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Gary350
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Tennessee 2018 Garden

I am getting an early start this year because I am planting several cool weather spring crops, potatoes, garlic, onions, carrots, beets, herbs. Garden is still too muddy to till so I have made several 3ft x 10ft boxes to full in with 3" to 6" of soil just for the purpose of raising the soil surface level higher up than the garden we are still getting rain almost every day that typically continues until late May.

See attached garden map photo.

Starting on the left side of the map which is west side of my garden.

GARLIC. I planted 3 kinds of garlic in Sept they were looking good in Nov but 6 degree weather this winter killed all the garlic except garlic with red color skin. I don't remember what this garlic is called. There are 90 plants in a patch 3 ft by 4 ft. I replaced the rest of that garlic yesterday 3/24/18. I planted spring garlic last year just to see how well it grows and it did better than fall garlic so I expect this new crop of 189 plants to do good too. This will give me almost 300 garlic plants.

ONIONS. I have 2 kinds of onions in these beds about 3" of soil in each bed this is high enough to keep the plants out of the swamp. Onions are in rows 5" apart with 7 rows a total of about 180 onions per bed. 1/2 yellow onions, 1/2 Vidalia = 380 onions.

HERBS & CARROTS in the next bed. 3 kinds of carrots to see which 1 grows best so I know what to plant next year & beets, onion seeds, chives. The other bed in the same row has, carrots, 8 broccoli, 4 cabbage.

BEANS & PEPPERS I hope to plant beans no later than May 15. Blue Lake bush bean bed 3 ft x 20 ft. 8 rows of beans 4" between rows with about 60 seeds in each row = 480 seeds. This type bed does very well every year plants get cool morning sun until about 1pm then shade from a large tree the hottest part of the day until dark. This should produce 2 bushel baskets of beans fairly quick. Soon as we get all the beans we want I will let the plants make seeds to plant next year. I am going to plant 10 pepper plants 3 kinds of pepper down the center of the bean patch because beans will supply nitrogen to the soil for the peppers. Peppers will also help shade beans from the not July & August sun. This compact bed gives me several extra rows in the garden to plant other things.

TOMATOES. I hope to plant tomatoes about April 20. I like to plant 6 different kinds of tomatoes no matter what the crazy weather does we should still have tomato plants that survive the hot summer and have tomatoes on the kitchen table until Christmas. Cherry tomatoes do very well in 100 degree weather while the larger tomatoes slow down production. Shade from the big tree in the hot afternoon sun helps the tomatoes to keep producing in hot 95 degree weather. I hope to harvest 500 lbs of tomatoes again. Frost kills my plants in Nov and green tomatoes get ripe in the kitchen until Christmas.

PEAS & OKRA I am planting 3 kings of peas, mostly sugar snap peas & wando also a few Alaska snow peas. I am going to plant Okra down the center of the 3 ft x 30 ft bed to give peas something to climb on. I am going to pull the leaves off the bottom of the okra plants so the peas have poles to climb up. I'm not sure this will work okra is very slow growing at first about 1 ft tall in 1 month then 2 ft tall the next month but when temperature get hot 95 degrees okra will grow 3 ft taller in another month. The faster growing peas may over take the okra. I can plant peas a month earlier than okra so peas will have 30 day head start on the okra. OH well just have to see if it works.

POTATOES. I bought 3 lbs of grocery store Organic Russet potatoes & 15 lbs of Russet seed potatoes. I kept the potatoes warm 74 degrees inside the house inside cardboard boxes where it is dark this made the potatoes grow sprouts from all the eyes in a few weeks. The organic grocery store potatoes grew 2 times more sprouts than seed potatoes. I made cuttings with only 1 sprout per cutting let them dry out then planted then. I have 90 cutting planted in my 3 ft x 30 ft bed. Bed has about 3" of organic mushroom compose that I bought at the garden store. When plants start to grow I will be covering them with more soil every week as plants get larger. Potatoes are a 4 month crop they were planted March 24 and should be ready to harvest about July 24. This compact potato bed gives me 1 extra row in the garden to plant other things.

