I have some romaine, buttercrunch, and red leaf lettuce in the containers on the deck along with some basil seedlings and a few onions and strawberries.

In the background is my plot. Onions are planted, with more romaine, spinach, and cabbage seeds planted this past weekend.

Im going to turn the plot to raised beds next year or over the next couple years.

 

I envy you guys with your flat plots. The only place for a garden in my yard is banked. Makes for some creative solutions.

 

Me and Grandpaw set out 17 matters.
Had 18 but of course he stepped on one lol so... It happens every year

 

Coming along now. The plot so far is 46x21. going to add a few more feet to the width, then rake it down, and retill the soil with some sort of soil booster. maybe black cow.

Ideally I want 1200 square feet or so. Which is a bit funny as my house is 750 square feet.

Also I doubled the amount of plants I will be growing this year. Maybe tripled actually.

Feels good though, man wasn't made to sit behind a desk doing work all day.

 

My wife actually gave me permission to shoot skunks or possums raiding my garden.

Hopefully they wait a few weeks, till I have some fencing up.

 

my bean plot is doing well, need to finish up the pvc trellis for them to climb on. the tomato's though, well, i still need to get off me arse and get them planted.

 

Tilled the larger of my two sections. Not that it's large by many standards. Going to put tomatoes in this week I hope. All my seedlings died off. The beans are going in the same section but I may wait another week on everything else. After this cool snap it probably won't matter. Soil temp is likely still cool. I have some peppers that I brought up from seed I'm going to plant. Everything else I'll just start in the ground over the next week or two. I just hope I have time for all this. Guess I'll have to make the time.

 

Still in progress.

 

Glade8r: Any particular reason for that "T" layout?

 

None,other than "visually stimulating". Going to be a bitch to mow around,may add some much along the borders.

 

I envy you guys with your flat plots. The only place for a garden in my yard is banked. Makes for some creative solutions.

If you look to the right on the picture I added,these were terraced on that slope. The weeds were so terrible I moved them out. Going to put my squash and zuchinni plants there now.

 

what do you put in your raised beds for the filler? (compost, topsoil, etc)

I am going to try a few raised beds this year, wife wants one dedicated to strawberries...I plant about an acre of garden each year...what I have planted so far is, 150 lbs of potatoes (that alone took over a quarter acre), 60 broccoli plants (rabbits destroyed this past Friday night), 12 lettuce plants.

I do about 1/4 acre of sweet corn, but the damn bears usually destroy it after the ***** wreck their part.

This year I will do: zucchini, potatoes, broccoli, lettuce, Bell peppers, Some variation of a hot pepper...(Haven't decided yet) pickling cukes, straight 8 cukes, tommy toes, haven't settled on the heirloom tomatoes...probably will do brandywines...(I DO NOT plant hybrids of ANYTHING anymore....I just go old school...I do not like the thought of genetic mutation).

I also do several Pumpkins, Watermelons and Cantaloupes plants.

 

I normally do a 50/50 mix of organic compost and screened topsoil. It is a nice mix that stays decently loose and works great for root veggies as well as tomatoes/peppers.

 

How do you grow your Cucumber....you let it grow across the ground, stake them, cage them?

For the last 4 years I plant mine next to a short run of 2"X4" welded fence wire and let it grow up thru it....access from both sides and more than enough support, I use the 4 foot height...I will take a photo of it this afternoon if I remember

 

In the past I have tended to not stake anything. But this year I think I will put them in a round tomato cage. Generally I believe you can get more product by not stringing them up, but they will be of a lower quality.

Edit: Also I just planted a special treat for the kids. A bunch of mammoth sunflowers. THey get up to 12 feet tall and have flowers about a foot in diameter

 

In the past I have tended to not stake anything. But this year I think I will put them in a round tomato cage. Generally I believe you can get more product by not stringing them up, but they will be of a lower quality.

Edit: Also I just planted a special treat for the kids. A bunch of mammoth sunflowers. THey get up to 12 feet tall and have flowers about a foot in diameter

Those are huge sunflowers!

I stake the tomatoes I plant before the roots really spread alot so I don't disturb the root system and tie them to it loosely and as they grow I adjust the ties. I put stake about 6-12" from stalk.

 

I caged my cucumbers last year and will never let them run on the ground again. Easier to manage, easier to see, easier to pick, and I think I got more. I bought 200' of fencing and cut it in 5' lengths to make my own cages. I've got a bunch of cages. lol I even tried caging some beans. Worked Ok.

 

In the past I have tended to not stake anything. But this year I think I will put them in a round tomato cage. Generally I believe you can get more product by not stringing them up, but they will be of a lower quality.

Edit: Also I just planted a special treat for the kids. A bunch of mammoth sunflowers. THey get up to 12 feet tall and have flowers about a foot in diameter

Most grower's guides say that cages yield more fruit and staking yields larger, but I attribute that to pruning and staking...if you cut the plant or pinch off shoots then it'll put more energy into fruiting.
I generally recommending staking determine varieties like Romas or other bush-type plants and caging indeterminant ones like better boy or beefstake type plants.

 

I tended to grow only beefsteak as a kid, and we just let them trail on the ground like squash. Always had tons of fruit, but they were fugly. We were always serious about pruning off the sappers though.

I am going to have a time with that with all these strawberry plants this year.

 

Put in 20 tomato plants today, 8 big beef and 12 cherokee purples. Beans will go in late next week. Maybe the squash, peppers, and cukes too. I moved my tomatoes this years, so I hope they do better. They had been in the last spot too long. Put down a bunch of lime in February. And bought some Osmocote to go in when I planted the tomatoes. Hopefully with all those changes I won't loose as many this year. Having my own tiller this year has made a world of difference too.

 

Ya you should rotate tomatoes from year to year, prevents "early blight" and some other nasty diseases. I try to rotate different plant families according to a schedule but it doesn't always work out. beans vs corn from year to year seems to be the big winner in that rotation

 

we will plant sunday weather permitting

 

What is that? 3/4 acre? more?

 

ya that's borderline 'garden' vs agri-business right there. Although my wife says I need a 1/2 acre garden
I would definitely want a seeder/planter for that bad boy otherwise my back would be in spasms.

 

Definitely a long row to hoe that is for sure.