Any gardeners who do indoor gardening?

[MadPlumbarian]

Next step done,, I pulled pieces of wood off the top of the pallets (5) then cut them in half, such fun! I then laid them out moving a few things around and after that was all done I had to get the drill and screws to make sure it stays together.. to make it stronger I have like three pallets left so I’ll take them apart and then lay a flat top and I guess one around the outside but at the bottom to add strength,
All I know is we went from like 35°f to 70°f over night and I’m out working in it and I was just like blah! I’m sure I’ll CRASH tonight!
JR

[IMR4198]

    I was afraid you were going to make the raised beds right against the siding.  Definitely a bad idea to have dirt and dampness against the siding.  You might consider making a 'cold frame'.  What it amounts to is a mini solar greenhouse.  Simply a square with plastic sheeting stapled over the top.  Plant your seeds and water.  Place the cold frame over the top.  It will allow you to start the plants much earlier than just planting them uncovered.  Once the summer sun sets in, you can remove the frame and store it.
    I grew leaf lettuce (Simpson) in early spring and late fall.  Also good for getting other types of plants up.  Keeps the ground warm to promote growth and even out cold weather.  Sprinke lettuce seeds not too thickly.  Firm up the ground so the seeds make good contact.  Water and cover.  A 4 by 6 foot frame will provide you with plenty of lettuce for salads.  By the time the lettuce dies down, you can reuse the same spot without a frame for another summer crop. 
   You have too many seeds for the space.  Simplify.  Buy some tomato plants and peppers or cucumbers if you like them.  Plant some zucchini if you like them.  You can put in a section with multiplying onions and use some out of the same spot for years.  Just leave enough to let them replenish themselves.  Don't try to plant 20 different things.  Try three or four basic veggies for your first effort.  I would forget grapes, strawberries, carrots.  You might eventually convert another section to build an arbor for some grapes.   Things like potatoes or corn take up too much room.  Beans take up too much space for a little garden as well.  Keep it simple.  Learn the first year.  Best wishes.  G
 

[MadPlumbarian]

The dirt won’t be against the siding, those are getting lined thus why the inside looks so much better then the outside, so the dirt will be staying inside the pallets, as for what’s getting planted idk, it all depends on if we even get dirt/soil, if we get any we might even just do the 5gal buckets to start off, which we're still waiting for someone to get back to us on, they said they’d have some by the end of I think next week, but idk, the Mrs spoke to them,
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

Got some more barrels to complete the above ground garden, also went to the library and they were giving away free seeds so we picked up a few,,
JR

[AzteCypher]

That's looking pretty solid.  Can't wait to see the finished product.

I've been haphazardly setting up ours.  Basically whenever I have time after work or on the weekends I try to plant some seeds or drop in the seedlings we picked up too long ago and barely survived not being put into the ground.  We're still missing two cherry tomato plants and some more lettuce.

I purposefully over planted with the expectation that not everything will make it because of the crazy heat we tend to get during the summer.  I'm also trying a few different ideas to see how they work.  I'll try and take a picture of our raised beds tomorrow to give you an idea. 

[MadPlumbarian]

Thanks, sooner or later we might get out to working on it, this weather is just not working for us, right now it’s 34° with a windchill of 26°! Sat it’s suppose to hit 60° but rain on and both the day before and after, like come on, give me a break! Heck one of the days said possible snow, this is spring right?
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

Ok, I’m done! I spent 10min just trying to move this load over a little and forget it, I’m out of breath! Bad part is we don’t have a wheelbarrow nor a dirt shovel to move it all once I finish the above ground garden,,
JR

[AzteCypher]

You could fill the bucket directly from the pile of dirt or use a small pail or large cup to fill up the buckets.

[styx]

we did a little bit or prep work on sunday to plant some potatoes

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[MadPlumbarian]

The kid took me to harbor freight so I could find a cheap tarp to cover the pile, cause I ain’t working on this till maybe Thursday, all due to weather!
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

We might actually be able to do some work today, it says it’s to reach 57°f, yet with 10-20mph winds, the thing that sucks is the next three days it’s suppose to be in the 60’s and even hit 70, yet rain each day! I swear if it’s not one thing it’s another!
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

So today we cut the tops off the three drums and cleaned them, yet I only cut two of the downspouts and added the rain collectors, heck as I was cleaning up it already was starting to drip..
Here’s one of the collectors,
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

Our weather is soooo not letting us finish this project! It’s suppose to be in the mid 60’s but rain, so since it wasn’t raining, and wasn’t suppose to till after 12, the Mrs and I snuck out to try and finish the garden bed, yeah right! Anyway, I pulled one pallet apart and used it for the top, and by the time I got to like 3/4 of the way done I had to stop everything and get the Mrs to the garage, then run around picking up tools, all so I could throw them in the garage and then help the Mrs to the house,, now all to wait for another compatible day to finish!
JR

You can also see the other 55gal drum set up in the background,

[MadPlumbarian]

We had rain all night and those barrels were at about 30 and 40gals, well today we got a severe thunderstorm warning, heck the township alarms even went off, but it poured! Then it just about “stopped”! So I went out to check on the barrels and well, one was topped off, so I close off the downspout tap, but the other just wasn’t there yet, it’s still suppose to rain so I left that one open,,
JR

[AzteCypher]

That's a good amount of rain for sure.

Finally made time to take a picture of our raised garden.  Forgive the scribblings and demarcations.  I tried my best on a tired mind. 

The raised beds are divided into three rows and four columns.  Tomatoes in the bottom row, peppers in the middle row, and cantaloupe and spaghetti squash in the back.  I'm going to setup a trellis on the back so they have something to climb on.

