Garden 2020.

[Weedygarden]

Ask the farmer.

In my experience, if you ask farmers / ranchers what they do with their cattle, they are more than willing to tell you what they do when they work their cattle and what they use on them. I talk cattle with them when I get a chance, especially as it relates to hormones, grass fed and other potential things that some consumers might not want in their food.

 

[Rich1028]

have not started yet.
wife got some plants from the nursery,but still not planting,we did that last year,to early.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

It doesn't matter where you get the compost. With the amount of spraying done to hay and other crops, the safest way is to test the compost before dumping it in your garden. Once in there, it is hard to get rid of it.

The quickest way to do this, is to plant beans in some samples. Beans sprout fast and show toxic poisoning just as quickly. Lots of info out there about this.

I do not sell my manure/ compost to anyone. I know it is produced from cows eating off of 35 year old organic land. It goes straight back on my own gardens and fields. I have made one exception for a nearby neighbor who has a small garden and is the area handyman and an all round decent human being. I just bring him a bucket load every spring. No charge.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Hubby spent a few days overhauling the rototiller. He wanted me to go out and see how well it runs now. He started it up and it ran about 30 seconds and quit. He was cursing a bit and trying to figure out why the carburetor adjustments weren't working; he had rebuilt it. While he was in the garage looking for a wrench, I checked the gas tank. You guessed it.

 

[Peanut]

When ever I hear a story like that I always think of Karl!

I think everyone has done that at one time or another...

 

[backlash]

We had a pretty good rain last night and the ground is soft so I weeded my garden area and raspberry bed. I need to set a couple of posts and stretch wires to make a trellis.
We planted about 40 peas and only 1 germinated. I didn't realize the seeds were 2 years old so I'm going to buy more and try again.
Next week I will get my drip irrigation in and plant a few things outside and hope we don't get a freeze.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

I am having a tough time with seeds this year. I suspect they are selling old seed or contaminated seed. I checked the packets and noticed they aren't dated. I usually get seed from small private growers, but they are hard to come by this year.

Interestingly, seed that I saved from Guatemalan melons and veggies, are sprouting at about 95%. My own saved seed is good as well.

 

[WVDragonlady]

I managed to find some cherry tomato plants, zucchini plants and an oregano plant at walmart this morning. They had a big amount of eggplant plants, peppers and tomato plants

I went ahead and bought some watermelon seeds, leek seeds, swiss chard seeds and zucchini seeds for next year. Walmart had plenty of seeds
I'm thinking if I vacuum seal them in a jar still in the paper envelopes and keep the jar in the fridge they should be okay for next years garden

 

[Support Gunner]

We just keep our seeds in old pill bottles and keep them in the fridge.

 

[Support Gunner]

We watch MIGardner alot.

A question for all you potatoe growers.......

These were the last of the potatoes we had that we got from the store.

Would you guys plant these or not?

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Plant them. They are already chitted and good to go.

 

[Tank-Girl]

I've been very busy trying to kill myself in the garden as per usual.

I took down all the reo mesh from the rows, and worked the soil with a mattock and rake.
Laid down home made dripper line made of 13mm poly tube.
I rant the lines to flush dirt out of the system before I put on the end caps and to check the fittings didn't leak.
Spread pelleted chicken manure, lime, epsom salts and potash down the row and worked it in with the rake.
Laid down black plastic over the dripper line and then weed mat down the walk ways and made sure that there was a lot of over lap.
I had made the landscape fabric pins using 8 gauge plain wire and a pair of bolt cutters. That was a big job.
I put the reo mesh back and tied them in place making sure I didn't squash the lines or puncture the plastic.
All of my tomatoes are in now and my paprika chillies and they all now have drip irrigation.

I got my super phosphateand and 20 2.4 mtr star pickets ( T posts) delivered.
I'm 5'2 and the star pickets are 2 meters 40 cms tall. I'm in for an interesting time putting those in the ground.
The Super Phosphate is for my potatoes and the star pickets and new rolls of orchard mesh are to build a enclosure for my entire tomato garden. The birds eat the tomatoes the second they start to blush and the mesh bags don't stop them from damaging the fruit. Time to get serious about crop protection.
I have to get back out there and take a mattock to an another 2 10 mtr rows for my eggplants and capsicums.
I haven't started thinking about laying out string lines for the potato trenches. It's not a job I'm looking forward to even though my entire living room floor is covered in cardboard with chitted potato quarters. It might be nice to get to the bathroom without having to run an obstacle course.
My back hurts. Actually everything hurts.

 

[Bacpacker]

You are getting a lot done TG. Impressive.
I planted a row of kidney beans over the weekend. And finished building my raised beds.
My taters, cukes, and okra are all coming up. Cabbage is looking good, tiny little heads forming. I've got mulberries, blueberries, grapes, apples, pears, & pawpaws forming up, one apple tree's apples are actually decent size already. But it's a June bearer. Been picking some green onions, lettuce, & spinach from my little plastic pots. Got a notice yesterday my 2nd batch of onion slips are on their way. Hope to get them planted this weekend.

 

[Peanut]

I'd cut up and plant them taters in a heart beat.

I'm still stuck on setting the rear tires on the old ford tractor out for row cropping... a pain to do safely by myself. I need to plow everything thats up and lay out new rows. I still have seed to get in the ground.

