I still haven’t gotten the garden tiller out

[Jstpssng]

Any particular trick to sterilizing soil? Weeds are starting to get out of hand on mine too. Carrots especially so since they germinate so slowly.

I have an electric sterilizer which my father used in the greenhouse. It's a stainless steel box with metal rods through it which heat up and cook the soil. It kills the beneficials as well as the seeds, but I got tired of raising weeds. You might try putting black plastic down,
it works really well for tomatoes and cucumbers. I don't know what to do with the carrots et.al., although once mine come up I'm going to try putting straw down.

 

[jyoutz]

They actually schedule freezes out there, just like a baseball game? Wow, we really are behind the times!

I know we’ve seen the last freeze when I see hummingbirds here. Not yet.

 

[Jstpssng]

Not tilling, but I dug my horseradish tonight. It's been in the ground for ? years and I've never harvested it so should be interesting to see how it came out. Then I went down the road to where there's an early patch of fiddleheads (ostrich fern) but they haven't started to show their heads yet. Tomorrow's snow will slow things a bit anyways.

 

[BravoXray]

I'm telling you, everything is awesome in Indiana.

No. It froze last night. It's supposed to freeze again tonight. Average/typical last freeze is April 29 according to our weather people. Forecast looks to be improving.

Of course, things can change, but it's probably going to be the last freeze of the season. Fingers crossed.

I had 28° here early this morning out here on the prairie.

 

[MossRoad]

I had 28° here early this morning out here on the prairie.

Yeah, we had that here by the airport as well. One of my peach trees is in full bloom. Didn't look too bad today around dinner. I'll dig into the buds tomorrow after tonight's freeze and see what I find.

 

[Jstpssng]

Yeah, we had that here by the airport as well. One of my peach trees is in full bloom. Didn't look too bad today around dinner. I'll dig into the buds tomorrow after tonight's freeze and see what I find.

If you just have a few trees you can go out about now and spray water on/around them. Sometimes that's all that it takes to keep from losing the blossoms.

 

[jyoutz]

We always used Memorial weekend as a safe time to plant here, although as the springs get warmer people are planting earlier.

Where I live at 6900’ elevation we likewise use Memorial Day as the start for planting warm weather crops, but I do plant cold season crops like onions and greens mid April.

 

[MossRoad]

Apparently it didn't freeze last night as it's already 40 this morning.

 

[RalphVa]

A garden tiller is one thing I'd use once and probably never again because I use no till. Now in small beds where the tractor cannot go.

First tilled the big garden in 2001ish with a Gravely rotary plow. Sold it.

When I got the 4wd JD 4010, I tilled it again with a soil cultivator from an old M. Sold it. Had to give up that garden in 2013 because I could no longer tote all that mulch down to it nor rush down to remove soaker hoses and electric fence if a flood was coming.

 

[m7040]

crazy weather this spring