What are you growing in your garden this year? 2021 gardening thread

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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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So I've got a HUGE update to post so bear with me as I've got lots of pics to share with everyone. This week has been pretty sour weather wise for planting but we decided it was now or never for certain crops so we buckled down, mucked through the mud, and got it done.

So this is one of four raised boxes that we plant. This one contains mostly herbs used for cooking but at the last minute I decided to throw a couple of pepper plants in. Parsley, oregano, French tarragon, and rosemary round out this box. The reason we plant herbs in the boxes it because they are closer to the house so if we want to go out and harvest some right before we are cooking they are close.
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These few rows consist mainly of Amish Paste tomatoes, basil, celery, and Purple Top Turnips. The trellises on the right are were we grow cucumbers. The seeds are already sown and underneath the cucumbers is red cabbage. The shade of the cucumbers helps keep the strong summer heat off the cabbage which results in a sweeter flavor.
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Kale, kohlrabi, Brussel sprouts, and few misc items are planted here. The trees overhead help keep the summer heat off these cool weather crops resulting in better flavor and a larger harvest.
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This is what we were working on tonight. Planting peppers. We love peppers and there are to many to list all the varieties. Most are either Burpee hybrids or Syngenta hybrids but we do plant a few heirloom varieties.
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This is the left side of the garden.
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Right side of the garden.
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And one final pic to end it is one of two flower pots that we put out front on either side of the garage because after all it can't be all work and no fun right? I couldn't get both in the frame easily so I just a closer pic of one.
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Jeeebus

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
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Getting a nice harvest of jaboticaba now. Best way to describe it would be Brazilian tree grape as the fruit grows directly on the trunk of the tree. They have a very short shelf life so you don't see them in commercial markets, but this is like the national fruit of Brazil for good reason. I'd describe the consistency as a grape and the flavor somewhere between passion fruit/pineapple. Makes a nice interlude to the hundreds of mangoes piling up.

20210526-064119.jpg
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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Getting a nice harvest of jaboticaba now. Best way to describe it would be Brazilian tree grape as the fruit grows directly on the trunk of the tree. They have a very short shelf life so you don't see them in commercial markets, but this is like the national fruit of Brazil for good reason. I'd describe the consistency as a grape and the flavor somewhere between passion fruit/pineapple. Makes a nice interlude to the hundreds of mangoes piling up.

20210526-064119.jpg
Those look delicious. I love the fact that you are into growing so many different kinds of fruits. It's really cool to see them all.
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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So I think I have an addiction guys....a tree buying addiction. I was placing an order the other night through Loma Vista Nursery and noticed they had some Autumn Gold Ginkgo Trees in stock so I bought one.

It's pretty small still I think the trunk diameter is only 1-3/4" and he(yes it's a he)looks pretty scrappy but I just couldn't resist. This will go in the front yard kind of off center left and in 20-40 years it will look beautiful. This is a "legacy" tree as they call them hence the long maturity time.

Anyways, sorry for the crappy pic. It was getting dark out as I was cutting the twine off so it could open up after being on a truck for a couple days so this was the best I could get with my phone. It's the one in the foreground BTW the Japanese Lilac tree is the one in the background.
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highland145

Lifer
Oct 12, 2009
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Hydrangea...transplanted it 5+ years ago but didn't bloom again until last year. Looks like it's making up for lost time.
 

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bbhaag

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Hydrangea...thansplanted it 5+ years ago but didn't bloom again until last year. Looks like it's making up for lost time.
Macrophylla type hydrangea are so pretty/showy when they bloom. There is just nothing else quite like like them in the landscape especially if you alter the ph of the soil. They can be finicky to say the least and getting them to rebloom consistently from year to year can be a challenge. I get that question at least a couple dozen times a year and honestly there is no straight forward answer to that question which is kind of a bummer because when they do bloom they are gorgeous.
 

nisryus

Senior member
Sep 11, 2007
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We just ordered a small Jabuticaba and a Chicago Fig, and a Violet De Bordeaux Fig from Hirts Garden.

Oh Jeeebus, how long did your Jabuticaba take to bear fruits?
 

