Gardening in "The Sandbox"

these guys (yukon gold) did not mind the 3 weeks of cold and rain, they are 3 feet tall already. I did manage to get a pic of a hoe too, LoL

Attachment 226650 Originally Posted by lostforkate

Nice job, lfk.

Anita, do you dig potatoes? Originally Posted by lostforkate

..am i loving them..diggen on them..yes..love me some fresh taters outa the ground!!!

Yes, they are awesome fresh. I fry them up with onion, thyme, pepper, garlic (everything need garlic), some seasoned salt, and some other thing, I don't know what it is (something by emeril), and butter. Somehow, I will bring you some of the yukon golds, LoL. I maybe u'd want a different kind of gold. I also got home smoked bacon, not store bought.

mmmmmmmmm that whole post sounds sooo freeking delish right now...
yes bring me soooooommeeeee!!!

When are you hosting this provider luncheon? =p Lmfao

on the old hee haw set

The garden’s not doing too well this year. This was the coldest, wettest month of June in recent memory.

I set the plants out the 2nd week of May and then cold weather hit. I didn’t do anything. I was lazy. I should have collected a whole bunch of plastic gallon milk containers, cut the tops off and placed them over the individual plants to protect them from the cold nights.

The effect of the cold on the plants has stunted their growth to the point they may not recover.

SOM BITCH!!!

the old answer that I have about 4 cases of still in the wooden box's they came in.

1 ft by 1 ft squares of glass, wire and springs

set up 3 pains of the glass in a triangle around the plant using 2 springs with wire to hold them together. one 1/4 from the bottom and one 1/4 top. set the 4th glass next to or leaning on.

cold night or day, put the 4th glass on top of the 3.

As a kid I remember following the cabbage planter planting cabbage early, setting them up for 20 acres of planted field. errrr what a pain. But for the garden now, not so bad. Would be cheaper to get at a farm auction over making. But will not blow away in the wind like a 1 gal cut up plastic jug.

set up 3 pains of the glass in a triangle around the plant using 2 springs with wire to hold them together. one 1/4 from the bottom and one 1/4 top. set the 4th glass next to or leaning on.

Yup. All the Italian old-timers in town had on hand a bunch of old window sashes (the wooden frame with the glass in it). They'd plant early and set the sashes in the garden acting as "portable greenhouses".

Good advice, OSD

So how did it go? How were the yields, the harvests?

I for one harvested a shitload of...knowledge. I fucked up a lot, which means I learned a few things to do different.

Mainly, I'm going to stay away from containers. I need to space my plants better, set my supports better, and start me seedlings earlier. I let my beans get shady and my broccoli flower, Doh!

I'm getting a bunch of tomatoes, a few beans and if the weather holds up maybe a few peppers and eggplants. They are there, but they grew slow and aren't that big yet. A hot September could pull this through nicely, but in any case I learned a lot.

My poor drainage left me with some slow growing tomatoes, that just now getting ripe. So I need a warm septempber if I am going to be able to can a bunch. I like to can about a 100 quarts of diced tomatoes.

The potatoes started to rot, as we got pounded with more rain after that picture, but some rebounded to a mediocre crop. I am getting enough to eat as we go.

The fruit did really good. I have two pear trees and I got about 10 bushels each.

The beets rebounded from the wet spring and cannned some and froze some.

Because the beans and carrots did poorly this spring, I did a second planting on both, and hope for some activity in a few weeks.