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Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... (Read 5827 times)

Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Sep 5^th, 2013 at 6:18pm	Print Post
	sigh It was a disheartening day at the grocery today. While looking for the brand of decaf instant tea I use -- which we didn't find -- Skywise and I had time for some intense label reading. In the course of our "field research" we discovered that the Hunt's "No Salt Added" tomato products we've been using do indeed have "no salt added" but they DO have potassium added and he's not supposed to have that either!! Contadina brand has a smaller amount of salt in it but they don't make all the same products that Hunt's does. I've come to the inescapable conclusion that unless something REALLY drastic happens between now and next spring, I'm going to be growing and canning as many tomatoes as I can next summer. Tomatoes aren't that difficult to grow. What is and will be difficult is keeping the local wildlife out of them! Case in point: late last night, I heard a noise that sounded like a cat clawing at the back door screen. Since all our cats were inside, I investigated and there on the back step was a raccoon that must have weighed in at 20 pounds if it weighed an ounce! A few nights ago, I investigated and noise and found an opossum walking by the front steps. Then, of course, there are the deer who chomp on my roses regularly (working on that) and the groundhogs that we haven't seen much of the last few years due to not having a garden but are sure to show up once the word gets around that there's a garden here again. sigh So one of the first things I'm going to have to do is figure out HOW to keep those determined critters out of my tomatoes. Preferably without lying in wait for them with the rifle.....


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Veridian Etoile God Member Offline Posts: 14993 Location: Writing La La Land Joined: Apr 11^th, 2011 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #1 - Sep 5^th, 2013 at 6:23pm	Print Post
	Nanny couldn't garden after a while but she still grew tomato plants on her back stoop. It was high and somehow, she managed to keep the coons out of it. She grew them in an old wooden barrel that was cut in half and filled with soil. By the end of the summer, she had more tomatoes than she knew what to do with and wound up giving a lot of them away. It was great having fresh tomatoes all summer long, she and I kinda went nuts eating them one year! LOL

	We creative types have to create in order to feel ALIVE... That's why I write. Without my writing, I would not be living, only existing. ~Me~ Music is essential to life. ~Me~ I'm sunny natured with a side of EVIL...
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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #2 - Sep 5^th, 2013 at 9:39pm	Print Post
	Tomatoes are usually pretty easy to grow. Aside from critters, tomato worms are the only real problem and the parasitic wasps usually clean them out pretty quickly and those that the wasps don't get, Moonie does! She HATES tomato worms.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #3 - Aug 19^th, 2015 at 6:09pm	Print Post
	Moonie wants to have an herb garden next year and I told her that if she wanted to pay for the materials for a Square Foot Garden I'd help her set it up and help her with it as much as I can. If she decides to do it, I'll set up a separate thread for it. Who knows, if we can set it up so that the critters can't get into it, we may branch into vegetables...
	« Last Edit: Aug 24^th, 2015 at 5:59pm by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #4 - Aug 24^th, 2015 at 6:01pm	Print Post
	I've been doing a little research and found plans for a raised bed with legs which would certainly make it easier for me to work with it. We're still in the "thinking stage" but Moonie's still interested.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #5 - Oct 14^th, 2015 at 5:35pm	Print Post
	One of the things that Moonie wants to grow is strawberries. This is good 'cause they are fairly easy to grow. The hardest part is keeping the critters and the birds out of them but Square Foot Gardening lends itself well to "critter-proofing". Aside from replanting the catnip bed I don't know what else we'll be doing but she's starting to save money to buy startup supplies with. Post # 36,263
	« Last Edit: Oct 14^th, 2015 at 5:36pm by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #6 - Jan 17^th, 2016 at 9:01pm	Print Post
	Moonie's still saving and I'm still researching. Another gardening method I'm researching is Aguaponics which combines hydroponics and aquaculture. It appears that some crops might be better grown using aquaponics but I'm not sure yet. One thing that had me concerned was that an aquaponic system requires fish to operate. We are not big fish eaters and I'm not all that sure that I would want to go into the fresh fish business. I was wondering what to do with the fish when I walked into the local Rural King. I saw a sign that said "Live Bait" and it dawned on me that minnows are fish and that could possibly be used in an aquaponic system. I "did" see in the book I have that "pet store" fish could be used. The cool thing about using minnows is that if I couldn't sell them to local bait shops -- of which there are many around here -- they could be released into our creek or into any of the ponds in the area. There are three "fishing" ponds within walking distance -- one across the road -- plus our creek and we could always start growing bigger "eating" fish later if we wanted to get into that. So the research continues....


