• You liked BFD7 now you should join this forum and of course become a club member to see what CCA is all about.
  • Thank you to everyone who registered and showed up for the BIG Fish Deal #7.

Hey Gardeners!

Localzoo

Board of Directors
Awesome yard in jealous I e got bamboo everywhere...Constantly pulling them up.
I would do a small versa lok (no footing concrete footing needed) retaining wall then do flowers behind it.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 

Jeff721

Members
Update:

yaViAgx.jpg
 

Jeff721

Members
Thanks, the fish-water irrigation system is working like a charm. I haven't used a hose or turned on a tap since I planted everything.
 

daninmd

Members
anyone got updates on their gardens??? my garden has really taken off the past 2-3 weeks with the warmer weather:

corn is now about 2' tall
sunflowers around 4' tall
tomatoes are going crazy. I have 8 of them and probably have around 150 green tomatoes growing
got my first harvest of broccoli last week, really tasty!
got a few harvest of radishes and planted a bunch more seeds
cucumbers are growing really fast now and starting to climb the fences
green beans growing really well
spinach - two of the 4 are doing well
cabbage - plants are huge, looks like I am starting to get a few heads growing. not sure how the cabbage will fare, not really ideal growing time
brussel sprouts - growing good, same as cabbage, not sure
carrots - the greens are about a foot fall
beets - just planted but coming up fast

I did notice a bunch of cucumber leafs missing the other night. thought it might be rabbits, but the other night I saw the groundhog that lives under our shed close to my gardens. reinforced the fence a bit and he hasn't been back in for two days, so fingers crossed!

oh yeah, I forgot. I installed my drip irrigation it he garden a couple of weeks ago. it works great. I just need to pick up another valve so I can even out the flow even more. its so much easier to just go outside and turn on the hose and then come back about 20 minutes later and turn it off. its really nice for watering the plants and you don't get the mildew growing on the leaves since they stay dry.
 

Jeff721

Members
Tomatoes - doing excellent, I only have two plants, they are about 4ft tall now and one has little green tomatoes growing, both have lots of flowers - I did pick off flowers once or twice to get the bushes a little larger but have since stopped.

Peppers - plants didn't grow that tall this year. Mostly jalapenos, mostly about a foot tall. One green bell pepper is about 2ft tall, all have buds, most have flowered.

Cucumbers - I've got a lot, I bought some and grew some from seeds. The ones from seeds have finally started to take off, the started plants are growing in nicely.

Corn - growing like...well...corn. Different sizes when I got them mostly about a foot and a half tall.

Watermelons - growing, never had success in the past. Fingers crossed.

Carrots - just planted seeds a week or two ago, they're about an inch out of the ground now.

Sunflowers - also just started, just thinned them out yesterday, they're about 2-3 inches.

Lettuce - the seeds that I planted FINALLY started to get a little growth, they're maybe an inch and a half, planted about a month ago, give-or-take.


Looking at my list it seems like I have a lot, maybe I do, but it's no micro-farm like Dan has :)
 

daninmd

Members
Tomatoes - doing excellent, I only have two plants, they are about 4ft tall now and one has little green tomatoes growing, both have lots of flowers - I did pick off flowers once or twice to get the bushes a little larger but have since stopped.

Peppers - plants didn't grow that tall this year. Mostly jalapenos, mostly about a foot tall. One green bell pepper is about 2ft tall, all have buds, most have flowered.

Cucumbers - I've got a lot, I bought some and grew some from seeds. The ones from seeds have finally started to take off, the started plants are growing in nicely.

Corn - growing like...well...corn. Different sizes when I got them mostly about a foot and a half tall.

Watermelons - growing, never had success in the past. Fingers crossed.

Carrots - just planted seeds a week or two ago, they're about an inch out of the ground now.

Sunflowers - also just started, just thinned them out yesterday, they're about 2-3 inches.

Lettuce - the seeds that I planted FINALLY started to get a little growth, they're maybe an inch and a half, planted about a month ago, give-or-take.


Looking at my list it seems like I have a lot, maybe I do, but it's no micro-farm like Dan has :)

never had luck with watermelons either, even when I lived in florida. maybe a smaller variety might work up here, but they like heat and water and don't think we get a long enough growing season up here. good luck!

forgot about my zucchinis, I have about a half dozen on the plants that are around 4" long. those things produce like crazy. three plants is going to be a LOT of zucchini. oh well, time for zucchini bread!

no micro-farm here. but I have found that scaling it up doesn't really result in much more work. plus I really wanted to produce some veggies this year, not just a few here and there...I shouldn't have to buy any corn, tomatoes, zuchinni, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, beets or radishes for a while :)
 

spazmattik

Members
We have a apartment patio so we had to use pots for everything but we got set up two weeks ago.

