Gardening, Part 2

I ended up chopping the three plants i still had going. A bit over 75 days from seed to chop.

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Some garden stuffsā€¦




Chives are super happy in the ground, as is the thyme, jasmine is a riot (and almost knocks you over with the pefume) and the last photo is my peach, blackberries, and a few other plantsā€¦

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Wheat starting to head up. Given current world situation, i could be rich! Usually get 15-20# out of a 200 sq ft bed. Not bad, honestly.

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Gotta say, between you and @NukeML, Iā€™m feeling some garden envy. My bro was telling me about his plans for his 4 acres (nut trees, fruit trees, honey bees, garden of veg and fruit!) and I was wondering how heā€™d find the time with a full-time job, much less his kids. But it looks like it can be done
Iā€™m still proud of my mini harvest this week. A dozen beans, 3 cukes, and a handful of tiny candyland tomatos

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I of course am jealous of your growing season. Iā€™m only now planting out my beans and cucumbers.

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It is nice to get started early but the garden takes a beating in the summer, even with drip irrigation. Going to try tweaking the water times this year to see if we can nurse the plants through the worst. If they survive, we will get a shorter flush of tomatoes and cukes when things cool a bit and the heat isnā€™t ruining the pollen. Maybe beans too? First time for beans.

By that time the sunflowers need hardly any watering. The roses like the heat (silly things), and all our other flora is native and drought/heat resistant

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I bought some Cascade hops yesterday! Im going to have to install a very tall trellis / cable system that they can grow up, and quickly!

And I just realized that the beans I bought for planting next year got left out in the rain last night. I guess Iā€™m setting more beans today. Derp.

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This is really interesting- I had not heard of people growing grain in small gardens. I grew up on a grain farm, so my question is- how do you thresh it? Some sort of medieval stone-based method? All of modern grain agriculture depends on mechanical combines, so Iā€™m fascinated to see wheat in a garden. Do tell.

Edit:

Just did the math on this because I was curious, and thatā€™s genuinely very good. Peak production in North America in recent years was just over 50 bushels an acre, though recently itā€™s down around 45. For wheat, a bushel is 60 pounds, so thatā€™s about 14 sq ft per pound. If youā€™re getting a pound from 10 sq ft, thatā€™s actually excellent. Modern mechanized agriculture is obscenely efficient (itā€™s how we feed 8 billion people) so thatā€™s no small thing.

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Threshing is a very DIY thing. I put a cast iron floor flange into the lid of a 5 gallon bucket, ran a 3/8" all-thread through that and attached 2 short lengths of chain to the end in the bucket with lock nuts and fender washers, and attached the other end to a drill. Instant flail-type thresher. I can only do so much at a time, but to go through the whole batch usually takes a couple hours. I do have to cut the heads off the stalk, but thatā€™s the most time consuming part.

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I wish I was growing anything (besides courgettes) in large enough quantities to feed us regularly, but our garden isnā€™t really likely to do that, even if we ripped out all the non food thingsā€¦

Still, pretty happy Iā€™m managing to grow peaches in the SE of Englandā€¦ wonā€™t ever touch stuff from SC/Georgia

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I have a neighbor who grows hops horizontally on his fence, and they do well. Not sure what specific kind of hops, though. I think the fence was probably there already and handy.

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@NukeML - those hops look great! We got some roots from a friend and planted them near our trellis arch. Iā€™m hopeful. If those donā€™t work I might try grapevines next year.

Re: garden envy - Iā€™m jealous of all yā€™allā€™s apparent lack of groundhogs and deer! We just trapped and removed our 5th groundhog of the season. This one was a pregnant female, so thatā€™s a relief. Thereā€™s at least one more hanging around. I got it once, but it wormed itā€™s way out of the trap! :rage:

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I had a friend who ran some trellis up to the roof, then some trellis on the roof, and he got a decent harvest, just needs a little forethought about how to get it down again come harvest time.

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I went out and got some 1/8" cable, and Iā€™ll put an eye on the end. I also got hooks to hang from the facia board, from which the cables will hang. In theory come harvest time I can unhook the cable and lower the plant and cable to the ground.

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Garden pics

quite a few









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Looks amazing!

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You are way ahead of me. I am jealous.

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Itā€™s central Tx, if we havenā€™t gotten seedlings in the ground by April, we wonā€™t get much before summer halts all production or the heat will kill the baby plants. I had a snow pea plant. Already dead from the heat.

I donā€™t know if itā€™s like this for everyone round here or if itā€™s the drip irrigation, but we have riotous growth through April and half of may. Like the squash vines seemed to grow a foot every week. I think maybe next year Iā€™ll measure.

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Posted over here too.

This is one of my strawberry ladders. It leans against a wall spanning the basement window well. Made from recycled green-treated 2x4s and some patio planters.

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Not to eat, but I do like columbines:

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