2014 garden

[dgmj10]

My wife and I have been since we have been married (I think this will be our 10th year) I grew up helping both set of grandparent's to some extent.

At our current location we have 3, 8x8 beds 2 , 4x4 beds and a 24x4 for 2 rows. We also have apple, peach, plum, pear and pecan trees. I dont consider the 8x8s raised beds they start as lined beds. That after a couple years worth of amendment, they fill.

I am a landscaper, and have access to lots of organic material. I know what yards in the maintenance division, get treated and with what chemical. You don't want to use clippings for your beds that have been sprayed recently with somthing like pre emergent. Not that I don't use chemicals, I use insecticide as needed. I dont however use much chemical fertilizers. Building the soil the way I do, has worked out well.

Tonight I started my second round of romaine, iceberg, and spinach. The first round was started on the 3rd. I just use the jiffy expanding mini pots for these. I do however cut the net off before planting. I still find them from three years ago.

I will put some pictures up when things get interesting. Depending on weather I can post up pictures of the strawberry beds.

[rice paddy daddy]

My wife is in charge of the garden. She is getting ready to prepare for the year.
Our garden is 40 X 75 feet and she wants to double the 75' dimension to 40 X 150
We have three horses and mucking out the stalls every couple days gives us wheelbarrow loads of manure, hay leavings, and sand (we buy sand by the dump truck load and use it in the bottom of the stalls).
We also keep chickens, but only 15 at the moment, so the time/effort involved in collecting their manure is just not worth it.
Several years ago we let the garden go fallow and used the stall debris to build raised beds. She was out of commission for a few years when her knees got so bad they both had to be totally replaced (big bucks!).

[RWalls]

Right now my gardening consists of apple, pear, plum and peach trees. I also have blueberry, black berry. 2013 was a bad season for fruit trees, too much rain. Hopefully this year will be better. Also I keep honeybees, but the black bears like to destroy them. Its hard to keep a full garden in Roswell and I dont live on my property so it sucks a bit, maybe soon..

[dgmj10]

Wow 40 x150 will grow a lot of food, I wish I had more space here. Our last garden was 40 by 60 but a large chunk 20x 25 was dedicated to corn. How do you water? I am a huge fan of drip with micro spray heads.

RWalls my fruit trees did poorly last year except the plum and pear, every thing else had fungus issues. The apples and peach have required extensive pruning do to the previous owners neglect. I have taken a 4 year approach and this is the third pruning I should have them back to a central vase next year.

[rice paddy daddy]

Living in Florida the rain usually takes care of most watering. When needed the wife waters by hand with a hose or uses a lawn sprinkler.
At one time we had a type of soaker hose that is a black porous material that the water seeps through.
We have not had good luck with corn, and last year she was still not feeling good so it was just tomatoes, potatoes, water melon and honeydew melons.
This is the year she gets going full blast again and gets the pressure canner out. I hope.
I might even put some habanero peppers in for myself.

[dgmj10]

So everything planted from seedlings is doing well. The last cold drop did burn the newest growth on the broccoli. The lettuces, cabbages and alliums did fine. This cold spell I covered the broccoli and younger cabbage. I promise pics soon

[1moretoy]

Getting our first stand of asparagus this year. Always loved it but always bought it. Never really new how it grew until now. And man does it grow fast.

[etkd]

I am sooo ready for a homegrown tomato.

[new guy]

Started some seeds the other day indoors, going to start more today. Cant wait till its warm enough to transplant. I tried sweet potatoes last year for the first time with the excessive rain we had turned out ok.

[RWalls]

My raised bed lettuce isn't doing so hot. I probably jumped the gun and planted too early. I hope this year isn't the constant downpour like last year.