Looking back - How did your Garden Grow continued

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How did your garden grow was an earlier thread.Thank you all for replying.Very few of us managed to bring ALL our crops in.Insect & rodent attacks were quite common but the biggest killer of all seemed to be drought.Interestingly, Glinda who tried raised bed gardening with an embedded irrigation system and "weed control" reported great success with heavy yields.

So,looking back on this year's gardening efforts,what would you change & what tips could you pass on to others?

As for me,I think I'll just pop out & get some trickle feed pipe & look at ways of storing & using "grey" water from the house.As for those blasted badgers..did I tell you they are a protected species over here in the UK??

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), September 08, 1999

Answers

(1) Most of my effort was in planting fast frowing fruit trees for next year (papaya, banana, etc.). I also planted some longer term trees (orange, avocado). The fast growing trees are progressing nicely, and should yield fruit next year. I also started a couple of ginger plants that now need to be moved outside.

(2) Tomatoes. I planted on a hillside, and they didn't do well. I need more terraces...

(3) Bamboo. Not doing as well as I would like, but still hanging in there. Just added a clump of Guarda...will see how it does.

(4) Also just got around to planting the coffee...but don't expect any sizable crop for another 2-3 years...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), September 08, 1999.


Mad Monk- do you have any understanding of what I want to do to people who can actually plant their own coffe trees? and expect a crop? Anyway- will answer this thread later when fully awake- too late now to think- past this farmer's bedtime.....

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), September 08, 1999.

I am sorry to say that due to time constraints, the weeds won again this year. I am digging through the weeds to get the tomatoes, onions and potatos out. We will then plowed it all under and get ready for next year.

Did anyone else have trouble with Earl May seed. Anything I planted using their seed just didn't grow worth a darn. What corn did grow, only got to be knee high and didn't produce ears.

-- Beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), September 08, 1999.


Potatoes did great, along with the tomatoes. Everything else did just fine this year. We did not get hit with the drought.

My only real lesson learnd this year was..... I need to dust my broccli crop earlier and more often than I did this year....and growing beens for dried beans is not very productive. For each 16 foot row that I planted, I got about 3# of dried beans to use for cooking.

Think about that!!! All that work and all that space for what I can now buy for $.69!!!! I am glad that they are non-hybrid so I will not be tempted to eat them this year, I will plant them next year if food is hard to find.

-- bulldog (sniffin@around.com), September 09, 1999.


This was a first year that I have planted a really large garden and I have to give our first effort an 'A'.

We got loads of sugar peas, royal burgundy beans, onions, tomatos, corn, potatos, tomatillos, summer squash, winter squash, beets, turnips, and pumpkins. The only bug problems we had were Colorado potatos beetles on the squash, pumpkins and potatos; a little pyrethrum dust took care of that.

I also planted sugar beets, mangel beets and sunflowers for the animals and those did quite well too. One of our goats, Bass, adores the mangel and sugar beets; her compatriot Indigo just turns up her nose. Both of them fight over sunflower leaves and stalks though.

Thank God for one growing season in which to learn!

A tip on weed control: buy a wheel hoe from Lehmans or some such source. You can go blasting down the row, slicing off weeds just below the soil surface. It is wonderful. Lehmans version is pretty pricey but it is very sturdy and comes with several nice implements including a small mold-board plow which I used to cut seed furrows for corn, beans, beets, etc.

-- David Palm (djpalm64@yahoo.com), September 09, 1999.



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