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Last autumn we built this greenhouse. Today I made a pair of cultivation beds for it, one on each side. Still need to fill them up with dirt.
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May 11, 2024 19:51
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| # ? May 26, 2024 18:04 |
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I like gardening and also chickens.
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May 11, 2024 20:15
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My asparagus has successfully come up two years in a row now! Will finally be able to harvest some next year. Also my strawberries survived the northern MN winter which I'm very pleased by. I trimmed back a bunch of tall dead landscaping grass planted by the previous owners and used that as mulch in my beds today too. All in all a very productive day while I fought major back pain.
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May 12, 2024 01:48
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BaseballPCHiker posted:All in all a very productive day while I fought major back pain. Goon gardening 2024 in a nutshell 
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May 12, 2024 02:20
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Probably a dumb question, but what can do to help over-watered seedlings recover? I massively over-watered my seedlings last month and even though the tray is back at normal-ish amounts of moisture, the seedlings are still staying only a inch or two tall. I assumed that once the soil de-sogged they'd start growing again, but it doesn't seem to be happening.
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May 12, 2024 03:04
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Viscous Soda posted:Probably a dumb question, but what can do to help over-watered seedlings recover? I massively over-watered my seedlings last month and even though the tray is back at normal-ish amounts of moisture, the seedlings are still staying only a inch or two tall. I assumed that once the soil de-sogged they'd start growing again, but it doesn't seem to be happening. Sorry, they’re probably dampened off and dead now. If you pull one, you’ll probably find that it has next to no roots attached to it any longer. Seedlings generally should not stay an inch or two long for a month. If they do, they’re probably in a really bad way.
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May 12, 2024 04:11
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Such a nice morning, and we've bought so much dirt to fill up all the planting boxes. SO decided to use the wooden box the greenhouse came in as another planterbox. I had to reinforce the top with straps to prevent it bulging out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA2rkwANLN8 SO is already talking about stuff like irrigation and drip watering systems and automatic opening of the roof hatches.
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May 15, 2024 05:51
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making garden rube goldberg machines is awesome. The parts for my next one arrived today but it might not be til next week that I can start to put it together. But garden thread, help me. We're looking at drought conditions this year so I'm doing everything I can to improve watering efficiency in both the inside and outside gardens. I'll blog about it here if people are interested, but probably without pictures because I dont' want to make an imgur account. Anyway the actual question: I'm working to dial in my watering, but all of the watering information online is in "inches per week," which is pretty useless for anything other than outdoor gardens watered by rain. How much is an "inch" in terms of ml from a point emitter? E.g. I have a tomato sitting at a dripline emitter. I know, from having measured it a few times now, that emitter puts out roughly 1L of water in 20 minutes at the line pressures I operate at. If a tomato plant "typically requires 1-2 inches of water per week," how many ml (and thus how many minutes of pump operation) should I plan to put on it (obviously adjusting for observation and conditions).
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May 15, 2024 17:26
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I mean, basic math is that an inch is the depth of the collector regardless of surface area, so an inch of water over a square foot of plot is about 2 L. But that's assuming a pretty hefty amount of drainage, evaporation, and whatnot. I tend to err on the side of under watering as long as you have a crop that will bitch and moan at first sign of under watering, because it's easier to correct for under watering than drowning your roots.
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May 15, 2024 22:33
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Alucard posted:I mean, basic math is that an inch is the depth of the collector regardless of surface area, so an inch of water over a square foot of plot is about 2 L. But that's assuming a pretty hefty amount of drainage, evaporation, and whatnot. I don't think so re the depth of the collector. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_gauge#U.S._standard_rain_gauge quote:The standard United States National Weather Service rain gauge, developed at the start of the 20th century, consists of an 8 in (200 mm) funnel emptying into a graduated cylinder, 2.525 in (64.1 mm) in diameter ... ie the collector mouth is 8" wide, so that's the area you're measuring the rain falling onto, but the measurement is taken on a cylinder that is almost exactly 10X smaller in cross-section. ((8/2)^2/(2.525/2)^2 = 10.04). So you could divide the measured rainfall by 10 to get the real depth of water across the collector itself. Or put another way, the measuring cylinder is (6.41mm/2*pi)^2 = 101.4 cm^2, so you can multiply that by the amount of rain measured, then adjust by the ratio between the area of your tomato plant's root system and the area of an 8" diameter circle.
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May 16, 2024 01:29
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My bad, so 200 mL / sqft instead of 2L - for some reason I'd thought it was just a cylinder not a funnel. Still probably best to err on the side of less to start.
