[survivalistmomma]

I have been gardening for over 20 years.

I do not use chemical pesticides so I plant enough to share with the little critters. If we see them we squash them.:xeye: For this reason you will often see imperfect plants.

I am also not meticulous with weeds. If we have a week with extra time on my hands, then we get them all. Basically I just do damage control when I can.

I have 20 or so beds, (I haven't counted them lately.) I do not use materials to raise them. We have good soil so it has not been necessary.

I am gardening right next to a creek on "bottom land." It is spring time so mowing takes a back seat to planting on the farm right now. Please excuse the wildness. We are in a valley in the woods.

We plant our sweet corn, bread corn, and melons in traditional rows in the fields. Yesterday we planted 120 Amish Paste and Roma tomato plants in the field. I will try to get pictures posted.

We also planted some more tomatoes in the garden yesterday where we pulled up the finished broccoli plants. This is our second planting. The first plants are doing well and green tomatoes on them

Today we hoed around the sweet corn and melons in the field.

The garden spot in the picture is 85' x 125'. The beds are 4 x 25. the far right corner use to be in vegetables, but is being prepared for berries.

I will post some pictures closer up as soon as I take some. Here are a couple at a distance my 11 yo daughter took from our deck this past week.

Where you see the cucumber trellis on the right, we staked out for an arbor to grow hardy kiwi. Those are the beams for it waiting for us on the bottom left as you go into the garden spot. We hope to move that forward as soon as the cucumbers are done. We have the kiwi in pots on my deck. Last year they took over the railings and I had to cut them free to bring the pots in.

 

[Von Helman]

VERY nice, I love the surrounding scenery just beautiful

 

[xm193]

well done and its beautiful as well

 

[oktx]

I have a jealous! :

Edited to add:
This is a funny way to say "I am jealous." and is neither a typo nor a mistake.

 

[sorrows]

nice pics.......

we garden as well, I can't understand why more people don't.......

there's nothing like fresh grown veggies.......

I do want to expand into fruit trees, at least apples.......

time....we always need more the older we get.......

happy harvesting.......

 

[survivalistmomma]

Thank you all.

My younger children help me, and hubby gets in there too once in a while.

We canned relish, (19 pts) from our cucumbers and onions today. I had to buy the bell peppers because ours weren't ready yet.

We had 48 heads of broccoli and put those up, (blanched and froze) this week. I am always sad to see it done. I love the dark bluish green in the garden.

 

[bridgierapa]

Brilliant. : Not just the hard core garden but the hard core preserving with the freezer. And no sprays... and I see the flowers... I'm half blind but that looks like a circle of wallflowers? is that right?

also SOOO nice to see a circle

Thanks for your pics

 

[survivalistmomma]

Brilliant. : Not just the hard core garden but the hard core preserving with the freezer. And no sprays... and I see the flowers... I'm half blind but that looks like a circle of wallflowers? is that right?

also SOOO nice to see a circle

Thanks for your pics

Thank you,

We call the flowers in the circle "Stellas." They are a day lily that blooms all summer. Inside of the circle are knock-out rose bushes. The area in the square around them was all flowers a two years ago. It was too much too keep up with now that we are growing more vegetable garden in the field.

 

[survivalistmomma]

Green Beans, Bush

I know there are a lot of new gardeners, so I thought I would share what I have learned.

I wanted to show you my green beans. There are two types of green bean plants. There are pole beans and bush beans. Pole beans have trendles that curl around and "grab on" and grow up ward. They produce over a long periods of time, a small picking at a time. This is good for people who want a steady supply for fresh eating, or for people who rather harvest mostly standing up. For most seasons one planting will get you beans all summer and right up to frost. For long season areas two plantings are needed.

Then there are bush beans. This type produces large quantities over shorter time periods. This is great for people who put up for winter. You are kneeling or bending to pick these. If you have a bad back, consider this. If you want fresh beans all summer and up until frost, you will need to plant more seed every four to five weeks.

Some people may prefer to plant one large set of bush beans for canning, and have a few on poles for a summer long harvest. That is what I did until my family grew and I needed a lot of beans for one year.

Both of these beds have bush type green beans. They have been planted 4 weeks apart. The bed on the right now has tiny beans and I should be harvesting them soon.

I will take some more photos and show you how I have spaced them to make weeding easier, get a good quantity, and provide the beans with an environment they like. I will also tell show you what bugs to look for and how to prevent problems. For now here is a photo showing the difference in 4 weeks.

EDITED TO ADD MORE ON GREEN BEANS

In the second photo you will see a hoe.

After 20 years of growing bush beans in beds I can say for me, this is the best spacing.

The beds are four feet wide. *The rows go across the bed.* I call these mini rows. When planting I use the corner of my hoe to make small shallow trenches ABOUT a foot a part *across the bed.* (Eyeballing twice the width of my hoe is fine. PLEASE forget the ruler!) I lay the bean seed in the trenches imagining a dollar bill between the seeds, (six inches,) It does not need to be exact, 5-7 is good. Then I use my hands to cover the seed.

