2023 garden season

[Mad Professor]

Burn ban here. I've been draging huge pulls of downed limbs with a tractor and choker chain, almost all white pine, from March snowstorm. Pile is getting huge, I'm waiting for rain to touch it off. I hope to have remainder of the big stuff piled in a couple days. Maybe burn this Monday?

Unseasonable heat today and tomorrow. I hope fruit trees don't bud then we a get a cold snap. Grass is starting to grow/green.

 

[djg james]

We are so dry and windy with super low humidity that we have a burn ban on now.

No ban here, but same conditions as yours. I did manage to get all my brush from the garden burned early this morning. Start at sunrise and made sure there's plenty of due on the ground and no wind. Common sense.

 

[sonny580]

burn ban here for the last week BUT I had **** to get rid of so I lit it like like I always do! Nuttin for miles here that would burn,---not much wind , so use care and go for it.! lol!

 

[spuldup]

The top photo is how it started yesterday. Then we have the rigs used to make it all flat again (not showing the 60" tiller on the Kioti). Last is how it is now. I brought in about six 66" bucket loads of dirt from elsewhere to fill a low spot. garden is 60'X45'. Going to get some beans and lettuce in today before it rains.

 

[sonny580]

Got some seed pots planted and some carrots, beets, and parsnips planted,---getting too late for them but we see what happens.! EVERYTHING is late here this year.
The onions sure love this weather! They are going like crazy.
The sweetcorn is sprouting slow but its coming.

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Got the pepper and tomato patch plowed earlier this week. Plants are coming may 1.
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nice View From Behind The Tractor!!! lol

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Just pulled the carrots..first time growing them so mistakes were made but I got a few lbs and they are so much tastier than store bought. Lettuce is coming to a end but it was grown staggered so a few are still too small to bolt, spinach too. One collard plant left to pull up..we ate collards till the cows came home and then gave away 10lbs to friends. Potatoes are really growing tall tho the purple ones are kinda weak growing compared to the yukon gold and reds. Chinese cabbage has been a pleasant surprise that grew very fast and tastes good in salads. Planted 2 types of squash, 2 types of beans and some japanese cucumbers last week. Two neighbors and myself tilled 100 feet of ditch and planted 70+ sweet potato slips. Its going to be wild because its a vine version that has a 150 day time line until harvest and the vines can reach 20+ feet in length. We are hoping for 50lbs each of us. Sprouting chinese longbeans, peas and chinese eggplant right now with plans to plant by sunday and individual cage building in 2 weeks for the beans.
My garden is actually quite small 8x15 so its been and continues to be a learning experience to keep things pulled/planted and sprouting so its a continuous garden with maximized variety and output. I might even try to plant silver queen in the ditch with the potato patch. The mantis tiller i have is the best thing ever for small spaces and quick cultivating!

this year (fall garden) i did mine in carrot circles. and made the circles with friable, rich compost type soil. and some black cow, too. just an idea, just another garden experiment. has turned out well. we spotted a nice carrot poking its top out of one side of one of the carrot circles. will try to gat a

my carrot circles... earlier in season

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Burn ban here. I've been draging huge pulls of downed limbs with a tractor and choker chain, almost all white pine, from March snowstorm. Pile is getting huge, I'm waiting for rain to touch it off. I hope to have remainder of the big stuff piled in a couple days. Maybe burn this Monday?

Unseasonable heat today and tomorrow. I hope fruit trees don't bud then we a get a cold snap. Grass is starting to grow/green.

90f the high here yesterday! today?: 75f!

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

Got some seed pots planted and some carrots, beets, and parsnips planted,---getting too late for them but we see what happens.! EVERYTHING is late here this year.
The onions sure love this weather! They are going like crazy.
The sweetcorn is sprouting slow but its coming.

my beet patch standing tall!
no parsnips but did note my 2 plant turnip patch doing very well!
sweet onions this year... will be store bot!
cooked up the 6/$1 corn on cob last nite! this week... same store now 2/$1

at 11!

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

The top photo is how it started yesterday. Then we have the rigs used to make it all flat again (not showing the 60" tiller on the Kioti). Last is how it is now. I brought in about six 66" bucket loads of dirt from elsewhere to fill a low spot. garden is 60'X45'. Going to get some beans and lettuce in today before it rains.

