The Forestry Forum

Poll Expires 3-38-06

Springtime is upon us (except for those down under).  The seed catalogs have arrived.  Visions of zucchini dance through our heads.  How does your garden grow?

Usually just a few tomato plants, some carrots, squash, and cucumbers.

Stew

I'm deciding on punkin varieties right now.  Gonna go with some Aladdins which are 30-50lbers and have a powdery mildew tolerance, another large variety and a mini to fill a demand.  I'll fill in with buternut and buttercup squash and some zucchini to keep the squash bugs off the pumpkins 8)  I got the fever ;D ;D ;D.  My garden is kinda big but since I'm not a big vegey eater I grow stuff that sells ;) ;D 8)

I'm too DanG lazy to garden. :D I love the end result but will let the market gardeners do all the work. Can't wait for some fresh veggies and fruit right off the tree.

I marked small - cause it is  :D

When my kids were small and my bank account even smaller, our whole back yard was in garden. We ate good. A lot of our "quality time" as a family was spent working in the garden. The boys couldn't wait to get old enough to run the tiller.

The kids are all bigger than me now and have gardens of their own that I like to raid  :-X
My garden now is mostly strawberries, raspberries, ruhbarb, and a few other fun things for the grandkids to work on.

I cluck(past tense of click) on "average sized".  My garden plot measures about 40'x60'.  Right now, it's all grown up with the remains of the fall garden, with all the greens bolted into beautiful yeller flowers.  I missed "tater day" by almost a month now, so I probably won't bother with that.  I do intend to get some stuff in there soon, but we all know where that road paved with good intentions leads.

I said large but it is only about 1/4 acre. Thats pretty big when the weeds get ahead and you got a lot of hoeing to do!
   Dang, it ain't too late to plant taters! They may not be here when the pole beans are ready but they'll eat just as good.  ;D

Yeah, I've planted them this late with good results, before.  Gittin' tater eyes can be a problem, though.  Gittin' the time to put'em in can be an even bigger problem.

I plant a 4 x 16 raised be garden.  broke up in  4x4 sections
Thats more then plenty for the 2 of us. I give lots away havent got into canning or freezing anything yet.
This system works well for me i plant early and eat early. The beds warm faster than the ground. Plus if a frost is comming all i have to do is roll out some plastic and were safe
Dale

We have 3 gardens.We sell most of our crops.We have both low and high bush bluebreeies.Working on a raspberry batch now.We have the old fashioned ruhburb,which only a very few people buy and strawberry ruhburb that everyone wants.We have a asparagus that I think we could have an acre and still not have enough and we have a grape wine that is not doing good at all.We have a root cellar to keep out veggies in.Buttercup did not keep well at all this year. I don't each veggie either,Corley5,Too Green For Me.

Our garden is real small this year.  Probably a little corn, some watermelons I want, and tomatoes.  My grandfather used to have a gigantic garden.  A couple rows of sweet corn, tomatoes, asparagus, potatoes, peppers, rhubarb, and thats as far as I can remember.  And then he had fruit trees too.  The nectarines off there were amazing.  I'm getting kind of hungry now.

Im not sure what would be considered gigantic. But I think I qualify at least 2 acres of potatoes probably 3 acres sweetcorn and another 3 acres of mixed vegies. Would that be considered just big or gigantic :-\ or maybe medium or small by some Hmmm I need some definitions.

Yeah, I was thinking the same. Our gardens measure more than 1.7 acres (a manzana down here) - and then there is all the fruit trees, etc.

I said large - after all, my family used to have 300 acres of vegetable gardens...  ::)

1/2 acre of pumpkins
1/2 acre of winter squash
1/2 acre of sweet corn
20 hills of summer squash
20 hills of zucchini
2 -  100' double rows of carrots
25 red pepper
25 green pepper
50 mixed tomatoes
4 - 100" double rows of peas
2- 100'  rows of green beans
2- 100' rows of wax beans
25 egg plants
2 - 100' rows of beets
1 - 100" row of spinach
1- 100" row of swis chard
20 hills of mellons
1 100" row mixed greens
and much more...... :o
(https://forestryforum.com/garden.gif)
THIS ONE WAS FOUND!

About one acre plus ...

