Posted on 05/24/2013 3:09:29 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
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TY ;)
My tiller, garden seeder, and garden tractor--and the 'real' tractor--are my friends! The garden tractor has the dump trailer behind it, which carries tools & supplies, unless I need it to haul mulch or manure, etc.; or for harvesting larger areas. The Joy of Gardening introduced me to the first two. :-)
As the soil gets used, it gets easier and faster to do the basics; each year I expand into a new area of dirt to turn into soil.
I collect coffee grounds from a restaurant and a coffee kiosk in town; we haul grass clippings from the State Veterans Home in town--they don't spray; friends give me large trash bags of their paper shreddings; each year my wife rakes up & piles the pine cones for me to run through the chipper: all of that gets composted or used as mulch, then is tilled in at the end of the season.
The rabbit cages are hung on one wall of the chicken house, so their waste goes into the straw covered floor dirt underneath, along with the chicken manure, then twice a year--spring & fall--gets hauled to the garden & tilled in or added to a compost heap. Peas & bush beans & generally just scatter onto a strip of tilled soil, then run the tiller back over them at a shallow setting to plant them in a wide row.
I try to plant most stuff in rows far enough apart to get the tiller between them to do most of the weeding & cultivating, tilling in any fertilizer side dressings at the same time.
I have a hiller-furrower attachment for the tiller that digs my potato trenches, while tilling in fertilizer at the same time; then as the taters grow, I run it down each side of the rows to hill them.
It's mainly a matter of rhythm, planning, and efficiency born of being too lazy to do it the hard way. ;-')
The large plot (about 50' X 100') of potatoes was virgin pasture soil last year, and took several hours using the 'real' tractor to rip up the sod; then change off the potato plow & use the rear blade to smooth it out; then more hours of tilling before I was able to use the 'real' tractor again to dig the planting trenches. 5-100' rows took the tractor about 15 minutes to dig.
This spring, it took about 3 hours to till it to get ready to plant the snap peas.
Today, it took an hour to run the tiller over it 3-4" deep to cultivate & weed, and then to till in 3 rows worth of fertilizer so I can plant 3-80' rows of black oilseed sunflowers. That's what I mean about 'gets easier and faster'.
My reference to a bull ride comes from my FR homepage where I describe the start up gardening experience of our first year in Texas. The tiller was defiantly in control, I was trying to hold it back and pointed straight where it would dig deep, against it’s will as it grabbed and spit out 3”dia. roots and lesser debris at me. Now that it has been tilled a few times, it’s more of a dance now than the first time. My homepage tells all.
Over here Overtaxed...
Wow! Thanks for explaining that, ApplegateRanch! You are actually running a serious farming operation! Those are important skills you have shared.
I can easily see how once you have improved an area it becomes easier to maintain it. Last summer I did a lot of work clearing the patch where the bulbs we planted last year are growing and where the okra and sunflowers have landed this year. So in my very small way, I also enlarged what I had from last year by about a foot. Much easier!
It may look peculiar, but we are going to have some lilies, a cana, some marigolds, okra and sunflowers together! LOL! And right beside them are the rose bushes! (Two of our bushes are just covered with beautiful red blooms right now!)
Also, in working with mixing the soil for the pots this year, I’m seeing how the soil amendments work. I’m using our soil from our yard, which is actually a beautiful black soil. But it has a lot of clay in it. The garden soil from Walmart and some vermiculite mixed in have lightened it up considerably.
Darlin’ is laughing at how pot-hungry I’ve become. “But I want another LARGE pot!”
I have not sought yet to attempt composting, but I’ve done a lot of reading about it. Perhaps as I gain in confidence, I’ll start trying it. Perhaps I can start one in the next several months.
Speaking of confidence, I’m gaining a little of that with the soggy tomatoes I repotted a few days ago. They are starting to green up a bit now and perhaps they will begin thriving.
However, I have zero confidence when it comes to parsley. If we are ever forced to survive on my gardening skills, I know I can grow sunflowers, and oregano and thyme and dill, and believe I can grow tomatoes, okra, beans and squash, ...but I fear I will need to get someone else to grow the parsley!
I tried to start it in seed cups, in a sprout tray, and outside in the dirt. I’ve tried different envelopes of seeds. Nothing. So it seems at least for now, I am not fated to be a great parsley grower. But I hate leaving it at that. Maybe I’ll try just one more time....”DARLIN’I NEED ANOTHER POT!!”
Thanks again for posting about your gardening friends!
We manage to pretty much fill our larder, and give some to friends & the local food bank, but this is the first year we'll (hopefully) have any produce to sell.
And even if that works out to the wildest dreams, it wouldn't fully cover our gardening expenses for the year. OTOH, that doesn't count the money NOT spent at the grocery store.
That is one reason we keep expanding the perennials & fruits: less long-run work, no real recurring costs, and more food we like that tends to be higher priced at the store due to short seasons and/or long shipping distances.
Of course, there's also the 'trust' factor; we KNOW where this comes from, and how it's grown.
