Author Topic: Gardening resources  (Read 2325 times)

LWYRUP

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Gardening resources
« on: May 12, 2020, 07:25:55 PM »
What YouTube videos, blogs, podcasts, books would you recommend to learn more about gardening?

We're growing tomatoes, beans, strawberries, mint, cucumbers, basil, pepper, carrots, lettuce.  Some of these things are dead simple (mint) but other things (beans) are struggling a bit already...

MudPuppy

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Re: Gardening resources
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2020, 07:52:40 PM »
What's your growing zone? I found a lot of really good resources on my state's agriculture extension website.

My beans are only recently sprouted and my tomatoes were just set out yesterday (zone 7).

LWYRUP

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Re: Gardening resources
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2020, 08:54:36 PM »
We are zone 7a.  (For non-Americans or others unfamiliar with the system, this is basically the dead middle of "temperate" for the USA, which is a fairly temperate country to begin with.)

We started things indoors this year and put it out about a week ago, which I thought was maybe too late but I was wrong and we ended up needing to cover them in buckets per advice from my dad (who seems to garden like 5 hours a day in retirement). 

The beans actually grew a ton indoors and we didn't have any supports in their pots and then they flopped over a lot and when we put them in the ground they were very sad and are sort of flopped on the ground and won't stay around the triangle of poles.  We also know pretty much next to nothing about fertilizer, etc. although supposedly one of the mistakes of rookie gardeners (per Youtube) is too much fertilizer.

Youtube videos would be great so we can watch them after kids are in bed instead of TV.  We have some books in the attic that I bought last year, but with jobs and kids the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. 
« Last Edit: May 13, 2020, 05:56:06 AM by LWYRUP »

MudPuppy

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Re: Gardening resources
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2020, 09:35:46 PM »
You can direct sow the beans in our climate! I find that mine always seem heartier when direct sown versus started indoors.

LWYRUP

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Re: Gardening resources
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2020, 05:58:38 AM »
Ah, ok.  I just figured start everything indoors = more time to grow = more veggies.  I guess that was simplistic?

MudPuppy

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Re: Gardening resources
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2020, 07:40:44 AM »
I think the beans just don’t like change.

nereo

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Re: Gardening resources
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2020, 08:22:48 AM »
What YouTube videos, blogs, podcasts, books would you recommend to learn more about gardening?

We're growing tomatoes, beans, strawberries, mint, cucumbers, basil, pepper, carrots, lettuce.  Some of these things are dead simple (mint) but other things (beans) are struggling a bit already...

Not sure what state you are in, but ours has a state university agricultural department which is a wealth of information for both home gardeners and smaller farmers which are very specific to that area (climate, strains, etc). 
I've also found the Farmer's Almanac a good resource for planting times, soil and water preferences, etc.

One important step with shifting plants from indoors to outdoors is the 'hardening off' process.  Basically, plants adapt to whatever conditions they are grown in, and if they start indoors that typically means no wind, a very narrow temperature band (say 60-67ºF in our home) and not a ton of very bright direct sunlight.  Move them outdoors with no hardening off period and the plants will suffer, because the cuticle isn't stiff enough (yet) to deal with wind, the hours of direct sunlight will blitz the plastids acclimated for lower-light levels, and the much greater changes in temperatures will shock them.

Hardening off isn't hard... I do it just by moving them inside/outside for a few days before planting.  But there are other methods.  Check out:
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-harden-off-plants-1402554

Yes, starting indoors can give you a jump ont eh growing season, but it's important not to overestimate how great this jump will be.  IME it's rarely more than a 2-3 week advantage for most veggies, in part because every time you transplant it will cause the plant to stop growing for a few days. starting indoors does give you an advantage over weeds, as you can move starts into freshly weeded plots and they'll be big enough to out-compete the weeds by the time those show up a couple weeks later.

thisisjeopardy

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Re: Gardening resources
« Reply #7 on: May 24, 2020, 12:29:31 PM »
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jeff+yeager+gardening

The top result should be from his show 'The Cheap Life' with a video titled 'Dirt Cheap Gardening'. He has other videos for being frugal in general and has others on gardening and general lawn care.

mrmoonymartian

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Re: Gardening resources
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2020, 09:38:48 AM »
Youtube videos would be great so we can watch them after kids are in bed instead of TV.

Self Sufficient Me is great on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJZTjBlrnDHYmf0F-eYXA3Q

eg. Bean problems? Just search that channel or others you like for the relevant content.

https://www.youtube.com/user/markyv69/search?query=bean