Devv's Dirt Grow-Almost done..

Weekend March 2-3:
I’ve been working on the garden for years; it was dormant for a few years (like 10) while I changed careers. The base soil if you want to call it that is sand. I added heavy black dirt to the upper 2/3 years ago; I’ve since added heavy red dirt (clay ) to half of the lower 1/3. For two years straight I’ve added 4”s of compost to the upper 2/3 and this year 4”s to the bottom 1/3. I clean horse pens for the free manure; kitchen waste is added to the compost. Our property is on a slope and heavy rains cause erosion problems. Above the garden the land is heavily terraced to divert water runoff.
Finished concreting the base of the fence, used 22 80lb bags, the Waskily Wabbits should be done, until they find another way in. They have been a real menace! I tried a hot wire system, it was not too effective and killed birds and squirrels; I didn’t like that.

Planted the Onions January 15th, Garlic was planted September 15th. They took a beating with the 30mph winds, 55 mph gusts last Monday.

Tilled and my wife planted corn, cukes, watermelons, bush beans and cantelope.

Bush Beans above

Cukes, and Melons behind the Rosemary above.

Corn below.

I started these the first week of January; I think I got carried away.

The Potatoes, planted February 15th are coming up. I planted then 8”s deep and I keep covering them up, and will do so until the ground is level where planted.

Never ending mulch pile.

Hmmm.. too many images...

 

[stc3248]

I feel ya...temps on the opposite end of the spectrum at close to 100, Santa Annas are kicking though with sustained at 35 gusts to 60 and further inland 75+...fires already burning in the Mountains, gonna be a rough summer here. Take care of the plants brother!

 

[WalkGood]

Well the front is here and the winds are a blowing 20mh and gusting to 40, another 12 hours of 20mph+ forecast. Watching closely, the dew points @ 39 and we're expecting 42 as a low.

I'm hoping everyone north of us does OK tonight!

Brethren I hope you and da crop pull thru ok … keep us posted and I’m sure you are happy you have that wind deflector up. BTW did you ever paint the incentive pods on it

 

[DesertChris]

I guess you can call that a perk out here!

Actually when we bought this place it cost as much as a nice 3 bdr house in San Antonio. So country places are not out of reach. The wife found it and it was under contract already, the deal fell through and she just had to have it. I've been working on it ever since. Added square footage, peeled the paneling off and did the sheet rock, built new cabinets (still doing that), you name it. Can you say money pit? Well not really, we're just improving...



Hey Greg,

Just got in from a two hour watering stint, that Reaper had already forked at each of the triples and has new flowers. It's almost doubled in size since it hit the garden. The rest of the Chinense are growing slower and look a little yellow. Perhaps I hit them with too much water..the Annuum's are happy and never seem to be over watered. So I hit them with some nutes and am gonna see how they look.

It's been cloudy here lately, weird weather, cloudy like winter time up north.

Thanks for the comments and the visit,

Scott

Yep, more area to play, but more stuff to fix and improve!!
It's never ending, even on a 2 1/2 acres....lol

I feel ya...temps on the opposite end of the spectrum at close to 100, Santa Annas are kicking though with sustained at 35 gusts to 60 and further inland 75+...fires already burning in the Mountains, gonna be a rough summer here. Take care of the plants brother!

Same here....temps close to 100° already, and everything is dry as a bone!
Fire.aeason is gonna be bad this year...
We live less than 2 miles from the small airport that is home to a ton of firefighting airplanes....i was watching them land and take off a bunch today...perfect view of them from the back porch.

 

[stickman]

Fingers crossed Scott... hopefully you just get a cold rain.

 

[koskorgul]

Got some catching up to do on your glog. Been MIA the past few days with a chest/sinus infection.

 

[Devv]

I feel ya...temps on the opposite end of the spectrum at close to 100, Santa Annas are kicking though with sustained at 35 gusts to 60 and further inland 75+...fires already burning in the Mountains, gonna be a rough summer here. Take care of the plants brother!

Dang Bro! 100's already and those wind speeds...do the winds affect your plants? Or is the fencing holding the wind?

I read about the fires this AM, it sucks. Unfortunately it does seem like a yearly thing in Ca. Hopefully damage will be minimal.

