lwheelr
Lovin' The Homestead
We moved to Texas about four weeks ago. Scrambled to get seeds (had to go cheap instead of what I really wanted), and to work the garden.
We have about a 36 X 50 ft plot, which had bad soil. Situated right next to a goat barn with about 4" of mostly composted goat manure. Seemed like a match made in heaven.
No tiller. So we spaded and raked (the only tools we had). Alex (son), and Kevin (hubby) hauled manure and Betsy and I raked it over the soil, then spaded and raked again. We divided the garden into blocks, and prepared and planted one section at a time. Each of those blocks was subdivided into four planting blocks about 4' X 5'.
The weeds JUST LOVED IT! Especially when we started seeding and watering!
But, the plants are growing too. Almost everything that we planted is up, except the carrots, eggplant, and a few other things that take longer for germination. Many of the plants sprung up within 2 days of planting, due to the warm weather.
I planted radishes for the animals, and have been thinning them and feeding the thinnings to the rabbits and chickens for the last few days.
The lettuce is high enough that I'll be able to thin that and use the thinnings for baby lettuce within a couple of days also.
Turnips (also planted for the animals), are up high enough to start thinning and tossing the thinnings to the chickens and rabbits also.
We've got tomatoes, potatoes, and squash all up and thriving.
We have water issues here - it is hot, so we water well once a day, but it is already drying out pretty badly by the end of the day. Not an issue for established plants, but certainly for germinating seeds. We've left a blanket of weeds around many of the widely spaced plants, to keep the moisture in the soil. We'll just keep those from going to seed.
The greens were block planted, and broadcast sown. That way they come up thick (which helps conserve moisture), and we pull the baby plants for use early on. Uses more seeds, but those extra seeds cost less than greens from the grocery store, and those baby plants will feed us for an extra two months while waiting for more mature produce.
My goal is to not have to buy any veggies. As the crops die out, I'll replant with new crops for whatever season, and keep things going year-round. I wish I could also grow my own fruit, but not possible since we don't own the land here.
Someone asked about winter crops. The key to that is that not much will SPROUT or GERMINATE during the winter, but a lot of things will GROW, or HOLD through the winter if covered appropriately. Covering can mean row covers, coldframes, greenhouse, or just straw.
Even in Wyoming we could plant broccoli, cabbage, kale, and even lettuce late, and have it go far into the fall and winter. Broccoli will stand frosts well, and keep slowly growing, though growth does radically slow down. Nice thing is that there are NO cabbage loopers once the frosts hit, so no pulling those out of your meal!
Most root crops will hold over the winter if they are deep enough - carrots, turnips, potatoes, etc. And even if they don't hold over (they won't in Wyoming or Alaska, they'll freeze out), they'll go pretty far into the winter, past when the top layer of soil is frozen, if covered in straw.
The best book I've seen on the subject, is The Four Season Harvest. Teaches a lot about the traditional European winter gardening techniques.
We have about a 36 X 50 ft plot, which had bad soil. Situated right next to a goat barn with about 4" of mostly composted goat manure. Seemed like a match made in heaven.
No tiller. So we spaded and raked (the only tools we had). Alex (son), and Kevin (hubby) hauled manure and Betsy and I raked it over the soil, then spaded and raked again. We divided the garden into blocks, and prepared and planted one section at a time. Each of those blocks was subdivided into four planting blocks about 4' X 5'.
The weeds JUST LOVED IT! Especially when we started seeding and watering!
But, the plants are growing too. Almost everything that we planted is up, except the carrots, eggplant, and a few other things that take longer for germination. Many of the plants sprung up within 2 days of planting, due to the warm weather.
I planted radishes for the animals, and have been thinning them and feeding the thinnings to the rabbits and chickens for the last few days.
The lettuce is high enough that I'll be able to thin that and use the thinnings for baby lettuce within a couple of days also.
Turnips (also planted for the animals), are up high enough to start thinning and tossing the thinnings to the chickens and rabbits also.
We've got tomatoes, potatoes, and squash all up and thriving.
We have water issues here - it is hot, so we water well once a day, but it is already drying out pretty badly by the end of the day. Not an issue for established plants, but certainly for germinating seeds. We've left a blanket of weeds around many of the widely spaced plants, to keep the moisture in the soil. We'll just keep those from going to seed.
The greens were block planted, and broadcast sown. That way they come up thick (which helps conserve moisture), and we pull the baby plants for use early on. Uses more seeds, but those extra seeds cost less than greens from the grocery store, and those baby plants will feed us for an extra two months while waiting for more mature produce.
My goal is to not have to buy any veggies. As the crops die out, I'll replant with new crops for whatever season, and keep things going year-round. I wish I could also grow my own fruit, but not possible since we don't own the land here.
Someone asked about winter crops. The key to that is that not much will SPROUT or GERMINATE during the winter, but a lot of things will GROW, or HOLD through the winter if covered appropriately. Covering can mean row covers, coldframes, greenhouse, or just straw.
Even in Wyoming we could plant broccoli, cabbage, kale, and even lettuce late, and have it go far into the fall and winter. Broccoli will stand frosts well, and keep slowly growing, though growth does radically slow down. Nice thing is that there are NO cabbage loopers once the frosts hit, so no pulling those out of your meal!
Most root crops will hold over the winter if they are deep enough - carrots, turnips, potatoes, etc. And even if they don't hold over (they won't in Wyoming or Alaska, they'll freeze out), they'll go pretty far into the winter, past when the top layer of soil is frozen, if covered in straw.
The best book I've seen on the subject, is The Four Season Harvest. Teaches a lot about the traditional European winter gardening techniques.
they were ready to be put in larger pots so I repotted them up to buy a little time.
