And now for something completely different

[Joe S]

Does anybody here garden? What kind of soil do you have? I weigh about 280 lbs and I have to jump on the spading fork with both feet to penetrate my yellow clay. Makes my hips sore.

I skipped a vegatable garden last year but decided to try again this year. I'm going the "square foot garden" route this year; I found compost locally for $19.50 a yard to try to get the dirt to the "one foot spade fork" consistency.

If I can find my digital camera I might post ya'll some pictures of my vegetable garden as it gets going. At least until I let the weeds take it over in mid-July. I'll be ashamed of it then :medium-smiley-010:

[Tallen]

Does anybody here garden? What kind of soil do you have? I weigh about 280 lbs and I have to jump on the spading fork with both feet to penetrate my yellow clay. Makes my hips sore.

I skipped a vegatable garden last year but decided to try again this year. I'm going the "square foot garden" route this year; I found compost locally for $19.50 a yard to try to get the dirt to the "one foot spade fork" consistency.

If I can find my digital camera I might post ya'll some pictures of my vegetable garden as it gets going. At least until I let the weeds take it over in mid-July. I'll be ashamed of it then :medium-smiley-010:

Believe it or not I was going to open a bird and garden forum this week. I like to watch the local birds and feed them to get them to come in. And although I haven't had a garden in about 20 years, I thought it would be neat to try one with the kids this summer.

Must be great minds think alike Joe. http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_1_32v.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZNxdm824MNUS)

[Joe S]

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

I think a couple of these squares would be ideal for the kids, if you just want something small for fun. And no weeds, no digging. I think the guy who invented this system is unfortunately a Mormon.

I'm gonna try to raise enough to can and freeze, and I can't afford to build that many frames and fill them with "Mel's mix". So I'm digging down.

[tking]

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

I think a couple of these squares would be ideal for the kids, if you just want something small for fun. And no weeds, no digging. I think the guy who invented this system is unfortunately a Mormon.

I'm gonna try to raise enough to can and freeze, and I can't afford to build that many frames and fill them with "Mel's mix". So I'm digging down.

Thanks for that link! I've been trying to come up with a plan something like this for a few years now. Around here we have access to old railroad ties, which work great, even though it'd be a slightly different build. But I didn't know what kind of mix to put in them. Cool!

Can't wait to see your pictures.

[Tallen]

Very much along the lines I was thinking about. http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/15/15_8_215.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZSYYYYYYYYUS)

Thanks for the link.





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[Julie]

Tallen

For something really fun for kids: make a tipi out of a vining plant or two (vining flowers, or pole beans).

Get long poles, form them into a tipi and train the plants to grow up the poles. Make sure the kids can get inside the tipi, tho.

I also watch birds in my backyard. Right now I have juncos and goldfinch. :D

[Tallen]

Good idea Julie.

BTW, I feed the birds, but am frustrated with the squirrels, who seem to be able to figure a way around every thing to keep them out of the food. I bought a feeder, at considerable cost, that would eliminate the problem. But within a couple of weeks they had learned how to unscrew the top and get inside. I threw the feeder away after I caught one squirrel sleeping inside with a very full belly.

The other option that I tired was feeding them with unlimited food. I built a feeder that would hold 200 lbs. of sun flower seeds, at once. I filled the thing up and thought, "there you go, eat to your full". What happened was the squirrels came in by the dozens. I even saw one from Texas with his luggage. :BigB:

[Julie]

Wow! Evil, greedy, unregenerate squirrels!

We don't have many squirrels here. Now, if you want to talk gophers and moles........:crying:

[Tallen]

Wow! Evil, greedy, unregenerate squirrels!

Yeah, evil, greedy, unregenerate critters. I like them though, not bad eating.


We don't have many squirrels here. Now, if you want to talk gophers and moles........:crying:

I don't want to trade you squirrels for gophers, but I wouldn't mind sending you a few of them. :medium-smiley-011:

[TigerBunny]

Good idea Julie.

BTW, I feed the birds, but am frustrated with the squirrels, who seem to be able to figure a way around every thing to keep them out of the food. I bought a feeder, at considerable cost, that would eliminate the problem. But within a couple of weeks they had learned how to unscrew the top and get inside. I threw the feeder away after I caught one squirrel sleeping inside with a very full belly.

The other option that I tired was feeding them with unlimited food. I built a feeder that would hold 200 lbs. of sun flower seeds, at once. I filled the thing up and thought, "there you go, eat to your full". What happened was the squirrels came in by the dozens. I even saw one from Texas with his luggage. :BigB:

Well now...what you do is get them used to that feeder and move it slowly into a large cargo plane...

