I'm concerned about the rain that's coming tomorrow----west & middle TN are under water. Hope everyone is OK.

 

Terrible Rain it seems. Must have moved up to Kentucky, the track at Churchill Downs was very muddy!

 

Up to 95 degrees in the shade already. Amazing that after all that downpour I had to water again today (mostly because I planted more stuff).

In another week I think all my squash plants will break two feet tall, maybe three.

Tomatoes are beginning to do good - I hit everything that was up and growing with miracle grow, and tomato specific for the 'maters.

I wish now that I had more plastic, looks like I need another 20 X 100 foot roll. After that tho, I'm not expanding any farther this year.

 

The garden definately loved the rain. I watered this morning as well.

 

My tomato plants are ready to plant but the wind was out of the north. So I just waited to plant them. I will try next week. They are just ready to plant so a few days won't matter. I did Move a old outhouse yesterday from where the road will take the land. I plan on putting a new bottom on it since it was rotted. I will need to trim the bottom edges but that project is a few weeks away. I have to move a stack of used wood that I will use to make the bottom. I did get out and dig some trees from the field. Out here trees grow like weeds, I have one area that has some nice 4-8 foot trees on it. I got a dogwood and a elm I think it was. I dug them out but the area is so rocky that the dirt fell off. I hope they will make . They usually do here. I did check out what has been planted. A lot is coming up,corn,peas beans squash,watermelon. There was a old strawberry patch that was let go here where I live. Most of the plants were in the fiend where the garden is. Last fall I made two rows and tillered it. They look really good this year,better than the ones that are in the field. Its planting time for sure.

 

Hey, Dutch......I'm in NC, but our climates aren't toooooo dissimilar.....

I'm DONE with my planting. Picked the last of the radishes and green onions last week....Still have a few left, and I gave a bunch away.....

Got 4 rows of corn (short rows, about 20'), growing nicely. Cayennes and serranos in 5-gallon pots, growing nicely. A section of yellow squash, a section of dusky eggplant, habaneros, regular jalapenos, mammoth jalapenos, anaheim peppers, tabasco peppers, and for tomatos, a dozen better boys and a half/dozen parks whoppers.

The mammoth jalapenos seem a little stressed (just put them in last week), but hanging on. It's been in the 80s most of the week, but it's cooler for the next couple of days. Everything is in rows or on mounds, of course......and nicely mulched with pine bark mulch. When the corn gets taller, I'll till between the rows and pull the tilled soil up around the plants to brace the plants and help kill the weeds.

I 'feed' the plants with miracle grow about once/week and keep everything moderately watered. When I first worked the soil, I tilled it up with some cow 'moo-nure' ground up into it.......Form the rows and mounds, plant, feed.....then mulch and feed again.

Hopefully the 'maters will kick a$$ this year. The tomato blight going around last year sucked big time. Didn't get a good bumper......Just enough to pick a few pieces of fruit every other day. I NEVER had a tomato crop do that before, but a lot of folks had sucky tomato crops last year. Yup.....There was a blight.

 

Everything's in except the pepper plants.

 

I'm hassling with a lawn tractor today - I think it's time I explored some "MODERN CREATIVE WIRING", it acts like one or more of the safety switches is done in.

On the bright side, I can see a bunch of summer squash forming on the plants...

 

Plants are a-growin'!!!

 

I hate safety stuff, you trace it all the way back to the ignition and cut it out.

 

If you have a old riding lawnmower the wheels make a great garden cart. I am almost done making cart out of my old riding mowers wheels. I used the big back wheels in the back and then pulled the front wheel spindles off for the the front. I found out a old pieces of pipe works great to put the spindles through. I welded the pipe at the angle the original front axle was. It may be a little high but will help with the aching back. Its bed will be about 28x36.I have the frame and the wheels mounted. All I like now is to put the sides on,the front wheel axle braces, and the handle. I am going to test run getting rocks from the garden in it. I pushed it around today and it seems like it will pull fine. My wife said it looks like a moon buggy now. I was hoping to get the tomatoes in today but didn't get a chance due to the rain. Hopefully I can next week.

 

Coupla 'mammoth' jalapenos didn't take. Tilled that section under and re-tilled the unfinished section. Put in 2 more 'mammoth' jalapenos and, crossing my fingers, and just for s--ts and giggles, put in a couple of red 'sweet' bell peppers (I NEVER have luck with bell peppers!). Also tilled between the corn rows and raked the tilled soil up the rows to shore up the corn stalks.....Everything else is growing nicely. Just about to do some spot weed-spraying between the rows and mounds. Everything is mulched nicely and fed well. Growing good. Should have a bumper crop this year.

 

Anyone got pics?

I know, I know....Wolfie posted some......

I'll not go through the whole thread again to find others......

I'll 'pic' my setup in a week or two. Veggie gardens ROCK!!!

 

I might as well snap some updated pics today or tomorrow.

Made a bad mistake yesterday with all the rain we've had - I went out too close to sundown bound and determined to set out some of the last of the house sprouted plants I have left, and the damned skeeters swarmed on me like killer bees! Must have been fifty to a hundred of 'em on me in no time, and there I was with both hands busy setting plants (no repellent on either). I swear I'm going to kill em all somehow...

Peppers are finally beginning to sprout 'IN PLACE', it must have got warm enough for them. The tomatoes are finally past that slow growing starter stage and are beginning to accelerate: nice thick vine stalks, leaves busting out, and so on. The squashes had already done that - this is the point where they begin to get huge, it's hard to imagine the way they grow now when you're only seeing a spindly little seedling barely hanging on at the beginning.

The second round of fertilizing with Miracle Grow is underway. A full rounded tablespoon in a gallon of water poured on each plant individually (Not the whole gallon! Just a half a cup on each) makes the stuff last the season. Coupled with the black plastic "Weed Annihilation System" I'm using this year, the plants seem to be a lot bigger and stronger than ever before. They're being provided with better fertilization, and have no competition for root space from trash plants!

Cucumbers are doing reasonably well, peas and beans are coming up good, got more sprouts up for cantaloupe and giant watermellon, and am looking for honey-dew sprouts next. I found one more sheet of clear plastic (5X15 foot) to finish out the honey-dew area.

One of the neighbors donated a halfway new trampoline fabric from a tramp that had its frame rust out and collapse - I'm thinking to use it for a dedicated lettuce/celery plot because the guard net around it is a perfect five foot tall fence...

Swiss chard is also sprouting up, and I find that black seeded simpson lettuce benefits from being staked up once it is a foot tall or so.

I set out a good sized Big Jim chili from the houseplants yesterday too - I hope it survives, no hardening off was done but it's cool enough that it should transition with no problems.(mid sixties overnight, 80's daytime)


Gotta go get a flywheel key for the Orange tractor today, after I got it mostly built up I realised it spun its flywheel when the rod came unglued...

~Wolf out

PICS:
(top) Lettuce. The light colored ones are Black Seeded Simpson, dark are Romaine

End on view of the Southwest Plot:
A) Marigolds
B) Catnip
C) Zuchini (the front one is small for some reason)
D) Top of one of the lettuce plants (above pic)
E) Summer Squash
F) Rosemary
G) Swiss Chard

 

i was lazy this weekend as far as the garden goes, but all my seeds have sprouted and the plants are looking good.