What have you done for garden prep so far?

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WGregMiller said:
Me either, at least until we move to the BOL...
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I am staying put so unless I buy the place beside me or relocate ,,,this is it,2 small garden areas 10 x 30 and another 20 x 20,they are plenty big enough for my needs,,,I would like to plant corn but I have a heavy raccoon population and I doubt I would get much if any of it
 
grayghost668 said:
I am staying put so unless I buy the place beside me or relocate ,,,this is it,2 small garden areas 10 x 30 and another 20 x 20,they are plenty big enough for my needs,,,I would like to plant corn but I have a heavy raccoon population and I doubt I would get much if any of it
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I got two large outside dogs that have pretty much gotten rid of the deer problems. They chase off squirrels, possums and raccoons as well.
 
Speaking of dogs, one of these guys can put a tiller to shame. He tunnels right in this ga clay! If I could only train him to dig where I want.....
 
Brent S said:
I have a husquavarna front time too, and it beats the hell out of me too. By spring I will have a tiller for the tractor, but am in no rush now since I've allready tilled this season.
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I had a rear tine Husquavarna tiller at my last place. I put in two small gardens with it and then sold it when we moved. I think I paid like $900 for it and sold it for $600. It was a good tiller but a little too small for the garden we're putting in here. A tractor mounted tiller is in my plans for next year.
 
all this rain and cooler weather has me thinking I may have to replant about half my garden only about half the potatoes have sprouted and the onions are about the same and the tomatoes and peppers are not looking good,,I will give it until mid month if I see no more sprouts I can still replant,,,,,I should have waited a little longer to plant I knew the weather was going to be wet this spring,,,it's my own fault
 
grayghost668 said:
all this rain and cooler weather has me thinking I may have to replant about half my garden only about half the potatoes have sprouted and the onions are about the same and the tomatoes and peppers are not looking good,,I will give it until mid month if I see no more sprouts I can still replant,,,,,I should have waited a little longer to plant I knew the weather was going to be wet this spring,,,it's my own fault
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Your onions should be fine. Depending on the size of your tomatoes and peppers you can try to cover them with old milk jugs to create a mini greenhouse for them. Heck, I even used mason jars this year when I ran out of the milk jugs. It was wet a cool for a couple weeks after I had them in the ground. I did lose 2 tomatoes and 1 pepper. The tomatoes actually recovered faster than the peppers, but all doing good now. Last year when we had a lot of rain I ended up losing about half my potatoes, but ended up doing better than both my neighbors. Someone else may know a trick to help them along.
 
grayghost668 said:
all this rain and cooler weather has me thinking I may have to replant about half my garden only about half the potatoes have sprouted and the onions are about the same and the tomatoes and peppers are not looking good,,I will give it until mid month if I see no more sprouts I can still replant,,,,,I should have waited a little longer to plant I knew the weather was going to be wet this spring,,,it's my own fault
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Every year is a crap shoot with Mother Nature. I'm just thankful my livelihood dosent depend on growing things. One thing that helps with the potatoes are hills. I plant on a slope so the excess water runs off. As far as tomatoes and cukes, mine are growing fine, but no where near harvesting yet. At least it's early enough to replant still.
 
The wife and I got up early today and drove down to the big city (pop 6,000) and went to the lumber yard, Tractor Supply and nursery. We got some apple and cherry trees, grape, raspberry, blue berry and black berry plants and asparagus plants. Got lumber for 6 more raised beds and a ton of potting soil to fill the raised beds. Picked up a couple hundred fence posts, hog wire and barbed wire to finish fencing the new pasture. That should keep me out of trouble for awhile.
 
Arcticdude said:
The wife and I got up early today and drove down to the big city (pop 6,000) and went to the lumber yard, Tractor Supply and nursery. We got some apple and cherry trees, grape, raspberry, blue berry and black berry plants and asparagus plants. Got lumber for 6 more raised beds and a ton of potting soil to fill the raised beds. Picked up a couple hundred fence posts, hog wire and barbed wire to finish fencing the new pasture. That should keep me out of trouble for awhile.
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sounds like work to me.....
 
Brent S said:
I only wish I could devote all my time to projects around my place!
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I was lucky to water everything this morning! It's been great with all the rain, but it is so hot now (90) that it is drying out fast. I got the greenhouse and the new pear trees soaked well this morning at least. I will start rotating between everything else in another day or so if Mother Nature dosent help out some more soon. It takes time to maintain all this stuff, but at least we have the means. Could you imaging being a farmer 100 yrs ago. Without electric pumps you were at the complete mercy of the weather.
 
