Who is growing their own this year?

MtnHam said:
Unless you live where there is sufficient summer rain to keep a lawn self watered, you should not have one. Large lawns are a 1950's concept that has no place in today's world. Arable land should be used to grow food. Also, most lawns are fed chemicals that ultimately end up in either the water table or our streams and rivers. We should be stressed out by all the negatives associated with lawns.
Click to expand...

Get off my lawn.

I like having a lawn. It pleases me. If you don't want one, don't grow one.
 
Bobvin said:
Get off my lawn.

I like having a lawn. It pleases me. If you don't want one, don't grow one.
Click to expand...

My daughter is a hydrologist, attempting to solve the world's shortage of water. It is a serious crisis. She believes lawns are an obscene waste and should be done away with. Southern Californians flood their lawns until it runs in the gutters, with water imported at great expense from N. Calif. Is that OK? Oregon City may be blessed with a wealth of water, but most of the rest of the world is not. The Saudis can drive 7mpg gas gusselers without a worry, but is that OK?
 
Is it OK to use energy to listen to class A amps?

The planet has resources in abundance, but not all resources are in the same place. Same as it ever was, same as it will ever be. Eskimos don't need freezers, Arabs don't need furnaces.

There is no shortage of water, the planet is covered, after all, over 70% with water. At the present time we have not yet figured out how to make that very salty water good for crops, or drinking. The technological world is what, about 150 years old? We are embryonic in our knowledge, we'll figure it out. You might choose to worry over such things, I have my own concerns.
 
So 2 weeks ago, just before leaving for vacation, we went to pick all the good Peas before they go over-ripe, which seems to happen every year we take the same week vacation. Something looked odd and upon closer investigation, I found a billion little green aphids sucking the life and moisture out of the plants and pods. This stunted the growth. I hosed them off and sprayed insecticidal soap on them while on the ground, then the plants. We got a small harvest but the pods had only 4 to 5 peas in each instead of 7 to 9.

Sunday we yanked all the spent plants and put Wax beans in place.

My Cherry tomato plants are 8 feet tall and now drooping back down over the caging. All other Tomatoes are loaded as well as most pepper plants. We have been eating fresh Lettuce and Swiss Chard every day now for weeks.

The Vadalia Onions, which don't do well in my region died off at the top after they got to about 1-2 inches in diameter. I pulled them so they did not get lost and rotted. There are still 20 White and 20 Red that are popping out of the ground at 2-3 inches now. The Potato plats are going nuts above ground and what is below remains a mystery until the plants start to die off and we dig.
 
It sounds like your garden is doing rather well. I finally was able to harvest my first crop of Radishes and all of my Kohlrabi last week, but due to my cool and wet weather I've been having, my Tomatoes and other warm weather crops are not doing very well. As a comparison, my Cherry Tomato plants are about 3-4' tall and don't have a lot of fruit on them. The weather said that there is a good possibility of frost tonight for the typical cold spots in my area. I'm hoping the weather warms up so things can get growing and I can get at least some vegetables this year.
 
Katoomer said:
Bob,
How's the landscaping going?
Click to expand...

The contractor is mostly complete with their work. We planted over 200 more plants, removed over 100, and transplanted about 100. (this just the area in front of the house) A much bigger project that it looks on the blueprints. We are having the side and rear drawn up next.

I'm now completing the grading for the lawn area. There are two small portions in the front, totaling only ~1000 sq ft. I have a little tweaking to do on some of the sprinklers. We might have some moderating temps coming, so there is a possibility I will put down some seed before mid-August.

There is also a very large area in front of our home (and also the neighboring lot which we bought with the house last December) that is shared or "common" to the HOA and the HOA maintains that. That area is pretty large, ~ 8500 sq ft. In the future I'll take it over 'cause the lawn is crap, very uneven, and poor topsoil.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Starting to take shape, looks great. Is your yard responsibilities divided like ours are? I'm in charge of the lawn. My wife takes care of the beds.
With this hot weather good thing we are in the Pac NW where we can water away and still abide by local water restrictions:D
 
MtnHam said:
Unless you live where there is sufficient summer rain to keep a lawn self watered, you should not have one. Large lawns are a 1950's concept that has no place in today's world. Arable land should be used to grow food. Also, most lawns are fed chemicals that ultimately end up in either the water table or our streams and rivers. We should be stressed out by all the negatives associated with lawns.
Click to expand...
Sorry I seemed to miss this earlier. Where I live water is most definitely not an issue. In fact there are discussions about how to market our abundant resource to other parts of North America (can you say California). California has mismanaged their resources for decades, now they are paying the price. But this is no place to debate the pros and cons of lawns. To each his own.
 
I was just telling my wife last week it would sure make sense to create a pipeline to deliver Pacific NW water to California. Then the other day this article says precisely the same thing:
California's Low On Water? Time to Fine the Water Resources Board Not Its Citizens - Forbes

I'll not discuss further for risk of getting political, but the article is worth the read just to see that Singapore has dealt with the same issue in a very different way.
 