Anyone ever grow purple bell peppers? Ive never even heard of them till i bought some. Also, anyone have any luck growing squash in a pot?
 

Jeff721

Members
no micro-farm here. but I have found that scaling it up doesn't really result in much more work. plus I really wanted to produce some veggies this year, not just a few here and there...I shouldn't have to buy any corn, tomatoes, zuchinni, cucumbers, green beans, carrots, beets or radishes for a while :)


That was sort of my intention with the cucumbers, corn, and lettuce. I'd rather grow it and have it ready than to go to the store when i need it and watch it go bad between meals. Everything else is just a bonus.

I agree, once you're doing a grow bed, you may as well scale it up in size. I am reaching the point now that I am just about balanced between the water needed for the garden and the water out of the fish tanks on a weekly basis. Just a shame that i can't really use my Leleupi water since it's too high in pH for the plants.

This thread needs more pics btw.
 

daninmd

Members
here are some pictures from the other night. I really like the trellis setup for the tomatoes. so much easier than using those tomato cages.

P7020260-1.jpg

P7020263-4.jpg

P7020266-7.jpg

P7020268-8.jpg

P7020265-6.jpg
 

JasonC

Members
It's ok, personally too much wrk to do small scale. I also wanted to try aquaculture using the tanks i already have but never actually started that project.

If I can get a fence built, I am going to try out a small aquaponics grow bed... but wife wont let the aquaponics happen until the fence is built. HA!

Very jealous of the growth I am seeing from you all... how early are you planting? Are you seed starting early inside, and then transplanting, or is this all direct sow? Just started sneaking fish water onto the plants in my beds so hopefully I'll start seeing some real growth now. My big accomplishment this year is that I was actually able to get a Pak Choi plant to get more than a couple of leaves... usually they get destroyed by cabbage worms quite quickly... but oddly enough, have only seen a couple of them this year. *knockonwoodknockonwoodknockonwood*
 

Localzoo

Board of Directors
Started indoors early and kept them in pots, then took out on warm days then transplanted.
Lost some to the frost but the ones that survived recovered well (basil took it the worst.
Watermelon no success (never had any luck with these)
Pumpkin is doing well and so is my corn, everything else like my berries and grapes I just let do their thing.

Anyone limited on space etc should try this
http://http://youtu.be/X2wWTadsBDA
Jason - maybe this can be turned into an edible fence. Also an excuse to get more fish lol


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

ImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1401977727.347037.jpg
 

daninmd

Members
If I can get a fence built, I am going to try out a small aquaponics grow bed... but wife wont let the aquaponics happen until the fence is built. HA!

Very jealous of the growth I am seeing from you all... how early are you planting? Are you seed starting early inside, and then transplanting, or is this all direct sow? Just started sneaking fish water onto the plants in my beds so hopefully I'll start seeing some real growth now. My big accomplishment this year is that I was actually able to get a Pak Choi plant to get more than a couple of leaves... usually they get destroyed by cabbage worms quite quickly... but oddly enough, have only seen a couple of them this year. *knockonwoodknockonwoodknockonwood*

all my plants were direct sow or were purchased as small plants from Home Depot at the end of march/beginning of april. if you buy early enough at home depot you can get the small plants. the broccoli/brussles/cabbage was in a 6 pack and was like $2 or something for all of them. tomatoes were all bought at around 6"-9" tall and were on sale for $2 during their spring black Friday sales. the rest I direct sowed at the very end of march. I have had to re-seed for corn (only about 60% came up/survived) and green beans (only 40-50% germinated due to that freeze).

honestly, at this point I think its too late to be planting anything. I planted last year too late and had very bad success.

the $50 I spent on the irrigation lines and fittings was the best money I spent this year. its a really nice feature and I don't think I will ever do a garden again without it. only took maybe 30 minutes to put everything together and drill the holes
 

daninmd

Members
Just started sneaking fish water onto the plants in my beds so hopefully I'll start seeing some real growth now.

fish water is great fertilizer but I don't use it in my vegetable garden due to worries about bacteria and other bad things. sure it will be fine, but I play it safe :). there is no risk for using tank water as long as its not being exposed to the vegetables/leaves. just try and make sure the water is going direct to the ground and not coming in contact with the stuff you eat...similar to what is done in hydro setups.
 
Top