caesg
Pro Member
Posts: 152
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: Butternut Squash
Joined: April 2018
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Post by caesg on Apr 29, 2018 22:05:26 GMT -5
pepper212 referred me to NJT as I was looking for some folks to talk sub irrigated planters with. Thank you, pepper212! That being said, I enjoy all sorts of gardening, and look forward to mingling in the forums.
I live in the USA Rocky Mountain region, Zone 5. I'm a multi-family-unit-dwelling urban gardener, and am currently gardening 4 plots:
(1) A roughly 3'×2' bed for cut flowers, using conventional/mixed methods.
(2) A gravel strip behind the quad-plex where I currently live. Here, I currently have one sub irrigated planter and hope to soon have more!
(3) A community garden plot, organic methods required. Plot yet to be assigned. Will either be in ground or raised bed.
(4) A permaculture Urban Food Forest that is currently in its third year of being established. This is also a community effort, although it's less formal than the #3 gardens, which are run by a local nonprofit and spread all across town. The Food Forest I learned about via a local seed swap.
I'm a young'n, in my early thirties. My father grew up on a farm, and we always had a large garden and compost heap, growing up. I've gardened off and on over the past decade, although I am still perfecting "gardening on the go" as I rarely live in any one location for all that long. OH! And I have one other forum-related activity!
(5) I keep a vermicompost bin.
👋 Hi everybody! I look forward to getting to know you!
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Apr 29, 2018 22:56:23 GMT -5
Hello and Welcome! Look forward to chatting!
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Post by spike on Apr 30, 2018 0:14:45 GMT -5
Hello and pleasedtameetcha!
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Post by daylilydude on Apr 30, 2018 3:46:49 GMT -5
Howdy caesg, and welcome to NJT... I'm new to the sub irrigated planter idea... dabbled with a few last year, but more into it this year, and learning from pepperhead212 and Laura_in_FL as they have bunches of experience with this type of gardening and are willing to share what they know! My main reason for this type of gardening is... sad to say, but I hate pulling weeds...LOL! Anyway glad to meet you, and just get in anywhere you like and post away...
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Post by ahntjudy on Apr 30, 2018 6:56:01 GMT -5
Hiya caesg...How nice to have multiple gardening opportunities! Happy Gardens!
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Post by pepperhead212 on Apr 30, 2018 8:20:47 GMT -5
Welcome again, caesg! Looking forward to hearing about your garden, and helping as much as I can.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Apr 30, 2018 9:10:15 GMT -5
Welcome, caesg! I think it's cool that you are gardening in so many different ways, in so many places. You're getting quite a breadth of experience between the flower bed, SIPs, community garden, and food forest. I look forward to talking with you about all of it and hopefully seeing some pictures of your gardens.
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Post by bestofour on Apr 30, 2018 11:53:25 GMT -5
Hello and welcome. Hope you’ll post pictures and updates about the permaculture food forest.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Apr 30, 2018 12:20:28 GMT -5
Welcome to NJT caesg! I am also a community garden grower- it presents a whole different set of challenges from year to year, but I am sure am glad to have that extra space. The Food Forest certainly sounds exciting as well! I can't wait to hear more about it. Any friend of pepperhead212 is sure to be a friend of all of us at NJT. Happy to have you aboard!
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 30, 2018 19:48:38 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum caesg,it sounds like you are interested in a variety of gardening related activities and you will find kindred spirits on this forum. I garden organically and also have fruit trees, chickens and honeybees. I look forward to hearing about your gardens.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on May 1, 2018 6:17:56 GMT -5
caesg, Welcome! Can't wait to hear more about your gardening opportunities.
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caesg
Pro Member
Posts: 152
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: Butternut Squash
Joined: April 2018
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Post by caesg on Apr 18, 2019 13:12:32 GMT -5
Hello, again! I'm back! A few updates:
I'm in Zone 7b, not 5. Chalk this up to beginner's learning. Last Frost ~Apr 20. First Frost ~Oct 31.
Also, I had fun playing around with ecoregion maps. So, my ecoregions are `drum roll`
Level 1 Ecoregion : 10. North American Desert
Level 2 Ecoregion: 10.1. Cold Desert
Level 3 Ecoregion: 10.1.5. Central Basin and Range
Level 4 Ecoregion: 10.1.5.13f. Moist Wasatch Front Footslopes
So, I live in the Moist section of a Cold Desert. Cooooool.
