black lab farm fall garden happenings heavy pic

[majorcatfish]

thats just way to funny....
have a lot of catching up on posts.

Wonderful, Major'!

I got some frost-nipped snow peas today. There's celery root out there and several pumpkins ripening under piles of frost-killed vines. Oh, and I moved some bok choy into the greenhouse y'day! Tomorrow, imagonna plant some seeds in there!

Were your ears burning a couple of days ago??

www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=357471#p357471

Steve

 

[HotPepperQueen]

Simply beautiful! So jealous of your fall garden.

The only thing left in my garden is Swiss Chard, herbs, and some raspberries. I'll be planting some garlic, tulip, and daffodil bulbs tomorrow- that's about the extent of my fall gardening here in MN

 

[majorcatfish]

thank you everyone ever since getting into raised bed gardening definitely going to build more.

looks like this warm spell is going to be ending later this week, looked at the 10 day weather it's going to be nice till thursday and then it's going drop like rock
it has been mid 70's during the day and upper 50's at night
after friday days will be upper 60's and mid 40's at night
so probably will be harvesting whats left in the main garden and following everyone else, putting it to bed for the winter with a good layer of leaf mulch,pulling up the fence,
soaking and pressure washing the soaker hoses.

will say this it sure has been a sad growing season with all that rain we received between mold, rot and rust makes you think.. how next year will be :/
my vote...awesome

 

[journey11]

Wow, Major, everything looks really great! How cool you can grow the full-size kiwis. We can only grow the tiny ones here. My MIL has a montrous bush full of them. She makes a quick bread with them that is really yummy and they also dehydrate well.

How did you go about getting all of your raised beds filled? Just curious if you were able to buy soil by the truckload and what mixture you used. I tried buying a truckload of "garden soil" for 2 of my beds a couple years ago and got skunked. It was more like river bottom sand or something....something more equivalent to BRICK. :/ I've had to go back and add a lot of compost, manure and peat moss to make it work.

What do you have growing by those short stalks in the top of the second picture?

We just ate up the last of our green bell peppers as stuffed peppers. I have really been on a pepper run this summer. Matter of fact, I'm craving them now thanks to your pics.

All I have left is one teepee of pole beans going strong in the main garden, a few random hot peppers putting along, and one raised bed full of greens, beets, peas, and some herbs. It's getting cold and rainy here this week, so I'd say we're about done. I'll probably cover the stuff in the raised bed with 6 mil clear plastic and see if I can't get a couple more weeks out of it.

 

[Smart Red]

Beautiful job you've done there in your garden, Major! I favor raised beds as well. All of mine are the same 10'X5' size, but it looks like you (were smart) left more space between the beds. I'm fighting to get the mower around the corners. I was hoping to have 20 beds, but now that we have the fence up, I am limited to 15 in that space. Oh well, I have more space if I want to expand my gardening. I would just have to fight with the chickens and assorted varmints out in the country 'cuz it's not getting fenced in for a while.

What wood did you use for your beds? Mine are made two cedar decking boards high and joined with miters covered with a 'plate' of metal flashing to protect the corners. Also, after the first three beds were stabilized with outside stakes that made mowing a bit harder, we switched to inside bracing stakes. You and I have the same fencing. I used T-posts that were laying around from my horse fence days. Even your 'gate' and mine are similar - very informal. I have one span that I can open to get the wheelbarrow in or latch shut with rope to keep the chickens out.

Those kiwi are to die for! That is one fruit I am planning to add soon. "THEY"are calling for frost before the end of the week here, so my garden will be put to bed for the winter - always a sad time. On the other hand, I have been working to clean out, run wiring, and rearranging the garden shed. I should have a bit of room left for planting some cool weather veggies. Otherwise, my gardening will be restricted to digging dirt in the sun room and vicarious gardening here on TEG for a l-o-n-g winter.

