🍅 A start to the garden 🌄 Cool season crops are in! 👌 - WizStead Post #8

wizardave (59) in homesteading • 7 years ago

I fought the weather and won, just a bit late...

Cabbages and Taters were supposed to planted here by April 5th. But the weather didn't cooperate.

Couple inches of snow on the 1st.
About an inch of snow on the 8th.
- Setting record lows 3 times already this month. So much for global warming...
  - But, a couple of days of 70+ weather did give me time to build a raised bed. It didn't turn out quite as nice as I would have preferred, but it is functional. I could have used a day off to do it prettier, but it is what it is...

Raised bed.jpg

After our recent move, I really wasn't setup to start seeds, so ended up buying them from Walmart. I picked them up on the 1st, knowing I would take better care of them than Walmart. I knew it would be awhile before I could get them out, so I kept them watered and in a sunny window. They did have a few yellow leaves and a couple of plants don't look so great, but we will see how they do.

Cabbage

Broccoli

Cauliflower

One problem I've always had with broccoli and cauliflower is BUGS!!!

I use the heck out of sevin dust, but always seem to still have bugs in the heads.
- Any ideas that might help? Please comment what you do...

Taters

I also bought a bag of seed taters, but waited to cut them up until 2 days before planting.

I would have preferred some Golden Yukon and colored ones, but this what they had. I'll keep looking...

I like wide rows rather than traditional.
"Intensive gardening" makes for less work weeding and such.

Comment request - Do you use wide rows or traditional rows in your garden?
These are spaced at only 9".

Covered with good loose soil...

The twine is at 9", so I have about 6" on them so far. I will add more later.
Taters covered.jpg

Plenty of room for more...

Hi Trixie! Thanks for helping me! 😉
Both Beds.jpg

Thank you for Lord for watering my new garden

The thunderstorms bypassed us, but we got a great gentle rain over night!

Crop rotation

I'm really looking in to rotating my crops. I still have a lot to learn about that. I think I will need 4 beds to rotate things around. It depends on which report you read on what plants go into what groups. Some just have 3 groups. Some as many as 9...

cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, rutabaga
tomato, pepper, eggplant, irish potato
Legumes - beans and peas
cucumbers and squash
- But that's not going to be enough room, so will probably need 8 beds...
  - Have any of you done any posts about crop rotation? Please leave a link in the comments if you have!!!

Why rotate crops?
Mainly to help control bugs and diseases...
Mother Earth News reports

...if you don’t follow a crop rotation plan... your potato production will quickly fall by 40 percent, mostly due to disease.

...snap bean production doubled when beans were planted after corn rather than after snap beans.

Up next in the garden?

aka NoteToSelf
Time to plant peas, lettuce, radishes, kohlrabi, radishes, onions, parsnips...

Comments please!

I've gathered the above questions here, in case you scrolled to fast to catch them...

How do you control bugs on broccoli and cauliflower?
- Is that even possible? haha
Do you use wide rows or traditional rows in your garden?
Have you posted info about crop rotation? Please comment your link...
- Or if you haven't posted the info, what plan do you use?
This one wasn't asked above... What do you use for cover crops?

Who I am @WizarDave	The KEY to Life!

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7 years ago by wizardave (59)

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shadow3scalpel (61) · 7 years ago

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nickbuha (46) · 7 years ago

Looks like you got the makings of a great garden. It looks to me like slugs are getting your broccoli, keeping the area dry at night and using diatomaceous earth to be two methods to defeat slugs. Good luck with the garden year!

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wizardave (59) · 7 years ago

Good plan. Yes, I have seen slugs around here. Thanks @nickbuha.
Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to figure things out like that.

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glenalbrethsen (68) · 7 years ago

Still waiting for some of that warmer weather you talked about. We hit upper 60s one day last week, but then the rains and the winds came. Still we've got some buds on the miniature pie cherry tree, and even our severely pruned apple tree (not my doing), is starting to bud out, so at least they think spring has sprung.

Wish I could advise you on crop rotation, or anything else gardenwise. I'm just the grunt guy. And as far as we do it, I don't know if we really have any rhyme or reason to it, anyway. :)

We have actually rotated plants from different beds, but not so much in conjunction with any other particular or compatible plants.

Strawberries got some green leafs going, and my wife has been out digging to bury those seed potatoes you talked about. Your garden is going to be pretty amazing when you get done, just with all the variety of plants, so no need to sweat the appeal or prettiness of the beds.

Good luck with it. I know we're going to need it. :)

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knowledge-seeker (58) · 7 years ago

We still haven't gotten a chance to get our potatoes in yet. Similar to you, between all the rain and snow, the ground has been saturated. Just when the ground was starting to dry, we got rain. We usually shoot for getting them in by Good Friday, but this years will be a little late and we usually put them in rows spaced about 3 ft apart. We do this to get a roto tiller down between the rows, but we are going to restructure our garden to be more efficient with the space.

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wizardave (59) · 7 years ago

Yeah, it's been crazy weather this year @knowledge-seeker!
Went out one time to dig a bit since the top was dry from the wind, but just about an inch down... saturated! Oh well, it should all work out for both of us.

Since you're restructuring, you might want to research wide row or intensive gardening using your search engine of choice. (I like duckduckgo) It's maybe a bit more work to get it going, but in the long run saves time. There's a lot of good info out there.
- I found out about it 25 or 30 years ago when I got a series of booklets put out by the National Gardening Association. Here's their web site...
  https://garden.org/

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aliniazi (40) · 7 years ago

Very beautiful

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wizardave (59) · 7 years ago

Thanks! @aliniazi

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photocontests3 (48) · 7 years ago

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freebeerfridays (56) · 7 years ago

I got mine tilled over last night and will be planting next weekend in the hopes this week will be the last cold spell to come through.

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wizardave (59) · 7 years ago

👍

I wonder what the weather would be if "they" weren't manipulating it?!?!?

They are calling for another skiff of snow tonight and tomorrow here...

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alaskahippie (56) · 7 years ago

Sorry they didn’t have any more seed potatoes. Our Walmart has a shit ton! No joke! You know the garden shelf’s they have, well they had four double sided with potatoes AND a full aisle in the store! It was crazy to see.

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thundercurator (56) · 7 years ago

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