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Backyard Vegetable Gardening & Livestock Raising & Sustainable Living

ahhh bucket grower eh? lack of space or habit?

anyway its been awhile. so here goes. i live in michigan right, dunno the usda zone 5 or 6 maybe. but i saw somebody growing something ive never seen anyone grow successfully, lack of skill on their parts or not having use for it, but i was blow away to see okra growing. okra! here! it just started flowring and i had to show my gf and shes like idgaf. theres a ton of negros where i live but none seem to grow okra. weird.
 
ChickenScratch said:
i have more tomoatos and cucumbers than i know what to do with. come get some.

so...figs, eh? i have a fig tree in my front yard, but it's not doing anything right now. tell me about figs, i don't know anything about them, other than they're delicious.

i've read that sometimes they produce in the fall, so i guess it depends on the kind of fig tree? i have no clue what kind of fig tree i have. i'm dumb as fuck.
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iirc figs take like 7 or more years or something to fruit. some.of the new strains cN do it in three or something
 
update:

tagged for size:

NSFW:

I've not paid much attention to these plants this season other than to use newly discovered Blight spray on the Tomatoes. Third season on the soil and this season they appear to be not affected by the disease. Last season and the first they were effected badly.
I used no nutes on the okra and cucumbers.




 
I've tried gardening these past few years and decided I hate it, unfortunately. Slugs, caterpillars and disease make the whole thing totally unrewarding for me. Plus I live in England and it's usually cold.

I really wish this wasn't the case.
 
Tranced said:
I've tried gardening these past few years and decided I hate it, unfortunately. Slugs, caterpillars and disease make the whole thing totally unrewarding for me. Plus I live in England and it's usually cold.

I really wish this wasn't the case.
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Pests area awful. I have a few outdoor raised bed gardens for veggies and flowers and some containers for herbs. But, lately, I can't get enough of my house plants. I have a few cacti and a bunch of succulents. Some pothos and a tiny corn tree. And some large bamboo. No pests. You just have to find a sunny spot for most of these dudes.
 
poopie said:
Pests area awful. I have a few outdoor raised bed gardens for veggies and flowers and some containers for herbs. But, lately, I can't get enough of my house plants. I have a few cacti and a bunch of succulents. Some pothos and a tiny corn tree. And some large bamboo. No pests. You just have to find a sunny spot for most of these dudes.
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Ahhh yeah, definitely. I've got dragon plants and aloe vera in my room. Love them.
 
Too cold for anything to grow outside where I am, but I thought I would bring this thread back to life and post a picture of my kumquat tree. The fruit is finally getting nice and ripe! I think i'm going to cut the bottom 5 branches when the fruit is done to give it a little more shape.

Anyone else do any indoor growing during the cold months? On top of this 3 year old meiwa kumquat tree I have a 2 year old meyer lemon tree. Also have a few Pachira Aquatica trees that i'm going bonsai.

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I'm a bit into (& planning more) Aquaponics. It's a very sustainable method to grow both fish and veggies - or anything really. Check out http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum/ for detailed info - there's a link at the top right for 'The IBC of Aquaponics' - a free download PDF from the lovely folk who run the place.

The idea is you have a large fish tank, (FT) such as the IBC mentioned in the link, and you feed your fish. The water gets pumped to a growbed (GB) of pebbles, gravel or clay balls - bluemetal and scoria can be used as well. It takes a few weeks for the bacteria to get a hold but you get some in the GB that will convert the ammonia from the fish into nitrites and another variety that convert nitrites into nitrates which the plants go nutso for. I grew silverbeet from wilted 2 inch plants to 4ft tall and huge leaves in under 5 weeks.

The water then flows back to the FT, all cleaned up for the fish.

I have tandanus catfish and silver perch in my FT - many in the US have tilapia and almost any fish will grow happily in the FT. You have to watch the chemical balance until the system matures but after that it's pretty much feed your fish and harvest the veggies or herbs.

There are many offshoots such as wicking beds, floating rafts and even vertical towers for things like strawberries - you can read about them on the site. My pump uses about 80 watts to run but it's a bit older - modern ones will pump 5000lph (litres per hour) for maybe 45watts - easily within the power output of even a modest solar panel and battery.

Recommended and it goes well in a greenhouse set up as well.
 
It doesn't take much - here's a couple of 200lt (~44gals) barrel designs... fish in bottom, food on top - could be grown on a balcony of a unit.

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These beds are sold by Backyard Aquaponics in Perth, Australia, but you can cut up IBC's to be growbeds or use any non-volatile container - i.e. you don't want anything that might leach chemicals into your fish tank.

timthumb.php
 
I started my seeds a few weeks ago. Still indoors. Been really cold here so i'm not going to transfer them outside until the third or fourth week of april.
 
Just started a punnet of mignonette lettuce across two 330mm pots this week. Will post a photo at some stage, they are nothing special at the moment.
 
A lot of my warn season stuff can't be set out until the end of May. This year, winter is hating to give up. We still have a foot or so of snow in the garden. Looking forward to getting out in the yard though.
 
All seedlings are still inside. We had a late frost last year. Sonofa...

Bell peppers
Cherry tomatoes
Evening sunflowers (they're purple?)
Aruga
Spinach
Pickling cukes
Moon and stars watermelon
Tomatillos
baby Pam pumpkins
Green onions

That might be it???
 
For those playing at home a reminder that our hemispheres have opposing seasons. Lettuce have come on a bit, so here is a photo :)

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Plus, I like this song that is getting a bit of time on the radio. https://soundcloud.com/vallisalps/young
Here is the chorus:

And weeks went by but felt like hours
Spring would lie in summer showers
In my hair were winter flowers
And weeks went by but felt like hours
Seasons multiplying powers
That I found in winter flowers

Infatuated and inspired I potted out two punnets of Johnny Jump Up Violas and I am going to pump them full of fertilizer to get them to flower like mad.

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My starts are getting nice and big. These are my tomatillos, scorpion peppers and yellow tomatoes in their mini greenhouse.

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I also have basil, cilantro, parsley and other herbs starting on a separate tray. Once the outdoor soil temp hits a steady 60 I will direct sow some watermelon and muskmelon.
 
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Klue said:
Excellent, more melons in slings ☺
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I'm surprised someone remembered that! It will probably be another two months at the rate we are going, been a very slow transition to spring.
 
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