This year's garden so far. (Very pic heavy.)

[hippywife]

It's been a really, really wet spring so we got a late start and it was too muddy in there to really clean it up around the boxes, so I haven't yet. Probably didn't plant well as far as companions go, either, but did manage to avoid serious errors there, I think. Kinda taking a relaxed approach to it all this year for a change, really.

New chickens we got yesterday. The little ones are 5 weeks and the two bigger ones are 3 months. They are just a mix of all different breeds.







Our older gals:


Potatoes:


Watermelon and pumpkin:


June-bearing strawberries:


Corn, beans, squash and zukes:


Ever-bearing strawberries and cukes:


Tomatoes, peppers, borage, and a volunteer cucurbit:


Garlic and more taters:


Peas, onions, turnips, beets: (Please excuse Rosie's appearance. I have a new dress and hat for her somewhere around here.)


More corn:


All volunteer tomato box and I planted muskmelon in the other side Friday night:


There's another box where we planted a couple of 2-year old blueberries but I forgot to get a pic of it.

[lizziegrace]

1. Great photos of great gardens

Love your new little girls. :)

:thumbsup:

[hippywife]

2. Thanx, lizzie.

They are very sweet and like to be held so it's fun when their really little like that. They're still fun to watch and interact with when they are bigger. :hi:

[nc4bo]

3. I love your gardens hippywife.

I especially am in love with your dear little chickies.

[hippywife]

4. Thanx, nc4bo.

It's mostly the work of my SO. I helped him out here and there but he's the one that does most of it. :hi:

[Arkansas Granny]

5. I'm curious about the potatoes growing in the buckets. What kind of

yield do you get from those? Do you just dump them all out at once or kind of root around and take a few from time to time?

The older I get, the more I appreciate container gardening, but I've never heard of growing potatoes in buckets before.

[hippywife]

8. We tried growing potatoes for the first time last year.

We didn't get any and I'm not sure why, unless the mice in the garden that I found burrowed and nested in the potato box ate them, which I strongly suspect. These are small red potatoes, and I've not grown them before so not sure what kind of yield we're going to get if any. We're still trying. We're kinda accidental gardeners.

[hibbing]

25. spuds

Hi,
Thanks for the wonderful pictures. I too am curious about the potatoes in containers. I have never thought of that. I'm a big container fan and have good production with some stuff and not so much with others. I will try to follow your progress, but would appreciate a pm on those if you wouldn't mind.

Peace

[nc4bo]

6. Hippywife, I also have a tater question..

My mom had a bag of reds go all green on her. From what I've read the taters are treated so they won't be able to do this.



The green "leaf" part is very healthy looking.

Do you or your hubby know if these are growable? If so, how can I plant them? Not sure how to make "slips" from them or even if it's worth the time and effort to try.

Sorry for silly question but googling came up with mixed results using store bought reds.

Edit to add more info.

[hippywife]

7. You can plant those!

Just cut off small sections containing the eyes and plant them in about an inch of dirt. And then keep covering them with more and more dirt as they grow.

[nc4bo]

9. Really?! Oh boy, oh boy - how exciting! LOL

I'll get right on it then! Thank-you!

[nc4bo]

10. One more ?

I don't need to dry them out or anything right? I confess the internet confused more than helped that's why they're still sitting in the box like that. Some advice says cut and dry out for a day or 2, some says you don't need to do that, etc.

So I can just cut and plant? Sorry, again.

[hippywife]

11. Not that I know of.

The ones I planted were in about the same shape as yours.

[nc4bo]

14. Good and thanks again! nt

[Arkansas Granny]

12. I think the instructions about drying them out was just to help prevent

rotting when you put them in the ground. I've seen it done both ways, dry or just cut up.

[nc4bo]

15. Thanks Arkansas Granny, I appreciate the knowledge. nt

[appal_jack]

13. I can't tell the size of those

I can't tell the size of those, but if your 'taters are approximately egg-sized, then just plant them whole. The intact skin will protect against rots as good as drying them out for a few days after cutting.

If you do cut them (which will of course then plant a longer row), you can also dust the cut-ends with wood ashes or sulfur to reduce the likelihood of rot.

-app

[nc4bo]

16. Some a sorta small but some are near tennis ball size.

Thanks for the tips!

[bvar22]

17. Hi Friend !

I'm back....star and everything.

Love the bird pix, and the garden is greening up nice.
We are also very late due to the rain and extra work from the tornado helping friends clean up.
Some things just didn't get planted, and others are very late.

We're going big on the strawberries this year. They have proven to be very labor intensive/high maintenance with a pretty steep learning curve, but worth the effort. We added a whole bunch of June Bearings hoping to get enough Strawberries to make preserving worthwhile. We won't see the payoff until next June, but last years strawberries over-wintered OK, and are making good berries (just not enough).

