Watering System

This is what came up with as a solutions for making the garden easier to water. I water the plants by making furrows long side the plants and turning water in to the furrows. I have about twelve rows, too many water with a hose. I made PVC line approx 30 ft long. I start with a hose connections running into a 3/4' pipe for about ten feet and them about twenty feet of 1/2" pipe capped at the end. For each row I use 3 the quarter inch pipe outlets drilled into the main pipe. Thet fit tight enough gluing is not necessary. Three gives a Nice flow of water. Most of my row are about 60 feet long. So there must be sufficient water flow make it down the row. I find golf T's fit in the pipe perfectly and make it easy to regulate the water follow by adding and removing the T's depends on the water flow needed. Primitive but works well. You want the water to soak in good. So being able to regulate the water flow is important.

I use wood stakes with a hole drilled in them to hold the hosed in the furrows.

Garden Update 6/22

Here a some photos of the garden as of June 22. A week old now. Warm weather is finally here and making a big difference. Things are growing.

There are bachelor buttons around the tree near the top of garden. They add a little color to the garden and attract bees. The garden in surrounded by Lilly's and sunflowers. The Lilly's are starting to bloom.

The robins were stealing the Strawberries. My wife added this guy in the middle of the box. It seems to be keeping the birds away.

Broccoli is growing well. There are 6 of these. I hope the head form soon before the really hot weather arrives. They don't like the heat. Have them planted in a area of the garden that gets some shade.

There are 3 Brussles sprouts. I will take until fall be for they are ready to be harvested.
The squash are doing ok. I had to remove some of the little squash that we growing because the ends were rotting from all the rain. As off today there about eight new squash that are just a couple of inches long.

The lettuce has really taken off. The crop in the box was harvested this week. And the row is ready. I cut them off about 1" above the ground. The leaves will grow back in a couple of weeks.

The bell peppers are growing slowly. Which is normal. No blossoms yet. There are six plants.
This is one of the Big Beef tomato's. There are five total. They are doing great. The stems has bulked up and the are a nice dark green with thick leave. The have blooms but no little maters

yet.
This is one of the Cherry tomato's, there are three total. Growing well. There blossoms, and some pea sized fruit.
These are the onions. I have several rows of these. I've been cutting them for green onions.

This is the first corn that was planted. There are three more varieties all planted at different times. We should start have corn to eat sometime in the middle of July and into September.

Garden Update 6/6

Heres the garden as of 6/6/2011

The lettuce is up. The cold tempetures, lots of rain, and lack of sun have thing growing slowly at best.

The Strawberries are coming on. It's looking like well get a bunch from this little patch. I'll build a second box and move some of the new plants after they are done bearing.

These are Big Beef tomato's. They are struggling in the cold wet weather. Hopefully there condition will improve once it warms up.

The F100 cherry tomato's are in similar condition. I have some gray mold growing on the lower leave due to the wet conditions. I have treated them and hope it clears up. I don't want to lose them this late in the planting season.

The pepper are doing pretty good. I have a little mold problem with these as well. Although not as severe as the tomato's.

The Broccoli and Sprouts are doing fine in the cold weather.

The Cucumbers are struggling. They need sun.

The squash are just sitting there not growing, and gray mold on the leaves as well. The sun need to come out. The ground temp is just to cold for these plants to get excited about growing.

Spinach is up just coming up.
The onions and sunflowers are doing well.
This is the first planting of corn.

Second plant of corn is up.

Planting Potato's

This year we used the newly completed disk harrow to close the potato rows. It worked well. Once the plant are up I'll use the harrow to hill the plants.

Garden - 2011

Garden up date 5/18/2011

This is the first planting of corn is up.

The Strawberries are doing well. These were planted last spring. 25 bare root plants. The blossoms indicate we'll get some berries this season.

Two rows of yellow onions side by side. I covered the 1st row as I made the furrow for the second one. These are in ID garden. The rows are 100 ft long, and have 200 sets in each row. I planted them close together, and will thin them by pulling young green onions to eat.

Growing Potato's - 2011

Here's where the potato garden will be. It's been plowed, and disk ed, and is ready for the potato seed in a couple of weeks. The will be 16 rows in this plot. 12 of them will be be Norland Red (100 lbs of seed), and Burbank Russet (50 lbs if seed). Each row will be approx. 100' long. The remaining rows 4 rows will be peas, spinach, onions, and broccoli. The broccoli is new this year. I think it will grow well in the cool climate. I leave 4' between each row so they can be cultivated, and hilled with a small tractor. It also help to keep the ground from being depleted from nutrients. I try and keep things organic, and natural. : ) Gardening is like a science experiment seeing what will grow, and how to improve the quality, and harvest from year too year. I learn new things each season.

Garden Tractor Disk Harrow - Complete

Here's the finished disk harrow for the little tractor. It works great. I plowed the potato garden with a turn plow about three weeks ago. With the disks angled it moves a lot more dirt than I thought it would. It easily took care of leveling out the hills left by the plow, and cleaned up all the small weeds. In the photo's you can see I have the concave side of the disk towards the center and they are nearly straight in effort to level out the dirt. With the weight on they dig in 5-6"s. AH

Garden - Young Plants

It's been a little over two weeks since my last post on the seedlings, now young plants. I have transplanted most everything into there own containers. There are sill a few that I planted later that need to me moved. I as you can see by the photos everything is growing like crazy. The light and stand seems to be working out well. I hope to move the plants outside by Mother's Day. They will have to be hardened before then. The weather here is still to cold for them to send anytime outside. We are having a cold, wet spring here. Last Saturday we had a little sunshine, my grand daughter help me plant a row of onions, and some sunflower seeds.

Onions Sets

We'll be growing a few onions this year. In past years I normally plant about 75 onions which last us through the winter. This year I had my source for potato seed get me a bag of onions sets. Now based on what they have cost in years past I was think a few of hundred which was fine since I was sharing with a couple of other gardeners. They put the bag in the back of the jeep for me. It wasn't until I got home I realized that I had some 3,000 baby onions. Everyone I know will be growing onions.

Garden - Seedlings

Most of the seeds have germinated and the seedlings are looking good. Got them all moved under the light today. I planted a few more seeds until I used up the potting soil. I would rather have to many plants, than not enough.

Cucumbers - planted 4 seeds 3/22 - 4 seedlings 4/3

- planted 2 seeds 4/3
Zucchini - planted 2 seeds 3/22 - 2 seedlings 4/3

-planted 2 seeds 4/3

Yellow squash - 2 seeds 3/22 - 2 seedlings 4/3

Broccoli - planted 20 seeds 3/22 - 20 seedlings 4/3

- planted 12 seeds 4/3

Brussels Sprouts - 10 seeds 3/22 - 10 seedlings 4/3

Tomato's Big Beef - planted 10 seeds 3/22 - 8 seedlings 4/3

Cherry Tomato F-100 Supersweets - planted 8 seeds - 6 seedlings 4/3

Green Bell peppers - planted 10 seeds 3/22 - 0 seedlings 4/3

- planted 4 seeds 4/3

Peppers can take up to 20 days to germinate.