This is not a competition, Luke, and square foot gardens are great. That is what I'm trying on a bigger scale. I will have 6 @ 4'x7's, 2 @ 4'x12's and 1 4'x6' boxes three 2x6s high. The 4x7 footers may be 4x8s if there is enough room. Our soil is not good for veggies and instead of adding amendments to it constantly I will just fill the boxes with good soil.
[Reply]

Very nice...that's a lot of soil!
[Reply]

Lance, love the idea with screened bottoms. That should work.

Ken, as far as voles or moles, try this. CLICKY.

Image

This thing has killed every mole I've ever had. My co-worker turned me on to it and she's killed dozens with it.

I'll be setting out the garden in a few weeks. Can't wait.
[Reply]

So they like bump into the trigger plate, it trips the spring and the two scissor blades close, decapitating them or possibly even chopping them into three pieces?


Brutal.

Barbaric.

Medieval.


I ****ing love it! :-)

I'm gonna order one and I don't even have mole problems. If I turn it upside down, maybe I'll catch a cat with it.
[Reply]

Is that wire that sections off squares supposed to teach those plants a lesson on boundaries?
[Reply]

Yeah! You stomp their main trail for a day or two. You'll come back and they'll have rooted the tunnel back open. That way, you know it's their main highway and they're actively tunneling. You insert the scissors in the tunnel and stomp the top flat. The little round plate sits on the ground directly over the flattened tunnel. I usually take a stick and try to ever-so-slightly lift up on the plate to give it a hair trigger. The next time they come tunneling through, their head hits the plate and BAM!. It doesn't cut the mole in half, but pinches the hell out of him. When you come out to check on it, if it's triggered, you pull the unit and mole out of the ground. He's either dead or close to dead. I caught one within 30 minutes one time. The best thing for mole eradication!!!

Here's a video. Not a killing, but setting it up. VIDEO
[Reply]

Man that is one nice little tractor setup. Congratulations on that piece of equipment.:-)
[Reply]

I love this scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv87T1CQF8E
[Reply]

This one gophs no more...:-)
Image
[Reply]

I'm pretty happy for Lance. Poor guy combed craigslist for a year.
[Reply]

Maybe 6 or 7 months. Little is the word. But it's strong for it's size. I would like to have had the next size up but so does everyone else. It will be back on CL when I'm through with it.
[Reply]

Anyone else got growth yet? I have tomato starts ready to go in as soon as I build the boxes. The wood just got delivered yesterday. Pics to follow.
[Reply]

Lisa and I are transplanting all our stuff right now.
So far we've done:
Osteospermum
Broccoli
Borage
Dill
Impatiens
Nicotiana
Tobacco
Basil
Cilantro
Tons of other stuff to go yet. I had to stop for a cinnamon toast crunch break and she's talking to one of her girlfriends.
I know there's tomatoes and peppers and some more flowers and herbs yet. Some of the herbs are a pita to transplant, they're too small yet. I might skip them till next weekend.
[Reply]

Luke and Lance, those are some nice start ups!

Luke, I really like those boxes. That is a cool idea.

Lance, we have a possium problem as well. We already trapped our first one, a couple weeks back. We saw him working during the day with the dirt flipping up. Wes, myself, and Lil Sledn went outside. Wes grabbed the shovel and started digging up the tunnel. He dug the critter up. It dropped off the shovel though, fell back in the tunnel and kept moving the dirt. That's when we saw how quick those things actually work. Wes put a metal trap in the ground. It was caught. A dog who roams our neighborhood actually pulled the trap out of the ground trying to get to the now deceased critter.

As for our garden... My daffodils and crocus's bloomed already. None of my tulips flowered this years. My lillies are starting to pop through the dirt. My wild lillies are going crazy. Clematis's are growing like gangbusters right now. Rose bushes, lilacs, and hydrangeas's are all growing well. Strawberry's from last year are still holding well too.
[Reply]

Three boxes built now, six to go.
This was earlier today.
Image
[Reply]

Ow, I hurt...
Image
This better produce a LOT of vegetables.
[Reply]

No photos right now, but just noticed that the first of my Thai peppers are peeking through 10 up, only 190 left to go. :-)

All the other peppers are doing fine too.

Tomatoes are doing well, looks like I'll be setting cages for them tomorrow.

Have a few snap peas that are setting fruit now, but the way the temperatures go around here, I doubt I'll see more than a handful of yield from the 10-11 pea plants that I have.

Have about a gazillion dead snails and slugs around the pots now too. I knew Corey's Snail & Slug bait worked, but I never realized it worked that well... I think these snails and slugs are migrating from the entire neighborhood to my place for the free buffet of death... MuwwwwahahahahAHAHAHAHA!
[Reply]

I started my garden the 2nd week im March. Its a 12x12' I added an additional patch thats 2x16' but its more shaded now by my muscadine vine that covers the whole back fence 100' worth and about 12' outward. Pics of that soon. The shaded part hasn't produced much this year due to lack of sun.

But here is a few pics I took today.

Picture of the left side, this is the side facing my house, I had to put up a 3foot fence to keep my dogs out of it. Last year I covered the whole garden (top and sides) with bird neting; but it was more of a pain than it was worth. So this year I used chicken wire.
Image

This is my bush beans. I have two rows of black beans and two rows of green beans. In the background are my burpless cucumbers and a weird type called a pepino cucumber. It looks more like a hairy lemon than anything.
Image


This is a pic facing my house and its the right side of the garden facing inward.
Image

CLose up of my green beans
Image

I used Osmocote plant and vegetable fertilizer early march when I was tilling the soil. The soil is a mix of Cow manure, potting soil and some humus. Started everything from seeds on 4-6" tall rows for good drainage. Then, once the plants became established, I used some 8-8-8 on them before a good rainstorm. They get about 10-15 mins of watering from a timered sprinkler everyday in the evening time, so they don't get burnt by the summer sun. I see so many people watering thier yards/gardens during the day and it ends up being burnt from the sun burning the water left on the plants in the day. Thats why I choose to water at late evening.

I also have about 12-15 pepper plants in pots in my front yard. Yellow banana peppers, bell peppers.
[Reply]

Only one and a half boxes to go. Next I will put up more fence to keep the deer out.
Image
[Reply]

My plants are pretty much out of control. They're getting SO big.
The weather is supposed to be crappy till Saturday, then Summer is here. I'll move my plants out to harden them off between now and then.
My tobacco looks great. I'll try to find time to get some pics and post them. Maybe a video or something. That's usually a lot quicker and covers lots more ground. :-)
My tobacco plants look spectacular. I'm totally stoked about getting them in the dirt. :-)
[Reply]