The Forestry Forum
General Forestry => General Board => Topic started by: B.C.C. Lapp on May 07, 2021, 04:11:34 PM
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Not exactly logs, lumber, or equipment related but all the same I wonder if there are any other produce farmers or gardeners here?
I keep several gardens and small plots. The largest is 180Ft. by 120Ft. and it will be in sweet corn and two kinds of potatoes.
Then I have a 30ft. by 40ft. plot of asparagus, and three other plots each around 30ft. by 40.ft in tomatoes to onions and all in between.
The weather has been cool and wet so all I have in now is some lettuce, onions and potatoes. and I'm enjoying asparagus on the table most nights.
Wont start planting for serious till maybe the 15th to the 20th here unless it warms up quick.
As you may have guessed I sell produce as a side business, in a small limited way. I have two roadside stands and sell when I have it.
So, any body else planting this year?
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You do a good size garden by the sound of it. I usually just do sweet corn and potatoes. That’s all I need after i butcher one of my cows lol
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No beet greens? :o I almost paid off the farm growing them things. ;D I planted string beans every 2 weeks. Had beans all summer.
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I have peas up. Also lettuce and radishes. These are in my "kitchen" garden. I eat fresh salads all summer by doing successive plantings. I have have a garden since I was was in my early teens. Here in WNY we won't plant a main garden until late May or early June. I freeze most of my winter veggies from the main garden.
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Going to try to drop the disc into the ground this Sunday - try being the operative word, last week the ground was still "squish, squish, squish" when walking through it. Very wet winter and will be 39 tonight here - so can't say we have missed much time yet.
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Going to try to drop the disc into the ground this Sunday - try being the operative word, last week the ground was still "squish, squish, squish" when walking through it. Very wet winter and will be 39 tonight here - so can't say we have missed much time yet.
Yeah it’s 27 and frosty here right now. Basically the same as it was in January at times. Everything about this year has been weird. My sister keeps telling me to do green beans. Maybe I should try them.
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Here in WNY we won't plant a main garden until late May or early June. I freeze most of my winter veggies from the main garden.
I'm in NW Pa and we dont plant most of it till at least the 15th and sometimes the 20th or even later in wet cool springs. Kinda like now. ::) I remember on year we had a hard frost June 2nd.
It certainly never pays to jump the gun even though the early sweet corn sells the fastest.
I'm thinking we will be waiting way past the 15th this year.
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Going to try to drop the disc into the ground this Sunday - try being the operative word, last week the ground was still "squish, squish, squish" when walking through it. Very wet winter and will be 39 tonight here - so can't say we have missed much time yet.
I got most of mine turned and disced last week while we had a few dry days but I couldnt get in at all now. We have had maybe three inches of rain the past week and the gauge said another half inch last night.
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Peas up since mid April, also have a little patch of early corn up . I cheated and started that indoors and transplanted. Need to get more in but soil is quite cold and wet.
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I didnt think i was gonna bother this year but i had repaired a little 2 stroke mini tiller and needed to test it, so i tilled up the spot ive been saying is my new garden plot to get the jetting right before taking it to the deer woods.
Once that was done it was silly not to continue. Limed and fertilized, threw most of my old and maybe expired seed in. Handful of bell pepper and tomato varieties, cherry tomatoes, cabbage and a row made of potatoes that overwintered in the compost pile and had 6" leaders when i turned it.
When the compost finishes i will fill the boxes that my trellis is built on and do cukes as always. Maybe some early radish and kale too
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I have been eating on spinach, assorted lettuce and asparagus for a couple weeks. Potatoes I put out in mid March got frosted back a couple times but I hilled the rows up for the second time yesterday. I have some yellow squash and zucchini that I started inside in a jiffy tray that are flowering. First couple rows of Italian Green beans, cucumbers, corn, melons, and cantaloupe are doing well. I always push starting early and it generally pays off. We often get a bad dry spell about mid-July. My early garden beans and corn will be canned or froze by then. The tomatoes, potatoes, melons seem to like a little dry hot weather.