MELONS & SWEET POTATOES. My melon and potato patches are 10 ft x 12 ft each. This year I am going to plant 8 plants in each bed instead of 4 plants. Each plant will be 3 ft apart starting in the center. I will keep the vines growing in a circle by the time vines reach the corn, potatoes, peas, those crops will be gone making room for melon to take over the whole garden. 8 sweet potato plants will usually make about 300 lbs of potatoes but I am not going to cover the vines with soil this year so they will probably produce 200 lbs potatoes. In the past 4 Watermelons & 4 Cantaloupes were slow to produce more than about 1 melon every 2 weeks so maybe 8 plants will produce 1 melon per week. In about 1 more month plants will be producing 1 melon every day we will have to give away lots of melons its hard to eat 1 melon every day. Some of the melon plants may need to be pulled up not sure what we will do when we start getting 2 watermelons & 2 cantaloupes every day from 8 plants each. When frost kills Sweet Potato vines in Nov they will get harvested then

CORN. I am planting 65 day corn because harvest will be right at the start of our hot weather. Corn does not like temperatures over 85 degrees. I should be able to plant corn about May 7 then harvest about July 15, temperature will probably be 95 degrees by July 15. Corn does not do will in a small crop, I have done lots of corn experiments in the past 40 years I have had very good luck planting corn rows 12" apart but that makes it extremely hard to weed the rows. This year I have 3 rows 12" apart with 32" between each group of 3 rows for the tiller. I can walk down the center and weed with the hoe or my hand. This compact planting gives me 2 extra rows in my garden to plant other things. Corn seeds will be 6" apart with 2 bean seeds planted between each corn plant. Beans add nitrogen to the soil for corn it should not need factory made fertilizer. Farmers plant field corn 2" and 3" between seeds I have tied that with sweet corn it does good in my garden with 3 ft row spacing. I am playing it safe 6" seed spacing this year. I should get 384 ears of corn. The beans that I plant in with the corn is only there to make nitrogen I do not care about harvesting the beans but there is always several 100 beans to pick.
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Gary350
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Weather man said it was going to rain 3" yesterday. LOL it never rained at all. Weather man said 1/2" of rain today no rain today either. 4 days of very high wind and 68 degree temperatures I tilled the garden today. Too soon to plant last frost is about April 15 to 20.
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Gary350
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Last weekend we had freezing weather for 2 days & today it was 80 degrees. After 3 months of rain it finally stopped. Every day this week we have had 20 mph wind and 70 degree weather and 80 today. All this wind and nice weather made the garden soil dry up so I tilled it this morning about 9 am it took 45 minutes. About 1/2 the garden tills very easy because it has more organic material than the other 1/2. High wind blew 1000s of dead sticks out of the trees into the garden, I tilled them into the soil they crunched up and vanished. After lunch we went to the garden center and bought a few plants. I laid out the rows & planted 12 tomato plants with a marigold plant between every other plant. I have 1000s of marigold seeds from last summer I put seeds between the tomatoes that had no marigold plants. I planted marigold seeds in several other places if they grow I will have lots of flowers to transplant. I worked about 3 hours in the garden today weather man claims a big storm is going to dump 3" of rain on us tomorrow it won't hurt the tomatoes & hope it won't hurt the marigolds.

The grocery store organic russet potatoes are coming up but none of the russet seed potatoes are coming up yet.

Onions & garlic are looking good. I had some extra space at the end of the onion bed so I planted 8 broccoli & 4 cabbage.

Rhubarb is getting larger the cats love to hide under the big leaves. I'm not sure when to harvest this so I will keep an eye on it. My grandmother use to harvest rhubarb when blackberries were ripe that is about July 4 here.

I planted 4 more blackberry plants in the front yard. Last years blackberries are doing great. I need 2 buy more plants.
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I did my first planting of corn today also!

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Wow, Gary! Great pics of your beautiful gardens! You seem very organized and have a great variety. Right now, I have everything starting in the greenhouse. Some of my colder weather plants I will move outside in the coming week, but the others can't go out until after May 15 at the earliest.

