Are there any gardeners here?

bobinfaith said:
Hey Chuck;

Since the 17th, if you have time can you take a photo of your progress? If your backyard is this huge, you could build an addition or a back house.
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Happy to do that. I've taken several recently, but will update tomorrow.

Our winter garden is doing okay, but do the late transplanting they are not likely to take off until early spring. The garlic is doing very well though. I also picked up a truckload of manure to spread in the boxes that are done.

cp
 
Garden14 (med).JPG

This box has our garlic, shallots, and the Jerusalem Artichoke. The garlic was planted late fall perhaps not late enough because it has already used to much energy before Spring in producing these long leaves and stems. The Jerusalem artichoke though is a transplant that died back to what you see here having been transplanted late in the fall. I fully expect to do well in the spring and summer.

I'll have other pictures later. :) It's wonderful to see God's creation up close and watch it grow.

cp
 
Hey Chuck;

This is awesome! The soil looks very fresh. I love artichokes but are Jerusalem artichokes kosher? lol!

Do you purchase the soil or wood chips by the yard or bags?

I'm still amazed at the size of your backyard.

God bless you and great job, brother.
 
bobinfaith said:
Hey Chuck;

This is awesome! The soil looks very fresh. I love artichokes but are Jerusalem artichokes kosher? lol!

Do you purchase the soil or wood chips by the yard or bags?

I'm still amazed at the size of your backyard.

God bless you and great job, brother.
Click to expand...

The wood chips are coming by the 10 cubic yard truck load. I've already spread 100 cubic yards of bark, but I haven't completed half of the yard yet. I've been fortunate in that I use a service call chipdrop.com that arranges local arborist's that need a place to dump a load of chips. It's a win-win.

The soil I've been reusing from my yard and amending it with cow manure and compost. Though I start by putting wood in the bottom making a hugelkulture (German form of hortculture).

Garden23 (sml).JPG
 
Lucky you got a truck.
Today some arborists were trimming the tree next to my library. They were very noisy and were using a chipper. I had left the door open and a lot of leaves blew in onto my carpet.
I wasn't intending to mulch the library....!

I only garden on a small scale. I only have one chicken to provide manure. No cows.
 
Lanolin said:
Lucky you got a truck.
Today some arborists were trimming the tree next to my library. They were very noisy and were using a chipper. I had left the door open and a lot of leaves blew in onto my carpet.
I wasn't intending to mulch the library....!

I only garden on a small scale. I only have one chicken to provide manure. No cows.
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Even gardening on a small scale can provide quite a bit for a small family. There's also less work. :)

cp
 
Very nice garden boxes! What kind of wood are you using? We'll be building some this year (hopefully) but we're waiting to see if we'll be moving first.

We have a (mostly) never ending supply of branches between 1/4 and 3/4 inch thick. Would those work well to add in the bottom half of the boxes along with old leaves and grass, and then sand and soil on top?
 
Autumn said:
Very nice garden boxes! What kind of wood are you using? We'll be building some this year (hopefully) but we're waiting to see if we'll be moving first.

We have a (mostly) never ending supply of branches between 1/4 and 3/4 inch thick. Would those work well to add in the bottom half of the boxes along with old leaves and grass, and then sand and soil on top?
Click to expand...

I'm one to hunt for deals and reuse material that might otherwise go to waste. The wood that I get is not treated. I look for 2x materials preferably 2x6, 2x8, 2x10 or 2x12. Most of the wood I find is Douglas fir sometimes Hemlock. The reason I look for 2x materials is it's strength (less likely to bend in the middle) and because it is not treated it will rot over time and I should be able to make repair easier with 2x material.

You can build the box out of thinner material many do and it doesn't have to be wood.

HugelKulture is something I learned about 2 years ago and heard that many are using it successfully in garden boxes. I wanted to give it a try as well. My understanding is that your branches would work quite well at the bottom of the box. As long as you leave about 10-12 inches of soil on top to grow in. You do want to make sure to cover the branches well with your soil and rattle the branches so that the soil settles removing as much of the air cavities as possible. I've been layering leaves and compost materials within the soil and putting a layer of manure on top for this winter period to ready the boxes for spring.

cp
 
Autumn said:
Very nice garden boxes! What kind of wood are you using? We'll be building some this year (hopefully) but we're waiting to see if we'll be moving first.

