Your 2020 Garden “Build thread”

Markos

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Hi Folks,

I’m not doing much work on the e9 at the moment, especially given that most of my “work” is buying parts from Europe. :D Perhaps I will leverage the forum for another “happy” non-automotive topic. Please contribute! I expect elaborate setups from some members. This thread needs tractor pics and chicken coops!

I wasn’t planning on a garden this year due to travel. Plans are changing so the garden is en route. We typically grow a lot of squash, beans, onions, radish, arugula. The only tomatoes that do well are cherry tomatoes. It’s very dry here in the summer, but not very hot. It can also get wet here in august and mess with the tomatoes. We also use water-filled insulators around the few tomato plants to help with the PNW morning chill.

If you are in the habit of watering by hand, I highly recommend drip irrigation. The parts are super easy to put together and you can hook the large plastic line up to garden hose threads. I have all of mine on timers, but they are just cheap (~$40) 4-way garden hose timers. My setup is permanent, including the main tubing, I just don’t use fancy hard-wired timers.

This morning I picked up some sand and compost. We turn our beds every year but the soils is getting too clumpy and clay-like. Some of our crops didn’t do well last year, and we think it is the solid condition. Feel free to chime in!
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Beds turned, they need sand, compost worm castings, etc. We also buy a few thousand ladybugs and let them loose on these three beds.
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We use marigolds as a “zinc” to keep the PNW slugs off of the vegetables. The ones grown from seed always end up being the hardiest in the end. This year we will be using our greenhouse for lettuce and greens. We don’t usually do this so I’ll have to pay more attention to temperature and humidity. I did add wax-filled (D-Jet AAV style) pistons on the roof windows, which help keep things ventilated.
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Hopefully the garden will look something like this in August. Last year some rodent chewed up all of our apples. I like to think it was a squirrel or raccoon but in all honesty it was probably a rat. :(
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Nicad

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My back yard is about 400 square feet and all the pressure treated lumber that holds it together is rotted out. I'd prefer to look the other way, but I'd be a hero if this got rebuilt.....sometime.... Those are nice looking apples there.
 

Markos

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My back yard is about 400 square feet and all the pressure treated lumber that holds it together is rotted out. I'd prefer to look the other way, but I'd be a hero if this got rebuilt.....sometime.... Those are nice looking apples there.

I had a yard like that about ten years ago. You described it exactly, and it is a common style yard in Seattle. You can use galvanized feed troughs for raised beds in a yard like that. Technically, you shouldn’t use pressure treated lumber or landscaping blocks for a garden bed. Both can leach into the soil. My blocks are old and came with the house, so I made beds.
 

dave v. in nc

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...and its just plain fun to say "espalier"...
Squirrels (we call them tree rats), coons, opossums probably, maybe even skunks...fat rats aren't great climbers..
 
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steve in reno

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...and its just plain fun to say "espalier"...
Squirrels (we call them tree rats), coons, opossums probably, maybe even skunks...fat rats aren't great climbers..

I have 200 sqft of raised bed(3). I have about 50 plants in my grow tent as seedlings. 4 diff tomatoes(2 heirloom), 2 diff peppers, 2 cabbages,.
I do everything from seed. Beans , corn, jalapeno's, tomatillo.
My neighbors love my garden also.
Compost pile in corner. irrigation timed plus hand. I live in the desert and some times hard to keep up with watering.
Also picked up a 120v tiller for my beds. works well.
Garden being snowed on as I type. Good, we can use the water!
The other half of my small yard is grass for the dogs, and mature yellow apple tree.

Spring starts tomorrow!!!
 

Markos

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Sweet! Post some before pics if you are comfortable sharing. I’m always up for new ideas, particularly with irrigation. We start everything from seed also. The plants from seed always have a tortoise and hair scenario with the starters. The starters are bigger but the seeds always catch up and out perform.

This year we are also doing a little “micro greens” tray in our bay window. See if we can get some vitamins to the kiddos in a fun way.
 

Nicad

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That's why there's also a fence around the greenhouse!
My Dad has twice daily deer visitors to his home in North Carolina (Feeding the freeloaders with deer chow) I always enjoy seeing how effortlessly they leap over a fence. While off topic to this thread, that is a fine looking solar system you have there.,
 

adawil2002

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My Dad has twice daily deer visitors to his home in North Carolina (Feeding the freeloaders with deer chow) I always enjoy seeing how effortlessly they leap over a fence. While off topic to this thread, that is a fine looking solar system you have there.,

Thanks, the photovoltaic solar panels were installed on the garage in March of 2016, it's a 9.1kWp system and helps offset the electric bill. Will pay for itself in 8 more years.