Brethren I hope you and da crop pull thru ok … keep us posted and I’m sure you are happy you have that wind deflector up. BTW did you ever paint the incentive pods on it

Dang, I'm thinking that plywood is gonna be up all grow! LOL me paint anything other than a wall? I wish I had some artistic talents, mine lay elsewhere...

The garden is intact, leaning, ripped leaves and some broken branches, but for the most part OK.

Yep, more area to play, but more stuff to fix and improve!!
It's never ending, even on a 2 1/2 acres....lol

Chris, It IS never ending. We have 20 acres and the homestead is 1 to 1.5, I have trouble keeping up with that!. I have a Live Oak that was hit by lightning last May, blew all the bark off up to 6', split 2 out of 3 off the fork that just died. Also have another huge Live Oak that fell over after a rain. Already cut and split 3+ cords worth that fell down after rains last fall. They dried out from the drought, and got brittle. After the rain they soaked up all the water and broke. Then there's the shreading that needs to be done...I could go on...

Same here....temps close to 100° already, and everything is dry as a bone!
Fire season is gonna be bad this year...
We live less than 2 miles from the small airport that is home to a ton of firefighting airplanes....i was watching them land and take off a bunch today...perfect view of them from the back porch.

I'm sorry to hear they need to even take off, hoping the wind let's up and they get that fire out.

Fingers crossed Scott... hopefully you just get a cold rain.

Rick, Since Sat. we've gotten 1.6"s, that's big for us! So far a total of 3.2 since we planted. Nothing makes a garden grow like natural rain, especially when it thunders and let's that Ma Nature's nitrogen hit the dirt. She just needs to realize this is spring and quit sending those dang Northern fronts here. We did OK, some damage as mentioned above.

Got some catching up to do on your glog. Been MIA the past few days with a chest/sinus infection.

Sorry to hear you have been ill, never a good thang. Here's to health!

Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate all of your concerns!

I have been worried about everyone who planted out this last weekend. Me, I have things setup to combat a frost, and will lose a morning of work if need be to keep everything alive.The weather has been nuts....global warming? Don't get me going...just look at when all the records and when they were set.

I spent some time this afternoon standing up the blown over tomato plants, I haven't had to stake tomatoes in years. The peppers did really well, a few were at a 45 degree angle, but are now staked. The corn's leaning at 45 and should stand up on it's own.

This afternoon turned out rather nice, the wind just stopped blowing. They changed the forecast and we're looking at 45 for the morning. I'll still be up at 4 to make sure...

May post some pics on Sunday if things look a bit prettier here, right now not pretty.

"yall have a great weekend!

 

[WalkGood]

… … The garden is intact, leaning, ripped leaves and some broken branches, but for the most part OK. … …

I’m getting a lot of ripped and torn leaves from all the winds too and lately with all the rain it’s breaking off whole leaves. It’s mainly on the large leaf plants like the MoA, Chocolate Scorpion and White Bhut. Seems the JA Habs have smaller and more aerodynamically designed leaves, lol. But I agree, things still progressing ok here as well. Have a great weekend brethren ^_^

 

[Devv]

I’m getting a lot of ripped and torn leaves from all the winds too and lately with all the rain it’s breaking off whole leaves. It’s mainly on the large leaf plants like the MoA, Chocolate Scorpion and White Bhut. Seems the JA Habs have smaller and more aerodynamically designed leaves, lol. But I agree, things still progressing ok here as well. Have a great weekend brethren ^_^

You too my friend!

Got 2 of those famous Ja's in the sun!

 

[stc3248]

Plants have had no trouble with the wind...I got a "spoon" tomato that got bigger than I planned it to that tips over if the pot is dry and light. It hasn't seemed to bother it yet though. Not far off from some ripe maters on this end...Hope it warms up for you!

 

[Jamison]

Wow man. That pizza looked sooooo good!

 

[Devv]

Plants have had no trouble with the wind...I got a "spoon" tomato that got bigger than I planned it to that tips over if the pot is dry and light. It hasn't seemed to bother it yet though. Not far off from some ripe maters on this end...Hope it warms up for you!

Shane,

Good to hear the wind is not hurting your beautiful plants. It's got to be the houses and fences. I didn't see a reason to post the damage, but we had a lot this time, mostly I think because the taller stuff was over the height of the wind breaks. The garden is sitting on the North side of a slope and the wind has a lot of open ground to maintain it's momentum. Oh well, that's why I plant more.

