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Garden 2012

54K views 342 replies 47 participants last post by  Alchymist 
#1 ·
Hey All,
Any one thinking garden?? Here it is the 13th of Feb. That's only like 2 1/2 week till the first of March when I'll start some of my garden plants.
We had a real good Thread here last year and hope we can do it again. Met a lot of you that I now call friend and was able to help some and learn some. That's what it's all about .
So, Tell us what you have been up to and what your plans for this year are.
Last year was a bummer for me . As many who followed the Tread last year know , We got hailed out in Aug. and I lost my wife in Sept. Not a good year for sure. So, I have no place to go but UP! this year (I hope)
Lets hear from you!!!!!!!!!!:thThumbsU
 
#2 ·
well as for me and for every one i,m sure. are glad to see rv back. it,ll be quite a spell before any thing starts to happen around here.can,t wait to get the 135 fired up and get to working ground.not going to plant any thing in side this year.every thing right in the ground.seems to take 120 days for them tomato,s any ways.going to plant some soy beans this year.and corn and all the other goods that go along with it.
 
#4 ·
Yep Mule, Pretty early of stuff to be leafing out. You will be fine as long as you don't get a killing frost but chances are you may very well get one . It has been a strange winter all over the place. Here it is February and we just had our first temps that were below 0. We have had temps of 40 to 60's all winter. Unheard of for this neck of the woods. It is nothing for us to see weeks with out getting above freezing but nothing like that this year. Makes a guy wonder??What's to come? . We normally put water lines in the ground at 4' to be sure they don't freeze. I'll bet we don't have 3" of frost in the ground this year if that
 
#5 ·
This thread is now stuck. :fing32:

We have the same story here Gary. Much above normal temps, no major snows, no frost in the ground, an all around odd year.

I've been doing some planning for the garden and deciding on my crop rotation for the year. Last years Roma, Early Girl, and Mr. Stripey tomatoes did great, so no movement for them. The Bush Tenderettes were amazing, but I'll move them for the Nitrogen benefit. I will definitely plant Okra again. Last year's crop was tremendous.

I think I'm going to try my hand at some popcorn this year. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
#7 ·
Starting to plan out my gardens. Have all my seeds and am planning on starting my eggplant and pepper seeds in a week or two. I have started them very early the past two years and had really good luck with them. Chompin at the bit to get going though!!
 
#8 ·
I'm getting ready to till the garden plot, and start some seeds. Not sure which variety tomatoes this year, but there will be cherry tomatoes as well.

The onions didn't do so hot last year, nor did the cantaloupe or watermelons. I don't know if we'll fool with them this year.

We'll do some bell pepper, jalapenos, and maybe eggplant. Yellow squash and zucchini too.

I want to plant some blueberry bushes this year.
 
#9 ·
I am getting the 990 running and the tiller tuned for this years garden. About two weeks ago I started the jalapenos in the green house so they will have a nice start. We still have lots of bell and green peppers from last years so I don't know if we will do those this year or not. Still have some taters from last year, but one can never have enough taters.
 
#11 ·
Ya , you sothern guys always want to make me cry LOL . I just return from a two week visit in the pan-handle of Florida to see my new grand daughter. Sure loved the weather there but they say the summers are pure torture
 
#14 ·
lacoogle I pulled summer camp in Savannah several years when I was in the Air Guard. The humidity was bad and the smell of the pulp mills about made me sick
 
#16 ·
Well not realy thinking planing yet, but a few things in the works. Been a WICKED mild winter!! The grass is still green! This has given me many chances to get out, and keep the big leaf/compost piled stured up. Normaly its a rock solid mass till april, and this years its rotting down well!! Need a little more water in it though.... but no rain,snow and dont want to dig out the hose.... so we do what we can. Also I had a big dirt pile in the side yard. it was leftover dirt from putting in a pool. Well finly got it all moved and got the OK to use that allready dug up part of the yard for potaoes. That will give me a good 3 rows about 30 feet long to grow them!! Ill probably dig the trenches with the back hoe, and just have to find somehting to fill them with... the soil here is kinda a gravely loam... not bad... but could use some life.
 
#17 ·
i turned the garden over 2/6/12 in a t-shirt. i just wanted to get some of the roots and weeds killed off, because i knew we were going to have a few more cold spells. Then in march i am going to turn it again for final plant. not bad weather so far, but we still have a month yet lol
 
#19 ·
Good to see some of the ""Ole Gang" back. No I did say OLD!! Ha Ha. Boy I feel a little old right now. I haven't been doing much this winter an I had an old wooded corn crib I tore down last smmmer and have been waiting for a good day to burn it . Will today was the day. Light breeze out of the south and snow cover on every thing so I wouldn't set the world on fire. Burnt real well and I did a lot of walking around it after it got burnt down good throwing odds and ends into the fire to burn up. A lot of stooping and bending . About pooped the "Old" man out. Need to do more of that kind of work to get in shape:thThumbsU
 
#21 ·
Hey everyone.

I know you've all been getting seed catalogs in the mail and are getting revved up for spring. This is probably theee most exciting and ultimately rewarding time as a gardener. I say that because it isn't the harvest, but all the planning and execution which is what we see in a successful vegetable or fruit that we're proud of that's important and the most rewarding.