Dang, Go ahead and just through those Taters on the ground and cover them in pine straw and or (never tried it but they might do just as well under some old sawdust)... Not much work and if they make Great, if not, not much lost :D :D :D

Jerry

I marked average size because I don't remember the really size  ??? ??? ??? ::). My parents and I plant potatoes ( about half garden), tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, beans, pea, green beans, almost every kind of salad, onion, garlic, carrot, cabbage, beet, leek, straberry, raspberry, currant, parsley, sage rosemary.
I like gardening (if that is a word) in a organic manner 8) 8) 8) without herbicide and chemical fertilizer. We fertilize only with solid manure.
It is really cool go in your garden and pick up fresh veggies to eat ;D ;D 8) 8) :D :D

DanG

place your taters in 12 inch squares and cover with straw.  I use wheat straw here.  works wonderful

I always put in the biggest I can at the time.  I can/preserve as much as possible and the rest goes to pig and chicken feed.

Ron!  Spring is upon us??? :o  I ran to look out the window and the 2 foot deep, hard windpacked snowdrifts are still there.  I'm pretty sure the ground underneath it is still frozen harder than concrete.  I'm not a gardner. I have a black thumb.  There is some kind of field that surrounds me that kills plants if I'm around them very much.  I prepare the ground and put up the fence for Donna but she's the gardner.  She plants after Mother's Day because there is less chance for a killing frost to occur.  So I have some time before I have to even think about getting the rototiller cranked up. :)

Nope, no spring here - Just endless late spring...

Fred,
How does your apples, pears, peaches, blackberries, blueberries and persimmons know when to bloom?

Very good question Tom!

Apples, pears, peaches, blueberries, persimmons - we don't really have any. You can make them grow here by causing the leaves to fall off about once a year - various methods of doing that - usually chemical.

blackberries just keep producing - they really don't ever stop. Citrus is twice a year, so is Manzanas de Agua and many others. We are nearly awash in fruits year round here - something is always in season.

Strawberries are year round as well.

We have a variation of about 30 minutes in the length of the day year round, and we have a dry period of about 3 months - both may cause the cyclic nature of the fruit.

Because the start and the end of the dry season varies a lot over the country, most fruits are available most of the time. I think there is two months you can't get a good mango - but that is about it. We are coming into mango season now - we tend to have so many that we feed them to the pigs.

But I love mangos, but there is a limit to how many I can eat.

Fred

I am applying the Corley techniques this year ! Burn dem DanG weeds out !  8)

burn'em 'buck. :D  Show us some pictures. 8)

Fred,
I was lucky enough to experience Florida with  fruit like that.  It went away when the influx of outsiders took over in the 50's and decided that they didn't want to deal with the "mess" of fruit trees.  Florida's calling card was destroyed in less than one generation.

Here is the reminiscences thread describing some of my and Charlie's life (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=1001.msg11791#msg11791)

I sure do miss life like it was then.  It's gone now though, and probably for good.

I hear you Tom, I never experienced it until we moved here. Often, while walking the fields I will be passing by some kind of fruit tree - nothing is more nature than just reaching up and grabbing some. It is great for everyone who works for us too.

One of the things we are doing is planting lots of fruit trees on the farms - for the animals, and for us. I have a lot of pruning to do right now on the Monte Cristo property to produce even more fruit. This is fine, creates more jobs - and more food.

Crikey bull, how many people are you feeding with all that?!?!

I said no garden, coz I'm in suburbia, and in a 'temporary house' although I've been here over a year...

Still waiting for Farmy...  THEN I'll have a garden!

Not sure I'll be able to have any Stone Fruit, though, same problem as Fred...  No frost here either :(

asy :D

  Dan , can you explain to me how you have past the time to put taters in , when I still got snow on the ground and wont be putting anything in for another 2 ½ months .  ???

ASY, Im hoping Alot.  Im opening a small farm stand w/ my son, he needs a summer job and will be selling the rewards from the garden.. He's in a wheel chair and is having a hard time finding a job. We have always had a large garden and a small stand at the end of the drive way and put out the extra's w/ an honors system can.  Josh's best year w/ the can was around $1700.00 he believes he will be able to triple that by opening a stand and offering more. He also wants to sell Shavings, Hay and  Grain. We have a large Horse crowd in town "Yuppies" ! He's hoping to open their wallets... He will also be running my office and handling recieveables!

Good for you Bull, and even better for your son! My sons helped out at farmer's markets for years. They helped with the baking, packing, bagging, setting-up, tearing down, and dealing with customers. This did them a world of good. They knew they were helping the family, and so this made them feel important, they learned to deal with the public, count change, and generally every aspect of growing up. You will be amazed at how your son will grow and raise himself to the challenge. Good luck to you and him both! 8)

That's so COOL!