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I have been eating on spinach, assorted lettuce and asparagus for a couple weeks. Potatoes I put out in mid March got frosted back a couple times but I hilled the rows up for the second time yesterday. I have some yellow squash and zucchini that I started inside in a jiffy tray that are flowering. First couple rows of Italian Green beans, cucumbers, corn, melons, and cantaloupe are doing well. I always push starting early and it generally pays off. We often get a bad dry spell about mid-July. My early garden beans and corn will be canned or froze by then. The tomatoes, potatoes, melons seem to like a little dry hot weather.
I will call for directions in 60 days! :D
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I have been eating on spinach, assorted lettuce and asparagus for a couple weeks. Potatoes I put out in mid March got frosted back a couple times but I hilled the rows up for the second time yesterday. I have some yellow squash and zucchini that I started inside in a jiffy tray that are flowering. First couple rows of Italian Green beans, cucumbers, corn, melons, and cantaloupe are doing well. I always push starting early and it generally pays off. We often get a bad dry spell about mid-July. My early garden beans and corn will be canned or froze by then. The tomatoes, potatoes, melons seem to like a little dry hot weather.
I will call for directions in 60 days! :D
A week after things really start coming in there is stuff going to waste. Come hungry and bring containers LOL!
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Stave, somehow I just knew you where a good guy.
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I always have a garden, but for the last five or six years I've been experimenting with different kinds of cultivation. After reading about various agrarian philosophies I threw excess tomatoes, peppers, and squash on the edges of my clearing. In the spring I broadcast some seeds. I have had more food than I can use for the last two years, and have not tilled, planted, fertilized, weeded, or hoed.
As intimately involved as past generations were with food production, I begin to think that some of the fundamental wisdom they've given us is flawed, incomplete, or misunderstood. That traditional methods produce good results is not proof that they alone can produce good results, or that they are ecologically sound.
One goal I have is to imagine and demonstrate how a sustainable food economy might exist contained within steep mountainous terrain such as that in the pushed-together coal country of eastern KY or sw VA where large scale clearing is out of the question. At what ratios would farming, hunting, and foraging provide adequately, for what population density, and what new plants or ways of growing might be suited to such land?
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We haven't had a garden since we bought this place a few years ago. Always had a big garden at our old place. The ground is really Rocky here and hard to plow so I built a bunch of raised beds from all the scraps I had left over from sawing cedar this year. We built a dozen beds and spaced them where we can mow in between them. Planted onions and radishes in March, Strawberries in April, and finished everything else last week. Tomatoes, green beans, corn, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers. We also planted a small orchard this year with peaches, apples, plums, and cherries. 2 trees each. Last year we put out blackberries, blueberries,and a fig tree. Hopefully in a few years we can start reaping the benefits.
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Very little in the garden this year, I'm trying not to kill what is in the high tunnel till she can get outside and back down there. The rows inside are about 60' long, one is maters looking good, about 1' or so tall, a row of various peppers, I've been covering both of those rows with floating row cover at night. One of beans and one of melons/cukes/squash. There is a row of salad greens of various types about played out but more started up here. The rest we'll buy at the farmers market through the season.
We were watching a movie tonight, she got up and walked to the kitchen before realizing she didn't have the walker. Made it fine but was stranded once it dawned on her what she had done :D. Not bad for 9 days out on a new knee.
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Don - my mom got a new knee 9 days ago ---- Is there something you need to tell me? :D
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Thats Dad P to you jim!
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I plan on throwing a few cannabis seeds in the ground. Might plant some cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes this week. Sunflowers too!
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I was told by an old mentor of mine not to plant till the ground was 50° for 1 week, peas an potatoes a little earlier. We don't plant a garden anymore as the deer eat it before we can. An deer are just like goats can't keep them in or out ;D.
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Yup. today on mothers day. her idea. ;D
should've been done a month ago, but no time
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Does anyone have good books or advice for starting out with gardening? Ive never had the best green thumb and wanted to build a decent sized box garden. I’ve been planning on doing basic stuff for the summer, things like tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, etc.
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Yup. today on mothers day. her idea. ;D
should've been done a month ago, but no time
Better late than never.
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I was told by an old mentor of mine not to plant till the ground was 50° for 1 week, peas an potatoes a little earlier. We don't plant a garden anymore as the deer eat it before we can. An deer are just like goats can't keep them in or out ;D.
