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Gardening Thread

I'm in the design/build phase of a PVC frame to hold bird/deer netting over my tomatoes. Mine are staked and tied to 8 foot stakes. I only have a bird problem. I don't know if that will discourage squirrels, but it should. Because I have only one row of plants, it will be offset so there is room to get inside and pick without having to open up the netting every few feet. I plan to use twist ties to hold the netting to the pipes as needed.

I'm using 1" PVC pipe. I plan to glue only some triangles (15, 15, 21 inches) made with 45 degree angle tees. These will be the top corners going over the plants. I plan verticals and horizontals every 5 feet - half a standard 10 foot pipe.

Most of the pipes and fittings I plan to dry fit and hold together with stainless steel machine screws and nuts. the tricky engineering part is drilling the fittings and pipes so they are interchangeable so I can easily take it apart and store in the shed over the winter and put it together next year.
 
Well, cucumber plants seem to have figured out that they can climb up the trellis instead of running out on the ground. Also, finally seeing the first green tomatoes on the plants. Progress.

Beans really sprouted poorly. Don't know whether to blame the wet weather or the birds.
 
I'm feeling confident about my pumpkins and sweet taters. Both look like they'll produce this season. Tomatoe, peppers, cukea and squash are all looking solid too. Dogs destroyed my herb garden, unfortunately.
 
My pumpkins ended up getting some disease that could wilt an entire vine in a day, so I had to pull all of them out. No big deal, they were taking up a ton of space. Everything else is going nuts. The green beans have cleared my fencing and are growing up the tree branches above like kudzu.
 
WFFaithful said:
^%*!$#@$(&^ groundhog :mad:
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Yeah, I feel your pain. Lost a lot of stuff in the garden to three of them two years ago. Eventually caught that many and gave them a very long ride to the other side of the river before releasing them. They belong in the country, not in the backyard. They like watermelon, and the rind makes it easy for me to secure to the trap trip plate.
 
I've managed to trap two of the groundhogs. There is at least one more small one plus a large one.
 
Flay one Bolton style as a warning to the others
 
Rabbits. I'm about to declare a fatwa against those carrot-poaching infidels.
 
Our dogs love keeping the rabbits at bay. They go crazy over the taste and smell of them, almost as much as squirrel.


We really, really, really need some rain. I'm watering but municipal water just isnt the same. I pulled up the remaining spinach plants last night and replaced them with pepper seedlings. The heat was starting to get to the spinach and the pepper love the area.

The more I get used to them, I'm thinking of going strictly raised bed gardening. For years we've had our big garden, but the raised beds are much easier to tend and keep grass out of. Living in an area surrounded by cow pasture and tall fescue, trying to keep grass out of the garden is next to impossible. I think next year I'll be adding a few more raised beds throughout the yard.
 
We have an azalea bush that is the size of an SUV in our front yard. Thing is pretty bad ass (it's name is "George", because it's a bush). It's basically the rabbit Hilton, but given our space restrictions I had to put the container garden within striking distance...carrots getting decimated. Our cat is 15 years old and likes her Salmon in a can better than venison in a hole. We may have to ride this out until the next house (that process is under way, btw, and the criteria include at least a 1/4 acre pasture for chickens and goats and an equal size sunlight for a vegetable garden). You know you might have a gardening problem when your wife looks at the house and you're too busy scouting the yard.
 
tsywake said:
We really, really, really need some rain. I'm watering but municipal water just isnt the same.
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Yeah, it's definitely not the same. The Chlorine effectively kills a lot of the microbes in the soil. I was going to install rain barrels, but then decided I didn't want to be watering my garden with the war that runs off my asphalt shingles either. My next house will have some sort of rain capture setup for sure. Considering where you live, I'd dig a well whether I wanted to use it for the house or not. Can you pump some water out of the mighty Yadkin for the garden?
 
