Haven't been here in a while but I'm about to restart FL veggies...
Anthony Leveto
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
People of Houzz....I've been moving around lately over the past couple of months and I've only had my container lime, orange, and raspberry which is why I haven't posted here for a long while. (Hey I'm a grad student so it happens)... You guys might remember me from having the "GrowDome" that had container veggies. Now I'm ready to get back in the swing of things! I'm in a new place and one I'll be at until I hopefully buy a house when I'm done at the end of next year with grad school. Anyways I have a few roommates attm now, all cool, and the landlords have (somewhat enthusiastically actually) allowed me to build some elevated raised beds to put in my hugeeee fenced in back yard. I've built two of them for now from scrap wood from one of my jobs here which is a hardware store. They are identical and measure 8ft by 2ft by 16in deep. The legs of the beds are 24" tall. There are 18 3/4" holes in the 3/4" plywood on the bottom of each bed for drainage. Not seen in the photos is the 1/4" hardware cloth lining the bottom and then the weed barrier bed liner. I'll be getting the planting mix this Monday am along with starts of broccoli, brussel sprouts, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc. Anyways any thoughts, comments, concerns, suggestions, or really whatever. I'm back baby!
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Haven't been around much, have lots of questions
Comments (5)Hibiscus need full sun, all day if they can get it, especially to flower. Many leggy plants will get fuller by cutting back (or pinching back, on small plants). Years ago when I lived at the beach, my neighbor would whack back her pink hibiscus to only about two feet tall. And that thing would be absolutely GORGEOUS a few months later, loaded with blooms. It was in full sun. But that the cut back used to kill me - it was way before I was ever a gardener. Carol...See MoreJelly session, Harvesting Veggies and now I'm pooped
Comments (15)Steve, at this point, at least around here, the trout fisheries is under such enormous environmental stress that if I catch something, I just put them back - exception would be hatchery rainbows. I might grab a bucket of salmon from the Fish and Game guys this fall when they catch them to strip the eggs as they come up from McPhee Dam to smoke - that can be pretty good. I'm conflicted on the potassium nitrate to keep the meat red - on the one hand, deliberately adding the stuff seems odd, but then so does grey meat. I grabbed a couple of those bagged pork loins when they were on sale and froze them, and at some point when it gets cold enough, I'll brine, smoke, and slow roast them and hopefully come up with something I can use for sandwiches. Grey ones. But, if you slather enough mustard on, and add some green pickles ...... I'm now working on cleaning up the veggie garden after the hard freeze. This is the one garden chore I really don't like. Cart loads of whiffy, rotting vegetation. Bushels of fermenting tomatoes. When I ask my kids to help, this being part of the farmers market toil, they very suddenly have really, really hard home work they just gotta do. I was surprised to find out that my green peppers, picked 10 days ago and refrigerated in plastic bags, are still just wonderful....See MoreI'm still not sure I like my FL washer
Comments (22)claybabe, I would say go for a stacking FL set. If you are willing to change a few laundry habits and learn how to use a FL, you won't have any problems getting clothes clean. The fact that you are reading and posting here shows that you are open to suggestions and tipps, so I think you are a great candidate to make the switch. I grew up in Germany where TL with agitators don't even exist. When I moved here, I had the "privilege" to use a TL for a few years. The only thing I liked about them is how fast they finished a load. But that was about it...they just didn't clean well, tore several strings out of pants and shirts, ruined some bras...and I just hated the amount of water and detergents/additives needed to do a load of laundry. A typical load with my FL takes about an hour. The clothes come out clean and without any nasty odors. An extra rinse would add about 15 minutes, but is hardly ever needed/used. Some posters say that an extra rinse negates any water savings, but that is far from the truth. It takes about 4 gallons which adds up to a total of 18 gallons per load. A TL uses almost 25 gallons per fill which is 50 gallons if you do just one rinse! I think the mixed reviews for FLs are mainly due to user errors. Using too much detergent and liquid fabric softener is probably the most common mistake which leads to nasty buildup and musty smells. My washer is 18 months old now and doesn't have the slightest hint of mold. I don't do clean washer cycles or any extra maintenance. I just leave the door open and use hot cycles about once a week. Couldn't be happier with it. Our water usage in the winter is between 2000 and 3000 gallons per month for a household of three. That equals the city's minimum usage! Sorry for the long post. I hope it helps!...See MoreI've made a decision on which FL I'm buying
