My garden is basically a huge PIB !!!

[Chuck52]

And my wife wonders why I come in late in the afternoon grumbling under my breath "Frickin garden is more bother than it's worth".

I feel your pain. But, for whatever reason, we come back every year.

I can live with th eweeds and four legged creatures ... I can manage to keep them out mostly. However, the BIRDS are killing me. They eat my watermellon.

MoKelly[/QUOTE]

The birds get my apples and peaches, but so far they haven't bothered the vegetable garden. I think you need to kill all the birds in your area to keep them from spreading that knowledge! Maybe they are GMO birds created by Monsanto so they can sell GMO vegetables that are resistant to the GMO birds!

Chuck

 

[JDgreen227]

I feel your pain. But, for whatever reason, we come back every year.

I can live with th eweeds and four legged creatures ... I can manage to keep them out mostly. However, the BIRDS are killing me. They eat my watermellon.

MoKelly

The birds get my apples and peaches, but so far they haven't bothered the vegetable garden. I think you need to kill all the birds in your area to keep them from spreading that knowledge! Maybe they are GMO birds created by Monsanto so they can sell GMO vegetables that are resistant to the GMO birds!

Chuck[/QUOTE]

What I need to take care of the furred and feathered critters is one of these guys on every post top, 24/7....

 

[Car Doc]

I cuss the weeds and grass and birds pecking my tomatoes and the worms eating my corn and rabbits chewing up my peppers but I come back next year and do it again there has to be a lesson in here somewhere?

 

[lockhaven]

about the deer fence, I read an article a few years ago that Penn State had done a study for deer fence and found that taking an electric fence and leaning the posts out worked well. They said the deer always try and go under a fence first by leaning it out they duck the first strand but get zapped by the second. I also saw a fence made from rails designed to keep elk out again the fence leaned out, They must not be smart enough to know they could jump it and keep trying to go under. Biggest problem I have is with the bears they just don't give a rats behind.

 

[Western]

I have 2 volunteer Watermelons that are growing darn good out the back door where I had some dozer work done. The deer have got within 30' eating anything they can find, my wifes Sunflower patch is gone and the surrounding weeds even (been so dry) and of course all the little deer tracks.

I have vowed to make a stand and protect my melon plants, short of out of season "hardware" I moved the dogs fence closer ,so now I have a "early warning" system:laughing: So far so good.

 

[Deere Dude]

I think I have a bunch of $64 tomatoes, but I can't complain to much. I have a $30,000 petunia trans-planter. :laughing::laughing:

 

[dooleysm]

This sounds alot like the rant I unleashed on my wife the other night. Between the torrential rains followed by weeks of drought, my garden is a mess. The stuff that does come up is swamped by weeds by the time it dries out enough to get in the garden to till and hoe. Then everything dries out and dies. I don't get how I can till a patch, plant beans, keep it all hoed and tilled for a month, then take a week off and the weeds are twice as tall as the beans.

But as someone else said, come February, I'll be itching to be back out there at it again!

 

[JDgreen227]

I think I have a bunch of $64 tomatoes, but I can't complain to much. I have a $30,000 petunia trans-planter. :laughing::laughing:

GOOD ONE...:laughing:

As long as you didn't spend the 30 grand JUST to transplant petunias, you are doing just fine.

And for what it is worth, I just logged out of Ebay, purchased a copy of that book "The $64 Tomatoe"....

After spending $500 plus for that fence, and a lot more on landscape fabric, sets, seeds, etc, I figured $5 for a gardening book was easy to justify. As my brother loves to say, "what's a few more dollars...." :laughing:

 

[JDgreen227]

I cuss the weeds and grass and birds pecking my tomatoes and the worms eating my corn and rabbits chewing up my peppers but I come back next year and do it again there has to be a lesson in here somewhere?

You are in the same situation I am...when spring planting season arrives your memory is so bad you cannot remember what was so discouraging about your gardening LAST SPRING.

Join the club....:laughing:

 

[Car Doc]

You are in the same situation I am...when spring planting season arrives your memory is so bad you cannot remember what was so discouraging about your gardening LAST SPRING.

Join the club....:laughing:

Yeah maybe its CRS syndrome getting to us a little or just age I dunno!

