2020 Victory Gardens

[WhistlingBadger]

I know that a LOT of people are gardening in these uncertain economic times (because it was darn near impossible to buy seed this past spring). Here's a thread to share your gardening pictures.

 

[JuiceBox52]

I have some cool photos of my garden, I'll post them later. Cool thread idea

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Here's the garden at Badger Manor. We have a lot of challenges her: The soil is solid clay. (My friend the local pottery teacher told me that our clay is so solid he would have to add sand to it before he could throw it on the wheel) The climate is unpredictable; I'm at high altitude and we generally get frosts in the middle of June, and sometimes at the end of August. Just tonight I had to go out and rig up the sprinklers to come on at 3 a.m. to save my corn, buckwheat, and potatoes from a forecasted frost. And just in case all that isn't fun enough, we live in a ranching subdivision, with hayfields for about a mile in every direction. So what the wind doesn't blow down the deer tend to enjoy, and the deer don't get, the grasshoppers generally clean up right around harvest time.

So, we're pretty grateful anytime we can get anything to grow. I've lived on this recovering cow pasture for around 20 years (16 of them with the lovely Mrs. Badger), and this year we've brought in all the tricks and cheats we've figured out over the years. It promises to be the best garden yet, and it's something to be happy about in a fairly dark year.

Here's the garden, the chicken coop in the center of the photo, and the people coop in the background. The double fence is the chicken run, which surrounds the garden like a moat so grasshoppers have to run the gauntlet of hungry birds to get in.
2020 Victory Garden by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

Here's my new irrigation assistant, Tayo.
Tayo by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

Sugar peas, greens, pumpkins (with pots to protect from frosty nights) and oats.
IMG_20200628_153830 by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

 

[JuiceBox52]

Here's the garden at Badger Manor. We have a lot of challenges her: The soil is solid clay. (My friend the local pottery teacher told me that our clay is so solid he would have to add sand to it before he could throw it on the wheel) The climate is unpredictable; I'm at high altitude and we generally get frosts in the middle of June, and sometimes at the end of August. Just tonight I had to go out and rig up the sprinklers to come on at 3 a.m. to save my corn, buckwheat, and potatoes from a forecasted frost. And just in case all that isn't fun enough, we live in a ranching subdivision, with hayfields for about a mile in every direction. So what the wind doesn't blow down the deer tend to enjoy, and the deer don't get, the grasshoppers generally clean up.

Here's the garden, the chicken coop on the right, and the people coop in the background. The double fence is the chicken run, which surrounds the garden like a moat so grasshoppers have to run the gauntlet of hungry birds to get in.
2020 Victory Garden by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

Here's my new irrigation assistant, Tayo.
Tayo by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

Sugar peas, greens, pumpkins (with pots to protect from frosty nights) and oats.
IMG_20200628_153830 by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

Oh that dog is adorable

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Same patch from a different angle. We're seriously into oat porridge in my family (must be the Scottish ancestry), but we've never tried to grow our own before. So far so good!
IMG_20200628_153817 by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

Blue corn and black beans
IMG_20200628_153809 by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

Beets and carrots have been slow to get going in this clay, but they're coming along. Melons and tomatoes in the water walls.
IMG_20200628_153805 by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

Buckwheat patch. Most of the buckwheat will be for wintering chickens. A little will be for pancakes.
IMG_20200628_153755 by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

PO TA TOES! (Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew!)
IMG_20200628_153748 by Thomas Wilson, on Flickr

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Oh that dog is adorable

He's a nine-week-old, hunting-strain black lab. He's a hard-headed little cuss, but figuring out fast how things work around here. He's going to be a heckuva dog.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Finally some pictures. We just started gardening this year. Any previous attempts failed miserably lol. Everything is grown in homemade self watering containers. A little packed but it works well. We have the berries, a 20 foot greenhouse, two 6 foot greenhouses, and a bunch of plants outside

 

[JuiceBox52]

The peas we started have reached the roof of the greenhouse and started trailing along the frame. The corn is as tall as me now.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Cool, Juice. Your stuff is so much further along than mine. Must be nice to have a growing season. sniff.

Anybody else???

 

[JuiceBox52]

Cool, Juice. Your stuff is so much further along than mine. Must be nice to have a growing season. sniff.

Anybody else???

It is, we started stuff early in the greenhouse too so that helped

 

[Colin_T]

Just a tip for anyone doing gardening.

Do Not use Vermiculite because it is usually found in association with asbestos and there can be fine asbestos particles mixed in with it. There is no way of telling whether Vermiculite has asbestos in it so the safest thing to do is simply to avoid Vermiculite all together.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

It is, we started stuff early in the greenhouse too so that helped

Cheater.

 

[Crispii]

Cheater.

Pumpkin eater.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Pumpkin eater.

I like pumpkins

 

[WhistlingBadger]