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I am finally at a point where I can share pictures of my garden/nursery in the backyard.

Yes I need to weed!

Seedless grape vine (Reliance) from which I took cuttings for clones in December. Grape clusters are starting to form.
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Grape vine clones and a red bud and a pin oak.

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California wonder peppers.
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German butterball potatoes are up. Princess stopped weeding she found poison ivy behind the box.

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Blackberries are coming to life and...

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strating to set flowers.

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Red potatoes

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Fingerling potatoes

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Purple viking potatoes

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Russet potatoes

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I grow 5 varieties so no one variety hit by blight etc will wipe me out.

Continued in next post

Ben
 
Continuing...

Strawberries with flowers

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More strawberries

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Blueberry with lot of flowers

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Broccoli

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Tomatoes (a determinant variety) weeds yikes!

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Sugar maple trees.

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Elders

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Egyptian walking onions and Chinese chestnut trees.

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Garlic and a wild black raspberries that I am cloning.

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Reference image of how large the garlic is.

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Continued in next

Ben
 
And finally...

Egyptian walking onions starting to put on the tops.

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Due to the critters I have to protect most of what I grow hence all of the images of plants in cages. Not pictured are apple trees paw paw trees, common persimmons trees, service berries.

With that done I beg your forgiveness for so many pictures.

Ben
 
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Driving T post and installing cattle panels for cukes and tomatoes to climb. Near 90 aint the weather for this.

Here a couple pics. First is my 4x12 bed of Yukon gold taters. They've started falling over from wind. They were chest high in a 2' high bed. Full bloom right now.
 

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Bacpacker said:
Then onion bed

And the tomatoes and garlic
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Nice.

Where did you share info about your raised beds?

My 12 year boxes and approaching saw dust and I have to replace them. The Princess want me to make them 3' wide so she can reach all the way across them. We also want to make them talker so we can sit down on a cart to weed and tend them. We are also thinking about putting in astro turf between then so the nearest weeds are multiple feet away.

I think tour design is a good example to work from.

Ben
 
Here you go Ben
There is a roofing metal vendor not far from me that I bought my metal from. The panels are 3', actually 38" wide and I could get them as short as 4' long, so I take each of them and cut them in half so my beds are all 24" tall. Making my beds using 12' 2x4"s for length and 10' 2x4" for the ends. I can get 3 39" pieces from each 10' and use it for both ends and a piece in the middle. The metal takes 5 4" panels, 10 24" in pieces. There is a little overlap on the last panel on each side. I also use Outside corner pieces for all my corner, again they 10' long and get cut down to 2'.
I take and make the wooden cuts and screw them together with #10x3" deck screws. Then screws the corner piece in using roofing screw with the little rubber gasket. Flip it over after than and start installing the 2x3 panels, I usually do the end panels first. I don't put the center 2x4 in until I have the bed in place and loaded with cardboard and chicken wire and maybe some wood, but certainly before I load it with compost. After I finish I add a 1x4 around the top laying flat and flush to the outside. Gives a small place to sit, and protects hands from metal edges.
I've also made 2 3' x 9' beds, just use 10' 2x4's instead of 12' and 4 panels instead of 5.
I'll be happy to answer any specifics you may have and could add some pics when I build my next one. I've got material for one more yet to do.
 
UrbanHunter said:
! Help ! I made a big mistake! I have almost no space so the wife said,"Plant pole beans, because they take up less space." So I planted 30' pole beans, every 6" and they are all about 8" high now, so it is time to arrange to support them. So I ask my wife how close do I need to place supports for the pole beans? Her answer totally floored me, "Oh we never grew pole beans, we only grew bush beans".

So I need some informed direction, how often do I need to place vertical supports and what should be the spacing of the horizontal supports?
I was assuming that I would need a vertical every foot and cross braces placed a foot apart, but I really have no idea what I am doing. Can anyone give me some informed guidance?


I feel like I have completely overshot my capabilities... I was planning to work in the garden tomorrow, but I prefer to have a clue about what I am doing....

Thanks
Click to expand...
I use bamboo stakes in triangle (teepee)shape like I use for peas.
Put my stakes in the ground plant pole beans around each leg of the t pee and plant lettuce underneath.
Seem to work just fine for me.
 
I saw this a while ago and bookmarked it for when I buy my farm and want to plant a large garden with a tractor.
Now I figured that other people who plant large gardens and have a tractor would like to know about it as well because these sorts of small tractor mounted planters that cater to smaller plots are as rare as hens teeth and stupid expensive.

I'm pretty sure it comes from the US - the brand is Yetter Farm Equipment.
I hope this helps someone out.

https://www.agripartsdirect.com.au/flexplanter.html
 
Today it got hot, I tried to harvest spinach but it wilted between the time I cut all the stems and before I could remove the leaves. And I was smoking hot outside, so I brought all the cut spinach (whole plants) in the house, put about 4" of water in a stock pot and put all the cut plant ends in the water. The plants perked up and now I can remove nice (not wilted ) leaves for blanching and shocking. Tomorrow morning I will harvest the other two raised beds and then clean them inside the house using the stock pot to keep them fresh till they are bagged and put in the fridge. It looks like I may end up with 20 gallons of spinach leaves for the freezer.
 