So go get'em and don't hold back.

This year I'm putting in 3 new raised beds, I guess... was planning only one and then I managed to buy 3 different sized pieces of lumber. How is that even possible? I bought them at different times from different shops when I was sure I knew what I was getting. Anyway, the more beds the merrier as far as I'm concerned. I'm starting to think I did it on purpose. ;)

I want to say that when I planted an Edamame variety of soya bean last year that it was extremely tasty. It was sooo tasty that they never made it into the house. I usually save seeds from everything I enjoy but I ate every single last one of them that the rabbits didn't steal. Buy some Edamame seed this year and try it. It takes up 0 room, is a legume, and requires very little effort - it's a weed. You steam these bad boys with a little salt and you'll never drink a beer without wanting them to snack on.

This year I'm getting more country and have decided to try my hand at canning. Why? Someone told me that pickles mixed with peppers and garlic were awesome. So, convinced that what he was describing was possibly super delicious, I am going to go ahead and grow pickling cucumbers and garlic for the first time.

The garlic is in the ground and the cucumbers are in cups. The peppers will be put in flats in a day or so. I'm growing the Bhut Jolokia peppers again.

TOMATOES. Don't talk to me about anything other than tomatoes. We need a tomato contest on here ASAP. I want to see it DONE.

I am growing theeeeeeee juciest most perfectly ugly tomatoes you've ever seen. As some of you know, I grew something in the neighborhood of 9 different varieties last year. This one was the best. The name is Mushroom Basket and you can get it from www.rareseeds.com. It's a determinate and doesn't produce for skeet but it makes up for it in quality.... boy does it. These will be put in flats this week.

other skeet - onions, broccoli - already planted

manured the asparagus

and nothing else really planned beyond those things!

Looking forward to everyone's progress. Please post pictures as they are a great motivator for others! :)
 
#30 ·
Hey everyone.
.......TOMATOES. Don't talk to me about anything other than tomatoes. We need a tomato contest on here ASAP. I want to see it DONE.......:)


here's a pic of only a small sample of what I had last year for heirloom - pure organic grown 'maters.

3 different yellows, (one of wich was actually green when ripe) 2 different "reds" wich were more akin to an orange color when fully ripe, and my personal favorite -- the Black Krim. wich was purple, I kid you not, when fully ripe. average size of the Krim & yellows? softball size at the least.

**the peach colored blurr on the right side of the image is my daughter's hand as she was cought snitchin one of the Krims
 

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#22 ·
man i wish my climate was better to grow those bhuts, i would grow them just for fun lol. after seeing all of the people on you tube lol. i still have alot of clearing out before i can get the garden right. i need a new trimmer or rig the chainsaw on a set of wheels close to the ground so i can get all of the little saplings. Any ideas to cut all of the samplings?
 
#24 ·
My next door neighbor is still harvesting tomatoes from last falls plantings. Been giving them away because they're producing so much.

I'd considered putting in a much larger garden this year, but I'm still single, so I really can't justify over production. Next year will definitely be different though... I have plans! :D

So, for this year I'll just do my small raised garden spot again. I really should get out there now and turn it over, then stick in some tomato & pepper plants and some corn seeds.

Should be a good year for me here!
 
#25 ·
Saplings: I'm not a fan of the no till method. The no till method involves leaving the soil alone and preserving the natural ecology of the soil and all the little microorganisms. Supposedly when you till you kill nearly 100% of all these little dudes.

Here's my thinking.
#1. How fast do these things reproduce?
2. I'm going to use fertilizers anyway and on top of that I compost tea which means I'm adding in tons of little microorganisms
3. Having loose soil is waaaaaay more beneficial in my eyes

So, with that said, if the saplings aren't so big and you're very serious about gardening, I'd dig 2 feet down and turn the dirt upside down with the green on bottom and black on top (picture flipping a square chunk upside down). Then I'd add my manure and some mulch bits and I'd till the top and make my rows.


Corn: I don't know why I ever grew this crop at all. It takes so much time, has so little output, and saps loads of nutrients and water. They're also super susceptible to pests. Every year I get the itch to grow corn and this year I've finally decided not to do it.
 
#27 ·
Thinking about it for sure!! Last year we had a bit of a mishap, was planting cucumbers on a windy evening and the envelope tried to blow away.
We had cucumbers comming up everywhere.
So the wife decided to make seed tapes and has been working on it an hour or two at a time for a couple weeks.
She is cutting strips of newsprint, making a thin flour water paste and putting it in one of those plastic ketchup bottles. Then putting drops on the strip and putting the seeds in the paste. That should speed up planting quite a bit on those small seeds and prevent a lot of thinning.
Will start the plants in a couple weeks.
 
#28 ·
they are not in the garden lol they are around the edge of it and make it hard to maneuver around. i lacked ground maintenance last year and have some catching up to do.
 
#29 ·
Peas in the ground, onions showed up today.

Going to do corn again this year, we do well with corn and get plenty of ears. I don't spray it so we eat it just as it gets ripe because of earworms.

Our watermelon does well too. Will get that seed in the ground around April along with the squashes.
 
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