What have you done for garden prep so far?

[Brent S]

I'm sitting in Alabama thinking that this summer may be like last summer... friggin hot and dry... hope I'm wrong.

It jumped right up in temps here already. Luckily we are getting some rains at least, I just hope they continue. I do know that I got lucky with planting so early this year. One frost hurt most of the young potato plants, but it wasn't long enough to kill them. Potatoes are pretty tough.

 

[WGregMiller]

It jumped right up in temps here already. Luckily we are getting some rains at least, I just hope they continue. I do know that I got lucky with planting so early this year. One frost hurt most of the young potato plants, but it wasn't long enough to kill them. Potatoes are pretty tough.

Maybe this year won't suck as bad as last year. Almost 90 again today. Supposed to rain the next couple of days. Maybe it'll settle some of this pollen! I'm tired of being a knuckle dragging mouth breather.... yeah - I know - I'll still be a knuckle dragger....

 

[SheilaT.]

And here's me hoping for a hot summer! well, relatively speaking, I could do with a good crop of winter squash for storage. A hot summer for us would put the temps in the 80', when it gets that hot we get a lot of thunderstorms in the afternoon, and rain as well so it's perfect growing weather. We don't get the baking temps some of you suffer.

 

[Brent S]

It's a good thing I planted lots of potatoes.... Luckily I have several cases of canned ones left but this is the last fresh of falls crop.

 

[Danil54grl]

I let some mustard greens go to seed and they are ready to get picked today. It rained yesterday, but I am hoping to get that row pulled up and add in some of that 60/40 and some compost to till in to build up so I can get it replanted. Going to let the dew dry and pick my sweet peas. Noticed a few that got knocked off the trellis so need to get those tied back up. Lettuce is getting picked and resown. Yesterday I noticed that I missed planting two row in a raised bed, so got those in the ground before the rain started and a few corn didn't sprout so added to them too.

 

[SheilaT.]

Has anyone grown Sweet Potatoes? They're one of our favourites and I'm thinking of growing some in the polytunnel next year, I know we couldn't grow them outside. I have done a bit of research and know I need to grow thm from slips, but I'm not sure what sort of crop you get and if they are worth growing at home?

 

[Danil54grl]

I have a friend who is growing purple sweet potatoes. I had been wanting to plant some too, just haven't yet. She cut the sweets just like you would a normal potato, leaving the slips in place, let skim & then planted about 8 inches down. She has them in a BIG clear plastic container that is about a 4 ft square lined with clear plastic. Its her first time so we are both seeing how it goes.

 

[grayghost668]

I need some more space for potatoes,,I guess I will have to till some more up ,a 5 x 15 area should do the trick,it will give me a look at the difference in the 2 areas,the main garden was tilled at least 10 times and I added old saw dust and black cow to it,this area will be unchanged nothing added

 

[Maverick]

Has anyone grown Sweet Potatoes? They're one of our favourites and I'm thinking of growing some in the polytunnel next year, I know we couldn't grow them outside. I have done a bit of research and know I need to grow thm from slips, but I'm not sure what sort of crop you get and if they are worth growing at home?

As long as you are out of the dangers of frost, hope you get a lot of sun for at least a month before and after planting them. Bury the plant roughly 6" down with a minimum of 12" apart in warm soil. I prep the soil on hot days for at least 3 days covering the ground with black plastic at sunset (holding in the heat during the night) On the third day I wait till it's full sun and hot ambient temps before planting. Bury the slip to the top leave, don't press hard then saturate the ground (first watering) with water out of a 5 gallon buckets that set in the shade on a sunny day to bring water temp up.

 

[Maverick]

P.S. Sweet potatoes make tasty french fries

 

[Danil54grl]

Went out to gather my salad for tonights dinner and noticed one of my dill weed heads was ready for the picking. One head should give you roughly the amount a small McCormick spice jar has. . . I think they ate around $2.49 at the stores. The rest is coming along . . .

 

[Danil54grl]

OK something went terribly wrong

 

[Arcticdude]

I've got some high meadows that have dried out enough to be re-seeded in pasture. I was planning on seeding about 20-40 acres each year to improve grazing, but the tractor is still buried. My road is bearly passable in places due to deep mud and there's no way to get any equipment up here for at least a couple more weeks. So I started digging around the tractor by hand. My plans are to dig around the tires and tunnel under the belly pan. I'll have to dig almost 6 feet to get timbers under the rear tires. Then I'll chain the rear of my Jeep to a tree and hope the winch will give enough of a pull to get it out. I just want the rain to hold off for a few days.

 

[SheilaT.]

You must be in a position of hurry and wait for the ground to dry out enough to dig but still be wet enough to move the tractor. I don't envy you at all Arcticdude.

I'll be growing the Sweet Potatoes in a polytunnel Mav. It's too cold to grow them outside over here. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Brent S]

View attachment 6799 View attachment 6799 View attachment 6799 View attachment 6799 View attachment 6799 Went out to gather my salad for tonights dinner and noticed one of my dill weed heads was ready for the picking. One head should give you roughly the amount a small McCormick spice jar has. . . I think they ate around $2.49 at the stores. The rest is coming along . . .View attachment 6798

Is dill a cold weather crop? I'm really hoping to get enough okra this year to pickel a load as I'm on the last of mine now. They are three years old now and kind of softer than I like.

 

[Danil54grl]

Dill starts popping up the end of January and ends around the first part of June. I try to collect as many seeds as possible for pickling season. Just an FYI. . . don't buy the small jars from the grocery store if you need more than what you collect. Here they are 25 cents for an ounce at the feed stores when bought by the bulk. I like to replant every couple years in order to keep it nice dill. It tends to get a little more stringy and wimpy.

 

[Brent S]

Dill starts popping up the end of January and ends around the first part of June. I try to collect as many seeds as possible for pickling season. Just an FYI. . . don't buy the small jars from the grocery store if you need more than what you collect. Here they are 25 cents for an ounce at the feed stores when bought by the bulk. I like to replant every couple years in order to keep it nice dill. It tends to get a little more stringy and wimpy.

Yeah, I'm not as fresh as I used to be either.... Time tends to mellow out most things

 

[Arcticdude]

I spent yesterday and today attempting to dig out my tractor. While digging I noticed two things, first; the soil looks very black and fertile. Second; there are no earth worms. Is that normal? Are earth worms not native? Should I plant worms when I start the garden? What kind of worms should I plant? I just thought that as fertile as the soil looks that there should be some worms in it.

 

[SheilaT.]

I wouldn't worry too much about the lack of worms AD. Earthworms have a couple of strategies to survive winter, firstly they go deep to avoid frost and secondly they lay a lot of eggs in the autumn. So you will either start to see the adults later on, or lots of babies. You soil will probably be teeming soon.

 

[Danil54grl]

If you have a good fertile soil, they will start appearing once your soil warms up. Its probably still to cool for them. Just add in things that they can eat on and you will have an endless supply.