Garden Update with pics

[dtlove129]

Figured I could post my garden to this point and do it again in a month to follow the progression.

Left to right yukon gold (1 row) and red potatoes (2 rows), broccoli, cauliflower, red and white onions, carrots, lettuce. Between broccoli and cauliflower will be 3 rows of peppers and onions and right beside the cauliflower is 2 freshly planted rows of green beans (1 row yellow wax and the other pickin and grinnin). In front of the red thing is 2 types of pickling cukes that just got planted and the front edge of the garden is a row of zuchinni freshly planted. At the end of the carrots will be a few eggplants in a couple of weeks.

The the first crop of corn is coming up and the mounds in the one picture is 3 pumpkin hills (1 giant pumpkin I hope) and then 2 rows of 5 hills each of butternut and spaghetti squash.

The box with the red lid and netting are the strawberries I planted last year and just plucked blooms all year. I have my first strawberry forming and hope to be eating them soon. Asparagus is one of the pictures, but this was my 2nd season with it and have already quit cutting it and just letting it grow now.

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[Rabbits2]

Very nice. Did you till the ground or plow it. My lettuce is ready to eat this week! I planted oak leaf 2 months ago in a cold frame! I am ready to start beans next weekend! My tomatoes are a foot high but still in the greenhouse!

[dtlove129]

I'm thinking by the weekend we will take a few leaves. I did it in succession and the first 3rd is over a month old. I til it. We got a rain today is why it looks as fresh as it does.

[Flatlander_MB]

Lookin' good DT. Looks like you planted your corn right up to the edge with the farmer behind you, is that right?

[dtlove129]

Thanks. Yeah last year he did beans so I had no worries of cross-pollination. This year I'm hoping mine grows fast or his does so that they don't pollinate at the same time.

[jal_ut]

Beautiful garden. You are ahead of me. My corn planting day is May 5, weather permitting. Thanks for sharing.

[dtlove129]

Thanks Jal! I took my chances on the corn and planted a couple of weeks earlier than I should have, but so far I've lucked out on it. It should really take off this week. We got about 1.5 inches of rain overnight and we are suppose to hit upper 80's lower 90's this week.

[jal_ut]

I have been gardening from my youth. I am retired now and have more time to garden. So I am growing a big garden and have committed to two farmers markets. I also have 28 colonies of bees in my backyard. I think I have lost my mind.......................................

Every year is different. We just had 28° on the 28th. It froze the asparagus shoots that were up. It didn't seem to bother any of the lettuce, spinach, radishes and onions that were up, but it surely would have got any tender crops. That is why I wait until May 5 to plant tender varieties.

Over the years I have came up with a planting scheme that has served me well in this high mountain desert. (5000 ft elevation) If you are interested in looking it can be found [url=https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/GARDEN.pdf]Here.[/url]

If you take this and move the dates up 2 or 3 weeks to fit your climate, it will give you a good idea of when to plant things there. Have a great garden!

[dtlove129]

Nice pdf Jal.

Well I still work, and actually will have to for another 30 years or so probably. I grew up gardening with my dad. I actually sold sweet corn when I was around 10 years old. Dad actually purchased all the seed and fertilizer, but I had to work it with him. I was allowed to keep all the money so it sure beat a lemonade stand at 50 cents a cup.

My dad's side of the family has a green thumb and love it, and I thought I would never get into it since I hated it so much as a kid (work). I bought my own place 3 years ago and the 2nd year here I decided to do a garden. Luckily I have my dad around to call and talk to about the garden, but I also do my research online. This year was my first year for starting everything from seed.

A lot of work, but it is fun. I would say we don't can/freeze as much as most people, but we do put up enough for us and it is fun to give extras away. Plus I love growing flowers and stuff now, and that helps when neighbors come walking by and say we have a done a lot to our yard.

I'm looking forward to retirement so I can be outside daily gardening and golfing.

[jal_ut]

A lot of work, but it is fun.

If you are having fun, its not work. It used to be work when Dad would send me out to weed the potato patch, but my outlook is different these days. If I thought it was work, I would quit gardening.

[mhannum]

That's a lovely garden - it must be great to have enough space for all sorts of plants!

[hendi_alex]

Envy, envy, envy..... That black dirt looks rich enough to grow anything. My sandy soil still looks almost like beach sand, even after years of adding compost. Hot dry sand! If it were not for compost, synthetic soil, and a very good well, I would be lucky to grow much more than sand spurs and cactus.

[dtlove129]

Hendi, that is what made me garden. After I moved here a few years ago and bought the house, may dad of course came to visit and help do some renovation stuff and he told me that he wouldn't have a backyard but it would be full of veggies. I'm originally from KY and know what you are talking about with poor soil versus what I have. When I was like 10 we had to write a 1 page paper about describing an invention we would invent if we could. My invention was a Rock Picker Upper, because my dad made me pick up rocks out of the garden so much. Hey, it helped me become a baseball pitcher in little league because I would take the rocks and as I was throwing them into the woods behind our house I would try to hit trees.

So when I first broke ground for my garden last year I was so happy to not have rocks!

[greenstubbs]

As a born and raised Illinois boy, I gotta say that the rich black earth of the mid-western states is some of the best growing dirt in the U.S. I can't wait to get back and work with it again.