In the upcoming weeks after the ground thaws I'm going to start working on the garden I plan on growing. I have a rake for clearing away the debris, but I need a hoe/rototiller and spade to help me tear up the grass where the garden will be. I'll only need it for about a day (not sure when yet, but likely in the first or second week of April), and will return it the day of/or after.
Thanks in advance for any offers.
anything good? This will be my first year growing a garden as well. I'm looking to grow tomatoes, onions, and I'm curious about blueberries and some other berries.
Quote from: AntonLee on March 16, 2009, 03:16 PM NHFT
anything good? This will be my first year growing a garden as well. I'm looking to grow tomatoes, onions, and I'm curious about blueberries and some other berries.
Monadnock grows wild blueberries, so I'll be climbing it when I want some.
But me, personally, I'm growing cukes, tomatoes, and basil.
We would be willing to bring the whole famn damily over with a tiller and various implements of destruction. :) :flower: :broc1: :weed:
Sunday prior to Social Sunday would work for us.
A couple of tips for aspiring gardeners. Perhaps you can learn from some of my mistakes.
Walmart has some inexpensive seed packs. They are from American seed, .20 and .59 per pack.
Some heirloom varieties can cost 2.99 per pack. If you like gardening you can dry seeds and use them next year (I won't tell Monsanto ;)). A trip to the book store or library will explain how to do this.
The mature dates on the back of the seed packs are target dates only. If you decide to grow onions or melons get the variety that has the best chance of maturing in your climate. Nothing worse than seeing an almost ripe water melon that you've watched grow all summer get destroyed by September frost. Consider buying a tarp and covering the night before the frost.
Also, pay close attention to your areas last frost dates in the spring. Start your seedlings in containers, cut up plastic milk containers, dixie cups or soda bottles will do in a pinch, and don't put them in the soil until frost danger is past. Usually the last week in May, but maybe earlier for flat landers in the Keene area. Plant resistance to cold is not uniform, Tomato plants are not very hardy some other plants can take a light frost.
Wind in the summer will dry out your soil. Mulch with hay can help hold moisture and keep the weeds down. Also cut up black garbage bags can serve as an effective weed barrier and help retain the suns heat in the soil in late spring.
Some manures contain more nitrogen than others. Fresh chicken shit will burn your plants. It's good to know your shit. Good luck.
Quote from: Free libertarian on March 17, 2009, 07:39 AM NHFT
flat landers in the Keene area.
Ouch, baby-- that hurt.
But otherwise, thanks for the advice, and Roger... It's not a big plot of land (it's like maybe 15'x10'), but if ya'll want to get dirty, I appreciate the offer and may take you up on it :D
Quote from: AnarchoJesse on March 17, 2009, 10:10 AM NHFT
Quote from: Free libertarian on March 17, 2009, 07:39 AM NHFT
flat landers in the Keene area.
Ouch, baby-- that hurt.
But otherwise, thanks for the advice, and Roger... It's not a big plot of land (it's like maybe 15'x10'), but if ya'll want to get dirty, I appreciate the offer and may take you up on it :D
Some flatlander--
ya'll is "you will"; "you all" is
y'all . . .
Quote from: Sam A. Robrin on March 17, 2009, 10:22 AM NHFT
Quote from: AnarchoJesse on March 17, 2009, 10:10 AM NHFT
Quote from: Free libertarian on March 17, 2009, 07:39 AM NHFT
flat landers in the Keene area.
Ouch, baby-- that hurt.
But otherwise, thanks for the advice, and Roger... It's not a big plot of land (it's like maybe 15'x10'), but if ya'll want to get dirty, I appreciate the offer and may take you up on it :D
Some flatlander--ya'll is "you will"; "you all" is y'all . . .
Yankee flatlanders for sure.
Jesse, a customer of mine is threatening to give me an ancient roto-tiller in unknown condition. I might take it in, but that creates another job for me if it doesn't work...
Jesse: We live on the southern boundary of the White Mountains and grow veggies. We have a lot of success with container gardening (we also use raised beds).
Container gardening really saves space and you can stick your containers in any sunny spot (deck, driveway, etc.) We use whiskey barrel halves, old sheetrock mud pails, plant pots, whatever we have on hand. We plant a variety of tomatoes, cukes, zukes, squash and beans in our containers.
Frankly, our container gardens do much better than our beds.
We supplement our soil with horse manure and I bet you could get some good manure from the Travis farm.
this is an excellent thread. . . keep the tips coming I'm saving this stuff.
Quote from: AnarchoJesse on March 17, 2009, 10:10 AM NHFT
Roger... It's not a big plot of land (it's like maybe 15'x10'), but if ya'll want to get dirty, I appreciate the offer and may take you up on it :D
We have a small powerful tiller that would make short work of it. :) Let me know when you're ready.
No matter how small your bed, tilling it is still better than pitchforking it IMHO.