We have a (mostly) never ending supply of branches between 1/4 and 3/4 inch thick. Would those work well to add in the bottom half of the boxes along with old leaves and grass, and then sand and soil on top?
Click to expand...

CPerkins said:
I'm one to hunt for deals and reuse material that might otherwise go to waste. The wood that I get is not treated. I look for 2x materials preferably 2x6, 2x8, 2x10 or 2x12. Most of the wood I find is Douglas fir sometimes Hemlock. The reason I look for 2x materials is it's strength (less likely to bend in the middle) and because it is not treated it will rot over time and I should be able to make repair easier with 2x material.

You can build the box out of thinner material many do and it doesn't have to be wood.

HugelKulture is something I learned about 2 years ago and heard that many are using it successfully in garden boxes. I wanted to give it a try as well. My understanding is that your branches would work quite well at the bottom of the box. As long as you leave about 10-12 inches of soil on top to grow in. You do want to make sure to cover the branches well with your soil and rattle the branches so that the soil settles removing as much of the air cavities as possible. I've been layering leaves and compost materials within the soil and putting a layer of manure on top for this winter period to ready the boxes for spring.

cp
Click to expand...

It seems like a lot of work but it also sounds like fun for anyone who loves gardening.
 
Very interesting! I guess using pressure treated wood is bad because the chemicals can get into the soil? We have only one large box right now. I think it's made with 8ft-long 1x6s on the sides and bottom, and then it has 6x6 or 5x5 posts for legs. It's only about 12 inches deep, just all soil, and used for beets and carrots. We made it for inside a clear poly-tarp greenhouse.

There are large pine trees towering over the back yard, and the pine needles make it difficult to grow food most years. So we'll hopefully be building 5x8 garden boxes and have a small frame on top to keep out the tree parts:)
 
Autumn said:
Very interesting! I guess using pressure treated wood is bad because the chemicals can get into the soil? We have only one large box right now. I think it's made with 8ft-long 1x6s on the sides and bottom, and then it has 6x6 or 5x5 posts for legs. It's only about 12 inches deep, just all soil, and used for beets and carrots. We made it for inside a clear poly-tarp greenhouse.

There are large pine trees towering over the back yard, and the pine needles make it difficult to grow food most years. So we'll hopefully be building 5x8 garden boxes and have a small frame on top to keep out the tree parts:)
Click to expand...

I'm using 4x4's for the legs. With smaller material like 1x6 you would be probably wise to a support in the middle of a 8 foot run. I was doing a little research online before building these and chose this path. Many do use 1x material so it works. I understand that cedar works well and doesn't have the harmful ingredients that are found in treated.

cp
 
rtm3039 said:
The closest I come to gardening is when I eat a salad, sorry.

I did not see my first cow, until I was in my 30s. I'm still confused with that, because this cow had horns.

Rtm
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I love salad, but my wife has a greater love for salad. It's cost more to garden than to buy it in the store, but you know what your eating when it's fresh out of the garden. When I was younger I would never have thought of a garden because I was just to busy to maintain one, now I have more time for it and it's something my wife really wants. Keeping the wife happy makes me happy, too. :)

I grew up with cows and I can tell you many of them have horns. Often it is wise to dehorn them when they are young which essentially burns them off. It stinks but doesn't really hurt them. Mom had nearly 100 goat so dehorning was a chore a few days after birth.

cp
 
Bulls can be quite aggressive for sure. I definitely wouldn't want to milk him. I've milked many cows (female bovines) though. :) Often bulls are neutered becoming a steer unless they are deliberately keeping them for breeding.

cp
 
I like salad! Fax me all your extras lol. It's too cold to grow lettuce outside right now so we bought a grow light a couple months ago and we're growing butterhead / buttercrunch lettuce indoors. It's weird to go in the basement and harvest lettuce, but in winter, growing our own is much cheaper.
 
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