Vegetable Gardening Guru

[Roy Martin]

Hey Roy, nice to meet you.
We too put all kitchen scraps in the compost pile. Its fun for us to see whats going to come up who knows where. We will have potatoes pop up in the flower beds from the peelings, tomatoes here and there, a huge pumpkin plant once. Onions too. I noticed some cabbage at the edge of the pile the other day. Anyway, its fun stuff that doesn't cost anything.

  I just thought of something else about pineapples. Cut the green top off the pineapple,peel back several layers of leafs from the bottom until you have enough stalk to put in soil. Use a good potting mix. Put it in a pot and a few weeks it will take root. Re pot as it grows. One plant produces several pineapples. Its a beautiful plant. Eat one of these vine ripened baby's and you will never buy another store bought one. I start mine in the winter and place it by a window. They make beautiful house plants too.
Roy

[Roy Coates]

Saladking, I read quite a bit about the ink. From what I understand is that any thing that might be a problem is destroyed in the heat. The compost pile as I described reaches 105-120 f. The whole process is basically bio breakdown caused by bacteria on a micro scale. Kind of like a cow eats grass then leaves a cow pie that we use for compost. Small micro organisms eat the material in the pile and leave micro cow pies. Arsenic in the ground water here is more of a concern.

[Roy Coates]

Roy M,
Nice to meet you too. I am going to plant me a pinapple and see what happens. Even if the only work out this year as houseplant cause this is a late start. I had never thought of even trying that here in Michigan

[Roy Martin]

Hey Roy, check out this tractor,

For the Tractor lovers amongst us
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,213971.0/topicseen.html

Roy

[Roy Martin]

Roy, the reason for keeping the pineapple in a pot is it might take a couple of years for it to bear fruit.Just take it in for the winter and place by a window but not where it will be cold below 65 degrees or it will stop growing. Its a beautiful plant to watch grow.

Roy

[Kat]

Hi Roy,

Did you get the right link, I didn't see a tractor at the link you provided. 

I bought some bags of organic eucalyptus mulch yesterday.  What do you know anything about that?  Since it's not pine, which I had been using, I'm hoping it will do better for the veg. garden.  I also saw mashroom mulch, have you heard of that stuff.

I think I will try to start a pineapple plant too 

mercy, peace and love
Kat

[Roy Martin]

Kat, I corrected the tractor link. It should work for you now.

Mushroom mulch is exceptional. Its more expensive than others but my opinion is, well worth it.
This stuff is a tremendous soil builder, makes mic/org. do a dance. 100% organic, no chemicals, no bad side effects, just good stuff. It works on soil improvement almost immediately. It also improves structure of clay soils. Cant go wrong with this stuff at all. A wise choice.

Eucalyptus mulch, what can I say? Its still just chipped or shredded wood. It takes a long time for it to decompose to be any value to soil. It will however reduce weeds and help with moisture evaporation. I prefer it to pine or cedar. Is what you have real woody or still slightly green? There have been concerns about Euc. oil drenching into the soil causing water absorption. Bugs don't care for it.
I'm sorry Kat, I just don't like tree mulches unless it has fully decomposed. Its okay for shrubs and trees but I wouldn't use it on veggies.
I often use a commercial mulch not bagged. I buy it by the yard.Its much cheaper that way and it has other organic material in it. Most nursery's have it in their wholesale department. Its something you have to ask for because its usually not on display. Its good stuff too.
  Hope this has been helpful to you.
By the way,next to talking about God, I love gardening talk as you can see. All of my info comes from experience and years of experiments and study. Been there, done it all, but there is always new things to learn.

[Kat]

Okay Roy I think I've got it, NO hard wood mulch.  I'll keep that away from my veggies and I'm going to get some bags of the mushroom mulch, since you gave that a big thumbs up.  I think you have got me going in the right direction now.  Your comments and advice is much appreciated 

mercy, peace and love

[Roy Martin]

Kat, the pleasure is mine.
Roy

[Roy Coates]

Roy M. Now that is a neat idea for a snow machine, I am afraid we just don't get enough snow in my area.