RacerDeac said:
Yeah, it's definitely not the same. The Chlorine effectively kills a lot of the microbes in the soil. I was going to install rain barrels, but then decided I didn't want to be watering my garden with the war that runs off my asphalt shingles either. My next house will have some sort of rain capture setup for sure. Considering where you live, I'd dig a well whether I wanted to use it for the house or not. Can you pump some water out of the mighty Yadkin for the garden?
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We used to have 55 gallon drums set up at each downspout (metal roof) but kept having issues with the temperatures creating lots and lots of algae. Ideally I'd have a 5000 gallon cistern that would collect all of the rainwater, but living on top of a rock hill, I can only dig down about 18 inches before I hit rock.

I've got a well pump that I have in the Yadkin, but its not strong enough to get the water from the river, up the 100' hill then another quarter mile to the location of my garden. I end up pumping it into a 250 gallon tank then driving it to the garden which is horribly inefficient time wise and $$ wise.
 
tsywake said:
We used to have 55 gallon drums set up at each downspout (metal roof) but kept having issues with the temperatures creating lots and lots of algae. Ideally I'd have a 5000 gallon cistern that would collect all of the rainwater, but living on top of a rock hill, I can only dig down about 18 inches before I hit rock.

I've got a well pump that I have in the Yadkin, but its not strong enough to get the water from the river, up the 100' hill then another quarter mile to the location of my garden. I end up pumping it into a 250 gallon tank then driving it to the garden which is horribly inefficient time wise and $$ wise.
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I used to be in the pump industry. Is that last quarter mile flat or have much of a rise?
 
DeacWatcher said:
I used to be in the pump industry. Is that last quarter mile flat or have much of a rise?
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Maximum rise of 100'. I've got a 2" intake line, 1" line coming out of the pump gated down to a 3/4" hose near the end to attache a garden hose. It was originally used my by grandfather and worked great for his garden, which was about the same distance but a gradual rise. My land has a near vertical 100' hill right beside the river with the pump at the river, so the pump can get the water up the hill but struggles to build any pressure.
 
The 1st law in the pump industry is that horsepower builds pressure. Without it you can't get your liquid anywhere no matter the size of the pump. There is a pretty good chance that this pump might not can handle a bigger motor but its hard to know without seeing a pump curve. Obviously if the pump was used by your grandfather, its fairly old so rebuilding it and adding a new bigger motor would be a waste of dough.

Were it me, I'd call up a company that specializes in irrigation pumps and installations. The fact that you have a good, endless source of water is a huge advantage (I actually draw off a lake to irrigate my yard) and you can make your money back from the new install rather quickly. Before my pump was put in during a routine dry summer for upstate SC, we paid about $250 a month to water yard and garden. I found this insane and had the irrigation system put in. This is also a great resale amenity.
 
DeacWatcher said:
The 1st law in the pump industry is that horsepower builds pressure. Without it you can't get your liquid anywhere no matter the size of the pump. There is a pretty good chance that this pump might not can handle a bigger motor but its hard to know without seeing a pump curve. Obviously if the pump was used by your grandfather, its fairly old so rebuilding it and adding a new bigger motor would be a waste of dough.

Were it me, I'd call up a company that specializes in irrigation pumps and installations. The fact that you have a good, endless source of water is a huge advantage (I actually draw off a lake to irrigate my yard) and you can make your money back from the new install rather quickly. Before my pump was put in during a routine dry summer for upstate SC, we paid about $250 a month to water yard and garden. I found this insane and had the irrigation system put in. This is also a great resale amenity.
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Its only a 1.5 HP standard well pump. Its not very old, but its just not designed for the way I'm currently using it. Ideally when I've got a few thousand to blow, I'll be able to put a decent pump in the river and irrigate my lawn and garden without having to use any municipal water. That's quite a few years out though.
 
tsywake said:
Its only a 1.5 HP standard well pump. Its not very old, but its just not designed for the way I'm currently using it. Ideally when I've got a few thousand to blow, I'll be able to put a decent pump in the river and irrigate my lawn and garden without having to use any municipal water. That's quite a few years out though.
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It can be done for less than 1K. Just get a newer well pump if you're putting it in the river or maybe a 2" X 1 1/2" pump with about a 3HP motor and pull from river pushing up hill. Make sure unit is covered but still that will be less than 1K as well.
 
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