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How many grow gardens?

Four cherry tomato plants (supersweet 100 and chocolate sprinkles), some herbs, garden beans, and what I thought was a jalapeno plant but is growing larger, yellowish/red peppers.

Growing in Tallahassee.
 
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Just empty the paper shredder at the office once a season,.. great compost accelerator.
Yeah, I’m adding shredded paper from the office about every other week or so. Maybe every three. Coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, shredded cardboard, fruit scraps, some torn up bread that went out of date, some yard waste collected when mowing (from the neighbor).

will add the accelerator notes and see if that helps speed things up. It’s a tumbler compost bin, only working on one side right now. When it gets about 2/3 full, I’m gonna start filling the other side as well.

Z
 
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Yeah, I’m adding shredded paper from the office about every other week or so. Maybe every three. Coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, shredded cardboard, fruit scraps, some torn up bread that went out of date, some yard waste collected when mowing (from the neighbor).

will add the accelerator notes and see if that helps speed things up. It’s a tumbler compost bin, only working on one side right now. When it gets about 2/3 full, I’m gonna start filling the other side as well.

Z
As long as it's organic it will break down. Paper is mainly cellulose so should be easy.
 
Variety is the key,.. don't get too carried away with any one particular compost ingredient...
 
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Overrun-with-weeds.png
 
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Yeah, I’m adding shredded paper from the office about every other week or so. Maybe every three. Coffee grounds, vegetable scraps, shredded cardboard, fruit scraps, some torn up bread that went out of date, some yard waste collected when mowing (from the neighbor).

will add the accelerator notes and see if that helps speed things up. It’s a tumbler compost bin, only working on one side right now. When it gets about 2/3 full, I’m gonna start filling the other side as well.

Z
Mine is also a tumbler composter :)
 
Up here in NW Iowa the garden season has been fairly disastrous for me.
I had ankle/foot surgery on March 15. I have been non-weight bearing until last week.
So I got off to a horrible start.
Could not plant early crops potatoes,onions,spinach and lettuce til late May.
Cold April and May put me behind.
Did get 28 tomatoes and 14 pepper, bell and hot.
My beans and peas and flowers are under severe rabbit attacks nightly.
These rabbits have become more voracious the last couple of years.
I shoot them as much as possible but they breed...you know.
I have spent much time erecting security chicken wire fences around crops. Frustrating as hell.
 
Up here in NW Iowa the garden season has been fairly disastrous for me.
I had ankle/foot surgery on March 15. I have been non-weight bearing until last week.
So I got off to a horrible start.
Could not plant early crops potatoes,onions,spinach and lettuce til late May.
Cold April and May put me behind.
Did get 28 tomatoes and 14 pepper, bell and hot.
My beans and peas and flowers are under severe rabbit attacks nightly.
These rabbits have become more voracious the last couple of years.
I shoot them as much as possible but they breed...you know.
I have spent much time erecting security chicken wire fences around crops. Frustrating as hell.

Get a cat...
 
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Where I live (the Southwood planned community in Tallahassee) we have big houses and tiny lots for the most part so we’re not allowed real gardens planted into the ground but I make due with 5 hashtag copyright “Earthboxes” trademark, a large three level herb garden with spots big enough for 7 different bunches of herbs, and dozens of regular pots (some of which are succulent gardens for show or orchids but most are other herbs).

To picture my space, I have a decent sized two story house built into a hill where my front door is level with the crest of the hill but the back door/really the main entrance (insert comedian eel pic here) is a full story and half above the ground where the garage is located. So in between the garage I have two wooden decks/patios, the first is uncovered and to the left of the staircase about half a story above the ground. I use that as my outdoor cooking space with my vertical pellet smoker and my four in one grill next to it (charcoal grill and gas grill connected in the center with a stick burner smoker box to the left of the charcoal grill and a gas stovetop burner to the right of the gas grill). I only keep a teak bench and some teak lawn chairs on that level with the outdoor Cooking equipment.

