Hows your gardens?

[JoshRonin]

Just curious on how everyone is doing with their gardens. I am setting mine up now.  Its a little on the late side, but I should still get some good production out of it.  I've been busy with work and a move so I've been a little pre-occupied.

So I kinda use the square foot methods.  I use the 4 ft wide grow beds with the layouts for the plants that he suggest.  So far the gardens have been good with this, I just need to learn to prune the tomatoes more.  I tried mel's mix in one bed, but had a lot of pest problems, so I don't go all out using it.  It did do great on my onions and lettuce.

This garden is going to be rough.  The soil is really lacking.  I learned on soil/composting forums on gardenweb about looking for earthworms to tell how rich the soil is.  I haven't seen any worms.  The garden at the other house was rich, easy to find worms with each shovel pull.  Next year I'll have a lot of good rich homemade compost for it.  Doing what I can for this one, vermicompost tea.

So far I have the following planted.

15 tomatoes, big boy, yellow lemon, and a mix of what I had left of my heirlooms from last year.
12 bell peppers
16 bush beans
8 marigolds
2 Water melons
3 Cantaloupe
4 cucumbers
4 Asian green beans, get 2 ft long.
2 hills of summer squash, patty pans.

Getting ready to do a 3 sisters garden with corn, acorn squash and beans.  Found the okra seeds, wife had moved them someplace and so I will plant a few of them around that site too.

Edit:  I'm making more grow beds so I've changed my numbers a little. 

[June]

Almost everything I grow is in raised beds.  I don't really stick to the square foot concept.  I have finished my asparagus and rhubarb harvest and I am getting ready for strawberries.  Peas went crazy this year and my vine crops seem happy.  I had to replant corn because of low soil temperatures and lots of birds, but that and my beans are catching up.  Cole crops are doing well and don't seem to be bothered by too many bugs. 
I am pretty much organic.  No bug sprays or Miracle Gro.  Just lots of compost and manure.  I have chickens and rabbits so I get lots of animal byproduct from them and this is a big area for harness racing, so I can get all the horse manure I can handle.
Don't worry about your lack of worms.  Compost it and they will come.  When you start to add compost it might be a good idea to visit your local bait store and pick up a few night crawlers, just to give them a start.  It's surprising how fast those little beggars reproduce. It may take you a couple of years to get your soil in shape, but it will be worth it. 
June.

[JoshRonin]

Raised beds are great.  I don't have mine but a few inches higher than ground level, but it still works.  Next year I may raise them up more as I add more compost and all. I can't wait till next year, will have plenty of compost from chickens and rabbits too.  I'm a little sad, I got a bunny sun. night from a friend and the neighbors dog came over and killed it the next morning, and today I lost one of my chicks.  He/she was my little escape artist.  Lessons learned, hopefully .  I got some new neighbors who have 2 horses, I need to ask them for some poop.    My red worms would love it.

Thanks for that idea on buying bait worms.  That sounds like a good way to jump start it.

Got any pictures of your garden?  I like to see others gardens, I'll take pictures of mine tomorrow.

[cave dweller]

Most of what I planted hasn't sprouted. Some of what sprouted got munched on by bugs before they got their second set of leaves.
A gopher came through and destroyed one of my raised beds.

So what is growing?
Peanuts
Roma tomatoes
cucumber (barely)
Watermelon
Cilantro
basil
Lettuce
peas
bush beans
zucchini
buckwheat
amaranth
Kentucky wonder beans

My potatoes are sound asleep, won't bud, am trying again with some organics from trader joe's, Just about ready to put some sweet potatoes in where nothing grew.
Oh, my kentucky wonder beans started out so well, I emptied the packet in my neighbors yard and I got about 4 or 5 sticking up already.
Just a little experiment in guerrilla gardening.

Got some lessons learned already this year, at least its better than last year.

[longbskt]

I have tomatoes (that thankfully survived our freak freezes this winter and are now at tall as the fence), bell peppers, potatoes, some sort of melon from my compost pile, potatoes, eggplant, and various herbs. 

