What have you done for garden prep so far?

[Petoski]

A local small garden centre wants local produce and needs herbs so I have planted 1500 herbs of various varieties. Never done this before but I figure it may bring in a few extra pennies and I am growing all our fruit and veg anyway. This summers plan was to get the herb garden up and running. I guess it will be a bit more work now Waiting for the snow to melt and some warm weather so i can move them from the garden room. I hope it warms up soon as they will need to be repotted and i am running out of space.

 

[Maverick]

All I know for sure is all walk behind tillers beat you up. The tractor ones are much easier on your body. Either way beats the old fashioned hoe though!

The front tillers are the problem the rear tillers walk behind not so bad, one the ground been turned 3 or 4 times and all the rock removed the front and rear tiller are on equal grounds. I’ll use my ford tractor to turn and till the garden but use the walk behind tiller for the planting rows before I plant.

 

[Arcticdude]

Well I ordered a new tiller yesterday. I decided to go with the DR brand. It looked like the best tiller in this size and price range, $800 with free shipping. Should be able to start tilling in a couple of weeks.
Also bought a new trailer for the 4 wheelers. It's got electric brakes and electric dump. The trailer brakes will come in handy on our steep hills around here.
Our garden and orchard area is snow free now. The fruit trees have some tiny buds and some strawberry plants are starting to come up. Saw our first wild flowers yesterday too.

 

[Danil54grl]

Hunny made a trip in town with a neighbor. Asked if there was any thing I would like have him to pick up. I said a 6 pk of something would be nice. . . He brought me home a variety of peppers! He knows me well. Tobasco, cayenne, bell, & jalapeno. I didnt have the heart to tell him I already have 18 jalapeno & 14 bell plants already . Only 1 of the cayenne and one of the Tabasco so those are a nice add in.

When hunny came thru the front gate he called to say my goats were out in the front yard. I had just checked on them before I took my shower to get ready for work tonight. Apparently he forgot to hitch the middle pasture when he went to feed pigs this morning and they finally found the opportunity. Hunny got dogs in and I called for my bwbies. Got 22'out of 24 in. Told hunny I'm minus some babies. George and Lulu. I got both and put in pasture. Had to take second shower. Goat urine was not what I wanted right before leaving for work. Two boys didn't forget the promise land and jumped the fence while I was gone. Big dog Alex and hunny got them back in. They are not wanting to mess with Al again so it seems and stayed in pasture. All these years keeping goats I've never had one except for Penelope and that was to just escape her two kids, then she'd jump right back in.

 

[brandx]

I got a ton of leaves in the garden area, just mounded up until I'm ready to spread and till them in. I also have the rabbit cages in the garden, with mounds of pellets to till in as well. Today I bought some asparagus to try again with, (3tries so far), and a large bag of red potatoes and white onions. I'm itching to plant, but with two days of snow starting tonight think it may be wise to wait a little. Anyone else have any good prep ideas for pre planting?

Have my tomato plants started in the house and second set of leaves on, should be just about right at planting time. I will put them up to the first set of leaves. Checking on how to treat my trees for sooty blotch. One recommended taking a rag with bleach water and wiping down each apple. Absolutely NO freaking way. Will probably have to resort to sprays but geez, I wonder what is worse eating blotch, making cider with blotch or spraying and then washing the apples. I should have planted the blackberries farther away but they are established now, may create a new patch and eventually ease them all over to somewhere else. FYI, blackberries harbor blotch which spreads to apples. Off subject, sorry, I tend to ramble.

 

[brandx]

Well I ordered a new tiller yesterday. I decided to go with the DR brand. It looked like the best tiller in this size and price range, $800 with free shipping. Should be able to start tilling in a couple of weeks.
Also bought a new trailer for the 4 wheelers. It's got electric brakes and electric dump. The trailer brakes will come in handy on our steep hills around here.
Our garden and orchard area is snow free now. The fruit trees have some tiny buds and some strawberry plants are starting to come up. Saw our first wild flowers yesterday too.

My plum trees are blooming idiots and the apples aren't there yet.

 

[Danil54grl]

I've had black sooty mold on my crepe mertles before and made up a detergent/water wash. Sprayed on, let it sit for awhile then sprayed off. ended up repeating it a few times to get it all off. Happened with my lemon tree too. Pain in the butt cleaning all those lemons when I got ready to use them. We had a very wet and humid spring that year which only made it so much worse. Did end up doing some major pruning to get better air flow with them. Not sure if sooty blotch is the same thing though. Seems like I sprayed with a homemade type Neem oil too to keep the guys down. Made with detergent, oil and water.

 

[Brent S]

I finally got the motivation to take the tractor and take out the last of the peach trees and two apricots. It was kind of heartbreaking to kill established trees but the maintenance required, and chemicals, to actually get a peach to make it to being edible wasn’t worth it to me. One good thing is that area was overplanted anyways, so now the apples will have an easier time not competing for sun. I had planted 5 pear trees in the fall also and it’s good to see they all made it and are coming to life with the spring warmth! This is definitely my favorite time of year when everything is turning green and coming back to life. It’s really satisfying to see all the effort I’ve put into the edibles here paying off.

 

[brandx]

I've had black sooty mold on my crepe mertles before and made up a detergent/water wash. Sprayed on, let it sit for awhile then sprayed off. ended up repeating it a few times to get it all off. Happened with my lemon tree too. Pain in the butt cleaning all those lemons when I got ready to use them. We had a very wet and humid spring that year which only made it so much worse. Did end up doing some major pruning to get better air flow with them. Not sure if sooty blotch is the same thing though. Seems like I sprayed with a homemade type Neem oil too to keep the guys down. Made with detergent, oil and water.

