Author Topic: Cohutt builds a garden, Chapter 2 (Read 202981 times)

cohutt · « **Reply #270 on:** May 10, 2010, 08:11:12 PM »

Tomatoes coming along from last Saturday (some tiny fruit is set on the Roma VFs and Tommy-Toes)

"King of the garden" and "Christmas" limas are beginning to run

The "gourd tower from hell" bamboo yard-art thang has some baby climbers coming up

OKGranny · « **Reply #271 on:** May 15, 2010, 11:22:26 PM »

It's looking wonderful.

TwoBluesMama · « **Reply #272 on:** May 16, 2010, 08:16:58 PM »

So awesome you have tomatoes already. Garden is looking so great!

We F I N A L L Y got ours planted today. Stupid Colorado weather. Now we just have to hope it doesn't get really hot really quickly before they get established. Snow one week and 75 the next. This has been one weird spring.

So I may be begging Cohutt send me some tomatoes please

QuiltingB · « **Reply #273 on:** May 17, 2010, 12:17:43 AM »

Nice tomato cages - I'm seriously considering getting some of that rusty rebar fence-like wire stuff and making cages. I currently use those small cheapie cages and use a stake to hold the cage upright and tie the tomato branches up when it quickly outgrows the small cheapie cage - and use ribbon to tie the tomato vines up.

My main concern were does the metal continue to rust and do the welds holding the wires together stay welded when rusty, ( don't wand the cages to start falling apart after a year or 2) and are the openings large enough to pull tomatoes thru? It does seem that it would be easier to just keep pushing stray tomato branches into the large cages - not have to spend hours tieing them up.

cohutt · « **Reply #274 on:** May 17, 2010, 04:16:19 AM »

OKG,

TBM,

I think we ought to wait until they are harvested. Bird in the hand etc.....

QB,

From what the old timers tell me around here, the re-mesh cages last forever.
The wire rusts to a nice coating and stabilizes.
I have never heard anyone say anything about the welds not holding
the openings are 6" squares, so I expect everything I could possibly harvest to fit through.

Crispy Critter · « **Reply #275 on:** May 19, 2010, 04:10:30 AM »

+1 for your continued hard work, Cohutt.

I hope you are ready for the incredible bounty you are about to reap!

cohutt · « **Reply #276 on:** May 19, 2010, 08:07:14 PM »

Thanks critter. I've coasted for a couple weeks though.

Ground cherries have 'sploded; Red Brandywine tomatoes are coming on at the front corners.

Mrs C's 3 special request cutting flower beds are progressing nicely in front of them. (You can see that I had to plant parts of them a second time thanks to marauding tree rats. Things got better when I strung some netting over them.)

Beans continue to act like beans, healthy ones even.....

cohutt · « **Reply #277 on:** May 19, 2010, 08:14:28 PM »

Romas are bushing out in the back plot. Potatoes in foreground. This season's new tomato trellis experiment in background.

And my favorite garden picture yet this year- from the end of the big Roma bed looking back towards the house:

cohutt · « **Reply #278 on:** May 23, 2010, 08:20:57 PM »

Gourds.

I posted earlier I that I am attempting to grow some gourds for birdhouses for use in the 2011 garden.

It appears they are starting to wake up.

The tendrils are reaching out for anything to grab; these are cool.

They reach out straight until they hit something, then they start bending to wrap around what ever it is they touch.

Funny thing is that after they get a grip they coil up like a spring too. It's like they are not only attaching but are pulling up too.

