Gardening madness!

[Airbozo]

OK, I know this could have gone in the Xanadu thread, but thought this may be interesting on it's own right (or maybe just interesting to me).

I have space in my yard designated as garden space. We have raised beds in the back and front of the house to grow whatever suits us. Usually tomatoes, peppers (many varieties), squash, eggplant and tomatillo's every year with extras thrown in to see if it will grow at our house. This year was mediocre for tomatoes since I did not prune them early on in their growth. No problem, we still get at least 70 pounds a year in a bad year. Tomatillo's grow like weeds and this year we tried to eradicate them. No luck they still grew. I also have a bed of asparagus that has been in the ground for about 10 years now and produces more every year. Nothing like fresh veggies from the garden!

Back garden;
http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/2077garden 003.JPG

Front garden;
http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/540garden 013.JPG

Deck;
http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/3650garden 012.JPG

We have also planted Several varieties of grapes and this is the first year that we have actually had grapes grow!
http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/7767garden 005.JPG
I know, not that big, but we are still "building roots" so the fruit quality is still low. But still that vine is covered with fruit!

OK here's a test. First one to identify the following plant gets some rep points...
http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/1630garden 010.JPG
This is also the first time that plant has flowered...

Anyone else relive stress in the garden?

[Luke122]

Is that a Kiwano plant?

I've got a little herb garden on my front step.. nothing fancy, just Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Parsley, and Chives.

[Airbozo]

Not Kiwano.

I have a few herbs up front as well. 3 kinds of basil, rosemary, oregano and thyme. Also have some garlic chives out back that keep growing no matter what we do to them or how cold it gets.

[xRyokenx]

My uncle, grandpa, and dad are all into gardening, it seems like the way food prices are rising (along with everything else besides wages), it's a good thing to have a garden. Oh, and my uncle has an electric fence around his too keep the deer out of it, my grandpa, when talking about it said, "Make sure you don't touch it, because it'll knock you flat on your ass." As if I was going to in the first place, lol.

[crenn]

Some people after hearing those words... are tempted to touch it.

[D1337]

My older brother got me to pee on an electric fence when I was... I dunno, like 6 or 7? something like that. Ass....

-J

unless you were like an inch away from it you wouldnt have gotten shocked. The flow is horrible and will just break up into beads of water. (mythbusters, man pee's on 3rd rail and gets electrocuted) BUSTED.

[Eclecticos]

OK here's a test. First one to identify the following plant gets some rep points...
http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/1630garden 010.JPG
This is also the first time that plant has flowered...

Looks like Hops to me. Humulus Lupulus?

[jdbnsn]

Great yard! I miss gardening, I too am sick of apartments.

[nil8]

I've gardened with my parents before. This coming spring I will be setting one up in my back yard. Right now I have a composter sitting in my back yard eating my grass clippings...

[Airbozo]

Eclecticos; Yes they are hops. They have been in the ground about 4-5 years and this is the first year they have flowered. In another 5 years I may have enough to flavor a batch of home brew... FTW!

Apartment Dwellers; Hey the upside is that you do not have to maintain your house. Water heater breaks, you call the landlord. My water heater breaks, I am off to the county for a permit to replace it, off to home depot to buy one, spend the next several days replacing it. Call the county for inspection (wait another couple of days for them to inspect my work), then finally turn it back on. Or I get on the phone to a plumber and pay 10x what it cost me to do it myself. The point is that there are trade off's for both living arrangements. I have some friends that have owned houses before and swear they never will again. They either live in condos or rent. That said I would not trade it. There is nothing like sitting on the lawn you grew (despite the fact several landscapers laughed at me when I asked them how to grow grass in the redwoods), sipping on a Cider, BBQ-ing some flesh... But this is the first house I have ever owned (and I am the first homeowner in my immediate family), so I was really burned out on renting.

nill8; Composting rules! Where you truly get something for nothing.

[Quakken]

My brother has a garden, pretty nice too. Corn, carrots, sunflower, and some other things, not to mention enough tomatoes to keep mom and dad happy allll summer. He grew some strawberries, but we have yet to see one make it the entire trip from the garden to the house (it's his garden so he eats them all, which is a shame because i bet they are the most delicious ones our family has tasted).



Mythbusters PWNED that peeing-on-electric-fence thing


Most of the things mythbusters do aren't really terrific tests, and they base conclusions on one sometimes inconclusive test. There are a lot of things they do a decent job on, but they are nowhere near real scientists and a lot of their tests have so many variables that in the real world it wouldn't be like their test anyway, and may have different conclusions. It's just like those studies that say "eating chocolate is terrific for you" and "wine will lengthen your life by 40 years". There are too many possible variables in their tests, and the things that they say would probably not correlate to real life examples.

Anyway, gardening isn't for me, but i bet that it is very good to put that backyard to a beneficial use other than looking pretty.

[SgtM]

Sweet garden AB! I too am now a homeowner (we're still moving ugh). Maybe next year I'll be able to do something. I started the first of many projects today. I'm sectioning the finished basement to include a 4th bedroom.

Pics (taken while the old owners still lived there.) :
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/sgtm_usmc/houses/Gypsy/

[Airbozo]

My ...He grew some strawberries, but we have yet to see one make it the entire trip from the garden to the house (it's his garden so he eats them all, which is a shame because i bet they are the most delicious ones our family has tasted).

