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to preserve my sanity somewhat I’ve been trying to keep my yap shut for a period. That being said I thought I’d resurrect a spring thread from last year that had little controversy.
This year is going to be a completely different effort. I’m doing 4 raised beds, each 4 feet wide. Two will be 16 feet long and 2 will be 32 feet long. I plan on doing companion planting in all of them and using techniques to preserve water. Last year when I went through a dry spell I could not keep enough water on the corn and peanuts. Besides doing drip irrigation down the centers of the beds I’m utilizing mulch, highly porous compost, and shading plants in various layouts, all of which I hope will make irrigation easier and less necessary. I also have built a keyhole raised bed closer to the house. A really neat concept that runs on table scraps for compost and 1 gallon of water per day. CD, how is yours coming along?Smarter than the average bear
Not as exotic as yours, Yogi. However, the artichokes survived the very wet and cold winter.
Looking forward to year 2 yield.Other than the usual tomato, bell pepper rainbow,assortments of hot peppers there is going to be a couple of medicinals this year. WTH. Why not?
Not as exotic as yours, Yogi. However, the artichokes survived the very wet and cold winter.
Looking forward to year 2 yield.Other than the usual tomato, bell pepper rainbow,assortments of hot peppers there is going to be a couple of medicinals this year. WTH. Why not?
“Medicinals”?
I have some Carolina reapers germinating right now. I had one plant last year. Those things are BEYOND HOT!
Smarter than the average bear
Highstick cultivated the Reaper last year.
I have a Korean that tops out at 300k Scovilles, called Candle Flame.
^Still curious about those ‘medicinals’…had some roomies that smoked a lot of certain types of ‘medicinals’ back in the day at State.
I’d be happy to buy some of those “hot” peppers from ya’ll…
Otherwise…
Right now…I’m looking at …about 1/3 acre of allium… yellow, red, white eating onions, chive, scallions, bunching/spring onions, leeks, shallots and garlic…
1 mile of Taters… 500lbs of seven different ones…
cabbage, kale, English peas, sugar snaps, snow peas, carrots, radishes, turnips… all already in the ground…
strawberries are growing nicely…planting more broccoli and califlower, squash and few cukes tomorrow…
might start planting corn next week… GOTT to look at the weather a few more days first…harvesting kale, collards, cabbage and chard tomorrow… all planted last September…
all organic, more or less…
Compost Beer is the secret weapon…
you GOTT to love Zone 7B…
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Bill is freaking farming. Combine…but farming.
Good…good…good.
Yogi, freakin’ knows how to jumprope the apocalys.I am doing artichokes and Kush. There.
Kush, hmmmm. I had a few of those last year that turned out superb. Right in the middle of the maters. Companion planting at its finest. Roasted them up in an electric turkey roaster at 150.
Smarter than the average bear
Yogi …
I need ’bout 50 of those superhot peppers…
I’ll come get ’em if you ain’t too far away….
——————–Ya’ll got Kohrabi and Eggplant started ?
looking for “organic” …Bought 10lbs of Silver King and 10lbs of Golden Bantam today…
4 rows – 400lnft ea — 4 times 10-14 days apart…
Should have some Roasting ears for a few weeks this summer…Compost Beer is the key….
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!First things first, I’m 5 minutes from the corner of I40 and I95. I’ll let ya know when they are ripe. Hint…bring gloves and do not touch any part of your face with the gloves on after handling them. The voice of experience speaking.
Eggplant and lots of other stuff cooking in the seed starter rack.
