2019 Garden

[Support Gunner]

This is our garden this year. Only started doing this last year. This is the second year of the garden. Started out rough but the soil is slowly getting better.

I'm working with a clayish soil. Last fall I chopped up all the fall leaves and spread it around the garden. Left it that way all winter and then tilled it in before we planted. It seemed like it did help the soil out because we are doing way better this year then last.

Here is a full view of it....

The Red Large Cherry tomato plants are getting pretty big....

The spring Peas have pretty much ran their course. We will plant more a week or two before fall....

We are also cramming in large white pumpkins and Crimson Sweet watermelon. We grew the watermelon last year an it was super sweet. Best tasting watermelon I have had. We did grow the pumpkins last year but since it was our first time, we did it to late and didnt get anything from it.

The cucumbers are doing awesome this year...

 

[Support Gunner]

And then......yes there is more. Lol

We have plants growing in pots on the patio.
3 jalapeno pepper plants. 7 Green pepper plants, 3 superbeef steak tomatoe plants, one Big Boy tomato plant, and one lettuce plant that have ran its course and we are letting it go to seed so we can plant more this fall.

Lettuce going to seed....

An my precious jalapeno plants. Lol

First year growing these and have big plans for them. I'm starting to stress the plants out to make them hotter....

So all together we have 83 plants going.

Last year I started a record of produce that we grew to get an idea how well we have improved soil quality. I'll continue to do this until we have the soil we want.

Last year we produced 1,270 total items. The majority of that was cherry tomatoes at 807. I also had the soil tested last year and is amazing we got anything in the first place. Lol

Considering its clayish soil with the ph being at 9.

 

[Support Gunner]

Last year somehow we had 2 rogue cherry tomato plants. One right on the inside of the fence and another one about 6 feet down on the outside of the fence.

This year we have one rogue one right in the middle of the beans.....

Which I dont know how this happens because we start all our plants inside a couple of months before spring, and last year that spot we grew cucumbers.

 

[Support Gunner]

This year we are going to try to save seed from what we grow. Trying to work our way up to were all we have to spend money on is fertilizer and water.

An sooner or later we would like to work our way up to raised beds because picking beans on ground level is for the birds. Lol

Also get a better watering system. Right now we are running the Miracle Grow soaker hose. Its ok and it gets the job done but Im looking for better ways.

 

[Meerkat]

SupportG, that looks great considering only second year. I see you have some clover growing their too ,its good for the soil feeds it nitrogen.

If you run out of leaves or energy try laying some hay down. It turns soil into well conditioned fertile soil. I still rake leaves but in last couple years really liking the hay.

 

[Support Gunner]

Thanks for the information.

I have clover all over my yard. I have been considering hay as well but didn't know how well it would work.

Was also thinking about tilling in wood chips, corn husk and cobs into the ground at the end of the season.

I've been reading that the peas produce nitrogen into the soil as well. An that its good to grow peas around the other plants so they can feed off of the nitrogen.

 

[Support Gunner]

I tried growing strawberries from seed last year but the seeds just never germinated.

 

[Meerkat]

Thanks for the information.

I have clover all over my yard. I have been considering hay as well but didn't know how well it would work.

Was also thinking about tilling in wood chips, corn husk and cobs into the ground at the end of the season.

I've been reading that the peas produce nitrogen into the soil as well. An that its good to grow peas around the other plants so they can feed off of the nitrogen.

Hugelkulture
Discussion in 'Gardening' started by Meerkat, May 1, 2018.
Check out my huglekulture pile here in the Gardening forum that I used hay on. Of course the pile was 3 years old before the hay but it seemed to help. It also looks nice,lol.

 

[Meerkat]

Br careful with the wood chips they are great but take a little while to break down and will lock up some nutrients in the breaking down process. But it will eventually feed the soil it just takes awhile to breakdown.
I learned this in hugel pile.

Pic of our raised bed with hay.

 

[Bacpacker]

Gardens look good Gunner. Thanks for showing us the pics. Not sure what area of the country you live in, but some areas do well with a cover crop over the winter. I grow Annual Rye grass on mine, mow it off in Feburary and turn it under. It breaks down over the spring and summer and really helps build the soil. I do the same with some spots in the summer using bucket wheat. Just be sure and cut/turn it before it goes to seed. (Just ask me how I found that out. LOL)
Personally I prefer straw over hay since you don't introduce grass seed into the garden.
I really like your use of cattle panels to train you maters and such on. I just tried that this year and I'm impressed with the results of the panels. As far as saving seed from your plants, that is something I've been trying to do for years to build my seed stock. I also try new varities of different veggies we like each year to try and find new things that work in our area. We are Zone 7A and have a long growing season. But have found a few things that typically work well much further north that do well here. But it's unlikely other stuff I grow would do well up north. I have been focused on Heirloom seed for several years and found some that work well, have great flavor, etc. But I think next year I'm gonna try some new hybrids and see how that does with production. I just want be able to save my seed.

