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Old 06-10-2015, 12:54 AM
 
Location: Southern New Hampshire
10,025 posts, read 17,939,539 times
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Cambium, just wanted to say I LOVE your veggie garden threads ... although they always make me jealous!!

I especially like all the photos you include, but they make me hungry! Those radishes (post #123) look GREAT!!

I am doing flower gardening in my front yard but hope to do veggies in my back yard at some point ... I figured curb appeal was more important this year.
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Old 06-10-2015, 06:38 AM
 
8,742 posts, read 12,871,503 times
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Cambium,

Your garden looks great! Can you talk about how you prepared your soil for planting? Did you have to till, add top soil? My backyard has almost no top soil. The builder just bulldozed the top soil out when they level the ground, so I had to build raised beds for my vegetable garden, added top soil and amend heavily with compost.
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Old 06-10-2015, 11:41 AM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,317 posts, read 74,627,339 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012 View Post
Cambium, just wanted to say I LOVE your veggie garden threads ...
Thanks!

Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012 View Post
I especially like all the photos you include, but they make me hungry! Those radishes (post #123) look GREAT!!
I'm not a radish eater but others in family are. I cheated and ate a Cucumber yesterday. LOL Just looked so good hanging there. Wow it tasted so good.

Quote:
Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012 View Post
I am doing flower gardening in my front yard but hope to do veggies in my back yard at some point ... I figured curb appeal was more important this year.
Nice, good luck and have fun with that! I just plant what you can eat. More important to me than looks. Property looks pretty enough, I don't want to waste time and money on flowers.


Quote:
Originally Posted by HB2HSV View Post
Cambium,

Your garden looks great! Can you talk about how you prepared your soil for planting? Did you have to till, add top soil? My backyard has almost no top soil. The builder just bulldozed the top soil out when they level the ground, so I had to build raised beds for my vegetable garden, added top soil and amend heavily with compost.
Thanks!

Moved here 8 yrs ago. Soil was crap. Still is and I still keep amending it.

1 year I added bags of Miracle Garden Soil. Expensive!
2 yrs I added yards of Top soil
3 yrs I added Peat Moss
Last 3 yrs I been adding compost only and it seems to be working better then the other things I was doing.
Last 2 yrs adding the ash from wood stove
Few years I added Organic Nitrogen fertilizer

That's really it. The weather needs to cooperate more than the dirt IMO. But it is a balance of the 2

I can't get myself to rent a machine. Dig out the entire bed down 2-3 feet and just add 10 yards of fresh organic soil.

Not only do we have garbage clay around here but every winter it gets so cold that the rocks have legs I swear and rise to the surface. So when I till in early spring I'm always taking out rocks big and small. Getting tired of that so I may have to rent the machine eventually. Just don't want to spend that money
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Old 06-10-2015, 01:52 PM
 
Location: Sunshine state
2,537 posts, read 3,714,371 times
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I love this thread, and the pictures definitely inspired me to garden again. I haven't done it in 4 years since we moved to this house, mainly due to my backyard having crappy soil - clay that's so heavy you can use it for pottery. I planted mine in one of those earth boxes this year, just some herbs, peppers, and tomatoes. But also cantaloupe for something I've never tried before.

Questions to Cam (and all the experts out there) about soil amendment please:
- Will adding manure help to loosen up the soil?
- Where do you get your compost? I don't think I've seen them at Home Depot and the like.
- Do you throw away the top layer of your crappy soil when you replace it with bought top soil? Or do you mix them in?

Thank you!
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Old 06-10-2015, 03:08 PM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,317 posts, read 74,627,339 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by graceC View Post
I love this thread, and the pictures definitely inspired me to garden again. I haven't done it in 4 years since we moved to this house, mainly due to my backyard having crappy soil - clay that's so heavy you can use it for pottery. I planted mine in one of those earth boxes this year, just some herbs, peppers, and tomatoes. But also cantaloupe for something I've never tried before.

Questions to Cam (and all the experts out there) about soil amendment please:
- Will adding manure help to loosen up the soil?
- Where do you get your compost? I don't think I've seen them at Home Depot and the like.
- Do you throw away the top layer of your crappy soil when you replace it with bought top soil? Or do you mix them in?

Thank you!
Cool! Thanks!

- Manure adds nutrients(food), Compost adds texture and place for roots to roam. Peat Moss highly recommended with Clay soil we have. That will loosen it up. Add compost, Peat Moss, "aged" cow or horse manure each year until you see a noticeable difference. There's 1 flaw with that.. the more you add, the higher the base wil get. Which is fine but you may get run off.

- In mid April I had posted my tilling pics. Was a late start but take a look at what I go through.
Mid May I posted where I get my compost from. See if your town offers it. Nurseries will have it. Start thinking about Fall and the leaves from the trees. (Seriously)

- That's my dilemma. I want to throw away all the soil! But no, I do not. Just keep amending but remember that flaw I mentioned above. Its not the top that's crappy. Its the entire layers feet down. Just mix it all in.

If you have the money to replace the soil. Do it! You'll appreciate it for the future and for the yields of the healthier plants
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Old 06-10-2015, 03:14 PM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,317 posts, read 74,627,339 times
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I never posted these pics.. This is what I deal with Each and Every year. Horrible. Don't remind me.
I get it to where there are no big rocks at least 6-12 inches deep. Its tough to do farther because of the size of the garden beds.. But each year new ones show up.



3-5 Wheelbarrow fulls

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Old 06-11-2015, 06:35 AM
 
Location: Sunshine state
2,537 posts, read 3,714,371 times
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Cam, thanks for your response. I'll check out your previous posts you highlighted too.

A few spots in my backyard are also full of buried rocks and constructions debris. I feel your frustration!
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Old 06-12-2015, 06:40 AM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,317 posts, read 74,627,339 times
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June 12, 2015 Update.. Wet & Cool beginning of June. Finally getting warmer now for the garden to start growing again.

My harvest this morning. Pickling Cucumbers. Not enough to actually pickle so I'll be eating these. Mmmmmm.




Cucumbers growing nicely! No sign of disease yet or beetles!


Fava Beans getting tall now and some ready to harvest



See the beans?




Hmmm, Tomatoes with the Hay mulch seem a bit fuller and slightly taller? Both sides about 2 feet tall.



Lots of blooms on the Tomatoes and some with fruit which are still small and green. Probably another 3-4 weeks till red maturity.



Cherry Tomato Plant... Always hope for all of them to grow on the vine, just looks pretty when they are ripe.. Front ones not growing yet.



Onions left, Potatoes right. Potatoes flowering so it's soon harvest time...Probably another few weeks. Leaves will turn brown first



Spinach and Lettuce never grew good. Another waste of time for me. Kale isn't since it grows well and all through the summer.



Can't forget the herbs..

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Old 06-13-2015, 09:55 AM
 
Location: South Carolina
14,785 posts, read 23,969,550 times
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im so jealous cambrium but I have micro tomatoes growing in my windows now and I have an indoor cherry growing too . the indoor cherry was marked precisely for indoor growing so I thought I would give it a try and also have ten micro tomatoe plants growing so wish me luck if they do well I will take pics ....
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Old 06-16-2015, 06:49 AM
 
Location: Near the Coast SWCT
83,317 posts, read 74,627,339 times
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A Free trick to hold weeds down... Cardboard. You can now see difference With & Without. Weeds are out of control everywhere. Ugh.

You can dress it up with mulch on top but I don't go for looks. Not with the short growing season here. In 3 months everything is done anyway. lol



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