2021 Veggie Gardens

[treefarmercharlie]

Haven’t seen a veggie garden thread for this year yet so I figured I’d start one. Feel free to share your pics.

We had awesome weather today so I got started on my first decent garden. I removed the grass from the footprint of the garden and left enough room for walkways around all of the raised beds.

I also got two of the 3’ x 6’ beds built and everything except the outward gaveling boards stained.

Tomorrow I’m going to build two more of those boxes and another two boxes that will be 6’ x 8’ and then will finish the staining.

Hoping to get 3/4” crushed gravel for the walkways on Monday and will start filling the boxes with soil next weekend.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

I've been saving all the fallen trees and braches to fill the bottom of my future beds to save on soil and another pile of pine needles and pine bedding from our chickens and ducks to compost (2022 project).

The kids are running the show this year.
I'm excited to see the results after last season's prep.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

This is my plan this year.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

Are you going to keep the asparagus going?

 

[F series]

Anyone ever grow indoors? Soil

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Are you going to keep the asparagus going?

It’s my first time doing asparagus so I’m really not sure. Still have some reading to do on that.

 

[H.A.F.]

It’s my first time doing asparagus so I’m really not sure. Still have some reading to do on that.

Once you get a stand going, it's basically like bamboo - new shoots just pop up random.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

What HAF said. I tilled up a section of the garden last year to plant root veggies and the previous owner had asparagus growing and it came back.

 

[H.A.F.]

If you think about it, the bamboo shoots you get in chineese food are just young bamboo. If you let the asparagus go it'll flower out and get woody just like bamboo - and probably other edible grasses.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Finished building and staining the raised bed boxes today and filled them with a few inches of the loam I removed from the perimeter and some composted horse shit.



As you can see...I have no shortage of horse shit here


The seeds I planted are starting to sprout. All the tomato & cherry tomato seeds have sprouted, as well as all of the cabbage, and some of the pole beans and lettuce.

 

[Deleted member 60]

Still a few months out here for outdoor >anything< garden-wise. (June 1 if the weather is good) The snow was melted back enough I could get into the garden yesterday but the ground is still frozen solid. The strawberries look good under all of that mulch though. Still wayyyyy too early to uncover though.

Asparagus take years to get a good stand. You may not have enough shoots this season to have any to eat but it will start to spread out. We devoted an entire 4 x 4 bed to it because it took it over...LOL. After 4 years we are getting a nice stand though.

Started tomato seeds for the greenhouse last week. Have about 65 "Wave" petunias of all colors up and jammin....as well as a tray+ of Icelandic poppies.

Put out about 5 pounds of native grass seed mixed with wildflower seed yesterday on my lower lots. The ground there was workable so it was nice to get a rake/shovel back in my hand and get some seed down before the snow. (4" overnight) Should hopefully get things roillin...although native seed is finicky so we will see in a few months how things go.

 

[Ohio.george]

My 11 year old daughters 4 x 4. (Wtf, my 11 year has a 4x4). Lol

 

[H.A.F.]

I think I finally decided. I have grading and clearing needs, topsoil, and maybe some plumbing for a remote garden hose outlet to do a decent garden. I am relegating this year to getting that ready for next year. So a trip for some starter tomatoes and peppers from the store after all chance of a late frost is it for me.

Last summer was an assortment of hit-n-miss stuff, and way more plants than I got good fruit from, in an area of limited sun. So a few plants in the prime location that I actually baby is probably gonna be my best bet for now.

Love seeing all the ideas/projects, keep 'em coming!

 

[H.A.F.]

My 11 year old daughters 4 x 4. (Wtf, my 11 year has a 4x4). LolView attachment 86540

Best way to get a kid to eat vege's is to let them grow them!

 

[treefarmercharlie]

I think I finally decided. I have grading and clearing needs, topsoil, and maybe some plumbing for a remote garden hose outlet to do a decent garden. I am relegating this year to getting that ready for next year. So a trip for some starter tomatoes and peppers from the store after all chance of a late frost is it for me.

