Garden Time, JINMAN ??????

[jinman]

I'm wanting to get up there next weekend real bad, my grapple will be here but we have family coming in for Mother's day. Whadda ya gonna do?

...and my stepson's fiancee is graduating from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls next Saturday. That celebration will probably go late into the evening.

 

[jinman]

MarkV: I think we would have had a hard time being any earlier with our start of the garden. Since it was so hot and dry here last year, we got everything in as quickly as possible. My wife and I were sitting in the shade yesterday and joking about how nice it was out of the sun and how unbearable it will be even in the shade in mid-July.

Bird: The red-skinned potatoes all came from under the hay. I was amazed at how clean they were when I pulled the hay aside and picked up the potatoes.

Last night Kathy and I were talking about the difference in taste between the red and white potatoes. She said she could actually taste the difference, and I said all I could taste was that they were both good. I haven't grown any potatoes since I was about 15 years old or younger, so this is a real treat for me. I'm so excited, I didn't even mind having to dig them by hand.

 

[Bird]

I guess I'm more like you, Jim. I've grown (and bought) both white and red potatoes and like both. I'm pretty confident that I would not be able to tell them apart by taste.

As for digging them, I've done a fair amount of that by hand, too, but a middle buster is sure quick and easy.

 

[BB_TX]

Bird: The red-skinned potatoes all came from under the hay. I was amazed at how clean they were when I pulled the hay aside and picked up the potatoes.

Interesting Jim. Do the plant roots grow into the soil, but the potatos grow on top of the soil but under the hay?

 

[jinman]

Interesting Jim. Do the plant roots grow into the soil, but the potatos grow on top of the soil but under the hay?

Bill, most of them were laying on top of the ground or within the first couple of inches of hay. They were completely clean. The next time I go get some, I'll try to take a picture to demonstrate (should have done it this time... ). There were a few potatoes actually buried in the soil, but only 1/2 to 1/3 buried. I thinks it's because potatoes are tubers instead of roots. there are roots, but the tubers are distinctly different and have a large "umbilical" attached to the main stem. I thinks that's because the tubers are storing food rather than supplying nourisment like the roots do. Sounds good anyhow...

 

[JC-jetro]

Here are some more photos with descriptive titles.

Jim,

Your garden looks fantastic. Congrats but I'm a just a wee bit envious
By the way , How do you mound you hills (furrows)? Do you use middle buster and make the furrows after you till? if so how about the tire tracks? can you keep the tire tracks in between each raised row? Ding it manually by a back hoe seems like too much work.

Thanks,
Jetro

 

[jinman]

Jim,

By the way , How do you mound you hills (furrows)? Do you use middle buster and make the furrows after you till? if so how about the tire tracks? can you keep the tire tracks in between each raised row? Ding it manually by a back hoe seems like too much work.

Jetro, I used a two bottom plow early last year to break up native soil in my garden and I don't have any pictures of that. However, after I broke up the soil, I purchased a 6' KK tiller like yours and tilled the garden spot and added sand in one area from a creek bottom. I then followed with an old Dearborn row cultivator to lay out the rows and make raised beds for planting. See photos...

It's funny that when I was a kid, we planted down in the furrow, but now I plant on top of the furrow like a raised bed and then I use my little gas powered garden tiller to pull the dirt up around the plants and keep the furrows for irrigation. This year's bean crop from the pictures I posted yesterday are an example. For tomatoes, watermelons, and squash, I make hills with the gas tiller and/or a hoe and four tine cultivating fork. For weed control, I use the gas tiller almost exclusively until the plants become so large they would be damaged, then I just use a regular hoe or pull weeds.

I do have a sub-soiler and I also have a middle-buster for my Dearborn cultivator (made from an old horse-drawn middle buster and welded up to fit the Dearborn). I use it dig ditches and layout deep furrows, but I haven't used it much for gardening. I'd use it to dig my potatoes, but my rows are so close together I think I'll just use my loader to dig two rows at a time. If I tried to use the middle buster, I'd bruise potatoes near the surface with my wheels when I drove over them.


2-cycle gasoline tiller:

 

[JC-jetro]

Jetro, I used a two bottom plow early last year to break up native soil in my garden and I don't have any pictures of that. However, after I broke up the soil, I purchased a 6' KK tiller like yours and tilled the garden spot and added sand in one area from a creek bottom. I then followed with an old Dearborn row cultivator to lay out the rows and make raised beds for planting. See photos...

Jim , That was a lot of great info as I go from raised bed of 6'x6' to 12'x6" in town to bit of a bigger operation on my so called ranch. I do have 5.5 hp front tine tiller and a 2 Hp 4 cycle Honda tiller at home, but I hardly ever used it as a cultivation. I alway lay out newspaper and grass clipping to smother weeds and hardly ever have weeds to pull out. it is a different case with my herb patch as I can not mulch for obvious reasons. In the same time I can not cultivate the herbs as I would destroy good with the bad and am forced to pulling them pesky weeds by hand . I also bought a two row kk cultivator but quickly will run in to traction problem as I have turf tires. As you have seen I mulch my tomatoes with a beefy weed barrier that removes the need of cultivation but I will take my little Honda tiller for cultivation outside of the mulched area in my tomato patch later on. I need to emulate some of your methods in bigger patches. I tilled out 3 areas between 1/4 to 1/3 acres and put fence around to make a deer food plot. I reckon the deer will jump the fence but cows can not. I'm planning to make a "deer pub" so they can congregate there and have some "social lick happt hour... salt that is" and a few snacks to go with it. Hopefully during deer season I can intercept a few of them.

again , thanks a lot for all the good info and pictures to back it up.

Jetro

 

[randy41]

we've had a light frost here for the last 2 nights. i hope that will be it until the fall.

 

[jinman]

we've had a light frost here for the last 2 nights. i hope that will be it until the fall.

Randy, our last frost was on April 7th, so yesterday was only one month after that. Your garden would be in the same growth stage as ours within a month. Good luck!

...oh yes. I picked a handfull of bush beans yesterday and the peas will also be ready by this weekend. It's starting....