Wow man. That pizza looked sooooo good!

It was We're having the left overs for supper tonight...yum!

We had the 4 Grand-kids over here this weekend, I don't know how my son and his wife do it, maybe it's because we've had an empty nest for so long. We stayed up too late and pounded to many, kids were up at dawn...and loud! Of course their parents slept in...

I don't have a garden update per se, I didn't have much time this weekend. The weeds lawn yard needed to me mowed. Even though it just rained the planted were drooping so everything got a drink. My wife came out to visit while I was watering the tomatoes and pointed this out to me:

It was just under 18"s long, looks like 4 buttons. Had I had time today I would have been trimming the lower leaves on the maties and probably be getting anti venom injections this afternoon. Hadn't seen one in a few years, and this is the main reason I spent 3 hours mowing yesterday. Grand-babies are all over this place.

So instead of showing pics of my garden leaning to the South, (it needs to heal).

LB is the harvester, she nabbed all the Jalapeno's early while I was mowing.

My son made this dish, came out dang good.

He cut up 1/2 a pound of Bacon, added the butter, Onion powder, Garlic Powder, and Seasoning salt.

After the Bacon was ready he added the greenbeans, freshly picked.

Stir it all up and add some shrooms

Let it simmer for about 30 minutes. I'm not big on greenbeans but this was good. I could see making this with some nice powder to crank it up some.

I did a little pit work too.

Guy on the left is taking a bow. They sat on coke cans filled with Shiner..

Sorry no plate shots, it's a mad house when they come over...

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

 

[Jamison]

I'm already starving man, now you tease me with this!

 

[koskorgul]

Green beans look good man, I do mine with butter and old bay seasoning. Let them cook till they just start to char. Good stuff

 

[WalkGood]

Funny I love green beans but don't like shrooms much, hehe ... great awesome job on everything & foodie! Can't wait to see da leaners

 

[Devv]

I'm already starving man, now you tease me with this!

LOL, one of these days I have to post a bowhunt pic for ya too

Green beans look good man, I do mine with butter and old bay seasoning. Let them cook till they just start to char. Good stuff

Fresh picked food is the best!

Funny I love green beans but don't like shrooms much, hehe ... great awesome job on everything & foodie! Can't wait to see da leaners

The shrooms disappear much like onions, can't even taste em....ah the leaners, maybe tomorrow, things are starting to stand up again.

Hey got two more hooks, so 4/5 so far.

Thanks for coming by!

 

[WalkGood]

4/5 is great, I started 7 more a few weeks back and they're growing slow but I think once I up-pot them they'll take off, great job mon!

 

[DocNrock]

Great bird shots, man! Now I'm hungry! So, did you fillet the rattlesnake? I haven't tried it myself, but I heard it's pretty tasty. Going back to your reply about the calzone, you mentioned powders once you have a harvest. Do you have any powders on hand? If not, PM me.

 

[Devv]

4/5 is great, I started 7 more a few weeks back and they're growing slow but I think once I up-pot them they'll take off, great job mon!

Okies, number five is a hookin'! Thanks again for the seeds!

Great bird shots, man! Now I'm hungry! So, did you fillet the rattlesnake? I haven't tried it myself, but I heard it's pretty tasty. Going back to your reply about the calzone, you mentioned powders once you have a harvest. Do you have any powders on hand? If not, PM me.

If you have never done a beer can chicken, try it, they're the bomb, the most tender meat ever. And, you can season as you see fit...

Hmmmm filet a snake, I cleaned one years ago, kinda like one big intestine, just not my thang...and I've been cleaning game for over 30 years.

Maybe if went to a cookout and someone said here try this, I have heard they're quite good.

No powders on hand, I'll be a PM-ing

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[stc3248]

Rattlesnake is "not that bad" but then again isn't that the same as "not that good"?!?!?! I have had it...but it wasn't anything special. The bacon wrapped dove breast next to it were where it was at!

 

[DesertChris]

Booo on rattlers in the garden!
I had to "send one to meet its maker" already this year (Mojave Green, they are particularly aggressive)
We had one lurking in the tomatoes last year, while we and the neighbor family were all in the garden.
Thank goodness it was spotted before it bit anyone.
Needless to say, the crows had a nice lunch that day.

My gal wouldn't go in the garden for a week after that! Rattlers spook her big time.