I've been eating squash and cucumbers since August but this is still what I got from 4 squash plants.
Even a small garden like mine can provide an outlet from the world. Some people would call me crazy but I find alot of answers...not to mention the sheer therapeutic effect from getting my hands dirty. I used to think that my garden died every year in the scorching heat of the summer and that my winter to spring efforts were being wasted...but the fact that the life springs back up every fall when the conditions are optimal, proves otherwise. My aloe plants stick around all year. Only on occasion (and through no influence of my own) do they flower. Man I wish I could grow ganja the way my aloe takes care of itself, lol. The in ground box I made a long time ago is starting to pack to capacity...even has a few mushrooms that show up every now and again. This succelent goes to the brink of death every single year but comes back to us each season. I really like this plant. It's so simple yet demands that you look at it, lol. Notice the malabar spinach vine that stretches across all that aloe that I've given up on separating. My first impulse was to pull it and plant it elsewhere....for what though? It's a volunteer that came from that aloe pot and it's doing fine...so I just let it crawl and pick leaves here and there. First tomato flowers of the year. I don't know if this cherry tomato plant should be caged or not?? It was small when I planted it. Any advise is appreciated. First time with strawberries. When I purchased the plant, a lady advised me to plant it in a container rather than the ground...so it's in a SIP. This Jasmine plant was half it's size when I got it from my mother inlaw. It's a slow grower for sure but the flowers smell soooo good! I want more of these plants so my whole back yard can smell like them! It's not much....but I feel alot better and more focused in general after coming out here for a while. Have a great day yall!
3Deez i would cage that cherry tomato. They have a tendency to get very big and benefit from additional support. Everything looks very good and vibrant for you. thanks
Thank you EyeC! I appreciate the feedback. I was worried that would the answer. I always imagined cherry tomato plants to be determinant (I'd have to look it up) but this one seems like this one is gonna a take off. It's already put on alot of growth in a short time.
Most tomato cultivars are indeterminate. Have fun with that plant. Fresh tomatoes in the winter is a treat.
Thanks! Been waiting for homegrown tomatoes since last season. My wife is a salad freak so the whole house got spoiled. When we ran out and started purchasing them from the store again, even the kids could tell the difference, lol.
Any of you guys grow tomatoes inside under the lamps? Or any other veggies/fruits? Does it work the same way like the mmj? I understand that veggies are cheaper and I might be paying in electric as much as I'm paying for veggies at the store but just can't help myself with the hobbies...
Thx you I know it's been awhile for the reply. A buddy of mine has a few pepper plants inside under just a couple basic house lights a few are flowering pretty well. He said he is just over wintering them as well. Just though it would be a good experiment to try Next winter. When I bring some indoor. P.s. his indoor flowering peppers are habaneros
BTW guys I have a lot of indoor plants I've researchers most of them and they all pretty much are the same fert once a month if you want. I use an organic soil for all beside the biggest ones we got ten years ago from someone else. I have blood and bone meal mix and was thinking of adding a little to their soil this winter. A small amount as I don't want to burn or hurt them but I figure after ten + years the soil must be completely depleted and void. Was thinking maybe a TBS. Of the mix to a gallon of water to water two yukka's one in a 20g pot one in a 10g pot
First tomatoes of the season. Cherry variety. I have 2 Beefsteaks and 1 Black Krim that are just now starting flowers. Beefsteaks did very well for us last year. First time ever with Krim. I just started it because we wanted something different. No pics of those yet.
@Tree dogg that kale looks great!! What type or i guess cultivar of kale is it?? Mine is heirloom and looks much different. Your kale looks to be mixed with turnip greens because of how the leaves grow....