Other plantings are to cut down on the costs of chicken & rabbit feed; and the corn we feed the wild turkeys: we feed them; they feed us.
We were fortunate as well to have missed out on the worst of the storms. Not much going on in my garden at the moment aside from watching it grow. I did get some straw down around one row of potatoes, pulled a few weeds, and picked a nice salad for yesterday’s supper.
The tomatoes are starting to bloom, broccoli and cauliflower are making heads, cukes, ambrosia melons, spaghetti squash and okra are up and looking good.
LOL! about the not gainsaying the “parental units!” Most true. It sounds like you are well on your way to fulfilling your dream. I know we all here wish you well with it! You are a shining example of what newbies like me can look towards.
So far, we have elected not to have livestock, but your set up sounds very sensible and efficient. Animals provide the nutrient material for the plants and the plants provide nutrients for the animals, and they all provide nutrients for you! “Circle of Life” as it were.
I like the part of out not having to go as much to the grocery store! I was worrying about which little lettuce plants to thin out, and Darlin’ explained I just need to let them grow a bit and then eat them! LOL! I had thought I would be discarding them on the ground while they are still in the two-leaf stage. It was a revelation. I have become fond of the live bibb lettuce that comes in the hard plastic box. How much fun to think that if all goes well, I can have my own live bibb lettuce!...and spinach,....and well, not yet parsley, although I did cheat and got some that someone else started!
I like your comment about the perennials. I have been so pleased to see the blossoms on the blackberry bushes we planted last year! I can see how that could work out nicely as we add to them a bit, perhaps. Watering and feeding them is a lot less work than planting and replacing all the annuals. But we like the annuals, too, don’t we? Nevertheless the point is well taken. With perennials, in the long run they can become low maintenance with good production compared to other plants. They are sort of an added bonus.
Can’t do without the annuals!
Most thinnings, with some notorious exceptions can be transplanted, if lifted carefully. Probably the easiest is the onion, squash & cole families.
Carrots can’t be transplanted, as even if it survives, the roots are so twisted & forked as to be unusable...except to give to the rabbits or birds, which just isn’t worth the effort. Speaking of which, the carrot tops go to the chickens.
We even use corn thinnings to fill in blank spots in the rows. Water & a bit of shade reduce or eliminate any shock. If it is something like corn, where the seed remains attached to the roots, be careful not to dislodge it.
ALWAYS thin the greens & radishes onto the table, if at all possible. Same with carrots, though all too often they are so crowded that the first thinnings have to go into the compost pile.
Oh wow! Thanks for the discourse on the Theory of Thinning! That is very helpful!
I just got some more pots. They are ones that I purchased from the dollar store way below 1/2 price last fall. Darlin’ and I drilled holes in them and so now they are serviceable.
So far my little asparagus roots have not shown themselves in their trench.
I HAVE A REPORT ON PARSLEY!! I looked at my sprouting tray today and several of the parsley seeds had sprouted! I selected several and potted those with a light scatter over them...watered well. So, maybe I CAN begin to think I’m not hopeless with respect to parsley!
Also potted my little starts of amaranth. The strongest ones are in a large pot, and the others still in the sprouting tray on paper towel, I put next to the fence just to see how they would do on their own. I had some left over dill or parsley and I put them out there too to see what might become of them.
Potted my other black turtle bean sprouts.
When I woke this morning, I was VERY SORE! So I feel like I get a gold star for effort today!
We had a fair rain let night and just that blasted Oregon Mist today. We went for a drive to take some photos then I checked on the health of the snails and slugs when we got home but didn’t wee any... yet
LOL!!! wee = see
XOXOXOXOXOXO
I do hope your banana slug population is safe! If they are ailing, I understand that a teaspoon of salt usually perks them right up. ;-’)
We had what was very reminiscent of Oregon mist yesterday morning, last night and again this morning; but this evening the two main ice cores of a severe thunderstorm went past on opposite sides of the ranch.
Since we’re in town at friends, where it also went by on each side with only minor hail and lots (radar estimates 1.25 - 2+”) of rain, we’re hopeful the garden & fruit trees are okay. All we could do was watch the radar, while the small hail was bouncing around their yard.
Other places under the main cores got golf ball sized hail & 50+ MPH winds. Luckily, that is mainly grazing lands or national forest/national grasslands. Yesterday, tennis ball sized hail 50-60 miles north of us killed a bunch of lambs, and injured other livestock, as well as doing extensive property damage.
I just that when I watered yesterday, it was equivalent to doing a naked rain dance.
Pretty butterflys seem to like it too. 
ROFL with great gusto and delight! THANKS FOR THE GOLD STAR!! *giggle*
“ALWAYS thin the greens & radishes onto the table, if at all possible. Same with carrots,”
And here’s another revelation you gave me, and I’d like to confirm: do we eat the radish and carrot greens?
Parsley didn’t grow the first year I tried it. Last year it was okay. I even left some to grow in the winter garden and had several harvests winter and spring.
Dill on the other hand - still have not sprouted outside.
However, I do have a pot growing now indoors - at least I think that’s what it is. Forgot to label it.
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