My Garden Journal

You could fill that thing up with water and it wont budge! Ideas anyone?

Ever try your hand at compost tea?

^^^ Well, this bin doesn't hold water, so that's not an issue

Yes, I do make compost tea! I have 2 set-ups. 1 is a 5 gal bucket, the other is a 10 gal trash can. I prefer making tea with my home-made compost. And I add a couple ounces of blackstrap molasses to boost the biological activity. I usually brew it for 2-3 days before applying...sometimes longer. . I use it on dead spots on my lawn and I feed some plants with it! Here's a couple pics!

This is my 5 gal set-up. The air pump is for an aquarium and is rated for a 100 gal tank



This is my 10 gal set-up. I have a bucket of compost on the right and a large pump on the left!

Update 5/26/12

Today I have a new project! I just bought 13 Turk's Caps in 1 gal pots to add to my garden! It's a Texas native plant and is good for xeriscaping. That means that after it's established, it will survive on its own with only rain water. It likes part sun to light shade. 1 to 4 hrs sun is best. Average size is 4ft Tall and 2 1/2 ft wide. It's a wildlower but it looks more like a shrub. And it flowers from late May to late Sept. It attracts hummingbirds, too!

Here's a few pics!

Here's all of them! This is becoming one of my fav Texas natives!



And here's a pic of 2 planted near each other. These are in a bed that has a few sprinkler heads but the rest are going to be away from sprinklers



And this is an example of it's red flowers. It looks like a little hat and that's why it's called Turls's Cap

Awesome!

I know the bins not water tight,,, this is what I was thinking~

800 gallon capacity! 4x9x3

Yours could hold just over 600 gallons

^^^^^ Gee, that's an interesting idea! I could use some pond liner and use the bin as a giant compost tea brewer! Way to think outside the box! Based on that pic, I could use several pumps to aerate. That would an insane amount of compost tea but I'm sure I could find a use for it. I could just pour it on my lawn where places are brown!

Yeah it works great! This is my bin btw I want to build 2 more lol I have issues.
Oh, if you do decide to do it just go ahead and find yourself a 5 gallon bucket of blackstrap
Are you growing any veggies this year?

^^^^ It's your bin?! That's cool, nice work! The next tea brewer I make is going to be in a 30 gal heavy duty trash can. I can get a really big air-pump that works with airstones for not much $$$ at a local hydro store. My 10 gallon brewer gets like 5 ounces of molasses per batch so a 30 gal brewer would use 15 ounces!!

I typically don't grow veggies - it's just not my thing for some reason. I planted a couple dwarf fruit trees a couple yrs ago and an animal ate all the fruit! I do grow fennel herb because caterpillars eat it and that means I'll have more cool flying insects!

Update 6/3/12

Today I've got pics of some work I've been doing in my yard. I'm adding things to my landscaping......Pic #1 is my most recent project! What I'm doing here is called zeriscaping. The plants I have chosen will survive on their own after the first yr or 2 of watering them in! That means, This area will be self-sufficient!! Basically, I'm creating simple new beds by removing the grass and using a wooden post as a border. You can see that there's 3 small shrubs around a tree and even more plants can be seen in the back. Everything I planted here is Native to Texas!!



This area is near the road at the front of my property. I have added all the stone work!! Including the circular cement plant rings you see around the two crape myrtals planted!! They will start bloming soon and continue thru to the end of Summer....There are 3 more shrubs planted in the back of the pic- one is out of sight, one is small and the other is 3 1/2 ft! PLUS, if you have a good eye, you can see 2 yellow flowerheads from a sunflower!



And one more pic.....Here's my dog enjoying my garden! Thanks for looking!

Today I have more pics from my garden! Now that the heat is here, I will stop planting new plants and focus on keeping my yard green

This is called a vitex. The leaves are sometimes confused with cannabis. It's also called a chaste tree and was used by monks to reduce their sex drive- as in: chastity



This is called a tickseed. It's a texas native!



Here's a butterfly on a Dusty Miller flower! This plant is often just used as an annual but if you grow it into it's second yr, you will get a bunch of flowers that attract butterflies!



Here's an indoor set-up I have! 6 2ft T5's + 4 1ft T5's. Total Initial lumens is 12, 500 or so. There's a seed starting tray on the left

Here's some more pics!

This small bed is the only area where I start plants from seed. These are Texas natives and are mostly annuals including sunflowers



I got a pic of this cool little yellow bug siiting on one of my coneflowers! ! It looks similar to a lady bug. I assume this is a benefitial incsect

Hey Rx. you do sq ft gardening generally right? I just got broccoli, cauliflower & 2 kinds of cabbage. How far apart do they have to be? 1ft?

reppinhigh22 said:

Hey Rx. you do sq ft gardening generally right? I just got broccoli, cauliflower & 2 kinds of cabbage. How far apart do they have to be? 1ft?

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I honestly don't know the answer....Because I'm A guy who doesn't grow any crops. Not even tomatoes......I stick to Native wildflowers, shrubs, grasses and trees + I do landscaping on my property

Maybe someone else can answer your question

^^^^ Thanks, scroglodyte!

scroglodyte said:

http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KGPJS

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Nice! Favorited that page. & Damn it now I have to add 3x4ft to my garden! D: Thanks scrog!

yup yup
nice garden, Tex. native gardens are great.

Yes, natives are great. We had a top 5 heat wave last summer and I didn't lose one native that I planted!

So, for this post I have a vid from a guy named Howard Garrett~ AKA: The Dirt Doctor! Mr. Garrett is a professional organic gardener in North Central Texas - my area- and he has a radio show, youtube vids, multiple books, and does college talks, etc.....He is the TOP organic gardener in my area

This vid is a good explanation of why you should be an organic gardener. See......after his daughter was born, he went organic cuz she was in the garden picking up all kinds of stuff & then putting it in her mouth. He follows this up with a mention of pets....It's really sound logic! Check it out if you still think Miracle Grow is any good

[video=youtube;J5t5C90s5WY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5t5C90s5WY[/video]

ns garden and place,well kept,those looks like good stuff.i try to stay organic on pestacides .

^^^ Thanks! I try to stay 100% organic but I have to deal with some killer vines from time to time that have to be killed with chemical stump killer. Besides the vines, tho.....I'm totally organic!