Raised bed filler

[chic rustler]

you have a good crisp sweet pickle recipe?

Nothing.new. We just use the ball book

 

[majorcatfish]

i'm a big believer in cages and trellis and of course soaker hoses.....keep it simple

for raised beds would plant everything that is strictly low profile, unless you have time and space in them to grow high profile crops that have top roots....

in years pass the corn did better not falling over in the raised beds than in the main garden in high winds....go figure

 

[flowerbug]

if they aren't staying crisp enough use Pickle Crisp (it is some form of calcium). not too expensive and worth it according to my crunchy pickle making friends.

we just use the old fashioned method where we cut the cucumbers in half and scoup out the seeds/pulp, then we slice them and the onions, (kosher or pickling ->) salt them and let them sit for a few hours, dump off the water and then go on with making the pickles. the syrup is something like two cups of sugar to one cup of apple cider vinegar. no spices needed, but a lot of people add them. there's already enough salt...

seem to keep ok for a year, can get a little mushy, but i don't really mind. adding pickle crisp and skipping the salting stage might work. haven't tried it yet here.

 

[Nyboy]

Pickle has to be crunchy

 

[baymule]

you have a good crisp sweet pickle recipe?

I do! let me go find it, it's on an old thread here. BRB.....

Found it! @canesisters made these and still does. I make them almost every year.

https://www.theeasygarden.com/threa...r-yall-that-are-tired-of-soggy-pickles.12510/

 

[ducks4you]

I suppose it depends what we mean by "short-lived," @ducks4you .

Compost Management, Cornell (click)
View attachment 23887
ig. 1: Soil organic matter. Treatments were HC: high rate of compost; LC: low rate of compost; HM: high rate of manure; LM: low rate of manure; N0: zero N control; and N100: 100 lbs sidedressed N/acre. This figure is comparing soil organic matter in April 2006 with soil organic matter in April 2001 for each fertility treatment.

high rate of composted dairy solids (N-based; 32 tons/acre)
low rate of composted dairy solids (P-based; 20 tons/acre),

What did we find? Soil Organic Matter: At the start of the experiment, the SOM was 3.5%. After five years of annual addition of high rates of compost, SOM had increased to 3.9% (Fig. 1). Addition of compost at the low rate did not increase SOM.

I didn't do your study--thanks for sharing! Compost is by FAR the best way to improve your soil and we all start out gardening with whatever is sitting in the back yard. I erroneously believed that my property, a former farm, had terrific soil everywhere, but where there was grass growing my soil was practically all clay. Once I found some rotting sweet peppers in my vegetable drawer and planted probably 150 sweet peppers which went out in my clay garden soil to die. I would use composted manure from soiled stall bedding/soiled coop bedding in my garden beds even if they didn't fertilize my vegetables bc the compost has transformed my soil into stuff that can be dug into with my hand. The root crops come out easily, too.
Dunno how to suggest that farmers all go back to animal manure for fertilizer instead of chemical, one use fertilizer, and I understand that part of the reason is cost, but We don't have to be stuck using Miracle Gro one use chemical fertilizer. We that garden also keep a lawn and if you have nothing else, you have grass clippings and leaves in the fall that can be piled up and created into compost for your own gardening.
There are many ways to help our environments and not introduce chemical compounds that don't need to be saturating into the dirt. I don't believe that places without people were any better than what we have now, but, where the soil is undisturbed it builds up. It is true that tropical rain forests have shallow soil depth which depends entirely on the death of plants and animals to refresh and feed the microbes, insects and worms that break them down to grow more trees, and feed more animals, and thus the cycle. It is believe that people first learned to grow grain bc they discovered that the plants that they put on top of the burial mounds sprouted and could be intentionally sprouted to be harvested. Charles Darwin Should have been renowned for his observations of earthworms creating topsoil.
https://archive.org/details/formationofveget01darw

 

[ducks4you]

Two more things...

Your wooden sides of your beds will start rotting in about 5 years.
If you screw them together OR nail them together you will have to clean that up.
I have gone to pounding in wooden stakes on the insides and outsides of my wooden sides so that I can easily remove any rotting wood and replace it.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?...den+raised+beds+with+wooden+stakes&ajaxhist=0
https://www.bing.com/images/search?...den+raised+beds+with+wooden+stakes&ajaxhist=0
I just liked this raised bed in the foreground.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?...608026002255121327&selectedIndex=3&ajaxhist=0
I burn what is rotten.
Also,
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/9731-bread-and-butter-pickles

 

[flowerbug]

@ducks4you it is a tough road to get many farmers to change their ways. i see the results of old school farming every day here. it's a tragedy in so many ways.

 

[chic rustler]

I didn't do your study--thanks for sharing! Compost is by FAR the best way to improve your soil and we all start out gardening with whatever is sitting in the back yard. I erroneously believed that my property, a former farm, had terrific soil everywhere, but where there was grass growing my soil was practically all clay. Once I found some rotting sweet peppers in my vegetable drawer and planted probably 150 sweet peppers which went out in my clay garden soil to die. I would use composted manure from soiled stall bedding/soiled coop bedding in my garden beds even if they didn't fertilize my vegetables bc the compost has transformed my soil into stuff that can be dug into with my hand. The root crops come out easily, too.
Dunno how to suggest that farmers all go back to animal manure for fertilizer instead of chemical, one use fertilizer, and I understand that part of the reason is cost, but We don't have to be stuck using Miracle Gro one use chemical fertilizer. We that garden also keep a lawn and if you have nothing else, you have grass clippings and leaves in the fall that can be piled up and created into compost for your own gardening.
There are many ways to help our environments and not introduce chemical compounds that don't need to be saturating into the dirt. I don't believe that places without people were any better than what we have now, but, where the soil is undisturbed it builds up. It is true that tropical rain forests have shallow soil depth which depends entirely on the death of plants and animals to refresh and feed the microbes, insects and worms that break them down to grow more trees, and feed more animals, and thus the cycle. It is believe that people first learned to grow grain bc they discovered that the plants that they put on top of the burial mounds sprouted and could be intentionally sprouted to be harvested. Charles Darwin Should have been renowned for his observations of earthworms creating topsoil.
https://archive.org/details/formationofveget01darw

I know they will rot. When the time comes I'll replace them. No big deal

 

[ducks4you]

I wish that we had more of This going on:
https://www.mobot.org/hort/activ/plasticpots.shtml