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i CAN'T DO A GARDEN THIS YEAR I am prepping an area,,,,, all the crap from the barn is being placed in the new garden spot to compost,, I get it all spread out like I want, bring in a 18 yard truckload of good dirt spread it out and take the tiller to it,,, let it go all this coming year, it should be a very good spot come spring of 2024

it will be a good sized raised bed,,, even when we get too much rain being raise it should do ok
 
I actually, to my surprise have quite a few green onion, garlic and 1 cabbage and some lettuce going good that I started from "scraps" of those veggies..in my window in container of water, then transplanted into soil in containers or the raised bed..
all free food! I'm shocked. I pulled up and used more green onion today, to put on top of twice baked potatoes I made as garnish
 
grayghost668 said:
i CAN'T DO A GARDEN THIS YEAR I am prepping an area,,,,, all the crap from the barn is being placed in the new garden spot to compost,, I get it all spread out like I want, bring in a 18 yard truckload of good dirt spread it out and take the tiller to it,,, let it go all this coming year, it should be a very good spot come spring of 2024

it will be a good sized raised bed,,, even when we get too much rain being raise it should do ok
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I also will be skipping gardening this year . I turned my garden spot into such a beautiful spot that my grandson wants to get married in my garden next September " on my birthday " . In a few weeks instead of planting vegetables in my garden spot , I will be planting grass instead . Also I raise pigeons in a pigeon loft that are allowed to fly freely about that love to put on ariel shows for people . Most of them are white and hopefully will put on a show for the wedding participants .
 
Can you eat pigeon? Just curious.

On another note, I'm In FL. And we have a lot of veggies started for this year, both in raised bed and in greenhouse...everything from potatoes, to a variety of peppers, tomatoes, herbs, beans, peas, radish, onions, lettuce, a good start I think if they all make it to harvest this year. Need to get corn, squash, cucumber and few other things out still.
 
Cindyd said:
Can you eat pigeon? Just curious.

On another note, I'm In FL. And we have a lot of veggies started for this year, both in raised bed and in greenhouse...everything from potatoes, to a variety of peppers, tomatoes, herbs, beans, peas, radish, onions, lettuce, a good start I think if they all make it to harvest this year. Need to get corn, squash, cucumber and few other things out still.
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I've eaten mountain pigeons before. Not my favorite bird to eat.
 
Today my plans are to start some seeds. The weather is going to be lovely! 🤩 But first we are cleaning out the chicken house…hubby shoveling me helping. Still not allowed to lift more than 10 lbs for a few more weeks. Would have loved to wash down the chicken house inside and repaint…but will have to wait until April.
 
Does anyone know where to get these Mineral buckets? An article I read said he uses these to grow sweet potatoes. His results are out of this world!

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GeorgiaPeachie said:
Does anyone know where to get these Mineral buckets? An article I read said he uses these to grow sweet potatoes. His results are out of this world!

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Thanks for the tip . I will investigate further in raising sweet potatoes in containers . Perhaps I can do that as my garden area is set for a different purpose this year . I have about a dozen of those mineral buckets that I bought for $ 3.00 each at a local private owned feed store .
 
poltiregist said:
Thanks for the tip . I will investigate further in raising sweet potatoes in containers . Perhaps I can do that as my garden area is set for a different purpose this year . I have about a dozen of those mineral buckets that I bought for $ 3.00 each at a local private owned feed store .
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Thanks for the tip on where to search! You can use these tubs for regular potatoes to with good results. Plant determinate potatoes in layers. Plant indeterminate in one lower layer and add more compost to cover leaves as the plants grow…until nearly the top of the container.
 
I have always planted my potatoes too late so decided to go by the book.

The books are all different. For my zone, one says late February early March.
Today I saw one that says do not plant until May and the ground is 75°.

I am going to plant and add lots of straw on top and just see what this crop does. I will try a later crop of store potatoes that have sprouted.
 
A fella I used to work with told me the best way they grew potatoes is using old tires. Keep stacking up as the potatoes grow, filling in with dirt, then just remove the stack of tires come harvest time and the potatoes fall out of dirt mound. He said that's how they always grow them.

I don't have a bunch of old tires laying around so never tried it but he swears by it. I have no doubt it works. Just a different "container" method.
 
Cindyd said:
A fella I used to work with told me the best way they grew potatoes is using old tires. Keep stacking up as the potatoes grow, filling in with dirt, then just remove the stack of tires come harvest time and the potatoes fall out of dirt mound. He said that's how they always grow them.

I don't have a bunch of old tires laying around so never tried it but he swears by it. I have no doubt it works. Just a different "container" method.
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I actually tried this method about 20 years ago. Worked the same as a bucket for me.
 
Has anyone tried those reusable Silicone seed starting trays? I'm trying to decide if I want to buy a handful to replace the shredded plastic ones. I can't buy enough to use only those.


