Show your gardens

[Brent B3B]

Overall, for us veggies were a flop, ( beats did well in the raised bed) fruits did better. 
 

Corn did great.. then low humidity, high winds levels leveled the crop ?

 

Neighbors goats ate well, harvested the immature cobs for the chickens...... 

 

Pulled it up and tilled it under last weekend, kinda was satisfying to till under a poor crop. Wish I could till under 2020 LOL

[Plymouthy Adams]

you till under 2020, I send you some canned goods......!!!

[Los_Control]

58 minutes ago, Brent B3B said:

( beats did well in the raised bed)

I am not understanding beets this year. They are 2"-3" tall, and zero under ground. They sprouted but never grew.

I have grown beets in the past with no issue, different locations and soil conditions.

I think the beets are telling me my soil is missing something and will have to improve it.

Now is the time.

Same time the asparagus patch out back is looking good for first year.

 

 

[Ulu]

The asparagus here has been legendary. I had never seen any such thing as a child.

Not that I'm growing it. I can see the Savemart just down the block from my back fence! I live where vegetable stands and fruit stands dot the countryside. There's 10 million small farmers here. It's easy to find food.

 

Try finding a good plumber, mechanic, electrician, or mason! They are busy as hell. We've had thousands of houses burn down in a state with a shortage of affordable housing. Any guy with a framing hammer and a skilsaw had work if he wanted. So I fix cars, run wiring, build dog kennels and pour quikcrete.

 

This week I've been running industrial-type power to the sheds, and soon the random extension cords will be history. 

This is inside the wife's garden shed, and the next-to-last receptacle in the run, which I installed first. (There will be a lamp on the other end of the flex.) I used compression connectors for max rigidity. I didn't get clips for the MC flex cable yet.

 

That exits the shed, running to my shed, overhead thru the dog kennel.

 

There you can finally see some garden. It looks hazy as there is still smoke coming down the mountains.

Also this shows the silver 1/2" EMT running between sheds. It's about 76" long. I'll want to clip it to the steel awning frame.

You can also see the subpanel on the house where my power will come from. It will all eventually meet in my shed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

Last day of November, calling for our first real frost in form of a freeze warning.....so I pulled the last three decent sized green tomatoes....mums if frying them up for me for supper....other than a few radish doing fair, turnip not so fair, the growing season is gone.  I also expect this will spell the end of my huge elephant ears and my vinca...the Bradfords should be blood red a few days after a good frost.

[Ulu]

One of the joys of living here is that there is a large agricultural college just four miles down the road from me and they grow some fabulous food. 
 

The grapes & corn are particularly legendary, and they sell out quickly when the crop comes in.

 

They also have a dairy, and there are local stores here that sell FSU ice cream.

 

Also, winemaking is a big deal and While I am not a wine drinker, Fresno State Wine is very popular.

[Plymouthy Adams]

today...all was white with frost, we were at 26 degrees.....my vinca, elephant ears and few remaining plants in the garden buckets are wilted beyond recognition....the fried greed tomatoes were however delicious and I am glad I picked them when I did.  The harvest in this area is all out cotton.....plenty bailed...plenty left to bail yet...

[Kilgore47]

I planted these banana trees as an ornamentals a few years back.  Didn't expect them to do this well but this year they got huge.  Even got a small batch of bananas.  The first freeze shut them down a few days ago.  I will cut them back and leave the trunks three or four feet tall for the winter.  Next spring they will come back. 

[Plymouthy Adams]

I never planted a banana tree..some folks say they do fair in my neck of the woods, got a friend up north that has one and cuts it back and insulates it for winter and it does good.    May be an item to consider down the road.  One frost and it is disaster for sure...my elephant ears and canna lilies look like your banana tree..

[Kilgore47]

It got down to -5 here is east Texas yesterday.  Almost a foot of snow Monday and more coming today.  It will be below freezing for a week.  Not sure the bananas will make it through this.  

[Plymouthy Adams]

my local grocer has never sold a frost bitten banana yet.....you folks can have that snow...I awoke to 26 degrees this morning....this is supposed to be the south.....they sure fixed global warning it seems....

[Los_Control]

1 hour ago, Kilgore47 said:

Not sure the bananas will make it through this.  

Stay safe and warm, might have to try a banana tree ... I have a few avocado seeds planted. No clue if they will sprout.

 

1 hour ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

this is supposed to be the south.....they sure fixed global warning it seems....

