2022 gardens

[Sonny580]

Time to be thinking about the gardens for this year. Please join in and post your gardens. All sizes are welcome, --anything from pots on the porch, containers, raised beds, in ground, ---- all are gardens. share ideas on equipment, tillage that works for you, what varieties you like, How you process/store the harvest, etc. Thanks!

 

[herm0016]

we abandoned 3 years of work and moved. starting fresh with a new pole barn in march with 10x 36 "porch" that will become our greenhouse.

love eating on our pumpkins, potatoes, garlic, tomato sauce, etc all winter.

 

[fishdrivel]

I have a lot of trees and need advice on what crops you have grown in light to moderate shade.

 

[flyerdan]

It's about four or five weeks to seed starting time, I use 5 dozen egg flats for starting, then transplant them into pots when they get about an inch and a half. By the time they are ready to be set out, it's usually dry enough to till and get stuff in near the end of April.
Hope the garden does better this year; last year only the beans did real good, the peas did ok until we had a hot snap that pretty much did them in.

 

[EddieWalker]

A few years ago we started building raised beds and buying dump truck loads of good dirt. I hate that I'm actually paying for dirt, but the red clay that we have turns to concrete in summer, no matter how much water it gets!!!

It's still a work in progress, but we seem to be figuring it out a little more every year. Right now, my wife is working on adding a layer of pete moss and cow manure to the beds, and then covering it in old hay. I'm not sure how many she will get done, but a little is better then none.

Instead of spraying the walkways, I've started covering them in red mulch. I have 6 pallets in there so far, and I'm going to buy another 6 pallets in the Spring when they go on sale for $2 a sack plus my military 10% discount from Lowes. This makes weeding super easy. It also makes walking around there nicer since there is no mud to deal with.

I built the fence last year. Two of our dogs decided that the garden dirt was fun to dig in. They all kind of tore it up, but it really got bad with those two. Now they patrol around the garden!!!




This was last year during a rain storm. I was trying to get a picture of the rain, but I like how the garden looks too!

 

[mike0000]

I have a new tractor tiller on order (10-8-21) I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll have it by spring. My plans are to do a larger garden then past years.

Mike

 

[jyoutz]

Time to be thinking about the gardens for this year. Please join in and post your gardens. All sizes are welcome, --anything from pots on the porch, containers, raised beds, in ground, ---- all are gardens. share ideas on equipment, tillage that works for you, what varieties you like, How you process/store the harvest, etc. Thanks!

This will be a great discussion forum. I love gardening. My vegetable garden is 100’x100’ and I have a 21 tree dwarf fruit orchard, 20’ of grape vines, and 2 100’ rows of raspberries. It keeps us busy, but it also fills our garage freezers and the canned products fill our storeroom. I used to prep the garden will a pto tiller behind the old small CUT that I just sold. I’m going with a new strategy since I bought a new MX and it’s too large to cultivate between rows during the growing season. I just bought a 7’ Fred Cain 9 tine cultivator. I’m going to use this to prep the soil in the spring and fall, then use a walk behind tiller for final soil prep and for summer cultivation between rows. So I’ll know how this works out later in the spring.

 

[Sonny580]

For the shade , we have good luck with cabbage and green beans. MOST veggies will do good in partial shade,--even tomatoes.
We do 4.5 acres in the open gardens but have a "window" garden close to the house in partial shade and everything does good in it. The main thing is the low hanging limbs if you have any. Our first limb is 15 to 20 feet up which lets air/rain in under the trees.
Tree roots will sap the garden so you have to haul water to it regularly and use plenty of fertilizer for good crops, ( and healthy trees!! lol!)

 

[jaxs]

Hello EddieWalker,I'm glad to hear your missus is feeling like gardening. Forgive me if I've missed updates on her but I don't follow things here very close. Knowing about your soil,I have suggestions on things you can do now while you have equipment,energy and time that will pay dividends when you are my age and short on all three resources. In an area where you would like veggies,flowers,fruit tree,orantimental shrub or other long term plantings in the future,basicly make piles of brush from varied size wood from twigs to 6"-8" logs. Logs that are already in a state of decay is a bonus. If area need's to be kept neat,inclose pile with retainer stone or other edging. For less formal area large logs are perfect retainers and will eventually rot to become part of the bed. Top the pile with leaves,wood chips,manure, other organics and native soil that will filter down to fill voids inside brush pile. Surface can be planted with shallow rooted anuals 2nd year and progressivly deeper rooted and/or perminate plants as time passes. If not planted in crops and cultivated to keep weed free,I suggest cover crops to suppress weeds like Bermuda and Johnson Grass getting established. Vetch and Rye work well in winter to shade-out Dandilions and such then prevent many seeds germinating in early spring. Cover crop can be tilled in or covered with soil and left to futhur improve soil. Let's take a time out to explain why and what we are trying to accomplish by making brush piles. Similar results can be accomplished by continually incorperating compost into soil but over the long haul,this is less labor and longer lasting. Of all organics,wood is slower to rot but last's for years and retain's moisture better. The reason for a pile of brush apposed to a pile of wood chips is (A) chips will compact and restrict oxygen penitration if not occasionally stired,the brush is continually shrinking and shifting which in turn cause's tiny cracks/ fissures throughout the mound alowing free circulation of air. (B) soil,manure and other materials continually mix with decaying wood to create viable growth media.
For 2022 season,plenty compost in your native soil should do as well as imported soil. I'm not a fan of peat moss so when i don;t have enough home made compost,buy bagged compost. If you can get free manure locally,I suggest composting it for a year then tilling into garden in fall or winter. Wood chips can be found free most places and make good mulch that rot's into soil.

