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Gardening Thread

My only advice, ladydeac, is to keep a close eye on the summer squash. That stuff spreads really quickly, and the big leaves can shade out smaller plants.

Looks like a great setup though!
 
I use drip hoses and water mine every 2-3 days during the summer drought months. According to a friend who got his degree in Turf Management from State, the best time to water is between the hours of 2 and 3 am. Studies have shown that the mold and fungus accumulation is significantly less when watering at that time.

That is pretty much the same thing that we do. We water 3 days during the summer from mid-June until September and at 2:00am. When it is really dry, we will sometimes override the system and add a fourth day per week; however, I think we only do that maybe once or twice a year.
 
Sounds like drip hoses are worth looking into. I just didn't know if something simpler would work since our plot is fairly small. By saying you water every 2-3 days in summer does that mean you don't water at all (or as much) between now and June? (You can tell I am quite the novice!).

Townie, the squashes taking over is something we are aware of to watch out for. We've got those and the tomatoes on the north side of the garden to try to prevent some of the shading problems, but will certainly be mindful of keeping the big leaves in check!
 
Sounds like drip hoses are worth looking into. I just didn't know if something simpler would work since our plot is fairly small. By saying you water every 2-3 days in summer does that mean you don't water at all (or as much) between now and June? (You can tell I am quite the novice!).

Townie, the squashes taking over is something we are aware of to watch out for. We've got those and the tomatoes on the north side of the garden to try to prevent some of the shading problems, but will certainly be mindful of keeping the big leaves in check!

Between now and June we only do it as needed. Right now its not drought season and the temperatures aren't hot, so with the rains that come you don't have to water as much.
 
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I don't know a lot about SF gardening, but 8 cucumber plants in a single SF seems like a lot to me. Same with 9 bush bean plants...those things spread out quite a bit more than a single SF area when mature. And as mentioned by another poster, I'd be worried about the Squash plants shading out the lettuce as they mature.

For your tomatoes, since they are all in a row, you might consider a Florida weave setup rather than individual stakes. I, admittedly, have never tried it, but it seems to be a good way to go to limit the amount of pruning, increase production, and still not take up too much space (i.e. a cage).

As for soil, the combo I used was vermiculite, peat moss, cow manure compost, mushroom compost, and potting soil.

You're probably not all that late for your area. You could have started the seedlings inside to get a jump on the growing season, but it's probably still too early to put seedlings and direct seed into the ground for DC. Tax day is the standard around Charlotte, but you guys have a couple more weeks of worrisome weather up that way.

As for watering, I recommend a watering wand if you're going to water by hose. Preferably one with an adjustable flow, as you need to turn the pressure down when the seedlings are first coming up. Also, be sure to keep the water off the leaves of the tomato plants. Once the plants are mature, I don't use the wand at all and just use my thumb to control the flow and water at the base of the plant.

The good news about a raised bed is that they tend to drain well, so over watering is hard to do.
 
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Between now and June we only do it as needed. Right now its not drought season and the temperatures aren't hot, so with the rains that come you don't have to water as much.

The only caveat to that I'll add is that I water a lot while seeds and seedlings are still sprouting. Germination requires moisture, and until the seedlings develop deep enough roots, I water lightly every day to keep the top layer of soil damp. It tends to dry out pretty quickly from the afternoon sun.
 
Do you stake your peppers? Summer squashes?

I've got all of my beans on fence or trellis. My cucumbers are on trellis. Water melons are along a fence. I have a Florida weave setup for the tomatoes. Trying to decide now whether to just let the pepper and squash plants grow or whether to stake them.
 
Do you stake your peppers? Summer squashes?

I've got all of my beans on fence or trellis. My cucumbers are on trellis. Water melons are along a fence. I have a Florida weave setup for the tomatoes. Trying to decide now whether to just let the pepper and squash plants grow or whether to stake them.


Our peppers don't start off on stakes, but when they get heavy, we will. Tomatoes are in cages. We don't put cucumbers on a trellis.
 
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Do you have a trellis for your hops?

Somewhat. I've got 3 15' "totem poles" as my wife calls them 8 ft apart that are cabled together. I've got three plants in between each pole, and 3 strings running down from the cable to each plant.

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very nice. we found these old wooden ladders at a yard sale that we propped up that look half-decent we'll be using.
 
Hope everyone's plants survived. Saw that the Winston-Salem airport location on WeatherUnderground reported a low of 30 degrees last night. It stayed a balmy 39 here in CLT, so I didn't bother to cover anything up.

Our peppers don't start off on stakes, but when they get heavy, we will.

Yeah, since I don't have a lot of space, I'm thinking of staking them. I was going to go ahead and drive the stakes now to prevent doing any root damage by driving them once the plant is mature. Trying to plan ahead. I have a bunch of stakes, so I think I'll just place one beside all of my squash and pepper plants. If I don't need them, I don't need them, but it won't hurt to have them there.
 
We got down to 34 last night, and when I left a little after 6 this morning I could see frost on the ground. I left my tomato and eggplants uncovered, as they're close to 6" now and survived the harder frost earlier this year. If they dont make it, no biggie. I really lucked out planting my garden a few weeks later this year, otherwise I'd have had a mess.
 
Strange little whitish bugs on 2 of my 8 tomato plants (the two most mature that have started flowering). No visible damage to the plants yet. Picked 30+ off of the two plants. Any ideas? They don't resemble anything I've seen online. Maybe they are early stage squash bugs?

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So. Much. Rain.

They've been calling for 40% or greater chance of rain for something like 8 of the last 10 days in Charlotte and not a drop has fallen on my garden yet. Hoping it finally comes through tomorrow.
 
They've been calling for 40% or greater chance of rain for something like 8 of the last 10 days in Charlotte and not a drop has fallen on my garden yet. Hoping it finally comes through tomorrow.

Every time I went outside today (about 6 times and counting) there has been several rain clouds in the sky; yet no rain has fallen.
 
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