Last year we put in a white fence along the side yard. My wife added some pots in front of it where she planted tomatos and cucumbers and peppers. Something about the reflected light off the white fence is making these plantsthrive. Things were booming until we noticed a family of chipmunks stealing everything a day or two before we were ready to pick. It's funny watching a chipmnk trying to manipulate a cucumber or large tomato across the lawn.

I got my wife a toy wooden crossbow to shoot at them and get out her frustrations (rubber tipped arrows). It was a lot of fun listening to her rant and try and shoot at the chippies, but it didn;t deter them and we lost most of our crop.

This year we have another bumper crop, but put some netting around the plants. It seems to be working well so far, except out tomatos have some kind of blight. The very tip of the bottoms are all black. Something to do with inconsistent watering. Will have to check into that.
 
BobM said:
Last year we put in a white fence along the side yard. My wife added some pots in front of it where she planted tomatos and cucumbers and peppers. Something about the reflected light off the white fence is making these plantsthrive. Things were booming until we noticed a family of chipmunks stealing everything a day or two before we were ready to pick. It's funny watching a chipmnk trying to manipulate a cucumber or large tomato across the lawn.

I got my wife a toy wooden crossbow to shoot at them and get out her frustrations (rubber tipped arrows). It was a lot of fun listening to her rant and try and shoot at the chippies, but it didn;t deter them and we lost most of our crop.

This year we have another bumper crop, but put some netting around the plants. It seems to be working well so far, except out tomatos have some kind of blight. The very tip of the bottoms are all black. Something to do with inconsistent watering. Will have to check into that.
Click to expand...

I see you are east coast. We have had issues with early blight for a few years, but watering may still be your root cause.

One thing cheap you can do for critters in flower pots and veggies, is to get some real cheap smelly pipe tobacco or cigars and put the loose tobacco in around the plants.

We did this originally to stop squirrels in our deck flower pots and it was hilarious watching the squirrel moving backwards on a tree limb rubbing his face all over it trying to get the smell off. Been using this trick for many years.

Had my first 2 ripe red cherries this morning. Sweet and juicy as expected :)
 
Shadowfax said:
Awesome looking place BobV. Please post some finished pics when done.
Click to expand...
Thanks Brian. Will do. This morning enjoying coffee on the back porch -- put a hummingbird feeder up the other day, now watching a half-dozen or more jockeying for a turn at the sugar-water'ing hole. And out in the clearing there are three 4-5 point bucks grazing. They're regulars here. And I just saw a coyote racing through the clearing. If he was still I'd have gotten out the AR, those bastards like to gobble house cats, and we're pretty fond of ours.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
That's the same HB feeder we have at our house. For some reason those thumb sized birds like these inexpensive basic models better than the more elaborate ones. Just be sure to change the sugar water every 2 weeks, or it will start to ferment in the sun and they will leave it alone.
 
Hey Bob, I only put about 1 cup into the feeder, and in 24 hours its empty. It doesn't last long enough to go bad around here, now that they've come to know where to tank up, they've been telling their friends. I'm getting a couple more so there is a little less territorial bickering going on.
 
Farm Report

Well this has been the best garden year for me so far. Not sure if it was the below average temps, or that I am learning how to feed and prep the soil or both.

My wife has been picking between 30 and 50 cherry tomatoes a day for the last month. The 3 main plants are nearing the end of production but we let 2 that just grew from last year mature and they are now putting out nicely. The 15 Red, Yellow, and Orange tomato plants have been producing large amounts and sizes of tomatoes all summer. Recently 10 to 15 per day are being picked.

The Swiss Chard is also still producing 1 month longer this year than last. We made a batch of Swiss Chard-Cheese Squares last night and the night before that we used flatbreads and put our own Garlic, Onions, Scallions, Swiss Chard, Peppers and Tomatoes with some cheese on them. Yummy!

The Bells, Jalapeno, and Cayenne peppers are also ripening nicely. Still have at least 60 more Scallions to eat and give away. The Onions did much better this year but not as well as I hoped. I got close to 60 at 2-3 inches.

I also dug up my Potato patch 2 weeks ago and yielded about 10lbs of reasonable size to smaller potatoes, which we have been frying up with Peppers and Onions.

When all the lettuce was done, we planted a row of Wax Beans which are ripe and ready to pick now.

This was a great year for the garden and I wish some of you were local enough to share with. People where I work are reaping the benefits of growing Way Too Much! I am not looking forward to my water bill, but have been able to cut back on the watering recently. (using soaker hose and timer)

Cheers!
 
Well, the lawn in front is due for its first cutting. I planted on Sept 1. Now I have 100lbs of seed due next week which I'll use to overseed the 11,000 sq ft area in front of my home and the lot next door (we bought that one when we bought this house.) So by mid-fall I'll have new grass coming up where the 7 years old lawn is looking pretty sketchy. There's a lot of work in that space to get it to come around, but for a lawn geek like me its just a new challenge.

There are some thin spots here in the newly planted areas, but by this time next year it'll be like the first cut of rough at the best courses!

attachment.php
attachment.php


attachment.php
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top