Garden 2016

[Randall]

Been forever since I've been on but here's a few of the garden so far this year!

[Worth1]

Looks fantastic.

Worth

[Randall]

Romeo

[Ricky Shaw]

A beautiful garden, nice work Randall. I'm 6a, but about 2 weeks behind you in growth, hail and a cool Spring delayed things here on the front range.

[cjp1953]

Great looking garden.Here in Ohio we have been very dry.I have plenty of green tomatoes baseball size but am a few weeks away from picking any.

[Randall]

@Worth - thank you, sir
@Ricky Shaw - thanks we had some cool weather here as well, including a hard freeze one week after setting tomatoes out. Covered them and lost some foliage but luckily they made a comeback.
@cjb1953 - thank ya. Been mostly dry here as well. Have had to do a good bit of watering.

JD's Special C-Tex

[swellcat]

Really nice-looking grow. It looks really neat without looking too fussy or industrial. I like the varieties, the stakes, the straw, and, definitely, the teepee frame.

[Randall]

Aww, shucks. Thanks, swellcat!

[peebee]

What a beautiful garden! I'd forgotten what it was like to grow flowers, like your zinnias, next to vegetables. With our drought, such flowers are but a distant memory.
What kind of mushrooms are you growing? And why is one row of tomatoes heavily mulched with straw, the others not? I'd love to have access to so much nice looking mulch as that.

[Randall]

Thanks, peebee.

I'm not an expert on flowers but it seems like zinnias are the closest thing I've found to instant gratification in my garden. Even I can grow them.

As to the mulching, it's a matter of what I can get my hands on at the moment! haha

The other tomato rows are mulched but don't really look it. They are mulched with a mixture of Shiitake log drill shavings and sawdust. It doesn't look as nice as straw, IMO but it gets the job done.

I'll add a few other shots of garden stuff while we're here.

[jhp]

Very cool! Your garden looks so abundant! I love the mushroom logs. I've always wanted to grow them. I thought they would do well as we have mushrooms popping up whenever it rains. Must be a good environment for them.

Okay, so sawdust. I have a ton of this from our woodworking shop. We haven't put it in the garden because I had read that it uses up the nitrogen as it breaks down. Your garden looks as if it wants for nothing. Can you share what you're doing in regards to amendments? How long have you been using sawdust?

More questions... What kind of tomatoes are those in your first post? How do you grow your mushrooms?


Thanks,
Jen

[Randall]

Thanks, jhp.

The sliced tomato in the first post is JD's Special C-Tex. There are also some green Goose Creek Reds in there.

Shiitake like a spot with full shade, humidity and wind break. It's a whole other world of gardening for sure. I grow them and a couple of other gourmet mushrooms here.

Lion's Mane is another favorite. I'll attach a couple of shots of those in this post for you.

As to how to go about it, I consider the methods from Cornell University to be the latest and greatest approach. They have a plethura of infomation on this factsheet: http://blogs.cornell.edu/mushrooms/factsheets/

As to sawdust and drill shavings as mulch, those beds get the same treatment every year and often up to 6 inches of woodchips by fall. I've found anything smaller than chainsaw dust gets a little tough to work with as far as matting. Tilling it in can rob nitrogen and adding a little extra nitrogen just before applying as mulch is a good idea. By the following spring, only larger chunks of wood are left and not many of them! It does wonders for the soil.

My garden is set up as a series of beds where the grass and clover is left as "islands." Instead of turning all of the soil, only the beds are disrupted each year. No erosion and plenty of cooling and water retention. With good mulching the only weeding I do is mowing. You can also walk around in your garden right after a rain and keep your feet clean

For example, the tomato beds are ~2 1/2 ft wide and plants spaced every 2 ft. I mix good organic compost in at a rate of ~40% before plant out. Once the plants have been in the ground for a couple of weeks they get their first fertilizer.

As far as ferts go, I use Espoma's Tomato Tone as directed and supplement Ca, etc. with General Hydroponics CaMg+ (also as directed) and that's it. I also like Espoma's new water soluble organic and have given the green beans and sunflowers a shot of it with excellent results, though it seems a bit high in nitrogen for tomatoes.

That method has worked for me over the last 7-8 years so I really don't stray from it

[pixlpush]

Wow! amazing fruit and amazing setup. Everything looks perfect. I love the mushroom garden, I don't think I've ever seen one before. Great stuff!

[Randall]

Thanks, pixlpush!

A few more. Wild Bee Balm and Milkweed in the pollinator end of the garden. PA Dutch Crookneck Squash.

[MajorTom]

Stunning!