2022 gardens

[Oaktree]

I do a roughly 20 x 60 garden each year, planting a little bit of a lot of things. It's been a mixed year. Some did well, others not so much. Cukes for example are either feast or famine, this year was the latter. Corn, peas, beans, cabbage, beets and most herbs did OK. I dug some of the potatoes...plentiful but most were a bit on the small side. Haven't harvested the carrots yet, but they look OK. Swiss chard for some reason is huge, and was much earlier than usual. The broccoli produced a lot early, but bolted quickly.
Too cool here for peppers generally, but I did put out a few hot peppers in pots near the house where it's a few degrees warmer than the garden area, and they did surprisingly well.
We do some canning/freezing but not to the extent many of you do.

 

[Sonny580]

I try to do 4.5 acres here and its a ***** to keep up with weeds! Most of the crops go to our local food bank. ( Midwest Food Bank) and they ship stuff out nationwide to disaster areas when needed. They try to keep what we take in for local use. They told me it was great quality and would be used here. --- guess it made a hit with them.
Some of the people at the food bank that help unload! great guys!
Sis helped too, she tales in 250 pounds of tomatoes almost every day!

 

[Sonny580]

Got the sweet potatoes dug and delivered to Midwest food bank. We had over 3,000 pounds on the truckload this year. They were glad to get them,---said people were asking for sweet potatoes, so it made us all happy in the end. Sis has taken over 3,000 pounds of tomatoes from our garden this year and hauled them to Midwest too, so it was a productive year despite the dry summer.
So far I have about half of the 4.5 acre gardens fall plowed and the hard ground makes it slow going.Been using the cub and Brinley 1-12" 3-pt. plow with added weights to make it go in the hard dry ground.

 

[EddieWalker]

Very impressive!!! Do you pick everything yourself?

 

[Sonny580]

Everything is harvested by my sister and I,--no others involved in it. Not sure how much longer we can do it, but possibly 1 more year. Been donating to food banks for 40 years now. Health is giving out for us to go much longer.

 

[Sonny580]

Dug the last of the carrots and have about half of the garden plowed. Raining today so no outside work.

 

[Oaktree]

Dug the last of the carrots and have about half of the garden plowed. Raining today so no outside work.

Is it better to plow in the fall or the spring? I've always done spring myself, but I see a lot of gardens around that get done in the fall. Any advantage to doing it in the fall?

 

[Sonny580]

YA!!! fall plowing allows the chunks to weather down so you dont have clods like spring plowing makes! Also lets fall/winter rains/snow soak down to the root zones and stay longer so the plants have moisture for longer period of time before you need to water.

 

[Oaktree]

What do you do to loosen it back up for planting in the spring? Between the snow and rain, the soil compacts quite a bit over the winter, and forms (for lack of a better term) a "crust" on the top. Even those times I do till in the fall, I often have to do it again in the spring.
I'm talking a home vegetable garden, not a cornfield.

Ground water not an issue here...fairly high water table.

 

[Sonny580]

Well my garden is 4.5 acres and most people call it a field! lol! --- In the spring I use a KK 72" 3pt. tiller on a IH 340u tractor before planting. Some of the garden gets run over several times before its planted cause not all of it gets planted the same day.
After planting I cultivate with TB Horses mostly. also have a couple others that are used around the bigger plants like tomatoes, cabbage, etc. I used to cultivate with a Allis 719 hydro with a 36" tiller on it.
I plant rows at least a min. of 48" apart and some are 72" for potatoes. I need the extra width to have enough dirt to hill the plants and narrow rows dont work!