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Gary350
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Frost warning again tonight. Record freeze is April 25. Record frost is May 7. Record snow furies May 30. According to TV Weather. I am getting tired of covering up my plants 5 gallon buckets are quick at easy for tomatoes & peppers. I have to put tarps over the potatoes. Frost will not kill potatoes it only kills the tops this stunts their growth about 2 weeks. Flowers, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, sweet potatoes, are all in the kitchen again for another night. I guess I better hold off planting anything for another week or so. We are going camping tomorrow = Friday and won't be here to cover up plants until Sunday evening.
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Gary350
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It has been raining hard none stop for 26 hours and it is still raining. As usually the garden if flooded but this year potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cilantro, herbs, are 4" above the swamp and looking good. The organic Russet grocery store potatoes are growing good but the Russet seed potatoes are not doing much. Tomatoes & peppers are under water in the past 40 years water has never been a problem for them. I was hoping to plant the rest of the tomatoes before we leave for Florida tomorrow 8 am but I will just have to wait until we return next Tuesday.
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Gary350
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After spending a week camped on Florida beach for a week in 80 degree weather I feel like we returned home to the Arctic Circle it was 36 degrees last night. My son said it rained every day we were gone. My potatoes are the only plants in the garden that look like they grew larger. The organic russet potatoes are still growing better than the russet seed potatoes.

I gave the garden a quick till just too loosen the soil a bit today. I planted 12 more tomato plants spaced 18" apart instead of 24" apart. I am too lazy to replant the tomatoes with 24" spacing they will be OK I have planted them 18" apart before when I had a smaller garden and was trying to save space. 18" spacing actually does much better if plants are in full sun all day they are so close they shade each other and protect each other in 100 degree sun.

I planted, Big Beef, Jet Star, Big Boy, & Cherry Tomatoes. Big Beef & Big Boy will give us a early harvest but in 100 degree weather Cherry Tomatoes & Jet Star will produce a good harvest while the heat will slow production Big Beef & Big Boy..

Peppers & Tomatoes that I planted a week ago look like they have not grown, when it gets warmer they will do better.

Garlic & Onions are looking good.

Herbs, 3 types of carrots, beets, broccoli, cabbage all look good.

I am looking for a place to plant my 110 degree hot weather Vietnam potatoes maybe there is room at the end of the tomato rows. I like to stick to my garden map as close as I can but mistakes like wrong tomato spacing gives me a place for other stuff not planed for on the garden map.
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Gary350
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Interesting observation about potato cuttings. The organic grocery store potatoes had 1" long roots about 15 roots per eye in a circle around the eye like the spokes of a wheel. I figured these will grow quick with all these roots so the cuttings can be small an I should not need to worry if cutting will rot while waiting for roots to reach the soil and make a potato plant. Looks like I was right the organic grocery store potatoes are attached to the soil very well. I dug soil away from several plants the cutting is stuck tight to the soil with lots of roots cuttings will not life up.

Seed potatoes had no roots but eyes were growing long. Depending on how the potatoes were laying inside the cardboard box eyes on the side of the potatoes had sprouts growing up the side. Eyes on bottom had sprouts growing around the potato and up. Eyes on top grew straight up. I made a lot of cutting then let them dry 3 days then planted them too. A few plants came up quick others were slow and others were slower. I dug down to investigate the cuttings that grew plants first had the eyes facing down where roots could grow right into the soil quick. Eyes that are facing up took time for root to grow around the cutting then down to the soil. Eyes on the side of the cutting were not so slow roots did not have far to grow down deep into the soil.

Another interesting thing, a large cutting will grow a nice green plant and may still have no roots it appears the plant is growing from the large cutting and the cutting seems to be in no hurry to grow roots. Cutting that were cut like a thick potato peal grew roots and plants very quick.

Several weeks ago I pealed potatoes for dinner then threw the pealing in the compost pile at the edge of the garden. Today I notice the potato peals have grown into 6" tall plants.

Tomorrow I am going to make 10 thick peal cutting from my left over potatoes let them dry 3 days then plant the eyes face down on the soil surface then cover them up with soil. If I am right this seems to be the best way to cut & plant potato cuttings.

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Looking good Gary. I just planted potatoes. I cut them up into 1/2-1 oz pieces (oops, too small), let them cure for 36 hours and then planted. No eyes were showing any growth whatsoever. They are from a reputable organic farm that is known for potatoes. Fingers crossed that everything works fine.

