GARDEN 2023

[Cascadian]

I took the week off to help get our garden in. We are plugging along not super into it unfortunately, but getting it done.

 

[thankful_k]

Well, I haven't planted mine yet, sooooo, I have the weekend to find me a naked young man!! There is no naked young man emoji!!

Welp, there's always these guys:

 

[LadyLocust]

@UrbanHunter has the bay/laurel been difficult to grow? That’s one I want but haven’t seen it locally and haven’t taken time to order one online.

 

[UrbanHunter]

@UrbanHunter has the bay/laurel been difficult to grow? That’s one I want but haven’t seen it locally and haven’t taken time to order one online.

To be honest it has been relatively easy to grow, but the winters here are too cold for them to grow outdoors. I am growing them in nursery pots sitting in 10X20 seed starter trays, 2 pots to a tray. I do fertilizer them about once every 6 months with a tomato spike or a table spoon of granular fertilizer, I usually move them to a fresh starter tray to avoid having algae issues. I prune them back 3 or 4 times a year, or when ever the wife needs bay leaves. If they get too tall I will cut back a stem so they don't get burned by my lights. They seem to tolerate my abuse by growing pretty new leaves....

I read that they will not survive a strong freeze so they are my house plants....

 

[LadyLocust]

To be honest it has been relatively easy to grow, but the winters here are too cold for them to grow outdoors. I am growing them in nursery pots sitting in 10X20 seed starter trays, 2 pots to a tray. I do fertilizer them about once every 6 months with a tomato spike or a table spoon of granular fertilizer, I usually move them to a fresh starter tray to avoid having algae issues. I prune them back 3 or 4 times a year, or when ever the wife needs bay leaves. If they get too tall I will cut back a stem so they don't get burned by my lights. They seem to tolerate my abuse by growing pretty new leaves....

I read that they will not survive a strong freeze so they are my house plants....

Thank you . I’ve heard of folks putting them on the patio for summer and bringing them in for winter. I would do the same.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I have had bad experiences with bringing plants back in-doors, hitch-hikers so I will stick with my rule of a one way door, out not in....
Here are my bay leaves:


My growing stations are on wheels so I can move them to gain access all the way around, currently one of the shelves on the growing station behind it is being used to hold canned goods before they are dated, inventoried, and placed in the food storage shelves, which are in the background.

 

[Peanut]

Got 72 pepper plants set out, garden was a bit soggy after 3 days of rain.

1st pic, 2 rows of pepper plants, the bell peppers are about 6" tall on the left row. The cayennes and jalapenos are tiny, right row. After many years I'm convinced the old adage is true, it takes heat to make heat. I no longer set out hot peppers until late may. They'll be putting on peppers in the heat of Jul/August. Bell peppers don't need heat which is why I bought larger plants.


Rest of the pics, got cabbages, a little late getting those set out so I bought big plants. Plenty of onions and a few squash down at the end. Have two rows of okra, 4 rows of peas. Had to plant corn 3 times, bad seed the first two attempts.

Fig trees got badly burned by a hard freeze last winter, gonna be cutting most of them down this fall (right edge of last photo). Once every 20 or 30 years they'll get killed by the cold, they always put back up fine. Been doing so since the 1880's. Figs were growing in the same location in a very old photo I saw, taken about 1890.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I pulled an onion to see how they are doing, but it was a garlic, nicely formed but a garlic all the same... So now I have to wonder what the other stuff is.. It's all good.

 

[LadyLocust]

Anyone have a good remedy for getting rid of rolypoly bugs? We seem to have more than our share this year.

 

[ABR]

Anyone have a good remedy for getting rid of rolypoly bugs? We seem to have more than our share this year.

A bunch of kids with jars

 

[Magpie]

Took a few in the garden yesterday. Everything's a bit behind here, except, strangely, for the strawberries! S pics 1 & 2 outdoor beds of potatoes, greyhound cabbage, peas, pumpkin, blueberries, onions and more cabbage. The pear tree I overwintered in the poly next to lillies, pic 4 the new posts in for chicken run then in poly onions, early potatoes, chard, tomatoes - 3 types - cauliflower, onions, garlic, perpetual spinach and there's seedlings somewhere too - parsnip, lettuce, more peas and mangetout, and finally the updated flowerbed along the garage.