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May 16, 2024 01:37
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Alucard posted:My bad, so 200 mL / sqft instead of 2L - for some reason I'd thought it was just a cylinder not a funnel. Still probably best to err on the side of less to start. Yeah so it sounds like I can probably run the system for like 10 minutes and that'll be plenty if I'm accounting for evaporation etc
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May 16, 2024 03:14
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I want to get started composting and have a question on what to buy. I'm not going to build anything, just to get that out of the way. I don't want an open pen, either. I've got two options I am looking at: This small Behrens composter/burn barrel, with some mesh to line the holes and one of those compost turner awls. I like that it is metal without much to break. Whatever turning unit gets decent enough reviews. Here's an example. I don't think I want a Geobin. It is very open. I am leaning towards the Behr, but would be curious to hear any thoughts or suggestions for a unit.
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May 17, 2024 14:31
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Maybe I'm just bad at composting but I got a dual chamber tumbling bin for free on Nextdoor and that was still probably too much money. It's a good idea I guess if you have rat problems, but it's not big enough to handle yard waste really, which to me made it not worth the time. If you have the right volume of kitchen scraps to keep a pile going maybe it's good IDK
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May 17, 2024 17:40
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I think it really matters what the goal is with the compost. Me I just add it to a pile and fork it over every few months. I wouldn't fly in the 'burbs.
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May 17, 2024 17:55
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yep, just get whatever fits your needs. i'm in the burbs and have limited space and occasional rats so anything open was no-go for me. i also don't produce much yard waste other than leaves, which i just pile into the landscaping beds. i have one of those cheap tumblers and it works fine
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May 17, 2024 17:57
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CommonShore posted:Yeah so it sounds like I can probably run the system for like 10 minutes and that'll be plenty if I'm accounting for evaporation etc I mean, all these calculations are just estimates. Temperature, humidity, growth stage of your tomatoes, etc will all play pretty major roles in how much water they need. I'd try that amount but keep a close eye on it and adjust as needed.
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May 17, 2024 18:18
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Rotating buckets for compost are kinda counter-productive. There's a narrow window when you want to keep turning it over but unless you are actually running a hot compost pile it's not doing much. Not worth the smaller size and expense Xand_Man fucked around with this message at 18:34 on May 17, 2024 |
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May 17, 2024 18:22
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Lead out in cuffs posted:I mean, all these calculations are just estimates. Temperature, humidity, growth stage of your tomatoes, etc will all play pretty major roles in how much water they need. I'd try that amount but keep a close eye on it and adjust as needed. Oh of course. I'm just trying to find a conversion metric and starting point so I can keep track of how much water I'm giving, and so if I'm getting someone else to turn on the timer that I can tell them how to set it.
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May 17, 2024 18:22
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Composting is beautiful and magical. Kitchen scraps and chicken poop and leaves turn into magic plant-growth material. My black cherry tomatoes grew from ~8 inches tall to ~30 inches in a couple of weeks. Just going to supplement nutrients other than nitrogen from here out and see how prolific they can be. e: I compost in a pile and in a steel trash can that has holes
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May 17, 2024 18:30
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Yeah I get to deal with both neighbors and vermin, so a closed composter is what I need. I've got a 3'x4' raised bed and a few buckets I will want to amend and it would be nice to not waste some kitchen scraps. We've got multiple trees but the city picks up yard waste for free so I'm not in dire need of something to do with it. The Black Kow bags work fine and are cheap enough, but it'd be nice not to buy as much next time. That's my goal, I guess. I'll see what I feel like doing (adding some mesh to the can or putting together a puzzle) and go from there since they're both equally mediocre.
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May 17, 2024 20:24
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I need to get into composting as well, mostly to save the time and expense of throwing out all this organic waste. Only composting I have ever done was worm towers, which I doubt works anything like normal composting and is great for kitchen waste but probably couldnt handle yard waste as well, so this will all be new for me.
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May 17, 2024 22:17
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I had a tumbler composter when I lived in Florida and that poo poo was magic. However it was in sunlight and outside, so like 90 degrees and 100% humidity for most the year. That thing would disappear banana peels and apple cores in a week.
