You have no idea how much catnip was “planted” wild in the back yard. It’s everywhere. Never mind the literal troughs of it I’m intentionally growing.
Hoping one of you more seasoned gardening folks can help me out here... My wife had bought a combo planter kit from one of the kids in the neighborhood that had a tomato plant, basil, lettuce, and a bell pepper plant. I successfully transplanted each of them into their own planters and they're all growing well; however, when I pulled a small piece off of each of the lettuce and the basil, both had a strong chemical, almost like mint aftertaste to them and I have no idea why.
Frebis knows! Might have been sprayed? Definitely clean them well before eating. If they are still that way after some time and several rains, it just might be how those varieties taste. Either way, good luck, sir, and good on you and your wife for supporting the young neighborhood entrepreneurs.
Crap, you just made me remember that they were moved right by the edge of our patio the day before we had a yard treatment. That's probably it... I'll chalk it up to that for now and make sure I'm extra diligent in cleaning before I eat anymore.
What kind of yard treatment? If 2-4D so much as drifts near the tomato you're going to see some real gnarly growth out of that thing shortly.
Garden update as of 6/19. Heavy rain now, looks like I am in for the day. Good growth, heat is getting the cool weather crops more and more. Otherwise no complaints besides WEEDING.
You’re garden looks like what a garden looks like when you get a proper head start. Here’s mine: Edit how do I post pic directly from my phone it’s not uploading the pic...?
yeah I got the idea for one late so started late too. Lesson learned. Apparently you can grow through the winter here in Texas (zone 8b) so I just ordered the following seeds with plans to build two more raised beds for them (so depending on what survives into cooler months of the peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash and okra I’ll either keep or till them under and plant over): - Spanish onion yellow + white, red onion, green onion, shallots, spinach (two types), fennel, celery, arugula, butternut squash, mustard greens, a variety of lettuce
Really worked the cukes over, found all of those hiding behind stuff, crap you missed them, too big cukes. The ink pen is 5 1/2 inches long, for reference. (14 cm for metric people)
Spent the last couple of days trying to fabricate my aluminum garden supports... and it's been a bit of a comedy of errors. First, my welder only does mig aluminum, and while it does pretty small stuff, it's nowhere near good enough to mig up the thin-walled aluminum square tube I got. That means I'm basically spot welding the aluminum in place with some of the worst looking welds you've ever seen. Everything is going along not too bad and than BAM a weld just blows through the stupidly thin (as in "I can't believe I actually ordered the tubes that thin") and then there's a big-ass hole sitting right there. So yeah... it'll hold together just fine... but the whole "water tight" thing just ain't gonna fly. And don't look too closely at any other weld other than the 3 that I've deemed OK for public viewing. That being said, I'm pretty happy with how the structure itself is coming along... so I'll just use it as the supports I was expecting, and then zip-tie the water lines along the base of the frame. I'm really hoping I get it done tomorrow night as my tomatoes are really starting to need some support. And it's been hot as fuck here for the past couple of days so I'm a bit slow getting it done because my garage isn't air conditioned.
Some of my gardening projects are shaping up better than others. I've gotten several zucchini and squash, some cucumbers, some green beans. The peppers were recovering from the ducks and then I blitzed the shit out of them with fertilizer and burned a handful of them. I still had a couple backups so they have been replaced and I'm not down too many plants overall. The jalapenos will do well and the tomatoes are looking great. I started a few ornamental plants that are popping. The flowers are in the front door planter, white salvia (can't remember the name) and raspberry ice petunias. The ducks are segregating themselves and the original batch hangs out at the far end. They come to me as if to say "WTF mate?"
Spent the weekend before last finally building a wicking bed. The photo is of it 90% complete; still had to add another 3/4 yard of garden soil and trim down the overflow tubing. To start, the wife planted peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, and chives. Next project: build screen frames to keep the dog from jumping up and digging/running across it.
Welcome to the dark side. I’ve found you still have to water the seedlings a fair bit but once there are roots it’s magical.
You guys have skills. I love the idea but lack the ability and resources to get that project complete!
It really is easier to do than you'd think... it has a bit of an up front cost, but I think I've already paid for most of my first box just in the water I've saved over the last 3 years. (Way less watering as the box catches any rainfall and water that I apply myself rather than just having it absorb into Mother Earth.)
Got the last of the soil and the 1st round of plantings in. A few peppers look like they won't make it, but thats because they sat for about 3 weeks before planting. The wood around the bulkhead fitting is wet, and I'm not sure if its weeping, or if its just still wet around it due to the rain we had yesterday and last night. I'd guess a leak, but the water level has barely dropped and I filled it Sunday afternoon. I still need to mark off several inches on the tube and trim to proper length.
@AFHokie your bed looks great! Amazing job. Those peppers will pop up quick now that they have room, water, and lots of sun. Maybe one day. Right now the big in ground bed is.. I can't recall, either 12x12 or 15x15. I really like the quality of dirt in it but converting it to a wicking bed would be a crazy effort. I am about to buy some drip emitters to make a dripline that will hook into my underground sprinkler system, so it'll be on a timer and get consistent water. What's likely is that the large bags holding zucchini along the peripheral of the garden which are stuck on an irrigation line will be replaced by 1 long raised bed, and that's when I could do a wicking design rather than a standard bed. If it were tall enough it could also replace the garden fencing along that side. That's not a today project though. One day!
Well, the new aluminum cucumber and tomato support system, version 1.0, is now in place, but not permanently affixed as of yet. It's fucking UGLY up close, and if you're any kind of welder, let me just say that I didn't have an AC TIG, just a high-amp aluminum MIG, and crazy thin-walled aluminum tube... .I basically had to get a feel for spot welding with a mig so that it was hot enough to weld, but not too hot to blow through. I just may have gotten the hang of it right near the end. Regardless, it didn't fall apart while I moved it into place... there's no way in hell it's going to hold water, but it'll hold cucumbers and tomatoes like anybody's bitch. I still have to drill the mounting plates, sink it, affix it with screws, and then zip-tie the water hoses to the base... but it's in place.