What will your garden ring in NEW this year?

Goosegirl wrote:
I'm having a garlic dilemma as well, since I did NOT get mine in before the ground froze (new job, total exhaustion - it just didn't happen!).  I am hoping after this brutal winter we will have an early enough spring that I can plant them and hope for a fall crop.
GG

I always used to plant my garlic in the very early spring, as soon as the soil could worked and always got decent harvests. Are my fall planted garlic bulbs larger? Yes--but I still always had garlic.

llama momma wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:lm, which freezer did you end up with?  I may need one also.

My new crop this year will be arugula.  I decided I finally like it after years of not.  It's even good in smoothies.

CC

CC
I went with a G.E. 7 cu.ft. manual defrost from Home Depot.  There were very nice reviews and many questions with answers about this product on the Home Depot site.

I still have a smaller chest freezer as well as my upright. One suggestion if you haven't already thought of it; get some sturdy baskets to group like items together. It will make retrieving things so much easier; trust me, you will never remember which corner the frozen corn is in once it is buried by other things!

Thanks.  The Home Depot site had reviews of this product that suggested the same thing. Neat and orderly.
 

After participating in an online plant swap of mammoth proportions I will have many seeds to select from. Some I am eager to try for the first time are:
Lemon cucumber
Ukrainian paste tomato,
Kosovo tomato,
Bitter melon -2 types
Turkish orange eggplant
Strawberry 'spinach'
and several Asian greens including Culantro Ngo Gai, Dong Zhi Bok Choy, Tatsoi, Vietnamese mint.

Last year I planted Spiked Jelly Melons and Pigeonpeas for the first time and look forward to getting it right in 2014 (planted too late in 2013).

Oh that sounds like a fun list Carmelita! I have done strawberry spinach but have never been able to keep it alive.

Goosegirl wrote:

cheyannarach wrote:Wow, this thread is hopping!  I am really excited and nervous about the garlic and shallots I planted this fall!  I am hoping these very unusually freezing temps don't kill them all off.  With my luck I am pretty much banking that they don't come up   .  Then the optimist in me says well if they don't come up you have two new beds to plant other stuff in and you get to try again next year  

I'm having a garlic dilemma as well, since I did NOT get mine in before the ground froze (new job, total exhaustion - it just didn't happen!).  I am hoping after this brutal winter we will have an early enough spring that I can plant them and hope for a fall crop.

GG

I hope it works out for you, I got mine in late but they did manage to peek out of the dirt before it got too cold so   here's to wishful thinking!!

jmsieglaff wrote:

cheyannarach wrote:Wow, this thread is hopping!  I am really excited and nervous about the garlic and shallots I planted this fall!  I am hoping these very unusually freezing temps don't kill them all off.  With my luck I am pretty much banking that they don't come up   .  Then the optimist in me says well if they don't come up you have two new beds to plant other stuff in and you get to try again next year  

If they are buried in the snow they are probably basking in the warmth of 20-25F soil and will likely be fine, especially if they are a more cold hardy variety.  I always mulch my garlic with 4-6" of straw once the soil starts to freeze solid, usually late November/early December here, might not help you now but for future reference.  I pull most off in the spring once it thaws.

I can't remember off the top of my head what variety but I know they are a cold hardy variety. I have decided that my life is one really long episode of Punked and I the only luck I have is bad luck so hopefully they come up   

I'll try to take photos of everything as it grows. I am excited to try the Strawberry Spinach - don't even know what it tastes like, only that it is pretty. (I have could use some advice as to how to post the photos, please.)

Thanks, the instructions are very clear.
However, I am being asked to download something to my computer in order to complete the task.

Thanks for trying.

Herblover

The chest freezer was delivered yesterday.   
I'm months away from the first harvest and didn't anticipate my enthusiasm running right out to the dollar store and finding not only white but different colored plastic baskets.  Can you imagine the color coding possibilities of Neatness and Order?  Ahh, these winter daydreams.  

We cleared a section of woods & I'll be adding more boxes this year. 

I'm ordering these from Fedco:
Oregon giant snow pea
Space spinach
Giant Winter spinach
Yellowstone carrot
Ministro slicing cucumber
Gold Ball turnip
Winter luxury pie pumpkin
Odessa Market sweet pepper
Boldog Hungarian spine paprika pepper

llama momma wrote:Herblover

The chest freezer was delivered yesterday.   
I'm months away from the first harvest and didn't anticipate my enthusiasm running right out to the dollar store and finding not only white but different colored plastic baskets.  Can you imagine the color coding possibilities of Neatness and Order?  Ahh, these winter daydreams.  