 

[sonya123]

I need to cut off some broccoli and cook them today, before they flower
I wanted to sell them at the market but not sure they will wait a week

 

[sonya123]

View attachment 108705View attachment 108706View attachment 108707

That's a huge "garden"!!! It makes ours look tiny....
Wow, and you do this all by yourself?

 

[Peanut]

That's a huge "garden"!!! It makes ours look tiny....
Wow, and you do this all by yourself?

To my mind… it’s on the small side, only 150ft x 125ft. About a 1/2 acre and yes, one person can do it. It used to be 150x200. I had to replace the septic field lines on the lower side. The new lines won’t support equipment so I lost an area of 150x75.

At the edges in the trees I have 100’s of medicinal plants growing, not to mention the fig trees and elderberry.

Until a few years ago we had a 200tree peach orchard up in the ‘high field’. In the area between the trees we usually grew 3-5 acres of peas, corn, cash crops we could sell at the farmers market. These few acres stretched around a hill, can’t stand in one spot and see all of it.

 

[Amish Heart]

It all looks great, Peanut!

 

[Bacpacker]

Here's my beds. Figs, berries, and fruit is in other areas. Not sure I'll plant anything in lower garden spots this year. Just plant a heavy cover crop or twp

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I harvested 1/4 of my spinach patch (actually the smallest of two patches ~ 6 square feet), after I blanched, shocked, chopped and put it in the freezer I only got a couple of pounds of spinach, I did save a gallon of the fresh baby leaves for use in salads. After I harvested the spinach, I also harvested the onions and radishes that were in the bed, then I completely weeded the bed, turned over all the soil, added a little fertilizer and replanted the bed with onions, spinach, radishes, and a few beets.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I have some strawberries that I would like to move, they have some fruit but they are all in the dirt and poorly formed. Anyway, can I just dig them up and move them to a new home without hurting the plants too much? I'm at a total loss with them...

 

[Pearl]

I have some strawberries that I would like to move, they have some fruit but they are all in the dirt and poorly formed. Anyway, can I just dig them up and move them to a new home without hurting the plants too much? I'm at a total loss with them...

 

[Pearl]

Here's my beds. Figs, berries, and fruit is in other areas. Not sure I'll plant anything in lower garden spots this year. Just plant a heavy cover crop or twp

One question, do I see some weed whacking that needs to be done??

 

[Peanut]

Just realized my dad in the last pic. He is hand dropping fertilizer, probably triple 13. I remember the day I took that pic. Later, in june, when the peas were getting ready herds of deer showed up. They were bad...12+ one night. I pitched a tent up there. I turned the opening up the hill to the woods.

I didn't sleep well, woke up often during the night. Each time I pointed a little .22 semi out the tent flap and fired a couple rounds. Then roll back over and go back to sleep. It freaked the deer out. They never knew if I was in the tent or when I'd shoot. only stayed in it a couple nights over 12 days (went up several times a day and left my scent everywhere). Didn't lose a pea! sold all the I could then left the rest for the deer.

Sounds drastic but... I had money tied up in those peas, worth several hundred, minus fuel and assorted. I think purple hulls were around $25 a bushel then. I have gotten $30 when I had the first peas to market.

That whole terrace where dad is walking and the one above got a little charcoal in January.

Dad started pruning peach trees in early January. We had 200 commercial trees, 50ea of 4 varieties. We'd burn all the pruned branches, spread the leftover ash and charcoal out over 50yrds then plow it in the soil. We'd move the piles to different spots each year.

Those two terraces got plenty of Azomite, crushed volcanic rock with around 80 minerals and elements).

We'd cut hay on the rest of the terraces, another 10 acres or so. Once the trees got to the end of their commercial life we pulled up all but a few.

I did some serious work on the soils in this field and in the old garden by the house, the areas we plowed. I even used azomite on some pastures. I'd buy a ton, sometimes 2 or 3 a year. It shipped from Utah. I sold enough to pay for most of what I used. (delivered 400lbs to a lady in Mobile once). Some years I had as much as a 1000lbs free to use on my fields.

Come January it started again. Looks like early hay in this pic.. This whole field got azomite, charcoal and ash, did wonders for everything growing up there.

 

[momof6]

Anyone have a good remedy for getting rid of rolypoly bugs? We seem to have more than our share this year.

