Gardening Questions

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

May the force be with you
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Yeah, I started a gardening thread.
Okay, Just tell me where to turn in my PPL and Man Card...

First question: This is my 2nd year of having a vegetable garden. I planted stuff this year and hadn't counted on last year's crop resurfacing but some of it did and I have a lot of things growing in close proximity to one another.

I know when you plant, the seeds for different things are supposed to be x inches apart. What is the concern if things are crowded?
Is it fighting for water / sunlight or will some things kill other things?

What I have now are

  • 2 types of tomatoes
  • snow peas
  • green beans
  • Mammoth Jalapenos
  • Habaneros
  • Tabasco peppers
  • Serrano peppers
  • Romaine
  • Cucumber (Takes up way too much space)
  • Spicy Globe Basil
  • Oregano
It is a pretty crowded space (10X5) and things are starting to really get big.


  • 99995119683.jpg
 
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Gardening...?

I live in Phoenix. My front yard is.... Rocks.

My back yard is.... Rocks.

I call the gardeners quarterly to pull the weeds out of the rocks.

That's the extent of my knowledge.

;)
 
Whoa Siht! someone must have hijacked my account.

I was outside fighting a bear with my bare hands, making whiskey, and forging things with molten metal, and I come back and see this crap about gardening.

That's weird.
 
You do realize there are more appropriate forums for this?
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Yeah, I started a gardening thread.
Okay, Just tell me where to turn in my PPL and Man Card...
Click to expand...

Oprah will be there shortly with your new gardening apron, and the girls from The View will talk to you next week....:lol:;)

I was born and raised in Texas, my knowledge is on beef, its whats for dinner. My wife is from the Philippines, she can grow vegetables here in New Mexico, the land of rocks and weeds.
 
See I think all that area that's grass should be where the vegetables are planted and the small box is where the grass should go.

Or just not have the box. Unless you have horses or cattle or goats or something... then growing grass makes sense.
 
Men can grow vegetables. Anything you can eat.

Now if you were growing flowers :)
 
flyingron said:
Men can grow vegetables. Anything you can eat.

Now if you were growing flowers :)
Click to expand...

I'm currently growing a few dozen carolina reaper plants.

The "Carolina Reaper" was rated as the world's hottest chili pepper by Guinness World Records according to 2012 tests,[2] averaging 1,569,300 on the Scoville scale with peak levels of over 2,200,000.
Click to expand...

I'd be happy to let the girls from the view come over for a tasting.
 
That's not a garden. This is a garden. :D This is my third and hopefully final expansion. Started out about 30x15 now it is about 100X15. I flew over it the other day and was thinking with the right plane I could almost land on it. :rofl: This picture was taken just after the expansion.
garden_zpsd8ffadce.jpg


This year I am growing:

Tomatoes (various varieties)
Peppers (bell and banana)
Cucumbers
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Spaghetti Squash
Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash
Radishes
Green onions
Green Beans
Swiss Chard
lettuce

Between the garden and the deer I kill we save a lot of money and you all know the correlation of money to lift when it comes to airplanes.
 
Everything looks fine in the picture. You may need to snip some leaves every now and then to let some light through, but only f you notice things dying. If they are just stunted a bit, you may leave it be and see if they come up after the shade plant dies off extending your overall harvest season. It's nature, nature tries to survive, let it. What is a greater concern is fungus and disease though as well as pests. You have to be more vigilant with close quarters in plants same as animals.
 
bartmc said:
I'm currently growing a few dozen carolina reaper plants.

I'd be happy to let the girls from the view come over for a tasting.
Click to expand...

I am a glutton for spicy food.
Currently maxing out my comfort level around 500k-750k on the scoville scale. Its a good kind of pain.
 
I generally stick to a herb garden. I can buy all the lettuce I ever need without having to spend all that time and effort to grow it.

Since I like to cook, and fresh herbs are what I prefer, they are simple to grow and can be cut and used as needed.

Right now - basil, oregano, thyme (two types), chives, cilantro, rosemary, and some other things I can't remember.

We just haven't had much luck with tomatoes and peppers - I wish we did, I'd make a lot of salsa.
 
Matthew said:
Right now - basil, oregano, thyme (two types), chives, cilantro, rosemary, and some other things I can't remember.

We just haven't had much luck with tomatoes and peppers - I wish we did, I'd make a lot of salsa.
Click to expand...

I am growing oregano and for whatever reason, it is really spicy. Is that normal when it is fresh?

