# Spring Garden Results......



## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

Bumper crops maters, cucs & dewberry's. Other crops were good onions, papas, corn didn't plant much but tasty, peas were great, cream peas are next, peppers so so. Did lots of canning & very pleased with the results. Got about 12 watermelons coming. Okra is coming on too. 
How did yall fair?


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## Reality Czech (Jul 17, 2004)

I scaled way back on my spring garden this year.
One 20ft row of trellised cukes and some okra.
Canned a dozen qts of pickles last month and that's enough for me.
I checked the garden today and that trellis is covered with football sized cukes. I've been gardening for a long time, but this is the first year I never had to water once.
Fall garden starts in 2 months,.....that's my favorite.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Excellent tomatoes, good potatoes, good onions, outstanding green beans, excellent pintos, ok squash, low output on peppers but still have some growing. 

Corn has been absolutely fabulous....planted 5 crops successively and now finishing off eating crop number 3 . Fed fresh corn and tomatoes to 14 people over the 4th and they all loved it. The G90 has been the best, better tasting than the peaches and cream but that may be due to panting dates. I expect to be eating fresh corn well through August....and will not be freezing or canning any this year; all extras will go to the cows. 

Have several melon plants and cucs still producing....and the guineas have been feasting on them along with us.

Other fruits: it was an outstanding year for Ouachita blackberries...excellent crop of berries. Good production out of my raspberries, logan berries and boysenberries. Peaches were so so and plums also. 

Have bushels and bushels of peas coming on...plus plantings for cover crops which will go well into September. My okra is just now starting to bloom...and expecting enough to feed this part of Polk county off one row. 

All things considered it was a fine spring in the garden....and summer is going great. Will be eating okra, peas, corn, and tomatoes from the garden the rest of the summer.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

My current garden status here in northern Minnesota:

Most of it is just now starting to take off. We have had a lot of cool weather. the temp this morning was 45 degrees!

This is the 1st year that I'm trying a dense planting of potatoes. Rows are 1 foot apart and plants are 1 foot apart within a row. Leaf mulch is 5 inches deep around all of the plants. The plants are so dense that there are no weeds to contend with. My guess is that there will be a lot more potatoes per square foot, but average a smaller size. Fertilized with homemade fish emulsion.

4 different varieties in this patch: Purple, White , Red, and Finger.

The blooming plants are the Purple variety. Very strange looking blossoms.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

More pictures from the garden: 7/7/15

Scallion bed: Most will be picked soon for use in potato salads, fried rice, etc.

Pepper plants have peppers up to 4 inches long now.

Tomatoes are just getting to golf ball size. Plants are still young and small.

Cucumbers are just starting to form


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Almost forgot the beets and leafy romaine!

Raspberries and blueberries are just starting to ripen now: Put netting over the blueberries this morning to keep the birds out. Strawberry picking is now about 1/2 completed for this season. Very good year for strawberries.

I have a large raccoon or small bear raiding the strawberries. Tore up the netting covering the plants. I set a live trap to try to catch it if it was a ****. Got a skunk instead. Not much fun dealing with that!


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

I done fair with Romano green beans and squash.Okra just started bearing.Only a few tomatoes.My whole garden drowned,so everything is second planting.The honeydew melons have really taken off.Worst luck I've every had trying to put a garden in,but it's been a blast.I'm already planning a fall garden.That's about a month away.That reminds me.A cat I use to work with was bringing in big tomatoes,onions,and fried okra every day at lunch,so I commented about how he must have a good garden.He said all that stuff came out of his late garden.It finally hit me that it was only June.He said he watched his neighbors lights go off,he'd go and pick his garden.Usually about 10am.


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## goatchze (Aug 1, 2006)

Cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, and tomatoes all did very well.

Habaneros and Tabascos doing excellent.

Other peppers, fair-to-middling

Squash and melons of all types failed.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

peckerwood said:


> .....He said all that stuff came out of his late garden.It finally hit me that it was only June.He said he watched his neighbors lights go off,he'd go and pick his garden.Usually about 10am.


 ROTFLOL :rotfl:


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Dick Hanks said:


> Almost forgot the beets and leafy romaine!
> 
> Raspberries and blueberries are just starting to ripen now: Put netting over the blueberries this morning to keep the birds out. Strawberry picking is now about 1/2 completed for this season. Very good year for strawberries.
> 
> I have a large raccoon or small bear raiding the strawberries. Tore up the netting covering the plants. I set a live trap to try to catch it if it was a ****. Got a skunk instead. Not much fun dealing with that!


