vegetable Garden 40'x40'

[Raven]

Mine is finally all planted with heavy rain expected...for a couple of days.... the 3 yards of loam/compost i ordered is all spread ,tamped .deep watered and weeded too. My sugar snap peas are already an inch tall and there's no stopping them now....by early june they'll be pumping out pea pods like no tommorow. So now i have four types of lettuce.broccoli, sugar snap peas,beets,red onions,bunching onions,
parsley,red bell peppers and spinach. Tomatoes i have growing indoors under lights and soon i'll get some squash going for the other garden. Now i can head to fish Knowing that while i'm out
looking for filet of bass my food garden is growing even if i get skunked. The price of food now is insane with the elevated prices of fuel to transport it so to offset my fishing fuel budget
i will make much better use of the free energy from the sun.

~ I am the man with the plan. ~

heres a previous year photo of my "ART" with veggies!
..... lol

[Goose]

Dam Dude thats nice...can you hook me up with some sun flower seeds
Ain't nothin like fresh veggie's thats for sure.
I have a small garden 3'x20' and it produces plenty, I give half away.
I have some of the richest darkest soil you've ever seen....maybe it has something to do with all them eels I bury there.

You ain't growin your own tabaco r ya?

[MrsSFrances]

wow! nice veggie art ya got there.... wish we had the room to plant veggies, but i think the dogs and kids would mind having the backyard as the whole garden....lol...our backyard is tiny....


if you see someone wearing a bunny suit in your garden pickin veggies..dont shoot its just me in costume...lol

[Raven]

Down south where they grow cotton they have one real stubborn pest called the bowevil and the only thing that will kill it is nicotinic acid made from tobacco ....and no to your question.
i have a real big sunny window but since i just transplanted some 4" tall beef steak tomatoes i'll baby them for a few days until about thursday ,friday until the sun shines again and then i'll take them outside to "harden off " before they get planted. I doubt i'll
grow sunflowers this year because they take up a huge amount of space. That garden in the picture was out on a big farm and the one i'm doing now is a step garden on a hillside and you can lay the hose down and the water zig zags down each step like
magic for deep watering during the extremely hot days coming.

[STEVE IN MASS]

Raven - you planted peppers outside already? .....watch that frost. My grandfather always said "Beware of the three icemen....May 16, 17 and 18."

You're a bit ahead of me.....got the onions in yesterday, sowed some various greens (mustard, sorrel, arugula, cress, and cilantro). Spinach is about an inch high, as are the snow and snap peas, and the first radishes. The mache (corn salad/field salad) was slow to germinate, but I see that is just starting to come up.

Hopefully tomorrow the brocolli, cauliflower and cabbage seedlings will go in, interplanted with lettuce seedlings.

Also got to sow the parsnips, carrots, rutabega, and transplant the leek seedlings, and get in some nasturtium seed.

Then that will be it for a couple weeks, until I feel safe with the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and basil. In the meantime, will start cuc and squash seed indoors in peat pots, and plant all the flower seedlings I have.

[Raven]

hmmm ...... I've never heard that expression before Steve. i planted seed from a red bell pepper and i'm not sure they will grow true to the parent plant or not. I generally plant seeds a little too thick and then i take plants out to the other garden as well as planting flats.

I've found that direct seeding for the cole crops gives you a much bigger plant and there's less chance that they will bolt from having been in someone elses hot house too long. Tomatoes and melons ,squash i plan to grow in bigger and bigger pots....[some i have are 35 gallon that i collect all year from the roadside,] Until way ->past the last frost date. I have cold frames too, lots of free lumber and plastic for protecting seedlings.

i've had rotten luck with carrots here at this location but they are relatively inexpensive for 5 lb bags compared to other vegetables as we use our juicer quite a bit. A big glass of carrot juice gives you a boost like JOLT soda or a strong capachino coffee drink...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who Knows: What the Best fertilizer is? [hint ] its kind of a trick question.
PM ...........me the answer if you "TRULY Know " what it is.

[STEVE IN MASS]

Oh, I misunderstood......if you direct seeded the peps, you should be all set.

The three iceman is an old, old thing from my grandfather, who probably got it from his father (they owned a farm). And that was in Jersey. And this year, the full moon is right around that time, so it may hold even more true. Though most years, where I am, April 15th-20th is usually the last frost, or at least the last deep frost. The lighter frosts can be dealt with (it was 31 here yesterday morning, though there was no frost on the grass or cars) with row covers, etc.

I rarely buy seedlings.....Only time I buy commericial seedlings is to fill in where my own stuff I started fails (like my early girl tomatoes this year......brand new seed, and not ONE sprouted....)..

The cole crops I plan on putting in were seeded myself about a month and a half ago, transplanted to six packs, and have been out in the cold frame for a good 2 weeks.

