Are you still growing your Garden?

[johnraleksa]

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.

One problem with that is bugs. Leaves and other mulch make great hiding and breeding area's for all kinds of unwanted bugs.

 

[flconch53]

Down here in SW Florida soil is p#### poor so I use raised beds and big pots. Black plastic on the raised beds. Every year is a challenge seems like something is always the star of the year. This year brussel sprouts and yellow beans. It has been a surprise to me how many plants are perennials given the opportunity. My egg plant lasted 5 years until the 4 days of frost I aweek this year.

 

[Nor'Easter]

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.

They might be talking about 'compaction'. Sandy soil is usually OK, but even a moderate amount of clay in the soil - any tool that has a 'shearing' action will create a 'plow pan'. So the L shape of tiller blades can cause a problem, especially if run at the same depth all the time. Our soil is called a "gravelly based loom" but certain locations (my farm) has a noticable amount of clay in it. I can only go over a piece of ground with a disk harrow 1x. If I go over it 2-3x to chop up residue, you can watch the disc harrow walk out of the ground a little further each pass. I didn't know what was happening until I read somewhere that a disc harrow works on a shearing action, and the steeper the gang angle, the worse the shearing action. So when the harrow stops penetrating properly, I have to chisel plow the ground to break up the compaction.

 

[Nor'Easter]

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[FishDFly]

Could grow pop sickles.

 

[Jason Jablonski]

I'm trying a new variety (new to me) of tomato.It's been around a long time, one of the "heirlooms". Any of y'all had any luck with the Old German?

We tried the Old German last year, I liked them, but they didn't seem to produce for very long. Weather got weird when they started producing, so that may have been an influence.

 

[Nor'Easter]

Could grow pop sickles.

It's not as bad as it looks. Northern Maine is like Western Maine...... winter winter winter SUMMER. Down state might have a 4-6 week mud season, ours is maybe a week.

 

[Jason Jablonski]

Trying one of the indoor greenhouses (wire shelves with plastic cover) this year. I will say this year is probably the fastest, best seed germinating year we have had. Saw people using them on YouTube and decided to give one a try.

It snowed here this weekend, teens this morning. Our last frost date isn't until mid May. Seeing something green is a nice pick me up and builds the anticipation. Tomatoes already need potted up.

 

[Nor'Easter]

We bought a green house off the Amish, and it works great. Unfortunately we set it about 50'-60' from the house, down hill. We built our new house with a Craftsman style porch on the south side of the house, but I designed it with large overhangs to protect it from summer sun (too hot). So it's not optimum for starting plants. Might need to add a small green house to the southeast corner of the porch. The wife wants the porch enclosed and turned into a 3 season porch, so the attached greenhouse might work. And it would be nice to see some green plants that aren't fir or spruce trees.

 

[Eutycus]

We tried the Old German last year, I liked them, but they didn't seem to produce for very long. Weather got weird when they started producing, so that may have been an influence.

Someone correct me if I mistaken but isn't the Old German an Indeterminate? It should keep on producing all through the season.But down here it gets too hot in the summertime so I guess the weather very well could be a factor. How big is the fruit?

 

[Jason Jablonski]

Someone correct me if I mistaken but isn't the Old German an Indeterminate? It should keep on producing all through the season.But down here it gets too hot in the summertime so I guess the weather very well could be a factor. How big is the fruit?

They were 3-4" diameter. They weren't very acidic. Can't remember if they were meaty or not.

 

[iloco]

I raised the German tomatoes for 40 some years. Saved seed from year to year. They were a big smooth pinkish tomato. They are more on the meaty side with not as many seeds. I miss raising them but have to many health problems to have a garden now. I get my fresh produce from a friend now.

 

[Tom A Hawk]

We are a good month away from ground planting here but I have started some seeds this week for transplanting as things warm up. I may to do the potatoes under straw this year just to see how they do. I like to save seeds and therefore try to stay away from hybrids. There are so many hybrid varieties out there now. Anybody have a good source for heirloom, non hybrid seeds?

 

[Nor'Easter]

We've been using Eden Bro.'s. There's also Johnny's Seeds in Maine.

 

[appalichian hunter]

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Looks like a good time to plant snow peas. just saying.

 

[Nor'Easter]

My wife and I think it's a good trade, cold & snow for ticks!

 

[Ames]

We've been using Eden Bro.'s. There's also Johnny's Seeds in Maine.

Johnnys is a commercial rip off, same as the others. $450 battery operated tillers for in between rows? Really? Switch over to Fedco seeds, also in Maine.
Your garden will thank you.

 

[Eutycus]

Just Google seed savers exchange. It should provide you with a phone number. I've always found their seed catalog "good reading.

 

[Eutycus]

I now have about half a dozen heirloom tomato varieties and will have some Old German seeds to add in a few months.

 

[Nor'Easter]

FEDCO is a good outfit also. We use them all, and pick the products that work for us. I think this year folks wil probably need to get their seeds where ever they can / are available. Seed Savers is pretty awsome also. Haven't used them in a while but their diversity and mission are definately something to consider supporting. We started using open polinated heirlooms 3-4 years ago. It's nice knowing you can keep your own seeds.