You can see how this one has grabbed the string

and these two have started coiling up after getting a good grip.

cohutt · « **Reply #279 on:** May 24, 2010, 10:29:09 AM »

The Romas are multiplying

The first year asparagus is steadily sending up more shoots and they are looking a little better than the twiggy shoots that were the first to appear.

joeinwv · « **Reply #280 on:** May 24, 2010, 02:08:12 PM »

Cohutt - the tomatoes in the cages, do you need to tie these to the cage or do they just kind of hold on to the sides

cohutt · « **Reply #281 on:** May 24, 2010, 05:57:54 PM »

Quote from: joeinwv on May 24, 2010, 02:08:12 PM

Cohutt - the tomatoes in the cages, do you need to tie these to the cage or do they just kind of hold on to the sides

The point of the cage is to avoid having to mess with the tying- the weight of the fruit leans it against the inside of the cage and it supports pretty well.
I just go in and make sure the new sucker stalks are contained and not shooting through the side.

here is another angle that might help, although the plants aren't loaded yet. The green out of the cages is just the long leaves of the romas, no stalks

digitalartranch · « **Reply #282 on:** May 26, 2010, 06:18:09 PM »

dang dude, really kicking some butt out there. Have not been able to log on for a while-- I am amazed at your work. fantastic job, you continue to inspire me!

thanks!

cohutt · « **Reply #283 on:** May 26, 2010, 07:58:08 PM »

Gras

I'm slowing down some now that stuff is growing and the rush to beat the warm weather is behind me....

Even gonna head to bol this weekend for bush hogging and sighting in a new rifle and scope.

jawjaboy · « **Reply #284 on:** May 26, 2010, 08:33:39 PM »

Quote from: cohutt on May 26, 2010, 07:58:08 PM

Gras

I'm slowing down some now that stuff is growing and the rush to beat the warm weather is behind me....

Even gonna head to bol this weekend for bush hogging and sighting in a new rifle and scope.

Film at 11:00?

Roswell · « **Reply #285 on:** May 26, 2010, 08:51:35 PM »

mmmmm BBQ

cohutt · « **Reply #286 on:** May 26, 2010, 09:04:20 PM »

Bought a ruger 77/44 a while back and have been lazy getting a scope for it. I ended up with a pretty reasonable Burris 2-7x that has a nice bullet drop type reticule that should help with the big fat slow bullets this gun will be launching.

The hogs haven't been bad in the last few months and we are pushing a full moon right now so I doubt there will be much opportunity to slay anything other than a couple milk jugs.

OK back to gardening.... have I shown you Mrs C's artichoke lately?

pappabear · « **Reply #287 on:** May 30, 2010, 12:06:41 PM »

Cohutt, I continue to look over both chapters and am continually amazed and inspired by ur garden and ideas. Thank you for taking the time to share and document this with us. Truly awe struck +1

Pappa Bear

cohutt · « **Reply #288 on:** May 31, 2010, 04:00:08 PM »

Thank you pappabear

If I can do it, anyone can.

The 1 year anniversary of the start of this project is coming up in a couple weeks. I think I'll celebrate by building a bed or something.

Hey Spartan, if you see this, I just pulled two of the garlic plants that were from the handful of cloves you sent me last fall.
I just roasted the softneck and squirted the delicious garlic goo onto some fresh french bread drizzled with olive oil. Mrs C was in heaven and I nom'd it down pretty quickly myself.
I was amazed how big both of them were- 1 hardneck and one softneck. I'm going to leave them in a little longer and do the full harvest in a week or two. Pictures to follow.

cohutt · « **Reply #289 on:** May 31, 2010, 07:20:55 PM »

Things are growing like crazy here now (and I'll be travelling some this week) so I figured I'd post some updates.

My Bamboo yard art is now functional and seems to be holding up pretty well so far.

Bamboo Bean trellis (with a new long piece across the top to let the beans trail out some more)

Bamboo frameTomato trellis with Red Brandywines starting to take advantage of it (the picture leaves a lot to be desired depth wise- the tomatoes and sunflowers in the bed behind the trellis make it blend into a green mess):

Bamboo teepee gets swarmed by multiple Birdhouse gourd vines:

cohutt · « **Reply #290 on:** May 31, 2010, 07:56:28 PM »

Aunt Mollies Ground Cherries...

