It’s about 2 weeks until I start germinating some of my plants to go outside. They go out the last week of May, there’s usually a frost near the end of May. Squashes and other long plants don’t do so well here.
So what’s in everyone minds to get going this year? I usually try to get some cucumbers if they can finish in time, as well as tomatoes, peppers, peas, carrots and lettuce.
An early unexpected frost took my peppers and tomatoes last year unfortunately.
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What zone are you in? The USDA just bumped us from 6B to 6A (yay global warming?). I just started all the things that can reasonably be started indoors without having a super over the top setup. This year that includes a few verities of tomatoes and peppers, artichokes, bok choi, egg plant (two verities again), and brussel sprouts.
I found that starting earlier indoors results in earlier yeilds. I use solo cups with holes in the bottom as my pots. I also have decent sized grow lights under a very makeshift mylar (space blanket) canopy to help the plants not get leggy.
Thankfully, we have a long enough grow season to be able to start things like cucumber and squash outdoors. I might start them inside this year to get a jump on the growing season, but it’s way too early to start them right now. Those things get… unwieldy fast. Carrots and shallots are also a bit of a pain to transplant in the quantities I like to grow them in, so I’ll start those outdoors.
I’m planning a bit ambitiously in terms of garden real estate this year. Last year we had some volunteer pie pumpkins grow in our compost pile and grow up the side of the deer fence we have around the garden. If the deer didn’t eat them last year, I figure I can try intentionally planting some squash and goards along the fence this year to conserve space in my raised beds.
3a/b-4a and to make matters more interesting, there is even microclimates where some people have great luck with gourds. I’m personally down in a valley, so wider fluctuations.
I’ve got 2 4’x12’ raised beds currently, health issues stopped my garden expansion last year. Hoping to get back this year, but likely it will be next.
Yields for sure, here you barely get 90 days of growing season, so you have to start indoors and early or your options are limited. I use solo cups myself, I also made my own aeroponics chamber to use as well (meant for propagation), but I’ve had great luck with a heat mat and humidity domes with starter plugs too.
I grow cannabis inside as well, so I just use those lights and materials for my garden starters haha, I had some peppers going in one of the tents, the squashes just took the fuck off, so had to remove them. I did start some tomatoes last week to try again, and move outdoors if needed.
Radishes, lettuces, carrots, I’ve had great luck just seed to ground and the end of may. I’ve also had bad luck trying some broccoli and it bolting, as well as some of the lettuces too.
The USDA just bumped us from 6B to 6A
What does this mean?
Recently the USDA updated their plant handiness zones.
The USDA updates their grow zones every couple of years (?). Their last update had my town moved from 6B to 6A due to warming temperatures. The plants don’t understand the rating, but what it means is that my area has been trending toward having a longer grow season (time between frosts) for a while now.
For more reading, see: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/
I believe it also has to do with frost depth and coldest temperature, that’s more for trees and flowers over typical “garden” stuff though.
Lots of flower bulbs to remove every year here.
Ah, I see. That would make sense. It seems that people always want to try to push the boundary of what they can grow in their region. A neighbor digs up a ton of canna lilies each fall. A friend has a lemon tree in a pot that they bring in at the end of the season. Heck, we have a pretty big jade that we have outside for about half they year…
It would be pretty cool to be able to have some more exotic flowers on our lot, but I guess that wouldn’t make them exotic anymore.
I like to grow a little bit of everything, but right now I’m just setting up some brassica to go. I really should have put my first starts out today, but we had a storm blow through and the wind is supposed to be nuts through tomorrow, so we’re gonna five it another couple days.
Frost date is still like, a month out, but I like to gamble. Got some broccolis, a couple kale, pak choi, couple lettuces. We’ll see what happens.
My main goal for this year is to find a rhythm for succession planting. Trying to get some practice in with that so I can scale up in the event I find myself in charge of more than my little half acre in the burbs.
Got some Birdies Beds this year! Also dug a monster hugelkultur bed in my front yard. I’m planning on doing a little write-up on that later in the season. I’d like to get something growing in it before I do too much struttin.
Uh… Got a cattle panel squash arch, added a million pots (about 20) for deployable beneficials (marigolds, dill, etc.)… As I list it all out I’m realizing I’ve been busy. I’m easily doubling my capacity from last season.
Hopefully I don’t fuck it up!
Nice! I love some variety too, but already had some bad luck with some bunch of stuff, so little hesitant to feed the voles again haha.
You won’t get a spade in the ground for atleast another month here, usually first week of May.
I would love broccoli and some of its sisters, but they bolt easy here for some reason.
What’s a birdie bed and a hugelkuktur? I obvs could google, but engagement!(?) haha
Cattle panel squash arch… I am imagining a walkthrough arch about 8 feet tall, 3 foot wide and 4 foot long you can weave any kind of plant in basically?
Best way to learn is to make mistakes!
This is my first real attempt with broccoli. I finally figured out Brussels sprouts, so I figured it’s kind of a lateral move.
