2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

[cowboy38229]

my first asparagus of the season 3-21-09 this should be my first full season harvest,finaly got another camera.

[cowboy38229]

one more pic to make sure it works right,aint they perty



new camera's got video,might post some on youtube for the forum.

[Watchman]

In Free Wyoming my asparagus has not even broken the soil yet

[cowboy38229]

I'm amazed at how big some of these stalks are,these are the ones tall enough to cut,probably twice that many up but just breaking thru the ground .Supposed to be in the upper 60's and 70's for the next week or so.Am expecting a big flush in the next few days.
Peach trees are blooming maybe we won't get another big freeze.

[side_job]

I have tilled up an additional section of my yard this year, giving me about 50% more garden footage. I also have sections against the house where I grow pumpkins. Actually works out pretty good and cuts down on my mowing tasks. Two years ago I built extensions on my privacy fence and ran garden netting around the perimeter of the garden. This works really well for green beans, and this year Im going to try some other climbers as well, say cucumbers.

We got our first set of chicks this week, and everyone is excited. I plan to build a coop in the next couple weeks, and work the chicken benefits into my compost production. We have also talked about rabbits, but I have not been able to convince the family that rabbits are good to eat, they are more stuck on 'oh it's so cute' and so Im not so sure I want to mess with another family pet with the only contribution being in the manure department. I am looking at other areas of my yard as well, I would like to get the most out of the area, with the thought that this springs planting may be the most important of our times. Things are really in a mess and I plan to plant much more than I need. If everything settles down and life is normal, then Ill take some stuff to the farmers market, if not, Ill be glad I broke the extra ground.

Here's a video I took yesterday...

[youtube]uaaP7x0DYjg[/youtube]

[bobpick]

As I was watering my veggies I saw that my peas are poking up a bit, and the maters/onions have very tiny sprouts..
Starting to germinate my bush beans inside yesterday.

[bobpick]

I picked up a few items for the garden: soaker hoses, water barrels, seeds for the shady spot of the house... Missus will be underwater with flowers, sorta.

Also picked up some of the hanging strawberry bags.

[Toepopper]

Planted tomato, peas, yellow Hungarian peppers, brocoli, radishes, green beans, yellow wax beans, cabbage, watermellon, honeydew mellon, and cukes in pots inside the greenhouse, as now is the dark of the moon . Two weeks ago I planted red potato's and a few onion sets directly into the ground, during the full moon. I have been saving my egg shells to throw in the holes when I transplant the tomato's into the ground. Cut back my fruit trees and may have pruned too much off of the apple trees because there are only a few white flowers on those trees this year. Last October a bear climbed up into the trees and broke off some critical branches so I had no other recourse but to lop off the broken and twisted branches to keep insects from boring into the tree trunk. Thinned out the Jeruselum Artichokes and divided the Sicilian Artichokes. Repaired broken fences and attatched long pieces of metalic lath to the bottom of fence to prevent rabbits from entering garden area. Cut back the Himilayan rasberries and removed all the dead stalks. Chainsawed down 18 tan oak trees and removed all brush and wild huckelberry brambles thet were growing through the fence and cut these trees into firewood. This will allow more sunlight onto the garden during the early morning hours. Burned all the slash in a monster 2 day long burn pile. Trimmed back the grapes to a manageable size, they were growing up into the trees and most of the grapes were unreachable last year. Pulled out all the comfrey as we have never used it, to make room for something else. My Logan Kiwi plants are budding out. This is the tenth year since I have planted these kiwi's and they do not produce enough fruit to warrant all the attention and water that they require and we are thinking about taking them out. We surmised that the elevation is too high here for them to thrive, and they take up a lot of room that could be used to grow something else that will produce better. Mucked out the rabbit pens and turned over this mess into my raised planting beds. There were plenty of worms in this manure that should assist in producing good soil. Examined the buds on my plum trees and it looks like they froze again this year so there probably won't be any plums again. Two years in a row. Very little rain this spring so I will have to hook up the solar water pump next week in order to irrigate the garden .

[cowboy38229]

Got a late start on the gargen this year,didn't have a tiller to start with then my father in law got a new rear tine and gave me his almost new front tine ,I tilled up enough to plant 2 rows of onions and three rows of potatoes and 14 hills of yellow squash and zucchini ,80 tomatoe plants,my neighbor saw me tilling and brought over his tractor with a 6 ft.heavy duty tiller and finished up my tilling and broke me up a new garden spot.

