My garden for 2013.

Damn. No slugs yet for me, though I'm sure I'll have to deal with them once I get everything planted. Pincher bugs are a real nuisance where I'm at...I really don't like those little bastards.

Nice little garden! I just set out basil, thyme, rosemary, dill, a few strawberry cuttings, and 3 varieties of hot pepper. Started them all under my lights to get a good head start on the growing season. I have mine in a small container garden on my porch, too many apartments too close for a bed. It's amazing how plants flourish under real sun, even with limited exposure! (Wish I could put out my other baby

sagebrush said:

Nice little garden! I just set out basil, thyme, rosemary, dill, a few strawberry cuttings, and 3 varieties of hot pepper. Started them all under my lights to get a good head start on the growing season. I have mine in a small container garden on my porch, too many apartments too close for a bed. It's amazing how plants flourish under real sun, even with limited exposure! (Wish I could put out my other baby

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I definitely want to do some more herbs in my garden. I was planning on keeping things small, but I want more homegrown veggies. Thinking about making a shaded area to grow some greens, onions, carrots...hell, I'm even considering planting some corn for the hell of it. Damn gardening bug has infected me again.

socaljoe said:

I definitely want to do some more herbs in my garden. I was planning on keeping things small, but I want more homegrown veggies. Thinking about making a shaded area to grow some greens, onions, carrots...hell, I'm even considering planting some corn for the hell of it. Damn gardening bug has infected me again.

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Doing herbs as close to your kitchen area is very nice. I would recommend doing potted herbs instead of planting them into the garden. Best thing to keep is cheap is to start from seed and clone alot to what you want in amount of plants.

Yeah, I definitely don't want to have herbs running wild in the garden...did that once, and the thyme took over.

I guess we got a bit of drizzle or mist tonight, as all my plants were a bit wet. Did a little inspection of things since my mint and basil are still getting gobbled up...I thought I got all those little sons of bitches, but apparently not. Here's what I found tonight...




I don't know where all these caterpillars are coming from, but they picked the wrong guy to mess with...they don't know how stubborn I can be, I'll sit out all night if it means catching them. The bunch in the picture are swimming...I wonder how long a caterpillar can survive in a glass of water?

looks good any psychoactive plants in the garden??

socaljoe said:

I guess we got a bit of drizzle or mist tonight, as all my plants were a bit wet. Did a little inspection of things since my mint and basil are still getting gobbled up...I thought I got all those little sons of bitches, but apparently not. Here's what I found tonight...


I don't know where all these caterpillars are coming from, but they picked the wrong guy to mess with...they don't know how stubborn I can be, I'll sit out all night if it means catching them. The bunch in the picture are swimming...I wonder how long a caterpillar can survive in a glass of water?

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Pretty sure those are cut worms. Cut worms usually bury themselves into the soil during the day, then as soon as night comes they head out to seek and destroy.
Those fuckers sometimes will cut the main stem off and kill your entire plant in one night. I have been doing daily inspections @ night and they keep coming after my S.chard like crazy.

I just put in Lemon boy, Mr. Stripey, Cherokee purple and some grape tomato's aolong with assorted peppers. Going to start the melons, cukes and squash today.

my plots dug, framing for the bed is put in. I think this coming week I'll harden off and fingers crossed, start putting things outdoors next weekend!

purpz said:

Pretty sure those are cut worms. Cut worms usually bury themselves into the soil during the day, then as soon as night comes they head out to seek and destroy.
Those fuckers sometimes will cut the main stem off and kill your entire plant in one night. I have been doing daily inspections @ night and they keep coming after my S.chard like crazy.

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Hmm...that'd make sense. I've never dealt with this kind of critter before, but they've been doing some real damage. Definitely doing nightly inspections from here on.

My tomatoes and cucumbers went into the ground Friday. Saturday morning I went outside to check on a pork butt I'd been smoking overnight...I mosied on over to my garden to find one of my cucumber plants ripped out of the ground...goddamn dog. Fortunately I have three healthy ones and ample time to plant another seed.

I also started some crenshaw melon seeds in solo cups, I really hope those work out this season...nothing better, in my opinion, than some cool melon on a hot summer day.

Finally, I picked up some carrot, lettuce, corn and cilantro seeds as well as a zucchini plant and a brandywine tomato plant from the nursery on Friday. Not sure if I'm done yet, I'd like to do eggplant and crookneck squash too, maybe some peppers. I'll get some pictures up to show how everything is coming along in the next day or so.

mmmm pulled pork shoulder, what wood do use on that .

I just planted all my tomatoes tonight with the serranos and jalapanos. I got watermelon too going. In my area it's pretty hard to get watermelon to grow, but o well, worth a shot.
Going to wait a couple more days to finish planting the lemon cucumbers and bell peppers, the weather is going to kick up a whole lot this coming week.

I used pecan wood this time. Pecan and pork work out great together IMO.

looks exciting!
Keep those pictures coming....it's so damn cold up here!Could use the inspiration my friend.
Bye for now,J.

pizoogles said:

looks exciting!
Keep those pictures coming....it's so damn cold up here!Could use the inspiration my friend.
Bye for now,J.

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I will definitely get some pics up. I'm amazed how fast the plants grow once in the ground, and my tomatoes are really taking off.

kyle109 said:

looks good any psychoactive plants in the garden??

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I grow chacruna but not in my garden. It is so slow but it's a baby. I am just beginning to get enough leaves where I can start to root them to make more baby viridis! then I'm going to sell those suckers on ebay for $5 a piece, just how I got mine!

I've been slacking on getting some pics up, will try and fix that this weekend.

Made my last big nursery visit today, picked up Crimson Sweet watermelons, Honey Dew melon, cantaloupe, crookneck squash and jalapeños. Any other plants will be incidental pickups that I can plant as filler...maybe some beans or peas that don't need a lot of sq. footage.

The tomatoes and cucumbers are growing like weeds, my zucchini has rooted solidly after transplant and started to show a lot of new growth...of course my dumb ass stepped on it today, hopefully the damage is minimal.

So yeah, we're coming along nicely here. The weather has been optimal and it really shows,everything is happy and healthy.

Until next time...and I will get those pics taken and uploaded.

I need a better camera for taking pics. Here are a couple lazy shots I snapped with my phone. The first one shows my cukes surrounded by various small pots containing melons, squash, peppers. The second one is a few of my tomatoes, brandywine and yellow pear. Not a lot to see just yet...they've been growing steady, but not huge yet. And really, the pics are not up to par...I'll see what I can do about using a better camera as I post pics throughout the season.

Got everything planted over the weekend and put up a 50% shade cloth over the entire garden...the plants are so happy, no more droopy leaves during the hot part of the day, hopefully that continues through the summer. Pulled a couple suckers off of my yellow pear tomato plants to make clones for a buddy, haven't done that before, so it ought to be interesting...if it works, he'll have some nice 10" plants to start with, and I see no good reason why it shouldn't work.

That's about it for updates. My corn is starting to pop up sporadically...I'm finding out that I'm far too impatient to grow corn, or at the very least I need something to occupy my time while the kernals do their thing underground.

Edit: I forgot to mention something. I'm always amazed at how fast tomatoes grow, the pics were taken and posted on 4/28, the plants have since more than doubled in size. Almost hard to believe that a scant 7 weeks ago they were just little seedlings. Here's my argument for why plants are better than kids: you can start with them as babies, watch them grow, and get something in return for you hard work in months, not decades...and if you don't like them, you just kill 'em and start over.