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Gary350
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My garden is finished. I have been watching the weather forecast 80+ degrees for a week and rain Saturday so I decided garden needs to be finished in time to have rain. I stuck to my garden map fairly close but a few things had be be changed. After planting all the tomatoes we wanted I had 8 feet left over in 2 rows to plant okra. After planting all the pea seeds I had there was 9 feet left over to plant 3 rows of Asian potatoes. I added a short row of corn to make the total crop be 380 plants. I made a place for spaghetti squash & acorn squash that was not originally on my garden map before.

Maps from left to right,

Garlic 2 kings 3'x20' patch about 140 plants 6 degree winter weather killed some of the plants.

Scallions 50 plants.

Onions 2 kings 3'x20' patch about 240 plants.

Cilantro, 3 kinds of carrots 600 plants, 100 beets, 4 cabbage, 8 broccoli, 3'x20' patch.

Blue Lake bush beans 3'x20' patch 880 plants with peppers planted down the center of the bean patch.

Peppers, 4 sweet, 4 jalapeno, 4 Mexican long green sweet bell peppers, 2 Chinese 12" long giant red chilies.

Tomatoes, 12 Big Beef, 4 Jet Star, 4 Big Boy, 2 kings of cherry tomatoes 6 plants 2 rows 21' long each.

Okra 2 rows 8 ft long 14 plants.

Zucchini squash 6 plants

Asian potatoes 50 plants in 3 rows 9' long each.

Potatoes 3'x30' bed with 90 Russet plants.

White sweet potatoes 4 plants.

Orange sweet potatoes 5 plants.

Watermelons 4 plants.

Cantaloupe 4 plants.

Ambrosia sweet corn 380 plants.

Spaghetti squash 2 plants.

Acorn squash 2 plants.

Rhubarb 5 plants.

Herbs, Marjarom, oregano, cilantro, basil, thyme, parsley.

I still have a bag of 75 onion bulbs on my desk that need to be planted.

I still have several trays of flowers to plant in the garden among the vegetables.
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Waiting for rain. After lunch it rained about 5 minutes but soil does not look very wet. Weather man claims big rain storm tonight just have to wait and see.
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Gary350
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For several days I have been hearing wrens chirping their lungs out it sure is a nice sound for the garden.

It rained all night and rained very hard 6:30 am this morning new plants should be coming up in a few more days. I timed it perfect I watched TV weather forecast and had the whole garden finished waiting for the rain that was in the way. It looks like a very good rain I see water standing in the garden & 2 hrs later water has gone down. I'm not sure it will be 80 today but weather man claims 80 degree all next week.
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Gary350
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Weather forecast can not be trusted it rained again all night 59 degrees this morning & the garden is mud. Corn & peas might do ok but not sure beans will survive seeds may rot in cold wet mud. Last week it was 85 degrees & forecast for this week was 80+ degrees & sunny. Today's forecast 75 with rain all week. Just have to wait an see if anything grows in cold wet mud.

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Since it was hot all last week, the ground may have been heated enough to resist the cold air temp?

Hoping for good outcome Gary350 :bouncey:

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Gary350
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We had 20 mph wind all day, full sun an 79 degrees. The soil dried out good enough I can to some work.

My potato plants are 6" to 10" tall and the stems have about 25 roots growing out the sides on the lower 1" of the plants. I shoveled enough soil on the potato plants to cover the roots so roots have some where to grow. Once every week I will need to shovel more soil on the plants for more roots to grow.

There is nothing else to do but wait an see if, corn, peas & beans grow.

Tomato plants have taken good root plants are 2" taller and much darker green color than before. All this rain an mud never seems to hurt tomato plants or the pepper plants.

Weather man claims it is going to rain again tomorrow.

I had about 200 potato cuttings left over that I do not need so I listed them free on craigslist and about a dozen people wanted them. Someone came and took 50 cuttings then another person came and took the rest.

