Where your time is spent.... - Page 2

darkminion_17 · #11 08-06-2011, 08:24 PM

That is A Nice Assortment of Legumes you have there.
All kidding aside your garden is nice I try to keep mine fenced in to keep the 4 hoofed rats out.This year my eggplants were attacked by beetles that ate up the leaves.Only one survived.My pepper plants are not producing due to the hot weather,the blossoms keep falling off,so no peppers.Have you read the Square foot gardening method?Good book to look up.

Mountain Heritage · #12 08-09-2011, 07:25 AM

Will have to look up that book - always nice to find something worth reading! Yes, you said it....the wife says I am odd as well.....

Finally got some rain the night before last - lasted for about 2 hours, it was GREAT! Honestly, I think my second planting of sweet corn jumped about 3 inches in two days!??

cubcadette · #13 08-10-2011, 09:57 PM

GREAT looking garden! Im so impressed it makes me want to be a better gardener.

This is my first year and Im experiencing a few problems that I hope to learn from for next year. We have had bushels of green tomatoes, but most of the ripe ones have suffered from Blossom End Rot. Im possibly over-watering because I don't know what the heck Im doing

Bell peppers are coming in and looking good!

Watermelons are getting about the size of a baseball and then turning black on the bottom side...

So far, the pumpkin plant and sweet corn plants are looking good and healthy.

Im also planning on adding a bunch of compost this fall before plowing it under. Reeeaaalllly looking forward to using the plow...

Mountain Heritage · #14 11-28-2011, 08:15 PM

So did anyone learn some lesson's from this past growing season and found out what they are NOT going to do next season?

I know I need to find another bread of onions to grow in hopes that is my problem as to why I can not grow them to full term before they start rotting like they have the past 5 years on me! Getting sick of having only chopped up frozen onions instead of nice fresh ones into the early fall from the garden. Would be nice to have a burger with onion on it in October.

CADplans · #15 11-28-2011, 08:34 PM

What I am NOT going to do!!??

Well I am not going to use this method of staking tomato's!!

D7K_0488640x424.jpg

Do you know how hard it is to give away 1300 pounds of tomato's??

Mountain Heritage · #16 11-29-2011, 08:43 PM

That's classic Cadplans!!

Too funny!

IAfarmer · #17 12-20-2011, 03:54 PM

Very nice garden! I wish I could have kept ahead of the weeds this year. It takes tons of work, daily monitoring, and dedication. When the barn went down, all effort in the garden stopped as we moved into other focuses.

What did I learn?

1. 30 tomato plants is too many. (75 quarts is a years worth, but takes a ton of energy and water to process)
2. 150 feet of bush beans is too much. Left a ton out after we froze a years worth.
3. Didn't have time to pickle the cucumbers in July, so won't be growing them again.
4. My family is tired of squash. So much is produced it is hard to eat it all.
5. Better timing of the sweet corn so it doesn't pollinate with neigboring commercial field corn. (DO NOT GROW the hybrid 4th of July. YUCK!)
6. My 300' (6 50' rows) of potatoes is perfect for keeping the family fed for a year. Do not grow reds for storage, as they will be rotten by Thanksgiving. Grow Yukon Gold for storage.
7. Better educate myself on curing and storing onions. Two years in a row, I lost them after a couple of months.

We moved back into town after the disaster this past year. My new lot is smaller than my garden was! So, this year I am going to have a 24x24 patch to play with and grow things we like to eat, with minimal stoarge. Succession planning, here I come!

Methos · #18 12-20-2011, 05:32 PM

Great post growing season review!

Vince_o · #19 12-21-2011, 06:31 AM

Youll be surprized in what youll get out of a mall patch. One thing Ive done with my beans is to grow them in a block, meaning I till the row, and put them in 12 wide row. I saw this in a troy bilt book and it works real well. No weeds, and you can have a bunch in a small area. I do maters that way too, run my steaks down the center burry a soaker hose as not to get the folage wet and you use less area for more plants.

Ill have to agree on the taters, we do the regulare white baking for storage, while all the reds get eaten upright away. And I too could care less if I ever see another yellow squash!

For me I find growing my Broccoli, cabbage, and carrots in the late summer is best. I put them in around the first of sept and water the hec out of them, those 100 deg days are hard! But then by the end of sept the weather cools and the huricains and tropical storms that come threw provide the water I need. Also I put in a cover crop in the fall of crimsion clover, it put nitgrion in the ground. Last year I didnt use any fertlizer on the garden and we did real well.

Mountain Heritage · #20 12-21-2011, 08:08 PM

So a lot of you guys are using soaker hoses for certain plants...what is the advantage besides not getting the leaves wet all the time? You find less diseases doing it this way? Takes in the moisture better and less wattering needed? Is it worth me investing in a soaker hose or two? I was fortunate to get some tall sprinklers for Fathers Day and I added a couple more later in the Summer. Should I have gone with soaker hoses? I like leaving the hoses out all summer and just using a quick attach end on the hose reel I roll out when I want to water the garden. That way I do not need to walk through the wet garden to move around sprinklers. Have two runs of hoses with two or three sprinkers on it and have it divided up to keep the water pressure up enought to throw the water around from the sprinkler. It seemed to work well? I want to plant more strawberries and raspberries this year if I get the opportunity. Have to add another raised bed for the strawberries though. Wouldn't mind two or three apple trees as well - but that might not work out where I planned on planting them. Don't want to cut down on my sunshine early in the morning. Will have to look into that thought. Going to do something different this year with tomatoes. Start training them to grow up a stake or a heavy rope attached to a framework above the row perhaps? I have a heck of a time with the tomatoe vines falling over and breaking. Not much air flows around them then and I find they rot that much sooner. Have enough problems with wilt as it is - gotta do everything I can to keep the tomatoes growing until they mature enough to pick. Can't always eat fried green tomatoes! I'd love to be able to dry down onions properly and store them. Been chopping them up for the freezer for so many years. Would love to have a fresh onion sliced from the garden in September or October instead of having to buy one from the store!