North Carolina

[Hollowoakfarm]

If you have a pickup, you can get compost from the city at a low cost. Unfinished, still hot compost used to be $10 a truck load. Finished was more, but not dreadfully high. The dump where all the yard waste goes...I can't remember the name of the road, but if you call any of them they should be able to tell you. When we started our garden, it was pacing ground for a horse and was rock hard. We put down newspapers and fresh horse and cow manure and a couple truck loads of that compost in the fall, and it was ready to plant in the spring. Although I never till anything. That's what worms are for.

 

[abChicken]

Global warming makes winter colder & summer hotter. Extreme of both seasons.

At least that's what I've been reading recently...

I guess that was what was wrong back in the 70's with 0 degree temps here

 

[dutchbunny83]

Okay, thanks for all the advice.
That's going to be A LOT of raising!!!!
I found someone on craigslist in Hope Mills doing aged horse manure compost for $20 a truck load.
Do you put something under the beds or just put it right on top of the ground?
I need something for the onions, garlic, beets, leafy greens.... they wouldn't grow for me last year for anything. But my tomato plants were like 10' tall & falling over!

 

[Banriona]

Okay, thanks for all the advice.
That's going to be A LOT of raising!!!!
I found someone on craigslist in Hope Mills doing aged horse manure compost for $20 a truck load.
Do you put something under the beds or just put it right on top of the ground?
I need something for the onions, garlic, beets, leafy greens.... they wouldn't grow for me last year for anything. But my tomato plants were like 10' tall & falling over!

There's a ton of different ways of doing it. All I did was drop a 5'L x 5'W x 4"H wooden frame made out of fence slats on top of the ground. Then I dug out a 4" deep walkway in between each bed and used that as fill dirt in the frames. By the time I'm done (which may take years) I'll have 3' wide pats with 4" deep gravel over clay walkways. In theory the unfriendly soil under the gravel should limit the weed growth. Over the top of all that will be a thin layer of compost that will be hand tilled into the ground (unless hubs can get our tiller fixed first). Since we just bought this place last spring this is the first year we're doing a garden here (and by the looks of things the first time there's ever been a garden here). I have concerns about how well the root vegetables will do with only 8' of loose soil to work with but it's all I can manage for now so we'll see. I'll probably have to build those beds up higher as they grow. If you have a lot of digging predators (moles, rabbits etc.) you'll probably want to put chicken wire or something under the beds, but I'm not bothering.

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=raised beds There's some great ideas on here for raised garden beds.

 

[dutchbunny83]

There's a ton of different ways of doing it. All I did was drop a 5'L x 5'W x 4"H wooden frame made out of fence slats on top of the ground. Then I dug out a 4" deep walkway in between each bed and used that as fill dirt in the frames. By the time I'm done (which may take years) I'll have 3' wide pats with 4" deep gravel over clay walkways. In theory the unfriendly soil under the gravel should limit the weed growth. Over the top of all that will be a thin layer of compost that will be hand tilled into the ground (unless hubs can get our tiller fixed first). Since we just bought this place last spring this is the first year we're doing a garden here (and by the looks of things the first time there's ever been a garden here). I have concerns about how well the root vegetables will do with only 8' of loose soil to work with but it's all I can manage for now so we'll see. I'll probably have to build those beds up higher as they grow. If you have a lot of digging predators (moles, rabbits etc.) you'll probably want to put chicken wire or something under the beds, but I'm not bothering.

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=raised beds There's some great ideas on here for raised garden beds.

Awesome, thank you!!!!

 

[Coop Scoop Boogie]

We don't do raised beds.....no need here even though we
have sand. We put manure from the horse pens and from
the chicken coops on the garden and till in to mix it, then let
it rest for the winter. By the time we plant it is ready to go. I
also have a guy who comes to get all my extra chicken poo.
He spreads it out on his lawn, bare dirt, flower pots, garden.....
anywhere he wants something to grow and it does.

 

[ChicknsRock]

Hello everybody! I haven't visited this thread in a while! Did everyone enjoy the snowfall last week? WRAL says there is going to be some more tonight, I hope so.

 

[bantambury]

Hello everybody! I haven't visited this thread in a while! Did everyone enjoy the snowfall last week? WRAL says there is going to be some more tonight, I hope so. 

Really?!?!? I hope so too! As much as i hate seeing snow whrn its around i love seeing it because its so scarce!

 

[Banriona]

We don't do raised beds.....no need here even though we
have sand. We put manure from the horse pens and from
the chicken coops on the garden and till in to mix it, then let
it rest for the winter. By the time we plant it is ready to go. I
also have a guy who comes to get all my extra chicken poo.
He spreads it out on his lawn, bare dirt, flower pots, garden.....
anywhere he wants something to grow and it does.

Sadly I don't have enough animals to go that route - yet. The best garden year I ever had was when I talked a friend of mine with horses, goats, cattle, chickens and a couple peacocks into letting me take a pickup truck full of her pile of 'barn waste'. Just spread the stuff over the top - didn't even mix it in. Planted a month or so later and boy howdy did we have a bumper crop! Maybe by next year when I've had a chance to amass more animal waste since we're getting more chickens this spring and a couple goats. In the meantime I'm gonna be asking my neighbors to give me some cr@p. ; )

 

[Coop Scoop Boogie]

Sadly I don't have enough animals to go that route - yet. The best garden year I ever had was when I talked a friend of mine with horses, goats, cattle, chickens and a couple peacocks into letting me take a pickup truck full of her pile of 'barn waste'. Just spread the stuff over the top - didn't even mix it in. Planted a month or so later and boy howdy did we have a bumper crop! Maybe by next year when I've had a chance to amass more animal waste since we're getting more chickens this spring and a couple goats. In the meantime I'm gonna be asking my neighbors to give me some cr@p. ; )

Check any and all boarding stables.....some will sell and some
will give it away just to get it gone. Ask local farmers with cattle,
horses or goats.