This is the old garden spot it's 70'x40'.Already planted with onions,potatoes, squash,zucchini,tomatoes, purple hull peas,sweet corn,miniature white cucumbers {heirlooms}

New garden spot 65'x35' ,notice the pile of cow manure and straw at the far end

Already planted with green beans,butter peas,broccoli,egg plant, cayene pepper,bell pepper ,pablano pepper,sweet corn ,cucumbers and room for more tomatoes.

future gardener,7 month old grand daughter,Chloe

[Watchman]

Jealousy is a terrible vice - but I am. Things are just barely coming up in Free Wyoming. My asparagus has not broke ground yet and it is supposed to @#$%^&* snow this weekend. I've got my Yukon golds and onion sets ready to go. They'll probably be fuzzy by the time I can put them in the ground.

[Toepopper]

Cowboy, that is ONE NICE GARDEN I am even more jealous than the Watchman. Flat ground is a rare sight here so my veggi gardens are all on flat spots that I have created over the years. Had to build raised beds and fill them with horse manure and compost to have decent enough soil to start with. The local soil is adobe and it will not grow anything usefull, plus it turns as hard as a brick during the dry summer months. Hope you get a good crop.

[Watchman]

Spring has finally come to Northwest Central Free Wyoming, although the state 'officially' holds frost warnings until about the third week in May. I don't think so this year. Worked in the garden to turn over the compost pile. Wow, it looks good. Hope to get it turned and moved to another spot by Thursday, till the garden area Friday and plant Yukon Golds and onion sets on Saturday, unless we get a dump of that @#$%^&* white manure At any rate. on Friday morning I'm going to spread about 50 pounds of gypsum over the area before I till it. Every morning I'm out there bright and early to check the asparagus bed to see if we have liftoff yet. Not yet. Maybe the asparagus are smarter than I am?

[Toepopper]

The above post is the second post that mentioned spreading gypsum. Are you talking about agricultural lime? (Dolamite) I have used Dolamite to reduce the PH of acidic soil to grow veggies in. Anywhere there are fir or pine trees growing, this is an indication that the soil is acidic. Plants like rasberries and roses will thrive in acidic soil but common garden variety plants prefer a lower PH level and will not do well unless you broadcast lime on the soil. I mix a shovel full of lime to a cubic yard of leaf compost to tone it down and let it work for a month before using the compost. Plants grown in local acidic soil will be stunted and not produce like they should in the proper PH level of soil. I have never heard of spreading gypsum and was wondering if this is your local name for lime.?

[Watchman]

Gypsum is pelletized and does have some calcium, but it is more of a long-term solution to poor soil problems -- especially here in the west. With regular application of it and plenty of organic matter it will turn poor, hard-packed soil into good rich loam. Here is one of the best sites I have found about gypsum:

http://www.basic-info-4-organic-fertili ... ypsum.html

[Watchman]

Spent the whole day turning this huge compost pile upside down to another location. In between, sifted the compost and have a beautiful pile of pure brown gold. It is absolutely loaded with worms and microbial critters! Monday am spreading gypsum over the lot, Tuesday tilling and Wednesday planting potatoes and onion sets. In Free Wyoming we still have the threat of frost until late in the month.

[Watchman]

Yesterday I softened up the garden again, spread about 40 pounds of gypsum, and soaked it good! Tomorrow morning we're going to level it out and plant potatoes and onion sets and whatever else we can get in the ground before we crash.

I think my asparagus died. We only had a very few days this past winter that it hovered around -15 to -25 and they were well-protected. Besides, it grows wild around here anyway. It sprouted last year. They have not broke the surface yet so I can only assume they croaked.

[Watchman]

The asparagus did not die - we have lift-of! Here in this part of Free Wyoming our official last frost date is the 15th of May, so I guess them little buggers know when it is time to appear. BTW, we are expected to have temps in the low 30s tonight. Wife and I have planted Yukon Golds (2 rows), Blue Lake green beans (4 rows), 4 rows of onions, and one row of bush cucumbers. Saturday we're planting three varieties of squash. That day we also will border a square of ground with little cement edging and Tuesday will plant Red Oak Leaf lettuce and Arrugula in it. Next week we fill our self-watering planters and will put in 16 tomato plants and 6 bell peppers. One of our apple trees is blooming like mad, the other, so-so. The apricot tree is blooming but not too quickly - last year about this time it frosted and killed a lot of the blossoms. Maybe it knows something I don't know.

