Garden report/experience

[BackBlast]

Fail. Not just Fail, but FAIL.

New house, virgin land. I said I'd give it a good effort this year, and I thought I did. Plowed up the clay soil by hand, added what I thought would help. Well, apparently that soil needs a LOT MORE help than my shallow experience pool was ready for.

Summary of experience. Virgin soil can be very very hostile to gardening... Some of the plants were salvaged and brought indoors, and we are attemping to keep the indoor garden alive through the winter, we'll see how it goes. So far, our harvest on those plants looks to be some 2-3 months late - but the peppers are starting to grow at long last while looking pretty good overall and we're getting a few tomatoes.

Next year: Raised garden boxes and purchased the square foot gardening book for reference into the SFG method. I'll give it another good effort, but we're keeping the indoor plants and potentially expanding the indoor efforts as well. Which probably means grow lights for the winter.

[Justme]

Have had similar experience. I have 30 acres of land in leased crops but my garden experience is zero. We put in raised beds 3 years ago, first year great; second no water or weeding after my daughters premature baby; this year pretty good after removing last years weeds but slow start because of late spring, the ability to cover them easily at the advent of cold weather is great though so we are still hoping for more tomatoes.

On the other hand the beans, corn, and ???can't remember what else we put in a first year traditional garden, in which we amended the soil quite a lot, mostly didn't make it. The neighbor whose family had been gardening in the same spot for at least eighty years planted after us and got a great garden. I hope we don't need eighty years of amending to catch up. I've heard seven is more like it or treat it as a square foot garden and really pour on the amendments all in one year.

Not discouraged though as we love our little square foot kitchen garden tomatoes, lettuce, etc. It just seems ridiculous to build more square foot boxes when we have thirty acres!

[phylm]

Have had similar experience. I have 30 acres of land in leased crops but my garden experience is zero. We put in raised beds 3 years ago, first year great; second no water or weeding after my daughters premature baby; this year pretty good after removing last years weeds but slow start because of late spring, the ability to cover them easily at the advent of cold weather is great though so we are still hoping for more tomatoes.

On the other hand the beans, corn, and ???can't remember what else we put in a first year traditional garden, in which we amended the soil quite a lot, mostly didn't make it. The neighbor whose family had been gardening in the same spot for at least eighty years planted after us and got a great garden. I hope we don't need eighty years of amending to catch up. I've heard seven is more like it or treat it as a square foot garden and really pour on the amendments all in one year.

Not discouraged though as we love our little square foot kitchen garden tomatoes, lettuce, etc. It just seems ridiculous to build more square foot boxes when we have thirty acres!

Our experience in Florida sand is that it took a lot of cow manure--used "mushroom dirt" the first year, but too expensive, a lot of 10-10-10 and Miracle Grow, and two years to get top production. We found a large dairy farm about 20 miles away, where we could get free manure--$10 to have them load it, and free horse manure with free loading about 50 miles away, that was chiefly sawdust and shavings. Good mulch.

Also, a lot of research on controlling insects and fungi. For fungus, copper sulfate does a good job on everything from fruit trees, grapes and berries to vegetables and roses.

We have recently moved onto an 11-acre "mini-farm," and it is all in grass, so we begin all over. The bright spot is tht we are now just a mile from that lovely dairy farm!

[mgriffith]

My small garden did "ok" this year. I got about 70 pounds of vegetables and fruit from it. Enough to give us some fresh food for the season, but not enough to keep us for a year.

Broccoli - 12 pounds - most of it frozen for use later.

Corn - a few pitiful ears that gave us one good meal. Most of the WalMart seeds did not germinate.

Beans - Planted a bunch of beans after the corn was harvested and they did real well.

Tomatoes - Only had two plants, but got nearly 10 pounds from them. Planted in new semi-hydroponic planters with some growing medium and 4 gallons of water in the bottom. Water every two days and they produced a lot. Will expand with two more planters next year.

Cucumbers - Pretty good, got about 17 pounds of them. Enough for lots of cucumber sandwiches but not much else.

Squash - Very pitiful....only got one (1) squash from three vines.

Onions - planted a bunch of starters and got about a pound of onions, each smaller than an egg. What happened here??

Peaches - Squirrels ate them all. I need to trap them critters this winter and move them across the river.