Lunch today was two hard boiled Free Range eggs and a handful of fresh Strawberries.
It just doesn't get any better.
:hi:

[hippywife]

18. Well!

Howdy-doody, yerself! LOL Good to see you back!

This is really kind of our first experiment with strawberries and, yes, we figured that the payoff would be next year rather than this. We have already gotten a handful or so to nibble on and they are pretty good. What is it you are finding labor intesive about them? Maybe I haven't done enough research yet. LOL

That sounds like a lovely lunch to me! :9

All our best to you and Starkraven. :hi:

[bvar22]

19. Keeping our strawberries healthy has been a problem here.

Early Spring is just delightful. The plants explode and the first berries are wonderful. There are few problems.
But around now (June/July), we start having problems.
Our berry production has already dropped.

It is very humid here, and when the foliage gets too thick, fungus and mold starts becoming a problem. Any berries that actually touch the ground quickly pick up rot and mold.

The strawberry bed in the foreground looks fantastic (mid-July), but is actually producing very few berries.


Late last Winter, to combat the mold/fungal problems, we topped the berry plants (pruned to ground level), removed all old plant debris, thinned the bed, and then covered with a Pine Bark mulch to hold the leaves and fruit up off the ground and prevent the plant crowns from growing densely together. That part seems to be working OK, but with the Pine Bark mulch, we have had an increase in little black slugs that eat the bottom off any berries that are laying on the pine bark.

Strawberries are also susceptible to Black Spot fungus, same as roses (which are a close relative!) We use Neem on our roses which works well for Black Spot, but we don't use it on the Strawberries because of the odor and taste.



So a daily routine for the Strawberries has emerged:

*Work carefully through all the plants gently removing all leaves that are showing Black Spot. It is a fungus and propagates through spores, so care should be taken to not touch healthy leaves after handling leaves with spores. Wait until the leaves are dry. Handling wet leaves will only spread the spores. This will slow the spread of Black Spot, but won't stop it. We though about treating the young leaves with Neem before any fruit developed, but didn't do that this year (too busy & raining all the time).

*Thin out leaves in areas that have crowned over. This encourages air circulation and lets sunlight into the lower levels. We haven't had good berries from areas that have gotten too thick. The berries seem to produce best around the edges of plants that border open spaces.

*Remove all yellow, dying leaves, debris, or fallen/ripe fruit daily. Over ripe/fallen berries rot quickly and spread mold and fungus. Also remove any leaves that are showing red streaks. This is another fungus. We don't compost these leaves, but remove them completely from the garden area to avoid any propagation of spores.

*Keep young fruit off the raw dirt. While working through the plants, we will loop the young berries over the stems of leaves to hold them off the ground, or pile little mounds of dry pine bark under them.

The good news is that the strawberry plants are very robust once established, and the fungal problems are limited to above ground parts of the plants. You can cut them back to ground level, remove all the debris, and they will quickly bounce back. If our Everbearings stop producing in July, we may top them a see if we can get another crop.

Some of the locals have told us that they haven't had much luck with the Everbearings here, and have recommended June Bearings. We are going to grow both for a couple of seasons and make up our own minds.



We had a swarm of Japanese Beetles last year, and they left larvae (grubs) in our soil. The larvae (3/4" white grub with a brown caterpillar mouth)love to eat Strawberries from the bottom up (the roots). They burrow through the topsoil like little moles. This wasn't devastating...lost about 15% of our plants, but it was perplexing until we figured out what the problem was. We would go to pick a strawberry, and the whole plant would come up with no roots! We have treated our beds with Nematodes (last night) that should solve this problem, but as of now it is still continuing.

Compared to Blueberries and Raspberries, the Strawberries require 100X the effort.
In spite of the problems, we are expanding the Strawberries this year.
I love Strawberries, and consider them well worth the effort.
We are still experimenting with different ways of growing them that may reduce the effort.
In addition to 2 more raised beds (one Everbearing and one June bearing), we have added a pyramid, and have made some cultivated rows that we are going to plant with Strawberries when we thin our plants in July.


Watermelons are planted in the white cups in the foreground.
You can see the Strawberry Pyramid in the left background (I had too much time on my hands this Winter and wanted a pyramid.)
In front of the pyramid, you can see one of the expansion raised beds where the Japanese Beetle Grubs have eaten 1/2 of the young strawberry plants.

The commercial strawberry growers use the row method, and I think it may be a better way to decrease mold/fungal problems....better air circulation and sun exposure.
Anyway, we are going to find out.

