I also have been doing some gardening chores before tilling. Things like pruning a dozen
fruit trees, pruning a raspberry briar patch that's about 15' x 60'. The raspberries that we put
in took up about half the space they now occupy. They are easy to take cuttings from to
grow more, which is why the size has doubled.
As an added bonus this year is a local bee keeper that sets his hives on properties that have potential for a good
harvest of honey. We've been on a waiting list for a couple years. The 3 1/2 acre yard that I purposely let the
dandelions go to maturity before mowing the first time, the size of the garden, and the fruit trees were all
incentive for the bee keeper to plant a couple hives here. Great for pollination of the garden and all of the free honey and
then some from him after he harvests the honey. A friend we know lives about a mile away and has two of his hives on her
property and he gives her over a years supply of honey for allowing him to tend the hives. Win/win
Our entire garden is 60' x 120' and we decided after our first garden here 6 years ago
that it was too large for the two of us. So we put in 9 varieties of apple trees,
a couple of peach trees, and a couple cherry trees. All need pruning badly as their growth
the last couple years has been through the roof. We have so much extra beyond what we can
or freeze that my wife sells off our excess on Saturdays at our small town farmers market.
I will be spreading a bunch of manure and compost from our compost pile that will be tilled
in a couple of months.
We let quite a few of our veggies go to seed and then dry them out and use them the following year.
We can enough jam from our berries to get us through the year.
The same with our apples. We are still eating potatoes from last years harvest although some are
getting decent runners on them sitting in our fruit cellar and those will be cut up and used for
another row or two of potatoes.
The garden fabric we put in a couple years ago really made a difference in our yield. Weeding time
is also cut back to a tolerable level as well. Along with the garden fabric which I move each year
to expose new ground and cover up the rows that were used last year. The garden fabric was
complemented with drip tape irrigation.
Getting the garden in start to finish takes us around 2 or 3 weeks. It's work. I have a small Honda
Mantis tiller for working around the veggies and a Big Red Horse Tiller for tilling the manure and
compost into the garden. I also have an older John Deere 750 with a tiller attachment, but because I have to
tear down all of the fencing to use it, I choose to take a little longer and use Big Red or the Mantis tillers.
All of our saved egg shells and coffee grounds get spread around the up starts.
I use my 4x5 for early starters indoors. Things like Brussels sprouts, all kinds of melons, broccoli,
red and green cabbages, onions, and tomatoes. One thing I do to keep the young watermelon plants from getting eaten
is to cut the bottom off a one gallon milk jug. Leaving the lid on, I cut some slits and enlarge them
a little near the top just under the lid. I then keep them covered until they outgrow it. Once the milk
jugs come off the young melon plants, they are usually large enough to avoid being on the menu from the
browsing critters.
Another trick we use for strawberries is to put some small rocks painted to look like strawberries.
The rabbits find them tough to swallow. Better yet, last year we put up some hoops cut from rebar that is
used between layers of block for masonry work. They are made like a ladder and made in different widths
for different sizes of block. I cut the 10 foot sections of these into two 5 foot sections . We found
these at Menards. After the hoops are in we cover the entire row with 1" mesh plastic fencing and
that keeps the rabbits from getting all of them. Out witting the critters sometimes takes some effort.
To save our peaches last year, I live trapped 11 raccoons as they can empty a tree in one night. We're
still eating peach jam. The work is worth the rewards imo as the time spent growing them makes all of
them taste better.
Three of four varieties of squash. Acorn squash is one of our faves and they keep well in our fruit cellar.
We had about 72 in a couple boxes 2 years ago and that was too many, although we were still eating them
through February and last year we only had a couple dozen and they've been gone for over month now.
I'm thinking about 50 of them year will be just right.
Tomatoes are another where we grow multiple varieties and can up a bunch. My wife sells off the extras at
the farmers market.
Peas and Beans . Peas get two full rows and beans get one row.
Pumpkins. I tried a new variety last year called Lady Godiva pumpkins which produce a hull less seed
called a Pepita. Pumpkin seeds without the shell. The sugar pie variety, and the normal ones are all
used for making pumpkin seeds in the oven with butter and a little sea salt to taste when done.
Peppers galore. From Bell peppers to some hot varieties for salsa we probably grow around a dozen varieties.
We also have 4 hanging baskets that attach to the rail of our deck that are all about 3 foot long. We grow
herbs and leaf lettuce in those. I even bought some potato fabric bags similar to ones use for weed, but they
have Velcro pocket sized patches on the side that lets one check the progress of the taters knowing when it's
time to pick them.
We planted a couple of Nanking Cherries bushes and a couple of Red Currant bushes 4 years ago and they
finally produced fruit last year. I was wondering if they were ever going to produce.
Black and Red Raspberries and Blueberries. With all of these anti-oxidants, we were in real danger of running out of regular oxidants.
Pics.
We had a bumper crop of most everything in our garden the last couple years.
A combination of the right weather, the garden fabric and the drip tape
irrigation. The fabric and drip tape were new additions to the garden
two years ago and it made a huge difference. Less time weeding and the harvest
has been amazing.
My wife sold some of her artwork and the excess veggies we
grew at the farmers market in town on Saturdays. We had way too many zucchinis,
tomatoes, and peppers. If we still lived in the city we would be leaving bags
of these on our neighbors porches, ringing their doorbell and running away
Garden Goodies - We had our best year ever in our garden last year
Salsa Peppers
Zucchini's are another one that we grow a couple of varieties of.
I was going to pick a few of these and decided to wait one more day.
On the following day it rained hard all day. I went out after the rain day
and these zuccs had gone from normal sized to jumbos in the course of two days.
My wife jokingly said, "Girth and length". I laughed.
The lesson to be learned is this. When the zuccs are getting close,
check them everyday, and not every other day.
Red Cabbage
Watermelons
Pumpkin seeds
Seeds for the following year - We save a few from each of the veggies
Raspberries - Both Red and Black
We had over 20 5 gallon buckets of apples that we pressed for
cider, and then canned a bunch of apples and applesauce.
Last year we gave away about 6 or 7 bushels of apples and my wife probably
sold as many at the farmers market.
chathamgardensseeds.com
