Ace Hardware is selling all their vegetables at reduced prices!!! Bought some more peppers, tomatoes & cucumbers and put them in containers yesterday afternoon. Still have a few more containers to fill-----space the planting out a few weeks in-between and you have waves of harvests.

 

At this point - I have found some tupperware or rubbermaid throw-away containers that do well in the wire mesh (being 6" by 6" with a quarter inch lip around the edges) they sit perfect in the wire mesh I used. I will use only a piece of a larger "Pocket Sprouter" that is three by three to sprout 9 of a kind at a time, that should oughta be enough for failed plant replacement!

One of my neighbors also9 ripped out some Yucca Plants, because his kids are learning to ride bikes and he didn't want them to crash into a thing with thorns at the end of the leaves - they are hardy, resistent to dang near anything, and factor prominently in Native American lore...

I have 2 extra roots that I think I'll give to Steve Bricks for his "Waterless Landscaping" efforts.........................

(There were enough to line my driveway completely)

 

Well guys I have been holding out posting in this thread until i had something to talk about that is actually mine. I am a bit behind some of you but better late than never. We had some late frosts in Late April and early May that made me decide to wait.
Nevertheless, i planted 30 tomatoe plants and 20 pepper plants this week. Going to get beans, Cukes and corn this weekend. This is definately the biggest garden I have ever had so wish me luck.

A Corn question:
I hear when you plant corn you want atleast two rows so they can cross polinate. My question is do the rows have to be side by side? I want to put my two rows in an "L" shape to add some relief in the evening from the sun for some of my other plants. Is this wise or should i just stick with the old tried and true rows for best results?

 

If the "L" has a cross-wind, it shouldn't be a problem. Bees/butterflies will do most of the work anyway.

Good luck! Sounds like you'll have more than enough produce to make chow chow.

 

I've always heard that you want your small patch of corn about as square or rectangular as you can get it. I've always done mine that way and get good pollination. The deer and coon have never cared how it was planted.

 

Corn in flat middle TN is a waste of space and seed, the wind blows them down, we quit, small patches don't stand a chance.

 

Corn is best planted in "BLOCKS" so they protect eachother. If there is a high wind problem you should look for a natural windbreak - or create one. Even if it means erecting a small fence of some kind

~Wolf out

PS: My toms are beginning to bear fruit

 

I miss home grown maters!

 

The usefulness of fresh cut grass in the garden are manifold. A sound layer of that controls weeds - they just can't grow through it.

But the rich nutrients developed BY THOSE PLANTS will leach and compost back into the soil exactly where you put it.

It is both mulch AND fertilizer, all rolled into one


*I like to say that it turns the soil darker than the best shot of Espresso you ever had...
WHY waste that?


At the end of the year - when you turn it under, it is better than Peat Moss.


Let the bones of old plants develop your garden

~and you can't beat the price~

 

Beware, it will seed weeds into the garden, and can cause fungus/rot to occur.

 

CRAP!

The seeds themselves are destroyed in the composting.

Wanna try doomsaying again?

I know what I'm doing, and I know how both mulch and compost work

The only things that really seem to persist are Morning Glories, for some doggoned reason...

You forget that I am dealing with an area where some JACKDAW introduced african johnson grass - which I have been fighting for YEARS

*If I seem bitter about that - maybe we have something in common after all. But I want to get over it. TRULY

 

I get flooded with what we call barnyard grass, I hate it, spreads via runner, it will go through the mulch mats and under edging that is hammered into the ground, hard to kill.
I had some of that free mulch, the stuff the city grinds up, I put it throughout my garden once, it broke down nicely, did a great job, better than my grass clippings, I started a pile of it behind the garden, compost pile.

 

I may just do two short rows of corn.
I put more in the garden this weekend. Goy burnt in the sun yesterday.
I am now up to 33 tomato plants 35 pepper (jalapeno, cayenne, bananna and Bell), 16 string bean and 15 cucumber. I still got a little room left so I may add some watermellon or cantalope to fill the void. I have never had a garden this big before so I hope I do good. The soil is the best and we plowed it early this year then tilled it with a 5' tractor tiller, turned it to powder. I bought a small front tine tiller for $100 last week for maintenance. I used dog fence or welded wire fence for the tomatoes cukes and beans to climb up. It has 2X4 holes. Then I am putting that same fence all the way around it to keep the varmints out. I will probably going to put the corn in next week.

wish me luck.

 

You might want to consider some herbs to go with those veggies: basil, thyme, oregano, cilantro, even sage and rosemary. Will save you a TON of money if you do a lot of cooking.

 

Basil is used in a lot of recipes, I sure have over the years, you can bag the leaves and freeze them for later use, same with others.