The possibilities are endless. :sparkle:

I so want a garden but we live in an apartment complex. I've been contemplating asking the management if they would go for a communal "Pea Patch". Lot of kids here that would have fun with that...adults as well.

[Tallen]

Well now...what you do is get them used to that feeder and move it slowly into a large cargo plane...


http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_1_20.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZSYYYYYYYYUS) Exactly. Now where was that plane, I hope it wasn't the one that Terri posted this morning.






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[Athanasius]

Does anybody here garden? What kind of soil do you have? I weigh about 280 lbs and I have to jump on the spading fork with both feet to penetrate my yellow clay. Makes my hips sore.

I skipped a vegatable garden last year but decided to try again this year. I'm going the "square foot garden" route this year; I found compost locally for $19.50 a yard to try to get the dirt to the "one foot spade fork" consistency.

If I can find my digital camera I might post ya'll some pictures of my vegetable garden as it gets going. At least until I let the weeds take it over in mid-July. I'll be ashamed of it then :medium-smiley-010:

Sounds like you have caliche, or hard clay. Raised beds might be the way to go. I'm thinking of doing it next year. One lousey crooknecked squash is all I got this year.

[Joe S]

Most people I know are having a lousy squash year. Vine Borers killed mine off; I had four hills of crooknecks and they got em all overnight. They were never very prolific- usually I harvest bushels of squash, more than I can give away. Dunno what the problem was this year.

My little garden has all kinds of soil actually; not so tough red clay, concrete hard yellow clay and some quite loamy. The compost helped the digging situation, but I over did it in areas and it caused the soil to dry out very quickly.

Next year Lord willing I'm going with wide rows. I'm going to keep the four foot wide planting beds but extend them the length of the garden with 3 ft. walking paths to accommodate my fat butt. I'm a believer in square foot gardening, meaning I know it can work. But with even a moderately large garden it intensifies the work involved with weeding. I also think that aerating and "earthing up" the plants benefits them a lot and it's impossible with intensive square foot planting.

Just today I got three beds of fall greens planted- turnips, mustard and kale. I'm also going to plant a bed of upland cress (we call them "cressy greens").

[Athanasius]

Most people I know are having a lousy squash year. Vine Borers killed mine off; I had four hills of crooknecks and they got em all overnight. They were never very prolific- usually I harvest bushels of squash, more than I can give away. Dunno what the problem was this year.

My little garden has all kinds of soil actually; not so tough red clay, concrete hard yellow clay and some quite loamy. The compost helped the digging situation, but I over did it in areas and it caused the soil to dry out very quickly.

Next year Lord willing I'm going with wide rows. I'm going to keep the four foot wide planting beds but extend them the length of the garden with 3 ft. walking paths to accommodate my fat butt. I'm a believer in square foot gardening, meaning I know it can work. But with even a moderately large garden it intensifies the work involved with weeding. I also think that aerating and "earthing up" the plants benefits them a lot and it's impossible with intensive square foot planting.

Just today I got three beds of fall greens planted- turnips, mustard and kale. I'm also going to plant a bed of upland cress (we call them "cressy greens").

Well, picture us on the side of a mountain overlooking the town. The west winds blowing all the time, practically. The soil mostly caliche, the rest fill. Any soil I plant in, must be hauled in. Daytime temps in the summer can reach over 100, and NM is known for the most intense sun in America. Anything we can harvest is a blessing.

Now, I do have a great harvest of prickly pear fruits every year - unfortunatley, I'm totally allergic to the fruit, and end up giving it away. In the past, I have had good luck with zuchinnis, but this year nada. Next year I will let the garden lay fallow, I think. Even though I always use fertilizer, nothing seems to really perk up the soil.

This year we didn't get any rain from January to July, so we had to use town water to moisten the plants, and that water is so bad that the plants actually spit it out!!!!

This year I planted native plants in the back: native plum, native choke cherry, and three Arizona bird of paradise bushes with dark orange rather than yellow flowers. We'll see if they grow. I have some ivy in the shade (which isn't much) and some ferns, so we'll see what happens with those poor guys.

Having been raised in the east, where you just plumped the seed into the ground and within a couple of weeks had a nice plant, out here is frustrating. I've been here nearly twenty years, and still don't see how the poor paleo-Indians made it! I have found some fossilized corn at their sites, but the ears are only about five inches long. No wonder they all wandered away about 800 years ago - and nobody knows where they went (probably east!):biglol:

[Joe S]

Yeah, it's more like a rainforest here in Virginia compared to NM I imagine. Some container planting is probably all I could manage out yonder.

We had a week of 100 plus temps this year in early June; ruined my early garden. I blame Al Gore.

[Tallen]

I blame Al Gore.

Me too!!!