Last summer was an assortment of hit-n-miss stuff, and way more plants than I got good fruit from, in an area of limited sun. So a few plants in the prime location that I actually baby is probably gonna be my best bet for now.

Love seeing all the ideas/projects, keep 'em coming!

My garden was a mess last year. I didn't plan it properly, the weeds were outta control, and I placed it too close to the wetlands so the rats and other critters ate every damn tomato that grew. I just picked up 3 yards of 3/4 crushed gravel for all the areas around the raised beds so I'll be spreading that during my lunch break today.

 

[H.A.F.]

My garden was a mess last year. I didn't plan it properly, the weeds were outta control, and I placed it too close to the wetlands so the rats and other critters ate every damn tomato that grew. I just picked up 3 yards of 3/4 crushed gravel for all the areas around the raised beds so I'll be spreading that during my lunch break today.

I have land with good sunshine now. Storm last fall took down a huge oak, and limbs on another as that one fell. Got it cleared cheap by someone that wanted the 150+yo white oak, and it also bought me some scrub-clearing and hauling it out.

It's just far enough away from the house that stringing garden hoses would suck. Just bought the house a few years ago, and did nothing much outside the first year except kill invasive vines. That winter when the vines were dead several trees went down because the poison ivy and briars were holding them up. It's a work in progress, but getting that land (maybe 1/4 acre) cleared put me on task. I may even just support the local farmers market and say screw it.

 

[H.A.F.]

One section of it will be for perennial berry bushes. Blackberry and blueberry most likely. Maybe raspberry but those can be a pain. I can get that suff started this year in big pots and just get them in the ground before fall.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

I have land with good sunshine now. Storm last fall took down a huge oak, and limbs on another as that one fell. Got it cleared cheap by someone that wanted the 150+yo white oak, and it also bought me some scrub-clearing and hauling it out.

It's just far enough away from the house that stringing garden hoses would suck. Just bought the house a few years ago, and did nothing much outside the first year except kill invasive vines. That winter when the vines were dead several trees went down because the poison ivy and briars were holding them up. It's a work in progress, but getting that land (maybe 1/4 acre) cleared put me on task. I may even just support the local farmers market and say screw it.

We have a HUGE sugar maple on the south side of our house that was supposedly transplanted there when our house was built in 1800. People tell me all the time they wouldn't risk it that close to the house, but it's still in great health, and I had the large branches that went over the house removed a couple of years ago. I've heard that some arborist associations will take care of old trees like these for free, to keep them healthy, so I'm going to look into that this year.

Check out this beast of a tree.

 

[H.A.F.]

We have a HUGE sugar maple on the south side of our house that was supposedly transplanted there when our house was built in 1800. People tell me all the time they wouldn't risk it that close to the house, but it's still in great health, and I had the large branches that went over the house removed a couple of years ago. I've heard that some arborist associations will take care of old trees like these for free, to keep them healthy, so I'm going to look into that this year.

Check out this beast of a tree.
View attachment 86541

Mine was about 150' tall, 10' circumference at the base, about 30' before the first limb, then another 20 or so feet before it started spreading. Lots of fat board-feet. I still have several of her sisters on the property. One with a 12' trunk (according to the measurements) was sprouted when George Washington was President

Tree Age Calculator (cliftonparkopenspaces.org) <<<link

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Mine was about 150' tall, 10' circumference at the base, about 30' before the first limb, then another 20 or so feet before it started spreading. Lots of fat board-feet. I still have several of her sisters on the property. One with a 12' trunk (according to the measurements) was sprouted when George Washington was President
View attachment 86579
Tree Age Calculator (cliftonparkopenspaces.org) <<<link

Thanks for that link, I’ve always suspected that our tree is older than our house so I’m going to measure the circumference today and see what that site says. I’ve had tree guys tell me they’ve never seen a silver maple this big in person (I mistakenly called it a sugar maple before). The land my house is on has been farm land since the early 1700s.