What did you do in the garden today?

[ackie]

We got lucky with good soil here but we had to till it a lot unfortunately. Our property had been used as a watermelon farm about 20-30 years ago and no one smoothed to ruts out. There’s an area on the back of the property with 30ft pines growing out of watermelon ruts it’s a little crazy.

ours was a Christmas tree farm but I'm not sure if there were christmas trees where the garden is now or not. nothing here is level anyway. pretty much any flat land has been (human)made flat.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I'm in the Ozark foothills. All red clay and rocks here.... I had to till last spring. Will need to till again this spring to add more compost amendment to the soil. It is too compact right now. But I keep hoping that I will get to a point where I don't have to till anymore....

 

[ackie]

the garden is fenced in so it limits my tilling options anyway. weve taken the fence down at the moment because it was rotten - they dont make pressure treated lumber like they used to - but it still seems too narrow to get any machinery into... plus I'm told our tiller is broken anyway.

we added a bunch of earthworms to it a few years ago. SOs company bought a convenience store & the owners left a nicely sized mini fridge in it that SO wanted to keep.... and it happened to be full of live worms for fishing bait. SO got the fridge and my garden got the worms!

 

[BReeder!]

I have found tilling to be destructive. While in some places it is needed initially to break down clay sods, it really disturbs and destroys the layered biome of what you are trying to promote. Then you have to amend and suppliment the soil and hope it all settles back out. While tilling year after year looks nice, it is a lot of work.
I was shocked the year I dumped 2 ton of hay on my patch of virgin prairie earth you couldn't put a shovel into it was so dense, and came out in the spring with black gold. It composted all winter, brought the earth worms up and let them do their thing, smothered the weeds/grass, and gave me the richest soil I've had i a long time. OC then I built a barn over that spot. LOL

Moved the garden and repeated the process. but still.

2 tons?! How big was the garden plot?

 

[WthrLady]

hahahah of course

that's awesome though

our soil is red Georgia clay. with lots of rocks!

Works there too. I used this method on Alabama red clay, miss that red earth, works a dream.

 

[WthrLady]

2 tons?! How big was the garden plot?

initial plot was 60 foot square. The round bales laid out started at almost 3 foot thick in places and compacted over winter down to 6-10 inches. When I first put it out, I had to go look for hens that were burrowing like ground owls for bugs and grubs all day, and then just kept going until bedtime, but didn't want to come out.

 

[WthrLady]

My hay round were free though and my sod was virgin prairie sod that was 18 inches thick of prairie grass roots, which go down more than 10-18 feet. Not a usual homeowner problem.

 

[Sally PB]

my seed potatoes and onion sets have arrived they weren,t supposed to get here until next month .now i don,t know how to keep them

Cool and dark; not too much humidity. I have potatoes and onions I dug in August in my basement. They look like when I dug them, minus the dirt.

but your sweet potatoes look like dolphins

I thought the same thing!

 

[BReeder!]

I have a large bag of garlic I hot at the grocery store. I really like the taste and size - it's spicier and larger than the stuff we usually get. It looks like a hard neck variety a central woody stem extending off a base. I want to try to grow this garlic in the garden. Any ideas to test if it will sprout? Also, we are well into winter but this year has been mild. I can dig the soil in the raised beds still, so is it safe to plant now? I hear waiting for Spring tends to result in less growth of the bulbs.

 

[WthrLady]

Right. They like that cold set. I'd still pop them in the fridge for a couple weeks. Then plant and cover.