2019 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Watchman]

In my unofficial analysis, food prices are up about 25%. Its time to have a home garden. Do it now.

[Toepopper]

Weird wild weather has postponed any garden preparation this year. My garden is buried under 16" of snow and the ground is frozen solid. Very unusual weather. Usually by this date I have already planted cabbage, lettuce and peas but they will have to wait until the snow melts.

[Watchman]

Did a tune-up on my 16-year-old Mantis tiller - new spark plug, air filter, fuel line, and primer bulb. I am ready to go!

MANTIS.jpg

[Toepopper]

With store bought food prices already going through the roof, this may be a good time to increase the size of your garden and plant as much as you can.
Large areas of farmland in the Midwest have been flooded and will not be planted this year and over one million head of cattle and spring feeder calves have been lost. Beef prices will rise and the price of grains and chicken feed will also. This year I was unable to plant cold weather crops because of 2 feet of snow covering my garden area. Planted sugar snap peas before it snowed, was expecting to lose them but after the snow melted they were still alive and growing.

[Watchman]

MAYSnow.jpg

Yesterday our tulips were blooming and our apricot tree was full of blossoms. Today, May 1st, white stuff.

[Watchman]

I've been trying for the past 4 days to get out, finish pulling weeds, and till the ground. It hasn't stopped raining and snowing. Even the wasps and yellow jackets have went back into hibernation.

[Toepopper]

Real strange weather this year. It finally stopped raining here and warmed up. All the cucumbers I had planted have died, probably from drowning. Have replanted with new starts but lost 3 weeks growing time. Tomato plants are doing fine and we have been picking sugar snap peas for the last 10 days. Green beans have popped out of the ground and look healthy. After 3 seasons I have finally picked some tayberries, now being sold in nurseries as honey berries. They taste similar to blue berries.

[Watchman]

Sadly, no garden this year. Had too much to do that required more than 24 hours a day.

[Toepopper]

That's the pitts. Lots of time required to do a garden and lots of hard work. My garden is smaller than usual this year due to the wild weather. Could not plant any cold crops due to all the snow, except for peas. They are done producing for the season. Have been picking red raspberries and picked the first ripe tomato yesterday.

[Watchman]

One happy note though. This year our apricot tree had a total of 10,000,000 apricots. Gave away about 8 million, froze about a million for future jam and STILL had about a million that went out with the yard waste. Rotten SOBs don't want them unless you pick them, wash them, bag them, and deliver them.

[Toepopper]

Garden season is just about over with a hard freeze expected for tonight. Must go pick the remaining green tomato's and set them on the window sills to ripen. Dug up the potato's yesterday and picked apples too. Must finish picking apples today and start turning straw and leaves into the soil in the raised beds. Will drain and remove all the water hoses and lines from the storage tank, still have about 200 gallons in the tank that must also be drained. Hardwood tree leaves have changed colors with the cooler weather and its a beautiful sight.