. Love your animals too.The fence in the back of the picture is the one I put up. The neighbor had the one on the right installed. I just shared the cost with him. I hope I can recoup part of the cost of the one I installed. (As per agreement with neighbor.) LOL

[ShooterJohn]

Rod I sure hope your other neighbor kicks in on the fence with you. My neighbors both backed out of their promises to share their cost so I'm out $25,000 but now they're my fences and they best not lay a hand on them.I'm making a couple of strawberry pots today from some barrels I picked up to use as rain barrels. I only wanted ten but got 20 barrels when the deal went through. I have several of them hooked to downspouts on my horse stalls as it has a nice standing seem metal roof on it. I actually get a couple of gallons just from condensation on the roof that runs off on certain days. But I needed something else to do with the barrels so I came up with the strawberry pot plan. I bought several flats of ever bearing strawberries last year and started propagating them by planting the runners to start as new plants.So these are the barrels I'm talking about.



Next I layout my pattern and drill thirty of these out. I need to find a use for these.



Here is the barrel after the drilling.



I don't want to fill them completely with soil so I used three 3 gallon plastic planting pots screwed together lip to lip and another to the base of one to take up some of the soil space inside the barrel. Now to start filling and placing the strawberry plants.