Water heavy after planting and then lightly every morning it doesn't rain until the seeds pop up. The idea is to keep the top of your soil from crusting. Do not soak it and rot your seed. (My friend presprouts her seed, but I plant too much for that.)

Your mini rows will come up a foot apart and you will be able to hoe down the middle of them until the plants start touching. By then they will shade the soil and very few weeds can grow. You will need to hand pull the weeds between the plants in your mini rows a few times is all.

If you live in a hot zone, or you are planting in the middle of summer, you can mulch down your mini rows quite easily. In cool climates or in early spring, the beans will appreciate the heat from the sun on the soil. Mulching later is unnecessary because you plants will soon come together and shade their roots.

When you pick your green beans it looks like one big mass of plants, but YOU know there are mini rows in there. You start from the edge of your bed and pick along your mini rows toward the center of the bed from each side. The plants will handle a bit of pushing them around to see what you are doing. When you are done picking they will look jostled but straighten up on their own over the next day.

When I started gardening in beds, I tried evenly spacing in both directions, but this meant either hand pulling all the weeds, (which is fine for small gardens,) or spacing everything really far apart. So I started using "double hoe wide rows" going down the length of beds for my small plants, but it is hard to hoe in that direction and you are crossing over plants. Mini rows across the beds work best for me; easy on the back and quick to hoe. I plant my onions, beets, radishes, lettuce and greens the same way; all my small plants except for my carrots which are broadcasted. (I will show you that later.)

I included a picture of the onions where I hoed the mini rows across the beed, but was caught by rain before I hand pulled around the onions. I should have done that today, but the cabbage was needing the attention more.

Also included is a picture of my stirrup hoe. I use a regular how when planting. If my weeds are small I use a stirrup hoe. This is a favorite for going down the mini rows. You just slide it back and forth in front of you. If the soil is hard or the weeds get ahead of you, you have to use a regular hoe.

HERE IS AN EXCELNET VIDEO: How To Pick The Right Tool For Weeding The Garden

L

 

[FarmerChad]

Beautiful place you have there. Looks like lots of room to grow if needed.

 

[survivalistmomma]

Beautiful place you have there. Looks like lots of room to grow if needed.

Thank you.

Yes, I have a lot of room. I feel truly blessed.

Well, I got home after dark so I will have to wait until morning for more pictures.

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads!!!!!

 

[MC Ain't Crazy]

Momma that's awesome!!!! I love your spread. Something to think about as I am looking for a location with more land. Out of respect I won't ask what region you're in, but I will say looking at that makes me homesick for WV all over again.

How much area do you plant altogether, for how many people????

What's the temperature like when you set your corn out???? I waited for it to be good and warm this year; looking at others' gardens in the area I am either well behind or sorely nitrogen-poor (betting on well behind as everything else is doing well).

 

[survivalistmomma]

Momma that's awesome!!!! I love your spread. Something to think about as I am looking for a location with more land. Out of respect I won't ask what region you're in, but I will say looking at that makes me homesick for WV all over again.

How much area do you plant altogether, for how many people????

What's the temperature like when you set your corn out???? I waited for it to be good and warm this year; looking at others' gardens in the area I am either well behind or sorely nitrogen-poor (betting on well behind as everything else is doing well).

Thank you. I am in the foothills of KY. We have 200 acres and 40 is "flat land" creek bottom that has 40 inch deep topsoil, (a gardener's dream.) 15 mowable hillside for pasture, and the rest is woods for hunting. We paid 550 an acre. Ten years later and it sells for almost twice that. I absolutely love it here. I could not have picked better neighbors if I tried.

The old timers here plant their corn when the leaves on the walnut trees are as big as a squirrel's ear. I am usually a little later than that because the bottoms stay cool longer.

The garden spot in the picture is 85' x 125'. The beds are 4' x 25.'

I still have children at home and gardening is a family activity. We go out each fair morning before it gets hot, and go back out in the evenings when it cools off again. During harvest season we spend the afternoons in the kitchen. I pray for rain so the garden will grow, the kids pray for rain so they get to sleep in.

This year:

20) 4 x 25 ft beds < all kinds of vegetables and some strawberries
8) 50 ft rows of sweet corn
5) 75 ft rows of bread corn
10) hills of melons
a very small orchard of fruit trees and blue berries
raspberries, blueberries and kiwi in patio pots, (will be put them into the ground this year)
Wild black berries all over the farm, (more than we can pick)

My 22 yr old son and two friends have 15-20 acres in tobacco this year here on the farm, (and another 10 acres at his friend's farm.) The rest of our bottom 40 is in hay.


