Gardening~Gotta Green Thumb?

Discussion in 'Chatter' started by clembo, Feb 26, 2021.

  1. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member

    So does anyone here do any gardening?

    The snow is melting here and I'm getting the itch. You see I have what I call a "hillbilly garden" every year and it's only expanding.

    I painted for a living for a while and 5 gallon buckets make great planters and they were free. My crop gets bigger every year.

    Last year I decided to make greenhouses cheap. I made them out of PVC, plastic sheeting and duct tape and learned some tricks last year.

    Did the greenhouses work? Let's put it this way I picked and ate a radish on January 15th. Never done that before.
    The sub zero weather we recently had finally killed them off but it's warming up.

    I hope to plant more radishes this weekend and be eating some by the end of March. They tolerate cold weather very well and the greenhouse heats up real nice with sunny weather.

    Also plan to start some cherry tomatoes and peppers indoors this weekend. Cherry tomatoes do VERY well in buckets as do most peppers.
    Going to start at least three varieties of peppers. I've grown jalapenos and serranos and I'm adding a variety called poinsetta.
    Hey, the looked cool on the seed packet.

    Later on I'll do green beans, snow peas basil, parsley and thyme. I've already got buckets of chives that we've had for 25 years.
    Talk about hardy. I basically ignore the chives and have given big clumps to my neighbors. They're weeds that happen to taste great.

    As for expansion I have started to add bigger tubs to my array and will make more greenhouses. You can get good sized storage containers at the dollar stores cheap.

    CLEMBO IS ALL ABOUT CHEAP

    Drill some holes in the bottom, a layer of rocks and some good soil and you're ready to plant.

    The harvest will begin fairly quickly and continue well into the fall.


    Nothing like fresh produce in the back yard!
     
  2. FryDaddyJr

    FryDaddyJr Well-Known Member

    you should winter over your peppers...then they really get huge
     
  3. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member

    Don't have room to bring them in the house.

    Years ago I did bring a cayenne plant in when it got cold. Put it in my laundry room and it just kept producing into December.

    Had more peppers than I knew what to do with.
     
  4. JoeNation
    No Mood

    JoeNation The ReichWing Abuser

    I have a 4 x 8 raised garden with a cage over it to keep the rabbits out. Mostly grow tomatoes and basil.
     
  5. FryDaddyJr

    FryDaddyJr Well-Known Member

    I grew sunflowers last year, plan on starting more early and growing more
     
  6. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member


    Squirrel problem here.

    What kind of maters are you growing? Maters and basil go so well together.

    I'll do cherry and romas. Grew rutgers last year but they don't produce so well in buckets.
     
  7. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member


    Sunflowers are so cool and so many varieties. I might do some shorter ones this year.
     
  8. JoeNation
    No Mood

    JoeNation The ReichWing Abuser

    I think Romas this year and less basil and more peppers.
     
  9. JoeNation
    No Mood

    JoeNation The ReichWing Abuser

    One other thing I have to grow this year is those giant sunflowers. Those dang things are 10 feet tall. If I find a goose that lays golden eggs at the top, I'll let you know. I am early planting them now.
     
  10. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member

    Well since I salvaged a roughly 5-1/2 x 3 foot filing cabinet on my dumpster diving adventure I have a new ready made raised bed.
    The four drawers will serve as raised beds too.
    Couple that with the big plastic bins I salvaged and yet more gardening area.

    I'm glad the neighbors are good people. They have no problem with my hillbilly garden.

    So today I bought lima bean seeds.

    Crops I'm growing this year now include.

    1. 5 varieties of tomatoes.
    2. 5 varieties of peppers (all spicy)
    3. Carrots
    4. Radishes
    5. Leaf lettuce
    6. Green beans
    7. Snow peas
    8. Beets
    9. Green onions
    10. Lima beans
    11. Parsley
    12. Rosemary
    13. Basil
    14. Thyme
    15. Dill
    16. Dwarf Sunflowers (4-5 foot)
    I also found an old piece of hose. Drilling small holes in it to make a drip irrigation set up.

    I actually picked a few carrots from last years crop yesterday. My wife was making vegetable soup and they worked just fine even after setting out all winter.

    I'm doing those in 5 gallon buckets again. A short variety and I found out you can crowd the hell out of them.

    Hmmmmm.......I may have to hire help come harvest time.
     
  11. FryDaddyJr

    FryDaddyJr Well-Known Member

    no potatoes?
     
  12. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member


    Not enough end result for the work but I am considering some red onions and maybe ONE zucchini plant. That's all you need.
     
  13. FryDaddyJr

    FryDaddyJr Well-Known Member

    you need a cuke plant too
     
  14. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member


    I did bush pickles last year.
     
  15. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member

    Planted some bok choy yesterday in a bin that I salvaged from the dumpster.

    Indoors I started 2 types of maters, lima beans, 3 types of peppers and some thyme.

    The temperature dipped below freezing last night but the stuff I planted outdoors so far (bok choy and radishes) is in one of my little greenhouses.
     
  16. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member

    I prepared one of the big bins from my dumpster diving adventure. Planed lettuce, green onions and radishes in it.

    I also have some radishes coming up in two 5 gallon buckets. I planted those and then they got snowed on before I put the greenhouse on them.
     
  17. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member

    Damn been working too hard!

    Hoping to have the file cabinet raised bed ready today.

    Drilled holes for drainage, 3 cubic feet of river rock, some straw and bought 600 pounds of dirt today. 15 40 pound bags.
    Hopefully that will be enough.

    Next question- what to plant in it.
     
  18. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member

    Wore myself out yesterday and laid down about 5:30. Slept till about 1:30 AM had a cup of tea, put on my headlamp and got back at the file cabinet.
    Finished it at about 6:30 with many breaks, a bit of dinner and plenty of tea. Love my tea.

    Ended up using 5 bags of rock, about 1/4 bale of straw and 24 bags of dirt.

    It is no longer a filing cabinet it's

    THE FILING CABINET O FOOD
    Planted seeds in it. Eventually it will be for maters but for now it's green onions, bok choy, 3 varieties of lettuce and beets.

    Also planted two varieties of carrots (both shorter) in 2 separate 5 gallon buckets.

    Now the wait but while I'm waiting my next project is...

    The KIA greenhouse.

    I'll fill you in on that later.;)
     
  19. JoeNation
    No Mood

    JoeNation The ReichWing Abuser

    For fun, I am planting some American Giants Hybrid Sunflowers. They are so big, that the damn things have to be chopped down like a small tree at the end of the season. They reach a height of about 12 feet. The seeds aren't much to behold but hey, the squirrels have to eat too.
     
    FryDaddyJr likes this.
  20. clembo

    clembo Well-Known Member


    Cool!

    You can enter those in the county fair!
     

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