It’s getting near that time of year when I need to put on the Wellies and make sure the rototiller is still working. What are you planning on doing in your garden/fire escape/desktop this year?
We claimed some land next to the railroad (space that’s typically common-law’d into gardening space for village residents), 50 feet x 35 feet plot for us. There are lots of gardens all around that are about the same size and almost all the space is claimed, but we’re taking an area that’s overgrown with lots of God-knows-what. Wish I had a brush hog.
Plans are as follows: clear the land, put down paving stones and a small tin-roof shed, get a water collector and some simple drip irrigation set up, build two hop trelli (treillisisis?), build a porch swing, then do some plantin’:
Cascade, Centennial, Hallertauer something hops, 2-row barley (1m x 4m patch, just an experiment), Carrots, Three sisters (sweet corn, pole beans, acorn and summer squash), lots of tomatoes, lots of eggplant, “vertical” potatoes (make a cylinder out of bailing wire and 1x2 supports, keep raising the soil level as the plants grow = small footprint with lots of yield), jalapenos, pumpkin, and then line the walkway with lavender, sage, rosemary, thyme.
LOTS of work but I told my wife if she lets me get a deep freezer I’ll make sure we have vegetables to put in it.
We moved 2 years ago, after doing a small organic garden (approx 25x25) for many years at the old place. The new house has a MUCH smaller yard, and our 80 dog has the run of most of it. I am considering doing some container plantings (she’d run over and destroy any ground or raised bed plantings). Thinking about hot peppers, arugula, tomatoes, some herbs, etc. No firm plans yet, but thanks for the question. It should spur me to do some research & make some decisions.
I’m curious as to what sort of system you use with the drip irrigation. We don’t have a water supply other than the gravity-fed water barrels, and I was thinking about building a small actuator to attach between the spigot and the hose, adding a solar panel for power and a really basic arduino-like controller for the timer. Do you know of anything like that that already exists?
I’m still trying to mostly get perennials in, as this means less work in the future. Even so, this would mean I will miss some good annuals so some will go in. The plan this year is to do some different kinds of beans, some broccoli and squash.
I also want to get some new varieties of hops in, but can’t make my mind up which varieties to go for.
I have ordered up a bunch of Asparagus crowns. I have built a nice deep asparagus bed and lined it with
weed barrier to keep out the roots of the field bindweed. In a couple three years, should be a great thing.
Then we will plant some Yellow Pear tomatoes, maybe a roma. Some lettuce leaf.
Some yellow crookneck summer squash and some zuchinni. We love peppas but the season just isn’t long enuff.
I believe each dripper can be a different rate. one @ 1 gal/hr for one type plant and another @ 1/2 gal/hr for another…all on the same line. The systems seems to be very customizable.
For annuals we’ll have a bunch of different tomatoes and hot peppers, as usual. Someone gave me a bhut jolokia (hottest pepper in the world) starter kit, so I’m excited to see if they’ll grow and fruit here in our short growing season. We’ll also plant some pole beas, peas, carrots, and a few other things that aren’t determined yet. The leeks and garlic are already in the ground.
I did container planting last year. In the drought/heat conditions it was a real PITA with no drip system. A big wind would knock down all my tomatoes. My yield was pretty decent despite that and the pests and birds.
This year it will be raised beds. I hope to try a dripper system.
Tomatoes, serranos, jalapenos, poblano, cucumbers, bush beans, corn and maybe some greens. I was able to successfully sprout and grow chili petins last year. They said it couldn’t be done but the secret is heat. They’ll only germinate in very warm conditions.
Say, I don’t suppose I could get you to mail me a few packets of poblano, serrano and jalapeno seeds? I can’t find them here, at least not anywhere that looks reputable.
They’ll only germinate in very warm conditions.