We're now consistenly in the upper 90s, near 100 and hitting the end of my gardening for the next few months.  I'll be digging up my potatoes probably next week.  Whatever I can keep alive through the summer will do well in the fall.  But, by August, my plants are sick of the heat and usually bite the dust. 

[JoshRonin]

yeah we're in the 90's now too, and here soon it'll be the 100's.  The old house I had a good shade tree that covered the garden during the hottest part of the day.  You can always design your garden to have some plants grow up and shade others that might not take the heat.  Tall plants like corn, or heat loving okra can help shade tomatoes.

[June]

I don't have the problems with sun and heat that people farther south may have but still, some of my crops give up the ghost in the Summer.  Lettuce and radishes bolt to seed  and are unfit for eating.  However, there is no law that says Spring is the only time to plant.  I usually plant a few peas and radishes and salad greens in the beginning of Autumn, when the fiercest part of the heat is over.  Sometimes there is not enough time before the first frost to get a bumper crop, but even a few fresh greens are welcome.
I have dug into snow banks to harvest kale.
June.

[OffGridGrower]

my garden is exploding with growth, I used a combination of raised beds, keyhole beds and grey-water and at this phase I dont do anything but harvest, of course I must water any new seeds or transplants but after they establish themselves I just stay out of the way!

I have cucumbers(straight out the yang! and the zukes are getting out of control. my cherry tomatoes are 3x the size of any cherry tomato I've ever seen, (chadwick cherry). I have already harvested the red potatoes and trying to decide what to put in that bed now. everything is working out according to the permaculture lessons I have learned and I will be expanding next year for sure.
I did a herb spiral and I can see how it works even tho I havent filled it all in yet, I have apple mint, purple basil, chives, rue and rosemary in it now, but plan to put more medicinal herbs into it. my peas and carrots didnt do so well I think I got them into the ground a little to late and the heat got to them, I did get enough peas to replant when it gets cooler tho.

I mentioned this in my intro thread but I used my greywater to feed most of the garden by digging out the areas where the keyhole beds were going to be, to a depth of about 18" at the deepest end, the "pools" were dug out on slope, and backfilled with wood chips (because the power company came out to clear some trees around the power lines and were just throwing it away, so I took it and used it, but I have found that I should have used pea gravel to back fill with, because after a few years those chips are going to decompose away and my beds will sink down. live and learn) after backfilling I sheet mulched over the "pools" with compost and horse manure and all the organic matter I could get my hands on! so my raised beds sit on top of their own water supply! Permaculture makes so much sense!

[JoshRonin]

I mentioned this in my intro thread but I used my greywater to feed most of the garden by digging out the areas where the keyhole beds were going to be, to a depth of about 18" at the deepest end, the "pools" were dug out on slope, and backfilled with wood chips (because the power company came out to clear some trees around the power lines and were just throwing it away, so I took it and used it, but I have found that I should have used pea gravel to back fill with, because after a few years those chips are going to decompose away and my beds will sink down. live and learn) after backfilling I sheet mulched over the "pools" with compost and horse manure and all the organic matter I could get my hands on! so my raised beds sit on top of their own water supply! Permaculture makes so much sense!

Thats pretty cool.  We just got some heavy rains, and I noticed that my garden is on the downward path for the water.  Luckily my mulched paths between the beds took the brunt of damage.  Reading your post gives me an idea for the next garden.  Maybe I can dig some areas out, and build the beds on top.  Fill them with gravel and let them pool the water.

[OffGridGrower]

Josh: you most defiantly can! Sheet mulch over them with plenty of materials as they will settle. I did at least have the sheet mulch on the pools for at least 4 months before using them 6 is better tho. And I'm noticing that some plants like the nasturtiums and peppers/tomatoes still need a little watering from them top, because they live at the top of the slope where the water recedes first im guessing, because everything that lives at the other end is exploding with growth (maybe making the pools level would be better?). I just had to cut down about half of my 10' tall cuke wall cause a storm came thru and broke it around the 5' level. Yet another lesson learned in gardening, next year the tomatoes go on the east side of the cukes, so the cukes can give the tomatoes a lil shade in the later part of the day and not to build so tall unless its really strong, i did use bamboo that was kinda old to build that trellis, and I kept adding a level to it as the cukes got bigger until it broke!