Mikeharold's 2012 garden

Been following this section and thought I would post up some of my garden this year. The beds are made from demoed concrete that are cut to block shapes, mortered together, and stained to look like block or stone. I just added the 3 beds in the grass area this year and the other 3 have been in for a few years now. The soil is from a local supply company that is made up of compost, top soil, sand, and mushroom compost. I've been feeding about every other week with a tea as well to help establish a strong micro herd and help things thrive. This is my first true attempt at an organic grow and so far things are looking like they love it!

The whole garden.



Lots of peppers. Red, green, janlapeno, pablanos, and lettuce. I hadn't been able to grow peppers in the past until I put up a screen shade for them and boom, they do great. It seems they don't mind the heat, but don't care for the sun.

Corn with peas.

Lemon cucumbers, heirloom cucumbers, and heart of gold heirloom melons.

Summer squash

Just about ready!

Better boy tomatoe and bush beans. Also have an early girl tom. that is putting on lots of fruit.

And my heirloom zuchinni.

nice..... wish i had the land to do a garden like that.

really like your beds. thats a creative way to recycle concrete scraps and looks awesome too!

It really doesn't take up a ton of space, but that side of the yard does have a bit of room. Most of the beds are about 4'x10' or so with the long one along the fence being 2'x20' long. Now my wife wants to turn the whole grass area into a garden too. Not sure I'm on the same page though.

badmojo420 said:

really like your beds. thats a creative way to recycle concrete scraps and looks awesome too!

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Thanks. The first set of beds I found the concrete off a job that they had removed a sidewalk and had it piled up to be hauled off. It didn't have any rebar or wire in it so it was perfect. The new beds came off a driveway replacement job I did this winter. Talk about perfect, I got paid to take the concrete!!

Almost forgot about the herb bed too with lots of basil(love pesto!), plenty of cilantro for my salsas, chives, tyme, and sage. Also have one bed with wild flowers to help attract the bees, but am still waiting for them to bloom.

Quick question, how do you imbed a pic in the main filed or make it a thunbnail? I thought that's what I was doing, but you can't open the pics in the text.

mikeharold said:

It really doesn't take up a ton of space, but that side of the yard does have a bit of room. Most of the beds are about 4'x10' or so with the long one along the fence being 2'x20' long. Now my wife wants to turn the whole grass area into a garden too. Not sure I'm on the same page though.

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lol I want to turn the whole yard into a garden too. My wife isn't on the same page. I cant help it. I see ground and sun and I want to grow something in it!

Really nice garden! I like how u recycled the concrete. looks good

looks great, and love to see the use of urbanite, as they call it.

Was out in the garden this morning and caught a quick shot of one of my summer sqaushes and thought I would share.

do you have squash bugs god i hate those things. they come for the squash and stay for my cucumbers .

PS: i think your corn may be to tightly spaced. they are going to need at least 1.5 feet in each direction.

I have something that's been starting to munch on my squash, one in particular. Haven't found the culprit yet though...grrrr. We usually have aphids pretty bad, but we have been on them this year and looks like we've been able to keep them under control, at least for now anyways.

I have actually thinned the corn out since the first post, good lookin out! Have some melons and cucumbers starting to form and grow too! Hopefully things stay fairly mild and it doesn't get crazy hot this summer and things should do pretty good.

RyanTheRhino said:

do you have squash bugs god i hate those things. they come for the squash and stay for my cucumbers .

PS: i think your corn may be to tightly spaced. they are going to need at least 1.5 feet in each direction.

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i have mine 10''-12'' apart in each direction, two rows.



i think i went even tighter last year with no horrible results.

Nice corn Buck! I had planted mine about 6" apart and that's what was in the first post. I thinned half. I think next year I will just plant about 12" and not thin as I got about 98% germ rate(usually always do).

mikeharold said:

Nice corn Buck! I had planted mine about 6" apart and that's what was in the first post. I thinned half. I think next year I will just plant about 12" and not thin as I got about 98% germ rate(usually always do).

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i germed mine in dixie cups in my greenhouse, only went about 60%.

UncleBuck said:

i germed mine in dixie cups in my greenhouse, only went about 60%.

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Nice but i still like giving them a little more room. they get leafs the size of my arm an i don't want them to feel cramped. I have done it tight before and they did grow but they were shorter and the corns where not as large. I guess i like it 18" apart so i can plant peas in between the stalks. I love peas but i also grow them with corn because they have a symbiotic relationship. Peas are a legume so they can take nitrogen from the air and put it in the ground. The corn provides a scaffolding for the peas to vine up and as you may already know corn loves some nitrogen. They grow better when together and now you can save some compost and get peas at the same time.

corn and peas? sufferin' succotash!

mikeharold said:

I have something that's been starting to munch on my squash, one in particular. Haven't found the culprit yet though...grrrr. We usually have aphids pretty bad, but we have been on them this year and looks like we've been able to keep them under control, at least for now anyways.

I have actually thinned the corn out since the first post, good lookin out! Have some melons and cucumbers starting to form and grow too! Hopefully things stay fairly mild and it doesn't get crazy hot this summer and things should do pretty good.

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check the tips of your squash for pyramids of little red dots. those are squash bug eggs. If you let one clump of eggs hatch you can say good by to all your vine like plants. The bugs kinda look like a mix between a lightning bug and a beetle. They have a large pale X on their back. They like to lay eggs at the tips of leafs and where the branch meets the main stem.

RyanTheRhino said:

Nice but i still like giving them a little more room. they get leafs the size of my arm an i don't want them to feel cramped. I have done it tight before and they did grow but they were shorter and the corns where not as large. I guess i like it 18" apart so i can plant peas in between the stalks. I love peas but i also grow them with corn because they have a symbiotic relationship. Peas are a legume so they can take nitrogen from the air and put it in the ground. The corn provides a scaffolding for the peas to vine up and as you may already know corn loves some nitrogen. They grow better when together and now you can save some compost and get peas at the same time.

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i've got my sugar snap peas and pole beans scaling the fence behind the corn. last year, the beans wrapped too hard around the corn, it was a mess. now i have a nice little walking row behind the corn and in front of the beans and peas.

Thought I would post a quick update on the garden. It's going off! The long bed with the tomatoes, squash and beans got a little out of control on me, but it's doing great. Pulling squash off everyday, tomatoes are just starting to turn red, and beans are maturing. Corn is starting to throw silk and have several ears forming. The cucumber and melon bed is going completely nuts and have been getting lots of tasty lemon cukes and have tons of melons ripening up! Peppers are setting up nicely and the pablanos are getting close to being chile rellenos . Made some pesto chicken with some basil last night, yum!

I must say, compost and teas kick serious ass Off to read up on pickling, have tons of cukes almost ready. Thanks for looking in.