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Gary350
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I planted 3 rows of wine today weather man says we might get more rain tonight. We are having more 20 mph wind the spinners are a blur but the camera makes it look like they are stopping. A few pea seeds have germinated but no corn or beans yet. It is sunny and 85 degrees corn & beans still might grow. I am bottling another 6 gallons of red wine today this will add another 32 bottles to the wine cellar.
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Reason: A typo corrected per request.

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applestar
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Did you explain what the garden rows of wine bottles are for before?
... I was guessing maybe you were sterilizing them in the sun?

Looks like good times :D

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Gary350
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applestar wrote:Did you explain what the garden rows of wine bottles are for before?
YES. I planted 3 rows of wine. LOL. :) That is too silly.

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Gary350
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After 2 days of no rain, full sun, 20 mph wind, 85 degrees, it rained very hard this morning 6:30am sun came out for 2 hrs now it is raining again. Peas & beans are growing but no corn yet. I have lost 7 potato plants from cut worms. No problem potatoes can not be killed by cut worms or frost, no matter how often plants get killed they will grow back. Up to now I have not fertilized anything in the garden, last night 7pm I mixed 1 pint of wood ash with 5 gallons of water then watered my tomatoes & potatoes. I mixed up 3 buckets of water. My onions & garlic need nitrogen I plan to remove all the soil around the bulbs so they will grow very large.
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Gary350
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It is interesting to notice how beans can push there way through this hard dry soil like little hydraulic jacks. Peas are doing the same thing. Beans & peas have broken up all the soil in their 3'x20' patch it looks like the worlds smallest earth quake broke up all the soil in those 2 spots. It is easy to tell where each row of corn is planted because corn has the soil lifted up and cracked open in a straight line the full length of the row like a volcano does to the earth then corn comes up like pointed arrows. About 1/2 my beans are up, about 1/2 my corn is up, about 1/2 my peas are up. 2 more weeks, corn, beans, peas, will be 6 to 8 inches tall. The tomato seeds I planted and covered with wooden blocks have germinated this morning and full sun 2nd 1/2 of the day turned the white leaves dark green. Tomato seed are easier to plant directly in the garden than plant trays inside the house much less work & seeds are up in about 4 days. I saved a lot of seeds from last years garden that saved me a bunch of money & I did not have to drive 18 miles round trip to buy seeds. About 1 or 2 more days everything will be up. I have 1000s of saved flower seeds I planted them in many places this evening they will be coming up soon too.

There are no honey bees. I have been watching for bees every day for weeks and no bees. I have been letting white clover grow in the yard for the bees but no bees. Grass needs to be cut soon maybe next week.
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Yes, my lawn is mostly white clover. I think I have seen two honeybees so far. The clover blossoms should be full of them. Bad times!

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I needed 4 more plants to finish 1 of the tomato rows so Monday I planted a few seeds in 4 places then covered them with a small board to hold moisture an Thursday the seeds had germinated. Now plants are nice and green after being in the sun 2 days. I only need 1 plant in each location so I will use a kitchen spoon to scoop the extra plants out to transplant at my sons house.

Last year we threw all the kitchen scraps into the garden & this year there are 100s of volunteer melons growing everywhere.

It was 90 degrees today and onions are already going to seed.
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I harvested a 2 ft tall onion plant today then folded it several times to fit on a hamburger we cooked on the BBQ grill. I have about 400 onion plants it won't hurt anything to eat them as they grow larger.

I caught a small toad in the garden then released it in the potato patch. The toad acted like it was right at home in that jungle of potato plants.

I sprinkled wood ash on my tomato plants today like I do every year weather report is 4 days of thunder storms starting Tuesday. I also put wood ash on my, onions, garlic & potatoes. There is lots of P&K, Lime & minerals in wood ash. Lime is good for BER.

We harvested more Rhubarb today to make sauce, 1 part Rhubard, 2 parts strawberries, sugar to taste. We baked a yellow cake too. Sauce over cake taste too much like strawberries to me but wife likes it. Next time we try 1 part Rhubarb with 1 part strawberries. I think sauce can use a little bit of cinnamon too and a spoon of Orange Marmalade Jam in place of some of the sugar.

