What did you do in the garden today?

[hencrazy]

Seriously? We are in the middle of a huge blizzard. I just spent the last 3 hours digging my car out of a drift the size of my coop.

 

[Tiddbit74]

Seriously? We are in the middle of a huge blizzard. I just spent the last 3 hours digging my car out of a drift the size of my coop.

That is horrible!

Where are you at?

 

[hencrazy]

Minnesota of course! Only here can you still have snowbanks in June.

 

[cmcanallen]

Minnesota of course! Only here can you still have snowbanks in June.

That's one of the many reasons I love Texas. Although this year we are having an unreasonably cold spring. Normally I have my garden completely planted by mid-March. This year we're still dropping into freezing temps at night. Hopefully the last freeze will come this weekend. I'm tired of having to cover my beds every night.

 

[Tiddbit74]

That's one of the many reasons I love Texas. Although this year we are having an unreasonably cold spring. Normally I have my garden completely planted by mid-March. This year we're still dropping into freezing temps at night. Hopefully the last freeze will come this weekend. I'm tired of having to cover my beds every night.

We've had a cooler spring this year than last. I was so happy to get my gardens planted. Hopefully it will stay warm now. Is Tyler in the northern part of the state?

 

[cmcanallen]

We've had a cooler spring this year than last. I was so happy to get my gardens planted. Hopefully it will stay warm now. Is Tyler in the northern part of the state?

Northeast, smackdab between DFW area and the Louisiana boarder

 

[cravenchx]

So this weekend was very productive garden wise. Planted beans, carrots, beets, radishes, cabbage.
May be a little late on some, but the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Hopefully the sunburn won't peel!

 

[erinszoo]

Quote:
We're having a really cold spring too here in northern Oklahoma. It's not fun as far as I'm concerned. Last year I had my tomatoes in the ground by the second week of March and was eating tomatoes in May. This year I'll be lucky if the tomatoes are in the ground by May and if I get to eat any before the summer gets too hot for the fruit to set on the vines. Hoping this last cold spell this week will be the last too!! My greenhouse needs to come down but it's still too cold. Guess I'll have plenty of lettuce, potatoes, carrots, and spinach. Maybe my peas will start blooming soon too. They are certainly big enough.

In the garden we added more straw bales for gardening in and fixed a hole in the roof of the greenhouse. Started keeping a produce journal too of how much we are harvesting for both ourselves and our birds and rabbits. We grow fodder so I keep track of that too. I just keep seeing these books and stories of people who are harvesting thousands of pounds of food from their 1/4 acre yard and stuff so I wanted to see actually how much we get since we grow pretty intensively and have 1/4 acre. I can't imagine it's going to be 1,000's of pounds but we'll see. Spinach, lettuce, and celery don't weigh much and that's all I'm harvesting so far. Of course we have potatoes and winter squash so they'll weigh quite a bit. Maybe I should add in the meat birds we raise for the freezer too.

 

[cmcanallen]

We're having a really cold spring too here in northern Oklahoma. It's not fun as far as I'm concerned. Last year I had my tomatoes in the ground by the second week of March and was eating tomatoes in May. This year I'll be lucky if the tomatoes are in the ground by May and if I get to eat any before the summer gets too hot for the fruit to set on the vines. Hoping this last cold spell this week will be the last too!! My greenhouse needs to come down but it's still too cold. Guess I'll have plenty of lettuce, potatoes, carrots, and spinach. Maybe my peas will start blooming soon too. They are certainly big enough.

In the garden we added more straw bales for gardening in and fixed a hole in the roof of the greenhouse. Started keeping a produce journal too of how much we are harvesting for both ourselves and our birds and rabbits. We grow fodder so I keep track of that too. I just keep seeing these books and stories of people who are harvesting thousands of pounds of food from their 1/4 acre yard and stuff so I wanted to see actually how much we get since we grow pretty intensively and have 1/4 acre. I can't imagine it's going to be 1,000's of pounds but we'll see. Spinach, lettuce, and celery don't weigh much and that's all I'm harvesting so far. Of course we have potatoes and winter squash so they'll weigh quite a bit. Maybe I should add in the meat birds we raise for the freezer too.

I don't know about thousands of pounds but I only have 1/3 acre, with only a 32x24 ft plot planted on right now and grow enough to feed my family throughout the year after I can and dry what I can. Plus I make a pretty good income from selling extra at the local farmer's market. And that's just what I'm starting with. I have plans to expand the garden, add a couple chicken and turkey coops, put in a 40 tree orchard and a vineyard. You can do a lot if you plan your setup right.

 

[erinszoo]

Our biggest issue with getting enough garden space is the way the property is set up. The entire front and west sides of the house are in shade all day. The entire east side is a 9 foot wide driveway which runs all the way to the garage behind our house. We're utilizing it with straw bales this year but only a third of it gets enough sunlight. Your garden is 4 x the size of ours and I can maybe add two more 3 x 9 raised beds that will get enough sun. Unless the neighbors cut down trees or we get more land I just don't see it being possible to feed us and make income from the garden. Not even sure we can feed us. I have stuff squeezed in everywhere, even strawberries in hanging gutters, herbs in the windowsills, fodder in the kitchen, sunflowers in the one patch of sunlight on the fence row, etc. But we shall see at the end of the season how we actually do.