2020 gardens

[oldballs]

How do you all clean up the garden at the end of the season? Invariably I have quite a few tall weeds where the potatoes and onions once grew. And then there are all those squash plants and tomato and melon and cuke vines and still producing sweet peppers. My plot is only 50 x 100. Thus I hand hoe the weeds, let them and the vines dry, rake it up in piles, then either burn it or haul it off. It is still a lot of manual labor for this old guy.

I don't like to plow that stuff in nor try to PTO till it with all that trash on top.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Industrial Toys]

Blew out shallow water line to garden yesterday on account of frost warning.

Salvaged some Tomatoes and ate the FIRST yesterday. Not exactly tasty.

 

[herm0016]

How do you all clean up the garden at the end of the season? Invariably I have quite a few tall weeds where the potatoes and onions once grew. And then there are all those squash plants and tomato and melon and cuke vines and still producing sweet peppers. My plot is only 50 x 100. Thus I hand hoe the weeds, let them and the vines dry, rake it up in piles, then either burn it or haul it off. It is still a lot of manual labor for this old guy.

I don't like to plow that stuff in nor try to PTO till it with all that trash on top.

Cheers,
Mike

we cut down the big stuff and heap it in the compost. till the rest in. we will use a small chipper shredder and run the compost pile through that and back into the pile.

 

[cqaigy2]

Finished the sweetcorn and red shell beans, think we are done with tomatoes for now.


sauerkraut
View attachment 669733
a couple jars of dill pickles
View attachment 669734

season winding down fast here! attached pic is freeze-dried potatoes.

Those lids on your pickles and sauerkraut, look pretty interesting. Do you have a name or source for those?

 

[Sonny580]

I just mow everything down then plow it under IF the weather allows me to do so---if not it lays til spring then I till it a couple times then plant!

the ones on the pickles are "easy fermenter" and the kraut ones are "my mason makes" .--- both are sold on Amazon----also Wal-mart had an ad for them a while back,--so you might check there. Virginia got ours thru Amazon. ---May be other sources out there too.
I know the kraut tops did excellent and do actually work---the pickles were just started a couple days ago and look to be working. Beats the heck out of having to make 5-gallon crocks of something when you only need/want a small amount.

 

[Ford850]

I remove most of the vegetation in my smaller garden, but the larger one gets chopped. Then I till all garden areas light and shallow, and spread oats. They grow a few inches into early winter before freezing off and will get tilled under in the spring.

 

[Sonny580]

Trying to mud the sweet potatoes out by hand now----this is going to take forever!---8 rows 230 feet long!

 

[Ford850]

Trying to mud the sweet potatoes out by hand now----this is going to take forever!---8 rows 230 feet long!

Do you cut the tops before digging? I've heard that cutting them a day or so ahead of digging was supposed to make them store better, but I haven't noticed much difference.
I thought digging 100' of them was bad, so I can't imaging doing what you're doing and in the mud!

 

[oldballs]

Besides the skill and knowledge that you all have, and the equipment.......You guys must be a hellava lot younger than me.:laughing:

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Sonny580]

Ya we cut the vines off and try to wad them over into piles to be hauled out later and stacked in a compost pile. --- the vines here easily get 15 to 20 feet long making for a real job draggin them around.
oldballs,---- on the 28'th of October,---I turn 74! ---- IF I live that long! lol!