Topic: Cabbage (Page 1 of 1)

My neighbour had quite the cabbage patch this year. The rest of the vegetable my wife, Caroline, grew in her first attempt at Square foot gardening.
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/messages/viewthumb/6913326705-1187669860-37423/parm/page/1/

The square foot gardening is an interesting concept and if you've thought to yourself, I'd like to try a bit of gardening... but it's too much work...or I don't have enough room... well this just might be what you're looking for. We found the book in a thrift store a few years back and finally got around to trying it this year. A few mistakes were made.... location wasn't quite right... not enough sun but overall the yield has and continues to be pretty damn impressive. At least I think so. Ours is 3 feeet wide... 20 feet long.
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Anybody else here do any gardening?

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"I was so high, I could have gone duck huntin' with a rake." Roger Miller

Looks nice. My wife and I are still working on getting the yard to do something other than grow ivy. We just moved there about a year ago and the back yard (as well as much of the house) was not taken care of. Good bones, but needed some TLC.

We are planning on making the backyard area a garden with a pathway of sorts not unlike your pics. Only problem is, is that the back yard doesn't get too much sun since there are quite a few trees. The ivy has pretty much killed off the grass. We cut down some of the smaller trees to let in some sun so hopefully that will help.

In this pic, what kind of stones are those around the garden beds?

Later,

C:\

(Edited by CPrompt on 08-21-2007 14:43)

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CPrompt said:

what kind of stones are those around the garden beds?

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Driftwood not stones but damn near as heavy and a tad awkward to get home in the trunk of a Jetta. The surprising part about that front yard is that there was nothing there when we moved in. Nothing. That's all the hard work of my wife. I just run the lawn mower. =)

Raised beds are the way to go btw. Wide enough so you can reach a bit beyond center from either side with the distance between the beds wide enough to comfortably accommodate a wheel barrow. And raised beds are a bit easier on the back.

You might also find helpful a few books by Louise Riottte. Carrots Love Tomatoes and Roses Love Garlic
deal with companion planting. It's quite interesting really.

The communal cry around this neighbourhood is: Plants grow in soil... the dirt is under your finger nails. =)

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?It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.? Voltaire

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NoJive said:

Raised beds are the way to go btw

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Definitely. I would like to make like a stone wall around the beds and have the beds make the path if that makes sense. I'll check out that book though. There is just not a lot of sun in my back yard because of the trees so it's going to be hard to grow anything.

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NoJive said:

he surprising part about that front yard is that there was nothing there when we moved in. Nothing.

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Sounds like you were in the same boat that my wife and I are in now. We've worked very hard to get our house inside and out back into shape. Some days it feels like we are getting some where and others it feels like we haven't done a thing LOL

Later,

C:\

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CPrompt said:

Some days it feels like we are getting some where and others it feels like we haven't done a thing LOL

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Precisely Watson.
The trick and it is tricky, is trying to figure out how to reduce maintenance while creating your little fiefdom. I have no great interest in wasting a lot of time on the back end of a lawn mower or weed eater. I can think of a ton of things I'd much rather be doing.

You have to consider such things as watering and related costs. Where you live... I don't know... but here the cost of water is constantly going up and there are watering restrictions... certain days certain times. I was recently at a home where the owner collects the run off from his 4K square foot roof (Yes 4K). It goes into a sump and is then pumped up to an elevated (approx 8ft) 1 thousand gallon elevated cistern. A simple gravity feed and he's watering his garden for the summer on one tank. And it only takes two days to fill the tank. The benefits of living in the rain forest.


But seriously... take your time.... figure out where you can reduce the amount of grass for example. Don't mistake gardening...for yard maintenance. =)

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?It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.? Voltaire

good point there. You get a lot more rain that we do here. I live in the south and right now, it hasn't really rained in about 3 weeks!

That is a good idea about the sump pump though. I installed a sump pump coming from the crawl space. It flooded the basement and of course the previous owner argued with me about it until I walked under the house with him. Got a bit of a discount of the house

I'll throw up some pictures as soon as we get it going.

We have what is left of a tree house in the back yard. I use it right now to store our compost pile. I do have a great idea for it though... a tardis!!! Wife isn't going for it but how about everyone in the Asylum email her to tell her what a great idea it would be

Later,

C:\

I love gardening NJ and it has been the main source of income for me this past year or two. I have a theory that if more people spent time gardening with their hands in the soil the world would be a much better place (That's theory number 26)
Your garden looks really good I'm forever trying to persuade people to let me build "just a little" arch in their gardens.
We have one in Ma's garden with lots of sweet pea climbing in and out of the clematis. We have a lot of rain here too which I really don't mind at all the scent form the sweet peas has been fantastic.
It looks to me that you have this covered but I'd still like to mention it anyway. The logs you have for the borders if they have been in the sea for very long may have concentrated sea salt in them, so when it rains this will leach into the soil. The grass may be the first to tell you by turning yellow. As I say the plants next to the logs look fine so I wouldn't worry it's just something to keep in mind.

C:\ the tree tardis sounds great, I would not worry too much about your garden not getting much sun there are still plenty of plants that will love it.

I've noticed some plants flowering well out of season in our little slice of heaven recently. Forget me nots, Kerria and a pansy, all in flower! This should not really be happening till next year, March or so. I should really take a photo for the record.

I love gardening too. Me and a buddy of mine rented a plot of land from our local garden club, and we were able to grow our own food this year. It felt great working with the earth again. We had corn, Zuchinni (sp?), tomatoes, bell peppers, bananna peppers, chilies, purple basil, orange basil, white sage, golden sage, carrots, and musmellon (again sp?). We got some good food out of there this year, and we are looking to do it again next year. Helps cut down on the food bill. The best thing about it was it was all organic with no sprays or chemicals. It was great.


'Hey, take it easy and enjoy life.... or in your case, death.' -- Yoh Asakura, 'Shaman King'

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