Apples - The only success story. Got nearly 30 pounds from three trees. Lots and lots of Red Delicious and almost the same for Granny Smith. Going to have some good apple pies over the next couple weeks and lots will be dried and then used in bread later.

This is all from a small garden area and an orchard of three peach and three apple trees.

Pictures attached from the Spring.

[Justme]

I guess I am guilty of focusing on the failures and not expressing thanks for what we did get. I forgot !!! our row of onions did very well and from our thirty apple, pear, plum, and sour cherry trees we will get a fairly good harvest off of about half of them. The others had their blossoms frozen or blown off or did not get pollinated. So I do have a lot to be grateful for. I hope I can find people who want to trade for apples and onions.

[prairiemom]

It took us at least 4-5 yrs of less than successful gardens before we started seeing success. It was only about 3, maybe 4 yrs ago that we produced enough to have preserved food most of the year. That's years of learning which varieties grow well and which don't, which pests to protect against, the best timing for planting, improving soil fertility, etc. (Lesson #1--don't ever by grocery store seeds--Walmart, Kmart, garden center, etc.)

Even so, this year's garden was less successful than my last 2 or 3. We lost our apple trees (root rot caused by last year's flood), juneberries and crabapple. :crying: Got almost nothing from the raspberries and most of my root crops failed--never even came up. :bored: Too much of what did grow was promptly eaten by voles. :frown (3):

But don't count it as a failure. Look how much you learned. You now know some of what you need to do to improve next year's garden. Gardening is year round. Planning, plotting, buying and starting seeds begins almost as soon as you've got the garden put to bed for the winter. The knowledge I've gained through gardening "failures" is the cheapest Master's Degree I could ever get.

[4evermama]

Too much of what did grow was promptly eaten by voles. :frown (3):

The knowledge I've gained through gardening "failures" is the cheapest Master's Degree I could ever get.

First off, eeewwww voles are naaaa-sty!

Secondly, I couldn't agree with you more. My best skills are those tempered with tons of failure. It took me 3 years to get used to growing tomatoes in the Pac NW. Late spring frosts and 10 months of rain quickly humbled what gardening skills I thought I possessed. Also, don't be afraid to ask the experts "what DOESN'T work". People jump at the chance to help someone not live through the pain of garden losses and are usually super resources.

Our late rains and high winds destroyed much of the area blossom crops...beans, peas, apples, etc. So we were dependent on farmers outside of our immediate locale.
Lettuces, spinach, herbs, tomatoes (planted late), berries, potatoes...all did great.
I guess the lesson that I am most thankful has led me to better appreciate why we need to put up as much as possible.

One bad season, and your family will suffer a hungry winter. Putting up extra could get you through enough time to plant late and pray, or to sow tons of quick growing winter crops to help get you through. (Another reason to learn how to sprout!)

Without some sort of buffer, things can get dicey in a blink.

[Ligure]

We tried a mixture of mittleider method garden and our previous methods.

The thing that worked for us was to put the irrigation on automatic timers, do raised beds, ammend with dolemite lime and azomite sea solids.

Tomatoes: For the first time this year we had a bounty crop of tomatoes and only had a touch of blossom end rot early on. This is a miracle for us in the PNW with the wetness and depleted calcium. The indeterminate varieties are taller than I am and the tomatoes are wonderful and still producing.
Beans: We also had lots of pole beans also taller than me.
Corn: Our corn fell over but tasted OK. We haven't figured out when to harvest corn early enough yet.
Blueberries: We moved them to a better location (more sun) and got a better yield. Not as good as it could be but better.
Squash: I planted these too close together (11 in a 4'x8' area). I tried the experiment and it failed. We got some but no where near previous years harvests.
Broccoli: We finally managed to get a good head of broccoli. Overall it grew well.
Cucumber: Produced average. Tried going vertical, but it didn't cooperate.
Peas: They were an early crop and they did very well but never made it to our table for some strange reason (little harvesters ;-)).
Figs: Best crop yet. Still small.
Apples: Out apples took off this year. Whoa! The only problem is the apple maggot. So I am getting chickens for that (turn light on at night near the chickens to attract moths and the chickens get more protein).
Apricot: Died due to a varmint tunneling in its roots.
Peach: About dead from peach leaf curl - and this variety of peach is "immune" to it. I should have sprayed.
Melons: These were meager as usual in our climate.
Herbs: got lots there.