I know what it is we get to do some tractoring yeah thats it!!!

 

[RobertN]

I don't know how much we have in to the garden, dont want to.

But, when we have fresh tomatoes it is sooooo nice! Those store bought things just do not have the flavor. Same for fresh asparagus.

 

[Kep]

I take a different approach to wildlife, I figure if I plant way more than enough they can't get it all..

 

[JDgreen227]

I take a different approach to wildlife, I figure if I plant way more than enough they can't get it all..

You, sir, are very forgiving and generous compared to the majority of us. I would personally LOVE to share with the wildlife, and not have to deal with a fence or other barrier to their feeding.

HOWEVER, with all the work and expense I go to in order to have a harvest, I begrudge them anything. The wildlife doesn't till anything, buy anything, plant anything, spray anything, weed anything, water anything...to let them share in the fruit of my labors reminds me of the parable: "The Grasshopper and the Ant"....

 

[jonyyuma]

I am forced to donate Canalope and Bananalope, some watermelons, to nearly all animals...I plant a lot extra for shrinkage. Extra corn for deer and raccoons......so no it is not cost effective, but the taste of fresh food is Priceless...

 

[JDgreen227]

I am forced to donate Canalope and Bananalope, some watermelons, to nearly all animals...I plant a lot extra for shrinkage. Extra corn for deer and raccoons......so no it is not cost effective, but the taste of fresh food is Priceless...

Maybe one of the TBN memebrs can author a new book...instead of "The $64 Tomatoe", they can title it:

"The $165 Watermelon"....:laughing:

 

[Gods Country]

I gave up veggie gardening 7yrs ago when I moved to my present location
because it had become a giant time consuming PITA. I knew some day I would get drawn back into it and this was the year. Keeping it simple though.
If it grows much beyond 500sq ft just shoot me please.:laughing:

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

Last year was our first try at a veggie garden. I knew going into it that even if it was successfull we could buy the same amount of veggies for half the money we where putting into this garden. But I was okay with it seeing as how this is "our" project together. The wife had all sorts of plans for growing lots of different stuff. The weather didn't cooperate and we lost a lot of it.
This year, we kept it simpler - more rows of the the stuff that we realy wanted but the list is only a handfull of items. We knew we had some animals eating some things, so I tried to just plant more to feed them and us well enough.
So far the bugs ate the heck outta one row of the beans, but Sevin took care of that and they're coming back fine - other 2 rows are bigger / better looking. The corn is up fairly well, tomatoes and potatoes look great, too.
We have yet to tackle the critter problem very much - tried some "home remedies" to keep them out like dryer sheets staked around the outside and putting hair brushed off the dogs on the ground around the garden to ward off the rabbits and deer.
Seems like the deer completely decimated the strawberrys, too. I think they are eating the blossoms so no fruit grows. I think we got one berry worth eating.....after trying to establish the plants last year (no fruit) and still nothing this year, I'm ready to plow them under.....
After the back breaking manual work and subsequent failure of last year, I wanted to get some better equipment to hopefully handle the work quickly and easily -- so now that I spent 3500 on that stuff, I guess my tomatoes will be in the range of 75 or 80 bucks each!:laughing:

 

[Western]

It is comical to read everyone's post on their garden:laughing: " Cost a fortune" and the like, but we still do it.:thumbsup:

I usually have family members ask in Feb, "are you going to have another garden this year?" "we love getting veggies from you" Yeah right!! after about 3 times, they run when they see you coming with a sac!! Which is weird, they complain about store prices and get burned out getting veggies for free!

Oh, here is what I found in the Boss's flower garden yesterday, she said she has tried everything else in that spot sooooo

 

[charlz]

Our garden is fallow this year. I had great plans, weeded, planted dozens and dozens of seeds for transplants, did it early, etc.

The some family issues popped up and no garden.

Doesn't have to be a total waste, sounds like a good year to do a couple of green manure crops. Buckwheat, wheat etc. just till it before it goes to seed and then start a fresh planting.

 

[charlz]

We have had such a cool, wet spring I just got to plant most of the garden about a week ago. Potatoes I put in early and about half rotted in the ground from being too wet. Just getting to nice hot weather now where everything is taking off, including the weeds. I'll be getting my own muttering in soon enough