2020 gardens

[Industrial Toys]

YUP, another season just about over, Only a few onions waiting to dry up and be pulled out. Then some cow manure, compost, rototill and make nice and smooth. Nice to look out kitchen window and see clean orderly looking garden from fall to spring. Not that we can grow bugger all. Often wonder why we even try. It takes so much work and specific knowledge.

Harvested potaotes on weekend. German Butterball. Lady friend asked if maybe I wanted to go over area with some equipment to make sure we didn't miss any. Got me thinking. Using time, diesel and wear and tear to find three errant potatoes! It's easy to loose track of perspective!

 

[RalphVa]

Discovered the secret to growing okra: dried chicken manure.

Here's a couple photos of my tall okra that has given me quite a few pods so far. The one with the generator top in it is the plot where I could only grow it 2 ft or less tall and almost no pods without the chicken manure. You add the manure after the okra is up a ways. Do not put in soil with the seed. Tried that, and germination was poor.

Ralph

 

[5030]

Cannot stand okra myself. Ranks right in there with eggplant.

So far I've harvested 20 gallons of spuds (various varieties), enough tomatoes for 10 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 10 pints of salsa, enough zucchini to keep my buddy's wife in bread and she sells it at the local stand plus small zukes for us and all my buddies for salad. Enough bell peppers for 10 trays of stuffed green peppers (in the freezer and enough Ambrosia sweet corn for 20, 2 pound bags of stripped kernels, freezer again. Enough cukes for us and all our friends (love cukes with onions in vinegar), 2 5 gallon pails of onions red and white (drying in the barn along with the spuds for the root cellar, and finally a couple cantaloupes (first year I tried them, will plant again next year).

My wife likes to can. I'm a lucky guy plus, we have 2 deep freezers. Still have about 5 gallons of apple cider in the freezer from last fall. Trees made very few apples this year.

Life is always good on the farm.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Bob Dylon, in certain old songs would say otherwise.

 

[5030]

YUP, another season just about over, Only a few onions waiting to dry up and be pulled out. Then some cow manure, compost, rototill and make nice and smooth. Nice to look out kitchen window and see clean orderly looking garden from fall to spring. Not that we can grow bugger all. Often wonder why we even try. It takes so much work and specific knowledge.

Harvested potaotes on weekend. German Butterball. Lady friend asked if maybe I wanted to go over area with some equipment to make sure we didn't miss any. Got me thinking. Using time, diesel and wear and tear to find three errant potatoes! It's easy to loose track of perspective!

I plant all my potatoes in straw bales, above the ground, with old newspaper under the bales, so no weed issue. I quit planting spuds in the ground 2 years ago. Spuds in straw are easy to harvest and they all come out nice and oblong or round (depending on variety). The straw makes excellent mulch for next year as well. Once you go to wheat straw bales, you'll never plant them in the ground again, plus, you can put the bales anywhere, even along your sidewalk.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I LIKE that! Thanks. I would like more details on this.

We planted spuds in an area between two top soil stock piles. I never considered the number of rocks, which many of which strangely turned out to almost identically resemble potatoes!

 

[5030]

I LIKE that! Thanks. I would like more details on this.

We planted spuds in an area between two top soil stock piles. I never considered the number of rocks, which many of which strangely turned out to almost identically resemble potatoes!

Goggle up planting in straw bales. Lots of stuff there to read. Has to be wheat straw bales, not hay bales.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Like I said, gardenting is always so easy until it gets compicated.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I use to grow potatoes every year, but I found a MUCH easier/cheaper way to get them!

I drive over to my potato growing farmer, neighbors place, and put 5 bucks in his self serve box and grab a 40 pound bag of the kind I want,

He also has bags of onions there for the same price...

SR

 

[jonathco]

I use to grow potatoes every year, but I found a MUCH easier/cheaper way to get them!

I drive over to my potato growing farmer, neighbors place, and put 5 bucks in his self serve box and grab a 40 pound bag of the kind I want,

He also has bags of onions there for the same price...

SR

I enjoy growing potatoes and onions, but you are right... a lot of things (spuds and onions included) are quite cheap to buy bulk during harvest season. Nicely done.

 

[oldballs]

I'm finished for this year........got it plowed and hope to dump a layer of raked/shredded leaves on top to till in next spring. I used to plant a Fall Garden, but ain't got enough giddy up to do that anymore....especially with no family here to enjoy the veggies.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Sonny580]

waiting on the last of the pie pumpkins to get ready and a few more tomatoes then IF the ground dries up enough I will plow some of the gardens,---not sure how many, since taking care of them is getting to be a major problem. This cancer thing is making me weak and everything takes 10 times longer to do now. Still gotta have some garden,---just not 5 acres of them!

 

[Industrial Toys]

Some people just make it look so easy. Is it for some, or is that just their thing?

 

[oldballs]

With a recent 1.3" rain and a nice wind, I am burning the brush pile, even the still green tomato vines............Glad to get rid of all that debris for the end of season.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Industrial Toys]

We wacked down the sunflowers last weekend and the Bluejays are enjoying the heads as I write this. Seems they (The Bluejays) did the best out of the 2020 season.

 

[Ford850]

We did get a light shower on Monday evening and the oats and rye are popping up in the clean garden areas. The only plants left are the pole Lima beans and the Asparagus foliage.

 

[oldballs]

We (I) may be old and slow, but we(I) don't have cancer..............Prayers for Sonny580.

Cheers Sonny,
Mike

 

[Sonny580]

Decided to make more tomato juice before everything freezes. We made another 50 quarts of juice and with what we had left from last year should run us til next years crop. We use a lot of canned tomatoes and juice during the winter along with all of the other stuff we canned this year, we are in good shape going into winter as far as food that we put up this summer.
We freeze-dried a lot this year which saves space and is easier to store. Freezers are full and basement shelves are about full so we didnt do bad this year.

 

[Sonny580]

Hauled in 12 dump truck loads of composted (5 years) horse manure and spread it with the new-holland skidloader. That was 1 day of 10 hours to haul it 10 miles one way then the next day I worked 5 hours spreading it and cleaning up around an old pile I had ready to go.
next job IF weather holds here will be to rip then plow and be ready for spring.
do have 8 rows of field corn that was my privacy fence along the road to pick yet. Kinda wanted to use my picker but its in the neighbors shed which is no problem because I can just hook it to one of his old tractors and go!

 

[herm0016]

Season ending event. Its 10 degrees and we have a foot of snow. Haha