Gardening 2023

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Here is a handy guide on what to plant to keep certain bugs away from your tomatoes!


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I don’t till anymore. Switched to “Lasagna Gardening“ a few years back. Works well and even makes working in the garden easier on your back! Do I sound like a sissy?! 😆
Smart lady! I haven't tilled my soil since buying this property. The upper 2 inches of garden soil are considered the prime "germination zone" and thousands of weed seeds are contained there. Each time you deeply till you bring more seeds to the top feeding that number. If you do not till eventually you bring the number of weed seeds in that area down thus reducing your weed problems.

Weed seeds in deeply worked soil tend to last longer than seeds in shallowly worked soil. Seeds deep in the soil are "stored" below the germination zone.

If you combine the longevity of seeds in the soil with the fact that weeds such as common lambsquarters can produce over 500,000 seeds per plant, the incentive to hand weed your garden becomes much greater.

Prevention is the most effective form of weed control.
 
I'm definitely growing more determinate tomatoes this year. I always thought indeterminate was the the best, but for canning they really weren't.

Hopefully I will be able to can mine this year rather than buying. I am still growing some heirloom to harvest seed, but I need to figure out the best production while I still have access to seeds and plants.
I have also went to determinate for canning and simply plant a couple indeterminate favorites (Big Rainbow) somewhere out in the beds for a couple slicers and a couple cherry tomatoes for salads and such. But the bulk of my tomato harvest for canning is from determinate grown along a fence of steel posts and cattle panels.

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Thoughts on watermelons. Try growing small pocket sized melons. Generally they require less room to grow and size up and ripen quickly. I now grow Minnesota Midget cantaloupe along a fence planted in cardboard boxes of very rich soil. Started early I can get melons in record time ( 60 days transplant to melon). Granted the melons are small but the perfect size for my husband and I to split one.
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I really like Jersey Devil for canning, but they are indeterminate. I like putting a few of them in whatever I am canning to improve the flavor and texture, though, even if there aren't enough for a full batch.

It works well for us to can throughout the season just because we go through so many jars of tomatoes each year and I can only process so many at a time. The way our family eats is very tomato heavy. Maybe bow that my kids are getting older, they'll be able to help more.
 
The results no doubt depend very much on the soil. Soil that retains moisture, or an area with a lot of rain during the wrong time will rot those potatoes.
That's probably it. The place I plant them used to be a flower bed next to the shop, which is well drained but gets a good bit of water runoff from the roof whenever it rains. It doesn't get enough sunlight to sustain the plant once it gets very big, but I'm impatient AND I love new potatoes so I don't mind.
 
My hot pepper plants are about 4 inches high now under the grow light. The wife has basil and chives sprouting now and she's going to plant some tomatoes today. Upstairs in the TV room she has a couple trays of sprouts for the chickens.
The sun is out this morning and it's only 17 degrees. It might get above freezing this afternoon. Maybe this is the start of spring.
 
My hot pepper plants are about 4 inches high now under the grow light. The wife has basil and chives sprouting now and she's going to plant some tomatoes today. Upstairs in the TV room she has a couple trays of sprouts for the chickens.
The sun is out this morning and it's only 17 degrees. It might get above freezing this afternoon. Maybe this is the start of spring.
What kind of seed do you sprout for your chickens?
 
Smart lady! I haven't tilled my soil since buying this property. The upper 2 inches of garden soil are considered the prime "germination zone" and thousands of weed seeds are contained there. Each time you deeply till you bring more seeds to the top feeding that number. If you do not till eventually you bring the number of weed seeds in that area down thus reducing your weed problems.

Weed seeds in deeply worked soil tend to last longer than seeds in shallowly worked soil. Seeds deep in the soil are "stored" below the germination zone.

If you combine the longevity of seeds in the soil with the fact that weeds such as common lambsquarters can produce over 500,000 seeds per plant, the incentive to hand weed your garden becomes much greater.

Prevention is the most effective form of weed control.
I love tilling though. The fresh soil underfoot feels so good. Chickens love it too. All the juicy worms.
 
I love tilling though. The fresh soil underfoot feels so good. Chickens love it too. All the juicy worms.
In my experience in most soils excessive tilling causes premature breakdown of organic matter by the introduction of large amounts of oxygen at one time. It constantly works fresh weed seeds to the top soil zones and excessive deep tilling over time causes compaction problems.

I will occasionally use a broad fork which is extremely useful in clay soils breaking up dead pans. I will also occasionally use a potato fork to shallowly break up the top inch or two mostly to work in lime or other additions such as organic fertilizers. I add amendments to the soil surface and the worms take them down.
 
In my experience in most soils excessive tilling causes premature breakdown of organic matter by the introduction of large amounts of oxygen at one time. It constantly works fresh weed seeds to the top soil zones and excessive deep tilling over time causes compaction problems.

I will occasionally use a broad fork which is extremely useful in clay soils breaking up dead pans. I will also occasionally use a potato fork to shallowly break up the top inch or two mostly to work in lime or other additions such as organic fertilizers. I add amendments to the soil surface and the worms take them down.
Wow DD, you just sucked all the fun out of my tilling. ;)
 

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