2016 SFG in Brooks, Ga

CC once asked me for an overhead picture of my garden.  But the roof is too steep and an oak tree is in the way and my son in law took the tall ladder.  So here is the best I can do.  Most of the green growing stuff is Mighty Mustard I will be using to biofumigate my soil.




In the last picture you can see on the left side where there is lots of room to expand.  I am removing all the 5-6 year old beds and replacing them with six 2 x 8 beds that are elevated off the ground to keep the roots from encroaching.  Also the line of three 3 x 8 beds with the hoops will be replaced next fall with elevated beds.  Also, just to the right of the bed with the hoops has a lot of 2 x 2 beds.  I will be replacing them this winter with three 2 x 8 elevated beds.  This is due to the deterioration of the beds, roots encroaching and the Southern Blight that has found its way into the soil in parts of the garden.

Beautiful, Yolos. We lived in GA for a few years. I remember woods like that. Fond memories.

countrynaturals wrote:Beautiful, Yolos. ...

+1

Awesome! My next renovation will line the boxes up like that. Much better for drip irrigation installation.

CC

trolleydriver wrote:

countrynaturals wrote:Beautiful, Yolos. ...

+1

+2

Well, the forecast is predicting 22*F tonight.  So I made some more hoop houses trying to keep as much as possible alive.  I don't think the tomato plants will survive even with Christmas Lights, 6 mil plastic, Agribon 19 and a small solar blanket on the top.
The Mighty Mustard is supposed to live if the temps are above 26*F.  The three beds under the 6 mil plastic and Christmas lights should hopefully survive the night.  I don't know about the Mighty Mustard under the 6 mil plastic without Christmas lights.  The Garlic is also under 6 mil plastic without Christmas lights.  It should survive no problem but I am trying to keep the green shoots from dying back.

Well, you're at least giving them a chance!

It was 24 here at 6 am. How'd you do?

Yolos, Love the ambience!

AtlantaMarie wrote:Well, you're at least giving them a chance!  

It was 24 here at 6 am.  How'd you do?

Okay, here is how they did.  The low temp per the internet was 24*F.  I uncovered everything this morning to take advantage of the forecast of rain.  It looks like another cold front is coming thru on Thurs so I will decide then whether to cover or not.  I will definitely cover the tomatoes.

Tomatoes - They were covered with Agribon 19, 6 mil plastic, a top hat of solar blanket and Christmas lights.  No damage was done to the leaves but two tomatoes fell off the vine so they were affected in some way.  Here is a picture of the tomatoes I harvested just before the cold front and just today.




Might Mustard - 
This row of beds was covered with 6 mil plastic and Christmas lights.  No cold damage.  They do look like they need some more fertilizer.


This row of beds was covered with 6 mil plastic (no Christmas lights).  No cold damage.


This bed was not covered at all.  Just a couple of damaged leaves.  So the little experiment shows I don't need to cover the mustard unless it gets lower than 25*F.


Carrots - The larger ones are a bit droopy and the smaller ones look like no damage to the green tops at all.  They were covered with 6 mil plastic.


Garlic was covered with 4 mil plastic.  No damage to the green tops as expected.

Nice freeze experiments. Thank you for sharing.

Fascinating, Yolos!  Especially keeping those toms going at 24 degrees!
We've been down into the teens, hoarfrost and all, and my uncovered mustard spinach, daikon, kale, collards and most of the chard are still unaffected.  Just picked most of it today. Only a couple of chard leaves were limp.

CC

Garden Update 12/31/16

I still have two tomato plants barely hanging in there.  I haven't uncovered them since we had three nights of freezing weather so I hope they are still alive.  Also have Fava Beans, garlic, carrots and mustard (to be used to biofumigate soil) growing outside.  

Inside I have onion and leek starts growing that I planted from seeds on 12/18.


Also, I have lettuce I planted in my Aerogarden on 12/18.  Just before the lettuce is ready to start harvesting I will plant some more microgreens.  The tomatoes, carrots, lettuce and microgreens will make a nice salad in about 2 weeks.

Ooo, I like that Aerogarden setup, Yolos. Very interesting.

I uncovered the tomatoes this morning and was happy to see they both survived the 28* F nights.  Except some type of worm was eating away on a few of the tomatoes.  The vines look kind of pitiful but who cares if they are giving me fresh tomatoes in Dec/Jan.  

Really nice yolos.  Thanks for sharing.

Okay, now I am totally jealous!  I can't grow tomatoes and here you have some that survived the freeze!!    What variety?