2020 How does your garden grow

[TNGhost]

Got one and use it regularly. Great job and makes weeding easy. I call it my pull & push hoe.

Yeah those hoop hoes are handy as all get out. I use one for most of my weeding, especially between rows.

 

[Ames]

I have the typical end of the garlic season problem. The soil moisture is perfect right now. However, huge thunderstorms are on my doorstep. And tropical downpours forecast for Friday night. The garlic needs 3 more weeks in the ground. This can lead to problems like neck rot and ruin the crop. So busy at work I don't have time to throw together a frame and tarp system. But it will teach me for sure to put up a frame next spring BEFORE I need it.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

I have the typical end of the garlic season problem. The soil moisture is perfect right now. However, huge thunderstorms are on my doorstep. And tropical downpours forecast for Friday night. The garlic needs 3 more weeks in the ground. This can lead to problems like neck rot and ruin the crop. So busy at work I don't have time to throw together a frame and tarp system. But it will teach me for sure to put up a frame next spring BEFORE I need it.

I am not familiar with the neck rot problem. It seems I always harvest more than we can use or give away and have taken to drying some to preserve for later in the year. I chop up the prepared cloves in a food processor then dry in a dehydrator. Kept in a canning jar, they last a long time.

 

[Ames]

You have more than you can use once harvested. But if you get Louisiana type rains 2 weeks before harvest, you get problems. The stuff can drown and rot.

 

[Gun Tramp]

This can lead to problems like neck rot and ruin the crop.

Hi Ames, are you growing hardneck or softneck type? Thanks...

 

[Carbon 6]

I have the typical end of the garlic season problem. The soil moisture is perfect right now. However, huge thunderstorms are on my doorstep. And tropical downpours forecast for Friday night. The garlic needs 3 more weeks in the ground. This can lead to problems like neck rot and ruin the crop. So busy at work I don't have time to throw together a frame and tarp system. But it will teach me for sure to put up a frame next spring BEFORE I need it.

That's kinda the boat i'm in right now too.

 

[Carbon 6]

I am not familiar with the neck rot problem. It seems I always harvest more than we can use or give away and have taken to drying some to preserve for later in the year. I chop up the prepared cloves in a food processor then dry in a dehydrator. Kept in a canning jar, they last a long time.

I still have some heads left from last year some stored in the basement and some in my beer fridge The ones in the beer fridge are still good along with some onions from last summer.

 

[Eutycus]

This is the latest that I've ever had tomato plants in my garden but I pulled up the last of them today. A guy on the radio who used to be the extension agent said it's time. The plants are breeding grounds for next year's spider mites. Kind of like boll weevils using late cotton plants for feeding and breeding grounds, I guess..Plus it's darn hot + dry down here in South Texas.

 

[Carbon 6]

Mother nature decides when mine come out, Kills them for me with frost.

 

[Eutycus]

These tomatos were on their last leg anyway. They probably would have died from the heat in a week or two. It is time for them to go to the burn pile. My main problem is Bermuda grass smack dab in the middle of my garden. I don't want to use herbicides so I'm using small fires to kill the grass. Tilling would be no problem but that just spreads and replants the grass, it don't kill it.

 

[Carbon 6]

tarp ?

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Chickens found a way into the garden fence, gorged themselves on Goose Berries ☹, about stripped the bushes clean, but left most of the currents. I guess the Goose Berries were ripe, and the currents were still a bit tart.

 

[Eutycus]

I got black trash bags on real bad spots. For years I've put wheelbarrows of leaves In between rows as a mulch. This year for some reason the weeds and grass came right through.

 

[Ames]

Hi Ames, are you growing hardneck or softneck type? Thanks...

Both. Its great to see it in the spring after a 20 below winter.

 

[Ames]

These tomatos were on their last leg anyway. They probably would have died from the heat in a week or two. It is time for them to go to the burn pile. My main problem is Bermuda grass smack dab in the middle of my garden. I don't want to use herbicides so I'm using small fires to kill the grass. Tilling would be no problem but that just spreads and replants the grass, it don't kill it.

Try solarizing the soil. Make sure the area you target is watered deeply. Then cover the area with clear plastic, not a colored tarp. Dig and bury the edges all around the perimeter. The grass and weed seeds come up in the moist environment only to be greeted by 150 degree steam bath. It will cook the grass and cook years of weed seeds. Leave it in place for 6 or 8 weeks. No poisons. No residue.
Unfortunately , no earth worms for a while either, but that's a whole other discussion.

 

[Carbon 6]

I've had good luck controlling many weeds between seasons using an alleopathic cover cop like wheat, barley or buckwheat. Bermuda grass is alleopathic itself. I did some checking and found that perennial rye grass is alleopathic to bemuda grass. even dead ground up rye grass roots and shoots are alleopathic to bermuda grass. so a regime of plant, grow, and till under should do the trick. Otherwise you are looking at using glysophate to kill everything. Not a favorable option for me.

https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/45/12/article-p1872.xml

 

[Eutycus]

How about tilling up the old garden , planting rye and lots of watering? I don't know if rye would grow down here in the summertime. It is called "winter rye". I'll try almost anything but glysophate . No chemicals please! But I do like the solarizing idea too. May try both.

 

[Ames]

You could try rye, but..................up here in the North you may have a hard time getting IT under control. The stuff lives through the winter and you get to attack it again in the spring. Go with plastic. No poly glycol razamataz to poison the soil.
The best cover crop to hold your soil, retain the nutrients and it winter kills? Oats! They are cheap, grows anywhere and builds the soil.
You can plant oats in the late summer, then plant your garlic into the oat beds. When the oats winterkill it will mulch the beds for you!

 

[Carbon 6]

How about tilling up the old garden , planting rye and lots of watering? I don't know if rye would grow down here in the summertime. It is called "winter rye". I'll try almost anything but glysophate . No chemicals please! But I do like the solarizing idea too. May try both.

Perennial rye is like a grass seed. It's not like the grain you eat. I don't know if it will grow that far south. The goal is to plant the perennial rye let it grow a while then turn the soil over.

 

[Ames]

Cant get it all in one shot. The three main areas are 5K sq. feet each, the half sized one is for the corn. Two more large areas out to the North, asparagus and garlic beds lie to the South. All told its a half acre with nothing but dreams and a roto tiller. I should buy a tractor,

but with that kind of money I could build more guns! That's part of a 200' row of 6' tall highbush blueberries in front of the white birches. First year we lived here we picked 50 gallons!