General Discussion
Vegetable Garden
6/30/04 @ 1:47 PM
Who's got one ? what are you growing ? and how's it coming along? Mine consists of sweet corn , cabbage , brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli ,cucumbers, zucchini, peas, tomatoes , peppers , acorn squash, pumpkins, and assorted spices. The cold wet weather hasn't been very conducive to good growth so far for me. But with warmer weather in the forecast things should turn out. I hope those of you growing fair better.
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Awesome, thanks for the input! I have hundreds of them I'm wanting to slowly get rid of so think I'll cut down a dozen or so of them this summer, shave off the bark and cut them to size to dry over winter and use them to put up my pig pen that got put off this year. If I can get 5-10 years out of them I'll be happy.
Junkie…The asphalt coating will help any wood from decaying quickly. Not being treated it may not last 30 years like my posts have, but it will definitely make the pine last longer. If you paint the natural wood posts it would seal the rest of it and help preserve its life
The decking on my pier is stained cedar and is not the cats meow. The cedar started rotting within 2 years The decking on my mother inlaws pier is stained green treat I built 30 years ago and still solid to this day. Like Z said, a coating of asphalt on a post will last longer in the ground than most anything.
I know they say Cedar is supposed to last longer and not rot as fast. That has not been my experience with my raised garden bed kit I got online about 10 years ago! Most of the wood has been replaced at least once. Some of them the company sent me replacements after I showed them pictures of how bad the wood was rotting, but now the replacements are rotting too! I'll have to replace it with something else eventually and hopefully the bed of dirt doesn't collapse when I take the boards out. By the way, my first garden I used huge 6X6 ties just to raise the garden up a little. They were 12 foot long when I got them and I cut two of the sides down to 8 foot to make my garden 8X12. 13 years later those are still there, though I can tell they're starting to get a little soft. Little did I know at the time that they said it's not good to use treated wood because of the chemicals in the wood. Well I'm still here, lol! It's the same green stuff they use in telephone poles. I've now heard most of the treated lumber nowadays is safe to use in gardens. Not sure where the evidence is to back that up or not, but I do know treated wood lasts longer than non-treated wood.
I did my inventory of tomato and pepper plants the other day. 91 tomatoes and 103 peppers planted this year that have made it and not died yet! That's 13 varieties of tomatoes, 9 different varieties of jalapenos, 3 different varieties of cayenne peppers, and 10 other varieties of sweet and hot peppers! Think I overdid it this year, but people love when they give you plants, so long as people want them I'll keep planting them. 14 tomato plants will go into the ground myself, and probably 30 peppers, the rest I'll give away or sell for a buck a plant if I have any left. Time to start planting this weekend! Only thing I'm harvesting right now in my garden is lettuce. Two cuts of lettuce so far from 3 different pots I planted and started indoors 2 months ago. They're really taking off now in the garden!
I did my inventory of tomato and pepper plants the other day. 91 tomatoes and 103 peppers planted this year that have made it and not died yet! That's 13 varieties of tomatoes, 9 different varieties of jalapenos, 3 different varieties of cayenne peppers, and 10 other varieties of sweet and hot peppers! Think I overdid it this year, but people love when they give you plants, so long as people want them I'll keep planting them. 14 tomato plants will go into the ground myself, and probably 30 peppers, the rest I'll give away or sell for a buck a plant if I have any left. Time to start planting this weekend! Only thing I'm harvesting right now in my garden is lettuce. Two cuts of lettuce so far from 3 different pots I planted and started indoors 2 months ago. They're really taking off now in the garden!
Treated wood is denser than cedar and will last a little longer, but both will rot in damp soil. I learned from my uncle who owned a farm that if you coat the wood with driveway sealer or roofing cement where it will come in contact with the ground, the posts will last for many years. I have posts that are over 30 years old and still look like the day I put them in. I not only do all four sides and the bottom, but I also go a couple inches above ground level. It really works well and I’ve recommended this to everyone that needs to do posts with great results.
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