The Ground Cherries are growing like weeds. It looks like they are going to try and give the Red Brandywines in the front corners of their bed a run.

Front

back (and my excavated soda and beer bottle collection from the fence project lol)

And side from the tool shed when a squall jumped me:

cohutt · « **Reply #291 on:** May 31, 2010, 08:11:11 PM »

Experiment in tomato staking:

The majority of my tomatoes are in the concrete wire cages and several are vining up the trellis pictured a couple posts back.

This is what I came up with for the balance of them, 8 or 10 Red Brandywine and Tommy Toes-

It is sort of like a Maypole - I kept the branch nubs on the bamboo stakes I cut for easier tying. The loops on the plants are made from the fat plastic garden tie stuff that comes in rolls available at Home Depot and other garden centers. ( I'm already fairly certain I'll be tired of tying these up before the season is 1/3 of the way through).

Seems to work though, and spreads the plants out from the based up. Of course I'll add additional loops along the way as these grow, especially near where the fruit sets.

cohutt · « **Reply #292 on:** May 31, 2010, 08:24:07 PM »

This is my first year with potatoes and I've not really known what to expect. The plants are a little leggier than I expected and most of them collapsed over when a thunderstorm hit a couple weeks ago.

Here is one of the patches - note how they all fell over the sides and started growing up from the ends vs righting themselves up. You can see the plants to the left of the bed behind the tomato plant- they actually are rooting under the straw bed and just fell all the way over there. These are just plain floppy plants, French Fingerlings I think.

These are getting to be in the same shape and I decided to try and corral them up a bit with some stakes and string. It didn't work perfectly but it works enough to satisfy me for mow.

My midget Blue Jade corn is up and running; it isn't supposed to get but 3 feet high so I figure they will slow down and start putitng energy into producing soon. (Center of corn squares is a bamboo stake to tie the sunflowers to)

The lettuce patch is running its course in the heat; the shade frame is slowing down the bolting well enough but the days are counting down now that June is here.

pappabear · « **Reply #293 on:** May 31, 2010, 09:23:32 PM »

cohutt,

I spoke to my grandmother about your potatoes. She said leave them where they lay, they will take over like ground cover. She also said that the vines will through (sic?) off roots in places and make more potatoes where they root up. I hope I explained that well enough. Let me know if not and I'll try and get a better explination from her.

Pappa Bear

cohutt · « **Reply #294 on:** June 01, 2010, 04:12:22 AM »

That makes sense to me PB- I thought about hilling up over them where they touch another part of the bed. i just cut all the spinach from beside them so there is space.

martomic · « **Reply #295 on:** June 03, 2010, 11:56:24 PM »

Do the ground cherries require any staking or are they like a little bush?

cohutt · « **Reply #296 on:** June 04, 2010, 04:30:48 AM »

As far as I know, no staking required. They are bushes that seem to be sprawling out more and more as they grow. The stems are soft and look a lot like the potato plant stems.

digitalartranch · « **Reply #297 on:** June 04, 2010, 07:12:14 AM »

dang man, looking good.

Sadly I have to list my house, and move. (not a financial thing like so many fellow Americans), transferring due to work. Hopefully someone digs the 120 SQ foot I have worked so hard to get going.

... next time we buy we are buying for good and I will always remember this post / and last years post. So much great info, great design, its just awesome. Keep up the good work.

Roswell · « **Reply #298 on:** June 04, 2010, 08:18:55 PM »

Outstanding Cohutt! I have been really busy and just caught up. It is awesome watching everything come together. I just came back from vacation to find my garden devastated by rabbits, chipmunks and probably squirrels.

But I digress, looking good Cohutt.

cohutt · « **Reply #299 on:** June 04, 2010, 08:22:16 PM »

Thank you for the kind comments AK; I hope you land on fertile ground

Ros you need to fire that leetle kitteh of yours if the rodents are taking you out.....

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Author Topic: Cohutt builds a garden, Chapter 2 (Read 202981 times)