Also mistook regular basil for something called Spicy Globe Basil. Not sure what to do with that. Not really a flavor I am digging and I have a ton of it.
 
That looks fine to me. My only concern would be how you have it orientated if those mater plants will shade everything else out later in the day.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I am growing oregano and for whatever reason, it is damn spicy. Is that normal when it is fresh.

Also mistook regular basil for something called Spicy Globe Basil. Not sure what to do with that. Not really a flavor I am digging and I have a ton of it.
Click to expand...

I know there are different types of oregano. I think Greek oregano is spicy, and Italian oregano isn't.

Spicy Globe Basil - I've seen it, and don't know anything about it. I normally plant Sweet Basil. I use it for pasta sauce, pizza, salad (chiffonade and toss on top or in whatever), and making pesto.

http://www.hobbyfarms.com/crops-and-gardening/basil-varieties.aspx

The good thing about sweet basil is that it does grow fast this time of year, so if you were to pull out some or all of that globe basil and replant, you'd get enough to use pretty soon.
 
Last year we were pulling the basil, rosemary, and tomatoes out and making bruchetta on the fly. Was awesome.
 
I also learned that I don't know how to transplant a plant.

I relocated 4 plants and they all died. Not sure what the correct procedure for that is.
 
I got two years out of our last rosemary plant. They normally don't overwinter, but two winters ago was mild enough it survived and became huge. You could smell it in the back yard. This winter was cold enough to kill it off.

I know some people who will plant herbs in a clay pot, then bury that pot so they can pull it out in the winter and put it in their garage for protection, then bring it back out in the spring. It also keeps some things from spreading too far. That's a little more trouble that I want to get involved with.
 
DFH65 said:
That's not a garden. This is a garden. :D This is my third and hopefully final expansion. Started out about 30x15 now it is about 100X15. I flew over it the other day and was thinking with the right plane I could almost land on it. :rofl: This picture was taken just after the expansion.
garden_zpsd8ffadce.jpg


This year I am growing:

Tomatoes (various varieties)
Peppers (bell and banana)
Cucumbers
Yellow Squash
Zucchini
Spaghetti Squash
Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash
Radishes
Green onions
Green Beans
Swiss Chard
lettuce

Between the garden and the deer I kill we save a lot of money and you all know the correlation of money to lift when it comes to airplanes.
Click to expand...


Man, my 5x10 keeps me busy enough.
That looks like a lot of work.
 
I planted sugar snap peas one year. I think I ate most of them as I picked them.
 
flyingriki said:
You do realize there are more appropriate forums for this?
Click to expand...

LOL yes.
Pilots are do'ers

So they all do a lot of stuff and odds are a bunch of them do things on the side that you do on the side.

I like the threads that are non aviation related. Helps you learn about members of the forum.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Whoa Siht! someone must have hijacked my account.

I was outside fighting a bear with my bare hands, making whiskey, and forging things with molten metal, and I come back and see this crap about gardening.

That's weird.
Click to expand...


TOO many veggies could be bad for you. You should check with your OBGYN.

:goofy:
 
Matthew said:
I generally stick to a herb garden. I can buy all the lettuce I ever need without having to spend all that time and effort to grow it.

Since I like to cook, and fresh herbs are what I prefer, they are simple to grow and can be cut and used as needed.

Right now - basil, oregano, thyme (two types), chives, cilantro, rosemary, and some other things I can't remember.

We just haven't had much luck with tomatoes and peppers - I wish we did, I'd make a lot of salsa.
Click to expand...

"There's just two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home grown tomatoes." - Guy Clark

Sorry to hear you're having issues with those two. Tomatoes usually do pretty well. What is happening to your plants?
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I also learned that I don't know how to transplant a plant.

I relocated 4 plants and they all died. Not sure what the correct procedure for that is.
Click to expand...

Dig deep and water frequently afterwards. If you're going to transplant, do it late in the day. Don't transplant in the middle of summer at all.
 
FormerHangie said:
"There's just two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home grown tomatoes." - Guy Clark

Sorry to hear you're having issues with those two. Tomatoes usually do pretty well. What is happening to your plants?
Click to expand...


All vines and no fruit. That seems to be the cycle - we'll get a lot of vines, but not too many blooms and even less fruit. I don't think we had the ideal location (west side of the house, full sun, and fairly close to the house itself) or soil. I did amend the soil quite a bit over the years, but I don't know if it's a ph issue, heat issue, or if we just don't care enough about it to work that hard. Then we have to compete with squirrels.