I've got peas growing in my kitchen. When it warms up, I'll transplant them outside. One shoot is several inches tall already. One cheap way to get seeds is to buy them in the grocery section. Peas, lentils, garbanzos and other beans can be had for about a dollar a pound, and can be sprouted inside before transplanting outside. I have a large assortment of pepper seeds that I should start sprouting.
Quote from: Tom Sawyer on March 17, 2009, 06:03 PM NHFT
Quote from: AnarchoJesse on March 17, 2009, 10:10 AM NHFT
Roger... It's not a big plot of land (it's like maybe 15'x10'), but if ya'll want to get dirty, I appreciate the offer and may take you up on it :D
We have a small powerful tiller that would make short work of it. :) Let me know when you're ready.
Whenever the last frost is.
Quote from: JanContainer gardening really saves space
Has anyone tried using tires as planting containers? I got the idea from this article (http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/sanders98.html).
EDIT: Also, I'm eager to try remineralization (http://remineralize.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=43), which seems to be a simple and sensible method to increase yields.
Quote from: Vitruvian on March 17, 2009, 08:23 PM NHFT
Quote from: JanContainer gardening really saves space
Has anyone tried using tires as planting containers? I got the idea from this article (http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/sanders98.html).
EDIT: Also, I'm eager to try remineralization (http://remineralize.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=43), which seems to be a simple and sensible method to increase yields.
We tried remineralizing last summer. We used Azomite for our garlic bed (http://www.azomite.com/atoz.html) and it made a noticeable difference in the size of our garlic bulbs. I think we'll try it in our other beds this summer.
Re tires for planting...that sounds like a good idea. We have a bunch of dead tires behind our garage that we could put to good use!...even if you just used 1 or 2 tires to fill with soil to create a mound for your cukes & zukes & pumpkins.
Quote from: Tom Sawyer on March 17, 2009, 06:03 PM NHFT
We have a small powerful tiller
Is that what you call turning a 7 year old boy loose with a hoe and a shovel? ;D
Quote from: KBCraig on March 18, 2009, 04:40 AM NHFT
Quote from: Tom Sawyer on March 17, 2009, 06:03 PM NHFT
We have a small powerful tiller
Is that what you call turning a 7 year old boy loose with a hoe and a shovel? ;D
No he holds the clipboard and make sure no one slacks off. ;D
I'm thinking this years tomatoes will have some container plants and some directly in the soil. The advantage to portable small containers say like 5 gallon buckets etc. of plants like cherry tomatoes is they remain willing to flower and produce fruit into the fall. Help them be all they can be. You can put them in a shed or basement on the frosty nights and milk another couple weeks of fresh produce from them by putting them in a protected sunny area during the day into the fall. A little bit of work but it's an easy way to extend the season and increase your yield.
Another thing to consider when planting a garden is the soil PH. Walmart or other garden centers usually offer PH test strips or you can buy the more expensive kind that have the prongs and battery power. You can waste alot of time trying to grow some plants that aren't in their desired PH range. For instance Blueberries seem to love the acid soil but some other stuff doesn't.
Also the consistency of the soil for root plants is a factor. It's hard to grow straight carrots in soil with lots of obstacles like rocks. They get kind of freaky looking. Sandy loamy soil is good for carrots. You can even leave some carrots in the groundle into the late fall after frost if you mulch them over with hay.
I still remember as a Bugs bunny imitating grade school kid pulling fresh carrots, spraying them off with the hose and chowing down while I repeated ad nauseum to anyone within earshot, " eh what's up doc?".
Some good magazines to check out for more gardening tips are Country Side and Backwoods Home. Mother Earth News can be good too althought they are a lot slicker than they used to be.
They also discuss basic canning stuff in these magazines too. Sometimes I experiment with the recipes. In last summers blueberry jam I used honey instead of sugar. It is not nearly as sweet but I made it so I'm gonna eat it. This year I'm planning on making lots of Salsa. Which makes me thirsty and think of home brew...anybody ever grow any hops? I'm interested in learning about small scale growing of grains too like wheat and barley if any one has any know how there.
FL is write, sandy loam is very important - especially in my area where the soil is very heavy with clay. My dad tills bags of sandbox sand (from garden center) into his soil.
must be someone near you that could spare some sandy soil :)
we have extra sandy stuff here ... we could use more organic matter or rocky stuff for the road :)
Fired up the rototiller for the first time this season...
Been beautiful weather on the mountain, the excitement shows in the feeding frenzy at the bird-feeders. After the white, brown and gray of winter, the greens of spring are a real joy.
(http://arafwchnawr.com/images/IMG_0644-Spring-Rototill.jpg)
I really need to get my rototiller fixed. It's in pieces in the garage right now. I think there is something wrong with the carburetor. Perhaps I can get it running tomorrow afternoon. My wife and I are in Maine (at least for now) and we had a really good garden last year. We put some peas and greens in using a hoe but that was in dirt that was tilled last year. If all goes well we will be needing to till some soil in New Hampshire before too long.