2021 ‘gardening bug’ thread

[Greentored 3,214]

@WVHillbilly520H your ‘gardening bug’ thread last year went over big, hoping you’re ok with me getting a jump start on this years. That was a GREAT way for many of us to track progress and dates! 
After plowing in two loads of manure, leaves, shredded paper from work last fall, I broke ground today. It’s still pretty wet here due to the monsoon winter, but it’s time to get things in, so I turned it over in hopes of things drying out a bit quicker. Still too wet to disc but lots of sun forecasted here, so....

Hoss went to work for the first time after restoration and didn’t miss a beat! ‘Ol smoky’ the 701 got a battery charge, fuel leak fixed and went to disc duty but it’s a bit too wet for that. 

Edited March 5, 2021 by Greentored

[pfrederi 17,741]

still snow on the ground and 14 degrees tonight....  Gardening???

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

Scott, its all good, it will be a few more weeks before I try out that new 3pt PTO driven tiller on the eMax, our sod is still semi-frozen and some snow still on the "grassy knoll", definitely more potatoes this round, corn, green beans, less tomatoes and cucumbers, maybe watermelon again. 

[Horse Newbie 7,075]

43 minutes ago, WVHillbilly520H said:

Scott, its all good, it will be a few more weeks before I try out that new 3pt PTO driven tiller on the eMax, our sod is still semi-frozen and some snow still on the "grassy knoll", definitely more potatoes this round, corn, green beans, less tomatoes and cucumbers, maybe watermelon again. 

Good googley moogley...now THAT is a rototiller !

[Greentored 3,214]

46 minutes ago, pfrederi said:

still snow on the ground and 14 degrees tonight....  Gardening???

Holy crap! Granted, it’s been nasty here too but we never got the super frigid temps, just a lot of rain. A LOT. 
Hit 66 here today, and last week 3 days of it. Was 41 Monday, 50 this weekend. It’s that wonky transition time in NC. 
Hopefully you’ll get away from that 14 degree stuff soon WOW! 

[JoeM 7,874]

SWPA rule of thumb for planting is after Mothers Day for most items. (May 9 this year) There is still a small chance of frost thereafter for a couple weeks. 

[ebinmaine 67,619]

Here in Maine we've still got about 12 to 15 inches of snow on the ground and 4 more weeks of potential snow season at this point. 

It was a nice toasty warm 4 degrees yesterday morning. 

 

We've been planning the garden though!

 

Trina bought a couple new TSC seed starter kits. We'll put in tomatoes and peppers very soon. 

The rest we'll start maybe mid to late April. 

 

Our outside mostly frost free season is Memorial Day to Labor Day. 

 

 

We'll be putting in more garden boxes this year. Changing the layout a little to align with the sun ☀️ better and ease of travel/mowing. 

Also adding a row of raspberries and blackberries somewhere we can easily keep them trimmed back. 

 

To keep the sun exposure growing we're cutting more trees around/in the expanding backyard area. 

 

 

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

24 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

 

Our outside mostly frost free season is Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Its kinda funny you say that, because my father would not put anything on the ground until  Memorial Day weekend then had everything out of the by Labor Day weekend , but when I was a child that seemed to be the peak growing season in my neck of the woods.

[ebinmaine 67,619]

6 minutes ago, WVHillbilly520H said:

growing season

My maternal grandparents had a fair size Garden for quite a while. 

 

They used to put in the peas as soon as they could break the ground anytime after April 1st. Depending on the year that could have been April 1st or even as late as mid May.

Within the next two or three weeks there were some other stuff that they planted but I don't recall what it was now. I leave that up to Trina and her mom.

 

The end of our season can vary quite a bit as well. We just keep an eye on the forecasted temperatures and frost warnings. Harvest as necessary.

Last year we had a pretty heavy frost not long after Labor Day but then we didn't have another one at all until the third week of October which was VERY late for us.

 

[WVHillbilly520H 10,373]

I am actually quite anxious to try out that new tiller, to see if its actually what they are "bragged" up to be, a shot garden plot maker.

[Greentored 3,214]

Been a BEAUTIFUL week here- the soil dried up- actually so dry that the disc would hop over the clumps of NC clay- I had to hook the plow onto Hoss AGAIN and flip the soil back over!  ...or maybe an excuse to yank the plow again

'Ol smoky' the 701 even got in on the discing, but is having fuel delivery issues and died about halfway through his work. This years soil is not what I expected considering I added two trailer loads of manure, tons of old leaves, boxes of shredded paper from the office, coffee grinds, etc....   but it is certainly MUCH more workable than that solid concrete I had last year.