You are totally right about learning from the mistakes. It took me three years to figure out how to grow garlic and this year I still had a bad crop due to flooding. But we get better each time. I find asking lots of questions of the experts and perusing boards helps a lot. Oh yea and a lot of elbow grease and helpers.

Ligure

[phylm]

mgriffith:

Did you plant the big sweet onion plants, or the yellow onion bulbs? You plant the sweet plants down in the soil like other transplants, but the bulbs need to have the root end pressed into the dirt just firmly enough to set them, with most of the bulb exposed. Also, check whether you need "long" or "short day" sweet onions for your area.

My dad always raised great yellow onions in Vermont by setting them out that way. We can't raise the yellow onions down here (Florida), but we had bushels of sweet onions this year from just two bunches of plants.

Good luck! Phylm

[Baconator]

My half-barrel potatoes yielded a dozen spuds the size of marbles.
The peas were just dying until I gave up watering and weeding them, then they started producing.
I swear, even the rocks looked a bit wilted.
I fail.

[Earthling]

This has been a strange year. Most people had trouble getting tomatoes to produce or any crop that likes hot weather like corn, beans, etc. My garden did fine. It is supposed to freeze tonight and I can't remember having a garden go this long. I dug up some herbs today, put them in pots, and will try to keep them alive indoors. I picked a lot of green tomatoes before the rains hit a few days ago, wrapped them in newspaper, put them in a huge plastic bucket. This gave me tomatoes until almost Christmas last year without the mess of having a dead tomato plant hanging in the garage hoping the tomatoes would ripen. Since it was a cool year the roses have been pretty happy and are still blooming. I mulched around the roots to protect them during the winter. They are going to be in for a shock when it freezes tonight because they are still going strong.

[cHeroKee]

I planted over 400 onions this year (3 varieties). Most were the size of softballs but I had at least 200 onions the size of two softballs put together. The largest onion weighed over 4 lbs. Got to love the southern Ohio hillbilly farming method.

I knew it was a right decision to lease out Cowboy's cats from his cat farm for weeding and watering the onions. :prrr: :sifone:

[Dolcezza]

I have a tiny garden compared to your supersized ones. :rofl: My grapes have grown huge which is funny if I think of the bad weather we had and the produce is tasty. I had huge tomato plants, a rainy and cold summer and lots of big GREEN tomatoes. My parsley LOVES clay soil and is growing stronger every day. I picked some gigantic zucchini too in this poor soil.

I am now investigating permaculture where plants follow one another in sequence all year round. I also use square foot gardening.

On my kitchen windosill I grow tomatoes, herbs and lettuce.

I am also trying a pineapple; take off the top and sprout it and every year you get one fruit....:l0 (30):

[prairiemom]

Yeah, our garden didn't do that well--esp tomatoes. The brassicas LOVED this late fall--wish they'd done as well all year long as they have this last month.

Recipes for green tomatoes: http://tipnut.com/green-tomato-recipes/

[phylm]

I planted over 400 onions this year (3 varieties). Most were the size of softballs but I had at least 200 onions the size of two softballs put together. The largest onion weighed over 4 lbs. Got to love the southern Ohio hillbilly farming method.

I knew it was a right decision to lease out Cowboy's cats from his cat farm for weeding and watering the onions. :prrr: :sifone:

Congratulations! Aren't they great!

[Justme]

A 4 lb. onion! A 4 LB. ONION!!. A 4 LB. ONION!!!

[Toni]

No garden for me this year. However, I did bring some comfrey and mint with me when I moved south and they're doing great (in soil that is not so good).

Anyway, I had clay when I lived in northern AZ. What I did, was dig down a foot or two, then added sand (from a wash that was full of pure sand) and manure from a friend's pile, then mixed it with the dirt I had taken out. It was next to my house, east, which protected it from the winds from the southwest, which ruin crops around there. My garden there grew very well. I did find out that comfrey doesn't really like being next to garlic, though. I had tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, and mint (mint keeps tomato cutworms (? big green caterpillars) away from the tomatoes).