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Gary350
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It finally rained yesterday evening after no rain an 90+ degrees for a week. Potato plants are looking good. Peas & beans are small they needed the rain. Okra & Asian potatoes have not come up yet. Onions & garlic look good. Sweet potatoes, melons & corn need the rain too, 4 more days of rain in the forecast. We harvested small amounts of Rhubarb 3 times to make sauce it is good over cake & frozen yogurt with whip cream. Tomato plants are doing great.
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Gary350
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Dog has destroyed about 20% of the corn crop running through the garden barking at people. I built this fence today in about 3 hrs work. I hammered wooden stakes in the ground 2 ft apart them put thin wood strips zig zag between the stakes. Dog can not run straight through the corn anymore she has to run around. In about a month corn will be taller then fence can come down. Click on picture it gets bigger, click pic again it get even bigger. I made good use of that free trailer load of wood strips.
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The basket weave? fence looks great! :-()

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rainbowgardener
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Very nice! Why take the fence down later?

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Gary350
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rainbowgardener wrote:Very nice! Why take the fence down later?
My original garden plan was to plant melons & sweet potatoes in the center of the garden then after corn is harvested an gone melons & sweet potato vines can grow into the area where corn was. Also when white potatoes and peas are harvested an gone on the other side of garden melons & sweet potato vines can grow into that area too. Fence needs to be gone so melon & sweet potato vines can grow in that direction, I was planning to make vines grow in a circle away so fence may not need to be gone for 2 months. I made sure to have 3 feet of space on both sides of the fence for the tiller I will probably need to run tiller through the garden in 2 more weeks to remove unwanted grass & weeds that come up. So far so good no weeds or grass anywhere except wet corner of garden that is still shaded by tall trees. Sun is getting high up now it won't take much to keep grass & weeds gone from the garden for the next 3 months in the dry season. June to August little rain means few weeds and no garden work except harvesting crops. We are still planning to spend the month of June camping in Michigan garden will be fine no work to do until July then time to harvest & put vegetables in mason jars. I like mason jars food is good for 4 years but wife likes the freezer but food gets freezer burn in zip lock bags after 6 months so it needs to be eaten before it goes bad.

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Gary350
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It rained last night & potato plants are falling over they were standing up nice an straight yesterday. I was hoping to shovel more soil on the plants today before they all fall over, oh well that is what potato plants do. Several potatoes plants blossomed a few days ago an the rest of the plants are ready to blossom. Pea patch is looking good except for WANDO peas only 7 our of 250 seeds germinated. I ordered sugar beet seeds yesterday to take the place of wando. I hope sugar beets will be FREE sugar for making wine. Some of the tomatoes are 2 ft tall now the only fertilizer I have used is wood ash they are due to have more wood ash fertilizer tomorrow. Bean crop is up an looking good about 800 bean plants. Both types of sweet potatoes look good & both type melons all look good too. Corn is looking better they needed rain. I water new tomato plants and pepper plant for a few days to help them get started but I never water my garden that forces plants to grow deep roots in search of their own water when 100 degree weather arrives plants will be fine all summer with what little rain we get in the dry season.
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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

My cilantro patch is getting big sense its 90+ degrees it will go to seed soon. I planted this BIG patch for seeds so I can keep several small patches of cilantro growing all summer. Wife made taco salad for dinner with cilantro & garden onion tops. We call it vegetable taco salad with, peas, broccoli, onion, celery, carrots, meat, cheese, lettuce, & 1 jar of Picante sauce. Mix taco seasoning in meat then add to vegetables. I like grilled Fajita chicken. Stir in a whole bag of cheese flavor corn chips. Top with what ever you like, sour cream or guacamole. Pico de gallo is good too. Hot weather my onions are trying to make seeds I hope picking the seed tops off will not hurt the onions.
Last edited by Gary350 on Tue May 22, 2018 10:41 am, edited 1 time in total.

hrousejr
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Joined: Sun May 20, 2018 9:16 am
Location: Trenton, NC - Hardiness Zone 8A

Very well planned garden. Meticulous planning should yield lots of bounty.