Comments (28)I just ran a rinse & spin cycle on this load that completed a "Normal" cycle. Large load, used "large load" portion of HE Tide liquid once again. No problem with sudsing. And no slippery feel to the water during the rinse & spin cycle. I may have given wrong info regarding the suds I had. I'd say the light sudsing was at the very lower portion of the door's window. Nothing to worry about IMHO. As you all know, it was my first couple of uses with a FL. I done three loads of towels (need to catch up with the laundry due to our old washer leaking), so I decided to use a large load dosage of HE Tide, just as is directed by the Tide label. Now I know the detergent manufacturers want you to use more than is necessary, because then you'd need to buy more. Since I'm experimenting here with this new FL, my first FL, I wanted to be sure that "IF" my wife or someone else that may use my washer, decides to use a "Full Load" portion of HE Tide with a full load of clothes, what would be the outcome? I would rather experiment myself than to have someone else do it. So, what I found out was a full load portion of HE Tide in a full load of towels, WILL NOT cause the SUDS signal to come on, nor look like over sudsing is occurring. And the rinse looks and feels to have rinsed out the detergent. I will likely use a less dose of detergent from now on. But I really needed to know, "how much detergent is too much?". I know that we have hard water, so that is probably the reason why over sudsing hasn't occurred with my first few washes with the amount of liquid HE Tide that I used. So far the WFW9400S is performing quite well and I'm pleased....See MoreAnthony Leveto
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoSiliva, thank you yet again for those nice words. You are truly the den mother of this forum, at least I think!. Ill also have extra room for seeds in the beds. Im going to be planting some of those asian greens you sent me last year. Again this was all scrap wood so it was all free minus the landscape fabric and 4lbs of coated deck screws. I got the starts from the Burpee delivery guy at my hardware store. We prearranged to trade my starts for some taco bell and a tid bit of smokeable product... Anyways about $80 of starts was about $15. (Hes a 19 or 20 yr old kid so ya...) Carolb, these boxes are 16" deep and Im only trying a six pack of brussel sprouts. Sonni, tomatoes and peppers are nightshades so they are very susceptible to diseases, especially tobacco related ones...
whgille
6 years agoAnthony, you are the master of the deals, good for you! those starts look very good and will give you a head start on growing.
One season I grew kalettes, a mix of kale and brussel sprouts, they got big and took a long time, they were very good.
These days I prefer crops that are fast like the Asian greens, kale, lettuce, radishes and others. I am enjoying some french radishes this morning
Anthony, have you tried growing microgreens? you can grow them indoors and can be a nice and healthy addition to your salads. There is a lot of videos on you tube if you are interested.
I am growing now broccoli microgreens and soon I will start some sunflower. I just had a dish at a fancy restaurant with sunflower microgreens on top of the fish, it was good!
Keep up with the good work!
Silvia
14tomatoes_md_7a
6 years agowhgille
6 years agoHi Tony
Thank you, I love radishes! and some of my favorites are the colorful and different varieties. You are choosing the black skinned radishes, they are very good and also the oriental red meat or sometimes called watermelon and the green meat called luobo. You can cook with them and put them in stir fries, soups and raw are very good for salads and you can also pickle them,
I am growing this season the french and the red meat, here are some pictures from past seasons
The watermelon radish
The green radish
And you can also eat the leaves as regular greens...
Silvia
Anthony Leveto thanked whgille
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