2016 SFG Adventures in Hampstead, NC

After seeing what some others (Yolos) have done on this forum to document their gardens, I decided to follow suit and create an Annual Thread in my Regional forum.

I had been posting in my Adventures in Table Top thread in the DIY forum. It is essentially my 2015 Adventures even though I started it in 2014, it was for the 2015 growing season. Although, I did start post there in 2016 starting with this entry: Start of 2016 Thread but from here on out, I plan to use this thread for the remainder of the 2016 season.

Having said that, not much has changed since my last post in Adventures in Table Top, but I wanted to go ahead and get this thread started.

I did purchase some transplants at the Herb & Garden Fair I attended this weekend.
I picked up the following:
Spinach
Celery
Tomato (slicing & cherry)
Peppers
Several herbs

Updates and pictures coming soon

Oh, I also retired my old avatar:


And created a new one...keeping with my sci-fi theme

I thought the Tardis was appropriate, especially since you can grow so much in such a small space.

I was having trouble reading the last word in your new avatar.  Thanks for posting a large version.  So, you did end up buying some plants, as though you could resist it.

PS: I had to Bing Tardis! I like your ruler where the words were .

Love the avatar! I knew what your Tardis was, Lol! I am a certifiable geek! I loved your old avatar, too though, RT!

Will be checking in!

sanderson wrote:I was having trouble reading the last word in your new avatar. Thanks for posting a large version.
...PS:  I had to Bing Tardis!  I like your ruler where the words were .

Thanks Sanderson, that's what I get for using something I found on Pinterest and also posting it after midnight (insert your own Gremlins reference here)
Dr Who is a fun show. It used to be on Netflix and it became really popular with the "certifiable" geeks.

Anywho, I have edited it and made the font bigger.

sanderson wrote:  So, you did end up buying some plants, as though you could resist it.

Yes I did...so hard to choose which ones and to know which were good and which weren't. All the transplants averaged $3 for a 4" pot. Not sure if that is a good price or not or if they will do well, but time will tell

ralitaco, to show how old I am, I used to watch Dr. Who when he was an old white-haired Doctor. Of course he was not really old, just ancient, as he was a Time Lord.  It was shown in black and white.  I believe I got through about seven Doctors before I came to Canada. He seemed to get younger at every reincarnation.

I don't think he ever did any gardening, though. He wouldn't have had the time.

Back ON TOPIC: I like some of us doing personal threads. It's like a diary so you and we can chart your progress.

Kelejan wrote:ralitaco, to show how old I am, I used to watch Dr. Who when he was an old white-haired Doctor. Of course he was not really old, just ancient, as he was a Time Lord.  It was shown in black and white.  I believe I got through about seven Doctors before I came to Canada. He seemed to get younger at every reincarnation.

This last time, he got older...I was almost expecting him to become a her...possibly played by Emma Watson.

Kelejan wrote:I don't think he ever did any gardening, though. He wouldn't have had the time.

Ummm...Time Lord...he could plant the seeds and they would be ready in time for dinner.

Kelejan wrote:Back ON TOPIC: I like some of us doing personal threads. It's like a diary so you and we can chart your progress.

Obviously I do too.

Ok, finally got some time to work on my grids. I decided to go with the plain old white 1/2" pvc from the box store.




I have to admit, they are a bit bigger-fatter than I thought they would be. I think I will look to see if they have 1/4" cross T's for the future, but for now, I know they will last a long time though and are fairly solid.

My boxes are actually 22" x 101.5" long. Last time, I just made 16 squares (11"x12.66") figuring the extra width kind of made up for the short side. But this time, I decided to put 6" squares in the middle and plant accordingly - giving me a total of 17 squares per box...Hey a square is a square, even if it is 2 rectangles.

I used to watch Dr. Who on PBS in the 80s....loved the theme song!  This is the one I remember most:

https://www.google.com/search?q=dr+who+on+pbs&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=snvi&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim_PzwmIDMAhWB4SYKHXPTDjcQ_AUICigE&biw=1024&bih=671#imgrc=zPHDHW2qQ70g-M%3A

My current boxes are not square feet at all.  But they were free and work fine!  Algebra coming in handy, LOL. I look forward to a 4x4 this year!

Scorpio Rising wrote:I used to watch Dr. Who on PBS in the 80s....loved the theme song!  

