Garden Time

[Dexter Morgan]

Well, today I decided I'm goin' to plant a garden this year. As some of you know.... I didn't have the time or energy last year to plant one. I'm thinkin' of havin' a good sized one, and a BIG punkin patch. Later on today, I'm goin' to venture outside, and look over my fruit trees, grapes, flower gardens, and Champ's rose bush. Hopefully, everything survived the Winter. We have a bazillion lady bugs in the house already, and last week, I pulled a tick off one of the outside cats.  Jesum Crow.... I hope this is not an indication of a bad bug, and tick season. I've never found ticks in this area before May so, that is not a good sign. I still haven't decided what to plant in my garden but, I know I'm planting potatoes, and onions. Those are pretty much a staple at my house. 

[me]

Are ya gonna do pumpkins again?  We're gonna try some bush cucumbers again this year but I think we're probably not going to do radishes or green onions.  We'll probably do more green beans than we have been and bell peppers and tomato's.  I'm thinking real serious about some swiss chard again too.

[kimmi]

Well I really want my yard sodded this year but it is going to cost a little over $8000.  I'm going to have the guy come over next week so we can map out flower beds and a garden so I need less pallets of sod for my yard.  I could reseed the whole thing, but it still needs torn up and grated.  Also with seed and my sandy soil, it could all wash away with the first rainfall.  I'm thinking about going to the bank and seeing if a can get a loan.  I know that is just crazy talk right about now.

What I would like to do is instead of cutting out a whole chunk in one area, eliminate a 2 foot wide strip along the back and plant vegetables in there.  That way if it doesn't work well or I get tired of it, it isn't a huge square and I can plant perennials. Does that make sense? 

[me]

It sure does make sense.  You might want to go a tad wider than 2ft though.  Our yard is too small to have a chunk cut out for a garden so we put ours along our privacy fence and its about 5ft wide and 10ft long.   It started out about 3ft wide and 8ft long but we found that wasn't quite large enough so we increased it.  If you're planting tomato's get some sweet basil and plant between the plants and it will keep those ugly worms off of them and you can cut and dry it in the fall and use it for seasoning if you like. 
Too bad you didn't say something about needing to reseed your lawn last fall.  The best time to put out grass seed is on top of snow.  I know it sounds crazy but it works.  I've done that to a couple of places and when the grass came up in the spring it was thick and pretty much even.  One of the yards was nothing but weeds and we made sure they were pulled up or cut short that fall, threw down seed after a snow fall of around 3in and the grass came up and choked out the weeds, thank goodness, in the spring.  The other yard had a hill that was bare and washing away and we did the same there and the hill is covered with grass now and not washing away. 

[kimmi]

We don't get snow!    Although we did a little this year.  We can reseed either spring or fall around here. I really need to tear up what is out there and start over because I have some pretty nasty weeds that have taken over and the job is just too big for me.

I thought of only going 2 feet wide because the length of the back part of my yard is 130 feet.  I am going to come out 4 feet from the fence with pine straw.  He wants to put 18 Leyland Cyprus trees in along the two sides of my yard.  I have 100 feet in length on either side. 


Good call on the basil.  I would like to have herbs too!

[me]

I'm thinking about trying those a couple of those deals where you plant tomato's or strawberries in those hanging pots that grow the plants upside down. 

[kimmi]

I've seen those.  the third graders are making them with 5 gallon buckets, screen and newspaper. 

[me]

I've seen those.  the third graders are making them with 5 gallon buckets, screen and newspaper.

Let me know how that works out.  I'd think a 5gal bucket would be awfully heavy for hanging though.  Are they using plastic or metal buckets?

[kimmi]

Plastic.  The good part about them is that they can be reused next year.  I don't think you have to fill the whole thing with dirt.  We have an organic garden at school and I think they hand them from the posts so they have something really sturdy to hang them on.

[me]

Oh, I'd be using shepard's hooks so I think I'd need to go smaller.

[Ma and Pa]

me: a nice healthy IND. tomato plant needs some room to spread its roots; the 5 gallon bucket sounds good -- you just need something sturdier than one of those cemetary/yard plant shepherd's hooks to hang it from. At the least, a piece of concrete rebar could be driven in right alongside and wired up securely to give your hook more "spine". Just a thought.

[me]

me: a nice healthy IND. tomato plant needs some room to spread its roots; the 5 gallon bucket sounds good -- you just need something sturdier than one of those cemetary/yard plant shepherd's hooks to hang it from. At the least, a piece of concrete rebar could be driven in right alongside and wired up securely to give your hook more "spine". Just a thought.

A friend of ours did shore up our double hook one with a piece of rebar but, even though it don't bend now, it tries to fall over when it gets windy and the ground is soft from a lot of rain.  I think the Better Boy tomato's would do fine in a 3gal bucket because we've had them grow to over 6ft tall and pretty thick stems and when we pulled them up in the fall there wasn't that much of a root system comparatively.

[kimmi]

I thought about attaching some sort of sturdy hooks from the bottom of my deck for the tomato plants to hang from.

[Ma and Pa]

me: A piece of steel with a hole in the center to slide the rod thru could be welded at a preset depth to sit at ground level and keep the hook from tipping, I've done this, so I know it works. If you don't know a welder, I'll do it for you.

[me]

I thought about attaching some sort of sturdy hooks from the bottom of my deck for the tomato plants to hang from.

That should work as long as they can get sun.  You should be able to get some heavy "S" hooks at Lowe's or some place like that.