Heh those baskets are tempting, eh? I got a whole lot at the dollar store too. I was thinking I might use some to thwart the mole damage a little bit, if possible ... maybe protect some roots, too.

Grats on the new chest freezer. Those things are immensely handy even if you're not a gardener and don't can or preserve.

dixie wrote:We cleared a section of woods & I'll be adding more boxes this year. 

Good to 'hear' from you Dixie! Congrats (in advance) on the new boxes for the season.   

GG

Goosegirl wrote:

dixie wrote:We cleared a section of woods & I'll be adding more boxes this year. 

Good to 'hear' from you Dixie!  Congrats (in advance) on the new boxes for the season.    

GG

Gotta love the excitement of new boxes!! Woot woot!  

Hi! I'm new to this forum and to SFG. I have been POURING over the book all winter, measuring my garden spaces, extensively planning and re-planning what is going in my magic boxes and I'm worn out before I've even begin! (Still very excited though). Because SFG is my NEW garden thing this year, will all of you just tell me that this really works? I've had several people look at me crazy, others tell me just to 'till it up because you'll get more plants' and others who've flat out said that 6 inches is not deep enough and this will be a catastrophic fail. I think I'm worn out from all the naysayers! And I haven't even put in a box yet! (But I'm close!!)

Please tell me this is as awesome as the book says. And that 6 inches is really deep enough!!!!!!!

 

Yes, for most veggies, 6" is enough.  Pictures on the forum prove it.  

Kay

Sigh of relief!!!! Thanks for that! I cannot wait to get started on this grand adventure!!!!!!

Jujee,  Welcome to the Forum!    

Have faith.  It really, really, really works.  The hardest people to convince that it works are experienced gardeners.  They have done it the same way, year after year.  Do you WANT to till?  The traditional way is work intensive, seed and water wasting, and requires weeding. Six inches is all it takes (6"). You can set the boxes anywhere you want, even on concrete. Just put down the weed fabric on your existing dirt or where ever, set the box, and fill! Easy-peasy as some folks say.

I think the #1 thing is to make the Mel's Mix properly.  Have you found 5 different "sources" of compost?  Not 5 different vendors, but sources.  More on that if I can find the topic I'm think of.  Make sure you fluff the peat moss before measuring it.  And try to find coarse vermiculite instead of medium.

AND, we are here to help you prove all the nay-sayers that it works.  Ask questions if you have any doubt about something.  No question is too silly to ask.   

Hi jujee, why not give it a try. Make one 4x4 garden box for a trial run. That is my suggestion.
  to the SFG forum.

Hi Jujee, I'm 65, grew up on a farm & gardened the conventional way after going out on my own years ago.  I finally took the plunge into SFG simply because the deer got so bad in our area. 

I'm so glad I did!  6 inches really is deep enough.  Your compost really will make the difference.  Try to find "real" compost, not the stuff with burnt wood filler.  I've had good luck with Black Kow brand.

Good luck & post some pictures later.

I have fifteen boxes all planned out, but because of the cost, I'm only starting with 2. (Vermiculite is sooo expensive! Ouch!)

And thanks for all the testimonials!! I'm really excited, because I HATE tilling!! What a waste of my time!!! Lol!

Jujee
I can testify that Autumn of this year will = 4 years no tilling and plenty of harvesting to eat fresh, freeze, and can.  Welcome to the smartest way to garden in my humble opinion.  The most exercise in this method is through composting to keep your level of production sufficient to supply the needs of the garden beds.  But you know what?  It is sooo worth it.  Controlling the nutrition of your garden through composting will hopefully give you loads of satisfaction just like myself and so many others on this forum.

camprn wrote:Hi jujee, why not give it a try. Make one 4x4 garden box for a trial run. That is my suggestion.
  to the SFG forum.

Or even try it in pots, like I did at home. (I garden mostly at a neighbor's house and can't control his soil composition). Even my fabric pots, which are supposed to leak water very very easily and continuously, stayed wonderfully moist with MM in them and very little watering on my part compared to pots with regular non-SFG soil in them. For what it's worth, I got those fabric pots in 1x1 foot size, which I've seen at both Home Depot and Walmart. There's a square foot for ya!

How about trying a winter or spring crop now in a container or two? A quick-growing green, like the small bok choy/pak choi type Asian cabbages, or some lettuce or spinach? Or snow peas? By the time summer comes around, you'll have harvested your crop, will have some experience with what MM "soil-less soil" can do and how much watering it needs, and probably be a lot more confident about expanding into a bigger SFG garden for your summer crops.