Coffee's Ready, Come and Sit on the Porch

[Mini Horses]

Must be your first marriage -- right? Not his, right? Go to justice of peace, a few close friends , nice dinner, be done. Have a cookout at home with "XXX" to celebrate the union. That could be done this fall, the original (??) date. What is important? What do you want for "MY DAY"?? The vows "to happen" would be first in my mind. Think hard on that.

Got rain. The two weather systems stayed north and south of me, rather than joining up here.. Winds took out trees, etc, good amount of power out in those areas. Outskirts gave me more rain without the hullaballooo.

Coffee fresh, help yourself. Saw an article saying that caffeine was a definite part of the diets of known "long life" countries. I'm in!!! Tea &/or coffee.

 

[flowerbug]

...
I got to spend a little time today with a friend. We talked garden he said his tomatoes aren't doing nothing but the leaves turning yellow and brown. He said he's even watered them and it doesn't help. I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is with both of our tomatoes. The hard pan is HARD from lack of soaking rain. I know I had a hard time getting them planted deep enough for my liking. I think once we get a good soaking rain it will really help soften up the hard pan for roots to penetrate and find the goodies they need to grow big and strong. I don't believe a watering hose is gonna cut the mustard. We need a toad choker rain.

the plant needs to have enough room below ground to put down enough roots to balance the growth above the ground. if the roots cannot get out then the hole needs to be big enough that the roots will find enough nutrients and water within that hole.

in the mostly clay soil here i figure for each large tomato plant that i need to have about the size of a 5 gallon bucket of broken up garden soil and i put down 1/4 - 1/3 a bucket of worm compost and any other amendments i can come up with. the good thing is that all this prep work persists for several years so as i'm working in a garden i'm making all these easier places to grow the next rounds of plants. i can always tell when i've hit one because the shovel goes in easily. i try to space the holes around so the entire garden eventually gets used and amended. at the end of each season i bury the garden debris in a new place so that also helps over time.

if you are using an old farm field for gardening i recommend using a deep but very narrow (chisel i think it is called) plow to bust a deep line through the hard pan layer about that is often left behind. if you have slopes look into what is called keyline design it is very useful for capturing any rains and improving the entire capacity of the ground, but also know that if you have steep enough slopes that might not be stable enough that you want to not hold so much water that the slope fails. so it does make sense to consult with someone who knows what they're doing (also if you are doing any other major earthworks like putting in ponds/dams).

also for old or even newer farm fields you don't want to plow too deep until you know if there are drain tiles installed...

 

[baymule]

@CrealCritter plant Daikon long root radishes. Plant the whole garden in them, let them grow to maturity, flower, set seed and die back. Do not cut or trim the tops. Let them die all the way and fall over. Let the radishes rot in the ground. The radishes will bust up the hard pan and add humus to the soil. The rotting radishes will leave holes that water can penetrate through. You may have to do this in sections until you have done the whole garden, according the radish growing season. You may have to plant radishes for several years to truly loosen up the soil.

 

[The Porch]

Love the stove! But the corner set up isn't one most kitchens could accommodate. But it's providing heat in winter, also.

Goats?? Thought DH didn't want and y'all decided against....what'd I miss?

Back when the original owners had the house they had a regular small wood stove in the dinning room. We like this at up better

 

[The Porch]

I would agree that probably not enough moisture... but one thing too many people do is to water frequently... WRONG.... soak them to the point of making the ground soft squishy... to get the water to go deep and loosen your hardpan... and not enough nutrients ... like you said their roots need to go down to get more nutrients... and then mulch them heavy and do not water unless the soil under the mulch is getting drier.... Gotta feed the soil to help loosen that hardpan up too...
Here most of the problem has been lack of rain before last week and COOLER than normal temps and they were just not growing and the dry conditions didn't help. I put the soaker hoses on them for 6 hours and really soaked the ground good... squishy wet.... but the warmer temps the last few days and then getting rain to help soak in, has really helped.
Actually are seeing some flowers on the tomatoes now... the Belgium Giants are the best looking ones... some others are pretty pitiful looking... Green beans are actually looking like something now that it is warming up and squash is finally germinating... the butternut squash came through the soil and just sat for 2 weeks,,, just now putting up more leaves... just too chilly...
Potatoes are looking better since I mulched everything and we got the rain....
Garden is going to be late this year...

yes, I leave my soaker hose on over night,, I also feel it helps if the whole bed is wet, dry soil will suck up water intended for plants.

Same here, I cant believe how slow growing stuff is this year, it is all of 52 out at 6:30am so that is much better than our 45-49 overnight temps

 

[The Porch]

Must be your first marriage -- right? Not his, right? Go to justice of peace, a few close friends , nice dinner, be done. Have a cookout at home with "XXX" to celebrate the union. That could be done this fall, the original (??) date. What is important? What do you want for "MY DAY"?? The vows "to happen" would be first in my mind. Think hard on that.

Got rain. The two weather systems stayed north and south of me, rather than joining up here.. Winds took out trees, etc, good amount of power out in those areas. Outskirts gave me more rain without the hullaballooo.

Coffee fresh, help yourself. Saw an article saying that caffeine was a definite part of the diets of known "long life" countries. I'm in!!! Tea &/or coffee.

and its not so much the caffeine-- I JUST LIKE COFFEE!! my grandmother live to be 104, so I got 42 years to go,, I want my coffee

 

[The Porch]

Tony loves his new Temp-Job—- I do feel he would be in Buford’s dog house, no “playing” with the goats, Tony’s a TANK

 

[FarmerJamie]

@CrealCritter plant Daikon long root radishes. Plant the whole garden in them, let them grow to maturity, flower, set seed and die back. Do not cut or trim the tops. Let them die all the way and fall over. Let the radishes rot in the ground. The radishes will bust up the hard pan and add humus to the soil. The rotting radishes will leave holes that water can penetrate through. You may have to do this in sections until you have done the whole garden, according the radish growing season. You may have to plant radishes for several years to truly loosen up the soil.

Lots of good advice. Something else to consider, amend, amend, amend. Non-weed material. Leaves, grass clippings, veggie scraps from the kitchen. In 3 years I turned hardpan into 3-5 inches of good humus which worked for everything but root vegetables. For those, I trenched the rows about a foot deep and backfilled with a mixture of soil, sand, and compost.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Must be your first marriage -- right? Not his, right? Go to justice of peace, a few close friends , nice dinner, be done. Have a cookout at home with "XXX" to celebrate the union. That could be done this fall, the original (??) date. What is important? What do you want for "MY DAY"?? The vows "to happen" would be first in my mind. Think hard on that.

Got rain. The two weather systems stayed north and south of me, rather than joining up here.. Winds took out trees, etc, good amount of power out in those areas. Outskirts gave me more rain without the hullaballooo.

Coffee fresh, help yourself. Saw an article saying that caffeine was a definite part of the diets of known "long life" countries. I'm in!!! Tea &/or coffee.

Sorry, @Country homesteader , I am seeing a lot of red flags in the wedding planning. I hope it all works out well for you

 

[The Porch]

If to want compost fast- and also want it to turn under in the fall, I love David's plan

SUPER EASY COMPOSTING! No Rules, Just COMPOST!​

composting playlist