Dr. Who and the theme song ... oh yes!  I love the theremin sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwdaGW-5f5I

Here is another theme song using the theremin. This one is from Midsomer Murders (another Brit show)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTZK9FNgK74

Sorry for hijacking the thread with this post ... sanderson can delete the post if it is not appropriate.

YES!

This was my first known exposure to the theremin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnTLZtZzrWU

PLANTS ARE PLANTED!!!! Finally

Between the cold weather, my daughter coming home from college, my daughter-in-law defending her master's thesis, replacing the back door's frame, building a flower bed for my DW, mowing the yard, weed-whacking the yard, mulching some leaves, raking the leaves into a large pile to hopefully compost and what-all...I finally got time to finish up the beds' painting and get some plants planted. I forgot that sometimes vacation is more work that work.

But as I said, this has been a productive week and I finally got some plants in. The ones I bought at the fair had been sitting in my laundry room while mother nature had what I hope were her last sub 40 temps for this year. I also bought some more plants today at a little place outside of Kinston, NC - Griffin's Plant Farm
So at the Herb and Garden Fair I got the following plants: Spinach (, Celery (4), Bell Pepper (2), Jalapeno Pepper (1), Sweet Pepper (1), Big Zach Tomato (1), Tommy Toe Tomato (2) and a couple of other tomato plants that I can't recall. We also got a some Cilantro, English Time, Creeping Rosemary and ????

At Griffin's I got - Arugula (4), Buttercrunch Lettuce (4), Red ???? Lettuce (4), Leaf Lettuce (4), Cucumbers (4), Yellow Squash (4 but only planted 2), White Eggplant (4).
I also planted some Tromboncino squash seeds (2) and Pole Bean seeds (18).

I decided to try the scarification process on half of the Pole Bean seeds. I think it will be interesting to see how much of a difference, if any, there will be for the germination time.
I also saw something online about "peeling" the hull off the squash seeds. I figured I would try it and see what happens so I removed the hull and planted 2 seeds in the MM in a 1'x2' square.

As for the boxes, I finished painting them but I was impatient and didn't sand them down so now I have to go back and knock down some sharp spots where I removed screws...that's what I get for not doing it right to start. I also had some of my paint blister and now it is starting to peel. Not sure if that was due to old paint, cold temps or some combination of the 2 or something else completely. Regardless, I will address that later.

I forgot to take pictures, but will do that in the morning.

ralitaco wrote:I decided to try the scarification process on half of the Pole Bean seeds. I think it will be interesting to see how much of a difference, if any, there will be for the germination time.
I also saw something online about "peeling" the hull off the squash seeds. I figured I would try it and see what happens so I removed the hull and planted 2 seeds in the MM in a 1'x2' square.

As far as I know, beans are the easiest seed to germinate.  I have never done anything to them except sow the seeds.  No presoak, no scarification, etc. This year I am trying an innoculant to see if they perform better.

In a few weeks time, that will be a jungle of veggies.  I can't wait until they take off and see them climbing the trellis.  I will be planting out this week.  We will have to compare the growing of our tromboncino squash.

Ralitaco, We have a gazebo (?) painted with white enamel. During the rain, big water blisters form. If left alone, they eventually dry out and shrink back. However, the paint is wearing, flaking and has some mold. If I had known this would happen, flat (whitewash) paint might have been better in the long run.

yolos wrote:As far as I know, beans are the easiest seed to germinate.  I have never done anything to them except sow the seeds.  No presoak, no scarification, etc. This year I am trying an innoculant to see if they perform better.

I didn't think they needed help germinating but I wanted to try it out. I nicked one square of seeds and left one square alone. I just wanted to see if there was any difference in the germination time between the 2 sets. Just an experiment.
The square on the Left was Scarified...The Ones on the Right were left whole

yolos wrote:In a few weeks time, that will be a jungle of veggies.  I can't wait until they take off and see them climbing the trellis.  I will be planting out this week.  We will have to compare the growing of our tromboncino squash.

I hope they will be a "jungle" and that they will also climb the trellis this year. And I'm sure that your squash will out-grow mine.

sanderson wrote:Ralitaco,  We have a gazebo (?) painted with white enamel.  During the rain, big water blisters form.  If left alone, they eventually dry out and shrink back.  However, the paint is wearing, flaking and has some mold.  If I had known this would happen, flat (whitewash) paint might have been better in the long run.

I used old latex paint so that may be part of the problem. I'm not too worried, it still looks good generally speaking.

