# Locutus' Gardens, 2014 Season.



## Locutus (Apr 24, 2012)

Hello one and all.

Last year I reported my gardening adventures in these two threads:

Community garden plots
http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f14/my-community-p-patch-plots-16378/

Backyard garden plot
http://www.preparedsociety.com/forum/f14/new-members-garden-project-10665/

This year I'm taking the larger one of my Community patches to another level. The smaller plot is pretty much the same this year with a few crop changes, and the backyard garden I'm putting a lot less effort into, because it get less sun than the community plots. I'll let photos do most of my talking for me. I'll upload a bunch shortly.


----------



## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Really looking forward to seeing what you do this year.


----------



## Locutus (Apr 24, 2012)

So here are some photos. I'll start with the larger community plot, which is the one I'm doing the most upgrading to. I decided to build frames of EMT conduit and wire for all the raised beds in this one. This plot has most of my indeterminate vining plants. Pole beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, melons. I'm using the Square Foot Gardening method and this year I am adding a Z axis, AKA third dimension, AKA vertical gardening. All the indeterminate plants are being strung up, and I also added a clear plastic cover for those that don't like their foliage to get wet. The tomatoes, peppers and melons. I'm doubling both the tomatoes and pole beans, eliminating bush beans and peas, and over at the smaller community plot I'm also doubling the carrots and adding eggplant.

All is not rosy though. most of my plants have struggled this Spring compared to last year. I had to replant the cucumbers, squash and melons because they all died. It must have been too cool and wet for them. Everything is from seed, no nursery starts except for a few tomato plants I bought last weekend to replace some that died. Here it is mid-June and the weather is still fairly cool but has been warming up.

Frames and cover build in progress:




























Frames are bolted together and the cross wires keep them rigid. in the background you can see my seedling trays I sprouted under fluorescent lights.










Another view of the structure. I used PVC pipe and fittings to support the clear plastic cover (6 mil agricultural greenhouse plastic).










Last year I used string to make my squares. That was a lot of work so I whipped up this template out of six 4 FT furring strips and 9 fencing nails. I bent the nails on the back side to keep it all together. It folds up like an accordion.


----------



## Locutus (Apr 24, 2012)

Updated photos from this past weekend.

Frame and cover is complete. Wires strung across the tops of the frames support twine for stringing up the plants.










Squash. I'm going to try to train the squash, cucumbers and pole beans to share strings, which should provide more room between vines and thus more sunlight to the foliage.










Pole beans just starting to vine up the strings.










Each tomato plant gets its own string. I'm trimming off the suckers so that each plant will only have one stem. Important for the tight quarters I'm allotting them (one square foot per tomato plant).



















Closeup of the wires supporting the tops of the strings.


----------



## Locutus (Apr 24, 2012)

A couple more.

Here you can see how the PVC is attached to the frame structure. Also notice the clips attaching the plastic sheeting to the PVC. along the sides I used strips of duct tape and cable ties slipped through small holes in the tape and fastened around the ends of the PVC. When building this I cut 6 inches off the end of each PVC pipe and used that at the end for an overhang.










Just one photo of the small plot. Not much to look at I'm afraid. Carrots, onions, beets, radishes, zucchini, eggplant, and more melons. Surprisingly the melons are doing better over here than at the larger plot.


----------



## bacpacker (Jul 15, 2011)

Very nice. What size is the frame/covers? You will grow a boat load of food in those.


----------



## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

Beautiful as usual


----------



## helicopter5472 (Feb 25, 2013)

Nice job, all is well laid out. You should have some good veggies left to jar up for the winter.


----------



## Locutus (Apr 24, 2012)

bacpacker said:


> Very nice. What size is the frame/covers? You will grow a boat load of food in those.


The raised beds in the larger plot are 4'x18', except the ones on each end, which are 32" wide. The larger plot has 8 raised beds and the frames are the same size, and 6' high.


----------



## Locutus (Apr 24, 2012)

*Update, 8/6/2014*

Here's some updated photos with some crops ready for harvest. I've picked and processed all the carrots, beets and pole beans, with cucumber harvest still an ongoing affair. This year I sprung for a pressure canner and have been canning most of my vegetables in mason jars. So far I've put up:

40 quart jars of carrots
21 quart jars of beets
14 quart jars of pickles
27 quart ziplock freezer bags of green beans
14 quart jars of India curry pickled green beans
7 quart jars of dilly beans
26 quart jars of plain green beans

Tomatoes are just starting to ripen but a lot of the early ones have blossom end rot. Damage control yesterday consisted of a foliar calcium spray, a soil application of dolomitic lime, and a thorough watering. We'll see how it goes. I also discovered about a week ago that I planted the wrong kind of tomatoes for making tomato sauce. For sauces, I should have planted the "paste" class of tomatoes, such as Roma or Big Mama. But enough rambling. Here are the photos:

Larger garden









Cucumbers left, peppers center, tomatoes right









It's a jungle! Tomatoes









Center foreground cantaloupe, center background watermelon









Pole beans climbing to the rafters









It's a jungle too! Pole beans.









Pole beans center, spaghetti and hubbard squashes right.









Smaller garden.
Eggplant left, cantaloupe and watermelon right, zucchini background









Walla Walla Sweet onions. Carrots in-between have already been harvested and I've planted a second carrot crop that's just starting to come up but is not visible in the photo.









Proud "farmer"  Double nickels (turned 55) today!:2thumb:









Friends who helped with the bean harvest enjoying a cool drink and ice cream afterwards.


----------

