2017 garden thread

[Lancer09]

For you mater people.

 

Ive got 5 better boys in, 1 rapunzel cherry, 1 cherokee purple and two pink brandywines in the beds and the rest of tge yard. What are some preferred heirloom varieties?

[ness]

Cherokee Purple and Brandywine are two of the most well-known heirlooms out there and they have become readily available in recent years. They both have excellent tomato flavor. I've grown them for several years, though not very successfully the last few. They're  more challenging to grow than hybrids because they're not bred for disease resistance, early ripening or high yield. They're finicky. 

If you spend some time searching the net for ideas on heirlooms you'll eventually run into a contingent of heirloom snobs that will drone on endlessly about Glick's versus Sudduth's versus Cowlick Brandywine and dozens of others. Skip that crap. I'd advise getting a few heirlooms you can find locally and take good care of them.  I think our beloved billethead grows an heirloom or two (maybe Black Krim) and we all know his tomatoes are bigger, his lettuce is lusher, his turkeys are plumper, his wok has more BTUs, etc ?? in fact, disregard the above and just PM the man. 

[Stein]

We are so far behind you guys.  Lettuce, beets, peas and spinach just starting to come up, everything else ls just starting  Put in peppers broccoli and brussels sprouts and a few tomatoes, Need to plant another couple dozen tomato plants.  This is the small garden that has rabbit fence.  The big garden has been tilled and the electric fence put up for the deer.  They are rough on baby corn plants.  That one is about 1 1/2 times this size.  It will have corn, squash and more tomato plants.  My wife cans a lot.

 

[BilletHead]

         

 

Cherokee Purple and Brandywine are two of the most well-known heirlooms out there and they have become readily available in recent years. They both have excellent tomato flavor. I've grown them for several years, though not very successfully the last few. They're  more challenging to grow than hybrids because they're not bred for disease resistance, early ripening or high yield. They're finicky. 

If you spend some time searching the net for ideas on heirlooms you'll eventually run into a contingent of heirloom snobs that will drone on endlessly about Glick's versus Sudduth's versus Cowlick Brandywine and dozens of others. Skip that crap. I'd advise getting a few heirlooms you can find locally and take good care of them.  I think our beloved billethead grows an heirloom or two (maybe Black Krim) and we all know his tomatoes are bigger, his lettuce is lusher, his turkeys are plumper, his wok has more BTUs, etc ?? in fact, disregard the above and just PM the man. 

          Ok wise guy!  You are so full of it but you forgot a few things like my deck is prettier than yours and the rest I will let slide this time . Lancer like Ness said we like Black Krim heirloom.

  

 

We are so far behind you guys.  Lettuce, beets, peas and spinach just starting to come up, everything else ls just starting  Put in peppers broccoli and brussels sprouts and a few tomatoes, Need to plant another couple dozen tomato plants.  This is the small garden that has rabbit fence.  The big garden has been tilled and the electric fence put up for the deer.  They are rough on baby corn plants.  That one is about 1 1/2 times this size.  It will have corn, squash and more tomato plants.  My wife cans a lot.

 

          Stein,

   You put our raised bed wannabee gardens to shame. Ness should be picking on you not me. Hear that Ness Stein is building a boat too .  Maybe he will build a barge and float his crops down to his place in Arkansas!

  BilletHead

[Stein]

We are fortunate to have good soil so it's easy for us to go bigger,  You can see my wife is fairly wasteful with space when laying it out.  .  I have dug down five feet in various spots and still in black dirt.  No rocks, no clay.  It will be one of only a small handful of things I would miss when I move to Arkansas.

[BilletHead]

 

We are fortunate to have good soil so it's easy for us to go bigger,  You can see my wife is fairly wasteful with space when laying it out.  .  I have dug down five feet in various spots and still in black dirt.  No rocks, no clay.  It will be one of only a small handful of things I would miss when I move to Arkansas.

          Yep you will have a good crop of rocks in Arkansas. The armadillos will help you find any bare dirt available. The way they are spreading you may have a few up your way now. At first they were fun to see here. Now they are a major pain in the rear. When you build the barge for the move South load it with some of that soil. Drop some off for Ness and the BilletHead as you go by .

  BilletHead

[Stein]

II don't know if they are much north of Wichita yet, haven't seen any this far north.  I think it will be too cold in the winters to sustain them but who knows.  I actually thought about bringing dirt sometime.  Just load up flatbed trailers full when I am just coming down and don't have the boat in tow.  My lot is very sloping and the backyard is useless so I have considered stepped boxes all the way down sometime.  They would run from zero to two feet high on a transition of maybe five feet.  Hardest part would be getting dirt TO them.  There is a road below our lot at the back of the property.  It's probably 100 feet from the back of the house and probably 30 feet from the walkout basement down to the road.  Good 30-40% grade.

[Stein]

The other thing that we have is good compost.  My wife has two horses.  All of the manure and wasted hay gets pushed into long piles about 4 feet high, six feet across and many yards long.  Take the loader and flip them once a week and in 6-8 weeks it is as dark and fine as coffee grounds.  I used to put 2-3 ton on each garden every fall and till it in to fallow over winter.  I've stopped now mainly because I'm tired of fighting the weeds from the compost.  The weed seeds pass through the horse intact and grow like mad in new soil.  If I really needed the compost to bring up the soil quality it would be worth it but I really don't need it any longer so I just spread it back on the brome pasture with the manure spreader and then I bale the pasture every June/July for their hay.  Recycling at its finest and the weeds can't really get established with the good grass cover.

[MOPanfisher]

Trying my best to keep up with my slow, tottering, 84 yr old mom and pick strawberries.  I do believe she would fist fight anyone who tried to steal them.  Finally got something planted thugh, the lettuce etc. was pulled out of the cold frame and replaced with 2 cherokee purples and a beefmaster, planted a miniature yellow rose to replace a dead one for mom, and still have a black prince and pinksomething tomato plant to set.  Maybe, just maybe I will be able to work.my small garden this week, bigger garden no chance yet, corn and Cantelouopes will have to wait some more, but more maters, squash, and cukes are dangerously close to being able to plant.  This year my fishing isn't interrupting my gardening, just the rains are.

[ness]

Lettuce is rolling in

Gotta crop every photo from my phone to get them under the size limit. Need to just take them from farther away I guess. The upside is there's no deck in the pics to get that crap started ?