 

[Sonny580]

I have access to horse manure from 5 people in a 10 mile area from me. 1 is a 1 horse operation so a load or 2 a year but the biggest is a 14 to 20 horse boarding operation where its a load every few days. I stack it and stir it, ( IF I get time) and spread it and plow it under deep so it rots in a season. I cut trees for my sawmill and usually end up with branches and the slabwood which I run thru the Vermeer 1600A chipper and mix it in with the manure. We do get a few leaves for friends so they go in the mix as well.
After several years of doing this I noticed the ground has more bugs and worms than the grass area around the gardens.
When I water, it dont evaporate as bad as it used to. -- also now have a toad invasion! Big ole fat ones too! I often dig them out with the tiller, but cant help it. dew worms the same way. Dont really care for the big fat grubs but they are in there too.
I plow 18 inches deep after subsoiling 3 feet deep. This mixes the compost down in the lower layers.
ground stays loose on top and plant roots go deep.
I like big cabbage heads and have gotten to where we have 25 pounders on a regular basis. Vine crops do better too.

 

[jaxs]

I plow 18 inches deep after subsoiling 3 feet deep. This mixes the compost down in the lower layers.

I like big cabbage heads and have gotten to where we have 25 pounders on a regular basis.

Velly intresting. What kind of plow did you buy to turn soil 1.5 feet deep on your 4.5 acres ?
When you want fresh cabbage do you cook the intire 25 pounds at once or cook a little every day until it's gone?

 

[RalphVa]

I plan to fully utilize this new bed. Brought up a couple FELs of creek overflow soil and topped with my compost mostly from kitchen stuff and wood chips.

Also have 6 little containers that sit atop the rails around the deck that are especially prolific for their size. Started them off with just potato pieces in mulch about 6 years or so ago.

 

[Sonny580]

I made a plow that will go 24 inches deep, BUT takes a 5 bottom tractor to pull it that deep. at 18" one of the 560 will do the job.
When we harvest a cabbage head, we use what is needed for 1 setting then put the rest in the fridge til the next day. One head per year goes into the freezer cut up and stuffed in quart bags for soup or fry. We love fried cabbage!
The food bank takes about 200 heads a year and say they are great, so as long as they get used I guess size is not important.
One lady here get a couple to make kraut with. One head fills her 5 gallon crock.

We have 10 Earth boxes that we used at the other place when we didnt have room for a garden and I still use a couple of them to start seeds in to transplant later.
You can grow a lot of veggies in big pots with good results if you cant do a ground garden!

We try to get all of our needed seeds early before the places run out. Last year we heard that a LOT of people did get seeds because they waited too long.
Our onion and sweet potato plants are on order and paid for. they will be shipped at planting time here.

PictureL039 by sonny reese, on Flickr

 

[jaxs]

When tractors powerful enough became common years ago we went over deep plowing with the ag science people. They reccomended fracturing clay soils by chiseling to alow airation. Their research showed soil deeper than about 6" depending on structure is oxygen starved and required periodic tilling and time exposed to air before becoming productive after brought to surface. An intire growing season was lost to conditioning oxygen starved soil. Where acreage allotments were in effect and extra expense returned added profit,row crop land was pulled into high beds and alowed to rest. Shortly before planting,beds were busted into middles. The goal was airating max amount of soil which in turn increased production. Vast majority of land has gone to no till but the pratice is still viable for truck farming and gardening. No method ever produced wheat kernels the size of lemons nor half bushel per ear corn.

 

[Sonny580]

Trying to clean the onion garden off but got over 3" of snow last night so no gardening today! S'posed to get down to 6* tonight. Kinda tired of this crap!--time to hit the dirt and get planting!

 

[herm0016]

0 and snow here. ha, always gets me people talking about planting before mothers day.

 

[Jstpssng]

I put in a couple of raised beds last fall, intending to put one of my quonset huts over it by winter. Ha! That didn't happen and when I was looking at it yesterday there was still about 18" of snow on it. I took stock of my seeds early in the year and realized that I didn't need to buy any. Probably will need seed potato though, last year's crop was a big disappointment and I've come to realize that I have an early blight problem.

 

[Jstpssng]

I plow 18 inches deep after subsoiling 3 feet deep. This mixes the compost down in the lower layers.
ground stays loose on top and plant roots go deep.

This must be why people headed west 150 years ago. If I subsoiled 3 feet deep I would be about 24 inches into hardpan... if I didn't snub up on a big rock or ledge first.

 

[Sonny580]

Ya, not everybody has ground like we do here and the tillage methods will vary as to what will work for you.
We have the onion plants in hand and ground tilled up for planting --- BUT with 3 days of rain, planting is on hold! lol!

 

[jyoutz]

I have a lot of trees and need advice on what crops you have grown in light to moderate shade.

You can grow greens in shaded conditions.