• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Gardening Thread

DeacHoops said:
we did a mix of topsoil, vermiculite, mushroom compost, and peat moss. the square foot gardening sites all recommend the 3 things that aren't topsoil, but the guy at home depot convinced dhtoy that he HAD to have topsoil. so we added that too.
Click to expand...

For our soil-less salad tables we used vermiculite, perlite, and peat moss. I never imagined it would work, but they're doing wonderful.
 
tsywake said:
IMO, as handy as you are with tools, I'd forgo buying the expensive worm composting kit, and make one like deachoops and I did above. Counting the worms, I spent ~$25, which is significantly less than the kits. After getting my mixture right, the worms are now going to town. I added some of the spent grains from my weekend homebrew, and some of the worms had grown to >6" long.
Click to expand...

Edited my post (see above). Do you have any pictures of your setup in the post above? I sometimes can't see photos from behind the work firewall.

I'm already building a chicken coop, so I might as well build a worm composters at the same time. The only "issue" is that I want something that looks somewhat nice since I'm just planning to have it on our patio by the back door for ease of use.
 
I dont have any pics, but I'll take some this afternoon. Since I had all the drill bits and tools, it took me maybe 10-15 minutes to build them. It wasnt bad at all. It just looks like a plastic storage container, so its not an eyesore at all. Its currently sitting underneath my back deck.
 
DeacHoops said:
we did a mix of topsoil, vermiculite, mushroom compost, and peat moss. the square foot gardening sites all recommend the 3 things that aren't topsoil, but the guy at home depot convinced dhtoy that he HAD to have topsoil. so we added that too.
Click to expand...

Every recommendation I've gotten has included topsoil. Our beds that we left behind at the old house were topsoil, mushroom compost, cow manure, peat moss, and vermiculite...it's the standard "mix" that T at the Bradford store recommends. Everything we planted did really well, so I'll copy that again when we build our new beds.
 
tsywake said:
IMO, as handy as you are with tools, I'd forgo buying the expensive worm composting kit, and make one like deachoops and I did above. Counting the worms, I spent ~$25, which is significantly less than the kits. After getting my mixture right, the worms are now going to town. I added some of the spent grains from my weekend homebrew, and some of the worms had grown to >6" long.
Click to expand...

So far I've added in shredded newspaper, green kitchen waste, three spades full of North Raleigh's finest clay and 1/3 gallon of water a day. Since I am relentlessly cheap to a fault, I used backyard dug Earthworms. We shall see how it goes.

My kid thinks that intentionally keeping worms as pets is the greatest thing that has ever happened, bar absolutely none. I had to drag him away from the raised beds kicking and screaming last night when the Sun set. This is your world before you meet girls. Something to be said for it, too.
 
Last edited:
I'm pretty stoked, my asparagus is finally coming up so it looks like we'll be eating lots of it for the next few months. Since I have so many plants, I'm going to go through and remove all the females this fall. Dealing with their seeds is more work than I'm willing to put in, especially in a devoted bed. Would anyone want them? They'd be great for a natural area, or somewhere that you wouldnt mind additional asparagus plants popping up.
 
4 years in. I planted 26 from seed that first year, so those plants are just now ready to eat. The other 14 I bought as 2 year rhizomes the following year, and I let them sit an extra year.
 
What do you use to keep deer out of the garden/plants (other than a fence)? The deer eat everything I don't keep out of reach from the cilantro to the tulips. They even eat the Hostas. I have tried just about everything. My favorite was some repellent in a gray piece of plastic attached to a piece of straight wire that would stick in the ground. The deer openly mocked me by trampling it in to the ground. $12.95 well spent
 
nomadic said:
What do you use to keep deer out of the garden/plants (other than a fence)?
Click to expand...

Trick question.

Seriously, I've never heard of anything outside of electrical fencing actually working in heavily deer infested areas.
 
RacerDeac said:
Planning to start worm composting here soon. I'll see how that goes, interesting to look back through this thread and see others doing the same. I'm leaning towards spending the money on a stackable setup or building my own. They are more like $70-100 on Amazon rather than the $200 you're quoting. Just throwing them in a bucket/trashcan and then having to sort a pile of worm castings and worms sounds like more work than it's worth for something I'll use for the next 10+ years. Hell, I'll make up the difference in price in what I save on fertilizer pretty quickly anyway.
Click to expand...

totes work well for worm composting. You can get some big plastic ones rather cheap and they work just as good as the ones you can buy.
 
tsywake said:
I dont have any pics, but I'll take some this afternoon. Since I had all the drill bits and tools, it took me maybe 10-15 minutes to build them. It wasnt bad at all. It just looks like a plastic storage container, so its not an eyesore at all. Its currently sitting underneath my back deck.
Click to expand...

With everything else going on yesterday I forgot to snap the pics. Here is the finished product.
emy2y2av.jpg

udatevyb.jpg
 
So, holes drilled in the bottom of the upper container to let the castings fall through while worms stay in the top with the food?
 
RacerDeac said:
So, holes drilled in the bottom of the upper container to let the castings fall through while worms stay in the top with the food?
Click to expand...

no, holes drilled in the bottom of the upper so that any excess water escapes.
 
DeacHoops said:
no, holes drilled in the bottom of the upper so that any excess water escapes.
Click to expand...

Got ya. So you're just sorting the castings and worms when you go to harvest the castings? Just saw a similar setup that stacked 3 bins to allow for the worms to "move up" once they are done with the lower bin so you don't have to do as much sorting.
 
RacerDeac said:
Got ya. So you're just sorting the castings and worms when you go to harvest the castings? Just saw a similar setup that stacked 3 bins to allow for the worms to "move up" once they are done with the lower bin so you don't have to do as much sorting.
Click to expand...

yeah, just sorting it out. i mean, it's SUPER potent. and my garden really isn't all that big. so once it's ready, i really plan to just grab one handful at a time. i don't think it'll be that difficult. if my garden were really big, i'd probably feel differently.
 
DeacHoops said:
yeah, just sorting it out. i mean, it's SUPER potent. and my garden really isn't all that big. so once it's ready, i really plan to just grab one handful at a time. i don't think it'll be that difficult. if my garden were really big, i'd probably feel differently.
Click to expand...

I may try to sell the extra if I can make enough, so I want to make a setup that is easy to harvest the castings from.
 
^^^ Wouldn't the exterior bin simply trap the escaped water? I have my bin outside and raised on some spare bricks, which will hopefully let the water drain out (and stay out).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top