looking at next year

[edwin]

I don't know if what we have would meet your needs either. Ours are 8' wood and twine with 7' above ground. in short pieces of abs pipe. Not only will peas go up 6' - they will also go up 7' and probably 10' - but there is no point to go that high as 7' is about as high as I can reach.

I find that deer will munch the end section of our trellis but do not like going up the rows.

[littleminnie]

I think I better increase the crops that can grow in plastic mulch and decrease the seeded crops that need weeding. It is too much for me and too big of an area for me to have the time to weed everything. I think I will increase melons by a lot. They sell well.

[MikeH]

Jul 16, 2012 19:12:51 GMT -5 Joseph Lofthouse said:

More carrots. I am always wishing for more carrots. Germination is unreliable for me. The weeds out-compete the tiny little seedlings. I'm always pleasantly surprised if I get any carrots at all.

We grow our carrots for the root cellar so it's always a mid-July sowing. This year that meant we were going to have germination problems between the drought and scorching sun. Joyce came up with the inspired idea of covering the beds with row cover kept just off the ground by tacking it to 2 x 4's. We'd water early in the morning and find that the soil was still moist-ish by early evening. Germination was pretty good and far better than what it would have been had the soil been dried out by exposure to the sun.

[12540dumont]

MikeH Tell Joyce: Brilliant!

[MikeH]

Aug 3, 2012 22:06:34 GMT -5 12540dumont said:

MikeH Tell Joyce: Brilliant!

Yep. It's a good thing that one of us is. ;D

[ferdzy]

We've covered our carrot plantings with burlap or even with sheets of plywood until they are well up. It really does make a big difference.

[littleminnie]

I have been working out next year's plan now so I can gauge fall crops and where to put garlic.

Lots of black plastic and I am trying an annual alfalfa which will die in winter and can be used as a mulch in spring. I think if it is thick enough it will block weeds ok after dying. Otherwise it will be cardboard with mulch on top for the brassicas. Weeds are such a problem for me with my limited time!

[littleminnie]

Has anyone planted no-till-style in a thick, dead cover crop before?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Aug 7, 2012 17:56:09 GMT -5 littleminnie said:

Has anyone planted no-till-style in a thick, dead cover crop before?

Before I stopped poisoning my garden, I would spray herbicide, wait for the grass to die, slit the soil with a shovel, and transplant tomatoes into the slit. Worked great.

[s2man]

My watermelons were transplanted into a thick cover of dead stuff, last Spring. It acted as a good mulch and that bed hardly needed any weeding at all this summer.

[raymondo]

Well, I tried a sorghum crop but sowed a little too late and not really thick enough. It wasn't big enough by the time frost killed it off. I'll try again next year sowing earlier and more thickly.

[MikeH]

Raccoon trapping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Catch and release although I've been tempted to something much nastier. They got into the netted raspberries and broke what they didn't eat. They dug up 3 of my perennial buckwheat plants looking for grubs. They demolished my corn. They ate half my grapes knocking over a Satsuma orange in the process. They bent a cedar almost to the ground climbing it to get at a bird feeder. The bird feeder foiled them. Last year, the damage was minimal.

[ferdzy]

Amen, MikeH. Actually, we are just not going to plant corn next year. Tired of feeding the raccoons.

[nathan125]

i;m laying walfurin based poison at the begining of melon planting to keep voles and mice at bay.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Aug 18, 2012 5:44:10 GMT -5 MikeH said:

Raccoon trapping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Catch and release

I wondered who keeps driving out to my farm and releasing animals. Tsk. Tsk. Have pity on me and my farm. Just drown them or shoot them and save me the trouble.