Garden planning now !

Yes, it's that time again. The Pigs will be around 300 lbs. in two weeks, then it's time to get to work on the soil. They turn and fertilize it all winter and in the spring, it's butchering time and we grow again. Works out well.

 

Excellent idea salmon
Ill have to try that, getting the garden ready is always a huge chore.

 

Have almost all my seeds planted in the greenhouse. And have dug up the garden. Amazing how fast weeds and topsoil will grow in around here.

 

I usually go by the almanac anyway, so we're looking to plow, disk, and furrow beginning the middle of Feb, then get the seeds in the first week of March.

 

ooh ooh ooh. I just bought my seeds and I'm trying to get my 12 tree orchard in before it's too late.

 

If you are planting Cherry trees be sure to plant alternating. Ie. Bing Tree, Black Tree, Bing Tree, Queen Anne Tree, etc. Bing Trees need other's to pollinate and produce. I have four 30 yr. trees (2 Bing, 2 Richmond) just outside here and MAN can my wife make some kickass jelly from them.

 

I'm trying to figure how to do a garden here. The soil here is extremely rocky and next to impossible to dig in. Also doesn't help that my yard has really bad drainage so the back is currently a muddy, rocky mess. Any ideas? I'd really like to have a garden this year!!

 

This will be year-3 in our ongoing transition from "ornamentals" to "edibles." Everything is planted with our climate and growing season in mind. Herb garden, various berries, and cold-season citrus are all looking good. Apples, peaches, and plums are going in this year. Have to decide if I want to replace the broken down raised beds with a simple garden plot though. Both have their advantages.

 

I used this setup last year because I also have to deal with a lot of stray cats looking for a toilet. It worked pretty good.
The Original Self Watering Rain Gutter Grow System!!!! - YouTube

 

I think I like the idea of the container gardening. There is an abandoned house in my neighborhood that has an old bathtub in the backyard....that could work, lol

 

Perhaps you could use a bunch of those rocks to build up some walls for a raised bed? I LOVE my raised beds! Helps keep the weeds out, you don't walk on it-so the soil stays very loose and easy to weed, saves some back-ache, etc. Turn your situation into an advantage. Perhaps channel some earth for a watering method of some sort. Good luck! Remember, good gardeners grow excellent vegetables and excellent gardeners grow good soil (something like that.)
Synnergy

 

So, while at school in Portland my family and I are stuck in an apartment. Luckily, we have an enormous (for an apartment) patio, that I think we can do something fairly good on. We will have to see how it goes.

 

We use something similar on our front garden, but our average rainfall is fairly heavy so folks in dryer climes would have to set up a more robust storage system.

I also feel your pain about the cats...our issue is with rabbits. The upside is rabbit stew.

 

Agreed! We had gone without a garden for 22 years at our place because of poor soil and other issues. Made some simple raised beds last year from rough cut cedar boards purchased at a local lumber yard. A 16 sf raised bed cost me about $25 to build, but that cost spread over the life expectancy of the beds is pretty low. We got new soil and added lots of compost. We really enjoyed the harvest. The biggest challenge was the deer who considered these beds their private reserve. I had to use deer fence around the whole area. Not a paying proposition the first year, but as I noted above, the costs from this point on are primarily seed and the "return" will be much better.

 

STOP YELLING AT ME
I'll get to the garden in a few days.
I hope to at least.It will be my first for a couple decades

 

On the raised gardens....how high do I need to make the walls? If possible, I want to get started on that during my next weekend!