Jeeebus

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Aug 29, 2006
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Oh Jeeebus, how long did your Jabuticaba take to bear fruits?

Depends in the variety. There is one colloquially called "red jaboticaba" (that I grow) that will fruit within 2 years. It also feuits multiple times through the year.

Sabara is the main variety in Brazil. I've had one un the ground for 7-8 years and it hasn't fruited yet. They are incredibly slow growing and slow to fruit.
 
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nisryus

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Sep 11, 2007
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Thanks Jeeebus.

Shown my wife your lychees and she was very jealous! XD
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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So we had a big job ahead of us today and a short frame to do it in. We had 15 TON of shredded topsoil delivered a few days ago and because the rain was coming earlier than forecasted we had to move fast.
We are installing a new landscaping bed along the back of the yard. Partly to help give us a little privacy and partly because it looks so bare back there and we love perennials, shrubs, and trees so why not?

So how do you move 30,000 pounds of dirt quickly? With your New Holland TC40D of course! All said and done it took a little over an hour to move it from the driveway to the back yard and then grade it out. Because this is a raised flower bed the center is around 8 inches and tapers down as you reach the edge.
IMG_20210531_153214055.jpg

I hauled it around 1/2 cubic yard at a time and my wife did the grading work. This is bad pic but she had a string line running across the entire length of the bed so she knew how high the topsoil needed to be and the she tapered from there. Total dimensions are around 13'x55' so just shy of 725 sq. ft. Next is pinning down some weed barrier and spreading some mulch.
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Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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Has anyone done a DIY indoor hydroponics system? I have an Orta self-watering seed starter:


I bought some LED grow lights off Amazon:


I've been looking into pumps, timers, Arduino interfaces, etc. to automate it all for year-round indoor growing. Starting off with tomatoes!
 

herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
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tomato's like it hot. what is your indoor temperature in the summer? they will grow pretty slowly until the temps are in the 80s during the day.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
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herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
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70 bucks for that? haha.


we have one of these that fits 4 standard nursery trays. we use https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Thermostat-Temperature-Controller-50-108°F/dp/B01M6WMUYI/ref=sr_1_18?dchild=1&keywords=inkbird+temperature+controller&qid=1622566499&sr=8-18

to control the temperature depending on what seeds we are starting. just stick the probe in the dirt because you want to control soil temp.

you would need at least a 10 in pot I think for growing a tomato plant.

a couple lamps to get you to 50k lux or so. full sun is around 100k lux but hard to duplicate. and a timer to set them for 16 hours. ( as measured in my greenhouse with same sensor as i use inside, not calibrated)

we have a commercial LED grow light left over from a relight of an MJ producer. it uses a few hundred watts and gets quite hot. and has an external power supply the size and weight of 2 bricks you would have on a house. there is no way you get enough lux/power out of a usb powered device.

even our chepo ones are 60 watts each and we use 2, and have an adjustable stand to get them as close to the plants as possible. max wattage on usb is usually around 5 watts. hahaha.... there is no way they are putting 16 amps out of a usb brick.... power (watts) = voltage x current. USB is 5 volts. they claim 80 watts but that would put it at 16 amps.

the max we get out of those is around 18k lux. i can get close to 50 with our big one, its 8 led pods with real optics and huge aluminum heat sinks.

i'm into this like you are kitchen gadgets. a real hydro setup is nontrivial.
 
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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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farm tour

Here is a link to a tour my wife did. we post things on instagram @Hermanranch
Looks great! Can't wait to see how it looks after your stuff gets rooted in and starts to flush out. Tell me more about your watering setup it looks interesting. How does it work?
 

