[BrewBama]

We're planning:

Sweet Onions
Tomatoes
Pole beans
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Yellow squash

[1vertical]

I KNOW its too darn early here in BFE whyomin, but dang you guys have gotten me stirred up

[euge]

Dave it's been especially rainy here but everyone rushes outside in the dry breaks and are getting things ready for the garden and mowing their lawns. I need to get my seeds started if it isn't already too late. Spring has sprung here in Central Texas.

[1vertical]

Dave it's been especially rainy here but everyone rushes outside in the dry breaks and are getting things ready for the garden and mowing their lawns. I need to get my seeds started if it isn't already too late. Spring has sprung here in Central Texas.

Wow, I was looking at importing some stone crab claws....it is that time of the year you know....

[gmac]

Dave it's been especially rainy here but everyone rushes outside in the dry breaks and are getting things ready for the garden and mowing their lawns. I need to get my seeds started if it isn't already too late. Spring has sprung here in Central Texas.

We can see small patches of dead grass and the trumpeter swans are here on their way back to the Arctic so I will agree, "spring" is here.  Now we just need another month before we can actually plant something...

[euge]

It flooded in the back again and the pump worked 12 hours to get the bulk of it out. The ground is so saturated it is the consistency of say, cheesecake. I'm not walking in the yard until it dries up a bit.

[jeffy]

Dave it's been especially rainy here but everyone rushes outside in the dry breaks and are getting things ready for the garden and mowing their lawns. I need to get my seeds started if it isn't already too late. Spring has sprung here in Central Texas.

Wow, I was looking at importing some stone crab claws....it is that time of the year you know....

A local brewery is making a stone crab claw stout today.  They mentioned something about mustard sauce, but I am not sure when they add that.  The crab claws went into the boil.

[BrewBama]

Started getting the beds ready yesterday. Amending the soil, moving stuff where we want it, etc. Spring has sprung in N AL.

[kmccaf]

Ordered 59 berry plants. They will be delivered in late April. Planned out the beds. I don't think we will be doing any potatoes this year, which is a bummer. Still, looks like this will be a fun spring.

[HoosierBrew]

kmccaf - love the sound of all those berries. I'll be putting out mostly tomatoes (I love the Beefsteak/slicing type), chiles (serranos, tabasco, habanero) and some squash vatieties. Plus whatever my wife wants. Love Spring.

[kmccaf]

kmccaf - love the sound of all those berries. I'll be putting out mostly tomatoes (I love the Beefsteak/slicing type), chiles (serranos, tabasco, habanero) and some squash vatieties. Plus whatever my wife wants. Love Spring.

Nice!

I'm thinking a poblano and habanero this year, plus a jalapeño. Definitely some beefsteak tomatoes, and some Romas, and some cherry tomatoes. We do at least 8 tomoato plants every year. The garden won't be as big this year, but it won't be small either.

[AmandaK]

Got the 4 new raised beds in this weekend. Next up is getting a semipermanent irrigation system installed! Still trying to figure out the design on it through. The beds are about 85' from the nearest water spigot and I don't want to buy an "irrigation kit" since the size of our garden would make it fairly expensive.

We also took out the stupid almond tree and a 20' tall bush in the backyard. The previous owner LOVED planting in what I'm calling "the warning track" around the yard by the fence, and we are slowly ripping out all the random bushes and bulbs. Only have about 150' of warning track left to go!

[pete b]

Got the 4 new raised beds in this weekend. Next up is getting a semipermanent irrigation system installed! Still trying to figure out the design on it through. The beds are about 85' from the nearest water spigot and I don't want to buy an "irrigation kit" since the size of our garden would make it fairly expensive.

We also took out the stupid almond tree and a 20' tall bush in the backyard. The previous owner LOVED planting in what I'm calling "the warning track" around the yard by the fence, and we are slowly ripping out all the random bushes and bulbs. Only have about 150' of warning track left to go!

Looks great Amanda. I was wondering what you meant by irrigation system. Is it simply that you need access to a hose and don't want to move it every time you mow or do you want something more automated? I think for something that size I would simply attach a multiple hose adapter to the spigot at the house, get a long farm quality hose and cut the sod so you can tuck the hose under. At the garden you can get a stand that this hose would supply at ground level then the stand has a spigot 3 ft off the ground and a place to wrap a hose. In late fall you simply pull the hose from under the sod and store it, you won't even see it either before or after you take up the hose.
Another idea is to put a large tank of some sort on a stand with a spigot on the bottom which feeds drip tape that you have arranged throughout your beds. You fill it once a day and let gravity feed the drip tape. Or you leave a hose going to it and put it on a timer.
If you use the first method you will have to spend the time to hold the hose, but it makes you get out there every day and check for bugs etc. And there is still a hand for a beer.
My goal, which I doubt will happen this year, is to make a little pond fed by the stream behind my house, and get a solar powered pump on a timer to fill a couple tanks to feed drip tape.

[AmandaK]

I was wondering what you meant by irrigation system. Is it simply that you need access to a hose and don't want to move it every time you mow or do you want something more automated?

Both. I have access to a hose and a spigot, but it is at the house which is about 85 LF away from the closest raised bed. Last year we watered with a sprinkler (overhead watering) that we ran on a long hose from the house. Husband had to move it every time he mowed, which led to it not getting put back, which led to me being lazy about watering. Also, overhead watering spread some pepper disease around that nearly had our entire pepper crop demolished. So I'm kind of over the overhead watering thing and eventually I'd like the watering to be done without much input from me - because I forget. And because we go on vacations.

So the goal is to first get a system of soaker hoses that run off of a PVC/LDPE/PE piping system.

• There would be three hoses running lineally in each 4' wide bed and one (maybe two) in the 2' wide bed.
• The soaker hoses would have caps in the end of each and would be run in parallel to minimize loss of water pressure from long runs of soaker.
• We have 100 psi water at the house, so I'd likely need a regulator, but I should be able to manage by turning down the valve at the house.
• I don't think I want to do direct drip irrigation since I rotate the plants around and the design next year will likely be different than next year.
• Plan is to run it off of the same "hose over the yard" thing we are doing now, but look into burying something if the system works well.
• Plan is also to have it set on a timer so I can't forget to water things, or get up even earlier in the morning just to water plants.

My current research is really in system layout (Do I really need to be able to turn off each box? Or just the trees? Or maybe just the herb box? IDK yet.), materials (PEX fittings are awesome, but are not UV friendly, so maybe PVC? maybe polyethlene? maybe just a garden hose and some hose clamps?? I don't plan on burying the box pipes too much if at all so they can't break when stepped on.), and the like.

I have a couple of weeks to figure it out though, so that's good. Suggestions from the peanut gallery?

[Stevie]

YouTube is your friend here Amanda. Loads upon loads of channels for gardening with instructions on how to install irrigation. Personally, I would start with getting a hose bib down near the beds using PVC in a trench. From there you can do just about anything. Irrigation companies make pressure regulators. I would recommend adding after the hose bib and before the beds.