Garden 2008

[lbaker]

How does a shot gun work Kraig? Glad you found something that works. I use soap bars hung in ankle type panty hose tied on fence. I spray with a stinky perfume on the soap about once a month. Have tracks where deer walk around garden fence, but so far so good. About garlic harvest time here.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Lyle, I don't care to test the poaching laws around here.... The deer visit after hunting hours and the deer hunting season doesn't open until after the harvest is done.

 

[aaytay]

Kraig-
Three words....

"Bow and Arrows!"

 

[lhinds]

What do you guys use for insect control? Popato bugs are eating my potato vines. They have took everything off the market that I used before.
Luther

 

[lbaker]

Luther- Go get yourself a bottle of insecticidal soap!! You can spay the whole garden with it.Non toxic even to what few bees are left. It got rid of my potato bugs in a hurry. Try a nursery/garden store.

 

[bbranstetter]

Kraig,

Took your advice and got the kit that you suggested for deer, looks good so far. Here's some updates. Haven't got any pics with the deer barrier up but I'll try and get those soon.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Brian, you have some nice healthy looking plants there! Be sure to keep that white "tape" right at 30" high, if it sags a few inches the deer will jump it. A week or so after I installed mine it sagged at a couple of places and I found deer tracks in the garden. Thankfully they didn't eat anything, but it was early in the season.... After my "fence" sagged I ended up adding extra poles closer together than what the documentation stated just to be sure and never had a deer jump it after that.

 

[bbranstetter]

If the system is based on smell I wonder why the height is so critical? I understand that you wouldn't want it on the ground but whats the difference if it's just smell, maybe closer to being inline with where they smell or something? I didn't measure mine but maybe I should.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Must be something about being near nose height, the directions are pretty specific about keeping the tape at 30". All I know is that it worked great for me, first time in years I had no damage from deer.

 

[kide]

Kraig:
30 inch nose height? Probably won't keep the moose out then, eh? There goes the UP and Minnesota market...

 

[kmcconaughey]

Kendell,

that or maybe it's to keep it above most grasses and weeds???

As long as it works to keep the deer out of the garden. Speaking of deer, I got 4 pictures of this guy on the trail camera last week.

 

[bbranstetter]

Kraig,

Dad and I were talking and we're think you are right on the money with the scent being right at there noses. I checked my stuff and made sure that I wasn't below and I haven't had a deer track yet.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[bnolte]

Just harvested tomatoes from my 7 plants. I've been getting several ripe tomatoes a day for the last couple of weeks, but the first of the big load came in, and I picked an entire 5 gallon bucket of the tasty red globes, have pureed them, and am making sauce. Gonna have enough for another big potful in a couple more days.

 

[lbuttke]

Went out to check on my potatoe patch today, dug up a few hills of the whites and found nothing but slugs under the plants.
Did not have the heart to check the reds, guess the wet/cold spring was friendly to the spuds.

My cukes, zukes, pumpkins, squash are all about the same, the plants are very small and no sign of fruit on any of them.

Sweetcorn aint doing much better, its about knee high and all tassled out.

Only thing that grew good in the garden this year is the sweet peas, green bean, and the first crop of radish. Second crop radish did not product only 3 radish out of 14 feet of seed bed.

pepper plants are close to 2 foot high but no peppers as of yet.
tomatoe plants are growing like wild fire, but again to tomatoes.
Carrots are doing great.

Wife and I are all but ready to give up on gardening, as this makes for the 3rd year in a row over half of what we planted did not grow or produce.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Lonny, not exactly sure whats up with your potatoes, corn, cucumbers, zucchinis, pumpkins and squash but it sounds like you might be over fertilizing your peppers and tomatoes. It's best to under fertilize peppers and tomatoes classic symptoms of over fertilizing are big healthy plants and no fruit. Corn, cucumbers, zucchinis, pumpkins and squash on the other hand like fertile soil. What's your soil like? Sandy, clay, loam? Is there much organic matter in it? have you added any compost or organic matter such as leaves or peat?

 

[bnolte]

My potatoes are pretty much done. I dug up my Yukon Golds and got about 25# out of a 25 foot row, minus a couple of Brussels Sprout plants where the spuds didn't sprout. My Kennebecs look pretty decent, most are still in the ground, but got a few monsters.

Got another 3 gallon bucket of tomatoes yesterday, and some yellow ones still on the vines, and picked about a dozen peppers on Saturday. I start my tomatoes out with a good dousing of Miracle Grow when I plant them, and follow up about a month later with a handful of 10-10-10 around each plant. The southern exposure on the back of the house helps, my tomatoes always struggled out in the garden.

 

[lbuttke]

Kraig.

I have been useing miracle grow on the grarden every 14 days as per the pacakge.

The soil is a heavy clay mixed, and I turn under all the left over plants each fall when I plow the garden.
This fall I plan on adding a few loads of lawn sweepings, grass into the garden befor I turn it under.

 

[theaton]

Hello to all gardeners. This is the 1st year that I have attemped a garden. I was limited to the size of the garden(My entire property is only .23 of an acre) but I managed to get a 25X25 foot spot behind the cub shed. I overplanted everything(tomatoes, squash, corn and sunflowers for my wife.

Before planting I tilled in about a bucket and a half(bosses green tractor) of oderless "mushroom" fertilizer. I dont know what this mixture was made up of, but my boss said "it works very well and doesnt smell". Plus it was free.

After planting, I used Miracle grow liquid feed. Like Lonny, every 14 days as directed. When things got growing, I realized I planted EVERYTHING too close! There was no room to work between the rows!

I am taking in the advice posted here, and plan to do some research before next year.
To date harvested:
300+ tomatoes
4 dozen sweet corn
squash out the wazoo

 

[kmcconaughey]

Lonny, sounds like you may have over fertilized the peppers and tomatoes. All I do for fertilizer is put two teaspoons of a granular organic fertilizer into the planting holes for each of the pepper and tomato plants then stir it into the soil then plant the plant. This is all they get for the entire growing season. Here's the best method I've found for soil improvement, excepting finished compost, but then this is called "Sheet Composting"...., anyway, gather all the leaves you can find this fall, (oak leaves are the best) many people rake them up and put them in garbage bags and place them at the curb, go figure! Ask your friends and coworkers if they rake and bag their leaves, if so ask if you can haul them away for them, most will say yes. Pile the leaves up in the middle of the garden. Now for some seat time! Drive one of your Cubs, with the mower deck running, through the pile repeatedly to mow them up into little bits. As you're mowing the leaves into bits use the mower discharge to spread the pile as evenly as you can around the garden area. After you have the leaves chopped and spread around till them into the soil. It might not hurt to take a soil sample and send it in for testing. This usually costs about $10-20, your county extension agency should be able to perform the test or point you in the right direction. The test results would tell you how much of each nutrient to add. Here's a LINK to a bit more info on soil samples. I believe the best time to do the soil sampling would be after you improve the soil structure with the organic matter. BTW, it's best to HOT compost the garden plant material as it harbors pests and diseases that attack garden plants. I never till in the garden plants, they go into the compost pile. Grass clippings are OK to till in.

 

[theaton]

Here is shot of the garden in early June, I havent taken any shots of the garden since. Maybe, if I cleaned up the stuff around the shed I could gain some room! Junk just follows me home!