 

[Tank-Girl]

I'd cut up and plant them taters in a heart beat.

I'm still stuck on setting the rear tires on the old ford tractor out for row cropping... a pain to do safely by myself. I need to plow everything thats up and lay out new rows. I still have seed to get in the ground.

There's no tractor here. The entire potato patch will have to be dug with mattock and shovel.
Mattock first because the ground is too hard packed after the summer to use a shovel. It's only used to shift the ground I break up and mound it.

 

[WVDragonlady]

It keeps raining here every 2-3 days. And I'm not talking about showers or something. I'm talking about downpours and hours of rain. 1/4 - 2 inches isn't unusual.
I'm surprised what I have managed to plant hasn't rotted

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

There's no tractor here. The entire potato patch will have to be dug with mattock and shovel.
Mattock first because the ground is too hard packed after the summer to use a shovel. It's only used to shift the ground I break up and mound it.

I am lucky. I can stick my arm in to my elbow. I have fluffy black composted hay and manure dirt. It used to be rocky nothing. After a few years, the winter horse and cow corrals get unuasable due to them churning up the muck during the spring. I turn them into gardens when that happens. All the wasted hay from the feeders eventually rots down and I get amazing gardens out of a gravel pit. I am always harvesting rocks but getting ahead of them now, as well.

You need to find a way to mulch your potato ground thickly and leave the mulch in place to rot when the potatoes are dug. I don't envy you all the hard digging.

 

[LadyLocust]

My first Brussels sprout has sprouted:0) Also carrots but still no parsnips. I keep looking but they keep not sprouting Our beds are all ready, but we've had skitso weather so can't put tender plants out there yet.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Tomato plants have blossoms on them.
Several green beans plants are up in one raised bed.
Grand daughter's whiskey barrel has carrots up, green beans, okra,dill,wildflowers,tulip just one up.

 

[Peanut]

Darn, plowed the garden today. I noticed I didn't get a single beet plant to come up, not one. I first planted 2 rolls of seed that came pressed in paper. It rained later that day. About a week later I planted a packet of loose seed on the same row. It rained later that day.

I think the rain washed in enough dirt to cover the seed to deeply. The odds of this years seed from 2 different sources both being bad? Don't think so... The only other thing in common were heavy rains. It's really too late to plant now... I guess I get no beets this year, I was so looking forward to pickled beets.

 

[Bacpacker]

Peanut can you grow a fall crop of beets? I would think you would be able to with your climate.

 

[Peanut]

I hadn't considered it... maybe I'll do a little research, see what's possible.

 

[Bacpacker]

Around here sometimes spring crops will do good in the fall, if you can get the seed sprouted and make it thru late summer. Maybe worth a shot.

 

[Peanut]

I just went back out to the garden with a hoe. I'd knocked down a few plants. I couldn't see them from the tractor seat but looking closely... There were about 35 or 40 tiny little beet plants that had come up. They were barely a half inch tall.

I've gotten about 12.5 inches inches of rain since I first planted. Lots of sunny days but lots of rain and cool ground. I think they were just delayed a week of two. Maybe I'll get enough beets to pickle a few.

 

[Bacpacker]

Glad you took a second glance. Glad they came up.
My okra I thought wasn't going to come up, but over the weekend I finally saw a few poking thru. With all the cloudy rainy days, I guess things are slow germinating this year.

 

[Support Gunner]

Our new drip system. We are liking it better then the soaker hose from miracle grow that we have used for the past two years.

 

[Support Gunner]

An sence there are so many pea seeds, we decided to go with a mister in stead of dripping. It covers more area that way.

 

[Terri9630]

The air temps are warm enough but our ground temps are still to cold. That's why we are putting in a high tunnel.

 

[Peanut]

I noticed today I have my first tomato growing, about the size of a golf ball. The rest of the tomato plants are coming along nicely. My potatoes, onions, sweetcorn, green peppers and cayennes are doing well also. The bare row is the tiny beet plants that are finally coming up.

I expected more growth from all of the plants but the ground has stayed cool. The tomatoes are cloest to the camera, peppers are past the tomatoes. To the right of the bare row are two rows of potatoes, onions at the far end. The corn is two rows to the right of the potatoes.

 

[Bacpacker]

Got my raised beds completed. Took a vacation day yesterday and got 2 loads of compost. 1 got loaded in the bed yesterday, the other this morning. Topped them off with some peat moss and a high quality potting soil.
Planted 3 double rows of bean, 1 Roma, one Kentucky Wonder, and one Blue Lake bush beans, a double row of snap peas, row of Scarlett Nantes Carrots, row of parsnips, row of radishes. Several patty pan squash, and in one bed 8 4' rows on red onions. In the 2nd bed 14 - 4' rows on yellow storage onions.
I still have room for some more summer squash and hopefully 2-3 cantaloupe plants. I plan to do some kind of fencing to let the melons climb. The 2nd bed is going to get my peppers planted in it. I also have several basil, marigold, and Purple Coneflowers plants ready to plant.
Other than planting the peppers and a few other things, I need to lay out my drip irrigation lines. I've used them for a lady I planted a garden for and they worked well. Just gotta figure out how to lay mine out best.