Jim Inman's (jinman) Garden - 2007

[Chuck52]

Yellow squash makes a really nice relish, using a pickle that's much like bread and butter pickles. It's great on hot dogs, sandwiches and as a condiment with beans. If you like it hot, add some peppers to taste. Red peppers added to the nice yellow relish even makes the jars pretty....if you're into that non-manly stuff, that is. Otherwise, add the peppers to make it so hot you get to show off by eating it.

Chuck

 

[JC-jetro]

JC, your tomatoes are looking great too. Are those cattle panel sections self-supporting by the legs pushed into the ground? That's the only thing I would question about your method. When the wind blows here, my cages often lean over if I don't have them anchored well. You probably have a method for controlling this, but I'm sure you get some wind in your area too.

Jim,

I have cut the horizontal member out of the bottom of the panel sections. That gave me 3 legs that I was able to drive into ground good 5 inches using a rubber mallet. You may be able to see the some rust on the leg due to time they spent in the ground. Once I make my triangle or square shape cage then I tie them up very simply on corners and that's all. it can hold in place a lot of racking force and I never had them bend or sway. At the farm , since I did not have enough panels and not ready to invest yet in another several hundred dollars I used one panel per plant as test case. I have not pushed them in the ground since I'm planning to reuse my earth fabric for several more years and trying to avoid many holes or cuts in the fabric. I have attached each to one rebar that is pushed in the ground good 18 inches. It sways a bit but it is not going to slump over. I'm going to give it a try this season if not successful then I shell out the dough and go back to my proven method. I may even borrow your 4" tall fencing method to make cages but I'm a bit concerned with the storage. My method stacks up neatly and sure maintains their geometry for a Long time.

Ray, such a marvelous garden. My hat is off to you. great job

 

[TBDonnelly]

Wow! Ray, you and Don are running a good race for the prettiest garden awards.

Jim, You are my inspiration! Ray's got some great garden concept's going. JC is the tomato cage (and baked goods) guru.

My dad retired from tool and die grinding after 42 years. We practically measured the distance between lettuce seeds with a micrometer.

Don

 

[jinman]

At the farm , since I did not have enough panels and not ready to invest yet in another several hundred dollars I used one panel per plant as test case.

JC, I tried to go back and edit my post about your cages at the farm, but for some reason once I posted the edit, I could not save it. The button would not work. The "smilies" over on the right would not work either.

Anyway, I think your panels and t-posts will be fine. I would say you could put field fencing on the t-posts all the way to the top and just leave a 12" or larger gap at the bottom because you don't need support there anyhow. It would also allow room for mulching after-the-fact. If I plant as many tomatoes next year, I'll probably use that method. Building over 50 cages is work even when the materials are free. I can't imagine buying enough cattle panels to cage all 95 of your plants with a triangular cage.

My wife noticed you watering buckets over your squash plants (it is squash, isn't it?). I have become really spoiled by having our well so close to the garden that a couple of long hoses can do the trick for us.

Ray and Chuck, your recipes for pancakes and relish sound like something I'd love to do. Both ideas take work and preparation up front, but you have quick meals later. Great ideas!

We are just looking for more freezer space. Our chest freezer and two upright refrigerators are full. We have another upright freezer in storage that we may have to press into service.

 

[JC-jetro]

JC, I tried to go back and edit my post about your cages at the farm, but for some reason once I posted the edit, I could not save it. The button would not work. The "smilies" over on the right would not work either.

Anyway, I think your panels and t-posts will be fine. I would say you could put field fencing on the t-posts all the way to the top and just leave a 12" or larger gap at the bottom because you don't need support there anyhow. It would also allow room for mulching after-the-fact. If I plant as many tomatoes next year, I'll probably use that method. Building over 50 cages is work even when the materials are free. I can't imagine buying enough cattle panels to cage all 95 of your plants with a triangular cage.

My wife noticed you watering buckets over your squash plants (it is squash, isn't it?). I have become really spoiled by having our well so close to the garden that a couple of long hoses can do the trick for us.

.

