Showing posts with label planting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planting. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Planting Taters.
Found out it was time to get the potatoes in the ground around mid-March so we gathered up all the seed taters we purchased from the feed store and got to work. Cut them up the night before the planting day... and then wound up planting 2-1/2 long rows of New Red Potatoes and 1-1/2 long rows of Kennebec white boiling potatoes. Six inches below the top of the soil, eyes up... We shall see what comes from this! Hope everyone REALLY likes taters in case this turns out to be a bumper crop.
Hubby getting the trenching attachment lined up to cut rows in the front 40 garden.
Dropping the potato cuts into the trench every 12 inches.
Some our great garden helpers next to the potato cuts.
Covering the taters.
Planting taters is hard work for this farm hand.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
A Dream Come True.
I have always wanted to grow pumpkins. I love all things pumpkin. Pumpkin beer, pumpkin coffee, pumpkin jam, pumpkin cream cheese, you name it pumpkin... I love it. So why not plant our own pumpkin patch? And today that is exactly what we did! It truly is a dream come true.
We chose to till up a large square of our front 40 for this patch... Why? Because the soil is so much more richer than the soil in the middle of the property where our current garden is planted. And why is it so rich? Because the family we bought the land from used to have hogs and chickens in this area years ago! The soil is soft and sandy unlike the hard red clay of the other.
Lush soil surrounded by thick lush grass.
And here is Hubby explaining to me exactly how we are going to lay out the rows with the planter attachment we borrowed. He had it all figured out before we started.
And the planting and fertilizing begins!
We had some issues with the attachment dropping the seeds and digging in the rows correctly as the soil was not on a perfect flat plane. So we switched it up and Hubby followed behind the attachment to make sure it was doing its job.
Once all the seeds and fertilizer were dropped into the rows, we went back and walked each row to make sure the seeds were covered. The middle rows were planted with two types of corn. The rest of the rows on one side of the patch next to the corn was planted with white pumpkins and the other side was with orange jack-o-lantern pumpkins. There was also one rows of sunflowers.
After planting we finished cutting the rest of the grass in the front 40 and called it a day.
We chose to till up a large square of our front 40 for this patch... Why? Because the soil is so much more richer than the soil in the middle of the property where our current garden is planted. And why is it so rich? Because the family we bought the land from used to have hogs and chickens in this area years ago! The soil is soft and sandy unlike the hard red clay of the other.
Lush soil surrounded by thick lush grass.
And here is Hubby explaining to me exactly how we are going to lay out the rows with the planter attachment we borrowed. He had it all figured out before we started.
And the planting and fertilizing begins!
We had some issues with the attachment dropping the seeds and digging in the rows correctly as the soil was not on a perfect flat plane. So we switched it up and Hubby followed behind the attachment to make sure it was doing its job.
Once all the seeds and fertilizer were dropped into the rows, we went back and walked each row to make sure the seeds were covered. The middle rows were planted with two types of corn. The rest of the rows on one side of the patch next to the corn was planted with white pumpkins and the other side was with orange jack-o-lantern pumpkins. There was also one rows of sunflowers.
After planting we finished cutting the rest of the grass in the front 40 and called it a day.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Garden Clean-Up
Saturday was another productive day on Wilsons Farms complete with lots of sunshine! After all the rain we have had in the past week or so, the plants were soaking in the sunshine like no tomorrow. Hubby kept telling me that the plants were growing before our eyes... and how they were bigger in the afternoon from when we first got in the garden that morning.
As you can see there are little squash coming in...
The cilantro is double in height now!
Most of our day was spent working in the garden. Hubby and I both spent a lot of time off and on hand weeding and hoeing the long rows. Again, with all of the rain we had, it is no surprise the amount of weeds we have too!
We also strategically dusted those plants still showing evidence of worms or bugs. We re-applied the deer/varmint prevention liquid to the plotsaver perimeter fence. And we set up our strings for the cucumber plants to "run" up!
Next up was thinning out the corn stalks... we planted 3-5 seeds in each hole back during the planting weekend in early May. They all seem to have made it to corn stalks! So we cut out the smaller ones to make more rooms for the best 1-2...