Deer are big problem for me as well. Always a running battle to see who will get most of the sweet corn.
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Does anyone have good books or advice for starting out with gardening? Ive never had the best green thumb and wanted to build a decent sized box garden. I’ve been planning on doing basic stuff for the summer, things like tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano, etc.
make the box deeper than you think and fill the base with leaves, grass, decomposing hardwoods etc.. and dump some watered down mollasses on it. this is to promote mycorhiza.. a white stringy fungus that breaks down organic matter and mates with the root system of your crop plants to provide them with nutrients in exchange for carbohydrates that the plant is happy to give up. its a symbiotic, mutually beneficial partnership that grows strong, resilient plants. mycorhiza is how they grow giant pumpkins and such.
the extra space down bottom also leaves voids for oxygen and ensures good drainage of the soil up above in the event of downpours and such.
now above your crop.. always cover the soil. you need shade to prevent the sun from evaporating all the moisture out. growth rates are 100% correlated to soil moisture content. dry soil is dead. the microorganisms that decompose organic matter simply need moisture. so you can use about anything you want that was once alive. it can be grass clippings, sawdust, leaves, newpapers, cardboard, bark mulch. any sort of cover around your plant stems that will act as a sun shade for the dirt. you dont water plants.. you water dirt. when you water plants you start getting fungal issues all over. when you water dirt and keep the foliage dry you are gonna have much better success.
you dont need much space. i have only had absolutely jam packed gardens where a brick between plants to step on is all the available space there is. in a tiny plot, it makes sense to over seed so you can then select the strongest things that pop up and cull the weaklings. culling is part of nature so dont get attached. 4 strong plants will outproduce 8 anemic ones.
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Red bells for the garden. Nothing goes in the ground until mid June up here. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/red-bell_May12-2021.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1620839257)
@thecfarm (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=436) says he wants to pick'm as soon as he plants them. Well, pretty much the way it will be. :D :D
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A little snow/mix today, 'nuff of that!
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I like the looks of them!!!
I might have to start mine own. Most years I can get some big plants. Seem like the green houses we have been too started them late. :( One good size green house did not open and another small one has close due to health problems. :(
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Finally gettin taters in. 2 months late...... :o
Still have some more to put in. Prolly tomorrow
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/53840/20210512_135229.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1620846479)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/53840/20210512_135149.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1620846501)
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Finally gettin taters in. 2 months late...... :o
Still have some more to put in. Prolly tomorrow
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/53840/20210512_135229.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1620846479)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/53840/20210512_135149.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1620846501)
S.H. it looks like you have grown spuds there before a time a two. Whats it produce, pounds wise?
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I just stripped the row covers as the weather is warming.Looking forward to a garden this year.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/35190/garden_2021.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1620863620)
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peas up planted beans today picking aspargras for 2 weeks
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Finally gettin taters in. 2 months late...... :o
Still have some more to put in. Prolly tomorrow
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/53840/20210512_135229.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1620846479)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/53840/20210512_135149.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1620846501)
S.H. it looks like you have grown spuds there before a time a two. Whats it produce, pounds wise?
Indeed I have. Failures last 2 years. Blight wiped us out. I've planted blight resistant, so we'll see. I will be spraying though also
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40 here right now, my guess is it will get to 35 tonight. Rained the other day so still have not been able to turn the soil, about right again so maybe in the next day or so. Nice to have a spring for a change actually. Garden not so happy, but boy oh boy my pastures are loving this.
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Suppose to be a little wet this weekend, showers, not steady rain. But Might be able to get the onions in the small garden. Only take me about 10 minutes to work up the bed, then poke'm in. ;D It really struggles to get to 60F here, cold wind. The flies aren't even warm enough to bite ya. They crawl up under the hard hat to get warm. ;) :D
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i left last falls garden as is overwinter. just tore through the weeds and found ive got several lettuce types, a potato plant and swiss chard coming well established. theres also winter wheat i never planted :D
kale and turnip has come back to life and bolted to seed too. i guess they want to try again.
