raised beds.

[simplynaturalfarm]

peppers closest to you, bed further away has 2 zucchini, 10 cabbage, 5 cuke and two rows carrots in front of cukes.



this shows how I bend the cattle panels up and over the bed and set it inside the path. No it doesn't make a lot of sense to run them the way I did, but that is what I did this year.

The ones crawling over are melons, pickling cucumbers, charentaise and trombucchini. Then some hot peppers, beets, carrots and onions, bok choys etc.\



closer up of beets, carrots, trombucchini and melons.



a few of the bellstar and nd earliana we picked this morning - our best producers (well actually cherokee purple are best but they crack more.)



more stuff from this morning that we are using to make salsa.

It was so sunny and hot that I didn't get many good pictures, but I have three sweet mama squash planted at the very end that are growing perfectly into the grass and have 18 squash on them. Also have two butternut planted and have tons of them. We have over 30 melons on 4 plants that are climbing also.

I planted one of the 4x20 beds into green peppers dill and cilantro and can't keep ahead of them (we freeze them).
2nd bed has 8 cabbage, 2 zucchini (and I have zucchini everywhere in the house!), 4 eating cucumbers and then two 4 foot rows of carrots in front of climbing cukes.
3rd bed has onions, 10 hot peppers, 5 melon plants and 25 strawberries.
4th bed has onions, 4 trombuccini, 4 melons, and more onions, two short rows beets and carrots in front of climbing stuff.
5th bed is all tomatoes - nd earliana, early girl, san marzano, amish paste and bell star.
6th bed is strawberries and 6 cherokee purple
7th bed is . . cherry tomatoes - I have NO idea how that happened. It is disgusting and i am going to pull them out!
8th bed is 6 more cherokee purple, strawberries and all the squash.

The rest of the beds are not planted because I new I had no time to work things with moving here.

I've done 40 quarts tomato sauce and paste so far, 37 quarts relish, 30 quarts dills (we are doing some every 4 days), and frozen 23 quarts of trombuccini for frittata this winter. We have eaten more than we can count and eat frittata with peppers, onions and squash 5 days a week now. And slice cherokee purple tomatoes on top with sprinkled homemade feta and homegrown pork sausage - this is divine!!

[Meadow Creek Mama]

Aug 11, 2018 14:53:42 GMT -5 simplynaturalfarm said:

Sounds wonderful!  Meals like that make all this work worth it :)

[simplynaturalfarm]

The garden requires almost zero work - I know it sounds like a lot, but the most work is harvesting. i have spent about 15 minutes a day 3x a week in it tops. and if that sounds like too much work, then i just let the weeds go!

but yes, it is worth it!

[lew92]

When did you plant your tomatoes? Mine are nowhere near ripening yet, but I was late with planting just after June 1st, due to having to get DH going to get the raised beds built.

Looks wonderful! I can tell that you really love your new farm. So happy to hear.

[simplynaturalfarm]

Oh Lew, I adore this place!!!

The tomatoes were planted outside June the 6th. We got our first ripe tomato July 7th. the local gardening guys were selling baseball-sized Kohlrabi beats Etc beginning of June here.
I was so late to planting things outside - it was mid June before the cucumber , melons, beets and carrots seeds were put in the ground and I am very late compared to locals.
I have been astounded at how well things are going here. I got my first ripe tomato 10 days before I harvested ripe tomatoes in my Greenhouse up North.
and the soil was so awful that we put in the race beds. All we had access to was a pile of dirt that had no soil structure and had a lot of gravel in it.( I didn't dare use field soil with the atrazine etc.) My husband hauled some compost to put about 2 in on top of this bad dirt but it badly needs amending this fall.

the spot we picked put the Garden in was also horrible. It is very Sandy and doesn't even grow grass really well. My husband said why not put the garden there as it would get the best sunlight on the property I would drain really well and since we were raising the beds it didn't really matter what was underneath as long as the soil we put underneatg ends up being well amended

[karenp]

How is it that you don't have weeds? I am over run!

[Rhoda]

How do you work the soil in your raised beds in the spring?

[grammagrace]

Awesome garden. Very cute helpers.

[lew92]

simplynaturalfarm, what variety of tomatoes do you grow that produce that quickly? I've gotta have some seeds!

I picked a Lemon Boy today from a plant I got at a clearance sale, so the tomato was already on the plant. Nothing else looks remotely close to ripening...

But I did pick an eggplant today. Supper tonight was all raised on our little farm: beef roast on the rotisserie, green beans, and eggplant.

[simplynaturalfarm]

Aug 13, 2018 15:59:37 GMT -5 karenp said:

How is it that you don't have weeds? I am over run!

I pick through the beds once a week as I have time. It is much easier when I've walk there to check if they are dry to know I just need to do one bed per time and how little time it takes to walk through and pick weeds. ( Each bed being 4*20)

BUT look at the green pepper bed - no soil to be seen on edges door that climbing nasty morning Glory were that b too over. I can't get b the roots out, be so nice I've given up and come October when I pull the peppers out, I'm going to pop a black tarp over it to kill them all and then add four inches compost.

My uncle said a propane torch will kill those so I could be so that also

Look at the grass around the beds - 2 feet tall where I haven't mowed !!

[simplynaturalfarm]

Aug 13, 2018 16:29:03 GMT -5 Rhoda said:

How do you work the soil in your raised beds in the spring?

I use a potato fork to loosen it and just add 4-6 inches composted manure.

[simplynaturalfarm]

Aug 13, 2018 17:13:12 GMT -5 lew92 said:

simplynaturalfarm, what variety of tomatoes do you grow that produce that quickly? I've gotta have some seeds!

But I did pick an eggplant today. Supper tonight was all raised on our little farm: beef roast on the rotisserie, green beans, and eggplant.

Oh yum!!!
Cherokee purple produced first, then bellstar, then ND earliana and I just so happen to save seeds from all them and will happily send you some!!

[Rhoda]

Those girls!!! I enjoy the pictures of your kids. Am guessing that is your oldest, what a beautiful young woman she is becoming.

[lew92]

I think I still have some Cherokee purple seed left. I'll check and if not, I would take some.

I keep myself to 3-4 varieties of tomatoes, since I'm a bit limited in space. I have one that I was told was a Russian Oxheart tomato, but can't find it listed exactly like that anywhere. It is a huge fruit, up to a pound or more, and is pink. Very good flavor and juicy. The skin is rather delicate, but in dry years it really produces where other tomatoes suffer a bit.

The others I planted this year are my standard Old World Giant Paste - I grow that every year - and I planted Black Krim, a variety I got last year from an organic grower and fell in love with.

I also like to grow Aunt Ruby's German green and Mortgage Lifter, but tend to rotate other than the Oxheart and OWGP.

If I could only grow one thing in my garden, it would be tomatoes.

[lew92]

I picked my first tomato yesterday! A Black Krim. It is tasty, but not as good as the Cherokee Purple. I do have some seed left from 2013, so they should be plenty viable for next year.

I'm looking forward to harvesting enough to preserve. I'm almost out of canned tomatoes.

[lew92]

Left to right: old world giant paste, Rossian oxheart, black Krim

The other photo is my fist next to the OWGP's. These are small, but still a lot bigger than Roma or San Marzano.