Thread: In the Garden 2015

Just ordered my seeds and strawberry plants from Burpee this past weekend.
My soil is 70% potatoe rocks. Nasty. So I had a dozer come in and dig out a patch one foot deep (25' x 100').
Then two tractor trailer loads of used mushroom soil was brought in to fill the hole.
Two foot walkways were scratched out between four foot beds. So in a sense it's a raised bed garden, just below ground level.
I have drip-line hose down each 25' bed.
Each bed is covered by black growing cloth. Things grow crazy in mushroom soil, so a cover is needed to fight weeds.
Anything with hair or fur considered the patch a buffet.
Solved that by spritzing around plants with "Deer off" products. To my surprise it works.
Seascape strawberries are amazing. They grow like mad, and produce berries all summer; even the first year. Plus the red ripe taste is perfect.
Spray tomato plants often with liquid calcium every few weeks to prevent 'blossom end rot'. I used to loose half the crop until this was done.
Hope to have a ton of Habanero peppers again.
Your wife is on to something with the flowers. A row of them brightens up an otherwise drab garden.
I use Cosmos and Zinias. Collect the seeds and replant each year. Doesn't cost a dime.
Now, about that snow out there...........

Glen now that I spend so much time at home im going to grow some stuff ,, I am planning on container gardening, big pots from our nursery Hope I can get something to grow ,, all I know how to do is drill, in the earth not grow things!!! Tc

Been spending Rainy/Snowy nights watching some of these series on Youtube

I only linked the first of each, there are multiple vids if you like them..
I found a few grains of info in each, had to sift through the chaff of course (pun intended)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTju3L1BhGI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-prRxB1ggg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AXwIVme8zM

Honestly I found the last series the most entertaining and informative, the guy actually had a odd sense of humor I kinda like

Official first day of Spring

I officially planted the first seeds of the year today, many thanks to Roy aka Cudarunner for having one of his friends send me a packet of Genuine Walla Walla Sweet onion seeds, giving them a try this year..

The wife jumped right on board with adding a small Mini Green House out back tucked against the south facing wall of a tool shed..

She says "So what you are telling me is that if we buy this I won't have trays of dirt and seeds in the front window for the next 2+ months"

I says "Yep that is about right"

She gives me the Look "And we haven't bought this two years ago why "

Anyway we now have a small green house to get seeds started, it should get at least 8 hours of Sun and it is pretty well protected from the wind..





This is what we bought only wish it was full of green plants like that already hehehe

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My wife and I planted two weeks ago.....Jalapeno, onions, tomatoes, basil, oregano and tomatillos for the first round. Got to love South Texas where I can plant in the middle of the winter.

Of course by July everything will be incinerated.....

I have no place to grown anything right now so you guys are making me jealous. 1 thing I noticed is not 1 of you has mentioned worms. Now filling 25 x 100 garden with worms might be expensive but I don't think any of the others are that hard to fill. When I fished a lot I would buy worms for the rookies and kids and what was left went in the garden. I found that this is the 1 natural improvement that did more than anything to help. The casings are the best fertilizer you can buy and the holes they make help with water getting down to the roots. I spread a few in my Mom's flower beds and now she hates turning the soil :<0) She still does but after a few years and all the coffee grounds going in the beds the flowers grow like never before. Another secret of mine is lady bugs and lace wings. There are many insects you can buy that will eliminate a wide variety of pests. And they taste better than pesticides :<0)

Here are more tips. The flowers in your garden do more than look pretty if you look close at how to attract these bugs.
The Best Insects for Your Garden: Organic Gardening

So sometimes a plan actually begins to come together

Last year we started with the three raised beds in the new enclosed garden, honestly that did OK and we had fun..
The plan was to till all that soil into a full garden bed this year, and repeat the entre process again for a second area..

Garden 2014





So while searching Craigslist this past week I found a older Craftsman Rototiller that looked to be in good shape, I liked that idea because I began tearing apart Briggs & Stratten engines when I was 12
I had looked at renting one but the best rate I could find was $70 for one day
I got this for $200 and it started and ran just fine






Today I drained everything out of it found that the Spark plug was a heat range low and a bit fouled out
Checked it all out put it back together put in new fluids and real Non-Ethanol gas and tried her out..




All winter we had put the woodstove ash and the coffee grounds and such into the snow on the garden..

Well today that all paid off,, I turned everything and dug the soil deep, was pretty impressed with the tiller's ability to just tear through the buried roots too..


Today



Checked the little Mini-Greenhouse and most everything is starting to pop up..

Planning on using the Kubota and the Middlebuster Plow to rip open the next section then put in the next section of fencing along with the 3 raised beds again..

Hoping to have it all ready to go for June 1st so we can put all the starts in the ground..



ps: Roy if you see this the Walla Walla Sweets are coming up

I envy you guys. I'm not a gardener. I live in a town home with no back yard or property to dig up at all. But I'd love to have access to really fresh stuff at my whim. I have a balcony that I can get a few pots of herbs going on, that's it. Keep us posted of what you grew and what you did with it.

Glen, do not overdo the ashes,are good to a point.Wood stove ashes good or bad?