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Oh, I've got parsnips 14 inches tall in the garden and I pulled about 2 dozen onions from last year that never froze out. Onions are as tough as tulip bulbs, I can guarantee ya that. ;D Parsnip is left in to winter up here, they are much sweeter in the spring. That stuff in the stores is like chewing on wood, no taste and all pulpy. And they want a buck a piece for that crap, good lord. ;D
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I still have another year before planting. Been cutting down the Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven) along the edge and, to get rid of the wood, have been burying it. I'll dig down about 2 feet, lay in the branches, mill cutoffs, and anything/everything I can get that's woody. Then I'll put back on the sod upside down, then backfill. On top I will till in sawdust, chips, and mulch. I figure it will be several years to start to decompose, but it's like money in the bank. It's a version of Hugelkulture.
Also need to connect the water storage tank to the downspout and plumb the outlets. Should be ready by next year.
John
edit to add: of course saving the trunks for sawlogs! plenty of 6x6 in those trees.
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If youve got forest leaf litter and duff around rake some of that up too. It will help get the decomposition started as well as develop micorhiza. Try not to bury it too deep or itll go anaerobic.
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If I tried to bury the wood on my land I would have to remove the rocks than I would have to cut more wood to fill the hole in. :o
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If I tried to bury the wood on my land I would have to remove the rocks than I would have to cut more wood to fill the hole in. :o
I know this all too well right now
Since I’ve made a new garden plot something like 30x30 , 48 hours ago, was all stumps and brush :D picture of my pile of rocks to come, historical artifacts in the making ;)
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I have a road across the bog that seem to have no bottom. I do fine with my 40 hp tractor, but when I have my land logged, that forwarder, with a load of logs, kinda squishes the rocks down some. :o :o
I walked across the bog with the guy that logged my land. His worker was driving the forwarder and we was walking behind it. The bog would roll up in front of the forwarder and than raise as it went over it. I can still hear the logger say, I can't watch that!!!!
The land use to rise and fall the same way with just a 40 hp tractor. Than I had him log my land and had to put the rocks to it and that stopped the roll and raise with me. 3 feet of rocks has an affect!!!!
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I used just a pick axe and got probably 18 inches down at least, there is always more rocks just gotta decide how deep is ok for you :D
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I remember growing up on our farm and picking rock after spring tillage. Now we didn't till any deeper from year to year, but there wood be a new 'crop' of rocks every spring....... I know frost heaving raises rocks, but that's 8' maximum for frost. Some of those rocks are 2' thick every year. Where do they come from........
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(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/65126/B2069530-92BF-40AA-A2BF-4C6EC8E160BB.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1621176192)
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Where do they come from........
I asked that same question every yr when we rolled rocks onto the stoneboat.
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We grow quite a lot. Our main crop is 4.5 acres of blueberries, then we have 2 high fence gardens with mostly fruit, such as pears, peaches and apples. In between those rows we grow maybe 40-50 plants of tomatoes and about 20 or so plants sweet peppers (neither of us like hot peppers). We also have a few nut trees but they're too young to bear yet.
About 6 yrs ago my wife told our daughters she was going to plant the front yard into all sorts of fruits and veggies, they tried to change her mind, but we now have strawberries, beets, onions, garlic, tomatoes, asian pears, ground cherries, cantaloupe, watermelon, 4 blueberries and a few others (not all are planted yet, our last frost date is about May 28-30. We live in a fairly upscale neighborhood in a duplex and we rent the other side to one of our sons.You'd be surprised how many people stop when driving or walking by and make nice comments about our garden.
Then, in our back yard we have 17 fruit trees from peach to apple, pear, asain pear, fig, mulberry, sweet cherry, and then some black raspberries.We also have 2 Saskatoon berry bushes and a gooseberry. Ah, and rhubarb and likely a few I've forgotten.
Last year I built a small greenhouse attached to the back of the house. Between there and some in the house my wife starts all sorts of plants for veggies starting some, like peppers in mid Jan. and some tomatoes and a lot of lettuces then too. I didn't even mention all of the wild edibles we eat from the yard too.
Then in her spare time my wife also helps big time at the community garden which is about 1.5 acres, behind a church up the hill from our house
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hemlockking, nice size for road building!!!
I finished a road last year. Only took me more than 5 years to get it done. Started out with rocks 2-3 feet across and put the size that posted in between them. That will keep me out of the mud!!!!
