# Gardens



## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Are any of you gardeners? I know you have probably put yours up for the winter months. I was wondering if any of you who do garden have tried the lasagne style of gardening? We have a very hard clay soil here that we have amended for 30 years. With our chickens "leftovers" we thought we were going to have a good garden finally until the massive rains came in May and washed everything we've accomplished away. We're thinking ahead to get our beds started and ready by Feb./March when we can start our cool plants.

Our county has what's called "Okie Dirt" that is sludge from our purification plant (yep, human waste) that has gone through several steps to be completely purified of any bacteria, viruses, fungus,etc and is completely safe. Jim's leary just because of what it is but I have heard so much about it that I want to try it. You can google "okie dirt, Ardmore, ok" if you're curious. ..


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## powderhogg01 (Jun 4, 2013)

I am a fan of building raised beds, but have tried just about every method there is. I live at 9200 and really dont have much success here, but I am relocating soon to an area better for gardening, so who knows. 
what is the method of using the okie dirt? I think its gross, but thats how they did it in the old days... so it must work just fine! Plus the plants are not feeding us poo!!!


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Our country was the first in Oklahoma to try it and folks were skeptical (go figure) at first , but now they run out and are turning people away. There a are several more towns going to it. It is the finished product of the sewage treatment plant to purify human solid waste. It goes through 7 steps including heat before its considered safe to use. I have heard several reports including one of the docs I work for rave about how big their produce gets and how much they get.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

We're scooping out a smaller ( than 1/4 acre that we currently have) area and are going to layer organic material and put the okie dirt on top to compost the other over the winter months. The doc I work for does raised beds. He brought a broccoli to work last summer that took most of the day forbus to eat it. (Of cousre the are several of our staff that don't eat veggies)..


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

OK.. I have gardened for years, in a couple of different climates.. Here is my input.

First, figure out how to set up your beds, including shifting the land to make terraces, ditches, drains, raised beds etc. so that no amount of flooding will wash your dirt and garden away. This "hardscaping" will be what is most important to get right.

After that is done.

I am all for the compost that you get from the county/city/ whatever. The issue is that there are some times when it gets heavy metals or other bad stuff in it. Ask the place that sells it what they check for. Sometimes they will also take all of the garden waste from the city, and then you are stuck with trace amounts of round-up or who knows what in the soil, so it can not be used if you want to be certified organic.

With that said, I have used city compost before, and it worked wonderfully. You can buy it by the truckload, so WAY more cost effective when filling bunches of beds, and it comes free of weed seeds.

Lasagna gardening is great, as are some of the other choices like hügelcultur.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Here's the garden plot that I have currently.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

It downegrades to the right if the monitor which is north. I had it fully planted. We have a drainage ditch to the left outside the fence, but the rain came so much, hard and fast that it wasn't enough.


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

Well.... I would think about maybe making a bump/ridge between the ditch and the garden.. Think "earthen dike" or something along those lines. 


Unless water runs (looking at photo) from right to left, where the current ditch is?

You do not want to turn the garden into a pond.

You want no water flowing over land towards the garden (unless it is channeled into irrigation ditches, with an overflow area). 

You want all excess water that hits the garden from the sky to have a path to leave the garden that will ensure no soil goes with it.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

We've done that over the years with trenches through the plot and the drainage ditch. I imagine that the ditch need digging out again. We dont normally get a years worth of rain in 6 weeks time. I don't know that there's much except a deeper ditch that would've helped. Our whole property slopes west to east, then takes a sight north slope at the garden. The rain was so hard at times that a huge turtle drowned in the ditch!! Weve had a ton of peanut hulls,sand, sandy loam, composted and put several different kinds of manure and leaves on it over the years. Jim , doesn't particularly care about gardening but he pretty much tries anything I suggest. He has not for whatever reason wanted raised beds, but I think he just doesn't have any idea how to get started.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

The water runs south to north ( left to right on the monitor).


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

Good grief! A turtle drowning is pretty bad!

A plot that big... You kind of don't want to do raised beds... Because a plot that big is so nice to run a small tractor through to dig it all up every spring.

Maybe it would work better to have a band of tall weeds all the way around the garden, or at least on the left, uphill side, to slow down any water trying to rush through the garden.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

We have that, too! It was mostly this past year that the water was too much for the ditch to handle. We're getting to the place physically that we don't need such a big spot. It's just too much and hard to water consitienty. That's why we're going to try a much smaller spot and do the layered style, which in the end will be about the same as raised bed. We don't have all the mouths to feed that we once did. My daughter does her own garden when she has time to.


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## Alaskan (Aug 22, 2015)

Or you could do fancy irrigation ditches. 