I so excited (or maybe just hungry 😂 ) spinach has finally begun to sprout. It was a little older seed, but have had good luck with it. I think it just didn't get enough consistent water. It's in a raised bed so dries out quicker. I've been watering the heck out of things trying to get them going strong before summer hits. I have 4 types of radishes going. Just a small container bed. I plant a row about every other week. Right now the breakfast radishes are almost gone and the regular globe radishes are next in line to eat. After that will be the white radishes then the party radishes. It's kinda fun and I'm only sewing as many as we eat until the next row is ready so is working out well.
Also, weeded the front flower garden this afternoon and got the canopy cover on the frame so we ate supper au fresco.
 
UrbanHunter said:
Today it got hot, I tried to harvest spinach but it wilted between the time I cut all the stems and before I could remove the leaves. And I was smoking hot outside, so I brought all the cut spinach (whole plants) in the house, put about 4" of water in a stock pot and put all the cut plant ends in the water. The plants perked up and now I can remove nice (not wilted ) leaves for blanching and shocking. Tomorrow morning I will harvest the other two raised beds and then clean them inside the house using the stock pot to keep them fresh till they are bagged and put in the fridge. It looks like I may end up with 20 gallons of spinach leaves for the freezer.
Click to expand...
That's a lot of spinach Popeye!
 
20x52 hoop house is finished.It's now being filled with peppers and tomatoes.
50 pounds of potatoes are going in.
1 pound of sweet corn will be rolled in this week.
We planted a thousand glads and have 600 dahlias going in.
planted 100 asparagus and a 100 strawberries.
Many more things in and going in.
Not bad for 2 retired people with no help.
 
LadyLocust said:
That's a lot of spinach Popeye!
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I would have to agree! FYI I picked spinach this morning and now I am cleaning it:)
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3 17 gallon tubs full, I am to the point of just cleaning the leaves and putting it into trash bags for short term storage before blanching. I am also picking off some of the baby spinach leaves for salads.
 
Today I harvested my first tomato of the season, it's so cute. ;)

Tonight the wife made a chicken, rice, and spinach casserole, it will actually be 3 casseroles, 2 for the freezer and 1 for eating. She modified the recipe to use the spinach and we think it tastes better than the original, it is also lower in salt and starches.
 
After cleaning the spinach today I have come to the conclusion that I need to find a faster way to clean my spinach. My yield isn't too bad about 1/6 of that is harvested is just leaves, but the time it takes is just a pain in my back. Today, I harvested 3 17gallon tubs (cutting the plant off about 3" above the ground) this spinach is old so lots of stems but I still got about 8 gallons of leaves (laying flat pressed down a bit), I spent almost an hour for each 17 gallon tub, which leaves me thinking there must be a better way than pinching each leaf off......
 
Amish Heart said:
I don't know any faster. That's how I do our spinach.
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Yes I did a kitchen trash bad(13 gallons) a day & blanched it, put in freezer.
Using all four stove eyes, still took a long time.
The washing & rewashing was the hardest, most time consuming. Cutting & blanching was not as bad. But the greens lasted all year & never tasted sand.
 
Amish Heart said:
We grow a number of greens. Lettuces, two kinds of kale, two types of spinach, a Japanese green, and Tatsoi. Too much for us to each fresh. But we do eat a lot of it fresh. Some goes in the freezer, and over half goes to our animals. Mostly the geese. But some for the rabbits and chickens, too.
Click to expand...
What English green does mizuna & Tatsoi taste like?
 
While I am on the subject, what do you do with the stems? Do you compost it? I'm not willing to spend a lot of time cutting the stems into little pieces just to put it in the composter, but it might be worth putting on the yard and letting the mower prepare it for composting... Just thinking on paper here... ;) I wish I had some rabbits and chickens, but I would need 1/4 scale miniature animals for them to fit into my space.
 
The Tatsoi is a mustard green and I haven't been impressed with it's growth. The leaves are smallish and round. So so and nothing to write home about. I did the gigantic spinach and love it. The greens are Chijimsai, and love those. I love how they grow, look, and they have a good taste. Went through a packet of seeds from Baker Creek on those, ordered 5 more packs to plant more and just to have. Didn't plant Mizuna.
Our animal's favorite greens are the giant spinach leaves and the Chijimsai. Husband is in the habit of riding out to the garden on his scooter before sunset, picks a bunch of both, and visits the geese.
Your 1/4 scale model comment cracks me up, Urban. We don't even save food to compost here. Everything is food to some animal we have. Even little stems. We use the animal's poop for compost. Well, ok, I do throw coffee grounds, cut up banana peel, and eggshells right up in the garden. The earthworms in the garden eat that.
 
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