edwmax

I didn't want to hijack Snarkie's thread so I'm starting a new one for my garden.


For a baseline the following pics show the garden as of today. Currently some greens (mustard, turnips, collards and kale are growing. And, I'm trying to grow some onions and garlic.


Pics of the small garden where I usually plant tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. I have garlic growing and some onions have come up. I tried to grow some cabbage, but they didn't come up. ... I am testing a few napa cabbage and bok choy I set out. These have been through 2 freezes (below 30 deg F) and a couple of frosty mornings without damage.








This is the main garden. It's about 60ft by 200 ft for now and can be extended another 100 ft. This gives 19 rows at 36 inch spacing.





I started tilling and laying out the rows garden about 3 1/2 weeks ago. It has been raining each week since.






I work this garden in 100 ft sections. I plant each section about 3 weeks after the previous section to have fresh produce coming in after the previous crop is spent. The summer of 2019 I didn't plant the garden. My old tiller (about 40 plus yrs) was worn out and couldn't get a new one in time. Last May the big box stores had the Cub Cadet front tine tiller on sell ($489). The near by Tractor Supply had one, but was told it was a return with a bad engine. I found another at Home Depot (50 mi drive) for $469. I got it the next day. ... Then at the last of August Tractor Supply still had the tiller with the bad engine. They sold it to me for $50. A week later when I had some time to work on the tiller I had it running in 20 minutes. Someone had put oil in the cylinder and calibrator bowl then returned the tiller to the store. Now I have two 24 inch front tine tillers to work the garden.






In the Green House I have regular cabbage, lettuce, onion (Texas 1015 sweet) napa cabbage, and bok choy waiting to be set out. There is a lot more of these than I need.


... reg cabbage



.... Lettuce, only 5 came up out of the 72 plug cells. I'll redo these in a few days.



... Texas 1015 sweet Onion


... Napa Cabbage


.... Bok Choy

All of these plants need to be in the ground now. But the soil is to wet to work. I need about 10 days of no rain.



I have tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and other seeds to start in 2 weeks for 1st week in April planting.

__________________

edwmax

There are a number of plants that which are cold hardy and can be grown during the winter. In most areas rutabagas, turnips, and beets can be planted in January. Check out the Old Farmers Almanac's planting calendar for your area. You also need to know the soil temperature and your last frost date.

__________________

*Dearly Depotted*

Hey Max! Wow! I am so impressed! You’ve got a nice sized garden there! It also looks like you’ve got a lot of land as well! I can’t believe you did all that work with the tillers and everything! Plus you’ve got quite a variety of plants to grow! Nice! So keep up the good work! I wish you the best for your garden this year!

__________________
It’s long been a dream of mine to be able to grow real bananas off my own plants! So, please wish me luck on my quest to fulfill that dream!

*Dearly Depotted*

One more thing.... I am so jealous you can not only work outside but also be able to plant in ground already! In the middle of winter and all!

__________________
It’s long been a dream of mine to be able to grow real bananas off my own plants! So, please wish me luck on my quest to fulfill that dream!

edwmax

Check out this link to see what you could plant now. Just change the zip code after the page loads: https://www.almanac.com/gardening/pl.../zipcode/39828


Many of these could be grown in patio containers. You could start seeds indoors or in a small cold frame.

__________________

edwmax

I just came across another idea to start seeds in the winter ... milk jugs ...
https://thereidhomestead.com/seed-st...winter-sowing/


I will try this since my trays are about used up.

__________________

LaBananaGwr2018

Edwmax,

Your garden looks amazing. No offense but I am a little jealous of your land. I live in south Louisiana, we have a couple raised beds. We are growing broccoli, cauliflower, muster greens and a couple cabbages. Each of the kids has a elevated planter box and they planted radishes, beets and carrots. This is our first yr growing cabbages so we only planted a couple.

edwmax

With a small greenhouse or cold frame you can stage new plant sets to rotate into the raised beds as needed. ... What type/variety of cabbage are you growing? ... I'm trying a small headed type (2 or 3 lbs) this year. It matures a little faster before bolting in hot weather. I only cook for one now so I don't need the large heads. But I can always pick 2 or 3 heads if needed.


