((Serious Gardening))

[feather and mountain man]

Uhg my back is breaking from shoveling compost on to my garden. Then I built a raised bed but my back hurt to much to fill it with compost and soil. So I guess I know what I'll be doing tomorrow. I am so eager to have plants in the ground I can already taste the veggies.

 

[Kassaundra]

We do some gardening every year, but this year we are implementing what we are calling our "master plan". We got chickens in Sept, and plan on employing them as out cheap labor force. We put a coop in the center of a 50 x 50 spot each coop has 8 smaller garden spots around it which we will rotate the chicken through several times a year. We plan on companion planting each section in 3 wk intervals. (4 gardens will be for short term growing harvesting and 4 will be for long term growing and harvesting.) Each garden area will grow food for us and the chickens. We will plant the chicken food in the less accessible areas. Each corner (8) around the garden will have a semi dwarf fruit tree. We are already a little behind, so it may not be 100% this year, but we'll keep chiping away at it. Our goal is to try and get as close to 100% of our fruit and veggie consumption as possible using our suburban back yard.

 

[Smittenroade]

Quote:
Lol its a good thing it is NOT PVC.

I've put quite a bit research and thinking into it all. There is always a way to tie it down, but I'll figure that out after I get everything ready.

Dead on the money NanaKat. That was actually an old tractor-port frame, its aluminum. I recycled it kinda like you recycled your KFC bucket Junkmanme

Anyways, yea the drip irrigation system runs off rain water and gravity. I like the idea because those recources are in endless supply. My goal is to be able to produce nearly everything organic and not rely on the Government for anything.

Some good ideas there flgardengirl thats pretty much what mine is, an old car port frame, or tractor in our case.

feather and mountain man haha yea the compost does get heavy! Mine can't finish though because my family just got on a compost kick and throws everything in there now. So, It's not all composting at once. What a pain.

Kassaundra Thats an excellent idea, and they are definately a hard-working labor force. They don't come with any unions either.

They are just about the best at tilling and fertilizing a large area in a short time.

 

[featherbaby]

Quote:
You're not doing something right if your back doesn't hurt! HA! I've ruined mine over the years with gardening and lifting 40# bags of compost, mulch, fertilizer, etc. I like my raised beds though. When I get bags of peat/cow I roll them out of my van into the wheelbarrow (a 2 wheel cart actually). Then I use the wheelbarrow to leverage the bags from it to dump into the bed, without having to lift them. Let gravity be your friend for a change.

What are you going to grow this year? Do you raise them from seed or buy starter plants?

 

[StupidBird]

I am SO happy I found this topic! As I drink my coffee, I am looking out the window at what was, until Monday, a green back yard. With real grass. Now, I have another 20x120 freshly plowed area. I'd have had it done up to the back door, another 30 feet, but for all the utilities.

I think it is a lot! I have twelve 3- 4 ft x 25 ft beds, plus the new mini-orchard, plus the new 25 each strawberry and asparagus, plus odd beds everywhere, and then there's the kitchen garden of six really pretty, sit-on-the-sides raised beds.

Often, I wonder what the neighbors think. I also keep about a dozen exotic "African ground dwelling parrots". All this on an acre subdivision lot somewhere in the greater Atlanta area. Our friends alternate between "you're crazy" to "you're geniuses!", depending on how recently they've gone grocery shopping.

I only hope our backs are up to it! The current season's compost bin is over 10x10 ft. The plow found part of Stone Mountain in the new area. It's being divided into four sections for ease of care, access to the rest of the "grounds" and crop rotation. Sweet corn, winter squash, beans, peppers and tomatoes. (I just gotta build one of those seed starting racks, wait, no, at least two)

HOW ON EARTH do you manage to prioritize things? To get done what needs to be done WHEN it needs to be done??? My brain feels like a little yappy dog set loose in a backyard full of squirrels - everything all at once and accomplish nothing!

 

[galanie]

Quote:
You're not doing something right if your back doesn't hurt! HA! I've ruined mine over the years with gardening and lifting 40# bags of compost, mulch, fertilizer, etc. I like my raised beds though. When I get bags of peat/cow I roll them out of my van into the wheelbarrow (a 2 wheel cart actually). Then I use the wheelbarrow to leverage the bags from it to dump into the bed, without having to lift them. Let gravity be your friend for a change.

What are you going to grow this year? Do you raise them from seed or buy starter plants?

haha I do the same thing only with a 3'x4' plastic tray thing with 10" sides that I just slide across the ground. I hook it to my riding mower to move it after rolling the bags into it from my truck then either roll them out into place or open them right there and do whatever. Wheelbarrows/Carts are nice but I'm hooked on this slide thing. No wheels to go flat and stuff, you know. I have no idea where it came from, it was my mother's who was also an avid gardener.

Shoveling gets done a little at a time since I have 2 slipped discs already that they can't really do much for (or should I say - I won't let them since there's only a 50/50 chance it will even help in my case). Compost doesn't get turned much around here but it will rot if I mix it right and wait long enough anyway.

Where there's a will, there's always a way!

 

[LaBaze]

Quote:
Did you notice on the bottom it says
"took this from on the house roof" then as your signature it says
"living on the edge"

 

[galanie]

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I started making my raised beds right at my back porch and my neighbors think I'm crazy. But that's the best place, and I *want* to see my garden! I want it where I can look at it and look after it easiest! Then I started getting chickens... but that's another obsession completely.

As for the yappy dogs, What a perfect description of the way my brain feels like when I'm outside now! When I'm doing one thing, all I can think about is all the other things I want to do. If only I could do them all at once!

My goal, also, is to grow most, if not all, of my food. Eventually even meat. Not at the point of butchering chickens YET but this 1/2 acre suburban lot should grow most of my needs since it's only me. And every time I look out there all I can think of is where my next raised bed will be! Among a dozen other things... LOL

 

[ARose4Heaven]

Ya all are so efficient! I sit and look out over the skeleton of a 24' x 16' commercial-grade greenhouse. My dad got it at auction. Unfortunately, my DH has claimed it, and it has set for 2 years....unused. It looks a little like a whale carcass beached at the end of the garden.

He did finally get around to mounting skids under the sides...but alas, the lumber in the junk pile wasn't long enough for the ends, and the unemployment checks ran out, so again, it sits. I see that he also bought some of that 6 mil Walmart plastic to cover it. But now, he's gotten a job

and his time will be limited. I may just put myself to the task, after rebuilding the chicken pasture fences to protect the birds from the tenant's horses.

 

[StupidBird]

Questions!!!

What do you think of using the concrete board that goes under tile, or the concrete board siding, in the veggie garden? (free scraps)

any uses for odd 12x12 inch heavy duty ceramic tile?