New Gardening

A new gun would not have needed another building!

 

Don't NEED another building/addition to the Garage/building. But be nice to have room in the current building part without having to dodge things. Especially since thats where my Workbench/workshop is!!!

Right now I'm on Indoor Lunch Break since hauled tail last couple hours beating the Landfill's closing time. Spent the morning work time shallow tilling the grass & raking it up. Got truck heaped high with mulch now fer other things & Deep Tilling to go. 6 1/2 more hours to go until sun gone too far down & my work day over so I can have supper & alky

 

Okay my Garden's Ground Breaking is FINISHED!!! Also got all the compost thoroughly mixed in as well. Might have to break out Hopping John though for the tater Section as Taters don't normally go THAT shallow in the ground since the Big Red Troybuilt Rear Tine don't dig quite as deep as ole Hoppin John my Mid Tine Merry Tiller. But, with all the grass long gone, well, 80% of it, ole Hoppin John oughta not hop as much when I deepen the Tater Section.

I plant when my Mother says to & she believes in Planting according to the signs so got about a week until plant Taters & lil more fer rest of the veggies.

 

Planting Done!!!

I got my planting done this evening!!! Started about 5:30pm got finished about 8:20pm as the darkness grew and as it started sprinkling. Shoulda gotten planted sooner but theres been a few frosts so maybe its good I'm a lil late.

I planted 5 15' rows of russet taters
2 long rows of Butterbeans a heirloom type
2 long, 1 3/4, & 2 short rows of Old Timey Mountain Peas, another Heirloom, one you can't get in stores!!!
10 hills of cucumbers, yeah I have dreams of making pickles
9 hills of squash
4 mater plants, 3 different types

So hopefully I'll have a bountiful harvest


Also learned, i need to get a plow ya can pull before next year as digging rows with mattock or hoe is Hard Werk!!!

 

Hey, let me know when the pickles are ready!

We settled for getting some things planted in pots and raised beds this year. Hopefully, we'll be able to find the time to do some canning when harvest time comes. I just couldn't see going to the trouble of putting in a proper garden (even if I had the time, which I don't) when we're hoping to be moving this year. Next year is when I'll go crazy with gardening. I'll have to check with you then on what blister medication and back pain medication you've found useful this year.

 

If you have a troy bilt type tiller they have a row making attachment for about 60 bucks. works great.

 

Tequilla. Tequila makes everything better, or not so bad. Also I had sum padded "Landscaper" gloves I about wore out. Got them at Walmart last Fall on clearance. Have since gotten a couple more pairs but at full price. I wouldn't dare use either my tillers without them. If starting a new garden. I'd strongly suggest either renting a tractor or sumthing to break the new ground for you. Less chance of killing yerself that way.

 

I have a bronco tiller with the wheel pins. I added a troy bilt horse later. These are gear controlled so no wheel pins. They are a grand or more new but in winter you can get a good used one for 250. I till with the horse and weed the rows with the bronco and dont get beat up.

 

Yesterday among my other yard werk I also planted about 13-14 Marigolds out of 18 in my garden

 

Sum times i really Hate being an ANT!!! It is 8:45pm & just finished werking outside for the day.

Was a half day at work, ran by Wallyworld on way home. Started grass mowing at 2pm, then to the garden for more weed & @#$%# Wiregrass removal. My mother worked until 4pm then got home & helped me. At 8pm she told me to put the stuff up as she piddled sum more in garden. Well, I put it up, an when I carried the hoes to building, one needed sharpened. So I straightened up my workshop a bit as it been a mess for a month. Put hoe in vise & sharpened it. The iron dust added to previous mess made me get shopvac & start cleaning even more. Now, workshop cleaned as well. Mother came to see where I got lost at half an hour later.

I hate being an Ant sum times........

 

I should prolly mention, the reason I had Ants & Grasshoppers on the brain. At 7pm I was on my knees digging up wiregrass when I smelled the guys lives behind me starting up his grill, & was hearing couple guys a lil up the road, playing horseshoes.