"BJ" came over to pitch in and he bush-hogged the overgrown lower bottom plot for us... this is where our honey bees are located. The white clover was pretty much dried-up so it was time to cut it.
Later in the day, "BJ" and Hubby did some scraping/leveling of one section of our driveway... This section was pretty eroded from all of the vehicles going over it in the past year.
We also planted more sweet corn... picked up a dollars worth at the local feed store. This will come in a month after our current planting.
All in all, the garden is looking fabulous!
As you can see there are little squash coming in...
The cilantro is double in height now!
Most of our day was spent working in the garden. Hubby and I both spent a lot of time off and on hand weeding and hoeing the long rows. Again, with all of the rain we had, it is no surprise the amount of weeds we have too!
We also strategically dusted those plants still showing evidence of worms or bugs. We re-applied the deer/varmint prevention liquid to the plotsaver perimeter fence. And we set up our strings for the cucumber plants to "run" up!
Next up was thinning out the corn stalks... we planted 3-5 seeds in each hole back during the planting weekend in early May. They all seem to have made it to corn stalks! So we cut out the smaller ones to make more rooms for the best 1-2...
"BJ" came over to pitch in and he bush-hogged the overgrown lower bottom plot for us... this is where our honey bees are located. The white clover was pretty much dried-up so it was time to cut it.
Later in the day, "BJ" and Hubby did some scraping/leveling of one section of our driveway... This section was pretty eroded from all of the vehicles going over it in the past year.
We also planted more sweet corn... picked up a dollars worth at the local feed store. This will come in a month after our current planting.
All in all, the garden is looking fabulous!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Planting the Garden - Day 2
What do crazy country folk do on a Saturday night after spending 10 hours working in the garden all that day? They go to town for supper out and then buy MORE veggies to plant in the garden the next day! Can you say gluttons?? That's right, we bought quite a few more plants to "fill in the gaps" in the garden. (Say what?) So Sunday brought on more veggie planting for me while Hubby cut the front 3+ acres of grass...
I planted seven pepper plants, more tomatoes, two more cherry tomatoes, two eggplants, and 8 watermelon plants. What a variety! And then I had to go back to the oh-so-painful seed planting... 3 full long rows of pink-eyed peas and 4 half rows of pole beans.
Of course, I had my shadow the pea thief with me again...
And I have to tell you (more like cry and whine to you) that I felt like I run a marathon again after all this planting... I do not know how my Grandparents did this!! Even so, there was more work to be done... so I proceeded to hand scoop out three entire bags of pine mulch on top of the raised beds to keep the moisture in them while Hubby set up our sprinkler system to run off the well. Once we had our sprinklers set up, we ran them until the well ran dry. Hmmmmmmm... This could be an issue down the road...?
Oh well for now... but, doesn't the view look nice?
I planted seven pepper plants, more tomatoes, two more cherry tomatoes, two eggplants, and 8 watermelon plants. What a variety! And then I had to go back to the oh-so-painful seed planting... 3 full long rows of pink-eyed peas and 4 half rows of pole beans.
Of course, I had my shadow the pea thief with me again...
And I have to tell you (more like cry and whine to you) that I felt like I run a marathon again after all this planting... I do not know how my Grandparents did this!! Even so, there was more work to be done... so I proceeded to hand scoop out three entire bags of pine mulch on top of the raised beds to keep the moisture in them while Hubby set up our sprinkler system to run off the well. Once we had our sprinklers set up, we ran them until the well ran dry. Hmmmmmmm... This could be an issue down the road...?
Oh well for now... but, doesn't the view look nice?
Planting the Garden - Day 1
Saturday was another great productive day on the farm for us! After working the delivered top soil into the plot with the new tiller attachment over and over throughout the morning, Hubby had the garden area ready for cutting rows.
All the while this was going on, I had started setting out and planting in the raised beds. I planted all of the strawberries in one bed, one tomato plant in each bed, all of my sweet potatoes in the 2nd bed, a couple of cabbages in the same, and then my herbs (rosemary and cilantros) along with one squash and one zucchini in the 3rd bed. You see you have to really pay attention to how big the actual plant will grow to in order to know how much room you need to fit with the other plants into the same bed. Mathematics in the garden!