My teenage children are growing 120 paste tomato plants in the field to sell. We have done this before and sell them by the crate to ladies who can. We just call into the local "dial a deal" radio show and people come out to the house and pick them up.

I have been gardening organically in beds for 20+ years, 10 years at my current location. I do not use framing for my beds. The corners are staked, and I do keep them in the same place every year. We do not walk in the beds, so they don't get compacted. I didn't need to raise my beds because we have great soil. You know you love gardening when you have picked your location and homes by the soil. LOL

As my children grew and became bigger eaters we moved our sweet corn out of the garden and into the field, as well as the melons. We also grow bread corn in a separate field. (We use a plow and a disk behind our tractor to prepare for the bread corn, but we rake it out and plant it by hand.) I use a rear tine tiller in my beds and a Mantis for touch ups. We also occasionally "double dig" by hand for the early spring beds.

The first photo is lookind along the valley bottom and the second one is taken from our property line on one hillside, across the creek, and our hill behind the house. We sit a quarter mile off of a country road.

I don't think anything I have said compromises my position. If someone thinks I might be doing that, please let me know.

 

[survivalistmomma]

What's the temperature like when you set your corn out???? I waited for it to be good and warm this year; looking at others' gardens in the area I am either well behind or sorely nitrogen-poor (betting on well behind as everything else is doing well).

We have a saying, "Knee high by the forth of July." Corn is an EXTREMELY heavy feeder, it is actually a grain or giant grass, just like sugar sorghum. When you think of all the rich sweet animal fodder the stalks and (seed heads) produce, it helps you realize how much corn is pulling out of the soil. Your stalks should be a nice Crayola Crayon "green" or darker.

If your corn came up, then feeding now should help it. Normally you plant it in fertilized soil and side dress it when it has 8-10 leaves and again when you see silks. I use well rotted manure from my farm and just lay a strip of it down the row next to the base of the corn. The rain will carry the nitrogen down to the roots. If you use granular fertilizer be sure to lightly scape it into the soil so it does not run off when it rains. If you have a small patch and a sprayer, you can foliar feed your corn by spaying it with an organic fish emulsion or with a non-organic miracle grow. If you do this it will be a quick boost, but then fertilize at the base too.

The other thing that corn needs is lots of sun and lots off water in well draining soil. In hot weather one mature corn plant can take-up a gallon of water in a day if it is available.

I hope this helps.

My own sweet corn is struggling this year. I tried a new spot and the soil is not as nice as in some other areas. I side dressed it Saturday, so I hope it does better. The bread corn is in where my horses were last year, and it is doing really well.

 

[survivalistmomma]

I really planned on sharing more on cultivating green beans today, but it is raining, and I wanted a picture showing a hoe between the plants for size comparison on spacing. So I am dropping this note just to let you know why I haven't come through on my promise.

Here is a picture of my summer squash. It is doing well this year. I took this picture Sunday morning at 8 am. The sun is still trying to come over the trees on the hill. As I was taking the picture, I thought, "I could really use something for a size comparison." Then my cat walked in to the frame. The squash plants have their first tiny squash on them, but the blossoms are still open. I should be picking them in one to two days.

Behind the squash you can see tomato plants from two plantings, (reason for different sizes,) in homemade cages out of welded fence wire. The mess to the right of the squash is potato plants. Both the squash and the potatoes are running over the 2 foot wide row between the beds. We have had so much rain that they are taking over.

EDIT: Added another picture from the other side of the squash. More potatoes in front of the squash. Peppers on the bed on the left with tomatoes plants towards the back. The tomatoes towards the back and the peppers toward the front are taller. I put them in early when I wasn't ready to risk them all to a late frost. The peppers and tomatoes in the middle of the bed went in at the correct time; two weeks after average last frost.

A few days ago I planted more tomatoes in another section when I found them at the garden center for 10 cents each.

 

[Blaik]

Awesome! Absolutely incredible set up. At this point I don't have the experience or time to manage that much of a garden. But I'm figuring with time and experience I'll be able to more effectively and efficiently manage more. Keep us supplied with pics, love seeing all the lovely gardens!

 

[survivalistmomma]

Thank you Blaik! I have a lot of experience, over 20 years, but there is no way I could do this much by myself. My school-aged children help me. I will keep adding pitcures. I took a bunch Sunday, but I am slow at adding them.

I love to see everyone's pictures too. I am getting so many ideas from everyone.

 

[nveagle]

Wow, wish I had that much space. And the time it must take to keep it all growing. Great looking place! Thanks for adding in the information on how and why, I am still learning so I appriciate it.

 

[survivalistmomma]

I added to my post on growing green beans, and added a great video I found on how to select tools for weeding.

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showpost.php?p=1675247&postcount=9

A few more pictures too.

 

[Blaik]

Just watched the video, excellent info! Unfortunately now I'm going to have to explain to my wife why just one hoe is not going to be sufficient! :