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Thunder storms last night turned out to be a tiny sprinkle, it made the soil surface wet enough that it was easy to hoe this morning. I pulled the hoe through the garden like a road grader blade as I walked up and down each row. The loose soil on the surface kills grass & acts like mulch, moisture that wicks its way to the surface is insulated buy 1" of dry loose soil that blocks the sun from evaporating the moisture below. A few days ago I shoveled about 6" of soil on the potato plants they are standing straight and tall again. Not much to do for a while but go camping. Yesterday after lunch temperature was in the 90s I sat under a shade tree with a glass of sweet ice tea watching & listing to the birds, wind sounds so nice blowing through the trees, clouds in the sky were so wonderful, I fell asleep in the chair next to the garden & woke up 2 hours later when the cat jumped up on me. Yard & garden are full of birds & butterflies. Click pictures they get larger, click again they get very large.
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wisconsindead
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Location: Zone 5b

Love your garden Gary. Looks great. What plants are growing between the staked tomatoes and the cilantro/beets/brassicas?

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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I decided the empty space between the russet potato row & melon row needs to have something planted there. I went to the garden store to investigate what to buy and decided it is time to try a variety sweet peppers maybe there is something we like better than we have had in the past. I bought 4 different kinds of peppers in 4 trays = 18 plants price was $1.34 total end of season. I already have 3 different types of peppers in another part of the garden. We don't eat many peppers 1 plant is usually more than enough peppers for stir fry and a few other things. We need to try new things like bell pepper smoothy & bell pepper bread instead of zucchini bread. Maybe I can give someone a bushel basket of peppers for their birthday. LOL. It is late in the season to be planting anything in 90 degree weather if I baby these plants for a few weeks maybe the plants will survive.
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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

wisconsindead wrote:Love your garden Gary. Looks great. What plants are growing between the staked tomatoes and the cilantro/beets/brassicas?
Between every other tomatoes plant I have Marigolds. I also have 1 zucchini squash seeds planted 2 weeks apart where there are no Marigolds so we will have new plants coming up for 2 months. Zucchini often make 5 or 6 squash then get root rot so I replace bad plants with a seed and still have a lot of plants to harvest as new plants grow larger. There are 3 kinds of carrots planted with the cilantro & beets then Swiss Chard, cabbage, broccoli, more cilantro & onions. Carrots were planted at 3 different times because seeds arrived in the mail 3 different times. Carrots planted in March are doing best. It is too late for beets not likely plants will produce much. 3 heads of broccoli need to be eaten starting tomorrow. Swiss Chard is growing very slow.
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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I harvested a broccoli hot weather is causing it to start making seeds. We ate broccoli on a crispy chicken dinner salad with garden onions & ranch dressing. I planted Twain potato seeds 45 hours ago seeds are hatching already. I always have very good luck with seeds from, Twain, Vietnam, Ireland, China. Wow that was a good salad I ate 2 plus a bowl of potato salad.
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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Garden is doing very well it has been 2 weeks since we had a good hard rain. Weather man claims we will get 3" of rain Saturday & more rain Sunday from the Hurricane coming up from Florida. I planted a few seeds yesterday they could use some rain to make them grow. No weeds, no grass, no bugs, lots of birds & several butterflies.
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lakngulf
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Garden is looking great. It is pleasing when those plants dig in, take hold and show forth that healthy green growth.
What do you use for support to the tomato plants?

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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

lakngulf wrote:Garden is looking great. It is pleasing when those plants dig in, take hold and show forth that healthy green growth.
What do you use for support to the tomato plants?
Tomato cages are just cheapo wire hoop cages. Click the tomato picture it gets larger, click again pic gets very large you can see very good details. I put a 8 ft long piece of cement rebar 8" into the soil then tie tomato cage to rebar so cages do not fall over when plants get top heavy 7 ft tall. I tie plants to rebar so they grow taller. Soon plants are too tall then they turn and grow down to the soil. Old section of the plant no longer produces tomatoes only the top 2 ft of new growth produces tomatoes until frost kills plants in November. If top of plants touch the soil they grow roots then old plant can be cut away the cutting becomes the new plant. Weather forecast has already changed no rain until Sunday that suites me fine because Saturday yard sales will not be rained out.

This video is so funny I could not resist sharing it. I would never do this to my garden friends.

https://www.facebook.com/so.cial.77964/ ... 451737747/



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