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...

 

[WalkGood]

Great looking plants, awesome foodie and Frankenstein looks great! Super update ... keep dem coming

 

[Dshlogg]

Great looking garden you have! I like your homemade charcoal kiln and bee feeder too. Hope you get your corn pest licked. I hear corn is the hardest crop to grow organically. The roundup corn that's everywhere now kills corn bores as soon as they eat a kernel. That stuff is about as genetically modified as it gets though. Hope you get some rain this year. Good luck!

 

[Sawyer]

Very cool. I have got to moving on some sort of charcoal oven.

Edit: get moving, I've got to get moving. (My mind seems to be somewhere else today.)

 

[PIC 1]

Wow !
I just got caught up in...on this glog. When ya think ya read them all there's always another fine one either buried or on top of the page !

Nice job Scott...

 

[Devv]

Great looking plants, awesome foodie and Frankenstein looks great! Super update ... keep dem coming

Thanks Ramon! I appreciate the compliments.This was a busy weekend with Easter and all, I didn't get as far as I wanted too.

Great looking garden you have! I like your homemade charcoal kiln and bee feeder too. Hope you get your corn pest licked. I hear corn is the hardest crop to grow organically. The roundup corn that's everywhere now kills corn bores as soon as they eat a kernel. That stuff is about as genetically modified as it gets though. Hope you get some rain this year. Good luck!

Thanks for the comments!

I read up on the corn this morning, perhaps we'll try it next year.

They're even talking rain here. it would be sweet!

Very cool. I have got to moving on some sort of charcoal oven.

Well the price was right

Only thing is it weighs a ton, but it should last..

Wow !
I just got caught up in...on this glog. When ya think ya read them all there's always another fine one either buried or on top of the page !

Nice job Scott...

Thanks, I appreciate the comments!

And thanks (all of you) for stopping by.

Have a great week,

Scott

 

[Sanarda]

Devv I would hang wit a redneck than a Yuppie anyday of the week. Rednecks just know shit!!!!!!!! Love the Frankenstein. Love it

 

[Devv]

Devv I would hang wit a redneck than a Yuppie anyday of the week. Rednecks just know shit!!!!!!!! Love the Frankenstein. Love it

Thanks for stopping by!

Hey I'm a transplanted Redneck, spent the first 19 years of my life on Longgg Island NY.; the wife still has family there. Got a sister living close to Philly as well.

My wife read today in the local coop magazine something I think is important:

Horse manure can contain the herbicides that were used on the feed, mainly hay, as the herbicide passes through horses unscathed. And, this does not break down in the compost pile.

While cow manure removes the herbicides.

I've been using horse manure for years, so far no problems, but not anymore.

 

[Sawyer]

I think the practice has ceased, but commercial chicken feed used to contain small amounts of arsenic (I forget why). At least some of that wound up in the litter. Chickens are so poor at extracting the nutrients from the feed, they used to (still?) reprocess chicken litter into cattle feed. Plus, if manure of any type is not properly composted, it can contain pathogens. These are some of the reasons I use concentrated, commercially-purified or mined nutrients when anything is needed. Truly, though, if you grow a good rye/vetch winter cover crop, there's your organic matter and nitrogen right there (except maybe for corn).

 

[Devv]

I think the practice has ceased, but commercial chicken feed used to contain small amounts of arsenic (I forget why). At least some of that wound up in the litter. Chickens are so poor at extracting the nutrients from the feed, they used to (still?) reprocess chicken litter into cattle feed. Plus, if manure of any type is not properly composted, it can contain pathogens. These are some of the reasons I use concentrated, commercially-purified or mined nutrients when anything is needed. Truly, though, if you grow a good rye/vetch winter cover crop, there's your organic matter and nitrogen right there (except maybe for corn).

Wow! I looked this up.

Quote from website:

According to labels on chicken feed with arsenic, the products claim “increased rate of weight gain, improved feed efficiency, and improved pigmentation.”

I do plant cover crops, actually twice. Let first one get 8 or 9"s tall and till, then replant.

My sand soil constantly needs organic matter. That's one of the reasons I added so much char, to try and help with the leaching we have with sand.