Straw will also loosen the soil, but whatever seeds are on the straw will grow (our straw looked like oats or wheat - not a bad thing, in my book).

I wanted raised beds but have never had any yet.

Hopefully, we'll soon have a place to live so we can grow gardens! (I don't want to plant at my sis-in-law's, especially when I keep hoping for a place of my own.)

[Toni]

No garden for me this year. However, I did bring some comfrey and mint with me when I moved south and they're doing great (in soil that is not so good).

Anyway, I had clay when I lived in northern AZ. What I did, was dig down a foot or two, then added sand (from a wash that was full of pure sand) and manure from a friend's pile, then mixed it with the dirt I had taken out. It was next to my house, east, which protected it from the winds from the southwest, which ruin crops around there. My garden there grew very well. I did find out that comfrey doesn't really like being next to garlic, though. I had tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, and mint (mint keeps tomato cutworms (? big green caterpillars) away from the tomatoes).

Straw will also loosen the soil, but whatever seeds are on the straw will grow (our straw looked like oats or wheat - not a bad thing, in my book).

I wanted raised beds but have never had any yet.

Hopefully, we'll soon have a place to live so we can grow gardens! (I don't want to plant at my sis-in-law's, especially when I keep hoping for a place of my own.)

[cHeroKee]

A 4 lb. onion! A 4 LB. ONION!!. A 4 LB. ONION!!!
Affirmative! Affirmative!! Affirmative!!!

[Julie]

Well, my garden started out really good as they always do and then the heat hit. The potatoes and onions I had by the side of my house did really well but when the heat hit the soil turned to cement and even my husband couldn't dig through it to get out the potatoes. We got most of them but I see new potato plants everywhere where we missed them. The onions are still there. We have had a lot of rain so maybe I'll go dig them up today.
My squash did really well at first but when the heat hit the plants wilted and died. My green beans I had to plant several times and then I finally got some up and they blossomed but did not produce.
I got a mole in my tomatoes and battled it all summer long. I did different varieties and several were hits and are what I'm going to plant next year.
The hits:
4th of July - they are like a huge cherry tomatoes and they produced and produced even in the heat.
Big Mamma's - they produced well in the heat too.
Amish Paste
Big Boys - produced well through the heat
My peppers did well
I still have tomatoes and peppers producing.

Next year I have been thinking about putting my garden out to our fields here. We have irrigation water and it is a one time fee. I would have to plant the garden in a corral area where the calves have been. This would give my boxes a rest and I could get rid of the mole then.

[Toni]

Can't you leave the potatoes and onions in the ground and dig them up through the winter as you need them? The climate there is pretty mild.

[ghostcat]

Seeing as how my thumb is more likely black than brown, I'm not sure our gardens failure is of any note!!:l0 (46):

[signseeker]

I was really hoping for tons of tomatoes... but no. Got 6 quarts. BUT-- I discovered an AMAZING cherry tomato - the Mexico Midget. Very small, like current sized, some of them, and when you pop it in your mouth - BAM! You're thinking, "Now that's what a tomato is supposed to taste like!" :thumbup: And it produced like mad. I also got the Sun Sugar orange cherry tomato and the Snow White white/yellowish cherry tomato. Nothing touched the flavor of Mexico Midget, though.

In July we were tilling up a section of yard to get ready for '11. We'd covered the grass with tarps, plywood, whatever... to kill it and then it was tilled in around July 4th. Then DH got this "What the heck" idea and thought we oughtta' just throw some seeds in. So I planted an heirloom corn, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, Cherokee Trail of Tears beans (shelling), Soldier beans (shelling), Royal Burgundy (green bean) and some melons. Yeah, it was way late.

The corn failed. I'm beginning to think the heirloom corn idea is just hopeless anyway. The melons failed. The beans went crazy and did fantastic... it was almost like watching jack-in-the-beanstalk, they grew so fast. The acorn and spaghetti squash did great, too. I got about 50 spaghetti squashes. The older man around the corner who's been gardening forever said he'd never had his spaghetti squashes get that big and asked how I did it. Good question. We do have great soil, that's all I can think of. We are now adding organic material to that newly tilled area and I really want some tomatoes next year!

Oh, and the red potatoes did great. Kid4 would go dig some every morning for his hashbrowns. :)