 I set up a game camera to find out what was raiding the strawberries. This guy won't fit in my live trap. He is going to be a problem.. Will have to set up an electric fence.


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## fishingtwo (Feb 23, 2009)

Mr. Hanks 

Be careful with the strawberries.

That Bear looks like a big problem. The second pic looks like he is smiling..lol
How do you make the fish emulsion?


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

Dick Hanks said:


> I set up a game camera to find out what was raiding the strawberries. This guy won't fit in my live trap. He is going to be a problem.. Will have to set up an electric fence.


No bears here. LOL Dick can you choot it? I'd like to have a bear rug. Knowing me if I saw that bear in my garden I'd probably SSS.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

fishingtwo said:


> Mr. Hanks
> 
> Be careful with the strawberries.
> 
> ...


 The bear may actually be smiling in those pictures. The strawberries are very sweet and delicious this year.

The bear looks like he is only a 2 year old in the range of about 150 to 175# size.

Randy... I'd like to just SSS with the bear, but there are a bunch of them around this year. Too many to do the SSS with. I will hunt them later, in the early fall, when the season opens. It was a very long day today, but I did get an electric fence put up that goes around on the outside of the high fence. Hopefully that will help keep the bears out of the rest of the fruit and maybe help keep the deer, squirrels and everything else out too.

Making fish emulsion: Check for a new thread that I will post today.


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## chumy (Jul 13, 2012)

I've seen better years. Too much water and hail. I tilled in the spring when it was wet, now its like concrete.
Butter nut squash I believe will grow in the cracks of concrete. That stuff took over the garden
Okra just beginning to bloom. replanted them 3 times. Two lone cuke plants survived and now I've giving them away. Maybe some of my pepper plants will take off in the fall, they haven't done much to date.


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## cva34 (Dec 22, 2008)

*Bad ju ju*



chumy said:


> I've seen better years. Too much water and hail. I tilled in the spring when it was wet, now its like concrete.
> Butter nut squash I believe will grow in the cracks of concrete. That stuff took over the garden
> Okra just beginning to bloom. replanted them 3 times. Two lone cuke plants survived and now I've giving them away. Maybe some of my pepper plants will take off in the fall, they haven't done much to date.


I have to agree..Worst garden I ever had,,,Okra /peppers/pole beans /black berrys all did good...Everything else did not do well..I usually make hundreds of pounds of Tomatoes..This year I bet I did not get 10 pounds..Just too much Rain I Guess...


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## Rubberback (Sep 9, 2008)

Dick Hanks said:


> The bear may actually be smiling in those pictures. The strawberries are very sweet and delicious this year.
> 
> The bear looks like he is only a 2 year old in the range of about 150 to 175# size.
> 
> ...


Put some peanut butter on it. That way he will learn not to go in there. 
I picked a few melons. Man their juicy.


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Rubberback said:


> Put some peanut butter on it. That way he will learn not to go in there.
> I picked a few melons. Man their juicy.


 Yep, will be doing the peanut butter on a piece of tin foil placed on the hot wire. So far, the electric fence is keeping everything out.

Those watermelons look great. We had a cold spring, and I'm a little worried if my melon plants will have ripe fruit before our 1st frost comes. The fruit is just starting to form now.


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## bowmansdad (Nov 29, 2011)

This was our worst garden ever. Between the rain and the bugs it was almost a total loss. Down to 4 jalapeÃ±o plants that wintered over and should do really well when it cools off. Going to redo the garden beds for next year, going from 16 4x8 beds to 4 4x8 beds that are raised about 16". I have plenty of chicken and horse manure compost to fill them.


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## The Driver. (May 20, 2004)

First I would like to thank RFA for steering me in the right direction on nitrogen issue due to potting soil mix with to much mulch. 

Navaho, Natchez and Arapaho blackberries were outstanding this year. Ended up with close to 250 lbs harvested. Heritage Red Raspberries did well also. Peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers have rebounded. Green beans were so/so. Squash was a bust. Cantaloupes are doing well in berry patch. Just planted purple hull peas this past Sunday. Moving to using hog panels for berries, beans and peas. Adding 2" septic rock to walkway's.


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

Rubberback said:


> Put some peanut butter on it. That way he will learn not to go in there.
> I picked a few melons. Man their juicy.


Good looking pisss bullets! Dad said when growing up,they would put a melon in a tow-sack and drop it down in the well with a rope for a couple days,and swear it was so cold it hurt your teeth.I'll always figured in the days without A/C,or even electricity and box fans,a 60 degree melon would be cold.


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