Flower garden or veggie garden? Some plants attract them more than others. (They love the Hostas and Alyssum.) Diatomaceous Earth works well unless there is just a really bad "area" then use neem oil, the diatomaceous earth won't help the damaged crop. Another thought if you do not already plant this way and you have a repetitive problem is raised row methods for planting.

 

[LadyLocust]

Flower garden or veggie garden? Some plants attract them more than others. (They love the Hostas and Alyssum.) Diatomaceous Earth works well unless there is just a really bad "area" then use neem oil, the diatomaceous earth won't help the damaged crop. Another thought if you do not already plant this way and you have a repetitive problem is raised row methods for planting.

Thank you. I have both flowers and veggies. Where there have been so many is between the rose and mint. I have neem but haven’t used DE there. Might grab some.

 

[Bacpacker]

Finally got my cow panel placed in the maters. Also got all the drip irrigation put in. Only have 1 tube that sprung a hole to replace.
I use several quick connects and 2 way splitters. Somehow I had them in at least 3 places last fall. Drove me nuts trying to figure out what i had done with them. But all is good. Watered for a couple hours Wed night and will again tonight. Things had gotten too dry.
We've got banana peppers about ready to harvest, cabbage before long

 

[Peanut]

It started again... dad, bless his heart, he forgets things. Last year he ran a bush hog thru my watermelons. I stopped him after one pass, only lost a few melons. 2 weeks later I stopped him from running a gang disk thru the same watermelons. Earlier this spring he ran a gang disk thru medicinal plants I had growing at the right edge of this pic.

This morning he plowed up 36 of my pepper plants. I'm done. I don't have the energy to waste trying to grow veggies he's going to plow up.

He left the row of taller bell peppers, plowed up the row of jalapenos and cayennes.

 

[UrbanHunter]

It started again... dad, bless his heart, he forgets things. Last year he ran a bush hog thru my watermelons. I stopped him after one pass, only lost a few melons. 2 weeks later I stopped him from running a gang disk thru the same watermelons. Earlier this spring he ran a gang disk thru medicinal plants I had growing at the right edge of this pic.

This morning he plowed up 36 of my pepper plants. I'm done. I don't have the energy to waste trying to grow veggies he's going to plow up.

He left the row of taller bell peppers, plowed up the row of jalapenos and cayennes.

View attachment 109092

Add a hidden kill-switch to you tractor, that way he will tell you the tractor's broke and you will know he wants to till your "weeds"!

 

[Bacpacker]

Hate to hear that Peanut. So much work ruined.
I think Urban's kill switch idea is a great one. Pretty easy yo do as well. Just need a good hiding spot for it

 

[Peanut]

For the few plants I was going to grow it’s not worth the stress. I have one tractor disabled already and I keep the other one almost out of fuel… hoping he can’t do too much damage. He can’t pick up a 5g can of fuel. Last year I caught him siphoning fuel out of a 5gallon can into a little bucket which he can pick up, then pouring it in the tank. I cringe sitting in my chair every time I hear a tractor start, what’s he going to tear up or plow up next?

No, I’m done… it’s not good for either of us. I get mad then stressed. I calmed down before talking to him about it this morning. I wasn’t angry, just wanted to understand where the breakdown is happening, this is the 4th time in 6 months. Is it just memory failing? or cognitive ability? or both? I brought it up, he got embarrassed, then he got mad and yells at me… so no, a few pepper plants aren’t worth it.

 

[Patchouli]

Sounds like he needs a job tilling the fields. Even if he already did. Sorry about that @Peanut

 

[Pearl]

For the few plants I was going to grow it’s not worth the stress. I have one tractor disabled already and I keep the other one almost out of fuel… hoping he can’t do too much damage. He can’t pick up a 5g can of fuel. Last year I caught him siphoning fuel out of a 5gallon can into a little bucket which he can pick up, then pouring it in the tank. I cringe sitting in my chair every time I hear a tractor start, what’s he going to tear up or plow up next?

No, I’m done… it’s not good for either of us. I get mad then stressed. I calmed down before talking to him about it this morning. I wasn’t angry, just wanted to understand where the breakdown is happening, this is the 4th time in 6 months. Is it just memory failing? or cognitive ability? or both? I brought it up, he got embarrassed, then he got mad and yells at me… so no, a few pepper plants aren’t worth it.

Pick your battles, he's not doing it on purpose!!