Once the beds were fully planted, Hubby had the garden rowed about the same time...
So I moved on into the garden and proceeded to plant every last one of the other plants we had on hand: More tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and the remaining squash, zucchini and cabbages.
At the same time, Hubby was seeding the perimeters around the garden and raised bed areas with fescue seeds to try and stabilize the soil with grass.
I forgot to mention I made a trip to the local feed store earlier in the morning to check out their veggie seeds. I picked up seeds for sweet corn, pole beans and pink-eyed peas. After planting all of the other veggie plants, I managed to plant the seeds for the sweet corn. I have to say what a pain-staking process! I do not know how farmers could stoop over for hours on end planting seeds. OUCH!
This was the position I stood in for what felt like hours on end. Of course, I had some help (notice dogs- one who just wanted to sleep between the rows and the other wanted to eat the seeds)... But, I know there has to be a better way!!
These were most of my views of the dogs while seeding towards the end of the day. They were so tired from watching us plant the garden! And this girl was beat too: aching back, knees and hips. Ouch!
But, the view at the end of the day made it all worth the effort!
All the while this was going on, I had started setting out and planting in the raised beds. I planted all of the strawberries in one bed, one tomato plant in each bed, all of my sweet potatoes in the 2nd bed, a couple of cabbages in the same, and then my herbs (rosemary and cilantros) along with one squash and one zucchini in the 3rd bed. You see you have to really pay attention to how big the actual plant will grow to in order to know how much room you need to fit with the other plants into the same bed. Mathematics in the garden!
Once the beds were fully planted, Hubby had the garden rowed about the same time...
So I moved on into the garden and proceeded to plant every last one of the other plants we had on hand: More tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and the remaining squash, zucchini and cabbages.
At the same time, Hubby was seeding the perimeters around the garden and raised bed areas with fescue seeds to try and stabilize the soil with grass.
I forgot to mention I made a trip to the local feed store earlier in the morning to check out their veggie seeds. I picked up seeds for sweet corn, pole beans and pink-eyed peas. After planting all of the other veggie plants, I managed to plant the seeds for the sweet corn. I have to say what a pain-staking process! I do not know how farmers could stoop over for hours on end planting seeds. OUCH!
This was the position I stood in for what felt like hours on end. Of course, I had some help (notice dogs- one who just wanted to sleep between the rows and the other wanted to eat the seeds)... But, I know there has to be a better way!!
These were most of my views of the dogs while seeding towards the end of the day. They were so tired from watching us plant the garden! And this girl was beat too: aching back, knees and hips. Ouch!
But, the view at the end of the day made it all worth the effort!
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Constructing the Raised Beds
Sunday was a much more productive day for us on the farm. After a quick trip to the hardware depot for some materials, Hubby got to work constructing our raised bed planters.
And I have to tell you that he has some seriously mad carpentry skills! Who knew????!
All the while the master carpenter is doing his thing, I was outside at my newly located stainless work table potting all of the new veggie plants we had purchased so far. Once the raised beds are in place, filled with top soil and ready for planting, we will transfer these from the pots to the beds. So far we are planting tomatoes, jalapenos, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, cabbage, strawberries, sweet potatoes, rosemary and cilantro.
And then there were three! Three beautiful heavy duty raised bed planters ready to go set in the plot... but, we will save that for another day. (When the soil is drier!)
And I have to tell you that he has some seriously mad carpentry skills! Who knew????!
All the while the master carpenter is doing his thing, I was outside at my newly located stainless work table potting all of the new veggie plants we had purchased so far. Once the raised beds are in place, filled with top soil and ready for planting, we will transfer these from the pots to the beds. So far we are planting tomatoes, jalapenos, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, cabbage, strawberries, sweet potatoes, rosemary and cilantro.
And then there were three! Three beautiful heavy duty raised bed planters ready to go set in the plot... but, we will save that for another day. (When the soil is drier!)
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