Yeah some crazy weather for sure. They are saying this is a once in 100 year storm here in Texas.

Millions have been without power for a couple days. Texas gets 25% of power from windmills and solar.

The windmills have frozen solid, solar panels are covered in ice& snow. With the cold temps it has been in single digits all week, warming up to teens or 20's. Many people use electric heat and using 3 times the normal electric currently.

So losing 25% of production, the power plants were over taxed and a few of them went off line ..... just a mess.

The city cant produce water as there wells do not have power. I have been out of water for 2 days.

 

But I am blessed to still have power and I have gas heat. Not sure if it matters, the county hospital is right down the street ... thinking they may be going out of the way to keep power on this grid for it. Right outside of town there is no power.

2 more days below freezing and then will start warming up again. Wonder how @Sniper is getting along?

[Plymouthy Adams]

I have a couple items supposed to ship out of Texas and the company let me know that they are experiencing backlog in shipping....I am not in a super hurry but appreciate them letting me know.  Normally I get packages from them in 2-3 days turnaround.  Everybody stay safe and warm...the sun was actually shinning here this morning..been a long time since seeing an actual sunrise...

[Sniper]

21 hours ago, Los_Control said:

Wonder how @Sniper is getting along?

 

After 40+ hours of no power followed by 24 hours of no water I am back.  We got 7 inches of snow and that will teach me to tease our Canadian friends about their weather.

 

I found out several things.  My generator is too small and my fancy electronically controlled furnace does not like it's power output,  It's a Generac no less.  Furnace would power up test spin the fan and that was it.  Even when it was the only load.  I ended up having to make a new gas tank for it out of a 2 gallon gas can, some fittings and hose.  Seems the old tank's gas cap rusted and dropped a bunch of crud in the tank and the shut off valve was not flowing fuel.

 

So we holed up in the living room, setup a space heater and fired up the fireplace, I am no completely out of firewood.

 

I had three flats of water on hand but 4 would have been better.  Takes a lot of snow to make 5 gallons of water for the toilet.  Fortunately? we had lots of snow. 

 

I was able to get the internet working some so we stream things to entertain us.  I had plenty of food though.

 

So I made it, sort of.  I now have the crud and am trying to get hold of my doctor.

 

I have a list of things to have on hand for next time.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Sorry to hear you under the weather and experienced what you did.  It is so important today to have back ups to your back up plan it seems.  I normally keep food on hand at all times. Water to a degree and need to do better on this for emergency.  Fuel to run the generator I have on hand and need it mainly for fridge and freezer and would not need it run 24-7.   Heat I have three systems and two do not require any electrical assistance to fire or distribute.  Hope all our members are getting through these snaps in the weather with as few difficulties as possible.  Got a number of family members and friends without power in some of the northern region now.  

[keithb7]

I don't follow the news much. All I know about the cold weather and snow in Texas is what I read here in this thread. Sounds like a rough time. 40 hours without power or water? How cold did it get down there? I am hearing more of these disasters where the power grid goes down for a considerable length of time.  I recall an ice storm in Quebec a number of years ago. Then there was the fires in CA last year. Generators got all bought up in both instances. The Texas cold mentioned here recently. I assume some folk's water pipes in their homes freeze up and burst?

 

Then there is the hurricanes and tornadoes.  Maybe I should invest in a bigger gen-set?  Mine won't power up much. I am not a doomsday'er type but the recent news in Texas is making me think about my back up plan. I do have an RV trailer. I keep about 80 lbs of propane on average around here. If it were winter, It could run the RV furnace to heat the trailer for quite a while. I should maybe stock up on a little extra bottled water. I don't keep much here other than what comes out of the tap.

 

A good reminder how dependent most of us are on modern supply chains of food, fuel/energy and supplies.  If the trucks ever stopped rolling the stores would be barren in short order. This thread is about gardens. Majority folks today could barely yield a carrot. Let alone a crop, then store them for a year of eating until the next harvest. Look at how people panic'd when covid was first spreading? They all ran out and bought toilet paper! Lol.

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2021 by keithb7

[Mikec4193]

My neighbors look at us like we are crazy...we love nature and all the bugs and bees that go along with it...so I am the neighbor that is looked upon as a wacko...we always leave huge patches to grow...and believe it or not...mother nature gives us color all season long...the bees and bugs love our place...no toxins used at all at our place...

 

these are from a couple of summers ago now...