This is the article that got me thinking:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/mann-text/7

Well the big news this week for us in drought land is it rained! We got .8 Tuesday night and another .6 Wednesday. What's cool is I don't have to water all the fruit trees, and grapes. I use 5 gal buckets with a 3/8 hole drilled into the side at the bottom. I don't have to irrigate the garden either for a week or so...yes!

I'm having to work the Maties every day, they're growing so fast I have to keep stuffing them back into the cages.

This afternoon I hit the corn with Hasta Gro (6-12-6) full strength, I promised myself I wouldn't hit them with ferts until they were 12"s tall.

The Maties got a 1/2 strength dose foiliar application of Hasta gro and Calmag, as did the peppers in the garden.

All the peppers got a 1/2 dose foiliar application of epson salt.

Did some weeding, I hate weeding...

 

[stickman]

Well the big news this week for us in drought land is it rained! We got .8 Tuesday night and another .6 Wednesday. What's cool is I don't have to water all the fruit trees, and grapes. I use 5 gal buckets with a 3/8 hole drilled into the side at the bottom. I don't have to irrigate the garden either for a week or so...yes!

I'm having to work the Maties every day, they're growing so fast I have to keep stuffing them back into the cages.

This afternoon I hit the corn with Hasta Gro (6-12-6) full strength, I promised myself I wouldn't hit them with ferts until they were 12"s tall.

The Maties got a 1/2 strength dose foiliar application of Hasta gro and Calmag, as did the peppers in the garden.

All the peppers got a 1/2 dose foiliar application of epson salt.

Did some weeding, I hate weeding...

Boy, rain and nutes... I wouldn't mind weeding if it meant I could plant everything out right now. I planted the Mache' yesterday, and will plant the Claytonia and Onions tomorrow after I prep the beds. That'll make some room inside for up-potting the Tomaotes and Eggplant, and I can start some Marigolds for my wife...

 

[Sawyer]

This is the article that got me thinking:
http://ngm.nationalg...oil/mann-text/7

Fascinating article.

 

[DocNrock]

Hey Scott, that is quite the garden setup. You could open a produce stand with everything you are growing. That soil looks really rich...very nice. Peppers are coming along, and the other plants, as well. Love the roasted bones, bee feeder, and yes...weeding sucks!

Nice glog! Definitely another one to follow!

 

[Devv]

Boy, rain and nutes... I wouldn't mind weeding if it meant I could plant everything out right now. I planted the Mache' yesterday, and will plant the Claytonia and Onions tomorrow after I prep the beds. That'll make some room inside for up-potting the Tomaotes and Eggplant, and I can start some Marigolds for my wife...

I here ya, I carried the boxes out full of young plants for quite awhile before I could stick em in dirt. Dirt time is happy time!

Good deal on Onion time! The rest will soon follow, I plant onions around Jan 15th the latest and weather permitting Tomatoes first week of March.

I grew Eggplant last season, mine took forever to set fruit, maybe because I direct seeded.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fascinating article.

I'm thinking this article is the one where they said the farmers were planting like 40 years in the same spot and the soil was still chugging along, that's just amazing!

Hey Scott, that is quite the garden setup. You could open a produce stand with everything you are growing. That soil looks really rich...very nice. Peppers are coming along, and the other plants, as well. Love the roasted bones, bee feeder, and yes...weeding sucks!

Nice glog! Definitely another one to follow!

Thank you! I appreciate the compliments. I wish I had started the Chinense 6 weeks earlier, but will do so next year!

We put up everything we can and give the rest away to my son's family and coworkers, my boy has 4 kids, I feel his grocery pains!

Thanks for visiting!

Things are starting to come together, I expect a burst of growth in the next two weeks due to the rain we got earlier this week. There was quite a bit of lightning too, mom natures natural nitrogen being released. AND we have more rain forecast next week, that would be too cool. It's been like 10 years since we got "normal" rain.

The tomatoes are starting to hit the top of the cages and are flowering like crazy. This year I'm trimming anything that hits the ground. For two reasons, it decays and invites disease. Secondly to open up the bottom of the plant for air circulation, also for disease prevention.

Lot's of maties setting:

Onions are happy

Potatoes flowering

Green beans getting ready to flower

Starting to get excited about the late planted Chinense, I'm seeing some new branching.

This Reaper is starting to spread it's wings.

