Doing a veggie garden, last year redemption?

iHearAll said:

Examples from my garden. The beds are a yard wide. I mix with a small flat shovel, the 3ft length kind. Pile a narrow but long mound after it's mixed and thwn with a garden rake i flatten the bed out so It's straight and level. I let the grass grow in between the beds but pull the large weeds that come in for composting.View attachment 3684939 View attachment 3684940 View attachment 3684941

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your zuchinni or squah or w/e they are look great, got flowers and all already, way ahead of my stuff.. it was really warm here in march, but come april it got cold and rainy and i had to wait to almost the middle of may to put it all in ..

I bought a huge roll of the garden fabric last summer and the weeds grew right up under it. It was the cheaper stuff I'll admit. But in the end I wound up with a mess a fabic and weeds. Overlapping it sounds like it would work better. Its to late for getting it now.

I'm hopeing and I know its a lot of work, but hoping the family gets on board and weeds some this yr. Last yr they started but by July it was down to me.

Yea same here for weather. Last yr I was almost a month ahead. But I think they will take right off.

Yours looks nice. Good space and clean. I like the fabric and am wondering if I didn't make a mistake not trying better stuff.

Just fooling said:

I bought a huge roll of the garden fabric last summer and the weeds grew right up under it. It was the cheaper stuff I'll admit. But in the end I wound up with a mess a fabic and weeds. Overlapping it sounds like it would work better. Its to late for getting it now.

I'm hopeing and I know its a lot of work, but hoping the family gets on board and weeds some this yr. Last yr they started but by July it was down to me.

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get a small hoe, and keep on top of it.. go out say once a week or so and hoe around all of your plants to keep the weeds down.. don't wait too long between hoes or they'll get too big and harder to manage..
and i used some different weed guard last year, and had weeds still too, and with that crap down, you really can't hoe now.. i applied it differently and like i said, tried to over lap, and used way more this year then last.. we shall see how it turns out..

Just fooling said:

Yea same here for weather. Last yr I was almost a month ahead. But I think they will take right off.

Yours looks nice. Good space and clean. I like the fabric and am wondering if I didn't make a mistake not trying better stuff.

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that white fabric is great.. it's way heavier than the store bought stuff, and came from some kind of bedding we had laying around and wasn't being used.. i really like that stuff and don't think the weeds will have a chance under it..
yeah, it'll take off, my stuff has gotten a lot bigger in just the couple of weeks it's been in the ground.. i even throw a few zuchinni seeds right in the ground and now have a few more plants growing that started from the seeds..
i also had an open row, so i just went out and throw in some canteloupe seeds for shits and giggles, why not i figured, nothing to lose..
my cucumbers are starting to get big and should be throwing out feelers soon and taking over the fence..

i used for the first time in the garden this year some epsoma products that i got at like a lowes.. i got the plant tone, and mixed like 1 tbsp in each hole i dug for the plants, mixed it with the natural dirt in the yard, and put them around each plant.. gonna try and water with it again in another week or so and see how it goes.. but so far, i'm liking it..

racerboy71 said:

get a small hoe, and keep on top of it..

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excellent advice!

abe supercro said:

excellent advice!

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lolz

pull weeds by hand. it's good for scraping the skin off your fingers.



it's not that tough.

racerboy71 said:

your zuchinni or squah or w/e they are look great, got flowers and all already, way ahead of my stuff.. it was really warm here in march, but come april it got cold and rainy and i had to wait to almost the middle of may to put it all in ..

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spaghetti squash and pumpkins! got a 12 inch diameter pumpkin on the vine, still green so hopefully i can nurse it into a hefty size. weather here is very warm, summer hits 110 occasionally and i rarely see snow. maybe 1 day out of 7 years

UncleBuck said:

pull weeds by hand. it's good for scraping the skin off your fingers.

it's not that tough.

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xt

Just fooling said:

@iHearAll- I'm interested in what types of companion plants you use? Last year I planted marigolds I had heard they keep insects at bay. They looked well if not anything else. I've some sunflowers and mixed wildflowers in seed packs but not sure if I should plant them alongside the rest of the crops?

Also I hear a lot about comprey (spl) and it is good for cannabis as well but I know nothing more besides that. I asked for it and was told it was a weed? I didn't get any farther into researching it more.

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mints to protect from caterpillars, i dont kill wasps because they will eat them.

