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Growing Your Own Garden


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28 minutes ago, gwarrior said:

It's supposed to be way hotter than a ghost. And might have challenged the Carolina reaper in heat level. I just wanted to try and see if I could grow them, even knowing "super hot" peppers can be finicky to grow. But I have successfully grown ghost and scorpions in the past.

Nice! I wish you the best. 

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14 hours ago, Maninthebox said:

 

Have to strongly disagree with this part. Particularly if your frost date has already passed, what crop could you not grow from seed in the next 120 to 150ish days, even factoring germination? I continue growing from seed with starts as late as August in zone 4, not counting 'winter' plants such as garlic.

 

As for nurseries, garden centers, and the like, those costs add up fast. I cringe each time I see someone purchase a $20 tomato plant that will be lucky to produce $5 worth of fruit. Other than occassional soil amendments, I'd only recommend herbs, perennials, and discounted items.

 

No offense to anyone who owns a nursery, of course. There will still be plenty of grandmas overpaying for flowers soon enough.

fair enough, im probably just biased towards the stuff i like to grow in large quantities and consume a lot of (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers being my big consumables). i saw 6" tall tomato and pepper seedlings at canadian tire for $3-4 each, as well as some strawberries that look like they'll fruit this year for around the same price. Not an awful cost if one wants those. there are also people who sell seedlings on marketplace for really cheap, i saw tomatoes for like $1-2$. A good bet if somoene really wants those but missed the optimal timeframe. 

 

But yeah one could still sow potatoes, garlic, peas, plenty of others. 

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16 minutes ago, HarbularyBattery said:

fair enough, im probably just biased towards the stuff i like to grow in large quantities and consume a lot of (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers being my big consumables). i saw 6" tall tomato and pepper seedlings at canadian tire for $3-4 each, as well as some strawberries that look like they'll fruit this year for around the same price. Not an awful cost if one wants those. there are also people who sell seedlings on marketplace for really cheap, i saw tomatoes for like $1-2$. A good bet if somoene really wants those but missed the optimal timeframe. 

 

But yeah one could still sow potatoes, garlic, peas, plenty of others. 

 

Those are pretty good prices. Remember that there are 2 types of strawberries, ones that give big fruit in June and once more and ever-bearing. If you buy the June-bearing strawberries, you will need to pinch off the flowers until mid-May to get a good batch. I have both types in my garden so I pinch the ever-bearing flowers until the last week of June to allow the plants to grow and establish themselves then I let them produce. 

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2 hours ago, Fan Abroad said:

 

Those are pretty good prices. Remember that there are 2 types of strawberries, ones that give big fruit in June and once more and ever-bearing. If you buy the June-bearing strawberries, you will need to pinch off the flowers until mid-May to get a good batch. I have both types in my garden so I pinch the ever-bearing flowers until the last week of June to allow the plants to grow and establish themselves then I let them produce. 

 

I'm a berry noob! I found some strawberries on sale for $1 each late last year. I did get a few berries, and I've tried to overwinter them. I had bought a bag of dormant plants a few years ago that barely produced, but I failed to overwinter them properly and had no returns. I also have two raspberries in big pots I am hoping survived. I'm not allowed to plant them in ground where I rent.

 

2 hours ago, HarbularyBattery said:

fair enough, im probably just biased towards the stuff i like to grow in large quantities and consume a lot of (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers being my big consumables). i saw 6" tall tomato and pepper seedlings at canadian tire for $3-4 each, as well as some strawberries that look like they'll fruit this year for around the same price. Not an awful cost if one wants those. there are also people who sell seedlings on marketplace for really cheap, i saw tomatoes for like $1-2$. A good bet if somoene really wants those but missed the optimal timeframe. 

 

But yeah one could still sow potatoes, garlic, peas, plenty of others. 

 

I'm curious what your timeframe is for cucumbers in your area. I don't even sow them until mid May for transplant mid June as they tend to develop powdery mildew any earlier than that. Two seasons ago I lost my entire crop due to impatient planting, but holding off last season gave me a solid supply for pickles and fresh slicers until September.

 

Marketplace is a good tip. I was just browsing Kijiji today and saw a few deals such as you've mentioned. Here in Calgary the seasonal garden centers (Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Walmart etc) have yet to really open up, and the full time garden centers/nurseries are rather expensive.

 

Our last frost date is roughly May 15 incidentally, and we're expecting light snow all this week.

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Planted a second sowing of beets and carrots yesterday. First sowing was on March 19 and that will be ready for thinning in about a week. 
 

Garlic, planted last October, is 12” up, Russet and Warba potato’s emerging and onions up 4”. I used to grow onions from seed however I now buy the onion sets and have good results. 

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Some great stuff to dive in to here. I am going to dissect the heck outta this ..Thanks!

 

I am looking for some one to dig and spread dirt/soil (hope I have the correct terms) Don't have a truck otherwise I would have picked up the bags myself..Any recommendations for Burnaby?

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have begun to have a few slugs in my garden, killed nearly 200 in the last 4-5 days. So, I thought I would share a good method to bring them under control a bit, well semi semi-protect some of your garden favorites. 

 

Spread flour around the base of key plants. They will consume that and it dehydrates them as it absorbs the water in their bodies. When they die, the next ones will eat them, and so forth. Not 100% but it helps. Also, it is non-toxic

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No slugs here, my pests come with hooves and antlers. Ate my entire lettuce crop and stomped all over the bed just to be a dick.

 

Reseeded that, and planted out all of my tomato beds this past weekend. Just a few larger pots/small planters and all of my hanging pots left to plant next weekend. Last thing to do will be to place herbs and flowers to best advantage and I'll be set until mid summer.

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We have a beautiful new greenhouse at work and I'm making the most of it.

 

Just brought home the 8 tomato plants I started from seed....out on my patio now.

 

Also growing stuff for the bunnies at work - arugula has been great. Also doing basil, parsley, cilantro. 

 

So cute...opened the door to the greenhouse two days ago and a baby bun was in there. Was super hot in there (no fans) so I tried for an hour to shoo him out. Trouble was, he'd gotten a taste of the "all you can eat" buffet in there so didn't want to go. I was growing some grass in a flat for them so watered it down and he dove right in. Before that, he was flopping and the heat was starting to take a toll. I sweet talked him and slowly dragged the flat of grass over toward the open door then shooed him out.

 

We put screens on the (automated) windows so he won't get back in. I don't mind him eating the stuff but am worried that he'd get trapped in there in the heat.

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In our community garden plot we started zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, beets, snap peas, radish and chives.  At home I'm going to try a small 3 sisters plot with corn, beans and squash.  Started a large container for cucumber.  Will also sow more tomatoes and some lettuce and herbs.

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