[Toepopper]

Have turned over and added topsoil and compost to my raised beds and weed whacked down all the brush for the second time this spring, in between the beds. Last week we had 7- 1/2" of rain and all the weeds took off after being watered. All the greenhouse starts are doing good except for the yellow Hungarian peppers which had a 100% non germination. Before transplanting the starts I always set a half dozen traps in the garden area for woodrats. Those little buggers will knaw down fresh shoots and pack them off to their nests for lining, so I hope to catch them before they can eat my starts. Hope to have everything transplanted by the weekend. Tie wired new fence around the veggi garden and the grapes. For some reason I have not seen a single deer in my area this spring. Very unusual but I don't mind because that is just one less critter to contend with and try to keep out of the garden. Have been working nonstop since it is still light at 8-30 in the evening. Low 40's at night, 72 thisafternoon.

[Watchman]

Wife and I spent the morning constructing a square (more or less) bed to be used this year for 5 squash hills. We bought these scalloped cement border pieces from China Mart at $1.38 each and it took 26 of them to make the bed. It measures about 7x6 feet. We used the Mantis to break it up and tear out the weeds, then leveled it and dumped about 30 pounds of compost on top of it, spread out. Will be making it into a permanent herb garden in the spring. Our onions have emerged, the potatoes are cracking the soil covering we put over each piece, so expect them this week. All we have left to plant are the lettuce and arrugula, three varieties of squash, and the tomatoes and bell peppers. The maters and peppers are being put into 'grow boxes'. We've been saving egg shells to mix with the potting mix for the planters. By the way, we're not spring chickens but we got everything done this year by compartmentalizing things - we put each segment on the calendar and work one at a time and I'll be darned if it doesn't work. I'm still disappointed with the asparagus but will reserve judgement. After all, this IS Free Wyoming and the weather here is like nowhere else.

[Watchman]

Planted three types of squash today - zucchini, yellow crookneck, and black zucchini.

[cowboy38229]

give your asparagus a little time ,it took mine a couple of weeks to get to full speed .
Getting ready to replant part of my garden ,lost 1/4 of it to standing water from all the rain in the last 2 to 3 weeks

[Watchman]

Yesterday we harvested and froze about 10 pounds of rhubarb. Will can it later this year. Should get another crop about September. Green beans and potatoes have emerged

[Watchman]

Everything is growing like mad. Here it is almost the end of May here in Free Wyoming and we have not had a @#$%^&* hail storm yet to ruin the growing plants. My fingers are crossed. Wife and I just finished filling ten self-watering 40-quart planters with organic potting mix, to which we added one cup of agricultural lime, a large handful of crushed eggshells, and two tablespoons of epsom salts. Am letting them settle for the next 24 hours then will top them off and plant young tomatoes and peppers.

[Watchman]

Today we planted the last of the food for 2009 except for some greens, radishes and fava beans later. Now its maintenance for the next couple of months. This western soil bites but we do the best we can. Because it is so alkaline, we elected to plant 15 tomato plants and 25 pepper plants in self-watering containers. Each container got a cup of agricultural limestone and lots of crushed egg shells.

Kinda late in life for us to do anything about it, we don't live out in the country but in town. We have about 2/10s of an acre and both of us are trying to prove that we absolutely CAN raise most of our plant-type food on this little spot. Its how efficiently you use the space.

Here are a few photos.

[Toepopper]

I like your idea of planting tomato's in containers. I planted some beefsteak slicers from seed and due to the long cold spring weather they took forever to germinate and poke up out of the soil. I have planted them in large pots because every square inch of area in my raised beds is planted with other crops. They have leaped out of the soil and are playing catch up with the rest of the garden. Yesterday I transplanted some brocoli from small starting containers into the beds. My snap peas had been munched on despite the fact that I had redone the perimeter fence to keep out maurading critters, but they bounced back and are 3 feet tall now. Caught a great big cottontail rabbit in a Victor rat trap. Evidently he was the culprit and I cannot figure out how he got into the garden. No new damage has occured since I caught this rabbit. Picked a 3 gallon bucket of cherries and "black cap" rasberries are almost ready to pick next. Bean plants all have little baby beans popping out and everything else is looking good. This year we planted 30 green cabbages and with this unusually cool weather they are doing very well.