Learning How / field preparation

   / Learning How / field preparation #21  
Rev up the search engines! This web link has some info on composting. Like I said before I don't write 'em, just read 'em NebGuide
 
   / Learning How / field preparation #22  
Rob, one year when I had a pile of wood chips that I acquired fresh during the garden growing season, I used them for mulch under and around my tomato and pepper plants both for weed control and moisture retention. No problem that I could tell, although I prefer straw. In fact, I just went after two of the big round bales of wheat straw day before yesterday (one for me and one for a neighbor) to use in the garden this coming Spring. And while I think composting is a fine idea, I've just not had what I'd consider an ideal place for it, too lazy to go to the trouble, etc., so I just put everything into the garden and let it compost in place./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I have a big old galvanized double sink, from a commercial kitchen, by the garden and when we wash, peel, and trim vegetables, all the trimmings go back into the garden and as each crop ends for the season, I mow them down and till them in. Whew, time flies; only 7 weeks until time to start planting again./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird
 
   / Learning How / field preparation #23  
DFB, great site! Very informative yet concise. Thanks.

Rob
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   / Learning How / field preparation #24  
Bird, I think I like your approach. Sounds pretty low maintenance. I hadn't considered straw around the trees. Might have to try that.

Seven weeks to planting?!? If our winter keeps up, in seven weeks I won't be able to see our house... and it's a two story! Still enjoying it though /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Rob
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   / Learning How / field preparation #25  
Bird, how long IS your growing season?
 
   / Learning How / field preparation #26  
Uh-oh, Rob & DFB, here I got again getting off topic. This thread started in the right place, but now I guess it ought to be in the lawn & garden forum./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Oh well, what the heck . . ..

Planting time is determined in different ways by different folks. Lots of farmers with field crops around here go by soil temperature and moisture content. For vegetable gardens, it's just when the weather's suitable and/or they have the time to plant a garden, and a lot of them at least put out their onion sets shortly after the first of the year. And then there's a few who believe in going by the signs of the moon. Well, I don't really know whether it makes any difference or not, but I figure if I've got to plant it, it can't hurt to do that, so I make up a calendar according to The Old Farmer's Almanac every year for a planting schedule, and it's going to be a little later this coming year (did they know we were going to have an unusually cold winter?). So I'll be planting my beets, oninons, radishes, turnips, and potatoes between Feb. 10 to 22. This past year, I planted the radishes, turnips, and oinions on Jan. 21 and finished the last of the planting of all the garden on Mar. 13. And if you water enough, the garden can continue on through most of October, but this past summer was so hot and dry, we had a grasshopper plague, and my wife said "enough" after she canned 18 cases of stuff and filled the freezers, so I just quit and mowed the garden down and tilled it in on July 17 even though it was still producing.

Bird
 
   / Learning How / field preparation #27  
LHSmith - Register when you get ready, and you will register. These guys are just to helpful to not.

I'm NOT an expert on the subject but here is what works for me. If your wallet will stand it get a 3PH tiller for the garden. I've been living in the country and raising a medium vegtable garden for 8 years. The tiller will turn under all your organic matter as well as prepare a great seed/transplant bed. Once planted I have a 5hp, 18 in wide, walk behind tiller for maintaining between rows as well as a small 2 cycle tiller (great for the wife's flower beds too) for in between and around plants the walk behind can't get into. TSC sells both. That may sound like overkill but like Bird I have an aversion to hoes and other manual garden devices!

You may want to plow it or turn over new garden with a moldboard 3PH plow first time. I have some real farmer friends that suggest you turn your garden with a plow every 3 or 4 years just because it will go deeper than the tiller??

Any organic matter you can amend the soil with is great. I now have a FEL for the first time and plan to add any kind of manure I can get my hands on. It really makes a difference. Good Luck and let us know how it turns out this Spring.
 
   / Learning How / field preparation #28  
<font color=blue>Re: Once planted I have a 5hp, 18 in wide, walk behind tiller for maintaining between rows</font color=blue>

I had a 17" instead of 18" one; worked great, but I decided even that was too much work and a waste of money, so I sold it. And I learned this week that the guy who bought it has now bought a 3-point hitch tiller, so he's ready to sell that walk behind, too./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

<font color=blue>real farmer friends that suggest you turn your garden with a plow every 3 or 4 years just because it will go deeper than the tiller??</font color=blue>

I think they're right; I did that this Fall.


Bird
 
   / Learning How / field preparation #29  
<font color=blue>real farmer friends that suggest you turn your garden with a plow every 3 or 4 years just because it will go deeper than the tiller??</font color=blue>

What happens by using a tiller over and over again on the same piece of soil it will actually cause -hard pan-. Guess thats the downside of using only a tiller.
Gordon
 
   / Learning How / field preparation #30  
Rob,
I've been mulching with wood chips for over 10 years and when I get freshly ground chips I mix them with fresh cut grass(N2 source) and let them sit for 9-12 months before using them. Like any other brown material the wood chips need the nitrogen to decompose. I get most of my chips from tree trimming companies and do not want to get any fresh black walnut in my garden as it can really cause your ph to go crazy for a while so I always let them sit.

On your pine trees you may want to find oak leaves to mulch them with as they have a lot of acid in them and pine trees like acid.

Kevin Mc
 
 
 
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