Hello from the Canadian Maritimes!

[Britesea]

so true, @flowerbug I plant a bush type Delicata Squash instead of other varieties of squash, because it doesn't take up much more room than a zucchini plant does.

 

[CrealCritter]

Ole CC's gardening approach... Go BIG, plant at least 3 times as much as you need. If it all makes great... eat what you can, can what you can't and give away what you can't can.

In other words... When in doubt, triple the stout.

 

[Hinotori]

Between rocky ground and the high water table with winter flooding, doing a large garden isnt really an option here. You can't till fields really here because you never know when you're going to hit a boulder since we're on glacial till.

It took me 8 hours to take the rototiller over a 30x30 area only 6 inches deep. I had to repeatedly stop every few feet and pull rocks that were softball to football size. Then we have the grass that throws seed and grows year round.

Low raised beds is what everyone has to do here. There is a couple down the road that have a 20x30 area raised 8 inches. They had to bring in a lot of screened soil and add compost. They fenced it 8 foot high and netted it.

 

[CrealCritter]

Between rocky ground and the high water table with winter flooding, doing a large garden isnt really an option here. You can't till fields really here because you never know when you're going to hit a boulder since we're on glacial till.

It took me 8 hours to take the rototiller over a 30x30 area only 6 inches deep. I had to repeatedly stop every few feet and pull rocks that were softball to football size. Then we have the grass that throws seed and grows year round.

Low raised beds is what everyone has to do here. There is a couple down the road that have a 20x30 area raised 8 inches. They had to bring in a lot of screened soil and add compost. They fenced it 8 foot high and netted it.

Plow then disc is usually best, then rototill to mound up the rows and cultavate to suppress weeds until the seedlings take off and shade the rows. I also have rock heave, I just have to suck it up and pull the rocks out of my gardens.

 

[flowerbug]

Between rocky ground and the high water table with winter flooding, doing a large garden isnt really an option here. You can't till fields really here because you never know when you're going to hit a boulder since we're on glacial till.

It took me 8 hours to take the rototiller over a 30x30 area only 6 inches deep. I had to repeatedly stop every few feet and pull rocks that were softball to football size. Then we have the grass that throws seed and grows year round.

Low raised beds is what everyone has to do here. There is a couple down the road that have a 20x30 area raised 8 inches. They had to bring in a lot of screened soil and add compost. They fenced it 8 foot high and netted it.

wow that's a lot of work, but when it is done it pays off. we have raised beds for flash flooding here but no rocks to contend with (that we didn't bring in ourselves, we like rocks as decorations).

if they had known they were going to be doing as much gardening out back that we've been doing it would have been a really good idea to bring in a few dozen more truckloads of topsoil to raise it all up and to also have some topsoil instead of the heavy clay subsoil. it still grows things very well, but it isn't the same as good topsoil for gardening. once the site is here we can't bring in truckloads any more unless i want to haul it a wheelbarrow at a time, and i've done some of that already but ran out of time and $ when i did it and stopped. no idea if i'll ever start it up again.

rocks in the ground. i wouldn't really want that for sure. would probably gradually work on screening the soil and creating garden beds of that like one per year or so. i have a pretty good box built right now for screening dirt from gravel that i use for the gardens where we have some pathways that like to let their gravel fall into the gardens.

 

[Swampduck]

I live on a glacial till too. Although there are fewer rocks they're all big and usually need to be removed with the help of a jackhammer. Which is why I mainly use raised beds.

 

[Hinotori]

Yup. I have a couple san angelo bars which work amazing to pop boulders out of the ground that we have no chance of actually lifting physically, and normally people use heavy equipment to get out. I use it to lever them onto a pallet then drag it out with my truck. I can only do this in summer after the soil has fully dried.

A 6 foot bar I got recently and an 8 foot bar that's almost 2 inches thick. That one was grandpa's that he bought back in the 20s or 30s. It's very heavy but they just work amazingly well. I use another rock or a piece (or several) of lumber as fulcrum.

I have to get soil to fill the holes or it will be full of water most of the year.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Bad thing about rocky soil: every winter the frost heaves a new crop out of the ground. I've been working my garden for years, and every year, I lever more rocks out of the ground. Many of them are the size of 1/2 of a laundry basket. I use an iron bar, long handled spade, and 2 x 4's. I get a bit of the rock lifted up, back fill with smaller rocks, lift again, back fill... Rinse and repeat till the rock is high enough in the hole to be able to lever it out of the hole. Then, I can pull out the back fill rocks, and fill the hole with soil.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

Ole CC's gardening approach... Go BIG, plant at least 3 times as much as you need. If it all makes great... eat what you can, can what you can't and give away what you can't can.

In other words... When in doubt, triple the stout.

That's such a nice point of view... For me, I just skipped to the last part. hahaha!! I Just go ahead and give what I can't keep. Besides, God gave me more than I need. Thanks to HIM.