I also like homemade sauerkraut. It's hell-of-lot better than the store bought crap; even the juice is great to drink. .... anyway by rinsing the the kraut a few time with water to remove the salt, the kraut will taste like fresh cabbage. This is a way to keep cabbage for the few months of the summer when it is difficult to grow. Kraut can also the frozen.


If ya'll think my garden looks amazing now ... wait until June or July when the flowers are blooming and the corn is showing!. .... The garden is a little bare now.

__________________

LaBananaGwr2018

I bought 3 different types of cabbage seeds, 2 green and the purple one was the smaller one so we tried that one this time. We start the seeds inside the house. We plant peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, tomatillos, melons and cucumbers. The kids plant sunflowers around their swing set. I planted some papaya seeds last yr but it was late so I placed a blanket and plastic over them so the cold would not kill them. I hope to have papayas this yr

I have being thinking about a cold frame. I have some glass already, just need to build the frame for it.

cincinnana

Nice Max....How close to the cotton plantations?

__________________

edwmax

hahaha .... about 5 foot

__________________

edwmax

See ....






That is cotton stubble. The little white stuff is cotton lint. It was picked last October.


AND ... way across that field in the back tree line (slightly right of center) is my large banana patch. If you enlarge the pic, you can see the brown nana leaves.



Bananas & Cotton Plantation in South Georgia!

__________________

edwmax

I just finished setting out about 60 sets of green head cabbage. It rained last night a little and forecast is for rain tonight and tomorrow. ...The cabbage took about 55 or 60 ft of the row. I'll set out napa cabbage tomorrow if not too wet. .... May be I can get some of the onions set out next week.

__________________

Snarkie

Niiiiice!

Took me a few minutes to remember my HTML code, LOL.

__________________
Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"

LaBananaGwr2018

Edwmax,

This is a lot. It has being raining a lot the last couple of days and we are suppose to have some freezing temps next week. I can't wait for the freezing temps to stop

Snarkie

It's crazy here too. It was 27 yesterday morning when I was out, and it's going up to 61 today. Then we have a cold rain for the next few days, which I just adore driving around in for eight hours with my window rolled down.

__________________
Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"

edwmax

This past week I planted 5 rows (100 ft) of corn; 1 row of turnips & rutabagas; 1 row each of mustard & collards all last Wednesday. Thursday I set-out a few more cabbage plants and a row of onion sets (about 300) and 1 row of sunflowers; 2 rows of zinnias. Thursday afternoon & Friday was spent tilling the rest of the garden. ....


This morning I saw the mustard have popped up over night. I was hoping the corn would be up by today but it's not showing. The rest of the vegges should be up in another 3 or 4 days. The flowers in about another week. .... The garlic bed has really fatten up & growing since the picture above (small garden bed).

I'll post pics when the plants are about 3" to 4" tall. ... I've been busy watching the grass & veggie plant grow. hahaha ....

__________________

edwmax

Oh ... From the last week of January through the first week of March was more than 8 inches of rain. So much of my planting was pushed into March as I cant till mud. The current soil temps is in the upper 50s to mid 60s and night time temps are holding at mid 50s to low 60s. This is great for most cool weather veggies.

__________________

edwmax

This morning the rutabagas and turnips are showing. .... Some of the sunflowers and zinnias are breaking out of the ground. .... AND, the corn is just breaking thorough. I'm still waiting on the squash and cucumber. In about 10 days everything will be tall enough to show up in a picture.


.... we're off to the races .... fresh Corn on the Cobb for the 4th of July!!!! .... may be some fresh tomatoes too.

__________________

Snarkie

Sounds good! Wanna see pics!

Except for the corn, which has to go in directly, I started all my stuff inside, so I can weed out the runts. If I remember correctly though, you have a major grow going though, right?

__________________
Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"