Jim,

I think you have a finite amount of time to edit your post. when The time comes up it will permanently be saved in data base. it makes Database housekeeping a bit easier. My sentiment is the same as far as building 95 cages. I actually was even going a bit further with your idea of putting field
fencing between the t-post. I was thinking for to put two T-post spaced apart say 18", continue that on 10 foot centers as long as my row and then put field fencing on both sides effectively supporting the tomato branch on both side removing the need for tying them. It'll look sort of parallel fence 18" apart with tomatoes in between. I still thinks that is a lot of work. I hope my single rebar experiment work %60 good and I'll be happy. I have 130 of the rebars trimmed to 5 ft stakes and they will out last me for sure
The bucket that I have serve as a rain gage as I live 12 miles away from our so called farm, I can give a bit of emergency water to very needy plants and I can go to the creek to fetch water with my carry all. I have couple of 30 gall Poly tank that I can strap to to my carry all and I think at least I can fill them 3/4 full and still be able to lift with my 3 point. I have to buy a gas driven pace pump to pump the water to the tank and from the tank to the tomatoes. Yikes .. a lot of work...

If I had to do this farming business for living then I would be ina world of hurt and operating in red in nothing flat, Them tomatoes will cost me an arm and a leg if I manage to harvest some.

I do have some pumpkin, water melons and casaba melons along the fence and also at the end of the garden. They are fending for themselves battling the weeds. I'm wondering who will win the war. Thing would have been easier if we lived on our acreage... maybe down the road we will.

JC

By the way , I'm glad for you having the watering business licked For me,I got to earn anything I do on the face of this earth but I reckon I'm up to challenge.

 

[Chuck52]

Tomato cages or supports are one of the things I always have trouble with. Like JC, I've got some rebar I use, but now that I've seen the light about proper mulching, I prefer cages of some sort because there's no tying needed. On the other hand, if you make cages, as JC points out, they can be a bear to store. I've got 20 or so made from concrete screen and I stack them in my barn during the off season. They of course grab each other and make it interesting to separate them for use, plus taking up a lot of space. A buddy of mine used to use a zig-zag arrangement he made from the concrete screen that folded neatly. He used short sections of the wire, tied together, and would set it up in the zig-zag and plant in the corners. It was self-supporting, and also minimized the tying. If you have the screen it can be a good way to go, but the screen, rebar, and cattle panels have all gone up in price. I saw some "ultimate tomato cages" for over $15 @ at a local nursery!

Chuck

 

[jinman]

I saw some "ultimate tomato cages" for over $15 @ at a local nursery!

If I could build and sell tomato cages for $15 each, I'd call them "Ultimate" too, wouldn't you?

 

[Chuck52]

The nursey I saw them in caters to the city crowd, with generally over priced flowers, trees and shrubs. I suspect those are the folks who buy single tomato plants for their little gardens and don't see any problem paying $15 for a cage for it. Probably amounts to a pretty fair market for that nursery, but I'm not a potential customer since I'd be spending about $600 for tomato cages. I've got about 15 cattle panels I will be retiring as soon as I get a permanent fence around my garden, so I'll have raw materials for quite a few supports of various designs. Some I'll keep intact as supports for peas, cucmbers and such, but I'll be thinking about ways to make tomato supports which can be stored easily. I'm using one in the garden now to support about six tomatoes, but I still have to tie the plants to it and I'd rather not have to bother with that. I might try a zig-zag of pieces next year to see how that goes. Should be easier to do any required tying if the plants are already in a corner.

Chuck

 

[txdon]

Jim, I have okra! Baby okra are in the yard! I once called it my garden before I gave up on weeding and now just mow the extended "yard".

I did a survey and both people said they would rather clean a pool than weed a garden.

My experiment with the two corn gardens failed miserably. The raccoons devoured both the day before I was going to pick my first corn. Now 6 rows of corn are gone and some fat raccoons are laughing somewhere.

 

[jinman]

Jim, I have okra! Baby okra are in the yard!

Okay...you had me going there for a second, Don.

Did you know that raccoons can read maps? I left a map to your place in my corn patch last year and the 'coons made it to your place just in time for this year's ripe ears.