Garden Time, JINMAN ??????

[jinman]

I'm wanting to get up there next weekend real bad, my grapple will be here but we have family coming in for Mother's day. Whadda ya gonna do?

...and my stepson's fiancee is graduating from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls next Saturday. That celebration will probably go late into the evening.

 

[jinman]

MarkV: I think we would have had a hard time being any earlier with our start of the garden. Since it was so hot and dry here last year, we got everything in as quickly as possible. My wife and I were sitting in the shade yesterday and joking about how nice it was out of the sun and how unbearable it will be even in the shade in mid-July.

Bird: The red-skinned potatoes all came from under the hay. I was amazed at how clean they were when I pulled the hay aside and picked up the potatoes.

Last night Kathy and I were talking about the difference in taste between the red and white potatoes. She said she could actually taste the difference, and I said all I could taste was that they were both good. I haven't grown any potatoes since I was about 15 years old or younger, so this is a real treat for me. I'm so excited, I didn't even mind having to dig them by hand.

 

[Bird]

I guess I'm more like you, Jim. I've grown (and bought) both white and red potatoes and like both. I'm pretty confident that I would not be able to tell them apart by taste.

As for digging them, I've done a fair amount of that by hand, too, but a middle buster is sure quick and easy.

 

[BB_TX]

Bird: The red-skinned potatoes all came from under the hay. I was amazed at how clean they were when I pulled the hay aside and picked up the potatoes.

Interesting Jim. Do the plant roots grow into the soil, but the potatos grow on top of the soil but under the hay?

 

[jinman]

Interesting Jim. Do the plant roots grow into the soil, but the potatos grow on top of the soil but under the hay?

Bill, most of them were laying on top of the ground or within the first couple of inches of hay. They were completely clean. The next time I go get some, I'll try to take a picture to demonstrate (should have done it this time... ). There were a few potatoes actually buried in the soil, but only 1/2 to 1/3 buried. I thinks it's because potatoes are tubers instead of roots. there are roots, but the tubers are distinctly different and have a large "umbilical" attached to the main stem. I thinks that's because the tubers are storing food rather than supplying nourisment like the roots do. Sounds good anyhow...

 

[JC-jetro]

Here are some more photos with descriptive titles.

Jim,

Your garden looks fantastic. Congrats but I'm a just a wee bit envious
By the way , How do you mound you hills (furrows)? Do you use middle buster and make the furrows after you till? if so how about the tire tracks? can you keep the tire tracks in between each raised row? Ding it manually by a back hoe seems like too much work.

Thanks,
Jetro

 

[jinman]

Jim,

By the way , How do you mound you hills (furrows)? Do you use middle buster and make the furrows after you till? if so how about the tire tracks? can you keep the tire tracks in between each raised row? Ding it manually by a back hoe seems like too much work.

Jetro, I used a two bottom plow early last year to break up native soil in my garden and I don't have any pictures of that. However, after I broke up the soil, I purchased a 6' KK tiller like yours and tilled the garden spot and added sand in one area from a creek bottom. I then followed with an old Dearborn row cultivator to lay out the rows and make raised beds for planting. See photos...

It's funny that when I was a kid, we planted down in the furrow, but now I plant on top of the furrow like a raised bed and then I use my little gas powered garden tiller to pull the dirt up around the plants and keep the furrows for irrigation. This year's bean crop from the pictures I posted yesterday are an example. For tomatoes, watermelons, and squash, I make hills with the gas tiller and/or a hoe and four tine cultivating fork. For weed control, I use the gas tiller almost exclusively until the plants become so large they would be damaged, then I just use a regular hoe or pull weeds.

I do have a sub-soiler and I also have a middle-buster for my Dearborn cultivator (made from an old horse-drawn middle buster and welded up to fit the Dearborn). I use it dig ditches and layout deep furrows, but I haven't used it much for gardening. I'd use it to dig my potatoes, but my rows are so close together I think I'll just use my loader to dig two rows at a time. If I tried to use the middle buster, I'd bruise potatoes near the surface with my wheels when I drove over them.


2-cycle gasoline tiller:

 

[JC-jetro]

Jetro, I used a two bottom plow early last year to break up native soil in my garden and I don't have any pictures of that. However, after I broke up the soil, I purchased a 6' KK tiller like yours and tilled the garden spot and added sand in one area from a creek bottom. I then followed with an old Dearborn row cultivator to lay out the rows and make raised beds for planting. See photos...

Jim , That was a lot of great info as I go from raised bed of 6'x6' to 12'x6" in town to bit of a bigger operation on my so called ranch. I do have 5.5 hp front tine tiller and a 2 Hp 4 cycle Honda tiller at home, but I hardly ever used it as a cultivation. I alway lay out newspaper and grass clipping to smother weeds and hardly ever have weeds to pull out. it is a different case with my herb patch as I can not mulch for obvious reasons. In the same time I can not cultivate the herbs as I would destroy good with the bad and am forced to pulling them pesky weeds by hand . I also bought a two row kk cultivator but quickly will run in to traction problem as I have turf tires. As you have seen I mulch my tomatoes with a beefy weed barrier that removes the need of cultivation but I will take my little Honda tiller for cultivation outside of the mulched area in my tomato patch later on. I need to emulate some of your methods in bigger patches. I tilled out 3 areas between 1/4 to 1/3 acres and put fence around to make a deer food plot. I reckon the deer will jump the fence but cows can not. I'm planning to make a "deer pub" so they can congregate there and have some "social lick happt hour... salt that is" and a few snacks to go with it. Hopefully during deer season I can intercept a few of them.

again , thanks a lot for all the good info and pictures to back it up.

Jetro

 

[randy41]

we've had a light frost here for the last 2 nights. i hope that will be it until the fall.