, chives to prevent gnats and w/e else may bother my citrus trees,

cover crop with legumes to fix nitrogen into the soil after every crop,

plant carrots tomatoes and lettuce together, each has their benefit to each other,

comfrey is used for it's leaves to improve tomatoes and peppers. it's leaves are reportedly 1.8-0.5-5.3 NPK with calcium. the roots are around 6 ft deep, so if these are composted they will be very high in trace elements as well. Comfrey draws up otherwise trapped nutrients to be part of a sustainable garden. Another deep rooting plant is a fancy grass i personally love, vetiver. Its roots will grow down to about 3 meters. It is also good for step terracing or holding down a swale to prevent erosion and increase saturation of water in the soil.

marigolds are great to let go to seed and spread, they a very nice at repelling vine burrowing beetles

horehound will grow like a weed and attracts beneficial wasps as well as enhances pepper and tomato growth plus smells like hot rubber, which i find pleasing haha

there are many many many many many etc etc variations on companion crop claims, i do see them helping but they are not perfect, i still have to pick a few catepillars off my cabbages and kale, i have a rabbit that hangs out eating my veggies, i let he/she have whatever it likes

the best sources for agricultural information on companion cropping, resource recovery, and purposeful land manipulation are usually in reference to sustainable agriculture and biodynamics

Wow! So much info. Very much appreciated. You are a wealth of info on gardening. Thanks.

Got the home but she don't want to pull weeds either. Guess I'll have to buy the other type. Truth is I have one but its older than some mtn ranges.

@UncleBuck- your garden looks great! I'm inspired actually. Really clean and healthy. Everyone has a giant step up on me.

Thanks for all the replies and info. And keep following along summer should be good.

The pic is just a place I go to swim. A local would know it. We jump off the bridge. When much younger I would jump from the point the pic was taken. Not anymore.

Oh and I use some espoma products. Both are an organic mix of stuff. I don't know the names off hand but I added a few bags with my compost and tilled it all in. They were cheap last fall at home depot. I want to say 6 bucks. Regular priced at about ten or 11. Just a whim buy.

I've a feeling the compost does a good job. I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by farms and free compost can be had everywhere. Most farmers are not making compost just pilling shit up. But a couple have horses and its horse manure with wood chips composted and turned for years. Looks like black gold. The only bad side is its full of seeds from plants growing in it.

Just fooling said:

Oh and I use some espoma products. Both are an organic mix of stuff. I don't know the names off hand but I added a few bags with my compost and tilled it all in. They were cheap last fall at home depot. I want to say 6 bucks. Regular priced at about ten or 11. Just a whim buy.

I've a feeling the compost does a good job. I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by farms and free compost can be had everywhere. Most farmers are not making compost just pilling shit up. But a couple have horses and its horse manure with wood chips composted and turned for years. Looks like black gold. The only bad side is its full of seeds from plants growing in it.

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I hunt cam. cyanescence mudhrooms locally. It's legal here. They like equine manure. The local farmers spread the barn waste.out on thr trails near their houses and it frequently has seeds in it. I'll see squash and leafy greens growing through. It's rainy season here!

Are they psychedelic mushrooms? They sound familiar but I'm not familiar with mushrooms besides cubensis. I lived in Florida and we picked them when young. Good memories there.
Its cold here today 55 was the tops and I'm living in a wind farm so its windy and cold.

Just fooling said:

Are they psychedelic mushrooms? They sound familiar but I'm not familiar with mushrooms besides cubensis. I lived in Florida and we picked them when young. Good memories there.
Its cold here today 55 was the tops and I'm living in a wind farm so its windy and cold.

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Blue meanies
Yea, more potent by weight but they are much smller than cubensis. An avg dose is 10. You off grid or supplying power to the town?

Neither. My land buts up to the neighbor county which has over 120 windmills up in last few years. If my place were 40 ft closer I'd get a kick back from it But the only people who get a break are the ones with them on their property. Or real close. Some are over 400ft tall. The energy gets sold somewhere else.

Its a mess all the corporation promises of jobs and such, bullshit, the land and house assessment are all down ( thats fine less taxes) but they don't even run them but a few hrs a day I have heard they will take 80 yrs to pay for themselves.

Just another gov't money spending program. My power bill goes up to 400 bucks and over some months. Its also a big place with 7 of us here so we are not the most efficient.

A buddy of mine , local got one of the promised windmill jobs he made great money for a year. Once they were all up he trained the guys who would be taking over his position. They were three Japanese, one who spoke English well and a Canadian. So much for the locals. Lol.

I have heard of them, the mushrooms. You guys have it good in that regard there. We have one type I know of in the northeast and I've never found one. Big laughing him they are called, not potent I hear. I usually hike at least a few times a week. No luck. I've heard stories of thousands growing all over towns in Oregon and Washington. After high school I moved to Florida with two friends. We went out with local buddies and picked cubensis. They were everywhere. Picked so many they all rotted once. No market for them down there. But some good times.

Put my fence up tonight. Shorter than I had wished in height. But my budget is short to. If I didn't waste so much space I'd have bought a better fence. Lesson learned.

Just fooling said:

Put my fence up tonight. Shorter than I had wished in height. But my budget is short to. If I didn't waste so much space I'd have bought a better fence. Lesson learned.

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Chocolate lab?

He is just a rescue dog. I think he may have some lab in him but he is skinnier, faster and dumber than most labs. Real good dog he goes everywhere I do.