starting this years garden in 2 days

[chuckwood]

There's a bunch of chatter in the firewood forum about how cold it was a couple nights ago. Well, I'm supposedly in the deep south region here in TN, at least according to the Farmer's Almanac, and we just had scattered frost. It didn't scatter in my favor, and some of my tater plants have been damaged. They'll survive, it's happened before. They'll just be a bit retarded - sorta like these here global warmin' alarmists.

 

[chuckwood]

Good so far. Messed up by planting old carrot seeds I had stored in the freezer. I assumed that less than half would come up. I was wrong. Today I'll spend hours on my hands and knees thinning them out. Got cabbage, romaine lettuce, onions, broccoli, spinach ready to pick, beets, carrots, sugar snap peas (yum), and lots of taters. Tomatoes doing good, have yet to plant corn and pole beans. Planted lima beans too early, they didn't like the cold and most of them rotted instead of sprouting. They seem to be hot weather only plants, like okra.

 

[Perry pioneer]

That's a real nice garden, you should have a real bounty buy summers end.

 

[chuckwood]

Taters are doing great. I've got 2 1/2 long rows. Four varieties. Russets for baking and making mashed taters, red pontiacs for steaming, canning, and tater salad, yukon golds for just about anything you can think of, and something new, blue gooses - blue taters that are more healthy for you but taste just like regular taters.

 

[R DeLawter]

Taters are doing great. I've got 2 1/2 long rows. Four varieties. Russets for baking and making mashed taters, red pontiacs for steaming, canning, and tater salad, yukon golds for just about anything you can think of, and something new, blue gooses - blue taters that are more healthy for you but taste just like regular taters.

View attachment 428756

Is that mulched leaves on the taters? Can tell you really put some time in the garden,

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Got snow last night here in the higher areas. I haven't planted yet but it's about time. I usually wait till at least first lawn mow for the year which I'd need to do soon.

 

[chuckwood]

Is that mulched leaves on the taters? Can tell you really put some time in the garden,

Yeah, I've covered nearly all of my garden with a heavy layer of mulched leaves in between rows. After that I don't need to water or weed.

 

[Brushpile]

Groundhogs, deer, rabbits, make it hard to get a good crop started. That spray repellant that smells like rotten eggs and ass works good($16 a bottle) til the plants get big enough, but you have to reapply after every rain. Had some bhut jolokia (ghost pepper) seeds from a few years ago, I had lost. Didn't expect many to sprout, so I planted them all. Now I have about 200 little plants. 6 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, 5th yr asparagus, jalapenos, habeneros, cucumbers and tomatillos, salad greens on the back deck up off the ground.

 

[chuckwood]

Groundhogs, deer, rabbits, make it hard to get a good crop started. That spray repellant that smells like rotten eggs and ass works good($16 a bottle) til the plants get big enough, but you have to reapply after every rain. Had some bhut jolokia (ghost pepper) seeds from a few years ago, I had lost. Didn't expect many to sprout, so I planted them all. Now I have about 200 little plants. 6 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, 5th yr asparagus, jalapenos, habeneros, cucumbers and tomatillos, salad greens on the back deck up off the ground.

I had groundhog problems back in March, but my golden retriever took care of them. She seems to find them good eating. She'll spend hours around a groundhog hole trying to dig 'em out. Killed five so far this year.

 

[bowtechmadman]

Just finished my garden...finally. I like the leaf idea, I bag my grass clippings to use for the same purpose (weed/moisture) thinking I will have to start pulling leaves from the woods!!
I have found that fishing line works about as good as anything for combating deer...they don't like running into something they can't see.

 

[R DeLawter]

Yum for the dog.

 

[chuckwood]

Just finished my garden...finally. I like the leaf idea, I bag my grass clippings to use for the same purpose (weed/moisture) thinking I will have to start pulling leaves from the woods!!
I have found that fishing line works about as good as anything for combating deer...they don't like running into something they can't see.

I'm real lucky with my leaf mulch. The city brings me as much as I want in late fall and it's free. So far I've not had deer problems. They can be bad in both urban and rural areas.

 

[chuckwood]

This years okra and corn looking great. I had to separate my okra patch into another area. My okra plants were getting the same blight that aftects my tomatoes. So far, the new patch is working out. Okra is easy to freeze, just chop it up, stick it in vacuum seal freezer bags, and you're done. Corn is looking great and my pole beans are emerging that I plant in the corn after it's around a foot high. I get bushels of corn and beans out of a relatively small area. I cover the entire area with a heavy layer of leaves, that keeps weeds from growing and the soil wet.

 

[R DeLawter]

Our city used to give it away but now sell it for $35 per load. (your truck).

Chuckwood, ... Do you spread that all by hand or with a pitchfork? Thanks for the pictures.

 

[chuckwood]

Do you spread that all by hand or with a pitchfork? Thanks for the pictures.

I spread it using a pitchfork. I have a 4 wheeler and a trailer that I use to do the spreading. I load the trailer with leaves and pull it up and down the rows with the machine, straddling the rows when the plants aren't tall enough yet for the 4 wheeler to knock them over. It's hard work and takes a few days, but when it's finished, I'm pretty much done until harvest time. No more tilling to do, and no more watering. Even during long periods of no rain, the soil will still be moist under the leaves. Since these are last year's leaves, and they've been sitting around in a big pile out in the weather for 8 months, they are already compacted and partly composted when I'm spreading them in the garden. Also, the 4 wheeler has large, fat tires on the back, and I'm constantly driving over the leaves that I've already spread as I move up to the next section. This compacts the leaves a lot, I want the leaves to be heavy and dense so they cool the soil and prevent moisture from evaporating out during the hot weather. When next year rolls around, and it's time to plow again, that thick layer of leaves is no where to be seen, it's like the stuff just melts into the soil. Each year, my soil gets a little looser and a little darker.

 

[chuckwood]

Summer heat has kicked in, and my corn is growing incredibly fast. This year, I planted some cabbage that was advertised to produce heads as big as basketballs. And sure enough, I've got some that big. I let the Romaine lettuce go to seed, thinking I'll save seeds for planting again in the fall. The problem with planting lettuce in spring is that you only have a narrow window of time to harvest before hot weather makes the plant bolt and send up giant seed stalks. Apparently, the lettuce seeds are built to disperse in the wind like dandelion seeds, or it seems to look that way. Anyhow, I've uploaded a couple pics of my lettuce plants along with the corn and cabbage.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

My gardens are doing very good, I mulch mine in with grass hay that I cut/load on my snow mobile trailer,

Then my better half, spreads it down the rows....we now have the front garden all mulched in,

NOW, on to the back garden!

SR

 

[Marshy]

I like your guys mulch methods. I'm going to have to look into finding some mulch material. Here's my little garden before and after weeding. At least I smartened up and spaced everything out so I can run the tiller between most everything.

 

[chuckwood]

We've had lots of rain, so it looks like I'll have a great crop of sweet corn this year. Gonna can and freeze most of it. Tomatoes are coming in, and harvested a total of 6 bushels of carrots this year. Relatives got a lot of 'em, they freeze easily. Next chore is digging up all the taters.

 

[Marshy]

When will your corn be ready? Looks good. I will have a larger garden in the future. I love to juice my veggies, carrot is yummy.