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May 17, 2024 22:44
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swickles posted:I had a tumbler composter when I lived in Florida and that poo poo was magic. However it was in sunlight and outside, so like 90 degrees and 100% humidity for most the year. That thing would disappear banana peels and apple cores in a week. Yeah in proper winter they basically don't work. e: Finally got around to scrapping my leftover tomato and pepper seedlings in the basement. Feels good to have it pared back down to houseplants and herbs down there. Chad Sexington fucked around with this message at 22:54 on May 17, 2024 |
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May 17, 2024 22:49
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Chad Sexington posted:Yeah in proper winter they basically don't work. Exactly. The colder it gets the bigger a pile you need.
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May 17, 2024 22:54
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CommonShore posted:making garden rube goldberg machines is awesome. The parts for my next one arrived today but it might not be til next week that I can start to put it together. The super traditional way of doing this involves sowing the seed deeper than you otherwise would and sowing a shallow-root cover crop on top and then watering minimally or not at all the entire season, but that's more "old timey way to deal with a drought on the family farm" than "minimise water use in a backyard garden" poo poo. You can dry bed other things—bitter melons seem to take to it as well, if you care about bitter melons—but an established tomato plant is basically a weed and it actually improves fruit quality (at the expense of a bit of yield) so it's pretty much easy mode for the technique.
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May 17, 2024 23:13
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No way this works in California which gets no water after April generally. Sounds amazing though.
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May 18, 2024 00:25
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Apparently, I'm getting grape seedlings tomorrow. I have no idea how to plant grapes. They grow very well in the area, and that is about all I know. Has anyone got any good resources for me to read/watch?
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May 18, 2024 06:09
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I hope this is the correct thread for this, but if not please let me know and I’ll repost. My mom has large lilac bush next to her house. During a winter storm it fell over. I propped it up to get it off her walkway and planned to chop it up when it warmed up. Instead, it seems to be extremely alive, just really unstable and slowly rotating and tipping to the side. Is there any way to reset or anchor this thing so it doesn’t fall down?    
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May 19, 2024 16:23
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mr.belowaverage posted:I hope this is the correct thread for this, but if not please let me know and I’ll repost. I'm by no means an expert so take this with a grain of salt, but the first thing that comes to mind is to prop it up with something sturdy from the side it's tipping towards now to prevent it from tipping further while it continues to reestablish itself. If you can push it back into a more upright position without damaging it and brace it in place like that, then even better. I had a similar experience where one of my parents' larger mountain laurel bushes got partially uprooted after an ice storm a couple of years ago. We initially had three heavy tree limbs set up to brace it since it couldn't stay upright on its own anymore, but over time enough of the root system reestablished itself that they were able to remove the braces.
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May 19, 2024 17:51
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Has anyone used Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit repellent? I am mainly concerned about rabbits as the fence does that job. It's ingredients are all natural stuff like garlic, thyme oils and petrified egg whites.
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May 23, 2024 19:35
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swickles posted:Has anyone used Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit repellent? I am mainly concerned about rabbits as the fence does that job. It's ingredients are all natural stuff like garlic, thyme oils and petrified egg whites. the only thing that effectively stops rabbits is height/separation from ground access (ie raised beds, etc) and metal barriers like chicken wire fencing, ideally sunk into the ground enough to prevent burrowing
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May 23, 2024 19:49
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swickles posted:Has anyone used Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit repellent? I am mainly concerned about rabbits as the fence does that job. It's ingredients are all natural stuff like garlic, thyme oils and petrified egg whites. It works to an extent, but only for a few weeks at a time and they seem to get used to it so it's supposedly best to switch up brands/types. It's enough to keep deer away from landscape plants and flowers for me, mostly....most of the time.
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May 23, 2024 21:38
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my red mustard is bolting already  what's good to plant now in 7b (e: a transplant most likely)? I was thinking I could get away with some kind of vining summer squash if I can train it up a trellis the milk machine fucked around with this message at 00:02 on May 24, 2024 |
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May 23, 2024 21:52
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Spikes32 posted:No way this works in California which gets no water after April generally. Sounds amazing though. If you're in a legit arid environment where you've got nothing but succulents and lichens or something then yeah, probably won't work for you.
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May 23, 2024 23:08
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My parsley bolted whoops.
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May 23, 2024 23:52
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Discord pic because I'm lazy with imgur and I'm not going to make an account - My kids survived the freeze and snow over the last two days and the spring danger is over up here in zone 3: This has been the best start I've ever had. If you see the double drip line on the left there's a glimpse of my new system addition. The brown line is the pressurized one run by a 3/4 HP jet pump from a rain-fed cistern, and the black one is gravity fed from a different 8-foot elevation rain barrel which I've set up to water into GH when it rains, and which I've found is also really good for applying fertilizer.
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May 26, 2024 16:33
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