Garden time...Oh boy!

[jinman]

Well, it's garden time for me. I've been wanting to put in a big garden for several years, but didn't have a place to grow one that would not require a huge deer fence. I got married last year and my wife's place has a perfect area right beside her dog pen where deer do not come. Here are some progress shots of my preparation.

I first used an old two-bottom plow to turn the native soil. I'm not sure why, but I didn't get any pictures of that. The plow did fine, but freshly plowed ground still needs to be disced. I don't have a disc, so it was the excuse I needed to buy a new tiller. The first picture is me tilling. I think this was about the third pass and the ground is becoming really fluffy. In all my tilling over this 1/3 acre spot, I only found one football sized rock. Otherwise, the ground was perfect. It has a high clay content, but it tilled very well.

 

[jinman]

Since the clay makes the soil really sticky and hard, melons like sand. At one end of the garden, I hauled in about 20 yards of sand I'd dug out of the creek bottom. Here's our Mule full of sand (about 1/2 yard). I made about 30 trips in the Mule and another 12 with the tractor bucket.

 

[jinman]

Here's a photo of the entire garden area with the sand in the foreground. I'd say the sandy area is 50-50 sand and native soil.

 

[jinman]

I have an old Dearborn cultivator that I love. As a kid, I spent many hours preping for planting and plowing rowcrops with this cultivator. I love the way the sweeps attach and how the feet are adjustable. I might be wrong, but I've not seen anything like this being made these days. Certainly what they are selling at TSC that's called a one-row tiller doesn't even come close. In the attachment, I'm setting a sweep in preparation for laying out the rows in my garden.

 

[jinman]

After the cultivator is set, it's time to plow the rows in preparation for planting.

 

[jinman]

This last week and this weekend we got the entire garden planted and watered in. We put up a rabbit fence using 24" chicken wire around the tomatoes, peppers, onions, an other plant sets. It's not a Harvey Lacey quality fence, but we hope it will keep most of the rodents away.

We layed long soaker hoses down the rows and watered in our seed to hopefully speed the germination. Next, we have to build a perimeter fence and an outer fence so we can allow Kathy's dogs to "patrol" the area.

I'll have to take a few more pictures of the planted garden and our progress after the fence. I'll keep this thread updated as we go through the season and see if my garden turns out to be "boom or bust." Either way, my old tired muscles sure know it's a lot of work. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[PineRidge]

You Texas guys have it made! Here in Ohio the soil is still way to cold to think about planting anything but cool weather crops like carrots, lettuce, or maybe onions.

I was able to rototill the garden plot yesterday though and I think doing so helps to warm up the ground and certainly help to dry it out a bit in preparation for planting.

We have a few more rocks here than you Jim and when we till we throw anything larger than a grapefruit in the open bucket to be moved to the rock pile. Some years the only thing that grows well is that blasted rock pile. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

We are planting some field corn this year away from the main garden in hopes that it will attract the critters and keep them out of the good stuff that we like to eat in the main garden, we'll see how that works later.

I'm sure you'l have a fine garden. There's nothing like fresh grown produce right out of your own garden.

 

[BB_TX]

<font color="blue"> You Texas guys have it made! Here in Ohio the soil is still way to cold </font>
We have to get ours in early. By the end of July everything will be burned up by the heat. while you will probably be in prime production.

 

[RonR]

I'd love to have the space to plant something like that!

Growing up, my Dad raised a huge garden. At the time, I hated it, since it was a lot of WORK for me. And Dad didn't have the right tools. He'd hire it plowed, then we fought it with a walk behind tiller for years.

When I got out of the service, I bought a JD M tractor, which had a cultivator/chisel set up similar to your cultivator. I was able to work the ground easily with it and enjoyed the gardening again.

Unfortunately, Dad's health was declining, and we sold that house shortly thereafter. His was about a 2 acre lot, with over half of it in cultivation!

Now that I have the Bota & tiller, I'd love to have that much space--and it was GREAT soil for growing.

But I can't see tearing up part of our rear lawn, just for garden, but maybe I'll ask the boss what she thinks......................

About 30 years ago, it dawned on me that tilling the soil was theraputic for me. Hummmmmmmmmmmmmm, maybe I'll till the new garden while she is at work................................

Ron

 

[Bird]

That sure looks good, Jim.