I do, however, have problems lately with brocolli and cauliflower bolting on me.....years ago it did great, but the last few years, the brocolli was just okay, and the cauliflower was all but useless.....in fact, I didn't even buy new cauliflower seed this year, just sowed what I had leftover from last season, figuring if it sprouts, so be it, if not, I'd forego the cauliflower this year. Ended up it all sprouted, so 8 or 10 plants will go in.


The cabbage, on the other hand, is always good, as long as I fight the slugs.......

See your PM's on the question....

[STEVE IN MASS]

Oh, forgot about the carrots.....mine rarely do great, either, but they are okay. And while they are cheap in the super, I find garden grow carrots, like most other things, just have better taste, even if the crop is so-so.

I try to plant shorter varieties, what with the rocky NE soil. Carrots really prefer a sandy soil as opposed to rocky loam. I still get stubbly, "hairy" carrots, but some are nice, as long as they don't get "tunneled" by what I think are wire worms.....this year, they are going under Remay to try and prevent that.....

[spence]

You can always work up a small bed just for carrots, or pick some shorter varieties like Touchon or Romeo's. Most plants will benefit from the loose soil anyway...

-spence

[Raven]

rocky newengland soil...heck it grows rocks ....so my solution is to import a couple yards of sand ...the coarse river bed sand
and make a special bed , just for carrots...my beds are typically 4 feet wide ....just able to reach to the middle from either side and how ever long you have space for ...raised and set up to hold water like a bath tub so you can flood them....thats what controls the "micro-climate" in the garden and signifigantly keeps the soil cooler and prevents bolting. so i deep water first especially before a rain...which rarely penetrates that deep...then i maintenance water by over head sprinkler
again to maintain the coolest microclimate you can....

[Raven]

STEVE knows what the best fertilizer is......

[spence]

Here's the garden I built with my neighbor last spring.

What we started with...



After retaining wall and fence going up...



Got loam?



Deep loose wide beds ready for planting...



It was a ton of work but this spring it was easy. Tilled the entire thing by hand with a pitchfork

-spence

[STEVE IN MASS]

NICE work......

[Jimbo]

Don't think I'm as well organized as some of you, but I try to keep a garden, too, growing a little each year. The usual stuff. Started everything indoors from seedlings this year. I have grown onions and found they seem to like a sand/dirt mix for soil in which to grow, just like someone said about carrots.
I tried peas this year, hoping they'd climb a hemp string grid I tied up, but their feelers don't seem to be wrapping around the string as I'd hoped. Are they particular about what they'll climb on? Is that true of pole beans and cucumbers, too? Or do they nees structure to climb?
Herbs are sort of fun to grow, too. It doesn't take all that much at the end of the season to dry and replace what you might have purchased from the store and have sitting in the cabinet.
I also grow my own horseradish. This is a fun, low maintenance plant that gets super huge leaves and you can make your own super sinus clearing horseradish pretty easily.

[STEVE IN MASS]

Jim.....my peas go on the outside border of the garden, so that they climb on the chicken wire fence (not really chicken wire, but a 1 x 3 heavy gauge mesh).....same for my cucs......at times, they need a bit of coaxing to get them to stay up where I want them (especially if it's windy), but they take to it pretty well after time....perhaps your grid isn't dense enough? (As in the mesh)....

Horseradish.......yep, something I was gonna try this year......so you reminded me to get it going.....but CAUTION....it is VERY invasive, and a beatch to get rid of when it gets out of hand. I'm gonna plant it in a remote area that it can take over and I won't care, or within something to contain it if I decide to put it where it might become a problem.....

[Nebe]

horseradish is awesome on striper

Wish I had a garden

[Jimbo]

I meant to say that about the horseradish. If possible section it off in its own area. I actually have it in 5 gallon buckets so it's contained.

[Raven]

they are like corkscrews and the secret is .....to go out each morning or evening as time permits and take a new tendril and give them a helping hand to find the string or fencing to start climbing on by gently taking them and rapping them the same direction as they spiral . after that they continue the process.

the same applies to peas going up ...just weave them in between the rows of string until the tendrils discover it and latch on.

i make an initial fence (string fence) like this i/|========|\i
with the lowest string 2 to 3 inches off the ground and the best string is nylon because its so strong.-> in the mini diagram above
the i's are the keeper (tension) stake ,the slanted ones(string) supporting the main stake. But to be honest my pea crops were so abundent (ie heavy)last year.. that i will be buying 2x4 studs this year and using nylon rope this time around because they grow so dense that a strong wind storm can thrash the heck out of a string fence making harvesting a real chore
spence nice job..... it will pay off im sure. keep your hoes razor sharp. And Goose no worries i'll grow you some veggies
just take me fishin some day ok buddy....

[Raven]

soil/compost delivered today for the mellons and tomatoes.... allot of work yeah but look at the price of food sky rocketing because of the fuel costs....so i am right on schedual.....!