IMG_9007.jpg
 

Markos

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Yeah we did a lot of planting when we first moved here also.

And then the local gardening police showed up.

If you look at my apple trees in my first pic, you can see the hog fencing that I installed to support
the trees. I actually used it as railings on my deck and walkway also. Particularly up in the San Juan islands, people will install hog fence around their garden up to 8 ft tall. It looks nice and keeps the deer out. It’s pretty inexpensive if you buy it from a real farm store and not an urban nursery. You can buy 4” hog fence in 8’ and 16’ panels, about 5’ tall.

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steve in reno

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I would put up some before, pics but my camera ate them. (sounds like a homework scenario) My phone does pics but I don't know how to get them on the forum.
I also have solar panels, old school type of hot water. My Gas and Elect is now $100/ month total. Provides approx 60% of home heating during winter months and 100%, all, of the DHW during May to Oct. It has a 400 gallon tank in the garage. I have installed it on 2 homes since 1983. It has paid for itself many times over.
I live in a typical 1980 tract house in the Sparks , Nv area. There are no deer in proximity, no bunnies, no rodents,(the coyotes eat them) minimal insects, and the ground soil is VERY poor in minerals and usable nutrients. Thus the use of raised beds.
Having a garden in the desert is work! I have grown the very best Corn I have ever eaten, and I used to live in Illinois, in my meager garden. My tomatoes are tooooo die for. I am growing Cherokee Purple, and Black Krim this year, but they are not container toms due to size.
I would love to have a nice glass greenhouse. But the wind here is very strong on any given day and they just can't take the abuse. I use hog wire also, but for a trellis for green beans.
Those houses pictured are very nice indeed. Mine is paid for and all I need. I am a poor E9 owner.(that can be taken 2 ways)
All in all, I just putz around the garden trying to make things grow. It is my only fun time since I quit flying Hang gliders in 2015.
The one redeming thing about gardening in the desert, is we have excellent sunshine(320 days a yr).

Thanks ADAWIL for the 3rd brake light info. The E9 is at SFDONs, so I installed one on my E24. And it works marvelously!
 

Markos

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Thanks for sharing @Stevehose. I would like to go solar but I need to time it with a new roof and a possible addition. I sent you a PM on attaching phone pics.
 

steve in reno

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I would put up some before, pics but my camera ate them. (sounds like a homework scenario) My phone does pics but I don't know how to get them on the forum.
I also have solar panels, old school type of hot water. My Gas and Elect is now $100/ month total. Provides approx 60% of home heating during winter months and 100%, all, of the DHW during May to Oct. It has a 400 gallon tank in the garage. I have installed it on 2 homes since 1983. It has paid for itself many times over.
I live in a typical 1980 tract house in the Sparks , Nv area. There are no deer in proximity, no bunnies, no rodents,(the coyotes eat them) minimal insects, and the ground soil is VERY poor in minerals and usable nutrients. Thus the use of raised beds.
Having a garden in the desert is work! I have grown the very best Corn I have ever eaten, and I used to live in Illinois, in my meager garden. My tomatoes are tooooo die for. I am growing Cherokee Purple, and Black Krim this year, but they are not container toms due to size.
I would love to have a nice glass greenhouse. But the wind here is very strong on any given day and they just can't take the abuse. I use hog wire also, but for a trellis for green beans.
Those houses pictured are very nice indeed. Mine is paid for and all I need. I am a poor E9 owner.(that can be taken 2 ways)
All in all, I just putz around the garden trying to make things grow. It is my only fun time since I quit flying Hang gliders in 2015.
The one redeming thing about gardening in the desert, is we have excellent sunshine(320 days a yr).

Thanks ADAWIL for the 3rd brake light info. The E9 is at SFDONs, so I installed one on my E24. And it works marvelously!

Last year
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Markos

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Sweet! That is a lot of green for a high desert! I used to run hoops over our blueberry bushes with netting to keep the birds off. They gave up after a while and we haven’t needed them. It’s a good subject though - how easy it is to put clear plastic or netting over your garden with 1/2” PVC pipe. Nice!
 
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