The second deck/patio is to the right of the staircase and is twice as big with half of it covered with a see-through acrylic roof and an outdoor ceiling fan and smart with an area big enough for a full length outdoor couch, a coffee table and two outdoor chairs (when I have a lot of people over I move that to the garage and get a foldout table with eight foldout chairs). In the uncovered half of the top deck I have an outdoor metal table with six metal chairs as well as a big deck box for storage and on that table when not entertaining I stack up the three level herb garden and a bunch of pots.

At the base of the one and half story deck and somewhat in between the garage and that deck I stack up the five Earthboxes and add some additional pots.

What I’m growing currently in the Earthboxes are three boxes (12 plants total) of various hot peppers. I’m currently growing 2 Datils, 2 Shishitos, 2 Habaneros, a prolific jalapeno cultivar, 2 Malawi Picquantes (the pepper used to make Peppadews), 2 Aji Charapitas and a Brazilian Starfish pepper. I’ve also got 2 more Habaneros and 2 Peachadew Peppers growing in other pots. The other 2 Earthboxes have two Casper Eggplants each at the moment.

In the 3 level herb garden I’m growing, two separate bunches of Sweet Italian Basil, a bunch of English Thyme, a bunch of French Tarragon, a bunch of Italian Oregano, a bunch of Syrian Oregano, and some green sage. In pots, I have three different colored varieties of sage, watercress, French Sorrrel, Tuscan Blue rosemary, prostrat Rosemary, garlic chives, onion chives, Kentucky Colonel Mint and Moroccan Mint.
 
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Yep, we have a huge garden. I just built my first Hugelkultur garden this spring and put a variety of vegetables on that, so far they are looking great.
Our 70ish tomato plants are looking great, we already have a dozen or so good sized tomatoes. The bush beans and sweet corn not looking so great. Pole beans are doing well. We tried a couple different techniques with our potatoes, we planted around 30, most of those are growing well.
Our summer squash and zucchini look good so far, but last year they got destroyed by cucumber beetles. Same with our cucumbers. The pumpkins and gourds look good so far as well.
We have some watermelon and cantaloupe
growing, hopefully they produce this year.
We’ve had good harvests of radishes, lettuce, spinach, kohlrabi, and peas so far this year.
So far so good this year!
 
Well, our doe took out the cucumber plants that had just started to grow. She hasn’t taken out the peppers or tomatoes, yet. She comes by every evening, which has led to a few comical interactions with the dog.
 
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I’ve got a small one:

garlic: previous owners herb garden.
Radishes. 3 really good harvests so far this year. Too hot to plant any more. Will do more this fall when it starts to cool off.

Green onions. Took too long for them to come up this year. Now, while I live to have them on the table with dinner, they are sooooo freaking hot it’s almost not worth it! Our heat is really Playong hell with the garden crop!

Tomato’s: cherry and regular. I will be eating BLT’s all summer!

Asparagus. Again, good early, but the early 100 degree days slowed the pickings on that early. Got a lot of good pickings early though.

jalapeños: slowly coming around

watermelon: came up, mother in law thought it was a weed, pulled it. I banned her from weeding the garden. Replanted, going well now.

cantaloupe: had some very small grasshoppers early, ate it as it came up. Replanted, sprayed, doing well now.

sometimes I plant a couple rows of green beans, but what I’ve found is that the heat makes those tough if you don’t get to them early!

What you got?
I grew several cherry tomato plants in containers a couple of years ago, but the fruits were sparse and never seemed to mature and ripen.

I mentioned it to my wife (no pics) and then a few days later she sent me a video of a couple of deer feasting on the plants early in the morning. That was the last gardening I've done, I'm not a grocery store for those 4 legged assholes.
 
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Gardening season is just about over here at Tradition Manor. I have a few tomatoes waiting to ripen, but everything is mostly done at this point.

I'm trying sweet potatoes this year (one of the few things you can grow across the summer down here).

In the fall, we'll do a second round of tomatoes, cukes and green beans, and also do things that can overwinter down here (onions, broccoli, strawberries, etc.).
 
My father also built a small greenhouse. Probably 16’ x 20’. He puts tomatoes in the greenhouse in March and then fresh tomatoes in mid June
 
I'm new to this forum and just came across your post. I have to say, I love the idea of using shredded paper from the office as a compost accelerator. It's a great way to reduce waste and give your plants some extra love. Speaking of gardens, have any of you thought about adding an ex-display summerhouse or garden room to your outdoor space?