I have to compete with my Lab for the strawberry's in the deck picture. If I don't pick them before I let her out on the deck I lose out. She also likes the yellow pear tomatoes.

Most of the things mythbusters do aren't really terrific tests, and they base conclusions on one sometimes inconclusive test. There are a lot of things they do a decent job on, but they are nowhere near real scientists and a lot of their tests have so many variables that in the real world it wouldn't be like their test anyway, and may have different conclusions. It's just like those studies that say "eating chocolate is terrific for you" and "wine will lengthen your life by 40 years". There are too many possible variables in their tests, and the things that they say would probably not correlate to real life examples.

I think sometimes they stick to the "Myth" too much in their analysis, but they sometimes include the extreme incident test which may happen once in a great while to those individuals with a rolling life debt... :twisted:

Anyway, gardening isn't for me, but i bet that it is very good to put that backyard to a beneficial use other than looking pretty.

I am off and on about gardening. I like the satisfaction of watching dirt shoot forth tremendous amounts of foliage and produce, only to be spent and wither back to nothing. I just get off on other tangents sometimes (work, house chores, play time...) and once you forget to do some pruning, things get out of control.

The backyard has been a work in progress. We are really water efficient using drip lines and in ground irrigation for the garden on timers. The fence you see is the waste leftover from the milling of the redwoods that would have been burned or hauled off to the recyclers. Same with the raised beds.

[Airbozo]

Sweet garden AB! I too am now a homeowner (we're still moving ugh). Maybe next year I'll be able to do something. I started the first of many projects today. I'm sectioning the finished basement to include a 4th bedroom.

Pics (taken while the old owners still lived there.) :
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f186/sgtm_usmc/houses/Gypsy/

In life, there is only one thing worse than moving.


Moving in the snow.

If I ever decide to sell this house I am leaving everything here for the next owners to deal with.

That looks like a sweet house! I am jealous about the garage. Get on that foundation corner before it casues problems though How big is the property? Looks like a good size lot.

[SgtM]

It's only 60x185 (.25 acre), but the way the house and garage sit on it gives us a lot of space. The area beside the garage is going to be for cookouts. It's funny.. everything from the old house (minus beds and couch) is in the family room of the new house, and there's still room to move around in there. Our first official night at the new house is Friday. Who's coming over for a TBCS-new house-mod party?

[Airbozo]

ME!



oh wait, end of month no travel for me...

That lot does look bigger that a 1/4 acre. Nice find!

[SgtM]

We're very lucky to have found it. Now, if I can get a garden/flower beds going half as nice as yours, I'll be perfectly content. I'm gonna have to wait until next summer though.

[Airbozo]

Just a quick picture update.

Here is last weeks harvest, and I should get 3 more like this;
http://www.lotechdesigns.com/host/images/6561DSCF1507.JPG

That is all...

[xRyokenx]

Nice! Lots of tomatoes there, eh?

[SgtM]

/jealous.

[Mysteriphys]

I started growing tomatoes at our old apartment, but we had a set of moronic landords, so we bailed and ended up in a place with no lawn space, might be getting a job out of town soon though, and if that happens we'll probly be moving, I'll look for a half decent place with some lawn space and start again :-P... p.s. HORRIBLY jealous of the garage, closest thing I have is a section of grass across the road from the step fathers place in the boonies.

[Airbozo]

Tomato's are one of the best things to grow in the garden. It is so rewarding to see them fruit. Almost no effort either. Just have to make sure they get watered on a consistent basis, even if it is too little water. Plus there is nothing like a fresh tomato from the garden.

I also wish I had a real garage. The shed in the first picture is "Oscar's Mansion". He is my Blue and Gold Macaw, and spends a lot of time out there, so I made it big. The shed in the third picture, is the "Harley Shed" where I park my bike and some storage since my house has almost none. I do have another shed but it is about 70 years old and starting to lean (the redwoods pushing on it don't help), so I have to start replacing walls and the roof soon. That shed is the real junk holder for all the house related items (and a spare refrigerator that holds the frozen veggies and CIDER!).

The lawn you see is more luck than anything else. I just got tired of the dirt and started throwing down seed. Now that my area is under a stage 2 mandatory water conservation alert, it will probably start dying off. I will have to figure out what to replace it with but I will keep it as long as possible.

Man I am wordy today...

[Mysteriphys]

I used to live in scottsdale AZ they use gravel on the "lawn" and bigger rocks to surround garden areas, saves on water, but if you got kids, it's hard on the knees :-P

[nil8]

In the nature of this thread, I got my compost pile setup yesterday.
Any later in the season & I doubt I would have any good working compost by spring. Hopefully early spring too. Blueberries are early birds for gardens...
I've had a heap, but now it's actually contained in something. Took a few hours to move it with a pitchfork.

Maybe I shouldn't have worn my work boots for moving the compost. Now I get to smell dog crap with a hint of mild rot...very appealing while I'm at work...

I'll get pictures of my little ghetto pile up later. Anyone know of a good composting tool? I really don't want to have to stir the pile with a pitchfork.

[Airbozo]

Like this?;

http://www.yardlover.com/products.php?pid=77712050

[nil8]

Terry comes through again! Thank you sir!
Any suggestions for an intermediately skilled gardener?