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Northern Maine Temps dipped last night and I lost all my Tomato and Bell Peppers. :(
Everything else hasn't emerged yet. Hope it survives. We got more of that weather coming this week. I gave up listening the local news liars this year. It cost me for not watching forecast.
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All that work down the drain-we got hit Friday night with a hard freeze. Same thing tomatoes and peppers >:(
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/35190/tomatoe_freeze_5_24_2021.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621876423)
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I'm chomping at the bit here to plant. Potatoes are in the ground and waiting for the full moon to pass Thursday. I was a little surprised there was a little frost on the ground this morning. 32 degrees. Cukes and pumpkins are begging to be transplanted. They will have their day on Monday.
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hemlockking, nice size for road building!!!
I finished a road last year. Only took me more than 5 years to get it done. Started out with rocks 2-3 feet across and put the size that posted in between them. That will keep me out of the mud!!!!
Road building they are being used for(well a parking space added to my lane) ;D . Good assurance nothing sinks over time
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That's why I never set out plants up here until the second week of June. We most always have a freeze the first week of June, you can pretty much count on it. ;)
That being said, my onions are up nice. I'll plant carrots, and beats this weekend maybe. :)
I think I'll make a batch of rhubarb juice this weekend to. ;)
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ive planted too soon since i started gardening and now just wait. but boy are we getting into the hot and dry. the rainbarrels are getting empty.
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We are having continues rain day after day. not hard rain, but either misting or light down pours. gonna be interesting on how it turns out.....
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That white crop cover will get ya by a frost. ;)
We use to have a veggie business. First one out of the shot, made the most money.
Had some bonding agent at work. About 12 feet wide. Kinda like crop cover, but water would not pass through it all that well. They would get down to about an inch thick on the roll and take it off and throw it away. I would bring it home and cover the garden.
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If you use crop cover get the kind that is heavier to protect from frost. I had lighter stuff last spring on the grapes the first week of June with 3 days of frost. It didn't protect the grapes. ;D
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We ran hoops /covers until a couple of weeks ago and pulled them off too early......OUCH !
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Man, that hurts. We have a couple more of the 32 degree nights coming.
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Heck you are in Florida and I'm in Southern Ca. ,,,,,,Where is global warming when you need it? :D
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when i plant early tomato plants I put them in a wall o water. suposed to protect down to 16 f too expensive if you put in a lot of plants but are reusable
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The Peas and Cucumber Beds emerged today just in time for tonight's possible frost.
It says 32 degrees, another liar saying 34 degrees. Same tomorrow night. I got bedsheets down on them but not on the other beds that haven't emerged. Hope they sleep tight. The new tomatoes and peppers are on the porch covered by a blankie. :D
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She's 35F on the porch here, so that is probably 32F at ground level. I know that north breeze is nippy this morning. :D :D I'll be watering the grapes before the sun hits them. That often saves your plants from frost. But not if it's 28F degrees. :D
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I went to the greenhouse yesterday and got 6 each, Bell Pepper, Jalepenio Pepper, Regular tomato, Grape tomato, and Straight Eight Cucumber.
No Cherry tomato, I even picked up 6 Impatiens for the log planter on the front porch!
Probably be another week or so before planting! :snowball:
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we thought we put in a garden, but nature decided it was a waiting pond....... nothing but rain here. have taters in, but can't really plant anything else yet as ground is always too wet
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My plants will go in next weekend. Planting my seed this weekend if it isn't too wet. Suppose to be a couple days with showers, may not get much or could get an 1", never know. :D
I won't have long to wait for jalapenos. :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/jalapeno-pepper-May31-2021.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1622450622)
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Swamp donkey what do you do with rhubarb juice? 😜
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Drink it like any other juice. It's delicious. thumbs-up pepsi_smiley
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Peas are up. I'll make a trellis soon.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13635/20210602_093743.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1622673514)
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Don't blame ya for bragging about them peppers!!! Nice ones.
Got them in the ground yet?
I have not even planted mine outside yet. I used an old cover up frame for a wind tunnel. Put the green house poly to it and plant the peppers inside. Lay down a piece of 10x20 foot black poly on the ground and I have pepper heaven. ;D
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Next weekend they go in. :)