Here are pics of my first plants of the season - woohoo!!!

3 types of lettuce, 2 bell pepper, 1 jalepeno, 1 sweet pepper, 1 yellow straight neck squash, 2 white Eggplant, 8 spinach



A couple of cukes and some tomato plants



Here's some celery in the 2-6" squares but 2 of them had dried out before I got them transplanted. They are showing a bit of hope, you can't see it in the picture but there is a bit of green popping up through the MM, so I will keep them for now.



This one is a tomato plant that fell over and broke. It too is showing signs of life.



Here is my tromboncino squash...well the seeds are under the MM



Some Arugula, Cilantro, Trailing Rosemary and other herbs



Another Yellow Squash



One of EMT trellises...I have a few more to build



A wind chime



A view from the back door with my new patio lights...And a Ray of

So very awesome, ralitaco! I love the photo of the seeds under the MM. LOL
So you guys in NC can put your tomatoes out already, eh? How exciting!

CC

CapeCoddess wrote:So you guys in NC can put your tomatoes out already, eh? How exciting!

Ummmm????? I did...they are selling them everywhere so I figured it was ok. Hope I'm right.

ralitaco wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:So you guys in NC can put your tomatoes out already, eh? How exciting!

Ummmm????? I did...they are selling them everywhere so I figured it was ok. Hope I'm right.

Not always right.  Keep an eye on the forecast and make sure you know what low air temps and soil temps the plants like.  Here is a short article talking about temps that a few plants like.

http://articles.extension.org/pages/36890/what-ground-temperature-is-best-for-planting-tomatoes-beans-and-marigolds

And here is a map showing soil temps.  Click on the "East" and you will see that your soil temps are between 55 - 60*F.  I do not know if that is your actual temps but I do know this map is accurate for my soil temps.  Between 60-65*F.  Tonight is the last night that the air temps will be below 50*F so I will plant another round of tomatoes and my first round of pole beans tomorrow.

http://www.greencastonline.com/tools/SoilTempMaps.aspx

Ralitaco, Beautiful looking project. I love the lights.

Yolos, I am hoping I will be ok. My soil temps were low 50's this morning in the few spots I checked. Worse case, I have to buy some more transplants...not that I wasn't going to anyway.

Sanderson, Thank you. Got these lights at Target and they are actual filament bulbs vs the Christmas tree lights in plastic bulbs from Big Lots. I was surprised at how much light they put out. I will have to try to snap a photo one night.

I think I have a dead or dying Jalapeno plant or perhaps one that is in transplant shock...


It's a bit odd to me that just that one has taken a bow...I bought them all the same day from the same person and planted the same time...the other 2 are bell peppers and 1 is sweet pepper


Any thoughts are appreciated

I have planted lots of plants that will need to be trellised. I am hoping they do better this year than last. Last year I used EMT and white mesh from Burpee.

(Last year's design)

They worked fine but the material just pulled apart at the end of the season so I wanted to try something else. I looked at the Cement Remesh but it was all rusted and I didn't have a way to get it home. I also looked at rolls of fencing but for the little bit I needed, I didn't want to spend a bunch of money. I starting thinking about making my own netting as I had seen in a post somewhere on the forum.

When I got home, I looked around at what I had and found some old, old wire fencing with 2x4 grid. It was old and rusty and full of leaves and old and rusty BUT it was already paid for and the new remesh was rusty too.
I wish I would have thought to snap a photo of the roll when I found it, but here is a shot of what I started with. It's hard to see because of the leaves and the rust being about the same color.


Anyway, I cut the fencing to the size I needed. I cut up the middle of the rectangles so I would have some "fingers" sticking out. I then proceeded to cut out every other wire so I would end up with 4x4 openings...big enough for me to stick my hand through. This part of the process was a bit more labor intensive than I thought. After cutting the wires out, it left a sharp point where the wire was welded to its crossmember. I took care of that using an angle grinder. I then cleaned them up a bit with a scrub brush and spray painted them white.

(You can see the "fingers" I left)

I ended up cutting off all but 3 of the fingers on each side. I then attached the trellis using screws up top to hook the fencing on and I drilled holes for the fingers to push into on each side.



They are not the prettiest, nor the sturdiest, but for this season, I think they will do just fine. Meanwhile, I will be looking for some sturdier ones to use in the future.

They look fantastic from here.  Bet it took a lot of time though.