 

[jinman]

we've had a light frost here for the last 2 nights. i hope that will be it until the fall.

Randy, our last frost was on April 7th, so yesterday was only one month after that. Your garden would be in the same growth stage as ours within a month. Good luck!

...oh yes. I picked a handfull of bush beans yesterday and the peas will also be ready by this weekend. It's starting....

 

[TBDonnelly]

The last pictures I posted were April 5, past time for an update. A minor upgrade to the garden layout has kept me very busy. I'm not sure how, but it's turning out to be an extreme garden makeover.

First picture is what transpired right after planting in the greenhouse first week in April.

Second picture shows the inside dirt temperature above the waterbed heating pad I 'planted' last fall. I'm still experimenting with watering time frames etc. The temperatures dropped below freezing several nights. I had the water coming on every 2 hours for 5 minutes just so the water line would not freeze.

I can't take credit for all the plants. A local professional grower got started way before me. I supplemented my 'house' soon as they opened there doors. The lettuce, onions and especially the zucchini have taken off. The tomatoes & cucumbers were slower but are now catching up.

Yesterday high was 87 while today it's only in the upper 50's. Frost warning's (Southeast MIchigan)were out two nights ago.

We're going from a circular garden to a larger square garden. Kinda like going from a medium round pizza shape to a square deep dish sicilian. The round shape started several years ago and centered around a tree stump and worked perfectly with a round sprinkler head. We're incorporating raised beds and will be experimenting with some vertical gardening as well.

A few pictures attached.....

Don

 

[jinman]

Don, those raised beds sure look good. They're small compared to what I plant, but I've looked at the Noble Foundation site and they have much bigger beds. Of course, if I go to big raised/covered beds, what am I going to do with my tractor and tiller?

The veggies look very healthy. Will you have room for all your tomato plants? Is overcrowding a possibility. I always want to plant things too close together, but my tomato and squash plants are huge. In two weeks, they have gone from tiny little plants around 1' high to 3' high and wide with 3/4" diameter vines. Space really becomes used up quickly as plants grow.

I can't wait to see how all your raised beds turn out. That just looks like a terrific way for me to have a winter garden down here in our mild winters. I'm living vicariously in your experiments. Are you saying that you are also planting in normal ground-level beds?

Yesterday was our warmest day in a long time. It got up to the high 80s here and then plummeted down into the 60s overnight. I just can't imagine more perfect growing weather.

I've got to take a few more pictures of our garden and post them. We've picked over 5 lb of green beans so far and we'll pick English peas tonight. Most of our onions are 1' to 1-1/2' diameter and squash is starting to pile up. I guess we have 10-15 lb in the fridge and we'll pick another 10 lb tonight. I'm going to take a basket of stuff to my daughter tomorrow: turnips, beans, peas, squash, onions, and new potatoes. It won't be long now until the tomatoes will be ready too.

 

[schmism]

so what do you do with all your veggies? you have a stand or frequent the local farmers market?

 

[jinman]

so what do you do with all your veggies? you have a stand or frequent the local farmers market?

Let's see...
Family,
Friends,
Neighbors,
Co-workers,
and any TBNers who drop by.

I never expected to have all this stuff grow and make as much as it has. My timing was perfect and the weather has been spectacular this year. ...just lucky.

 

[JC-jetro]

Let's see...
Family,
Friends,
Neighbors,
Co-workers,
and any TBNers who drop by.

I never expected to have all this stuff grow and make as much as it has. My timing was perfect and the weather has been spectacular this year. ...just lucky.

Sounds great. You know there always are moochers around. I bake bread a lot (not at all ashamed to admit it) and am planning when I retire to supply weekly bread to my four boys, their wives and grand kids, but not at all in hurry to get there.

By the way I'm elated to inform that out of 95 tomato plants I planted every single one survived and they all look good. They are not as tall as your tomato plants but they have the darkest green foliage due to plenty of sunshine. At my garden in town they look a bit anemic due to lack of adequate sun.

 

[Bird]

I bake bread a lot (not at all ashamed to admit it)

I used to bake sourdough bread every once in awhile with a recipe I got from the Alaska magazine. I kept my starter in the refrigerator when not being used, but put it in the oven (gas range with a pilot light) to warm and work when I wanted to make bread. I've lost the recipe, but think I remember it well enough to get started again. The problem is that the pilot light in the gas range made the temperature right and now we have a total electric home so I'm not sure about a warm enough place, without being too hot, to set out starter when I want to make bread.

Do you make sourdough bread and have a solution for my problem?

 

[KaiB]

Bird, I make a few loaves every other weekend or so.

PM me and I'll send starter your way. Room temp is fine; you can mess around with different stages, fridge overnight and resume in the AM...do anything you like with it.

It's bulletproof by design. I like it during the summer 'cause it takes much longer to spoil.

 

[JC-jetro]

Do you make sourdough bread and have a solution for my problem?

Bird,

I don't intend to open up a new chapter for TBN'ers called "how about them breads " but feel oblige to share some. I have got to come out of the closet, not only I work with my engine and tractors and have 26 tool boxes I do enjoy baking and cooking all kind of stuff. making cakes, breads are kind of my passion. everybody at work want me to open up a side business. Unfortunately my last kid is somewhat gluten intolerant (not 100% sure ) that put a bit of a damper on my work. let me know and I send you my starter recipe , although I never follow recipe for anything, I just wing it and let the dough talk to me

Just a sample.

 

[Bird]

That's some good looking bread in those pictures. I'm sending PMs to both of you.

 

[jinman]

Jetro, that bread is so good lookin' I can smell it. Yum!

My wife has taken up breadmaking lately and she even made me some nice rye bread. I love it all and you can tell by my waistline.