2011 Garden off to a good start!

Okay, I finally got my pics transferred to the pc!
Here is the then gloomy spot I picked out for my garden:




And here is a weirdly angled shot of the spot with my 3 beautiful new beds!



Here is some of the pots for the container garden my boys will be growing in. they are being fiercely protected til they are planted.



Here are the tools the lad "packed" to help:



These are the potato grow bags I made out of leftover weed barrier fabric. I've never grown potatoes before so this is the "great potato experiment" for us. I liked the grow bags on the gardeners supply site but $20 each?! no thank you!

oooh I love the spot you chose and your beds look great!!! The fence backdrop---LOVE! Can't wait to see it all growing!

What a cool idea to make them out of the leftover landscape fabric! Please keep us updated as to how it works out!

Your garden and your helpers look awesome. All the best to you. Love the potato bags. How did you make them?

Gwynn

I was just talking to my hubby today asking if he thought I could make bags out of the extra weedcloth we have. I will be very interested to see how it works for you. We are trying to grow potatoes in old plastic woven wheat bags. Also In an old mels mix bag. So far so good. Most have plants breaking the surface.

I love the pics! Keep us posted

So, after 10 years, what does your garden look like......today?

It looks like you are off to a great start. Hope spring treats you well....when it gets here. My Gawd winter is dragging on.

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:So, after 10 years, what does your garden look like......today?

haha! It actually just took me a minute to figure out who/what you were talking about! oops!

Yeah, I hope the potatoes go well. The grow bag website says they are made out of polypropylene which is what the weed fabric is so I bet that is what it is, possibly a more durable type. I used the fabric style weed fabric, 15 year quality I think, maybe 10. these 1st 2, I doubled the fabric up to give extra strength but I'm going to make the next 2 one-ply to see if there is any difference. I used 48" fabric and using the full width, I cut it to about 27", then hemmed the sides and bottom, I opened the side seam and sewed those open for a little extra strength as well. Then I turned it inside out!

Here's a pic of the side seam:



I folded the bottoms to help hold them upright since I didn't sew it as a box bottom.



Gardeners supply website has a tutorial for how to use them.

Finally a "warm" day! Okay, so it wasn't quite warm but it got over 50, that's warm enough for me. I know eventually I'll need more MM because I'll be planting corn and melons after my frost date and you never know what else might pop up that I might want to just grow in a pot if I'm out of squares. So today, I figured I'd rather do the mixing now while it's cool out and there isn't much else to do rather than do it when it's 80 outside. So i now have in my porch shed, an old peat bag half filled, an old verm bag half filled and an entire 45 gallon garbage can filled with MM! I also filled every empty pot I already have that I plan to use for the zukes and deter tomatoes. I am set for the summer on MM hopefully!

I did finally get some green stuff in the ground as well. I planted 3 squares of lettuce, fire red, buttercrunch and romaine, and I filled a big strawberry pot with everbearers and pansies. I went ahead and covered the lettuce bed with a clear tarp over the hoops-the weather is still iffy and I don't trust our rabbits! Too dark to take pics by the time I finished, but I'll get some tomorrow.

I love your grow bags. I might just steal your idea. I am brand new to this, so I need to be careful and not take on more than I can handle my first year, but everytime I see something new I want to run out and do it. LOL I look forward to seeing how your garden grows.

Busy week! I've been out dodging rain drops but I am 2 days from my frost date and I'm bursting! (literally-there are a thousand plants overflowing out of my office...)

So the great potato experiment seems to be doing well:I added more MM today for the first time and the plants look pretty healthy.



I also got started on hardening off for this weekend. So these guys got their first taste of straight sunlight. (I think they enjoyed it- it's hard to tell)



And the first trellis finally went up!They've been finished and leaning against a wall in my dining room for weeks but with rain and bronchitis, I wasn't about to get them up! btw- I stole someone's awesome idea about the can lids as rebar collars- it came in handy already as wet as my yard is!

gg, your garden is looking great. You did a fine job on the trellis. How is that wall-o-water working for you?

I remember seeing them in Nebraska, and they were growing tomatoes, from seeds, outside in February . Never did see the results in May.

It looks so nice!!! So glad you get to plant
Ha-v-v

Yea, GG!!! I'm glad you were able to get out and get everything going. It's looking good, and I hope to join you by tomorrow (Marvin's is finally bringing in my load of composts in the morning!). It is good to finally see the sun and blue sky today!


I love your trellis too. Is it from a kit or did you make it yourself? I've been looking for something black, and considered painting conduit black so that it blends in more (HOA), but your framing is exactly what I need! Where did you get it?

Everything is lookin' good.
Keep up the good work.

For the trellis, I used 1/2" electrical conduit from home depot. And I sprayed it with high gloss black rustoleum. I sprayed half the pole, leaned it against my woodpile to dry, then later, I flipped them and sprayed the other half, no problem. I do have a couple spots that flakes, so I would rub them down with a green scrubbie pad, then wipe them clean before you spray. I took the screws out of the corner pieces and sprayed those and to spray the screws, I poked holes in a piece of brown paper and pushed the screws through so that I wouldn't be spraying the threads. Make sure to have it all laying flat before you put them together or it ends up all wonky! I thought putting the netting on was pretty easy: I unrolled the net across the frame on my floor, lined up one side and I used masking tape to hold it in place, then stretched it across and taped the other side loosely. Then I went back and secured it with small black cable ties down one side and the top. Then stretched it nice and taut and secured the other side, and tightened them all up. I clipped the ends off the cable ties so now they are really sharp, not sure if that will be a problem.

On the wall o water- I'm not sure, I kind of forgot I had bought them until this week, so I just barely put that up just to see if it makes any difference. (I'm still in my "learning" season!)

GG - your trellis is gorgeous! Once you're fully recovered, I may force you to come over and help me with one. =)

Me, too! Me, too!

I fixed the date from 2001 to 2011....it was hurting my OCD.

I'm freezing & heading off to bed. Thanks for the chuckle to send me on my way, Jen!

middlemamma wrote:I fixed the date from 2001 to 2011....it was hurting my OCD.

WOW! I just seen this thread for the first time! You garden is coming along nicely! I'm loving your guard dog and the little kiddos, how cute! I'm really interested to see how the potatoes do, I put mine in 18 gal buckets.Keep the pics coming!

middlemamma wrote:I fixed the date from 2001 to 2011....it was hurting my OCD.

Omg, thank you! I couldn't figure out how to change it and it was driving me insane!

Your whippet looks feirce and so does your garden .

shannon1 wrote:Your whippet looks feirce and so does your garden .

haha! He's a greyhound, but he sure is scary, isn't he?!

So last week I decided to pull up all the grass around my boxes to put down weed barrier and mulch or something. Going at it by hand almost killed me! So today, I went up to the tool rental place and rented a kick type sod cutter! That thing is awesome! I now have perfectly straight edges all around and in between the beds! The back of my neck is killing me from bending over and hand sodding the grass right up against the bed, but the sod cutter was no sweat. I was expecting it to be a giant PITA because the gruff guys at the rental place gave me the "yeah right" look when I came in and explained what I needed to rent and told me that it was quite a handful. Bah! What do they know?