2012 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Toepopper]

I hate to hear about all those apricots going to waste. I have been trying to grow them for 25 years and the trees always die. Fern told me to try planting bare root trees in a soil with a PH of 7.5 so I stuck 3 of them in holes filled with this soil and they seem to be doing good. One tree has 2 apricots on it! Its a start and I'm hoping for a better return next season. Everything else in the garden is doing good. We pick a 64 oz tub of red raspberries every day and a few cukes too. The brocoli and cauliflower is done and we are letting it go to seed. Have massive tomato plants with plenty of fruit but none are ripe yet.

[SS5R]

Our garden has done very well this year. We have had an over abundance of lettuce, fava beans, green beans, zucchini, and apples, I have picked up or picked off of the two apple trees over 3000 apples. We harvested over 40 garlic last month. Our pear tree and peach tree are full to the point of branches breaking. The corn is ready to harvest, the tomatoes plants are full and ripening, the second round of lettuce has just sprouted and our herb garden has out grown its space. We have been making apple jam, canning green beans, storing herbs, and sharing with our neighbors. The potatoes are flowering along with the summer squash. I don’t think it could get any better.

I gave up composting last year. I now just throw most everything into the garden raw and let it take its coarse. Chicken manure, lawn clippings, kitchen scraps, (less meat) that’s what goes in the garden. If the dog doesn’t eat it and the chickens don’t eat it, it goes in the garden. Fava beans, the plant stalk, and the bean hulls are chock full of nitrogen, put’em right back in your garden.

[Watchman]

Bravo!

Sounds like this was a banner year for the SS5R's. Are you going to do anything different next year?

[SS5R]

I don’t think I will do much different next year. Last year I divide the garden into 4 X 4 foot sections, then drew a plot map of where everything was planted and when, so this year I rotated everything clockwise by one section. I am keeping a record of what does well and where it is in the garden so I can make changes if necessary . This seems to work pretty well.

[Watchman]

We have green, yellow and spaghetti squash, onions and Armenian cucumbers coming out the ears!!!!

Even though we only had a couple of plants in a raised bed, this is the very first time we have harvested tomatoes without blossom end-rot. I credit it to an acquaintance who said 'do not water tomato plants from above! Always trickle or bottom (root) water. They are very tasty and blemish-free.

Interesting side note - the spaghetti squash came from a 3 year old pack that I had laying around. I'm guessing that it had almost 100% germination.

[Watchman]

Today was "Clean-Out-Our-Garden-Of-Squash-Day!" We've been doing this for the past two weeks but this was the end. In the foreground Armenian cucumbers, yellow, zucchini, and spaghetti squash.

[Watchman]

Am re-positioning my compost pile in the garden. I simply take off the top, which becomes the new bottom in another spot. After the pile is moved, the spot that once had the pile is now very fertile. China Mart had a sale on garden stuff to close out the season. I was able to get six 40-lb bags of dolomite agricultural lime for 50 cents a bag and three 50-pound bags of composted chicken manure for $1 each - both of which I will scatter on the garden area sometime around February or March here in Free Wyoming.

By the way, see the photo above of our leftover squash? The ONLY fertilizer we use is what we make into compost ourselves from our own kitchen and yard. We have never touched the earth with anything artificial, fertilizer, pesticide or herbicide! This year I kept very close watch on what we had growing for signs of damage by insects - NONE whatsoever!

I've got about a half a row of onions left and maybe, just maybe, there may be some potatoes hiding under the overgrowth.

[Toepopper]

My garden is at its peak right now, the tomato's are coming on strong and everything else is still producing well. Last weeks night time temperatures dipped down into the low 40s and at the higher elevations it dipped down into the 20s and froze most vegetable gardens. Here we usually have nice weather till late November and I will be picking veggies until then. Have started digging up the potato bed, setting the spuds on a metal rack and hosing them off, then let them dry in the sun before putting them away for winter. By doing this we can identify the reds from the white potato's and save some time when it comes to cooking them. I peeled some 2x6 decking off the wood deck and replaced them with new wood, then moved the old decking up into the garden and made 2 more raised beds that are 16' long by 4' wide. Haven't decided what to plant in them yet but have all winter to think about it. Judging from the produce prices in the supermarkets we have saved a ton of money by growing our own food and its better tasting. I just checked a cantelope and a honeydew mellon and they were both a 20 on the refractometer scale. The ones in the store don't even register on the refractometer.
Gardening on this scale requires many hours of attention and in the spring its hard work until you ge planted. Then you can cruise for a while before the picking, canning and storage begins. We still have canned goods from the 2011 crop so if you are willing to devote the time and energy, it is possible to grow enough food to sustain your family for a year and they will be healthier from it. Not everyone has the time or inclination, or the space to do this and I am glad I can still be successful at it every year.