I bought 500 Serendipity bicolor corn seeds. I’m not doing rows of any kind this year. Changing over to what could be considered square foot gardening in raised beds with some twists. At any rate 2 32 foot by 4 foot beds with corn down the middle with 2 rows 1 foot wide and spacing 1 foot between plants. Pole beans planted around them and one in the middle. They will run up the corn. Peanuts, purple hull peas, zucchini and yellow squash on the perimeters. A few watermelon and cantaloupe here and there in both beds. Drip irrigation run down the middle. Throw in a few marigolds, nasturtium, and 4 o’clocks to keep the bugs at bay. The purpose is all those plants coexist and actually feed each other. Last year I had no weeds at all under my zucchini and squash and they hopefully will do that in this intensely planted bed along with preserving water by shading the ground. Will take lots of food though. The other two beds will be somewhat similar except tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, and shallots. I actually did that last year but some tweaks this year. Fewer maters and closer planting to allow better water control.I already have asparagus and strawberries growing. Alyssum to crowd out the weeds in other areas.
I found a secret to creating compost. Cardboard and 34-0-0 / 17-17-17. Get a big pile of cardboard about 6 inches thick with the fertilizer thrown in, cut it up with the disc, wet it down really good throw a inch or so of dirt over it and let it cook. Water it and cut it up with the disc every 10 days or so. 30 days and it’s compost.
Smarter than the average bear
^let me know when ’em peppers is ready…
now… sqft gardening is kinda cool… what’s I’m trying to do on the Farm is “translate” some of the best sqft thinking into a “production environment”, ’cause right now I’m working with ’bout 7 acres…
The key is finding the right equipment…
So I starting with the one row stuff and my Farmall 140… built a couple of custom implements and got creative with the scratchers and bedders… you know you can do stuff turn them around backwards and put what used to be on the front on the back and stuff to work different rows – different ways…
For example, we’re planting carrots and radishes on a 10-12″ wide flat top row and putting an inch or so of compost on the top and using the custom 140 setup to keep the rest clean…
Talking ’bout your compost… you might want to put some organic material in that hot mix of paper… and watch your salts…
‘Bout pole beans… anybody ever tried “yard long beans”?
I grew some last summer in the backyard… damn things are 16″long, green and tender until they start seeding… gonna plant ’em in the corn this time… they seems to like hot weather and they’ll go until frost or until the fertilizer runs out. whichever comes first…
best part is they pick fast…
and the Prius women with little glasses love making pretzels out of ’em…
which at my age is kinda flirtatious, if you know what I mean….$$$
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Bill,
I have been a member of an on line antique tractor group for 20 years or so. Based in Winston-Salem (which is of no consequence other than I have met the man who provides the iron to make it all work) but with members worldwide. Lots of real engineer types plus a lot of FATGS (fat assed tractor guys) who are quite adept at creative solutions. A couple there run vegetable farming operations that might might be of interest to you. If you have the time and the interest send me a PM and I’ll provide you with the link.
My garden is rather small as I’m growing for one. Mostly summer crops like tomatoes, cukes, summer squash green beans and such (plus the very healthy deer population here). I do grow some spring stuff like beets, lettuce, radish and greens. Then those again in the fall.
Bill, the formula for that is nitrogen and carbon (LOL). This process has been borne out by Deb Tolman who is the keyhole garden prophet down in Texas. She does lots of seminars on it and a group of them did one out of plexiglas so they could watch the process. Stuffed almost 2 feet thick of cardboard and fed it the same nitrogen formula and the cardboard became compost in 30 days. The only “salt” with the 34-0-0 is sulfur, and with 17-17-17 it’s minimal. With my particular process I’m adding wheat straw to the top layer when the cardboard has “cooked”. I forgot to mention that the very bottom layer is cut up wood from limbs that I lost in the winter storms this year (plus stuff from my neighbors). Any salts from the cardboard process will trickle down to the long term process with the wood. My next door neighbor also got me a big pile of wood chips from the people who trim limbs for Southriver EMC which he works for. I spread them through the layers too just for extra “organic” nitrogen.
As for antique tractors I have a Ford 1220 compact tractor with some homemade implements, one being a highly modifiable hiller. I used it to dig my “trenches” for my raised beds. Two passes at different widths to get a 1 foot deep trench, put the wood in the bottom and the same hiller covered all of that wood up before I started the cardboard. Same hiller with a 2 X 10 strapped to it made my raised beds.