 

MikeC

[HotRodTractor]

Not sure how I missed this thread. I've had a garden since 2016 and have developed it a little more each year with various aspects. 

The main vegetable garden consists of 2 4'x16' raised beds of cultivated soil that consists of composted materials, lawn clippings, cow manure, etc.... its this awesome lightly and fluffy soil that has taken quite some time to develop. There is also a row of hops plants.

 

 

The GF and I cultivate a few pollinator friendly flower beds such as this guy:

 

And just because I never want to have the excuse for a bad crop - I keep some honey bees as well:

 

Obviously these are all old pics.... everything is buried under ice and snow right now. 

[Kilgore47]

Looks like the banana trees are coming back.  After a low of -5 one morning in February I wasn't sure they would make it. Not supposed to get that cold here.  Guess the foot of snow on the ground helped insulate them from the worst of it.  Yesterday the dog and a couple of the chickens helped me clean them up.  I have to add the cage to keep the chickens from eating the new growth.

[Sniper]

That recent week of well below freezing temps we had back in Feb really kick my plant's butts.  Lost my Chrysler Imperial rose bush I've had for about 18 years.  Another rose bush took a lot of damage but I was able to save it.  My lilac bush, dead.  A couple other ornamental shubberies, dead.  Oh well, I wanted to redo the landscaping anyway.

[Plymouthy Adams]

personally I think re-landscaping should on your terms, not Mother Natures....I did not suffer any long term or sever temps, but this last year I lost a few fruit trees for some reason.  Bummer.....BUT...the garden is planted, we survived the Easter normal thumb in your eye cold snap by covering it a couple nights....actually the wife did the uncovering/covering once I set it up as I had gone on walkabout to fetch a car home, attend a swap meet and visit family in the hills.  

[Los_Control]

I am just laughing at myself this year. Pretty sure whatever I manage to grow this year will be bird food.

I have had gardens in the past, takes time to cultivate them & build them up.

I planted some things 2 weeks ago, still kinda cool weather in the mornings ... left over seeds from last year, really not doing great. Couple tomato plants doing well.

Tomorrow I need to go to town and do the walmart shopping, then stop by the lumber store & tractor supply ... all day event   They all sell plants See what we end up with tomorrow.

 

My main goal this year is to get the "garden center" built. I have the post in for the 8' x 16' fenced area.

Tomorrow pickup the lumber for the attached 8' x 16' covered area. A 16' x 16' area total to organize all the crap I do not want in my garage.

Where I moved the boxes this year, much better sunlight first thing in the morning to mid afternoon. I will trim the tree as I need for light to the garden. A little shade at 4:00 pm may not be bad when it is 100+ temps out.

I will run water & power to the shed, I will run a 3' wire fence off of it & enclose the garden which allows me to run a bird netting overhead. Enclose a area and not a single garden bed. I can have a combo of in ground & raised beds, irrigation on a timer ... I can be lazy. This year is kinda just playing carpenter to get where the gardener wants to be.

 

Yes I have a junk riding mower to hide. A friend had it & gave it to me. Said it ran really well but did not cut worth a crap.

Been sitting a couple years and need to go through it to get it started .... When I loaded it up I looked, the blades are just as sharp as new & installed upside down. Just no time to work on it yet.

A guy just needs a place to hide all the manure, fertilizer different soils flathead engines/transmissions.

This year my garden will not be great, sure looking forward to next year 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

You are right Los, it is a bit of work prepping the garden space.  last year I put another 25 buckets together for a total of 50 buckets...the dirt I got was recently dug (scraped actually) and loose and dry...winter, turns out it is just like clay....so...had to reaccomplish the 25 buckets for this year.  That was more work than original filling.  I also purchased an additional 25 for adding on a bit later.   Garden takes a lot of time input for sure.  Mums is just getting into this as she never was around gardens before.  She does not dig in the dirt well yet but she does water it and lets me know is something is amiss.  I will probably not go beyond 75 buckets as I have the space already set aside for the buckets I now have.  

[Sniper]

Well, my landscaping, was remains and what was, was setup by my ex.  Set up to be as hard to mow around as possible, apparently.

 

So I will probably yank it all out and throw down grass seed.  I do plant to build some planter boxes in front of the house where she had many monster sage brush planted, wood chipper to the rescue.

[Plymouthy Adams]

just what you going to chip up with that wood chipper.....never mind, I don't want to know......!!!!!!!!