Backyard Farming the Natural Way

Archive for the ‘Growing Vegetables and Herbs’ Category

Here is a picture of our garden area taken about 2-1/2 weeks ago.  You can see the growth of this garden since my April posting Square foot raised beds: spring-summer garden. But even since this recent picture, the staked tomatoes have now reached the top of the poles which are about 8 feet! I was able to support them by a method I developed of staking indeterminate and vining tomato plants.

I am having to visit the  garden about 3 times daily just to keep up with the produce that is ripening. This includes pounds of tomatoes daily, okra, summer squash,  zucchini,  cucumber, corn, beans, peppers, broccoli, and even several watermelon (not planted in the raised bed, but on the far side). Read the rest of this entry »

I have a small section in my three sixteen foot raised beds where I planted six summer squash. You can see them here in the front of the beds in this picture taken awhile back (on the right of the zucchini)  Raised vegetable bed.  Now, pictured on the left on this page, is the amount of harvest I am getting on these six squash plants almost every couple of days! The largest one pictured is over 12″ in length, and I pick these at different sizes depending on how often I am able to get out there. I normally like to pick them at about 8-10″ length because the flavor seems better at this size.  The crazy thing is that I never liked squash bought from the store, but I have quickly acquired a taste for these grown in my own garden. Read the rest of this entry »

After struggling with various techniques over the years in an attempt to tame those large indeterminate tomato vines, I have come up with a technique which works the best for me.  If you enlarge the image on the left, you see that I have inexpensive clothes hangers  attached to a nail.  In this case, I have used 10′ electrical conduit and have drilled small holes in which I have inserted finishing nails.  I put a little tape on the nails to keep them from falling through. I have successfully been able to manage plants up to 7′ tall in raised beds using this method. You might need to have the center supports for the hangers about every 2 1/2′ up the stake. Once a few branches of tomato become unmanageably long, I add a hanger and just start gently placing the hanger over the ends of the growth and pulling several branches through. Read the rest of this entry »

I started preparing this area from scratch back in the winter, and have now gotten it to this point. All the plants were started from seed-  and mostly which I started early in my portable winter hoop house.  You can see how I did that on my youtube video:  Build a cheap, portable hoophouse.  I had some major tilling and soil preparation to do, and you can see the whole process in this video:  Preparing, building, and screening the raised beds.

The plants which I have in these three 16′  x 4′ raised beds are:  1) tomatoes – sun gold, Cherokee Purple,  Kellogg’s Breakfast, Early Girl, and Juliet.  2) Cucurbits:  Squash,  zucchini, and cucumber.  3) Peppers:  Bell, Anaheim, Habanero. 4) Beans:  Kentucky Wonder, Purple hull, and Roma.  5) Broccoli and brussel sprouts. 6) Okra, radishes,  and eggplant. Read the rest of this entry »

After plowing up my new 1200 sq feet garden site, I discovered many buried ‘treasures’ that will need to be removed from the soil during my Spring cleanup. I decided to go with raised beds, and so I made this soil screener-sifter to remove all the trash, roots, sticks, and rocks etc. It is a time consuming process, but once it is done, it is DONE! SOoo…, I have filmed a video on the process of making and using this handy sifter.

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Perhaps the hardest part with doing anything new is the mental work of planning and decision. I know this is certainly true with the initial stages in laying out for vegetable and herb growing. Therefore, let me see if I can simplify some of the hardest parts of this for you – other details can be handled later.  So here are some questions which will easily help you sort it out and get started..

1. Take inventory of suitable spots on your property to grow your edibles. Consider the amount of sunlight, the orientation of the sun, the quality of the soil, the trees nearby (root intrusion), the proximity to pets and animals which could be detrimental etc. When you are done, decide how many square feet you have to work with (of course, containers can be considered as part of your equation) Read the rest of this entry »