As is this Orange Hab.

The wife's pineapple is showing some purple flowers near the bottom, this is our first, we're waiting and watching..

Thanks for stopping by,

Scott

 

[Chaosbites]

Interesting article. Always looking at ways to improve soil.

Nice garden shots. I enjoyed them. Everything seems happy with the rain you got.

That pineapple looks almost prehistoric. I didn't know that's where they flowered. Are the purple parts hard or soft? Do they open up?

Michelle

 

[Sawyer]

Tomatoes already, excellent! I'm just now planting seeds.

 

[Devv]

Interesting article. Always looking at ways to improve soil.

Nice garden shots. I enjoyed them. Everything seems happy with the rain you got.

That pineapple looks almost prehistoric. I didn't know that's where they flowered. Are the purple parts hard or soft? Do they open up?

Michelle

This is our first pineapple that's fruiting, the flowers are firm, and I think they will open. My wife is stoked about this pineapple, hmmm she bought another one to plant.

The rain makes things explode here, ya just can't get the same growth with irrigation. In two weeks the garden won't look the same.

Tomatoes already, excellent! I'm just now planting seeds.

We're definitely on a different time table here. Typically by Early July everything's played out.

I like to start the seeds two months before dirt day..

Have good one!

Scott

 

[Devv]

After 3 weeks this Poblano finally has some roots

He has a ways to go to catch up with his brothers and sisters

Up potted a few that were in 3.5" pots, all of them were root bound....

I'm thinking this is as open as these flowers get.

Foodies!

The recipe and a few others we like:

http://www.devtex.net/recipe.html

Well crap tomorrow is Monday...

Hope your weekend was a good one, it went by fast.

Scott

edit: cuz I can't type!

 

[DocNrock]

I could have sworn I replied to this before. Baby back ribs look awesome! Plants are looking great, Scott! Peppers and nons!

 

[WalkGood]

Scott great update on matoes, onions, potatoes and all dem peppers are all looking great Yes AFAIK the flowers on the pineapple don’t open much, I’ve had some without the flowers or I may have not noticed. The ones I pictured on my current one didn't last too long and it's going strong without them now. My second pineapple just popped the other day, still smaller than a golf ball, lol.

Great pictures, love the lay out of the garden, would be killer to see an aerial shot ^_^ ... Love the pic of the Orange hab and dem roots on the Poblano look awesome! Great looking foodie, where’s the plating I know, you like me it was gone before you could take a shot, hehehe … Oh have you noticed any slips from any of the pineapples yet? If not keep them going till you do, I would hope you get one or two. Keep up dat great grow and a pleasure to read your updates mon. I have to will return with the “like dis” sad to say I’m out

 

[Devv]

I could have sworn I replied to this before. Baby back ribs look awesome! Plants are looking great, Scott! Peppers and nons!

Ahh... but I added more..or maybe Deja vu?

Thanks for the compliments!

Hoping to drop a few Chinense in the dirt this weekend and perhaps pot a few.

Thanks for stopping by!

Scott great update on matoes, onions, potatoes and all dem peppers are all looking great Yes AFAIK the flowers on the pineapple don’t open much, I’ve had some without the flowers or I may have not noticed. The ones I pictured on my current one didn't last too long and it's going strong without them now. My second pineapple just popped the other day, still smaller than a golf ball, lol.

Great pictures, love the lay out of the garden, would be killer to see an aerial shot ^_^ ... Love the pic of the Orange hab and dem roots on the Poblano look awesome! Great looking foodie, where’s the plating I know, you like me it was gone before you could take a shot, hehehe … Oh have you noticed any slips from any of the pineapples yet? If not keep them going till you do, I would hope you get one or two. Keep up dat great grow and a pleasure to read your updates mon. I have to will return with the “like dis” sad to say I’m out

Thanks! Ramon glad to see you back around, no slips yet hopefully soon.

Maybe I can get up on the roof for that shot

Yeah the plating....it went fast I'll do better next time!

Pretty warm out there today, 92 I believe. I'm not used to it as it's mainly been below 80, weird weather we're having this spring Thursday morning is supposed to be mid 40's. Fingers crossed for rain we need lots.

Thanks for coming by and take care,

Scott

Edit: typo...