 

[majorcatfish]

journey it only took 12 years for the kiwis to start fruiting, i almost give up on them was going to cut them down but the following year they started to produce 3 years ago picked a whole 12 kiwis, last year was around 31 pounds this year shall be very interesting to see, will not pick them till the day before a hard frost. hopefully that wil be mid to late november..

yes i did the truckload of "garden soil" as well it is a mixture of fill dirt and compost, did have to make a screen and get all the large stuff out. anyway i made up all the boxs first and then place one and filled it about 7" full and then place another and so on
once all of them where place tops them off with compost from lowes <black kow> and then tilled it all up. did add some green sand, fertilizer etc to them. of course i will add more compost this spring to top them off.

you asked about whats growing in the 2nd pic, i had corn growing there and a week before i picked i planted some beets there
and once corn was ready i just cut the stalks and left the stubs there.
was thinking the same about putting plastic over a few of my beds, but i think once old man winter gets here ...thats it, but i am going to make something for the herb bed....

red all my boxs are different sizes but all of them are 3' wide. yea kind of kicking myself for not putting the stakes inside, but i can lean over and pull some weeds now and then. as for wood all it is 2"x12' yellow pine i know it's going to rot, i just still dont
trust pressure treated wood with all that copper in it.
you like the high tech gate... while during the expansion did put another gate on the back side as well
the one thing i will be doing to the fence this winter is putting chicken wire around the bottom of it
had a rabbit who thought it was her personal nesting site
plus the new boxs are just sitting on fill dirt so do not know if i am just going to put down straw for the winter and seed it in spring or go a little formal with pea gravel in the walk ways......

well it looks like i am off to the conover store to do some major remodeling the next 3 days, at least i will be home this weekend to finish harvesting and putting everything left in the main garden away.

 

[journey11]

journey it only took 12 years for the kiwis to start fruiting, i almost give up on them was going to cut them down but the following year they started to produce 3 years ago picked a whole 12 kiwis, last year was around 31 pounds this year shall be very interesting to see, will not pick them till the day before a hard frost. hopefully that wil be mid to late november..

Wow, that is some patience that paid off! We run into the same problem, having to wait 'til the very last second before the first hard frost. Sometimes they get ripe, sometimes they don't.

yes i did the truckload of "garden soil" as well it is a mixture of fill dirt and compost, did have to make a screen at get all the large stuff out. anyway i made up all the boxs first and then place one and filled it about 7" full and then place another and so on
once all of them where place tops them off with compost from lowes <black kow> and then tilled it all up. did add some green sand, fertilizer etc to them. of course i will add more compost this spring to top them off.

I think they must have forgotten to mix in the compost into what I got. DH went to get it from the stone yard just down the road. My neighbor recommended it, so I bought it sight unseen. DH wouldn't know any better...so it's my fault.

I didn't know what green sand was and had to look it up. Sounds like I need some of that.

I've got 3 raised beds and the first one I made I used my own homegrown compost and horse manure in addition to 3 bales of peat moss and some bagged garden soil. It has been my healthiest and most productive raised bed and in the 5 years I've used it, I've only tossed in annually a little lime, a little 10-10-10 and some blood and bone meal. These other 2 around back with the "garden soil" are begging for more compost/manure to make things right. So far the only thing they've grown well has been onions and tomatoes and I think the only reason the tomatoes thrived is because they are deeper rooted and made it down 8" into the clay below.

Your veggies look so lush and healthy. You really have your soil in good shape.

 

[majorcatfish]

forgot to mention once old man winter does get here will putting down a layer of leaf mulch in every box and cover that with some straw that does not have anything in them.

since we do not have any animals besides dogs
the bagged compost works very well for my needs

 

[Smart Red]

You like the high tech gate... while during the expansion did put another gate on the back side as well......

Y-e-s. . . on the back side. . . so I see. . . . Sh-h-h-h. . . don't tell my precious DH, but it did occur to me -- as I was posting a message to you yesterday -- that I could remove a bit of fencing in the back, make another gate, and have plenty of room to expand my garden in the future. Of course, that means I have to convince a perfect DH that the perfect garden he already built needs a bit more space, more fencing, more raised boxes, etc. to make it more perfect for me. It will take a bit of thinking and planning over the winter to get DH to that point. AND since I rather promised not to think up more work-projects for him, I need him to agree that DS would love to do the work and construction of more beds for us.

Guess that's one of my winter projects!

That leaf mulch, is it shredded leaves or just the leaves raked off the yard? I have piles of leaves, but I've never used them in the garden. Just in the blueberry bed.

 

[majorcatfish]

red the leaf mulch is ground and he says its at least 2 years old since he does not sell a lot of it, once i get the new mower next spring will start composting my own leafs and grass clippings.
down at work we have a bunch of 6'x 6' pallets that will make great compost bins......winter project ..among other projects

journey will have to say most if not all the kiwis were not ripe when we picked them, but that worked out great we just kept them in a cool room and when we wanted some all we did was place them in the fruit basket in the kitchen and in about 5 days they ripened we are still on a learning curve, and fall is here the leafs are slowly turning yellow. we give away a few last year as a holiday gift and we have already been asked about them.