Lessons Learned From a Backyard Garden

Terrific garden SeenTooMuch.

Sweetie got me some black drip hoses like yours and I need to get them in.

You probably spotted the green weeds on the outside of the garden, I mowed em a couple times with my John Deere Garden Tractor, but I can't get close enough to the bricks.

Got my weed whacker up and running and if I can get it to where it'll retain the line a little better I can do a lot of weed clean-up.

I'm trying to keep the garden to a reasonable size this year, but will probably go forward toward the VW Rabbit and out to the left.
All I need is room to drive between fence and garden so there's lots of room to expand.

I'm planning to add some verticalness during the winter, but for right now the wooden lattice should do it.

I do need to get busy with building the tomato trellises and the shade poles.
The other non-garden projects mentioned can be put on hold for a while.

The Lemon Boy in the one big container shown in a pic above has really taken off.
Been thinking about digging out a fairly good size hole in the garden and planting the Lemon Boy plus a bunch of the potting soil it's in now in the overly large hole.

The tomatoes are planted a little closer togeher than recommended, but I've done it before and having a tomato hedge works just fine.
The abovementioned trellises run in a straight line anyway.

Like all gardeners, planning for next year.
You're growing soil as well as plants when you have a garden and we have some plans for a several month soil amendment this winter.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to get a composter. I did some research and also checked Consumers Reports and mostly because of their recommendation, got the Smith & Hawkin Biostack composter.

Consumers actually said the rolling/or spinning types were difficult to turn when full and did not compost nearly as well or fast as the Biostack, and are much more expensive. You can pick up the Biostack for $90-$120 if you shop around.

The garden is just growing like crazy. Today the temp is in the 90's-- whew-- and I see that I will have to buy some shade for the garden for the hottest part of the day.

I can't wait to live where you don't have to buy dirt, water and shade!

Edit to add: DesertDawg, I planted my potatoes in a space about 4' x 2', way too small and have had to transplant a few. I never expected all of them to come up. It's cool, really-- that you can cut up one potato and get so many plants from it, then so many potatoes from each new plant. Pretty good deal, all in all. Never tried it before.

I sowed my dill weed seeds in an English muffin box and then when they were about an inch tall, just opened the end and slid them out, dirt and all, into the half wine barrel pot with some other herbs. Worked pretty well.

And so far, the new basil is doing fine. Said on the tag "likes hot weather", so it's in the right place for that. I don't water unless it looks like it needs it, and then lightly.

[edit on 5/16/08 by kattraxx]