Brent S said:
Yeah, but it's a lot more rewarding working on things you love. Dosent pay as well though.....
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Absolutely. I usually work around the place until dark. I can also take a break anytime I want and sit under a tree and get a cold one out of the ice chest. There's at least a dozen projects that I'm working on here at any given time..
 
playing in the garden,,,I have almost finished prepping another 10 x 10 area I had it tilled up a few days ago and tonight I added sawdust to the mix and tilled it again Saturday I will add 10 bags of Black Cow and till one last time,,,,my melon and loup plants I do not think are going to survive but I have peas and a few more onions I want to put out,,,then it is just sit back and see what it all does,,,another ten days should tell the tell on what is already out there
 
I'm mostly just watering at this point. Some weeding to maintain, but mostly in mother natures hands now. It is gratifying to see it all growing. Not as gratifying as Danilgrl's picking cukes allready, but still gratifying. :)
 
Got the brush and trees cleared from the orchard site yesterday. It's nice having the tractor back again. Going to clear the garden area today and build some raised beds. Wish I had a tiller for the tractor now.
 
Arcticdude said:
Got the brush and trees cleared from the orchard site yesterday. It's nice having the tractor back again. Going to clear the garden area today and build some raised beds. Wish I had a tiller for the tractor now.
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It's definitely on my list now too. I don't need it till spring though.
 
It's not much to look at yet, but I got my first tomatoes on the vine this season! I'm a proud papa.... I also started picking carrots this morning too. Fresh carrots are so sweet, unlike the bland crap that comes from Walmart.
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Pulled up all my peas & threw them to the goats for their breakfast. . . the peas were just about done with the heat we have been getting. I checked my sweet potatoes in the window sill and have 3 that have started leafing, but will wait till they gat a little bigger. One trellis that the peas were on will have sweet potatoes next. For the second trellis, well its still a toss up. I have been mulching walkways since we got all the feed (40 50lb bags) unloaded after our run this morning. My main walkway is done and have about 1/4 of the row walkways done. I have been putting it down relatively thick to keep the weeds down. Have 30 minutes till I need to start critter chores for this evening but wanted to take a breather. Hunny had a doctors appointment after work yesterday and didn't get done till after 5 so sweet hunny to me out for Mexican. We always order the big plate so end up bringing home 1/2 of it, so that is dinner tonight. I love my Mexican food! Picked my first eggplant this morning along with more zucchini, cucumbers, yellow squash, peas & green beans. Still waiting for my tomatoes to turn. . . Did notice that I had a few butternuts coming on the vine now. One is a couple inches. Can't wait!!
 
Yestersday I laid out the orchard area and started drilling holes to plant the fruit trees and berries. Checked the weather forecast and they're calling for mid 20's and snow late tonight. So the wife and I put all the trees and berry plants in the barn and decided to go visit the kids and grandbabys for a few days. We'll try planting again on Monday.
 
I pulled green beans plans this morning to feed to the goats cause they were just about done. I already have some more planted but it will still be a couple weeks before they start producing. When we got back home this evening I snipped off the tops of onions in order to make bigger bulbs. I did end up pulling three that were ready. Hunny helped me take down the trellis that I had my peas planted so I could till those two rows and hoping he will be able to help me put them back up, but if not, it's just a few t post and field fencing so no big deal. Just cumbersome if doing by yourself. Where I pulled the green beans this morning also got tilled up for planting tomorrow. Almost have all my sweet potato slips leafing, still waiting on a couple more before I plant.
 
Hunny helped putting back up the trellis before heading to the shop to work on my tractor. It had gotten painted today but still in pieces but should be put back together by Wednesday. I refilled my old bean row and planted again with Contenders. I thought I would do another type but I already had enough of everything else planted already. I don't have a bunch of sweet potato slip since this is a first try at it but planted what I had ready on one of the trellis. Just couldnt wait. The other I planted Hales Best Cantaloupe and some Christmas Poles. Boiled up 16 dozen eggs for pickled eggs that I just finished canning up. Also cut 24 lbs of cucumber & have them soaking in pickling lime to make some more pickles after work tomorrow. While I was boiling eggs, hunny came home wanting to make a run into town to order the decals for my tractor. Wasn't about to pass that up so moved my boiled eggs to the back burner to finish cooking in the hot water. They were hard to peel when I got back but I had both my dogs on either side waiting for me to throw a not so pretty egg to them. . . they sure didn't mind. Ended up with 14 quarts. Mainly I got 12. to a jar but a few got 13.
 
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