We tilled up a lower section of the garden area this Spring, and are going to use mounds and rows for some stuff that hasn't really worked too well in the raised beds, like corn (didn't get a chance to plant this year, and its too late now), melons, and Black Eyed/Field peas. Our hill starts sloping more steeply in this area, so we had to use landscaping logs to make terraces.
We are planning cinder block retaining walls for a Winter project.

Good Luck with your Strawberries.
I have never tasted a store bought that could compare with our Homegrowns.

Pet your new birds for us.
Starkraven says "Hi!"

[hippywife]

20. Thanx for the info.

I'll try to keep my eye out for problems.

I wish we had the time and to do as much as you and Starkraven do. Your gardens always looks sooooooo beautiful. I like using salvaged materials for our garden, but it doesn't look nearly as pretty as yours. I gotta get Rosie redressed this weekend, and situated, too. I'm sure Hydee's looking stylish this year, as usual.

Did you see the little windmill our neighbors gave us? It's been a spinnin' away out there the past coupla days.

Well, here's wishing us all a very good year! And tell Starkraven I warmly return her greetings. :hi:

[bvar22]

21. Yes.

I saw the Windmill, and LOVE it.
Can we have it?.....Please? LOL.

I put a little toy pinwheel in the hand of our scarecrow this year.
I think the movement helps keep some of the birds off the berries.
Your Windmill should have the same effect,... and it is just plain pretty.
It reminds me of the old windmills that used to be everywhere when I was a kid.
Don't see them anymore.
If I could find an old one somewhere, I would put it up just for the hell of it.

We are very fortunate here.
There is not a day that goes by that we don't feel a deep sense of gratitude for whatever the forces were that brought us here, and gave us the opportunity to spend this time doing something we love.

Our focus has been on The Garden,The Bees, The Chickens, and the Fruit Trees, but our house/cabin is still unfinished. We did enough to make it livable, but are way behind on where we thought we would be.
(Thats why there are so few photos of the house in my posts :blush:)

Our original plan in 2005 was to find cheap property in a good out-of-the-way location that needed a lot of love, and use our labor/skills to turn it into a redi-made deluxe Organic Retirement Hobby Farm that we could resell at a huge but justifiable profit...
but with the economy/jobs the way it is, we may just stay here.
We have fallen in love with it anyway.
We would like to get it to a point where it provides for most of our needs, and maybe a little extra.

So far, the chickens have been the most productive, cost effective thing we have done.
Steady 4 - 6 eggs per day
Plus, they are so much fun.
Our Rooster, Elvis, has turned into a little asshole.
He is very protective of the hens. We have to watch out for him when they are out in the yard.
He'll come at us, and he has grown some wicked spurs.
We carry sticks for protection ("Elvis sticks") when we are around him.
I guess thats a good thing.
We haven't lost any hens other than that one to a dog last Fall.


We have been lucky in finding some inexpensive resources that add to the cosmetic appearance of the garden. There is a Pallet Mill (Smith Pallets) 5 miles from our place. They make shipping pallets out of White Oak. They shred the left overs, and sell it for $10 per Pick Up Truck load. It has worked great in the walkways, and should last for a few years. We used hay last year, and that was a BIG mistake....over run with Bermuda Grass by July. We are still fighting it.

Anyway, thanks for the kind words.
We have always considered you a kindred spirit and neighbor.

[hippywife]

22. Chickens really are so very easy to care for.

There was an article someone in our coop posted a couple weeks ago. Someone trying to call it the latest bogus trend and how it's not as easy as people make it sound. But you know what, it is as easy as anything we've done so far. They practically care for themselves. I think the guy musta been a shill for the commercial poultry industry.

I saw some of those white oak shipping pallets, big pretty ones, a couple of months ago on a construction job next to where I work. By the time I got around to getting ahold of the general contractor, he said someone already beat me to it. It turned out it was one of the guys I work with and he hauled them all away the following week. I wanted them to build a greenhouse with. Oh, well.

And as far as the house goes, Bill started building ours before we were married. I've lived here 12 years come July and it's still not done. LOL We can almost see the end from here, tho. We've just done it little by little as we had the time, money and energy. Doesn't matter what it looks like, it's home. PM me your email addy and we can compare house pics.

You and Starkraven are kindred spirits for me, too. It's been so enjoyable being on the same wavelength to such an extent with you. It will be so much fun to meet up when we can all get around to getting away from the garden chores for a weekend. :hug: :hug: :hug:

[bvar22]

24. Addy sent.

I'm sure you are correct about the commercial poultry propaganda.
Backyard chickens are becoming very popular.
We wouldn't be able to go back to those anemic, tasteless supermarket eggs.
We also enjoy the presence of our birds. They have become a part of the "whole" around here.
Aside from some early problems with the chicks last year, ours have been mostly effortless... more fun than work.

[cwydro]

23. Great pictures!