Spring Garden Plans

CajuninKy · Spring Garden Plans

I am making good use of this cold nasty weather by planning my Spring garden. I have been looking through the catalogs. I placed my order after trimming down my wish list considerably LOL and now I am anxiously awaiting it's arrival. I have also been trading seeds I saved from last year with fellow gardeners for things I don't have but would like to grow. Seeds won't be my problem but lack of space may cause me a bit of worry. I am still working on that one. I am trying to figure out what I can grow in containers, what can go in bales and what has to go in beds. Also trying to figure out how to rotate crops to make the best use of my space and the time it takes certain crops to mature. Good thing I still have a while to work on it. It is quite the challenge but one I enjoy.

Anyone else working on Spring garden plans?

Here is a pic of some of last year's harvest.

God's Warrior

That is a really lovely picture. Bet the veggies were all super delicious. You have become quite the gardener, judging from that fine produce.

What table would be complete without a horse? Tee hee! That statue is so pretty and knowing what a horse lover you are, I bet someone gave you that as a very special gift.

CajuninKy

You are right about the horse. Our church family gave it to me along with several others and a weekend at a cabin in the smokies. Our DS and his family drove up to spend the weekend with us so we had both our kids and DGSs with us. It was a wonderful gift for Pastor Appreciation. I will never forget it.

God's Warrior

How very special for you guys. It is great when churches show their love and appreciation for pastors and their families instead of never noticing all of the very special things that you do for them and for the Lord.

fsrstarr

I am just now starting to plan mine... I am way late on it this year. What are your plans for your veggie garden this year? I want to have better tomatoes this year. My tomatoes have not been good the past two or three years and I can't figure it out. I will grow the usual bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, and squash, but I would like to try some southern veggies as well. Like purple hull peas or butter beans. I am not sure if they will do well here. Do you ever grow your veggies in containers? i am going to do a bit more of that this year, as it means less weeding. My back has gotten worse, so anything that helps is good... Wink

starr

CajuninKy

Star

You need to check out bale gardening. It's like container gardening in that you don't have to break ground or prepare a bed but it is better because your plants have all the room they need to put down roots. There is virtually no weeding and no bending down. My tomatoes loved the bales.

I have been coping with this horrible winter weather by making my garden plans for the Spring. I have everything in order now and am chomping at the bits to get started. The only thing I have left to do is hang my grow light for starting my seeds under.

I am putting in a new bed about 8' x 24'. I am filling it with composted horse manure and sawdust. I will be growing my cukes in hanging baskets to leave more room on the ground for other stuff. Space is at a premium here on my little lot so I have to garden smartly.

Snookie

Did all those vegetables shrivel up after being placed on that LSU tablecloth? Laughing

CajuninKy

On the contrary, Snookie. It made them taste all the better! LOL Geaux Tigers!!! How about that win over UK? I loved it. I have lived in Ky for 5 years now and I will root for them until they play LSU. I still bleed purple and gold.

Mary

Beautiful yummies, Cajun.

I haven't done much planning, but did inventory my seeds and decided not to order onion seed since I didn't need anything else, and the shipping charges would have brought 1 packet of seeds up to gourmet status! Yesterday I bought 200 yellow onion sets and will go that route again this year.

It isn't time to start tomatoes yet, and I still have to finish cleaning out the greenhouse. My neighbor will probably be borrowing space from me again to get his seedlings going.

We are still having little snowstorms. I saw garden soil a few days recently but yesterday it got covered with snow again. Thankfully, not deep snow, so now I can dig holes through it to bury the contents of the kitchen compost bucket.

Last fall I covered a patch of quackgrass with cardboard and newspapers, then put old sheep barn cleanings and moldy straw over it for a potato patch this year. I can just pull it back, make holes, plant the potatoes and cover it again with the same stuff, then add more when the potatoes come up. Not much digging/weeding that way.

The tires where I grew tomatoes and potatoes last year will be used for carrots and parsnips this year because they are deep spots with fluffy soil. Several years ago I remember seeing, on some tv garden show, that somebody grew parsnips in a big cement pipe standing on end, so the roots could grow way down without having to work hard. Stacked tires should provide the same benefit and they are already in place and filled with soil.

Tomatoes will be grown next to a woven wire fence and tied to it, in a spot where I have never grown anything. I have to remember to prune the plants to get bigger tomatoes.

It looks like I have done more planning than I thought!

fsrstarr

Cajun, Please tell me more about bale gardening. Are you referring to hay bales, straw bales, or?

Mary, you seem pretty organized to me. A lot more prepared and planned out than I am. I have had too much on my plate this past winter and am way behind on everything. You said to trim the plant back to get bigger tomatoes? Just once or often?

Snookie

Mary

I have never pruned tomato plants but I have great sources of information. DG has a tomato forum, and I have a few books.

