Garden time...Oh boy!

[jinman]

I'm in shock. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I came home last night and every row of blackeye peas had hundreds of plants coming up. They were over 1" tall. My wife and I both swear there were no plants there on Thursday night. Also I have 12 hills of watermelons sprouting and some canteloupes, okra, and corn starting to break the surface. All this in less than one week. I can't believe it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Cliff and Mike: Both your methods will work, but I don't think I want to buy landscape cloth for a 150' x 100' garden. There's something about putting down that many old shingles and picking them up that seems like more work than weeding too. For a small garden, either method would work, but this is enough for 150 squares of new shingles and I can't imagine digging through that many old shingles. I already have everything I need to make loads of chips and I can till that in to make the garden better each year. Only where I put the sand do I think weeds will be a real problem. We'll see.

Gotta go move the soaker hoses and build fence. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[RonR]

OK Jinman--posts some pics of this garden.

I envy your garden space!

Have fun,
ron

 

[txdon]

<font color="blue"> "I also have three watermelon hills with plants emerging." </font>

Mmmmm, sounds like the Fourth of July watermelons will be home grown. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[gsganzer]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I'm in shock. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I came home last night and every row of blackeye peas had hundreds of plants coming up. They were over 1" tall. My wife and I both swear there were no plants there on Thursday night. )</font>

Jim,
You better keep a close eye on what you planted, women can be kind of sneeky.

My father-in-law planted a garden one time that had a few rows of carrots and radishes. He only had the seeds in the ground for a few weeks. He got home from work one night and strolled out to the garden to inspect his crops.

What a surpise. When he checked the carrots, the tops were HUGE. So he pulled one up and discovered he had the most perfect carrots he had ever seen. Astonished, he walked over to the radishes and discovered the same thing. In the course of a few weeks, he had grown the most beautiful carrots and radishes. He called for his wife and kids so he could show off his bounty. That's when he realized the joke was on him. My mother-in-law had gone to the grocery store and bought the carrots and radishes that still had the tops. They stuck them in the ground and made him believe he'd grown them in mere weeks. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( You better keep a close eye on what you planted, women can be kind of sneeky. )</font>

Naw!... They wouldn't do anything behind your back would they? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

That was both a funny and cruel story about your FIL, but I don't think my wife would go to all this trouble. Here's a picture of my blackeye peas at 7-1/2 days since planting. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jinman]

...and corn.

 

[jinman]

...and watermelons.

 

[jinman]

The only things not up are the onions I planted from seed and bell peppers also from seed. My squash and okra are popping out of the ground too.

The last picture for today is the tomatoes I replanted only about 4 days ago. I dug a hole as deep as the shovel is long (10") and buried the tomato plants. As you can see from this picture, they have jumped up 3 or 4 inches in 3 or 4 days. I'm amazed. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I know the ground was prepared right and we've watered religiously, but I'm shocked at what all my plants are doing. Heck, I already thinned my radishes this weekend. Turnips are next. I've got my fingers crossed that things continue. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[MarkV]

Jim, looks like things are coming along real well. We planted our garden last Thursday and I noticed the first black eyed pea sprout popping through the ground last night. Hopefully they will all come up as well as your have. Our lettuce has been in for a month and I think we will have our first salad later this week.

It sure is fun when the garden starts to come up and then when the weeds become a chore you start to wonder how much fun it really is. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

MarkV

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( It sure is fun when the garden starts to come up and then when the weeds become a chore you start to wonder how much fun it really is.
)</font>

I'm worried about heat stress for the young plants. It's supposed to be 98° here today and also in the 90s tomorrow. Yesterday, I think it was 95°. Plants without a well-established root system really wilt during the heat of the day. So far, my tomatoes seem to love the heat, but the peppers and squash plants I set out seem to enjoy a little drink mid-afternoon. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

Jim, the heat won't hurt them at all as long as they have enough water.

 

[RobJ]

Here is what I have after 4 weeks. The red potatoes love it here. The corn is doing ok. Not much rain since planting so this weekend I cranked up the pump and watered from the pond. Usually 3 hours watering in each zone. I'm goinging on a smaller scale this year. Also planted some more corn just in case.

You can also see my weed friends coming up. I knocked them down after this pic.

 

[jinman]

Rob, that sure looks like good soil for potatoes. We used to grow them in a place that had sand about 4 feet deep. Watermelons loved that sand too...and careless weeds, and bermuda grass, and.... /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Bird: We've given the stuff plenty of water. The first inch is dry on our gage, but below that everything looks wet. If the tomatoes keep growing like they are, they'll be a foot tall by next weekend. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[HEC]

Nice looking garden Jim , it will be quite awhile before I can get mine in up here in Maine.I have planted a few tomato seeds in the house to get a head start on things , that way I can get the different varieties I like.I plant mine deep also it seems to work fine for me. Your tiller did a fine job of breaking up that new sod , you would have had a hard time to get it like that with a dics harrow for sure.I would like to have some sand on my property like yours.I know what you mean about gardens in our younger years,what a drag that was,now I love it.I grow way more than I need , just give it away.
Enjoy,
Herb

 

[gsganzer]

I found some un-opened pumpkin seeds from last year. When are you supposed to plant pumpkins? These are the giant, goliath, get the front end loader variety.

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I found some un-opened pumpkin seeds from last year. When are you supposed to plant pumpkins? These are the giant, goliath, get the front end loader variety. )</font>

I believe they advertise those as needing 120 days to mature. If I were planting those, I'd back up 4-1/2 to 5 months from the date I wanted to pick them. Probably anytime in May would be good.

But hey...I'm the guy who didn't plant tomatoes right, so I'm not a recommeded source of planting info. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[jinman]

Oh yes! One other thing. Sometimes I get busy with projects and forget to take pictures. That's the case on a little side project at the garden area. We needed to move the driveway across the barrow ditch before we put up the fence. There's an exisiting corner post near one end of the fence and rather than having to put in two gate posts, I want to run a continuous fence up to a single post and then put in the gate to the corner post. The existing driveway across the ditch was out of place and had a 6" diameter fiberglass pipe. What some folks get away with for culvert amazes me. I had an old 12" culvert and decided to dig up the old culvert and replace it at the new driveway location to the garden.

Here's a couple of shots of the finished project. It only took a little over 1 hour to do, start to finish.

 

[BB_TX]

As Jim said, check the time to maturity if the package has it on it. I bought some pumpkin seed last year from the feed store in a generic package (no info on time to mature) and planted them end of July/1st of Aug. First time I ever tried them. They matured just in time for the grandkids to pick them about a week before Halloween. Smaller variety though, more like the size you get in grocery stores.

 

[jinman]

Different view.

 

[flusher]

Re: chicken wire

I decided to try my hand this year at no-till, weedless gardening. Got four 3'x30' beds prepared starting last month.

Decided to use 2'-high poultry netting around each bed. The kicker is that the fencing has to be removable to work on the plants. Solution: use 1/2" PVC pipe and fittings as a frame for the wire and 3/8" rebar stakes to hold the sections in place. Don't have deer around here, but there are a few rabbits and some gophers (soon to be eradicated). Hope 2 feet is high enough, but can always add more sections to raise the fence.