Any body else putting in a garden?

[mike_belben]

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.

[SwampDonkey]

Red bells for the garden. Nothing goes in the ground until mid June up here. ;D





@thecfarm says he wants to pick'm as soon as he plants them. Well, pretty much the way it will be. :D :D

[Don P]

A little snow/mix today, 'nuff of that!

[thecfarm]

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.  :(

[Sedgehammer]

Finally gettin taters in. 2 months late......
Still have some more to put in. Prolly tomorrow




 

 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Finally gettin taters in. 2 months late......
Still have some more to put in. Prolly tomorrow




 

S.H. it looks like you have grown spuds there before a time a two.  Whats it produce, pounds wise?

[tule peak timber]

I just stripped the row covers as the weather is warming.Looking forward to a garden this year.

 

[trapper]

peas up planted beans today picking aspargras for 2 weeks

[Sedgehammer]

Finally gettin taters in. 2 months late......
Still have some more to put in. Prolly tomorrow




 

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

[Southside]

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.  

[SwampDonkey]

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

[mike_belben]

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. 

[SwampDonkey]

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

[John357]

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.

[mike_belben]

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. 

[thecfarm]

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.      

[HemlockKing]

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.    

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  ;)

[thecfarm]

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.    

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!!!!

[HemlockKing]

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

[Sedgehammer]

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........

[HemlockKing]

 

 

[Ed_K]

Where do they come from........

 I asked that same question every yr when we rolled rocks onto the stoneboat.

[maple flats]

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

[thecfarm]

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!!!!

[Mooseherder]

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.