---
Okay, and updates on the gardens:
(1) A roughly 3'×2' bed for cut flowers, using conventional/mixed methods. Moved. I now live in a "backyard cottage". We've got 2 4'x4'x2' orchard boxes to plant. There's more yard space that can potentially be worked. Only concern is that my water bill is split evenly with the triplex out front. So, conserving water is particularly important.
(2) A gravel strip behind the quad-plex where I currently live. Here, I currently have one sub irrigated planter and hope to soon have more! I do still have the sub irrigated planter. So, will plant something in there.
(3) A community garden plot, organic methods required. Plot yet to be assigned. Will either be in ground or raised bed. New community garden plot in new-to-me community garden. I've adopted the compost heap as my contribution to the community as the old timers tell me no one's tended it in 6--7 years. Supposedly, I have a 120 sqft in ground plot. However, the plot is rather narrow and I'm not sure I can widen it without making the footpaths between allotments too small. So, over the next several days will be figuring out how much space I actually have.
(4) A permaculture Urban Food Forest that is currently in its third year of being established. This is also a community effort, although it's less formal than the #3 gardens, which are run by a local nonprofit and spread all across town. The Food Forest I learned about via a local seed swap. I still participate in this project. I think there was particular interest in this project, last year. So, I'll try to be more mindful of starting and regularly updating a thread on this topic.
(5) I keep a vermicompost bin. Still keep a vermicompost bin. Have been considering upgrading this, but holding off while I try to figure out space constraints as needs to be kept indoors.
Happy to be back!
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Post by meandtk on Apr 18, 2019 13:14:22 GMT -5
caesg, Interesting. We have several here who work in beds and boxes who should be able to help you. I look forward to hearing of your progress through the year.
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Post by paulf on Apr 18, 2019 13:49:57 GMT -5
Welcome to NJT.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Apr 18, 2019 17:32:08 GMT -5
Welcome back caesg! I see you moved, which is probably the reason for your absence. Good luck in your new location.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 18, 2019 20:48:35 GMT -5
It sounds like you do a lot of interesting things caesg . I am glad you are back.
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Post by daylilydude on Apr 19, 2019 5:35:12 GMT -5
Welcome back caesg, please keep us informed of your progress through the year...
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Apr 19, 2019 13:31:09 GMT -5
Welcome back, caesg. I look forward to hearing about your gardening adventures in your new place.
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caesg
Pro Member
Posts: 152
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: Butternut Squash
Joined: April 2018
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Post by caesg on Apr 21, 2019 11:04:27 GMT -5
meandtk . Awesome. I'll definitely be looking for help as I've only meaningfully grown things in ground, before. paulf . Thanks! I look forward to learning from the neighborhood grumpy old smart aleck fat guy dirt digger! pepperhead212 . I can't believe my absence has only been one year. It feels like 3! MrLoverMan and I got married, he moved in, then the landlord changed his mind and we had to scramble to find a new place. An unusually busy year. It's good to be back! brownrexx It's good to be back. I look forward to figuring things out together, again! @daylilydude . Thanks for the welcome. I want to keep the discussion board updated (and to keep updated on everyone else's work!). I need to figure out a method that works for me. Sometimes, my "eyes are bigger than my stomach", digitally speaking. If I check in daily, then I get sucked in and spend too much time on line. And, if I only comment on my own threads, then I feel like I'm not contributing enough to feel like I'm "giving" as much as I'm "taking" from the community. I'll figure a good balance out. @laura_in_FL . Thanks! I'm currently puzzling over various directions to take things in. We'll see how it goes! --- Any ideas why the tagging worked for everyone except @daylilydude and @laura_in_FL ?
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Apr 21, 2019 11:25:56 GMT -5
caesg , Tagging for daylillydude and Laura looks like this. I can't do it exactly cause it turns into their names. Just add the @ in front admin, linfl,
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Post by pepperhead212 on Apr 21, 2019 11:29:39 GMT -5
I did that way back. Here's how to type their tags in. I left a space after @ so you can see what to type. daylilydude - @ admin Laura - @ linfl
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Apr 21, 2019 11:32:23 GMT -5
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Apr 21, 2019 15:25:46 GMT -5
To tag someone you have to use their user name, not their display name. The problem comes in because some of us have display names that don't match our user names. In my case, I registered as "LinFL," so even though I signed my posts as Laura, most folks were - understandably - still calling me "Lin." Eventually I changed my display name so everyone would call me the right name. (I didn't want to re-register and lose my post history.) There are a few others here who have changed their display names for various reasons. Also, as owner of the forum, Daylilydude's user name is "Admin." So how do you know which name to use to tag us name-changers? Option 1: If you hold your cursor over someone's name above their profile picture (at the left side of their post), you should see their user name appear - so you can check the correct name to use when tagging. Also, if you hold your cursor over any tag in a post, the user name will appear. This works on all ProBoards forums, by the way. Option 2: Also, daylilydude has installed a "Simple Tagging" widget to NJT. When someone posts to a thread, their name should appear as a button at the top of both the Quick Reply and Reply windows. Then you can just click the button to tag them in that thread. The widget does adding a space in front of the name and a comma afterwards, but you can edit those out if needed. The Simple Tagging widget is something that has to be added by each forum's owner, so you may not see it on other forums.
