re: 2020 Garden Thread

What part of EARLY GIRL do you not understand?

Your garden is looking good, as usual.

I have a yard full of robins. Doesn't that mean we can plant?

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What part of EARLY GIRL do you not understand?

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I never understood the fairer sex

Link to light? I'm interested

LINK

This is the one I'm using. You'll find stronger ones on Amazon, which I considered ordering (the link has some of those options.) But looking at the comments and photos, I realized that most people were using them for indoor grow set-ups instead of lights for seedling starts.

A friend is an engineer at a company that manufactures lights, so I asked for his help. He told me that any LED light 25w to 100w would be best for starting seeds.

I bought the one in the link because it is full spectrum and square, which covers more area in my setup. A lot of the LED lights are smaller and "shoebox" shape.

When using a T4 fluorescent bulb, I ran it for 16-18 hours and was never satisfied with the plants. I've cut back the LED lights to 12 hours to slow them down a bit, and the plants have thicker stems than those I've grown in the past.

The only thing that I don't like about that light is that you can't daisy chain it together like some of the other lights you'll see.

My plants are in three rubbermaid containers. Two of them are 15" x 24" and the light covers them sufficiently (light is positioned much higher than with a fluorescent.) Another container is 18" x 30" and the coverage is not as good.

I'd post photos to help you see the coverage, but I'm a caveman and haven't learned how to internet.

It's Cattle Panel bent in half. 4' X 16', so when I make the trellis it stands a little over 7' tall. Just enough for me to walk under.

I actually need to get another one since I've widened the garden.

Yeap that stuff is 4 ga, so my 14 ga can maybe be used as a fence with supports but not like how you have it.

Anyone around the Lafayette area know where to get cattle fence?

I pulled the last of my broccoli plants in my raised bed yesterday, then turned the mix and did a bit of prepping for plant out in a couple of weeks. Last year, I just added a bunch of compost to the mix and the soil definitely feels heavier. I'm going to add some vermiculite and some peat moss to loosen it up. This year, instead of adding compost to the whole bed and mixing it in, I'm just going to mix it in and around the planting hole of whatever I'm planting.

I come in need of advice in regards to raised beds.

I plan on building a 4x8 raised bed soon and have two questions. What type of soil should I fill it with? How much can I expect to plant in a bed that size? For spring/summer I’d like to do some big tomato, cherry tomato, peppers, and maybe some else easy for a newbie.

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What type of soil should I fill it with?

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Where are you located? I found the best way to get bulk dirt for cheap is a local garden/landscape materials supplier. I bought a couple of yards of garden soil from my local nursery for $25/ half yard. When comparing that to even the cheapest, crappiest bagged soil sold at the big box stores, it was much cheaper. Not to mention some of the most beautiful soil I’ve ever seen. I mixed it with my existing dirt before sending it off to the LSU soil lab. You can see the results on the bottom of page 8 of this thread.

Yes. I received them last week, placed some compost I had in the bin with soaked cardboard and veggie scraps, they are alive and active.