 

[Support Gunner]

It looks like Im in zone 5B.

Last year we had the cucumbers just laying on the ground. Im really liking the cattle panels as well.

 

[Bacpacker]

The panels are great and should last for many years. I bought some a few years back and put them up on T post made from Pressure treated 4x4's to train my grape vines up to. They are working great for that. This year I needed some new tomato cages and thought why not try these out. Now I have tomatos, cukes, gourds growing on them. I'll get more and try other stuff on them next year.
So your a little north of me, shorter growing season, but more intense in the mid summer (longer days). I've got to say though I don't know anywhere with a PH of around 9. Mine is between 6.5 and 7 around the property.

 

[Support Gunner]

If the weather works out, we can grow from May to about October. This year it rained almost every day in May. So that delayed transplant of the plants. Even at work, we was planting corn until almost the middle of June. We normally are done by the end of May.

Thats why we start inside around the first week of march to get a head start.

My yard is mostly weeds and some type of clay. So I dont know exactly why it is that high.

Temp wise.....yeah it can hit past 100 with the heat index. That is what started killing the peas and lettuce.

 

[Bacpacker]

Clay that high is unusual.

 

[Support Gunner]

Well when it is wet it you can make a ball out of it and it stays that way but if its dry it crumbles up.

It seems like clay, clayish to me.

 

[Bacpacker]

Thats clay. I have lots of it myself. Takes a long time to amend it into a loose friable soil. But it'll still grow a good amount of produce.

 

[timmie]

finally got a good rain shower this afternoon. hubby walked out to the garden and found fireants eating our tomatoes.

 

[Support Gunner]

When its wet.....

I mean its not the ideal soil but its still producing and I still want to make it better.

 

[Support Gunner]

I have ants in my garden as well but luckily its not fire ants. Those can be mean little things.

 

[Bacpacker]

Your soil is browner than mine. I've got the tradional RedClay. But yeah it'll still grow a lot of food.

 

[Support Gunner]

I've dug in wet red clay before and thats not fun. Lol

 

[Bacpacker]

Takes forever to dry out after rain and slick as snot. After it dries it's hard as a rock.

 

[WVDragonlady]

@Support Gunner have you tried adding sand to help break up and loosen the clay?

 

[Support Gunner]

Yeah. I added 10, 50 pound bags of it this year.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Red clay and sandy dirt here too @Support Gunner. The best way we found to break it up was put in anything organic you can find being lots of cow and horse manure, chicken manure and pig manure (if you dare) are known to break up clay in soil, shredded dried leaves, dried grass clippings and till it in and trench compost all your vegetable scraps in the gardens too which adds nutrients to the soil.

Sand is not recommended for clay soils but it was a fad some time ago but really it doesn't work. You can also try some gypsum to break the clay down too.

 

[Support Gunner]

The amount of sand I put in the garden probably didnt do much because of the size of the garden.

 

[Meerkat]

Your soil is browner than mine. I've got the tradional RedClay. But yeah it'll still grow a lot of food.

That red clay grows some real nice collard greens though. Florida collards are small and thin compared to Georgia.

 

[Meerkat]

Gardens look good Gunner. Thanks for showing us the pics. Not sure what area of the country you live in, but some areas do well with a cover crop over the winter. I grow Annual Rye grass on mine, mow it off in Feburary and turn it under. It breaks down over the spring and summer and really helps build the soil. I do the same with some spots in the summer using bucket wheat. Just be sure and cut/turn it before it goes to seed. (Just ask me how I found that out. LOL)
Personally I prefer straw over hay since you don't introduce grass seed into the garden.
I really like your use of cattle panels to train you maters and such on. I just tried that this year and I'm impressed with the results of the panels. As far as saving seed from your plants, that is something I've been trying to do for years to build my seed stock. I also try new varities of different veggies we like each year to try and find new things that work in our area. We are Zone 7A and have a long growing season. But have found a few things that typically work well much further north that do well here. But it's unlikely other stuff I grow would do well up north. I have been focused on Heirloom seed for several years and found some that work well, have great flavor, etc. But I think next year I'm gonna try some new hybrids and see how that does with production. I just want be able to save my seed.

BacP I haven't seen one bale of straw down here. I'd have to have shipped in I guess if I used it.
Plus the hay breaks down a lot faster the the straw.
Besides, all the weeds around here wouldn't stand for any grass seeds taking over.

 

[Support Gunner]

So let me pick y'alls brain a bit.......

What would cause the leaves of the plant to start turing yellow?

An what type of fertilizer are you guys using on your garden?

 

[Caribou]

So let me pick y'alls brain a bit.......

What would cause the leaves of the plant to start turing yellow?

An what type of fertilizer are you guys using on your garden?

The heat this summer has caused many of our trees to have some of their leaves turn yellow and drop.