Tell your son I'm proud of him.

Andrew and I have been talking about what my son will be able to do when we get to the farm. We'd like to get him to start some kind of small business along the lines of a veggie garden for sales to yuppie types, or a small tree farm of his own.

He has aspergers (a form of autism) and whilst not physically dibilitating, it's a 'hidden' disability, as people think he's 'normal' "Neurotypical" but he's not. He is doin' just fine, but some days are better than others. Being realistic, though, I don't think he's going to be able to hold down any sort of job working for someone else...

I hope it all goes really well.

Just out of curiosity, can your son drive a tractor? Do they make tractors with hand controls??? (Just thinking about when he has to expand his business!)

asy :D

Asy,

A lot of us fit in that category - "able to hold down any sort of job working for someone else..."  :D

If I had been in school now, they would have surely wanted to drug me for being too something - I was a handful in school. Not so much as a trouble maker, but I would get bored while they repeated everything I had learned the previous year - I am not safe when I am bored!

My wife works very hard to make sure I am kept busy - it is better for everyone. I might go out and start a new business or something!

Fred

Asy,

Don't ever let anyone imply to you that your son won't be able to do almost anything he really wants to do. I personally have handicaps (no, not that one!), my eyes have difficulty focusing without effort. When I was in high school, I actually had problems finishing papers because of this.

Then I figured out that I don't have to focus that hard to read - I can read whole paragraphs at a time. So, I ended up learning to speed read. I still have problem reading at normal speed, but what fun is that?

Some of the most successful people in the world have obstacles to overcome - my best "hero" in this is Steven Hawkins. Most people with his diability would just assume they had nothing to offer - he is on the forefront of understanding how the universe works!

Being normal isn't all it is cracked up to be...  :D

P.S. I assume that you didn't even need me to say this being who you are, but I decided to say it anyway.  ;)

Thomas Edison was kicked out of grade 3 because he was slow :D My favorite line is from Will Rogers "I was too ignorant to know it could not be done so I went ahead and did it " asy, don't let anyone tell your son no. I am sure he will do just fine.

My son has osteogenisis Imprefecta  { brittle bones disease}  I don't know about driving a tractor he's a midget
3'2" 65 lbs... Bouncing around in a tractor might be a bit too much for him....  I've still got a few years left in me to do the tractor work and my daughter likes the tractor so its covered for now..

too much like work...

Bull,

It's your son staying in touch with you and sharing experiences that means the most in life.  What could be more gratifying than being smarter than Dad.  :D :D :D :D

   Feeding mangos to pigs..................THat's just wrong

I would have to call mine average about 40X60 but I'm adding to it this year

Seed order was $ 70, the potatos order was 40, still have to decide on the blueberries and strawberries, that will  be anothe r$100 probably.

Planting lots of beans this year, Brother has  been having lots of folks asking him for dried beans so I''m planting

Black coco
Great northern
Jacobs cattle
Red Kidney
Red mexican.

Wifes going to put them mixed in jars for a soup mix

two varietys of green beans

4 of carrots

2 of cucumber

5 of letucces

2 Of peas

2 of peppers

Radish's
Zuchinni
Summer squash

3 differnat tomatos

2 of watermellons


No sweet corn this year, still hav elots form last year  :D
but I am planting purple corn and fire corn for inian corns, in fact they are started all ready inside.

Rest of the seeds should be here today or tomorrow and I can get the rest of this stuff started.

Have to go up to the green house and pick up my irrigation system, they changed to a differant style and I'm getting all the tubing and feeders for free.

Have the PH levels check all ready and lime and cotton meal spread to balance those out.
The organic fertilizer, and fish emulsion is bought, I'm as ready as I can be.

I'm with Marcel.  Taters are kinda hard to grow in snow... :o :o :D  Gonna have to wait until atleast the first part of May here.  On a normal year we put in on average of 5000 hills of Norlands, Yukon Gold, Russet Burbank,  Banana's, as well as a few others and about the same size of an area with the rest of the garden veggies.  We sell alot of our product at local farmers markets and through the Bargain Hunter.  Our average input costs for the gardening bit runs in the $2000-2500 range with end results to near $10,000.  Not too bad for Hillbilly Organic Gardens which we have as a Division of Stove Creek Ventures. ;D
Brad.

MMMM I could make a meal with those Yukon Golds and butter. For the uninitiated, the flesh is yellow and are one of the best I have ever tasted. 8)