I believe it was this kale. Commonly called curly kale. http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/search?item=3450
Hello all, This is my first year of actually putting some effort into growing my own food. What started with boredom during the winter months, led to an indoor organic LED garden full of vegetable and herb seedlings that I started well ahead of their Spring growing season. Next thing I knew, I stopped getting food anywhere but the grocery store and my back yard. Then came a spur of the moment switch to pescetarianism as the result of combining psychedelics and a chicken wing... So this year has been a whirlwind of changes in the pursuit of getting back to the basics of what makes us human, what keeps us healthy, and where our place is in this world. I'm not new to plants, but after hearing from my friends at nurseries how complicated the world of vegetables and herbs is (I had asked why they weren't using their extra space to produce their own plants, particularly the food that we could sell locally), I began my reading. I grew my seedlings indoors and prepared raised beds outdoors by building garden boxes with untreated wood in both 4'x4'x1' and 4'x8'x1' sizes. I filled these raised beds with Daddy Pete's Raised Bed Mix - an organic blend that, while rather sterile initially, seem to have served as a great base soil to begin enriching. Our back yard was going through a lot of renovations, so my plants often suffered. I had to dig up most of my raised beds and move them across the yard in the middle of the summer. All my plants were stunted by this and a good few didn't make it. But nonetheless, I would go out about every other afternoon and come inside with a basket full of vegetables. Such an awesome feeling to be like, "I need a tomato for this sandwich," and walk into my back yard to pick one that I know was grown the way it should have been. Some things I learned: - Traveling during the hottest summer requires someone to water your garden - A little squash plant goes a long way - Growing tomatoes without supports doesn't work well - Caterpillars love kale - Okra doesn't stop growing, but can be used for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! - I still don't like raw carrots - Mint is invasive (though it can be a great companion plant, as it aerates the soil and deters pests and acts as a natural mulch) - No single person needs 40 jalapeno plants (the nursery gave me toss-away trays of seedlings that I couldn't just let die) - Companion planting is dope - Eggplants need way more than 3 gallons to grow in - Cucumbers will grow despite severe neglect - You can plant radishes hellah close together underneath other plants
Here are a couple of my 4x8 beds that I built and installed for a customer. They reported being amazed at how well their vegetables grew this year. I forgot to mention that I amended the Raised Bed Mix with a lot of rich stuff - GardenTone, Bone Meal, Blood Meal, Mushroom Compost... And for anyone who wants to attract bees and humming birds to their garden, I planted a few Cuphea (Cigar Plant) around the yard and they really bring in the hummingbirds and being so covered in flowers, the bees loved them as well. These plants are sold as annuals but I've heard they are often perennial in my area (Zone 7). They root incredibly easily and quickly from cuttings, but I've had aphid issues with them this winter indoors. Here's a look at my setup towards the end of summer, after the first moving of the garden boxes. We have tons of mulch and logs from having some massive oaks, maples, and cedars taken down in the yard to open it up. We also have large piles of dirt displaced by another project in the yard. We are on about 3/4 acre with about half that being the back yard that I'm working on. (issues with uploader - I'll add pics when I get it to work) And a pic of the mint that escaped a garden box to fill in between everything around it:
^^^^ Those look awesome man. Thanks for the idea. Did you dig in the ground or just fill up the raised bed is enough?
Appreciate it! In the customer's yard we dug a good bit out since their grass was deeply rooted. In my yard I removed a thinner top layer in hopes of keeping the weeds that I was planting on top of from growing through. I'm sure the deeper you prep the ground before you set them in place, the better the results over time (unless that ground is so rich and full of life that disturbing it would be counterproductive), but with almost a full foot of raised bed, I could have set these things on concrete and still had decent results. What turned out to be the surprise in pricing this sort of project out was the cost of the soil. By the time I dug out the grass from under the 4x8 in the customer's yard, it took 22 or 24 bags (2 cubic ft/bag if I remember correctly) of soil to fill the bed (I've done the math for volume, but the estimates never quite matched reality). At around $7/bag, that point can create a bit of a price shock. In my own yard in the future, I'd love to use some soil I make myself, but that takes time, space, effort, and some tools. I'm hoping this first round of boxes last at least 3 more years. I could have made them out of cedar for about 3xs the cost, but figured the stud boards would work for the time being and that more boxes to experiment with would be best to start.
hello. I would like to start growing some of my own herbs and vegetables but my yard gets no direct sunlight so I'm going to try to garden indoors. Im looking for suggestions on plants that stay relatively small and easy to maintain and short maturing periods. Maby some greens and other things that I can pick from when I want and will continue to produce. Does anyone have any advice or a small list of things I can research to choose from? I have been looking over horizon herbs but the descriptions don't say anything about plant size or upkeep.i would like to grow wide variety in a small area(if that's possible) in 1 or 2 small tents. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
If I was doing this I figure out what is most expense in the grocery stores and try to grow it at home. For plant sizes you could Google for more information.
I have had great success with salad mixes, they do well even with t5s. Plant 5-10 of each species so you can harvest a progressive salad mix. Plants that love sunshine have to be treated like mmj. More light. Have seen them grow 8' tomatoes with a 600w hps at the grow store. Always free cherry tomatoes to pick and eat.lol. I start my tomatoes and peppers and eggplant mid January. In flats and then I transplant to solo cups and veg in greenhouse with a 400w hps. Last frost is march 1 and this time of year I feel way behind because the shorter days. This is my first year taking organic vegetables to the next level as I leased 4 acres for a market garden. They have farmers markets 4 days a week in my county and the vendors are always out of produce by noon. I love to grow anything.