New to & Excited about SFG-Soil Mix in St Louis?
lovetocook9
15 years ago
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Comments (15)
sinfonian
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Excited About The New Garden Season...And You???
Comments (12)Thanks for the compliments guys and gals. Lisa, those cukes were nothing special. I bought one 4 pack of Bonnie Burpless Hybrid and one 4 pack of Straight 8's from Lowes. They are planted in plain old field clay but I tilled it and added in some composted cow manure prior to planting. Some fish fertilizer when they were small and a little 10-10-10 when they were actively growing. We had hundreds of very large cucumbers from these 8 plants (4 on each side). That was year 1. Year 2 was a complete and total loss due to the cucumber beetles moving in. I had never even heard of them before until they hit, and they hit hard. By the time I diagnosed that it was cuke beetles spreading a virus it was a lost cause. I replanted the crop 3 times and each time they'd look healthy for a week or so and then suddenly start wilting and be dead days later. This will be year 3 and I'm going to try to keep a watchful eye and take preventative measures so that my cuke house will once again look like it did in these pictures. The woods behind it were cleared over the summer and the grass is kept mowed, I'm hoping the removal of that thick nearby brush and cover will greatly help. I also plan to use protective netting while they're young and growing as well as spraying if necessary. Maybe I can nip it in the bud early and get a good crop in between generations. Going from hundreds of delicious cukes to quite literally none in just one year was sooooo demoralizing. This year I actually built a large wood framed bed to fit the inside dimensions of the cuke house (roughtly 8' X 9' and 10 inches high) that I am currently growing cabbage in. If the cukes take off like they're supposed to it will be pretty much completely shaded underneath in the summer so not many veggies can grow there at that time but the cold weather crops can get plenty of sun there until then....See MoreTell me about your SFG
Comments (22)I'll be cursing in July, but it was beautiful here today, so of course I was out in the garden. I added on to my strawberry bed so it will be about 6x6'. It's somewhat lasanga-d with some fresh manure and scraps on bottom, then layers of topsoil and finished compost. I'm also building a U-shaped bed around a stump, with a plum in a tub on top of the stump. This bed will be for my melons and summer squash. I also put in another bed, about 8' long, and 3' most of the way, then tapering at one end. This will be for tomatoes, cukes, and probably peppers, eggplants, and okra, if there's still room (the bed will extend the other way another 8'. I'm planning a long, narrow bed to use up the remaining space, probably about 2'x10'. I'm thinking it will be mainly for cutting flowers this year (and to attract pollinators), and I may put in my perennial herbs there. The job for tomorrow is to haul slash wood out of the corner and dig it up for potatoes - blue and Yukon golds. My peas broccoli and cauliflower are doing well, and my carrots are coming up. I also found some volunteer lettuces from last year's beds, and transplanted them, so should be in salads in a few weeks. Outside of the garden proper, I'm sheet composting and will be tilling in OM for a 4x30' bed for 3 varieties of corn and sunflowers, with watermelon, pumpkin, and wintersquash rambling through them. Should make a nice screen until I can get a proper fence built along the alley....See MoreSFG Plan - 1st Timer - Boxes Built, Seeds Bought
Comments (18)Some notes on your herbs. Parsley is a biennial, so if you let it go through the winter, it will self seed the second year. Put it in a place you can give it some protection over the winter if you have many nights below 0*F. You will still be able to harvest it all winter. It will go to seed in mid spring the second year, and give you new seedlings in late summer or early fall. A shade cage in spring can keep the seeds in the same square without too much trouble. Sage, dill and basil are all tall herbs. Often a couple feet or more. The more you trim and harvest them the bushier and more dense they will become. I would suggest you flip them with your carrots next to the tomatoes so they don't shade out your other plants. All three are good for tomatoes as companion plants. They won't compete for surface root space too bad (not like the total root share of tomatoes and carrots, but not a big deal). But they will help to deter pests, and the dill will attract bees if you let it go to seed. If not the dill is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, and does seem to help the tomatoes in that realm. Oregano is a perennial in many areas. It is also low and spreading unless you have a hybrid bred for something else. Thyme is the same way. Both are a freaking pain to keep in a grid. If you can, those are two I would put in pots or somewhere else where they can creep all over and you don't have to hack at them constantly (harvesting leaves for use won't keep them confined, you have to cut back the new growth, which branches, etc.). Rosemary likes it dry, and can be a perennial if you bring it indoors for any temperature below freezing. I only grow my rosemary in pots because I can drown it if I put it in beds with my other herbs. A pot with both rosemary and thyme in it would do well, as the rosemary would grow up with semi-shallow roots, and the thyme would go over the edge with deep roots and keep the roots cool. Both need rather dry soil. Chamomile can naturalize and turn to a weed very quickly if you don't harvest the flowers. Plan to harvest very well when they are in bloom, or be aware of where it will drop seeds to keep it in control. BTW, chamomile and lettuce are in the same family, so you can use that as reference for companion planting. Unfortunately, aside from removing some herbs, you really shouldn't crowd these down any further than they are. If you use them and trim them regularly then they will bush out and fill that entire square foot easily....See MoreGot my 1st SFG planned
Comments (6)That is a beautiful picture! Here is a picture of my beds. I took this about 9:45 this morning. You can see the shadow from my house on the lower beds as the sun comes up from that side. You can see where I put my trellises. Did I do that right? Maybe I should have oriented my boxes at a different angle? You can also see that the beds are covered with plastic and they have snow and ice on them from our recent snow. I posted a picture on the "growing from seed" forum that shows my seedlings growing under the light. It is just a 2 bulb T8 shop light. I have two 4 bulb T5 lamps that I use for my citrus trees. I would have used those for the seedlings except I couldn't figure a way for the seedlings to get close to the bulbs without blocking the light from the citrus. Thanks for your help. I will be reading up on pruning tomatoes. Here is a link that might be useful: seedlings...See Morelovetocook9
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