With the sprouts, I’ve found that heat is the enemy and there’s nothing I can really do to stop them bolting in the summer, so I try to keep them growing during spring and fall. I have one in a container on my deck for laughs, but it survives every winter and bolts itself to death in the summer. Then the babies carry on the legacy.
Birdies is a brand name. They do a corrugated metal bed kit that is pretty reasonable and all my YouTube guys crow about them all the time, so here I am. The hugelkultur is an old German(?) agriculture technique. Dig a hole, fill it with logs and sticks, bury it, ta-da a time-release compost store right under your crop bed. Trying to build my homestead chops a bit, plus I think it’s funny to absolutely wreck my lawn with vegetables
Oh shit, idk if they are the same thing, but me and some of my buddies actually made some remarks and were trying to figure out what they were. Those look a lot fancier though, the ones we saw looked like two window wells bolted together.
Like that.
My raised beds are made out of wood, imma carpenter, so I love me some wood I guess. Also cheaper I think than those…
Hell yeah! I’m a carpenter! Currently working in a cabinet shop, but I’m also working on going independent this summer.
I built my first set of beds during lockdown with what I could get ahold of. Ripped some 2x4 in half and sticked out a frame that I lined with cedar fence. Those will be going into their fourth season this year.
But I kinda want to upgrade and I’ve seen good plans to build stuff, but materials end up only being like $20 under what I paid for the Birdies. I liked how easy they went together.
There’s all my raised stuff with the hugel in the background there
Nice! My plan to go independent didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it, but I’m able to be a stay at home dad instead, so taking that as a huge W instead. Long story short, bought dad’s business hoping to expand and use his clientele for carpentry, I had zero help from him, but had to pick up his slack.
Nice! I was able to get mine done first year of covid before lumber prices got ridiculous, yours look a lot fancier than my 2x12 frames ones haha.
Beautiful looking yard!
My two raised beds, I may add another 2x10 on top so I don’t need to lean over so far, and gives me some space to move some more dirt around.
Built the retaining wall planters myself too, just 4x6s stacked and rebar dowels to hold everything. They are trenched in with 6” of gravel under though.
Eh, life happens. Been on a bendy road myself, but the important thing is being happy where you are.
Lol, thanks dude. More an invention of necessity than anything too deliberate. I grabbed the last stack of 2x4 the store had and the only cedar I could find was the fencing. I’m honestly surprised it’s held up as well as it has.
And thanks again. I love your deck. Ours has needed reno since we moved in, but I keep spending the money on dumb shit like food and the mortgage. I like the boxes, too. They look sturdy. I bet it was a challenge to get everything so neat in that slope.
Yeah it’s tough though, dealing with carpal tunnel through all of that, than working in the yard last year I got a hernia, still waiting for a referral for that ughh haha.
It looks sooo much better, I would use cedar if it wasn’t for the price, like 3x the cost of PT when I source it. Cedar is naturally resistant and looks snazzy imo.
Thanks, I originally had it 2 feet longer but cut it back, hence why the beam is flush with the end instead of cantilevered, wanted the extra yard. Was a mid build change up. I’m lucky I can just write this stuff off as an expense for “my portfolio”. Wasn’t overly bad, was a couple year project as I built it down the side of the house. Would love to just rent the gear and go to town on a weekend, but that was all barrows and buckets over many weekends or slow days at work.
I’m making some big changes to the garden this year. Went from several small raised beds adding up to about 70 sqft to two large wood beds with about 110 sqft.
I’m in 6b and started seeds inside a week or so ago, mostly cold resistant stuff like kale and cabbage. I figured it would take a couple weeks for them to germinate, but of course they all sprouted within a few days and now I’m trying to keep them alive until it’s warm enough to go outside. I even ended up buying a cheap plastic greenhouse to have enough space.
Generally, I do a lot of tomatoes and peppers, as well as some squashes, onions, carrots, and beans. Grew potatoes last year on a whim in a cloth planter and it worked really well, so I’ll be trying that again.
I’m going to try and grow corn this year. I know it’s not ideal for such a small garden, but I ordered some seeds that are supposedly good for patio gardening so I hope they’ll do ok.
I’m hoping to add a ton of native flowers too, gotta get those pollinators.
Nice! I was in the middle of expanding last year and got a hernia in still waiting to get looked at, yay health care, so avoiding extra curricular stuff for right now unfortunately.
3a-4b if I started my stuff now I would have monsters by the end of May, stuff starts getting hardened beginning of May temp depending though. I did start some tomatoes last week to go in my indoor tent though, so it’ll let me know if my timings off since it’s 3 weeks ahead.
All else fails buy some decent established plants from the nursery’s or hardware store.
Ohh potatoes, I did one of those tiered planters, frost got it before they were done -.- but that’s life.
The expansion I am working on is along a E\W fence line on the N side, so I think some corn or some sunflowers will do nicely if they don’t get too leggy first.
We’re gonna try flowers this year, too. Got a good deal on pots and I’ve marked off an area under a tree in my yard that we’re gonna seed and hopefully make a little meadow. What sort of beans do you do?