Okay - here comes the long awaited birds eye (actually corner of the next street) view of what the heck I'm doing, fer cryin' out loud...

First (For Mark)
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ictureid=97932

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ictureid=97931
The white pipe is an actual leftover length of old sewer line, cut and re-purposed
The other is just an old 2-liter bottle, with the bottom out of it.

(The sewer pipe was a wind-fall. What you can do instead is save old coffee cans (large size) and cut the bottoms out with a can opener.
The plastic lid you cut a one inch hole in for air circulation, and when it warms up pull the lid off, leaving the can and all that mulch around it for a wind break until it does well again or the weather warms more)

This is what you do if you hear of a possible cold front about to trash everything you set in the ground.

The higher you can heap dirt or mulch around them (mulch works lots better, but you can even use old decaying material to raise the temperature more) the better. It also prevents "Blow-Over" if it gets windy

*ONE of my notions here is that plastic DOES NOT last forever (contrary to popular belief) and that stuff IS made out of petroleum.
~So we had best get the most use of it that we can before it finally DOES biodegrade.

THIS is the tomato "BRIDGE" idea - and I had no idea it would be so useful at keeping local stray dogs from stomping the sprout trays in the garden:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ictureid=97930
~Not to mention thinking they were toys and running off with them....
At 16 to 18 inches, most will never run under it. They WILL NOT get on top of them to carry anything away!

They also should make it a lot easier to manage EVERYTHING, and the vines don't get all clumped together in a tangled mess that YOU CAN'T EVEN FIND THE TOMATOS IN

This way the toms hang underneath, the vines are easy to pick up and move, and the trench under them is the only major water and fertilizer concern

Bluntly - I pounded 3/4 inch schedule forty sections into the ground, using a trellis laid on it to find the places I wanted all the stakes, then I made simple keepers to lock the trellis wire into the tops of them.

It's called a J-hook.

Bend the last 1/4 inch of a bit of wire into a hook, bend the opposite third in a hook that will loop over the trellis wire and tuck down into the pipe in such a way that it forces the hook on the other leg to dig into the inside of the pipe...

It won't come out easily

But the trellis's (made of 6 inch mesh concrete reinforcing wire) turned out to have so much extra use as, among other things, a SPROUT AREA (and you water everything at once, instead of looking in odd corners for forgotten plants), a place to use as a garden table - NO WORRIES about a mess, everything goes into the soil under it all! YOU CAN'T MAKE A MESS OF IT...

Also a convenient hanger for odd tools, if you've any hooks or can make some of wire...

The list goes on :-X22


It just becomezzzz a convenient "THING"

Would you think I was nutz if I talked to my plants to encourage and empower them?

They strike me as better friends than some banks that I have heard of

unlike a bank - they give much more back to me. Besides, I get to see what they all look like!

My lettuce lasted until year end, and beyond. Lettuce loves cold weather.


My current redleaf lettuce is from last year...

The old folks knew more about seasons, but did not have the advantage of doppler radar and computer projections. Old school wisdom is very helpful, but a computer generated forecast can get within 3 degrees of temperature more than 96% of the time. I use both, and a bit of common sense when gardening.

Wolf....quite a set-up you got going. Impressive, but a bit too much work for my taste. Looks like your system should be successful....I'm interested to see how the weeding and harvesting go for you.

It was actually not that bad to set it all up - though the plan is for it to be permanent once all the bugs are out of it. ~No pun intended there...

Next year I till what? 60 feet of trench only, the surrounding dirt is just pathway

Well, I got my small garden in. Tomatoes in field wire cages, squash, green peppers, cantaloupes, watermelons, and trying a few top of the ground beets. I downsized considerably this year, no corn, beans, or potatoes. Last year I got about one good mess of corn. The deer got into it when we were gone a few days and the coons finished it.

I just noticed in my email that Parks Seeds has probably shipped both my Myer Lemon, and the potato tubers I ordered.

Do tubers come back every year, as I think?

Below is the absolute best thing you can do with an old tire, except maybe cutting them down the middle of the tread and flipping them wide-part up!
*Swampers don't usually have steel cord. I know that one doesn't
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ictureid=98084
It's an Italian Salad Blend, with spinach and everything in there somewhere.
Even iceberg and romaine!

So the Greywolf mentions potato tubers. Anyone grow their potatoes or other tubers on top of the ground? I have pretty heavy clay and have never had much luck with in ground potatoes, carrots, beets, etc. My wife's late uncle had mentioned planting the eyes on top of the ground and covering with straw. We tried it one year and the potatoes did well. I am trying the same top of the ground procedure with beets this year.

There is a method for saving potatoes to use for next year's crop....I've never grown potatoes (all my Irish ancestors are turning in their graves right about now) so I'm not exactly sure how to do that. I don't have enough space right now for large crops like potatoes....maybe soon, though.

I also read about using straw/mulch to grow tubers "above ground"....seems like it would work, if you have enough room and straw/mulch to keep piling on. I'm interested in hearing how your beets turn out. If it's successful. I might try that with some potatoes in a barrel or large pot next year.

I'm going classic - but with a truckload of peatmoss in the trenches.

I WANT THAT SOIL SO LOOSE AND EASY TO TILL that I can stick my hand right down into it... :-down


*When I started out here - you could BREAK A KNUCKLE just trying to stick your finger in the ground :-X15

And the Lobo returns. How was classes?

We could use something for the soil at the farm, manure would be great, and a dam mine field for the groundhog, he's a big one, gonna cave the barn in with the holes he's dug.

Git the movie Caddy Shack Dutch. Learn from it and apply.

This one would kick his az, he's big, no dynamite, the barn is 100+ years old, no way an I tearing it up.

What makezzz you think you are tweaking my birdhouse in any way?
*If I got bombed out of my tree it would be old news

Today a spent a half Kennedy on a lawn sweeper that dumps without getting out of the tractor seat...

But the belt for the deck is the longest thing I've seen since standing on the pier and looking at the John C.

110 inches about


Arguably; BULL**** BY THE YARD!!!

It bugs me, but I know where to borrow a zero-turn

On hold, it wasn't a "BUY THIS AND GET IT" thing. It continues, as soon as I do.

I wonder if a ground varmint would make a good pet?

(Pictures of the JD grass sled tomorrow)

If you like big holes in your yard, with him tunneling under your home, sure, this SOB is gonna die from lead poisoning if I gotta camp out there to kill him.