Smarter than the average bear
tractor, check out keyhole gardens. Easy to build, easy to maintain and one garden can feed a family of 3 year round. Great concept developed by the organization called “send a cow”. In Africa they are teaching people to build them. They run off a gallon of water a day and are self feeding from a compost pile in the center of the garden. In areas of Texas they have hundreds of them.
Smarter than the average bear
Yogi… I need “plants” not peppers, if you GOTT extra….
T57 … when I took over the Farm last August, the first thing I did was to get rid of all the new “little” stuff the last two sqft garden “farm managers” had and bought the Farmall 140 and a Massey 175… went back to town and asked the “owners” who are deep into reading about organic/sqft/make100Kanacre propaganda and asked..
“Tell me why it makes sense for a sixty year old man to buy two fifty year old tractors?”
Looking for a Massey 135 now… or equivalent..
em me at [email protected]
Time to go….
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!Highstick cultivated the Reaper last year.
I have a Korean that tops out at 300k Scovilles, called Candle Flame.
My yield on the reapers was pretty bad last year. Don’t know if it was a lack of sun or lack of water. I’m going to try again this year in a different location.
I made up a batch of vinegar sauce for Q and put one of them in the jug to ferment. If you mess with those things, wear rubber gloves and also remove the gloves before taking a leak!
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Wooo stick! I just touched the cheek on my face to learn my lesson with those bad boys. You bring up a totally different paradigm. I don’t even want to contemplate that!!! GEEEESH! On the other hand if you wanted to get back at the old lady for some reason. Did I really say that? I plead the 5th.
Smarter than the average bear
Wooo stick! I just touched the cheek on my face to learn my lesson with those bad boys. You bring up a totally different paradigm. I don’t even want to contemplate that!!! GEEEESH! On the other hand if you wanted to get back at the old lady for some reason. Did I really say that? I plead the 5th.
I learned my lesson with some Habaneros that a friend’s wife gave me at the Darlington race several years ago. We parked at their house outside of the back of the Darlington Raceway and would always chat and have a few beers before we’d walk into the track…One year she gave me a bag of Habaneros…I stuck my hand in the bag and didn’t think about it until I took my first leak inside the raceway…Bet I could have beaten Dale, Cale, and the rest of the field around that track after doing that!
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
Stick, THAT is HYSTERICAL!
Last year I was picking some of the reapers with my gloves on and a mosquito bit me on the cheek. Before my brain kicked into gear my hand was already on it’s way to swat the nasty bug. As Ray Stevens would say “To late, I’d already been incensed”. THAT was nasty.
Smarter than the average bear
Stick, THAT is HYSTERICAL!
Last year I was picking some of the reapers with my gloves on and a mosquito bit me on the cheek. Before my brain kicked into gear my hand was already on it’s way to swat the nasty bug. As Ray Stevens would say “To late, I’d already been incensed”. THAT was nasty.
Oh, crap…that must mean that “ALL former catchers(myself included) who wore Number 8 must REALLY NOT BE SMART!! lol! I’ve even got a hockey jersey with a Number 8…
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
GOTT a little bit of Squash planted for all ya’ll this week…
5 summer and 10 winter varietiesw… yeah, I know I’m breaking the rules….
’bout 2000 lnft at 24′ oc…supposed to rain tomorrow and Sunday and that will be welcome as we’ve had 2 tenths in the last two week…
and yes, I did suggest to the preacher that it was time to pray;..will start planting Corn next week…
:>}Compost Beer is the Key!
#NCSU-North Carolina's #1 FOOTBALL school!You must have ordered seed??? I went by the local farm supply store today in Rock Hill where I bought my reaper plants last year and they didn’t have any yet. I may have to ride over to Ft. Mill and check with “the man who created them”!
I have some Carolina reapers germinating right now. I had one plant last year. Those things are BEYOND HOT!
"Whomp 'em, Up, Side the Head"!
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