[carbking]

Bob - some of the chicken manure based fertilizers CAN be good, if that is what your garden needs.

When my folks moved from Randolph County Missouri to Miller County Missouri some 55 years ago, Dad would lime the garden every other year. Randolph County had a loamy soil, that required lime periodically. Dad was unhappy that his garden was nowhere near as good in Miller County. Someone talked him into a load of chicken manure, and the garden got worse!!! I took some soil samples, and submitted them to the University of Missouri Extension service. Turns out Miller County is one huge limestone rock, and the "topsoil" is fragments from that big rock. The ph of the soil NEVER needs lime. I had to plow gypsum into the soil to counteract the lime!!!!! Then started soil tests every other year, and heeding the advice given with the test results. The organic material in the soil was extremely low, so a couple of loads of sawdust from the local wood processing plant, with plenty of nitrogen to break down the wood. Also, have dumped tons (literally) of grass, leaves, etc. on the garden, always with the extra nitrogen required to break up the material, and plowed it under.

Gardening is just like anything else. If one is not in the business, sometimes a good idea to get some professional advice. Of money we have spent for seed, tillers, tools, etc. over the years; the biggest "bang for the buck" has been the soil tests!

Jon.

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by carbking

Oh, and the electronic whizbang that is supposed to keep the animals out of the garden. Is just about as reliable as one of the electronic whizbangs sold to the car hobby! Watch the squirrels dance to the beat of the ultrasonic pulses. A real P.T. Barnum item. I guess I joined the club of "true believers"!

Jon.

Which "whizbang" do you have? I watched Giant Ground hogs walk right past my " animal repellent " granules to munch on the Cauliflower. tested it on my Foxhound, he doesnt mind it either...
Voles abound. but my garden is all raised, but they climb and jump.

[dataway]

A local hawk population does wonders for keeping animals out of the garden if it's in an open area where they have to cross open space to get to the garden.

[GT182]

I work in a lady's flower garden, and have for the past 11 years. This year has been a bitch. Deer have eaten most of the buds off of a various variety of flowers and hostas. Plus the late frosts here this Spring did a lot damage to the trees.

Be thankful you guys don't have the Spotted Lantern fly. It came into Philadelphia on a ship from Asia 2 years ago, and so far has spread to northern Delaware. Looks to be heading west and could end up in Ohio soon. They say it will kill trees. We've seen it in maple trees. This year the neighbor lady used duct tape to circle the trees with the sticky side out. The tapes are loaded with the nymphs. It's going to be a bad year here. They say "You see em... kill em". The worst part is the State won't spray to kill them.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=lanter...fa2ccaf5c205c2

Scroll down and read.... "People Ask". That will give you some good info on what to do. Also read "Related searches for lantern fly".

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by dataway

A local hawk population does wonders for keeping animals out of the garden if it's in an open area where they have to cross open space to get to the garden.

We do have Coopers Hawks here, but I live near a river and there is plenty of food nearby. Only time they really like to feed here is cold winter days when the rodents are gone and the only food is slow ass morning Doves.

[carbking]

Live traps baited with peanut butter on a piece of toast or unsalted soda cracker will control the squirrels.

Live traps baited with ripe cantaloupe will control the ground hogs, and O'possums.

Mole traps will control the moles; but they MUST be correctly installed.

A four-ten will control the rabbits.

Have yet to find a control for the deer. Neighbor has LOUD dogs about 100 feet from the garden. Deer know how far the dog's chain will reach, and ignore the dogs. The deer have really been annoying over the years munching on the pecan, walnut, and pawpaw trees that I have planted.

The Japanese Beetles have not yet made an appearance this year. Going to try a car vacuum to remove them from the plants, and then dispose of the sack full of beetles. Hope it works.

Jon.

[ta6point6]

Well I guess city living can have its advantages with less critters. Small yard so small garden and only have tomatoes and jalapeno in our garden. The salsa is great from the garden, nothing like it. Plus a tomato from the garden actually tastes like fruit rather then the red Styrofoam ball they have in the supermarket. Also have a rhubarb plant that has struggled for the past 3 years to impress. We have had good luck with tomatoes, we have always planted a banana peel with each tomato plant. My wife heard that epson salt was good as well for tomato plants . So she used a banana peel and epson salt combo, the tomato plants lasted a few days before they all died. It was a perfect I told you so moment, so I refrained..................for about 15 minutes. I might have switch to Dr Z to get tomatoes like this WOW

[fyrffytr1]

My garden for this year consists of a half packet of lima beans I found when I cleaned out my brothers belongings last Sept. and a volunteer tomato plant that came up in a flower bed. The tomato plant looks better than any I have ever planted and it has several small maters on it right now. I planted the beans in a bare spot behind my shop about two weeks ago and almost all of them came up. They are about 4"s tall. The tomato plant is about 3 feet tall and I will have to tie some of the limbs to the cage to support them. I can't wait for some of the tomatoes to get big enough to fry!