There were seasons at our old house when we canned the leftovers (they were awesome mid-winter), but since then we just haven't had too much luck. It's not a big deal - we get plenty from the neighbors.
 
Matthew said:
I planted sugar snap peas one year. I think I ate most of them as I picked them.
Click to expand...

We are growing green beans too, and our daughter (who has refused to eat any green beans I've ever cooked) has been picking them, splitting them open, and eating the beans out of them. I don't know if I'll even get to cook any, since she seems to love them. It's fun that the kids are excited about the garden too -they need to be eating more veggies.

We also have a snow pea plant (one of my favorite vegetables), but so far, it's grown only one pod. The daughter ate that too. I'm hoping we get more out of it.
 
Mrs. SixPapaCharlie said:
We are growing green beans too, and our daughter (who has refused to eat any green beans I've ever cooked) has been picking them, splitting them open, and eating the beans out of them. I don't know if I'll even get to cook any, since she seems to love them. It's fun that the kids are excited about the garden too -they need to be eating more veggies.

We also have a snow pea plant (one of my favorite vegetables), but so far, it's grown only one pod. The daughter ate that too. I'm hoping we get more out of it.
Click to expand...

Snow peas ARE good raw, too.

I've had the best success in keeping beans and peas by blanching them for just a minute or two, cooling, then freezing. But that does require leftovers, and when we grew them we rarely had any. Zucchini on the other hand...
 
Matthew said:
Snow peas ARE good raw, too.

I've had the best success in keeping beans and peas by blanching them for just a minute or two, cooling, then freezing. But that does require leftovers, and when we grew them we rarely had any. Zucchini on the other hand...
Click to expand...

Dude don't get me started on Zuccini. <-- gayest beginning of a sentence ever.

We planted one and it took over. They must have weighed 8 lbs each. huge.

If I never eat zuccini again... <-- gayest ending of a sentence ever.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Dude don't get me started on Zuccini. <-- gayest beginning of a sentence ever.

We planted one and it took over. They must have weighed 8 lbs each. huge.

If I never eat zuccini again... <-- gayest ending of a sentence ever.
Click to expand...


Zucchini-ist!
 
Here's the extent of my gardening knowledge: If all of your plants are happy, then everything's fine.

By the way, I grow flowers. Fresh vegetables I can get by the truckload and on the cheap around here from any of the dozens of farmers' markets. There's an outstanding one about 30 miles north of me. The family does both field and greenhouse farming, so they have fresh stuff all year.

-Rich
 
This reminds me - I need to pick up a couple pounds of poblanos and jalapenos on the way home.
 
Zucchini and yellow squash cut in slices, marinated in Italian dressing an cooked on the grill is awesome. You pick them when they are small.

Fresh green beans, boil them for about 4 mins then into a frying pan with olive oil and minced garlic, amazing.

In our small town the only time people lock their car doors is zucchini season otherwise you may end up with a car full.
 
Matthew said:
All vines and no fruit. That seems to be the cycle - we'll get a lot of vines, but not too many blooms and even less fruit. I don't think we had the ideal location (west side of the house, full sun, and fairly close to the house itself) or soil. I did amend the soil quite a bit over the years, but I don't know if it's a ph issue, heat issue, or if we just don't care enough about it to work that hard. Then we have to compete with squirrels.

There were seasons at our old house when we canned the leftovers (they were awesome mid-winter), but since then we just haven't had too much luck. It's not a big deal - we get plenty from the neighbors.
Click to expand...

Full sun is great. Typically if you have lots of vines and no fruit, the vines are getting too much nitrogen. Also,if it's blazingly hot they won't flower, but they should be able to flower both before and after the heat. There are some varieties that tolerate heat more, you may want to look into what works in your area.

I have a hard time getting the full sized peppers to turn red on the vine, something usually gets to them first, but we have great success with small fruited peppers.
 
What are y'alls thoughts on Sevin dust?
That is what I am trying this year.

I seem to be bug free. Still have lizards and my aforementioned wasps but is that safe to put on food I am going to eat?
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
What are y'alls thoughts on Sevin dust?
That is what I am trying this year.

I seem to be bug free. Still have lizards and my aforementioned wasps but is that safe to put on food I am going to eat?
Click to expand...
I think Sevin has some warnings on it about using it in vegetable gardens - like don't eat stuff until at least 3-4 days afterward, or something like that.

Do your lizards damage the plants at all? I don't think wasps do any damage, and they might even attack some of the bugs that do.
 
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