Fruit and vegetable gardens 2023

[Fiddler's Green]

Post anything you got for your food gardens.

I have a plan for an orchard and vinyard in the near future and set up my plots to have them ready to drop trees in. For now the area will house a red currant bush that I moved last year and pumpkins.

Two weeks ago I walked over my fence to fetch the two apple trees I up potted into 5 gal buckets. That's one of the beds 20" high lol


Somebody left the gate open and the deer got to the Honeycrisp and Golden Delicious my heart sank when I grabbed them. From left to right:
Fuji apple 2023, Mutsu apple 2023, Honeycrisp 2022, Golden Delicious 2022 and a Miss Kim Lilac I'm working on propagating.


I got excited and started working before I realized I didn't take a before picture


I marked where the trees will go and amended the spots with hot chicken manure, two year old compost and hay (lasagna style). I sprinkled crimson clover, black eyed peas and lentils as a cover crop under the hay and set a rotted chunk of wood to keep the hay from blowing away until it rains and "weaves in place".


Now I have to figure out where to put the apple tree and currant bush. Also the grapes, blueberries, kiwi and roses I bought.

 

[H.A.F.]

This is my 30' x 30' -ish spot that I have been building and working the soil on. I want a vegetable jungle, and if I can't eat or can it all or give it away to neighbors it'll be great compost for next year. The upper left part by the boulder is excavated and worked but raw year one soil. I have random stuff there like celery, sweet potatoes, and some oriental green I can't pronounce.

Upper right is all hot peppers. the lower half has assorted tomatoes and some sweet peppers that I will string up from the clothes lines instead of using cages. The center line under the clotheslines is bush beans and peas. There are climbing beans and peas along every fence, and a row of baby corn. Clover and assorted cover crop instead of weeding, and the walkways are where I dispose of my shredded shipping boxes. I have some bird-seed/pollenator attractor plants all around, and will be sticking stuff I have started inside wherever it will fit.

The ancient oak log top right behind the mulberry tree was growing where the bare spot for the garden is. The stump is under the lower right clothesline and about 8' in diameter, ground to the previous ground level. I have about a foot of soil over it now. And that is a peach tree top center that I pruned back last fall.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

I cleaned my garden up last weekend, and just picked up 2 yards of gravel to add to around the raised beds. Will get some pictures up once it's all raked out. I still need to get some more soil to add to the beds, but my asparagus is starting to come up.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Here’s mine after extending it by 18” on the right side and laying some gravel. There are two 6’x8’ and four 4’x6’ beds. The front left bed is all strawberry.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

Said fuck it and poked some seeds in a bed

 

[Tvanmunhen]

Said fuck it and poked some seeds in a bed
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View attachment 127228

Nice line up. I haven't tried white radish yet. Does it have the same taste as a traditional radish? Or does it have more kick?

 

[Fiddler's Green]

Never had it. I've been searching around for Napa Cabbage and Daikon Radish for my kimchi. I'm trying a few new veggies this year but mainly focused on shit we usually get grocery shopping.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Got the beds topped off with soil. Took close to 2 yards.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Asparagus and strawberries are coming in.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

I've peeked under my pine straw just to check on them and they are waking up. I just bought a fresh Walmart 10 pack before they are all slimy and webbed up with spider mites. Those are going in next week after this cold spell finishes.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

Herbs, peppers, tomatoes, onions and last years revegged clones.


And pumpkins

 

[sandman83]

got some beit alpha cukes ready for transplant along with some big jim chili peppers. in the garden at the moment we have a couple cherry tomatoes, some okra that are struggling, a jalapeno, yellow squash, and zucchini at the moment.

tbh I really just wanted the baby gerkins to make pickles with...

 

[treefarmercharlie]

I got my garden planted and mulched this weekend.

Front left is a bed of strawberries, middle left is half green beans half cucumbers, back left is half carrots half beets.

Front tight is zucchini, middle right is cabbage on the left romaine & lettuce on the right, back right is tomatoes on the left, a row of asparagus in the middle, and cherry tomatoes on the right.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

Going to try my hand at air layering this really nice branch from the unknown apple variety in our garden to hopefully espalier.

 

[H.A.F.]

Untill I start getting some colorful fruit and veg my carden looks rather bland, but everything is killing it. The tomatoes are in the 1-2' tall range, butt the peppers are still like another piece of cover crop. So far the clothesline things work pretty well. I wish they were a little taller, but they are taller than cages and I don't have to reach up. I filled in all the gaps yesterday so there are climbing beans, peas or cukes on about 90% of the fence. The cages near on this side are tomatillo.

Thinking about having a bulk food crop that's easy to save I also have bush variety beans in between all the tomatoes. No clue how it will work out in the end but for now it seems legit. I put a marigold by a bunch of the tomatoes to see what happens.

 

[sandman83]

Raining today and the weeds are tall but we've got clusters of cherry tomatoes on all the plants now, potatoes finally poked above soil; not sure if they'll have long enough to do anything but will give it a go. Cucumbers, Squash, Zucchini, and Pepper plants all putting out flowers so hopefully we get some pollinators through!

 

[H.A.F.]

This is my future large garden. I mowed down all the regular grass but I am letting the cover crop things go to seed. There's barley and radishes and clover, field peas and such. It has about 60' x 30' that is flat. But the near side was used as a construction dump pit - I started broad-forking it and there's bricks and cement and stuff. . Eventually I should have good enough soil over that area to grow some shallow-root crops. The bank on the left is for pollinator flowers or whatever

This year is little worked spots with 3-sisters rigs. But I am using assorted pumpkins and melons for the ground-crop part. This lets me work a small area and keep it fed while making lots of bio-mass to decompose for next year. Atomic Orange corn with good mother Stallard pinto beans. I don't even like pumpkins other than carving them for halloween or eating the seeds roasted.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

Gotta start my peppers, herbs and tomatoes all over. The plants have been out for five days hardening off and the weather called for a low of 42°F so I left the plants out overnight again.

The sky was clear so I didn't think anything of it. I go out and see frost everywhere (temp was 30°F). Went straight to the garden apologized to the seedlings and dropped my head in shame.

 

[H.A.F.]

Gotta start my peppers, herbs and tomatoes all over. The plants have been out for five days hardening off and the weather called for a low of 42°F so I left the plants out overnight again.

The sky was clear so I didn't think anything of it. I go out and see frost everywhere (temp was 30°F). Went straight to the garden apologized to the seedlings and dropped my head in shame.

By July you won't be able to tell the difference. I had chipmunks go through the roots of a few just after transplant. They stayed green until they fell over. I had some extras I hadn't given away yet to fill in the blanks, but I also started a few more. Succession planting. I can pull any huge tomato plants that aren't producing as well and stick new ones in mid season. If they make fruit at all it's a win. If I have to have them just stuck in the dirt somewhere tied to a stick, it's biomass

 

[H.A.F.]

I think the biggest thing for getting the new garden area going was rigging a sprinkler I can just flip the timer on when needed. Noe that it is staying moist things are growing and decomposing. After a few passes with the mower some ot those hardwood leaves get smakk enough to start breaking down but now I am adding fresh green stuff with the cover crop, and adding lawn clippings from elsewhere to beef that up.

I mention it because I am also just sticking random plants I want to see grow wherever they'll fit. All the crazy stuff like snake beans or birdhouse gourds can grow - or not because of the packed soil - but I can see if it's something I want to mess with. Also since there's water I can stick cloth pots of peppers or tomatoes there too.

I think that just using the living soil techniques on that un-tilled, hard-packed earth it'll loosen up in a year just from roots. It's actually more challenging to think about turning established grass yard into something productive.