Kat don't mulch your plants to soon, mulch will keep the soil from warming up and harder to deep water the young plants. Once they become established then mulch away, that will reduce the weeds and water evaporation. Hmm did Roy M already say this? I probably read it and know I think I know some thing. Getting old. Any Who if Roy M. gave this advice I second it

[Roy Martin]

Check out some of my work.
http://s599.photobucket.com/albums/tt79/roydmartin/?action=view&current=c8d7a6e2.pbw

[Ninny]

Very cool Roy M. Is that lady in the picture your wife? She's very pretty. I love your work you need to come to my house and get started!! Good work!
Kathy

[Roy Coates]

Nice work Roy M. and a beautiful couple you guys make

[Kat]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm well on my way now.  Roy M. I'm setting your gardening as my standard to reach for 

Okay we just got about 5 inches of rain already this weekend.  Our average last frost date for this area is 3-18, so I'm going to start putting stuff in the ground soon, well when it dries out a little bit.  I've started working on the spots I've got picked out.  Here is a 'before' shot of 2 gardens spots.  I hope to have 'after' shots too, as soon as things start growing.

   

And here are the spouts I'm going to be planting in the garden in the next few weeks.



So I'm off and running and loving the challenge, which it definitely is for me.

mercy, peace and love
Kat

[Roy Martin]

Kat I'm flattered by your compliment.
Your spots look very nice and organized. Your soil looks good and fluffy from what I can see. It wont be long that you'll start to see that dark rich color that comes from proper composting and mulching.
Last year I had 2 spots about the size of yours and grew a lot of stuff all summer into fall. I harvested turnip greens all winter, even in freezing temps. Yea thats right, you can grow turnip greens during winter. Snow and freeze didnt even slow them down. They kept producing until I pulled up the turnips of which I didnt want, just the greens.
I look forward to the updates on your garden.
If you have any other areas that you need help in designing, send pictures of the area and Ill import them into my landscape design software and design it for you. Its a neat program. It will show the growth pattern from beginning to maturity.Lots of cool stuff I can do with it.
Im here if you need me. Happy Gardening.

Roy

[Ninny]

Wow! Kat! Very impressive! I hope to be able to at least grow some things in containers. If I get ambitious, I'd better get there pretty soon, we are getting some pretty warm temps. I've been looking at some things, my husband saw something at Sam's Club that he said he could build for me, it was a container type gardening area. We'll see if HE gets ambitious!
Kathy

[Kat]

Oh Roy, I'm with you on the winter greens.  Down here we can grow quite a few things in the winter.

Here is another spot that I had some mustard greens, lettuce and broccoli planted.



This is one purple colored mustard that really got large and it was tasty too.



Hey Kathy you can do a lot in containers from what I've seen on some sites.  I think you should definitely give it a try.

mercy, peace and love
Kat

[Roy Martin]

Kat, You have a love for gardening. I cant keep from thinking that its part of our design. Its kind of sad that so many people miss out on it.
When I'm gardening  or taking notice to flowers and trees, all plants for that matter; it reminds me of our heavenly father.  Gardening is so healthy for us physically and emotionally. I would be lost if I couldn't garden and plant things. No doubt that God loves a beautiful garden. He is the master gardener, don't you think?
  Ill present some pictures soon of my garden spot; before & after.
I really like working the little areas like you have yours though. It is easier to maintain, and it just seems to be more informal.
  Kathy, you would be surprised at how much you can grow in containers. Its really very simple and easy to maintain by using micro irrigation since most peoples problems are from too much or not enough watering. Automate it and no worries. Watering with a hose or by pouring it in on the pot causes soil compaction and then water just runs down the sides rather than reaching the center of the plant. For house plants, I water with soapy water every month or so, liquid dish soap, Joy. It acts as a wetting agent and also improves aeration.
OK I'm getting carried away. If I don't stop myself I would be writing a book here.
Happy gardening everyone.
Oh and by the way; I specialize in hydroponics if anyone needs help with that.Ive been designing systems for 30 years.

Peace
Roy M

[Kat]

Hi Roy,

I do love gardening and chatting about it has been a delight.  I do think that God uses His creation to teach us about Himself in so many ways.  For me nature gives peace to my soul and I have a passion to be close to it. 

I had a large veg. garden years ago, but it was so much work and veggies were not so expensive back then.  So I've been working in the yard in flower beds and trying to landscape since then. A couple of years ago it just hit me that I should start up a veg. garden, so I got one spot started, not so big and not too much work.  But I really liked it, so I started another small spot and then another.  So I'm pretty happy with what I've got going now and it's plenty big enough to keep me busy and supply some nice veggies.

You keep coming up with those helpful hints, For house plants, I water with soapy water every month or so.  Okay I'm going to try that one too, so do keep'um coming 

mercy, peace and love
Kat

[Roy Martin]

Kat, you can count on me to keep em coming since you asked. As Jimmy Durante use to say," I got a million of em". Also, don't hold back on asking questions. It is a delight for me as well, and a blessing also.
Oh and by the way; Silvia has registered today with the forum. I guess Ill have to get another computer.
Ill be back with some stuff as it comes to me. Talk to ya later.

Roy M