[Greg Reid]

My tomatoes look better this year than ever. We have between 10 and 15 green tomatoes on each of our 6 plants already. I love fried green tomatoes so much it's hard for me not to pick them now.
Other than that, green beans, squash, cucumbers and peppers. All looking good right now. Also, have several spices and herbs (basil, rosemary, lemon balm, etc., Oh yeah, one watermelon and one cantaloupe, some carrots and onions.

[Greg Reid]

Pulled these out of the garden today. I tilled the plot up on the 10th (Mother's day) and only 30 days after placing the plants in the ground, got this... Nothing special, just an 81 square foot garden..just an experiment actually to see if the ground was any good. It was woods two or three years ago..

[Dadspackard]

Greg,

Nice harvest. We have only had one purple bell pepper so far. Late planting here....

[Greg Reid]

The results were unexpectedly good. Definitely going larger next year as the green beans, squash, cantaloupe and cucumbers are literally taking over the entire space.

[carbking]

Well - final for garden 2020 edition:

The zucchini were a real disappointment (bad year), and both of us really enjoy zucchini, but not this year.

Just finished digging the last of the carrots, so the garden is now finished, except for a soil sample to send to University of Missouri, in case I do this next year.

For the first time, decided to actually log what we grew, and evaluate if the end justifies the expense (it does).

Here is the final tally for each vegetable in pounds:

Beets - 46
Cabbage - 13 (early only), the bugs got the later cabbage
Carrots - 25
Cucumbers - 37
Eggplant - 8 (another dud, but not as bad as the non-existent zucchini)
Green beans - 38
Green peppers - 12
Potatoes - 38
Swiss chard - 7
Tomatoes - 70
Turnips - 23

Total of 317 pounds of produce. Not bad.

Interesting that the Japanese beetles which caused me a lot of work last year didn't show up this year. I saw only one the entire year, and he/she/it was quickly euthanized.

Jon

[johnta1]

No watermelon!?

[carbking]

Originally Posted by johnta1

No watermelon!?

I was blessed with many food allergies, watermelon is one of them!

Jon

[Greg Reid]

I stopped looking very much at our little patch when the weather turned 'real' winter...for down here at least... Anyway, went out the other day and looked at it and had several beautiful broccoli heads. They were a delicious surprise served with salmon and baked potato. I never grew broccoli and didn't know that they matured in cold weather....?

[GT182]

Plant garlic and that will keep a lot of pests away... including deer. Use seed garlic as the store bought garlic doesn't work as well. And you get a good crop of garlic that's better than any bought in a grocery store.

It's still to nasty to start gardening here. Hopefully I can get back to work in a week or so.

[77 TRASHCAN]

Hope Jon plants again, this year!!!

[carcrazy]

Doing raised bed gardening this year to at least keep the rabbits out. Plan on nets to reduce some of the other pests. Hawks on my property seem to be pretty lazy as the squirrel population is out of hand. May have to break out the Gammo pellet gun!

[carbking]

Quote "Hope Jon plants again, this year!!!" End quote

Jon will be planting again this spring.

Ordered, and received:

Beets
Green beans
Turnips
Spinach
Summer squash
Swiss chard
1 box of 410 shells

Will acquire eggplant, tomato, and pepper plants when available.

Will put out the artificial owls so the rabbits can make faces at them!

Gardening is wonderful exercise (getting on and off of the John Deere )

Actually, I do enjoy the hand tilling as long as we don't have two consecutive weeks of rain, and the weeds get ahead of me.

And the produce is far superior (and not touched by other than me) to what is available in the grocery stores. Plus, I know what chemicals were used.

Giving up on the cabbage, carrots, and potatoes.

Oh, and from my post number 26 above: "Live traps baited with peanut butter on a piece of toast or unsalted soda cracker will control the squirrels." Another animal that likes peanut butter on a piece of toast looks like a Halloween cat (black) with a long bushy tail, and a white stripe down its back! Ask me how I know!


Jon.