I recently stumbled upon some beautiful options from Scotts of Thrapston, and they have really sparked my interest in creating a cozy retreat in my own backyard. If you're interested, check out their website at scottsofthrapston.co.uk. I think it would be the perfect spot to relax and enjoy all the hard work that goes into maintaining a garden.
 
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Im going to try tomatoes and sweet corn this year. Ive never planted before. How much space do i need for 2 tomato plants and maybe 4 corn stalks?
 
Mrs. Ed has always grown tomatoes, but since we retired she's gone full bore into this--put up a raised garden contraption covered in mesh for the animals, even to the point of making compost out of all the dead palm tree leaves. She's bought worms and a package of worm poop as well. My only job was to lug all the dirt bags around back, a small price for what she's growing back there: tomatoes, beans, lettuce, squash, zucchini, peppers (bell and jalapeno) watermelon, even has a couple of pineapple plants going. My feat is her dedication to this lead to her spending way too much time out in the hot SW Florida sun.

I know, CSB.
 
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These message board bots really need some work.
We are seeing a lot more of them recently. At first I thought it was Nat type folks/Russians stashing user names. Now I think it might be generative AI doing some type of training experiments. Maybe not a bad way to do that. Write a post, test for response, learn from the exchange. Probably some Stanford kid’s PhD thesis at play.
 
Im going to try tomatoes and sweet corn this year. Ive never planted before. How much space do i need for 2 tomato plants and maybe 4 corn stalks?

You'll need a lot more corn stalks than that if you actually want to get any corn.

Two tomato plants can comfortably fit in four feet of row.
 
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Mrs. Ed has always grown tomatoes, but since we retired she's gone full bore into this--put up a raised garden contraption covered in mesh for the animals, even to the point of making compost out of all the dead palm tree leaves. She's bought worms and a package of worm poop as well. My only job was to lug all the dirt bags around back, a small price for what she's growing back there: tomatoes, beans, lettuce, squash, zucchini, peppers (bell and jalapeno) watermelon, even has a couple of pineapple plants going. My feat is her dedication to this lead to her spending way too much time out in the hot SW Florida sun.

I know, CSB.
The beans should do fine but summer isn’t exactly prime growing season down your way. Interested to see how it goes.
 
Im going to try tomatoes and sweet corn this year. Ive never planted before. How much space do i need for 2 tomato plants and maybe 4 corn stalks?
tomatoes, prob 4 square feet per plant. If you've never done them before, smaller is better imo. I will always stand by Sungold cherry tomatoes and Early Girl, which is a medium globe. bury the starts with some bone meal to avoid blossom end rot, and be consistent with watering. You can go beefstea, but there's nothing worse than waiting the long growing period just for them all to have rot.

Corn, prob about 1.5 square feet per stalk. Its pretty easy, just water it daily.
 
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We are seeing a lot more of them recently. At first I thought it was Nat type folks/Russians stashing user names. Now I think it might be generative AI doing some type of training experiments. Maybe not a bad way to do that. Write a post, test for response, learn from the exchange. Probably some Stanford kid’s PhD thesis at play.
They’re too nice.
If they really want to fit it at HORT they’d try something like:

“Why the hell would you dumb shits bother with gardening when you can get all the vegetables you want at HyVee for .99/lb?!?
The only thing good about gardening is seeing my neighbor’s wife out weeding in her bikini top. I’ll try to take some pics next time.”
 
They say if you buy a truck/trailer you make lots of friends.

I put a rear mounted tiller on my utility tractor, and I'm suddenly the most popular guy on this side of the county.

Seems like everyone is gardening.
 
I have 5 hydroponic grow boxes from amazon, growing various herbs and kale/chard etc. It's going gangbusters and requires 0 maintenance.
 
You'll need a lot more corn stalks than that if you actually want to get any corn.

Two tomato plants can comfortably fit in four feet of row.
I guess if he only wants 1 or 2 meals worth of sweet corn, at that point might as well just buy it 🤷‍♂️
 
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