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Are you still growing your Garden?

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Yes we do, every year 50' x 50', this year we're going to put up more in the way of canned goods, we've got the feeling food price's are going to hit the roof.
20200830_101253.jpg
 
Not anymore. We live in the middle of a farming community and a lot are Amish (good people). About 10 years ago we cost out the cost of diesel, fertilizer, seeds, etc. and as it would be it ended up being far cheaper to buy all our canning vegetables from local farmers and the Amish —- and those costs did_not include our labor. So every year we put our canning orders in (we still can hundreds of quarts….) early.

we would still grow a garden if we had to but this arrangement benefits not only us but our local farmers/people —- people we will need if the SHTF….We still hunt and can our own venison, canning will take the toughest meat and turn it as soft as filet mignon…..

Art
 
I have peppers started indoors. Two varieties of jalapeno and one plobano. They will get planted out the first week of May. Tomatoes, cucumbers and squash will follow.
 
Alot of the farmers around here have gone to minimum tillage, do you think it would work on a garden as well?That "relaxing hobby" is alot of work to someone who's been on this planet for over 70 years.
People say you have to till to kill the weeds. No till farmers apply herbicide before planting. Some people tolerate weeds and some can not.
I think I would go no till and mulch heavily.
 
Seems that most of the no/low till is reliant on glyphosate, which is pretty clearly established as a carcinogen these days in addition to severely altering gut flora that comprise the bulk of our immune system. I'd definitely want to avoid that.

I suppose there are other systems such as using large quantities of mulch (wood chips being one I've seen) to suppress weeds, but the all seem to me like more work than plowing/tilling.
Do I remember you plow with horses? Would that influence your choice?
 
Not anymore. We live in the middle of a farming community and a lot are Amish (good people). About 10 years ago we cost out the cost of diesel, fertilizer, seeds, etc. and as it would be it ended up being far cheaper to buy all our canning vegetables from local farmers and the Amish —- and those costs did_not include our labor. So every year we put our canning orders in (we still can hundreds of quarts….) early.

we would still grow a garden if we had to but this arrangement benefits not only us but our local farmers/people —- people we will need if the SHTF….We still hunt and can our own venison, canning will take the toughest meat and turn it as soft as filet mignon…..

Art
Same living situation-surrounded by farmers, many of them Amish. I can buy corn, greens, tomatoes etc cheaper off the stand at the head of virtually every farm lane than I can grow them.
We plant what they do not grow. Herbs in particular as we cook virtually every day.
 
Haven't bought "Seed" taters in years. Those left over from last year in the cellar that've sprouted over the winter work fine. Dig a trench, fill with straw, cover with straw and just enough dirt to keep straw from blowing away. Keeping chickens from digging in the straw's the only problem.

No digging, just pull up whole plant. Straw adds humus as it decomposes.
 
Last year I started using 5 gallon buckets with drain holes mounted in a wooden frame work for tomatoes.
Cucumbers were planted in a low clay pot sitting on the ground and the vines trained over a raised wooden trellis.
Bell peppers is a wooden box that serves as a divider between garage and backyard gate.
City 50x100 foot lot and limited back yard space.
After reading the posts above this is posted with much green envy…..😜
This year I’m going to try egg plant in the green fish box.
A67D3742-05D9-4C8F-B3C1-1EA2985EFBAB.jpeg
 
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There was a book about 40 years ago about gardening without tilling using mulch. The author piled leaves in her garden and planted by pulling the mulch back, planting starts, and pushing the mulch back to the plant. She added mulch whenever she had any. Claimed it kept the weeds out and fertilizer at the same time. I can't remember the name of the book or author. May have been published by Rodale Press.
 
There was a book about 40 years ago about gardening without tilling using mulch. The author piled leaves in her garden and planted by pulling the mulch back, planting starts, and pushing the mulch back to the plant. She added mulch whenever she had any. Claimed it kept the weeds out and fertilizer at the same time. I can't remember the name of the book or author. May have been published by Rodale Press.
Check out the YouTuber “way out west with Sandra and Tim ( Western Ireland) . They have that down to an art form.
 
There was a book about 40 years ago about gardening without tilling using mulch. The author piled leaves in her garden and planted by pulling the mulch back, planting starts, and pushing the mulch back to the plant. She added mulch whenever she had any. Claimed it kept the weeds out and fertilizer at the same time. I can't remember the name of the book or author. May have been published by Rodale Press.
Ruth Stout.

She created quite a stir in the gardening community. She was an old lady back then, but her gardening techniques really resonated with the younger generation of countercultural back-to-the-land type folks.

Notchy Bob
 
Ok , thanks guys , reading this thread has convinced me to just do it. The fence is still up , I'll do a small rotary lawnmower , and small rototiller and plant. Thanks.
 
Little or no tillage has been discussed.Most "how to garden" programmers on the radio here locally don't advocate using tillers much anymore. They say tillers impact the soil. I would think any impacting they do is a good 6 inches underground.I can see how they'd scare the earthworms but I don't quite follow the impaction bit. It seems they would have the opposite effect.
 
Last year I started using 5 gallon buckets with drain holes mounted in a wooden frame work for tomatoes.
Cucumbers were planted in a low clay pot sitting on the ground and the vines trained over a raised wooden trellis.
Bell peppers is a wooden box that serves as a divider between garage and backyard gate.
City 50x100 foot lot and limited back yard space.
After reading the posts above this is posted with much green envy…..😜
This year I’m going to try egg plant in the green fish box. View attachment 130645
Actually eggplant is fairly easy to grow, I don't grow it because I don't much care for it and my gardening space is limited.
 
We've used the Troy-Bilt rear-tine tillers for over 40 years, last 18 years in the same garden spot. Till between rows at least weekly in our creek bottom garden. They do compact our soil somewhat, but also chop up leaves, crop residue, etc. which greatly improves the dirt by adding humus.

Deep plowing (10-12" deep), then disc, followed by 3-point tractor tiller removes any compaction from last year's shallow weekly tilling. We have zero rocks, so at planting time, result looks like potting soil.

I, too, have a "library" of Rodale books. Good stuff.
 
I did something yesterday that I've never done before. I loaned my tiller to my niece's husband. I've always had a hard and fast rule about not loaning power tools. Maybe I'm getting "soft" in my old age?


Had a single friend and eveyone was always was wanting to borrow his stuff. He finally found a way to stop them.

When they asked him, "can I borrow this?", his response was, "can I borrow you wife for the weekend?".
 
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