Also, anyone having trouble with new seeds this year? I can't get my new broccoli and cabbage to start for anything. I have tried all the tricks I know. I think I may have gotten dud seed.
 
I think we got some dud seeds ...I can't recall right now which..but I know o'le "lare bear" n I had a conversation this week about seemingly dud seeds ...i'll have to check which one's...but I want to say it was varieties of hot pepper ...cause we normally have very good luck with any hot pepper seeds/plants here.....my brain is fried lately...can't recall much of anything...too overwhelmed I think..
 
Cindyd said:
A fella I used to work with told me the best way they grew potatoes is using old tires. Keep stacking up as the potatoes grow, filling in with dirt, then just remove the stack of tires come harvest time and the potatoes fall out of dirt mound. He said that's how they always grow them.

I don't have a bunch of old tires laying around so never tried it but he swears by it. I have no doubt it works. Just a different "container" method.
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I'm confused about this, too. This article says it doesn't work: Do Potato Towers Work? (Read BEFORE You Try!)

This one says it does: How to Grow Potatoes in a Tower - FineGardening

I wonder if potatoes can run roots that deep and if they can manage the nutrient/water flow over that distance? Also, at ~80 LBS a cubic foot, a 4 foot stack 2.5 FT SQ (6.25 SQFT) would be about 2000 LBS of dirt.

Sounds like you might get diamonds instead of potatoes.
 
No idea, I haven't tried it. I'm just passing on info that was relayed to Me. Try it out and see what happens. I'm not inclined to accumulate old tires on property to test it...but who knows..

I have tried large plastic containers which did not work. But, I think I had soil too compact...
Mostly, we've had better luck with raised bed plantings. We'll see how this year's turns out...

My family, when I was growing up always planted them in ground and we always had plenty of potatoes.
 
Survivor_316 said:
Has anyone tried those reusable Silicone seed starting trays? I'm trying to decide if I want to buy a handful to replace the shredded plastic ones. I can't buy enough to use only those.


Also, anyone having trouble with new seeds this year? I can't get my new broccoli and cabbage to start for anything. I have tried all the tricks I know. I think I may have gotten dud seed.
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I save our water bottles and cut the top off them to start tomatoes and peppers. Most of the other stuff I direct seed.
 
I know this is a pre-school question about gardening, but is buying dirt really necessary if you have 80+ acres of heavily-wooded land?

With a perennial ground cover of leaves, twigs, and whatever the animals deposit, I would think my first venture into gardening could utilize this soil.

I prefer self-sufficient solutions but I see a lot of bags of dirt for sale in many places, so somebody's buying them.
 
GaryLa said:
I know this is a pre-school question about gardening, but is buying dirt really necessary if you have 80+ acres of heavily-wooded land?

With a perennial ground cover of leaves, twigs, and whatever the animals deposit, I would think my first venture into gardening could utilize this soil.

I prefer self-sufficient solutions but I see a lot of bags of dirt for sale in many places, so somebody's buying them.
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Nah. If you have clay, you might want to buy some sand and work compost in, but bought soil is best for raised beds just because they dry out and warm up faster (and use nutrients more quickly if the bottom isn't open).

We have almost always gardened directly in the soil with a heavy dose of compost and some mulch to keep weeds down.
 
Another thing, though- you can plant in higher densities in good soil.

I like to kind of do the lasagna gardening method by putting down leaves, etc, then cardboard, then mulch. You can usually get free mulch from your local electric company when they do right of way cuts. Chip drop is a place you can sign up to get arborist debris, too. Craigslist and such often has free chips.

We sometimes buy a truckload but usually we can come up with free mulch. We also use hay and straw from the animals. Your soil will be as good as bought in about two seasons if you do this.
 
GaryLa said:
I know this is a pre-school question about gardening, but is buying dirt really necessary if you have 80+ acres of heavily-wooded land?

With a perennial ground cover of leaves, twigs, and whatever the animals deposit, I would think my first venture into gardening could utilize this soil.

I prefer self-sufficient solutions but I see a lot of bags of dirt for sale in many places, so somebody's buying them.
Click to expand...

Those bags are for small pots, and lazy people.
Get yourself a tiller and till in mulch, leaves, whatever rabbit or chicken **** or aged manure you have.. mix in different soil types you have on the properly. . Test your soil and add in any nitrogen, magnesium, etc... as needed.

If you don't have any equipment to mix your own and want to buy dirt. Get a dump truck load for about $300
 
I have clay and over the last 23 years, I have added leaves, chicken bedding etc.

I use some of the planting holes as planters and add sand, soil, eggs, bananas, etc. If I dont, the clay gets so hard in the Summer heat, the roots can't grow.

The soil is much better after 20 years of prep, but still not good.
 
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