In between the columns, from left to right, I planted strawberries, radishes, and green onions.  My thoughts for doing so are that the tomato and pepper plants will grow tall providing shade to the smaller plants so they don't get beaten down by the sun.  These column plantings only go up to the 2nd row.

On the front most edge of the back row, I planted lettuce.  Same principle in that I'm hoping they'll get shaded by the taller plants.

Will all this work out?  Not sure but I thought it'd be fun to try.

[MadPlumbarian]

Nice setup! We have to get something for everything to grow on,,
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

I don’t have enough energy to even explain, I’ll just post the pics,
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

Ok, I have enough energy to type, my forearm is so weak, but here’s what we’re up to, after filling the garden to the top (well almost) then filled the 5gal bucket leaving two so we can stack grow, I then moved the bucket stand inline and everything is now all ready to to be planted, I just have to level that bucket stand a little, as for the soil/compost, there’s a bunch left, yet there’s also that one 55gal drum but having to roll that around full I don’t think would be tooo fun! Here’s a few pics,
JR

[AzteCypher]

Looking good!  Is it warming up enough up there now?

[MadPlumbarian]

Looking good!  Is it warming up enough up there now?

Well last week I needed the snow shovel to clean the back deck off for the dogs, but I think next week we’re suppose to finally stay on the 60’s!
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

Ok I’m done! The Mrs and I finally got a nice enough day to work, and we got everything this time of the year planted! I’m still not done but am for the day! I still have to figure out what we’re doing with the extra soil, might be putting it in a 55gal,, but I’m beat! The nice thing is that rain collection system, I watered everything down and tonight it’s suppose to rain so it will be full again,, here’s a few pics,,
JR

[AzteCypher]

Looking good!  Now you just gotta hurry up and wait. 

I'm ashamed to admit that I still haven't gotten the cherry tomato seedlings I've been meaning to buy.   

On a better note we already have one strawberry and one serrano. 

[MadPlumbarian]

Had to mow the backyard, the front idk, the neighbor mowed his yesterday so I looked over, then looked back, then looked at his, then back, to notice ours was still shorter, oh well, no need to cut! So when done I watered for the first time,, yet it’s suppose to rain in about 15min for 30min, when mowing I had the shades off! Now inside all the lights are on and it still looks dark, weird , anyway, here’s a pic, I also lowered the rain traps since I used some both yesterday and today, so we’ll see..
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

Quick update, the garden is growing! The sunflower and potato’s seem to be taking off the most, those water traps on the downspouts are totally keeping the 55gal drums full, other then that all I’m doing is my morning duty,
1, Take dog one out,
2, take dog two out,
3, feed the dogs,
4, run out and water the plants,
5, come in to find dogs all done..
Not today, probably going to mow today, this weather is just nuts, it gets warm but then cools down, it blasts rain, then cuts out, and like out of all that we get like two “nice” days,, well, the mowers electric and doesn’t have a lot of umph, the fronts not to bad, but the backyard is tall, so I’m probably going to have to put the shoot on, in the front idk, all depends on how damp the grass is.. ahhh, what next,,
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

Ok, dogs and garden are done, I’ll probably be out later to mow the lawn, anyway, yeah there’s weeds, I’ve pretty much just come out and water, that’s it, well besides adding soil and checking on a few odd looking holes, like do we have company planting their own stuff?
JR

[AzteCypher]

I keep forgetting to take a pic of our garden while I'm outside and I don't remember until it's night.  Finally remembered yesterday.  Here's what our garden looks like now.  I was fighting a bad case of squash vine borer's but I think I finally got them all.  They chewed up two of my vines that had some nice spaghetti squash on them.  Still keeping an eye on the remaining squash vines.

Picked our first little harvest.  By the time I was done picking the lettuce, that bowl was over flowing.  There's more roma tomatoes coming in and I cut back some of the tomato branches as they were covering the serranos too much.  Since I planted the cherry tomatoes late, we still don't have any fruit.  Finally seeing a few cantaloupes on the vine as well.

I did lose all my radishes to something but I couldn't figure out what it was.  I'll try radishes again once summer is over.

[MadPlumbarian]

I hear you, I also have to take the dogs out and feed them at the time, then to top it off I found a kitten, the wife calls the local animal shelter like we’ve done before, nope, their all packed! So the Mrs kinda had a taking to him and we decided to keep him, right now he’s getting snip snip,, anyway,, we also switched two rooms around, it’s just been a nuts week, but yeah compared to that last pic it’s grown! Of course a lot of weeds I got to put but it’s growing!
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

Ok update,, at first I just thought everything was just growing, but then I noticed the leafs were the same , so the Mrs got an app that she could use to read the leafs to identify the plant. she found out that it is supposedly called what’s lamb quarter? So I counted the plants to come out with around 58 so for about an hour I just kept trying to find the right one and pull it. Here’s a few pics. The one is halfway done then fully, the one of the bucket you can see what I believe is what caused everything we had a Bunch of stuff fly around and as you can see it all landed in the garden. So hopefully after doing what I just did and here’s the proof I did it, that it’s taken care of!
JR

[MadPlumbarian]

Well our first plant bloomed, the Mrs chopped it up and I must say my eyes were on fire, yet I noticed that we have another that is working, here’s the largest along with the buds,
JR

[AzteCypher]

Looking good!   


I've been fighting the birds for my tomatoes.  I've lost 3 roma and a few cherry tomatoes to those flying thieves.  Then I noticed yesterday that the picked my blackberries clean.  😑

Still have 3 cantaloupes, a few green onions, and some more peppers coming in, if I can stop those flying thieves.