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #7 - Mar 28^th, 2016 at 6:28pm	Print Post
	Moonie is eager to get started and since Skywise shouldn't be doing really heavy lifting until his shoulder is completely healed I ordered her a couple of raised bed kits made of cedar from Amazon and some landscaping grade weed barrier to put under them. We'll still need to order the special "growing mix" and get what we need for the grids but we're on our way!


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #8 - Mar 29^th, 2016 at 6:12pm	Print Post
	According to tracking, Moonie's raised garden kits should arrive tomorrow -- the letter carrier is gonna have to make a special trip, I have a feeling -- and the landscape cloth that goes under them will arrive on Friday. I'll probably order the special grow mix she wants to use tomorrow or Saturday -- need to figure out how much to get.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #9 - Mar 30^th, 2016 at 7:59pm	Print Post
	Moonie's garden stuff has been delivered. We'll probably get them assembled over the weekend and once I know how much to get, I'll order the "Mel's Mix".


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #10 - Apr 9^th, 2016 at 1:00am	Print Post
	Well, Moonie's garden stuff is still in boxes in the living room. We didn't get anything set up last weekend due to the weather which frankly made it dangerous to be outside. I haven't ordered the Mel's Mix yet because when it gets here I want to put it directly into the gardens and I'm probably not going to be able to do that this coming week. So... delay. But given that we're STILL having frost and freeze warnings being issued, I don't think we need to worry about getting a late start....


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #11 - Apr 26^th, 2016 at 2:26am	Print Post
	Moonie's garden boxes are set up and I "was" going to order the premixed "Mel's Mix" for them today UNTIL I discovered that the shipping on a 1.5 cubic foot bag which costs $8.97 would be $10.00 a bag! For the mathematically impaired that is $18.97 for a bag of dirt. Granted, it is specially mixed dirt but STILL dirt! My stereotypical Scottish soul rebels at the thought so..... since the book has the "recipe" for the mix in it, I will figure out how much of the three ingredients I need and I'll mix it myself. My body will likely be wrecked for a week or more but Moonie will have her gardens.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #12 - May 10^th, 2016 at 11:26pm	Print Post
	I just bit the bullet and ordered $446.55 worth of "dirt" for Moonie's garden. After figuring in the cost of materials, labor (mine) and copious amounts of painkillers (also for me after mixing up a total of 32 cubic feet of peat moss, compost and vermiculite) and since Moonie has enough cash to cover it -- she's been saving like a fiend! -- I went ahead and ordered the "premixed" Mel's Mix. Here's hoping that it ISN'T pouring rain when it is delivered!


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #13 - May 11^th, 2016 at 3:16am	Print Post
	Annnnddddddd I get to call them tomorrow and find out WHY THE HELL they can't process the order. Why couldn't they just SELL THE STUFF in their stores instead of ONLY online? Life would be SO MUCH SIMPLER IF WE COULD GO TO THE HOME DEPOT IN GREENWOOD, BUY THE STUFF AND THROW IT IN THE BACK OF THE VAN!!! More


