My garden

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Here's a photo of my largest field that was taken
yesterday. I plant it in vegetables:
Cucumbers, watermelon, corn, peppers, tomatoes,
squash, cantaloupe, potatoes, pumpkins, turnips, etc...

Onions, shallots, lettuce, and spinach are already
growing well. Planted broccoli starts yesterday.
The peas are well sprouted and will peek out of
the ground any day now.



That field has received 19 inches of snow since April 1st!!!

I have one other field about this size, which is mostly
being used for corn and squash this year.

I also plant 6 small isolated
breeding plots which are scattered here and
there across three counties.
(Around 100-500 square feet each.)

I've grown a garden for as long as I can remember.
When I was a child, if we didn't grow it or shoot it
we didn't eat it.

I worked as a chemist from when I was in high school
until I retired. Now I am back to my farmer roots.
Working in the lab I might have
earned a huge paycheck, but I didn't have anything to
show for it but a report, and that got hidden in a file
somewhere out of sight... As a farmer I am as poor
as anything, but I am happier than ever.
Every week I can load up my
truck with produce and take it to town and say,
"Look at what I produced". It's a great feeling.
(Last year I lost money on my farming, but I sure
had fun doing it...)

I use about a 25 HP tractor with a tiller attachment
in the spring and fall to till under sod, old crops, etc.,
even corn stalks!

I plant by hand, and with help of an Earthway seeder.

I plant rows about 30-36" wide so that I can run
a 7 HP trobilt tiller through the rows for weeding.

I weed within the rows with a hoe. (It's really nice
with crops that I can space more than a hoe's width
apart in the row. This summer I am planning on making
a custom hoe that is about 3" wide so that I can more
easily weed closely planted crops like onions.)

An hour or two per day weeding, and a half day tilling
per week keeps me well ahead of the weeds.

By the time harvest starts I am pretty much done
weeding.

Regards,
Joseph

[Penny]

What an amazing space you have there Joseph, and as you said, Alot of work, but so worth it in the end!!

[mnjrutherford]

Gorgeous Joseph. My husband would be envious if he could see the mountains. That is what he misses most about living in California. My grandmother was a gardener, but everyone else pretty much just dabbled here in there. My father's brother, in Spain, had a country house but he had a neighbor family come in to farm it. I would watch them as they irrigated, but I wasn't allowed to do anything.

Interestingly, as we have delved into our current lifestyles, we hear a whole lot from family and friends about what we can NOT do. Every step we take tells us how ignorant they are. It's rather heart breaking because they are angry at us for pushing forward despite their warnings of doom, then when we are successful they are even angrier.

[JanetM]

I am impressed as well! Love the view of the moutains too. I am a farmer's daughter so know what you mean Joseph and I noticed the dark dirt, is it rich? I live in Indiana and grew up around alot of clay, but up northern/west parts they have the dark almost black dirt and huge farms that go on and on. I have some farm land from my dad but since I live an hour away from it, rent it out to a local farmer. I still miss the smell of the cut hay and the early winter wheat blowing in the wind that make it look like waves of green seas.
I remarried 6 yrs ago and moved into my husband's home which is in the 'knobs' and now I live in a woods which is nice but no place for any garden. Thanks for sharing the pic. Janet

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Yes, I love mountains!

Apr 16, 2010 7:42:53 GMT -5 JanetM said:

Joseph and I noticed the dark dirt, is it rich?

My soil is great. Before I started it had been a horse pasture
for years so it has lots of humus and good fertility, and tons
of weeds that were brought in with the hay.

Geologically, the ground was deposited at the mouth of a
river that flowed into an ice-age lake. I'd call the soil type a silty/clay.
(Most of the stickiest clay washed out into deeper water, but after
a rain I get 2" thick mud on my shoes if I walk through it.)
About 3 feet down there is river gravel so it drains well. Rocks
are only a problem along the edge of the field where the
soil was disturbed to bury the main irrigation line for the town.

I giggle when people recommend liming soil, since every
one of those mountains is 99.9% pure limestone. No acid
rain problem for me!!!

Regards,
Joseph

[bluelacedredhead]

Apr 16, 2010 6:13:48 GMT -5 mnjrutherford said:

.

we hear a whole lot from family and friends about what we can NOT do. Every step we take tells us how ignorant they are. It's rather heart breaking because they are angry at us for pushing forward despite their warnings of doom, then when we are successful they are even angrier.

Jo, don't let it get to you.
My Mother wouldn't eat fish that we caught in the lake because we didn't salt it to preserve it? Well, we put it in the freezer. It's this new invention that they came out with so that people wouldn't have to salt foods heavily to preserve them. Salting and freezing is a no-no, because it makes food go rancid. But no, they threw out a 5 lb pickerel because I hadn't salted it into oblivion...
They wouldn't eat our smoked hams because they were salty.

Neighbours wouldn't eat our corn because it was raised organically. You can't eat corn that isn't sprayed with pesticide? It will be full of cornworms...I gave these people a bushel of corn. They ate it and were amazed that it wasn't infested. It turned out that the majority of the vendors selling corn at the side of the road in that area, all bought from the same pickyourown farm that used chemical fertilizer and pesticides and just jacked up their prices. I'll go to my grave knowing that I failed at farming but everything I raised was healthy and good for human consumption.

On a happier note, Joseph, that is gorgeous looking garden soil. You must be very proud of your new home and lifestyle. Continued success, even if it's slow to show a profit.

[mnjrutherford]

::laughs softly and shakes her head sadly:: ah Blue, sometimes folks are far to entertaining than they have cause to be.

[bunkie]

beautiful grounds there joseph! that's what it looks like here...the snow still on the mountains...

be sure to post some pics of your garden in summer!