herm0016

Diamond Member
Feb 26, 2005
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I have an orbit bhyve controller and 12 1 in rainbird valves with flow control in a deck box. 6 are hose connections and 6 have spots to slide 1/2 poly tubing on. each raised bed and where appropriate has a pvc pipe with holes drilled every 10 inches or so connected to a hose, connected to a valve. I have various drip methods on our in ground beds, and fruit trees. ill grab a few pics of the hardware. the greenhouse is in progress, but basically a pvc pipe along one wall with a T every 4 feet and a drip manifold that has a little valve at each outlet at each T. this is still triggered by the same controller/valve setup. I will be able to quickly change the setup for whatever we are growing. The previous owner left me a bunch of crappy garden hose so I keep cutting it up as I need for lines in this system. Right now there are 11 zones allocated.
I have it water in several short cycles in the morning, kind of round robin so that I don't have surface water for long, It's hard to overwater here. its been a very cool spring, I think this week will be our first 90 degree day this week. The soil temps are still mid to high 50s, we have only had a couple days with lows above 50 so far this year. stuff starts to really grow once soil temps are consistently above 60/65.

i use wireless tags for temp/humidity/lux monitoring. In the winter I have them in with the plants to make sure i'm keeping them warm enough and now we use them to monitor avg temps to approximate soil temp. we have them outside and in a few spots in the greenhouse. In the greenhouse I use an inkbird controller to turn on and off fans in the summer, and fans and heat in the winter. as you saw in the video, the front few feet of the greenhouse gets opened up and some netting put in its place. even with this, it can be 20*+ warmer in the greenhouse on a very sunny day. with everything closed up, we have seen 80+ degree differences. so 20 degrees outside and 100+ inside in the afternoon on a clear/sunny day.

I ran a 20 amp 110v circuit to our garden, chicken coop, and sheds and a 3/4 pex water line to the garden to support this stuff.
 
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bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
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I have an orbit bhyve controller and 12 1 in rainbird valves with flow control in a deck box. 6 are hose connections and 6 have spots to slide 1/2 poly tubing on. each raised bed and where appropriate has a pvc pipe with holes drilled every 10 inches or so connected to a hose, connected to a valve. I have various drip methods on our in ground beds, and fruit trees. ill grab a few pics of the hardware. the greenhouse is in progress, but basically a pvc pipe along one wall with a T every 4 feet and a drip manifold that has a little valve at each outlet at each T. this is still triggered by the same controller/valve setup. I will be able to quickly change the setup for whatever we are growing. The previous owner left me a bunch of crappy garden hose so I keep cutting it up as I need for lines in this system. Right now there are 11 zones allocated.
I have it water in several short cycles in the morning, kind of round robin so that I don't have surface water for long, It's hard to overwater here. its been a very cool spring, I think this week will be our first 90 degree day this week. The soil temps are still mid to high 50s, we have only had a couple days with lows above 50 so far this year. stuff starts to really grow once soil temps are consistently above 60/65.

i use wireless tags for temp/humidity/lux monitoring. In the winter I have them in with the plants to make sure i'm keeping them warm enough and now we use them to monitor avg temps to approximate soil temp. we have them outside and in a few spots in the greenhouse. In the greenhouse I use an inkbird controller to turn on and off fans in the summer, and fans and heat in the winter. as you saw in the video, the front few feet of the greenhouse gets opened up and some netting put in its place. even with this, it can be 20*+ warmer in the greenhouse on a very sunny day. with everything closed up, we have seen 80+ degree differences. so 20 degrees outside and 100+ inside in the afternoon on a clear/sunny day.

I ran a 20 amp 110v circuit to our garden, chicken coop, and sheds and a 3/4 pex water line to the garden to support this stuff.
Wow VERY impressive. I'm still rereading your post and trying to wrap my head around your irrigation system.:) You should do what your wife did and make a vid about it. I know I would watch it because I'm also in the process of making an irrigation system for our garden and it's always cool to get others peoples take on how to do it.
 
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Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
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As usual, my kabochas are taking over, they are right out of the Jurassic period. I prune them a bit here and there because my tomatoes and milkweed take priority. I received my borage seeds yesterday, trying to find a place for them. It's way too late next to the tomatoes, the kabochas have all of that and are sending runners faster than Usain Bolt to the edges of the backyard.

I'm still having to hand pollinate the kabochas, the bees haven't shown up yet. A Nextdoor person suggested I plant borage to attract bees earlier.

I planted mint and purple tree collard cuttings into small pots, eventually to transplant because the single collard has taken over 1/4 of the yard and the mint's pot is hopelessly infiltrated with grass going-to-seed.