By the end of the weekend, the red taters, beets, bunching onions, rutabagas, sugar daddy and sugar snap peas were in, as well as some random marigolds to help ward off the evil rabbits.

Now 50s and 4 days of rain here- actually perfect for a fresh planting!

 

[Andy N. 2,154]

Hadn't had any seat time in over a month so I decided today was a good day to remove the snowblower from the 418-A and plow the garden plot.

[ebinmaine 67,619]

Trina and her mom started about 100 tomato plants in the little window nursery planter thingys. 

Cull off some. Give away a few. 

Raise the rest and do a BUNCH of canning. 

 

 

[Greentored 3,214]

Didn't take pics, but for future reference's sake, I got peas and rutabagas poking through!  We have had everything from sun and 80 to wicked monsoon rains and 50 lately. At this point I am actually concerned that some things may get water logged and drown before they get a chance to take off.  Been a CRAZY spring!

[ebinmaine 67,619]

20 minutes ago, Greentored said:

some things may get water logged and drown

Can you dig some furrows beside the seeds? Drainage ditches..

[Greentored 3,214]

41 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

Can you dig some furrows beside the seeds? Drainage ditches..

Its so soupy right nowI might lose a machine if I go in there hahaha.

The rows ARE somewhat raised a bit where I planted, hopefully that will help.

 

[Greentored 3,214]

On 3/27/2021 at 8:55 PM, Andy N. said:

Hadn't had any seat time in over a month so I decided today was a good day to remove the snowblower from the 418-A and plow the garden plot.

Man, LOOK AT THAT DIRT compared to the crap I have to work with here in NC

[ebinmaine 67,619]

5 minutes ago, Greentored said:

crap

Perhaps you need more of just that

[Greentored 3,214]

9 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

Perhaps you need more of just that

Man, I put two 6x12 heaping trailer loads in there last fall, AND buried all the fall leaves, office paper shreddings, coffee grinds, organic scraps, etc... its like the clay just ate it haha.

It certainly helped, but not like I expected. Probably gonna take a few years of socking the crap to it!

[8ntruck 7,016]

On 3/30/2021 at 6:55 AM, Greentored said:

Man, I put two 6x12 heaping trailer loads in there last fall, AND buried all the fall leaves, office paper shreddings, coffee grinds, organic scraps, etc... its like the clay just ate it haha.

It certainly helped, but not like I expected. Probably gonna take a few years of socking the crap to it!

Yup.  We had a 50' by 60' garden when we were living in Kentucky.  Red clay, similar to yours.  Each fall, I would burn the yard waste (sticks, brush, etc) in the garden get a couple of pick up loads of leaf mulch in addition to emptying my mulch piles into the garden and plow it all under.  We lived there for about 7 years.  The soil was finally starting to look good when we moved.

[Darb1964 1,043]

On 3/30/2021 at 7:55 AM, Greentored said:

Man, I put two 6x12 heaping trailer loads in there last fall, AND buried all the fall leaves, office paper shreddings, coffee grinds, organic scraps, etc... its like the clay just ate it haha.

It certainly helped, but not like I expected. Probably gonna take a few years of socking the crap to it!

Try some peat moss and sand, just don't over do it.

[Greentored 3,214]

We had a nasty cold snap and wicked winds come through Thursday-Saturday.  Picked up a big roll of landscape 'weed tarp', doubled it over, and covered up the peas and rutabagas- those are up and growing fast!. Forecasted temps in the low 20s, luckily it only hit about 28 both nights, but there WAS a nice frost on everything the second night.. Uncovered Saturday AM, they survived!

As an experiment, I left one pea plant and a few rutabagas exposed. The rutabagas showed zero damage, but the pea plant was wilted and turning brown!

[ebinmaine 67,619]

2 minutes ago, Greentored said:

. The rutabagas showed zero damage, but the pea plant was wilted

You don't have to know exactly what pea plants you're using?

 

 

[Greentored 3,214]

On 4/5/2021 at 7:06 AM, ebinmaine said:

You don't have to know exactly what pea plants you're using?

 

 

Not that heavy into it yet. I just grab stuff and put it in the ground 

[ebinmaine 67,619]

2 minutes ago, Greentored said:

Not that heavy into it yet. I just grab stuff and put it in the ground 

That's a fair answer!