This blotch is a fungus and it is not harmful to the fruit, it is on the skin only. But we don't want to eat this stuff and since we make cider I am not sure what the results would be and washing hundreds of apples doesn't sound like fun. I know that humidity makes it worse, I didn't get a good pruning on the trees this year unfortunately, this would have helped with air circulation. I was hoping for something natural to fight this fungus that I could spray on. Maybe there isn't anything and I just need to move the blackberries and trim the trees good next winter.

 

[Arcticdude]

I'm still waiting for the rototiller to be delivered. I was hoping to start tilling the garden soon. Our garden/orchard is on a slight slope and it drains well so I thought I could start tilling soon.
We're still getting snow and the ground is frozen hard this morning. Guess I'm just getting anxious to start working the soil after reading about everyone's garden here.
I really need to build a green house this summer.

 

[Maverick]

It's been raining for over two weeks straight, still too wet to run the tiller.

 

[Arcticdude]

Going down south today to pick up some fruit trees, grape and berry plants, fertilizer, fence posts and barbed wire. It's still too early to plant anything, but if I wait too long to buy the trees and plants they will sell out. I'll keep everything in the barn until it's time to plant, maybe in a month. It hit 50 yesterday and the last two nights it didn't freeze. The rototiller should be here on Monday.

 

[Maverick]

Things are drying out a little bit heavy frosted mornings, not ready to plant yet, I’m hoping in two weeks

 

[WGregMiller]

We’ve got stuff coming up all over the garden. Had to cover a lot of small stuff last night for frost threat. Glad we did...

 

[Brent S]

I’m planted mostly now. I still want to plant a few potatoes and sweet potatoes, and may even try some corn again too. Now I’m mostly just watering though. I’ve been picking asparagus for a few weeks already, and just started eating lettuce and radishes. Here’s to hoping for a good season this year!

 

[Danil54grl]

This morning I went ahead and harvested my turnip seeds that were ready. I still had some that were not so I just pulled those to throw to the goats cause they still had plenty of green leaves on them. Polly Anna saw me out in the garden with the wheelbarrow and just started running and talking into the main pasture by the garden. Guess she was reminding me they would be more than happy to eat them. . . . Like I would forget about my kids.

Honestly I was just tired of waiting on the row to open up. Got it tiller and raised up ready for planting but that will have to wait. Needed to get inside to do some cleaning while hunny is away. It's just easier. . . Besides, I now have a splitting headache so sitting down for a little bit.

 

[Arcticdude]

Yesterday I picked up some fruit trees; 3 each apple, cherry and plum also raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, asparagus and horseradish roots and fence posts. They didn't have any grape or blackberry plants at the nursery. The truck and trailer was fully loaded so I didn't have room for any fertilizer. I got a call yesterday that the rototiller is at the truck depot about 125 miles away. On Monday I'll go pickup the rototiller and check another nursery for grape and blackberry plants and get a ton of steer manure for the garden.
This spring I plan to put in another 500 fence posts. One section of fence, about a half mile long and is all bed rock, currently Im using rock cribs to hold up the wire. Each crib takes about a day or so to build. I made a deal with a neighboring rancher to bring his rock drill up to drill some post holes instead of building more cribs.
The grass is coming up good now and it's almost time to start bringing the cattle up from the valley.

 

[Danil54grl]

Yesterday I picked up some fruit trees; 3 each apple, cherry and plum also raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, asparagus and horseradish roots and fence posts. They didn't have any grape or blackberry plants at the nursery. The truck and trailer was fully loaded so I didn't have room for any fertilizer. I got a call yesterday that the rototiller is at the truck depot about 125 miles away. On Monday I'll go pickup the rototiller and check another nursery for grape and blackberry plants and get a ton of steer manure for the garden.
This spring I plan to put in another 500 fence posts. One section of fence, about a half mile long and is all bed rock, currently Im using rock cribs to hold up the wire. Each crib takes about a day or so to build. I made a deal with a neighboring rancher to bring his rock drill up to drill some post holes instead of building more cribs.
The grass is coming up good now and it's almost time to start bringing the cattle up from the valley.

Just keep in mind your horseradish root will run underground and has about a 2 1/2-3 ft tap root. From the run offs more horseradish will develope. It's kinda like dollar weed, if you miss digging up the tiniest of root, it will make a new plant. This is just an fyi. You may want to try and contain or give it it's own bed. It does help with repelling insects off tomatoes. Learned that one by accident. . .

 

[Arcticdude]

Just keep in mind your horseradish root will run underground and has about a 2 1/2-3 ft tap root. From the run offs more horseradish will develope. It's kinda like dollar weed, if you miss digging up the tiniest of root, it will make a new plant. This is just an fyi. You may want to try and contain or give it it's own bed. It does help with repelling insects off tomatoes. Learned that one by accident. . .

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that. I was planning on planting them in a raised bed next to where the tomatoes go. Maybe I should plant them somewhere else and let them go wild and cover as much ground as they want.
The wild onions are coming up now and it really smells good. And of course the bears are coming out too. Saw one two days ago sitting in a field of wild onions.

 

[Brent S]

We have two days of rain starting late tonight. Guess I will just relax tomorrow. At this stage of my life I’m just not motivated enough to go out and work in the rain here.