Seriously though... Raised beds are nice for containing the plants and reducing work load, especially with a smaller garden.


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I'd really rather hire someone to do it for me if you get my drift!! But, there's no room in old retired pocketbook for that!


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

Picked collards and cabbage yesterday:


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Wow those are nice! We've got our plot staked out and are hopefully waiting on rain that is supposed to be moving in soon. We're starting with approx. a 24X8 foot bed to start layering. We have some old deck boards to go around to hold the layers in place. It is essentially a raised bed, I guess.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Wow Jim, those are big cabbages!
I grew a lot of stuff in NY but have a brown thumb here. I tried raised beds here and realized that the thing needs more watering, and the roots of plants are warmer and it didn't work for me. Maybe I just wasn't in to all that attentiveness.

When I'm done with my pen re-do, I want to landscape the back, even with just beach sand (LOL) that I can't grow anything on. But there's still stuff I can grow to green up the back yard.


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

My husband and I have a 60' x 60' garden that is entirely too much for us to maintain in our decrepitude. LOL We plant a spring and fall garden each year.

Hopefully this coming Spring we will both be back to our regular selves and can have a FULL garden again. We currently have planted: Turnips, Carrots, Beets, Spinach, Cabbage & Lettuce. There are also some Basil and Eggplants still growing from the last garden. Oh and lots of really pretty yellow marigolds planted to help with pest control. In the Spring we will plant Corn, Okra, Basil, Beans, Peas, Carrots and more than likely a bunch of other stuff. I'll try to post some pictures.


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

I'm definitely getting marigolds and mixing them in among the veggies I plant next spring.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

If I plant, I may have to resort to wire underground due to moles, voles and whatever. My patio is 32 feet long overlooking the sand, LOL. I'd like to do a large half round of grass bordered by privet-ligustrum.(sp). 

Then, I have a 6 foot round "corner" with that mite ridden sago palm, unfortunally, I can continue spraying it, because it will always have mites now. I was thinking of circles of perennials , and have to see what the bloom times are. I think the secret to perennials is to cover all the 3 seasons with something blooming. If it's all at one time, I get stuck with flowers for just a month or two and that's it. Or I could go with a mix of annuals and do a potpourri every year. 

I'm at a loss for planting times in Florida. It's so different in NY. There I planted in around May for the one time produce. In Florida, there are several times to plant. Jim, can you fill me in?


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## dawg53 (Aug 25, 2015)

seminolewind said:


> If I plant, I may have to resort to wire underground due to moles, voles and whatever. My patio is 32 feet long overlooking the sand, LOL. I'd like to do a large half round of grass bordered by privet-ligustrum.(sp).
> 
> Then, I have a 6 foot round "corner" with that mite ridden sago palm, unfortunally, I can continue spraying it, because it will always have mites now. I was thinking of circles of perennials , and have to see what the bloom times are. I think the secret to perennials is to cover all the 3 seasons with something blooming. If it's all at one time, I get stuck with flowers for just a month or two and that's it. Or I could go with a mix of annuals and do a potpourri every year.
> 
> I'm at a loss for planting times in Florida. It's so different in NY. There I planted in around May for the one time produce. In Florida, there are several times to plant. Jim, can you fill me in?


I usually plant after the last frost. It's a guessing game when that happens...our weatherguessers here have trouble forecasting yesterday's weather lol. 
We've got moles too. You dont have to worry about moles with raised beds. I laid porous material down on the ground prior filling the boxes with soil.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Dawg - What frost are you talking about???


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## zamora (May 26, 2015)

seminolewind said:


> Dawg - What frost are you talking about???


Ha ha, it will happen....just wait! The wet, humid damp cold of the Deep South is like nothing else in the world. I have lived all over the US and trust me, cold down here is awful.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

We had a freeze already so the veggie garden is done.
View attachment 18597

All the wasted ground cherries.
38


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

What is a ground cherry?


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Husk cherry part of the tomitillo family


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Ok, I guess I had heard them called that but had forgotten.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

These shrunk from the freeze and are yellowish when mature.
View attachment 18612
39


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

So they're not a tomatillo but in that family? Do they taste like a tomatillo?


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

Well the Okie dirt got adamatly canceled! Gramps just can't get around what it was. Well , we should have plenty of animal leftovers to use. AND, it's RAINING!!! Halelujah ! We've gotten over 2 inches since about 230 and it's jus 430 now. We've needed it so much.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

They're sweet,like a citrus grape???
Different than a tomatillo used is Mexican cooking.


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

The patch that grew this year were from the ones that fell on the ground last year.
View attachment 18616

48


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## nannypattyrn (Aug 23, 2015)

I'm going to have to investigate more. I guess I thought they were one and the same.


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