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CD I have threatened to hand a japanese beetle trap about 300′ feet from my garden just to draw them away. Obviously not urban gardening but I have always wondered if that would help.
BotB we got all 5? of the 1-2? forecast yesterday. Some melting so I’ll get out today to my lunch meeting in Burlington.
T57…
It will all be over by Friday…
Hope you had a good day in the former “Sock Capital of the World”…
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Mr. Dog…
I know you know what you’re doing, but if you don’t mind, may I suggest for the benefit of others…
Think ahead…
TWO eggplants is all you’ll need…
Those two should produce 20 or 30 nice ones depending on the season, if you don’t get pissed off at ’em and pull ’em up mid July… and you’ll be giving half of those away…Damn things will get 6 foot tall and 3 foot wide if you push ’em…
N for the first 30 days — after that liquid “K” once a month for as long as you want to or September 1st…And you’d better plan to stake the hell out of ’em…
Cages don’t work worth a damn…GO PACK!
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Had many friends that went the straw bale route and loved the results but that didn’t work for me. Plus on the back end you have to find a way to dispose of them. I wound up using them as part of my raised beds and they added volume and airspace. YMMV.
Smarter than the average bear
Yogi I’m sold on raised beds. Mine have cedar logs as the borders. I will reposition this year to make more room for the subcompact tractor to drive through. First year of these I had one 4×4 bed where I made “soil” with spoiled hay, cow manure and pine shavings. Got a lot of polk so while it was young I harvested and used.My 3×50 bed is the one I will move. That will leave me with a garden half flat “conventional” and half in raised beds. My big thing is growing ‘maters (mostly heirlooms but I also like to have some pole beans, cucumbers and yellow squash. If I get out early enough sugar snap peas as well. Later some cowpeas and in fall mixed greens.
Tractor, I have 4 total. Two are 16 X 4 and made out of railroad ties. I just finished building a greenhouse over them (something I had planned from the start). The sides come off of it and it will be my mater beds this year. That way I can close it up in the fall and continue having fresh maters deep into the fall. The other 2 are 4 X 40 and originally were just mounded 2 ft high beds. Last year I bounded the tops with 2 X 6s. That made it a lot easier for them to retain water since before they just had sort of a mound of dirt around the perimeter. I’ll never do it another way again.
I originally had a 50 X 75 row based garden. Could never keep it watered when it was really dry and had tons of things that just overwhelmed me with maintaining it. My methods now I love! The only stuff I grow from seed in the beds themselves is corn. After it pops up I treat the beds with Preen (trifluralin) and I have no weeds. Sparse grasses have popped up but they are easy to pull. Every thing else is grown from seedlings germinated in plant trays which now I have plenty of room for. I have Texas Bluebonnets germinating right now (my wife wanted them after a trip to Texas). Those will be in her raised FLOWER bed. I also have a raised herb garden bed.
Smarter than the average bear
Don’t get me started on the flower side of things.
Last year’s Duke Gardens ripoff was quite successful, therefore, I am expected to pull it off once more.
Yogi I have 4 total – 1 4×4, 2 4×16 and 1 3X50. The other part of my garden is conventional row crop. I guess like my dad I farm my garden. Once the latest snow is down I’ll be moving the 3×50 a bit. Here we have red clay soil which is fine if worked properly but I could never do things early. My ‘maters I grow in homemade cages (I grow heirlooms indeterminates so Commercial tomato cages quiver). I have a couple cattle panels which I use as supports for vining crops. I’ve had to let my garden go for a couple years due to issues including caring for my mom. Hoping this year I can get back into the game.
Caring for a parent is one of the most honorable things a person can do. I take it she passed away recently. If so from all of us, our condolences.
Smarter than the average bear
A bit over a year ago the ordeal ended. Given the medical issues she spent her last couple years in a local nursing home.Luckily I had help and knew/know most of the people who work there. Then last year I had some medical issues myself. It is something that most of us will have to look forward to as our parents age. In the end I have no regrets. Now I simply want to play in the dirt.
Now I simply want to play in the dirt.
The true sign of a old gentleman farmer….
Sorry ’bout your Mom… T57
GO PACK!
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!It was her time and she left as she intended – which is why I have no regrets. I hope to pass so well when my time comes. Until then I’ll play in the dirt.
