Garden

[catherine]

Well, our spring and summer garden is all but a memory, and boy are we missing the produce! Everything on our farm had about burnt up, except the weeds in the garden, so I finally turned the cows lose in it and they ate everything down pretty hard. Interestingly, they left the tops of the okra, the stems of the eggplants and sweet potatos, and the cotton plants intact. The okra is putting out new leaves and blooming again as are the eggplants, so we should be able to harvest more of them (yeah! I've converted sooo many people to fried okra, eggplant chips and eggplant parmasian that I'm going to need to plant a whole row next spring!). However, the piglets managed to break out of their pen and into the garden the other night, and all they did was plow up JUST the sweet potatos! I had thought that the vines would leaf back out and keep going...but NOPE! They got every single sweet potato! Sigh. Well, here's a few photos so you can see a bit of what we've been doing. Next job...let the sheep in to eat everything down hard, then till it up, water thoroughly and put clear plastic down to "solarize" and kill off the weeds. I'm planning to then sow a cover crop, then turn it under with manure in the late winter, so it's ready for spring planting. I'll plant some fall crops in my new "herb" garden, for this year.

My son, tilling...need I tell you that we have clay soil?! lol. It's been an acre veggie garden off and on over 30 years, with loads of humus and manure tilled in. We were actually quite impressed with how well the soil broke up this year with very few big clods, but it was still a job for a strong fella, I can tell you!





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[Stacy]

Beautiful garden Catherine. Looks like you had a lot of fun with that one.
Funny, we just dug our sweet potatoes two days ago. I was wondering if the cows could eat the greens, but hadn't gotten around to asking yet. Your words sorta make me think it'd be ok for them? We have sweet potatoes that replanted themselves too, so we're gonna leave 'em and see what happens.
We'll be getting to our fall garden, hopefully, this weekend. Mostly greens (loose leaf lettuce, broc. and collards), carrots and snow peas.

[catherine]

Actually, yes, sweet potatoes make awesome forage for any of the farm critters. We'd actually intended to plant a whole field of them for animal feed, but didn't get around to it. I hope to next year, now that I know they are like candy! Apparently, all animals like the tops and the roots! So do people, so be sure you plant LOTS!

I planted my fall garden, and then the calves broke in and munched the tops off of everything. Sigh. Ok, I'm rearmed with a new batch of seedlings and I'm off to replant. My garden site is mowed off, but the grass has grown back so thick that I think I'm going to either run the pigs in there, or use it for a hay storage yard this fall, with corn seeds spread underneath. Then, towards the end of winter, I'll turn the hogs in to till it all up. Ya...that's what I'll do! lol. Hey, it works for Walter Jeffries! Anyway, I'm going to replant in my semi-fenced "herb garden", and see how it goes. Do post pics of your newest endeavors? I'll try to, too.

[Liz]

Hey Catherine!
What great pics!
Let me know in the spring if you have any extra strawberry plants, mine burned up.
When you solarize, if you use black plastic you won't get algae, since it blocks out the sun.
Best wishes with the fall garden!

[Stacy]

Pokin' back in here too....

We got only five rows! Two double rows of snow peas, one row of spinach, one row of broccoli and one row of loose leaf lettuce. Then the pigs got out. ;D Fortunately they didn't spend much time there and we lost very little. They are growing. Everything is up after only being in for a week +. Since our "big" tiller is broken, that's all the enthusiasm we could muster for a fall garden. I really just wanted the snow peas anyway, so the other stuff is a bonus if it grows for me!

Speaking of strawberries.... our little patch really went nuts sending off runners so I think we're going to have a good bit next year!

I LOVE fall, but I sure do get to missing spring quick!!

[Shawn]

Nice looking garden. Ours here is about done. Probably going to frost hard pretty soon.

I think you should save that first pic of your son to show his future wife how tough he is.

I was going to say I have better luck with black plastic, too, esp. in an area with lots of weeds or grass. It allows all that stuff to sprout and then it dies from lack of sunshine. And once you get the weeds & grass knocked down, don't till. Tilling stirs up more weed seeds to the surface to sprout.

[catherine]

Oh No, Liz! Your strawberries all burned up???!!! I was just thinking of asking you for more plants the next time you divided yours, as we only have 3 plants left! The cows kept breaking in and pillaging them, and of course the heat cooked what remained. Well, at least we have a start, so if I can just get them to thrive now that it's cooled off, I'll be more than happy to pass you back some starts! Who else might have some of your strawberries? Did you give Melissa some? Now, I'm terrified to lose these last plants! The berries were just so awesome this spring. Maybe I need to dig a plant up for you, and give one to Melissa, so we can spread out the risk. If just one of us can make our little strawberry plant happy and it multiplies like yours did last year, then we won't lose the strain and we can share them back out again!

P.S. Thanks for the tips on solarizing. I got 2 mil thick clear plastic, but then didn't get it on the ground before things began to cool off. Who knew about algae?!? Wow. Next time...black plastic. Thanks. So, since I missed my chance this year, I guess I'll use the ground for overwintering the pigs, instead, and let them graze it down hard. I will just be sure they don't have a wallow in there, as that made tilling awfully hard this past spring.