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #14 - May 19^th, 2016 at 11:54pm	Print Post
	The Mel's Mix is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. FINALLY! Hopefully there will be NO MORE SCREWUPS!! Moonie and I worked on getting her gardens ready this afternoon and my body did not like it one little bit but once we have the forms filled the really hard work will be done. In Square Foot Gardening there is no hoeing/weeding, fertilizing, soil preparation, roto-tilling/plowing or any of that other labor intensive stuff. All we have to do is put out the plants and/or plant the seeds and keep it watered. We'll also have to keep the critters out of it but we have a little time after planting before we have to worry about that.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #15 - May 24^th, 2016 at 8:36pm	Print Post
	The Mel's Mix was delivered -- 22 bags in 11 eleven boxes. The truck driver didn't even attempt to pull into our driveway. He unloaded the pallet and left it and its load sitting in the road! Of course, he arrived too late for Skywise to help us much so the girls and I -- mostly me -- had to haul it all to the house and get it under cover before the sprinkle of rain that started when we were half finished turned into a downpour. The downpour never materialized although we did get some rain that night. Both gardens are now filled. We have six bags of Mix left -- better too much than too little and I had to guess about how much to order -- and those are going up to the Guest House. They'll be safe enough on the porch and if we decide to set up another garden next spring I'll only have to order two bags to fill one of these garden frames. Moonie found some catnip plants yesterday and replanted the catnip bed. NOW all we have to do is keep the cats out of it until the plants are established. Wish us luck!! Post # 37,300
	« Last Edit: May 24^th, 2016 at 8:37pm by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #16 - May 24^th, 2016 at 11:06pm	Print Post
	The Mix is on the back porch, not very neatly but it's under cover so that will do until we can rearrange things. The wheelbarrow and the tools are put away and..... my bod is killing me, especially my knees, so getting prone for a while is a fine idea. No Agents of SHIELD tonight so I don't have to rush to get things ready. Be back later.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #17 - May 25^th, 2016 at 7:01pm	Print Post
	Waiting for it to cool off so we can put plants out. Why did it pick today to get hot?


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #18 - May 25^th, 2016 at 11:20pm	Print Post
	Everything that needs to be planted today has been planted. Romeo and WP got into it while we were working which added some excitement to the proceedings. Then DP showed up to see who was bothering her sister but fortunately, there were no further "disagreements".


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #19 - May 26^th, 2016 at 1:44am	Print Post
	A raccoon tried to get in the back door a few minutes ago. Hopefully, it won't eat the plants before we can get them protected....


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #20 - May 30^th, 2016 at 1:50am	Print Post
	Moonie raided the live plants when we stopped at Rural King today. Now we have a dozen tomato plants: Big Boy, Better Boy and Roma. I'm gonna learn to can tomatoes this summer whether I want to or not! She also got five more catnip plants which are now in the ground. Some of the seeds we've sown are sprouting too so we "should" have a good catnip bed capable of surviving SunLord before too long. We need more strawberry plants which Moonie will be looking for. If she can't find more -- it's kinda late -- we'll save some of the runners and let them grow instead of throwing them out.
	« Last Edit: Apr 11^th, 2017 at 6:09pm by Penthesilea »

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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #21 - Apr 11^th, 2017 at 6:10pm	Print Post
	September 21, 2016 On Monday, we worked up Moonie’s small tomato crop. Tonight we made chili with it. The biggest hurtle was: would Spirit like it. She does and while it needs a bit of tweaking we’re definitely onto something. To put up enough sauce to meet our needs, we’re going to need a LOT more tomatoes next year. We’ll be expanding our plots so we can plant more and probably raiding the Farmer’s Markets too.


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #22 - Apr 11^th, 2017 at 6:11pm	Print Post
	February 15, 2017 Moonie has decided to expand her garden so next month I’ll be ordering her another “square foot” garden kit and a little more Mel’s Mix since we had six bags left from last year. We’ll need some properly formulated compost too. Hopefully it won’t be threatening rain when it is delivered!


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Penthesilea Forum Administrator Offline Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster Posts: 47422 Location: The Castle..... Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #23 - Apr 11^th, 2017 at 6:11pm	Print Post
	April 10, 2017 Moonie informs me that we have strawberries in bloom. Not many yet but the plants survived the winter.


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MoonCat Global Moderator Offline Evil Woman in Training Ghostbuster Posts: 228 Location: Being hassled by cats Joined: Jun 21^st, 2006 Gender:	Re: Penthesilea's Adventures in Vegetable Gardening... Reply #24 - May 17^th, 2017 at 5:11pm	Print Post
	May 17, 2017 I have managed to put up a fence surrounding the strawberry patch. Hopefully, it'll keep out the critters!

	Cleaning house with the Dustbuster2!
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