looking at that cedar tree in the background tells me you need a few hundred pounds of dolomite spread on your plot unless you plan on growing blueberries in there
50-60 lbs of seaweed and 10-20 bales of alfalfa would be some good eats for your soil as well

just my 2 cents

oh, and a night vision scope for your air rifle for bunny management

All you with green thumbs out there, have you tried to grow and eat Salsify. Salsify stew a great substitute when the real is out of season.

FD

Part of the fun in gardening is try new crops or methods of growing the tried and true crop.

In that vein I'm thinking of growing my cukes and maybe winter squash on trellis. Anyone have any experience in doing so? Seems like the cukes should be a slam dunk but wondering if I were to try winter squash do I have to worry about the squash betting too heavy to be supported by its stem. I have really enjoyed butternut and playing with the idea of try them.

Curt

I think I'm going to try training cukes and zukes this year too.

Anyone have opinions on tillers/cultivators in the $300 to $400 range? My ground is so fertile that even the weeds reach gigantic proportions and the older I get the more my back takes a beating with hand tilling. Seems this range is only good for what is really just a cultivator not much for true deep tilling?

Along the lines of this thread. I noticed that there is a new store in Downtown Oly that sells all kinds of gear for interior gardening. They have quite a set up in there. All kinds of tubes, and lights, and etc.

I walk by it every day on the way to the gym. It is called the Garden Gnome. You should go look at it in the next 3 months or so, that is about how long new businesses last in Downtown Oly.

Website

Looks like a pot grow supplier.

Heavy mulching doesn't cut it for me. The weeds just wait for the mulch to be removed or find their way through. I used to mulch with seedless hay until you could no longer count on it being seedless. Even planting a ground cover it grows larger than it should and needs to be tilled.

Here they come! Grilled the first batch and they were great.

Forget the upside down deal. Bucket works.

HOW do I get rid of that nasty wild morning glory? I have read somewhere that it's roots grow ten feet deep.

If so, prolly really smart about growing in contained conditions.

Update.

Father-in-law bought us 10 yards of top soil a month or so back. I had worked it into the other enriched soil, but hadn't set out my rows. Yesterday I got the garden reasonably level. Today I set my rows.


I'll get a few things in the ground over the next week or so, peas and a few other things I've started and have been conditioning to the outside. Peppers are doing well in the sun room, but those will live forever in the sun room. Perfect place for them.

Anybody else have things they are putting out yet?

Peas, broccoli, califlower, lettuce, spinich, carrots, peppers, cabbage, walla walla's, tomato's, zucchini. I think that's all I have in the ground right now??

Whats the best way to enrich last years soil? Compost? Fertilizer?

Do I need to?

Got my asparagus in last night, thanks to a friend. Also added were artichoke, carrots, celery, 20 bodacious corn starts that are 2 weeks old (early I know, but we have a few good days of weather ahead), a few green beans, a few pumpkins, and I got all of my Mossy Oak Biologic deer feed in the grounds as well, about .25 acres of that in different spots around the property.

Items beginning to show include 3 varieties of potato, sugar peas, walla walla, white and yellow onions.

Green pepper starts get transplanted into pots for grow out in the sunroom in the house tonight. They'll stay inside the whole time.

Starting 144 starts for cukes, zuchs, bodacious corn and pumpkins tonight. They'll hit the dirt in about 2 weeks and have a head start.

After that, toss in the rest of the pumpkin seed and a new batch of corn every two weeks.

Wife gets to start tomato plants shortly.

I added 10 yards of year old cow manure earlier in the season to enrich my soil. Other than that, no fertilizer has been added. I will probably help things out a bit with a bit of AK fish fertilizer.

We try to grow a variety of things each year, and we are expanding our operation this year, and all this great advice has really got the wheels spinning. Great thread, for sure.

Washington is a great place to grow all kinds of stuff. If we had longer growing seasons, I don't think there would be much we couldn't grow here. As I said, we have grown a few different things over the years, and we have been more successful with some things than others. Tomatoes, peas, peppers, carrots, herbs, and squash seem to be our best producers. The most important crop for me has always been tomatoes, and I have learned a few of what seem to be "truths" regarding tomato horticulture in this region.

As has been mentioned, the small varieties (cherries and Early Girls) tend to be the most productive and the most resistant to rot, blight, etc. Slicers, especially beefsteaks, are generally a waste of your garden space around Western WA, in my experience. It seems the weather starts to turn before they can really get going, and the slugs seem to be especially fond of the bigger fruit. That said, we did have great success with a slicing variety from Oregon last year. I think the extra heat made for the best tomato growing I have experienced in my 11 years of living in WA, so we will have to see if those are as productive this year.

If you do try slicers and slugs seem to be getting at your fruit before you can, don't be afraid to harvest tomatoes while they are still green. Once they reach their mature size, just pick them and put them in a window sill. They ripen nicely every time.

Of course, those of us who have lived in or spent any time in the South will tell you that you need not ripen all those tomatoes either; fried green tomatoes are delicious any time of the day. Just slice some green tomatoes, marinate them in buttermilk overnight, season with salt and pepper, roll in corn meal, and fry in a light oil until golden brown (olive oil is great, but don't use extra virgin for frying/suateing - the low smoking point makes for bitterness and a waste of expensive deliciousness).

Here's wishing you all happy gardening in 2010!

Is it possible to keep the slugs away from raised bed gardens?

or your wasted neighbors....... make a ring or crushed filbert shells, crushed clam/oyster shell, or carpet. they hat the texture

Fuggin slugs... keep the slug killing ideas flowing. They're making my rhubarb look like swiss cheese...

KK... best way to kill slugs?

Ducks like to eat slugs.

Fill a Jerry Can 1/2 full of diesel, mix it with a couple gallons of used motor oil, pour it all over the slugs and anything they might want to eat and set the whole mess off with a blowtorch.

Then go down to the store and buy a sack full of veggies.

Seriously though, there's that grey goopy stuff that comes in an orange bottle. You can squirt a line around your garden and any slugs coming across will turn to goo.