SD51555
5 year old buck +
i edited that post to add a link
2023 Gardens
- Thread starter Bowsnbucks
- Start date
Bill Loser
5 year old buck +
Got it, Thank you!Just a native berry I found on my place this past summer. It was really good, so I'd like to try to punch up the output a little. I've got all kinds of open areas I've made that I could stick them in.
Minnesota Seasons - eastern prickly gooseberry
eastern prickly gooseberry (Ribes cynosbati) profile, photos, videos, county distribution map, and sightings in Minnesota.www.minnesotaseasons.com
Asparagus likes organic matter, so adding some compost or decayed leaves would help it grow faster. It is probably easier to pick up a few of the cheap 4-packs of asparagus this spring at a local greenhouse if you want to expand your asparagus patch. The wild stuff seems to appear wherever it wants to, but I've never seen it form the huge patches you can get if you plant a dozen seedlings where you want them.
I picked up a dozen last spring and was pretty surprised how well they grew. I laid down a thick layer of straw around the young plants to reduce competition and it worked pretty well. I just planted these along a weedy fenceline, but I'm confident they will do pretty well there eventually
fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
I gave up on tomato cages for that reason Bill, although I still use a few I’ll never buy another on. We went to a section of Cattle/Hog panel it works so much better. Here it is right after
planting and a couple of months later
planting and a couple of months later
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
That's why Dad wanted straw under and around all the tomato plants - when they got big enough to just tip over, the plants and tomatoes laid on the straw, not in the dirt. It wasn't 100% foolproof. Sometimes slugs would get on the tomatoes, or a vole would use the straw as cover to eat on the underside of the tomatoes. But for the most part - it worked. Staking and tending 144 plants would have been slavery to just the tomatoes!! The rest of the garden would have been ignored for lack of time.
The straw helped keep the weeds down, and moisture in the soil to. After a few years of using straw, that soil was FLUFFY and very easy to work. The straw would decompose and add OM. Running our rototiller through it before planting was a dream. Dad favored real cow manure - a dehydrated brand called "Bovung." It was dry as oregano and looked much the same!! We'd put a small scoop of it in the planting holes for any of our bedding plants - tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, etc. and then water them in. He also had a 55 gal. barrel that he dumped a few bags of that "Bovung" dried cow manure into and then filled with water to make manure "tea." When we watered with that smelly brew, the plants really jumped!! He kept a lid on the barrel so flies wouldn't get in, and to keep the smell contained somewhat.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Did you have to tie the plants to the wire panel, or did they just "vine" onto it?? That's a great row of tomatoes!!!
Bill Loser
5 year old buck +
I had that same question. I would tend to think they would vine through more than anything.
What I was thinking of trying was cabling of sorts. Twisting the lead branch into a cable and raising the cable every couple days. It is supposed to help with air flow and cut down on blight and stuff. But the hog panels look alot easier! I would stand them long ways though, my plants this past year were easily 7 foot tall
Bill Loser
5 year old buck +
I might try it. I've always been afraid of using straw due to weeds and way to cheap to buy the.weed free stuff.
fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
Guys, We both tied with the velcro plant ties and weaved/vine them through the panel. This was the 1st year we used the panel and it was a success. The only other thing we had to do was trim/top the plants to keep them under control. Once they hit the top of the panel I’d cut back to just the central leader and weave it into the top of the panel after that it was anything without a blossom would get cut out . The panel is 16’ x 50” and I believe we crammed 24 plants into it, we just alternated every other one to balance it out
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
7 feet tall ........ holy moly!!! You need a ladder to pick your maters!!
Back when Dad used straw around the tomato plants - there wasn't any of today's fabrics ...... only black plastic. Dad thought the black plastic would get too hot in the sun - so straw it was. The weeds weren't too bad actually, and pulled easily - at least in our garden soil.
bigboreblr
5 year old buck +
Haven't done a formal garden in a few years. Debating doing one this year because I got so much watering to do with new trees anyways.
Likely wax beans, tomatoes, a few peppers, maybe throw a few turnips in the food plot for me too.
Likely wax beans, tomatoes, a few peppers, maybe throw a few turnips in the food plot for me too.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Dad used to get that good yellow rye straw. It didn't have much "crap" in it for seeds - the few we did get seemed really easy to pull out, but we had pretty fluffy soil from years of the straw decaying down. Our garden soil at that location was nice loam for the most part, but it had some clay too. After some years of straw being used in the tomatoes, the rototiller would sink right up to the dirt shield on the first pass. Super easy to work that soil. Rototiller was a Bolens "Mustang" built probably early 1950's. It weighed a TON. Tines in the front.
We also used straw around our zucchini plants - kept the squash off the dirt.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
What kinds of lettuce do you guys grow - if you grow lettuce?? How does it do for you??
fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
Right now we’re growing a mescaline(sp) mix in the living room for some fresh greens in another week or so. Once the weather breaks we’ll put some more outside and will be growing black seeded simpson this year also. My dad grew the BSS last season and it turned out really well for him. Hopefully it does well for us also
Do you make your own dirt for those beds? I am thinking about going with 4’ x 12’ beds, but it would cost a fortune to fill them with commercial, bagged, raised bed soil.
fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
SwampCat, I went with the hugelkultur method on these. Besides the rotted ash and maple I got out of my woods I also tossed in everything that was in my compost pile, brought home a couple garbage bags full of shredded paper from work and cleaned out the chicken coop. Then I went to a local place and bought a yard of screened topsoil. The dirt itself wasn’t the best but I figured with everything below it i would have enough nutrients. Last fall I topped it with more chicken coop clean out and leaves. This spring I’m going to go to the neighbors and get a load of cow poop to top dress it before adding some more dirt. I’m also planning on building 2 more to match
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
My Dad and I grew black seeded Simpson too. Makes great BLT's. Your mescaline mix looks good. How deep is that soil / compost bedding??
fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
Maybe 2-2.5 inches, it’s growing in a cheap plastic sweater box I got at the dollar store. Drilled a couple holes in the bottom and it sets in an old school lunch tray
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
How did you use the rotted ash & maple in that bedding?? Did you have to shred it / break it up?? You put leaves and chicken poop in that plastic box?? Just wondering.
fishin coyote
5 year old buck +
The plastic box just has some cheap potting soil in it. The rotted ash and maple are in the bottoms of the beds in post #24. Sorry for the confusion