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garden pix!

 

[djg james]

Got some seed pots planted and some carrots, beets, and parsnips planted,---getting too late for them but we see what happens.! EVERYTHING is late here this year.
The onions sure love this weather! They are going like crazy.
The sweetcorn is sprouting slow but its coming.

Whereabouts in IL are you? Sorry if I asked you already. Memory or lack there of. I'm 30 miles due East of StL. Just using your location for reference. April 15th just planted some peas, potatoes and beans. Tomatoes and peppers I'm trying to start are for much later. Need to get in spinach soon.

 

[farmer steve]

Got some seed pots planted and some carrots, beets, and parsnips planted,---getting too late for them but we see what happens.! EVERYTHING is late here this year.
The onions sure love this weather! They are going like crazy.
The sweetcorn is sprouting slow but its coming.

Sonny is your sweetcorn outside or are you starting indoors to transplant? I'm thinking of trying to start some in pots in the greenhouse to try and run through my transplanter.

 

[Del_]

Sonny is your sweetcorn outside or are you starting indoors to transplant? I'm thinking of trying to start some in pots in the greenhouse to try and run through my transplanter.

I start corn sometimes in the small 4 cell packs.

One thing to be careful of it to make sure that the corn has reached a root mass such that when it is pulled from the 4 pack that the potting soil stays together. It's no fun when you go to plant a bit early and having the soil fall off of the corn roots, like half of mine wanted to do this hear. I only planted 48 cells and got 46 corn plants. Put them in the ground yesterday with much careful handling.

Here's our Jimmy Nardello peppers that we started from seed back on 1-29-2023.

Planted in cell packs 78 days ago and it is still a few weeks before planting in the ground time. Moved to these 4 inch pots about 37 days ago. The white powder on the trays is diatomaceous earth for earwig control. Earwigs are not usually a problem but they will eat the emerging new leaves off of pepper plants, the bastids!

 

[farmer steve]

@Del_ A few years ago I did some experimental corn in 6 cell packs just to see how they went through the transplanter. They had good root structure and went through the planter well. They got to just pushing tassel and the deer helped themselves.

 

[Del_]

@Del_ A few years ago I did some experimental corn in 6 cell packs just to see how they went through the transplanter. They had good root structure and went through the planter well. They got to just pushing tassel and the deer helped themselves.

I've never had deer eat corn so it is something I have to look forward to.

 

[pdqdl]

One thing to be careful of it to make sure that the corn has reached a root mass such that when it is pulled from the 4 pack that the potting soil stays together.

I plant lots of flowers that way. Keep a box knife handy, and slice the sides open. Then they come out no problem.

 

[Seachaser]

Finally finished planting my okra today. I’ll take a picture if it all comes up. Yesterday we finished my son and DIL’s garden. Between us we should have enough to feed the community. Two gardens of tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, watermelons, corn, and okra. Trying something different this year. Planting on black landscape cloth to defeat the weeds. Hope it doesn’t get too hot. We’ll see.

 

[djg james]

Finally finished planting my okra today. I’ll take a picture if it all comes up. Yesterday we finished my son and DIL’s garden. Between us we should have enough to feed the community. Two gardens of tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, watermelons, corn, and okra. Trying something different this year. Planting on black landscape cloth to defeat the weeds. Hope it doesn’t get too hot. We’ll see.

Ha! Good luck with that. I put it in flower beds in the past, and the damn weeds pushed right through.

 

[pdqdl]

Or they grow on top of it. Then they pull up the fabric when you pull the weeds, making it impossible to hide the cloth again with mulch.

I don't use the stuff except to line a french drain.

 

[djg james]

Or they grow on top of it. Then they pull up the fabric when you pull the weeds, making it impossible to hide the cloth again with mulch.

I don't use the stuff except to line a french drain.

Yeah, I had the idea to use between the rows of my strawberries to keep the weeds down. Same thing happened. Then I had the GREAT idea of laying shingles down end to end between the rows. Wind started to blow them around so I weighed them down with mulch. You guessed it, weeds started growing in the mulch and worked their way through the shingles.

I gave up on strawberries until recently. The area had become overgrown with Hawthorn? saplings, multiflora rose and blackberry vines. I recently cleared it off and am starting the raised beds I posted earlier to hold the berries.