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caesg
Pro Member
Posts: 152
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: Butternut Squash
Joined: April 2018
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Post by caesg on Apr 23, 2019 13:42:14 GMT -5
Thanks for putting me straight on the tagging, everyone!
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caesg
Pro Member
Posts: 152
Zone:: 5b
Favorite Vegetable:: Butternut Squash
Joined: April 2018
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Post by caesg on Apr 20, 2021 12:09:58 GMT -5
It looks like I popped in a bit during 2020 but haven't had a garden diary since 2019. A lot has changed and I need to update my profile and signature to reflect those changes.
MrLoverMan and I decided that finances were just a bit too tight to comfortably build a life in the Rocky Mountain region where we'd been living. We started research on lower cost of living regions and honed in particularly on the Midwest and Appalachia regions. The way things played out we landed in a small city in the Midwest in the Great Lakes region. We moved here in January, bought a house in March, and moved in to the house this April. I'd have a longer growing season in Appalachia, but the Great Lakes is where we are and I'll make the best of it!
The home we bought stood vacant for a year, through the pandemic, before we bought it. The lawn in front and back has patchy dead grass, weeds (some pretty flowering weeds though!) and moss. The house was built in 1906 and the water tested positive for lead. So, lead in the soil will be a consideration for siting and building the garden.
There's so much to do with the house, the yard, and classes that I'm taking (part of a career transition from social services into tech) that wrapping my head around the garden feels a bit overwhelming. I still want a garden this year. It will be significantly scaled back though. That being said...
... I've found a community garden to participate in! I've gone once, so far, and helped out pulling some weeds. The community garden here is an entirely different format than either of the community gardens I've worked in previously. This one is quite small, on the corner along a busy street. The garden has been around for ~20 years, originally put in as a boy scout project. Recently, the garden received an unexpected windfall of money via a local grant and they are building new raised beds out of cinderblock.
The idea behind this garden is that folks interested in tending the garden volunteer time to tend the garden as a whole and then community members are free to harvest the produce at will. While there are community gardens of this sort spread throughout the city, the location of this particular garden (nearest my house) is in a bit of a food desert. There are convenience stores, but no actual grocer within walking distance of the neighborhood. It's an interesting concept, and I'm curious to see how it plays out over the coming year.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Apr 20, 2021 14:00:50 GMT -5
Wow, lots of changes, caesg! Good luck settling into your new home. Regarding the lead in your water - with an old house like that, could the lead be from the pipes? The garden soil might be fine - can you get it tested? But if you're watering the garden with lead-contaminated house water that will be a problem. If the problem is the lead pipes and not the groundwater, can you afford to have an irrigation well dug? If the groundwater also has lead, can you set up a catchment system to water with rainwater? Hopefully you can find someone locally who is knowledgeable and can tell you the source of the lead and make suggestions for watering your garden.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Apr 20, 2021 18:28:55 GMT -5
Hey I remember ya! +1 on what Laura said. Welcome back!
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Post by september on Apr 20, 2021 21:14:15 GMT -5
caesg , welcome back! Sounds like you will be busy with settling in for quite a while. There's always container gardening for this year, if you are not confidant of your soil. But getting a soil test does sound like a good idea, so you know for sure.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Apr 21, 2021 11:18:38 GMT -5
Welcome back again, caesg! I hope you get that lead problem figured out. Hopefully, it is in the pipes, as you can then change all the pipes in the house - I'm sure they did that in my ancient house, which had to be built back when everything had lead in the pipes. In most areas, they don't allow sale of places with leaded pipes. I hope it's not well water with the lead.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 21, 2021 13:20:07 GMT -5
Congratulations on the new home. I agree that the lead is most likely coming from the pipes in the house and if the water in your well is acid then it will leach the lead out of the pipes faster.
I would always recommend a soil test when starting a new garden in an unfamiliar area. My soil test only costs $9 plus postage so it's not a big expense. Some states even offer them for free.
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