Second childhood? Some of my favorite memories was playing with toy trucks/tractors/etc. in the dirt. Now days the tractor is just bigger.
Smarter than the average bear
Mr. Stick…. you didn’t need the “7”, just the per-emergent, but it ain’t gonna ‘hurt’ anything…
I’m breaking some ‘new ground’… any of ya’ll got any good experiences with Dollar Weed?
GO PACK!
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It had already emerged!!! You sure it’s Dollar Weed…I thought this stuff I had was and after looking more closely at the leaf, it was the “Carolina Gardenia”..2-4-D applied lightly is working. Flip flops in the temp makes it slower though.
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Second childhood? Some of my favorite memories was playing with toy trucks/tractors/etc. in the dirt. Now days the tractor is just bigger.
Been there, done that with my Mom who died at 94. I told her before she died that I didn’t want to live that long because I saw the pain she endured with arthritis.. Guess what, I’m ahead of her with my thumb and finger joints. Gotta get this last batch of zoysia in soon cause I can’t continue with laying sod much longer.
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Mr. Stick…. you didn’t need the “7”, just the per-emergent, but it ain’t gonna ‘hurt’ anything…
I’m breaking some ‘new ground’… any of ya’ll got any good experiences with Dollar Weed?
GO PACK!
The 0-0-7 came with the pre-emergent…granular…
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
OK… started some squash, green and yellow zuchinni, ruby red chard, cucumbers, spinach, basil, fennel and long beans this weekend…
I’ve told myself I’m not going to be in a hurry this season….
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I did put out 0-0-7 pre-emergent about 2-3 weeks ago.
It had already emerged!!!
RE: Pre-emergents….
The first March after I bought the turf farm (2001), I walked in the office one day and the office manager said…
“I needed some money to pay a fertilizer bill.”
“How much?”
“$17000 for 24 tons.”
I swallowed hard and asked… “Why so much?”
“It’s 16-4-4 with pre-emergent for the bermuda grass.”
“ok… at the same time, thinking 16-8-8 in ton totes is $200 a ton…
By the middle of June the bermuda is ready to harvest….
One day she said…
“I needed some money to pay a chemical bill.”
“How much?”
“$2000 for MSMA to kill crabgrass in the bermuda grass.”
“But what about that $17,000 for the fertilizer/pre-emerent?”
“Sometimes it works… sometimes it doesn’t…”
I thought to myself…
“ok…welcome to farming….”
That summer the ballfield / golfcourse business was slow and we sold just enough bermuda grass to pay that fertilizer bill…
Bottom line here is I immediately enacted the “Don’t fix a problem until you see the problem” policy and hadn’t bought any pre-emergents since…
By the next spring, the office manager was working elsewhere…
Now, I’m not saying that’s right for everybody, everywhere, every time… Just telling a farming story…
“Welcome to Farming!”
GO PACK!
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Boys…figured out a few weeks ago to put the brakes on.
Pulled all my spindly assed seedlings over the weekend.
It’s kinda hard to do anything when it’s raining and snowing…
All my Spring/Summer stuff is in trays covered up…——————–
Another Old Farmer and were talking about the ‘psychology’ of farming…
How when when that certain something tells you it’s time to do something and how at that point ain’t nothing stopping you… and how when you go to “the field” to do something, you ain’t coming out of the field until you’re finished, and nothing else matters, not money, not dinnertime… nothing,,,
Anybody else ever plow by the moonlight?
GO PACK!
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Farming vs gardening….farm with your head, garden with your heart. Use to spray in the late evening and finish during the night but now I break it up over 2 days. The old farmer needs his rest.
Crazy Spring weather continues to defy the calendar…
We had March in February, then February in March…
now we’ve got March again in April….Ain’t planted the first thing yet… and won’t until end of next week…
Still looking at 5 more nights under 50*…Down here that’s gonna create the potential for the “sandwich”…
Last year we didn’t hit 90* consistently until the first of July, the year before it was five weeks earlier — the end of May…
Either way — 6 to 9 weeks of “moderate” temps ain’t much time at all…
Plant selection is gonna be tough. And it’s gonna require more irrigation that normal…
GO PACK!
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Mater Man….
When are you going to start transplanting your maters in the field?
GO PACK!
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!
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