CajuninKy

I think it must be referring to what we always called "pinching off the suckers". If you don't pinch them out, you will have more fruit but it will be smaller. The suckers are the the small limbs that form in the fork of an already established limb and the main stalk of the plant. I pinch them but I'm not religious about it.

Mary

As I understand it, there is more to it than that, but I haven't even done that much, so it would definitely be an improvement. I should look up the info before I need it.

CajuninKy

Star
I grew my tomatoes, squash, peppers and eggplants in hay bales for 2 years. Last year I broke up what was left of the bales, covered it with 6" of composted horse manure and sawdust and grew in that. I had more and better tomatoes than I have ever grown. The bales are so easy. All you have to do is turn the bales on their sides with the strings off the ground. That will keep them from rotting as fast. Wet the bales down and let them sit a few days. Insert a long cooking thermometer into the bales. When the temp goes over 100 degrees and then starts to fall, it is time to plant. You can plant 2 plants in each bale. Just stick something long and flat in between the stems of hay and wallow out a slit. Put in a little bit of dirt and plant in the dirt. Give the bales a good watering every few days and you will be good to go. The nitrogen that is created as the bales break down will act like fertilizer to the plants. If you need to do any additional fertilizing I suggest making a "paste" of manure and spreading it on top of the bale and then watering through it. I used rabbit manure but other manure will do. Not fresh chicken manure. It is too hot and will burn your plants. If you plant anything that needs support, like tomatoes, you can't anchor the supports, ie cages or stakes, in the bales because as the bales decompose the cages or stakes will lose their footing and the whole thing will topple over. You can drive T posts at either end of your bale or at intervals in your row of bales and attach fence wire to the posts. Then tie the tomatoes or other plants to your fence wire. If you have any more questions just ask. I'm sure I have forgotten something. I always do. LOL

fsrstarr

Mary, I am still not clear on how to trim them back... I haven't been over to DG in a long time... I miss the folks over there and I should go check out that tomato forum, too.

Cajun, What kind of bales do you use? I think it would not matter too much if they were straw or grass, but I am curious what you use. It sounds like an idea that I could really use as we have such poor soil here.

The only place I have to do a veggie garden is a small area between the barns. It has red clay. I have tried to amend it and have not been very successful. The past two years I have planted in blue tubs. I am still falling short of providing something the veggies want... The bell peppers did pretty well, but did not put out a lot. At least they grew to maturity and were good... I grew the squash in an old horse trough and they did well.

I appreciate all of your input.

Have a good day, Starr

CajuninKy

Star
Lots of people use straw. I tried both and the grass hay won hands down. My straw bale wouldn't break down even though it was a year older than the hay. The people who use straw have to go through a 10 day prep period where they put all kinds of stuff on the bales to get them to start "cooking". No need for any of that with the grass bales.

Mary

That's good to know because I read about straw bale gardening and having to add all that chemical fertilizer. I do have ancient straw bales available, or partial bales, at my neighbors, and an occasional bale of moldy hay (often alfalfa), plus all that nice sheep barn pile from cleaning out the lambing pens. I was looking at it today as we drove by, they are adding to it already, but the back side has last year's stuff on it so I should be hauling some more of it home soon.

CajuninKy

Mary
Do you have anything spouting in the GH yet? I finally got my light hung and I have 12 broccoli, 21 blueberry, 21 red wonder strawberry and 21 yellow wonder strawberry sprouts under it. I have the broccoli and 8 of the blueberry sprouts in small cups. Have to get the rest into cups soon. I need to get another light as it will be time to sprout other veggies soon. I'm going to do lots of different tomatoes this year. I'm doing 6 different colors of cherry tomatoes.

Star
Have you got any bales cooking? I'm anxious to see how you enjoy bale gardening and if it helps with your tomatoes. Let us know and please take pics.

Here is a pic from a week or so ago. My light is hanging under a table. It has worked well so far and it's out of the way.

Mary

So far it's only tomaotes, but I need to start some brocolli, cabbage, and other spring crops soon.

Yesterday I hauled some manure off an old pile and put it down where I will make rows in the vegie garden. I don't fertilize all the ground, just strips where the rows will go. The rows are never in exactly the same place every year so it all gets done, plus, I use grass clippings for mulch and that gets rototilled into the soil in the fall. After I rototill the ground in the spring, going in the direction of the rows, I can still see the pulverized manure, so I plant there. It was beautiful and sunny yesterday, but the wind got colder and stronger all day and I ended up bundled up like winter. Today we have had sun interspersed with heavy snow showers. Then more sun which causes the ground to steam. Somehow it looks prehistoric.

God's Warrior

Mary, Can you get a picture of that prehistoric look? I would love to see it?

Cajun, I love your seed starting area and also your incubator for chicken eggs. I can't wait to see the little peep peeps as they accumulate.