 

Spent a couple hours working in garden this morning, half of it in the sprinkling rain. Fertilized & sidedressed the taters, maters, squash, cucumbers, & planted sum watermelon seeds though its a bit later fer them. Planted Carolina Cross Watermelons. Says they "Sun loving". Sure hope so as July oughta be hawt as hell again!

Then I cooked dinner. Cube Steak, green beans, taters, gravy, & biscuits. Then took the cube steaks that had been lightly frozen out & vacuum sealed them. Very GOOD Sale this week at Bi-Lo on cube steak. Only $2.49 a pound. Bought & froze 8 packs, cooked a 9th pack today

 

Oh an Tulianer my friend, if yer future home here in my county has wiregrass & you hope to have a garden, I suggest you start clorox, salt, agent orange, & napalming it now. Then you'll have a headstart on fighting it.



I wish others would comment a lil on my new gardening experience thread, just so I know sumone reading it. Either way, I plan to keep it up, though I might not note every tiny detail, as a sort of ongoing journal of sorts. That way after harvest I can look back & read what it took to get there. With my fuzzy memory it'll help me remember how HARD it was to get there & maybe prevent my being dumb enough to not try any projects again without more careful thought & more Powerful aids in doing them!!!

 

I read the thread, so I'll know when them pickles is ready!

I don't think I know what wire-grass is. Reading your experiences though, is convincing me to stick with raised bed gardening.

 

Wiregrass control....don't burn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristida_stricta

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiregrass_Region

Don't burn to control wiregrass (Aristida stricta ).

Because wiregrass reproduction is stimulated by fire, and because it grows rapidly, it outcompetes other recovering plant species for light, water and nutrients, thereby gaining weedy dominance over desireable species.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2335318_remove-wire-grass-from-beds.html

 

Chello, trust me, they are woefully lacking in knowledge of where wiregrass is at. It ain't just in Georgia!!! An the picture they showing on that Wiki page, ain't what we call Wiregras here in NC.

 

I went looking for a photo of wire grass, and found a half a dozen different grass varieties that were all nicknamed wire grass. Now, I'm more confused than before.

 

One of the difficulties in labelling plant species and varieties, is that often the common name is shared by several different species in different parts of the country/world.....it's best to use the Latin name for the species identification consistent with the Linnaean system of taxonomy named after Carl Linnaeus, The Swedish naturalist. That way everone is on the same page trying to exterminate the same pesky weed.

I am sure that Aristida Stricta extends beyond the areas outlined in the wiki article...It is probably native in the areas outlined in the article but have been spread and become naturalised elsewhere as well.

Linnaean taxonomy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Chell, do you know what kind of look you would get if you walked into one of our local garden centers and said, "I'd like something to eradicate Aristida Stricta please."? After they stopped laughing, they'd say, "Can you say that in English?" (meaning, southern accented American English, of course.)

 

To be taken in a shot glass....neat!

yes, I understand what you are saying....they are the kind of shop assistant who are absolutely surprised to discover that bamboo and wheat are both grasses. Having worked in the gardening/horticulture section of your equivalent of home depot, most customers knew what they needed to kill what was bugging them (and occasionally, who was bugging them...if only in their fantasies). Those who didn't know what was effective, I generally asked them to describe the weed to me, though sometimes people would thoughtfully bring a sample with them. Most herbicides work in specific ways on particular types of weed i.e. fineleaf / monocots, ....broadleaf / dicots, and woody stemmed weeds. So usually a description was sufficient.

I don't know how herbicide / fungicide labelling is handled in the USA, but in Australia, labelling usually has both the common names and the Linnaeal names of plant species/varieties on the labelling....after a while either name would be sufficient to know which was which. As a backstop for the odd occasion that I wasn't able to identify something, I'd consult colleagues who were trained horticulturalists, or referred to (well illustrated) reference books on weeds and plant pathology that I kept in my aisle locker. There were of course a few customers whom I heartily wished would consume the herbicides themselves instead of giving it to their weeds...