chuckwood
Addicted to ArboristSite
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2008
- Messages
- 8,681
- Reaction score
- 15,518
- Location
- near the Great Smoky Mtns. Tennessee
This year I got stuff planted on time, in mid March. I had a few frost scares but dealt with it by covering plants with styrofoam coffee cups. So far I got four long rows of taters, 3 rows of sugar ann peas, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, two rows of onions, and a row of garlic. Later I'll be transplanting lots of leeks. It's still going down into the 40's at night and I'm paranoid about an April freeze, so the beans, corn, okra, tomatoes etc. are going in later, at least a week from now. I can and freeze, and this year will be my biggest garden ever. Food prices are going up and I'm buying a lot less meat. I'm aiming for producing mostly organically grown produce, with minimum use of fertilizers and pesticides. I'm bringing mulch in by the truckload, and instead of constant rototilling and watering, I'm laying down a carpet of partly composted leaves. This cools the soil and prevents moisture from evaporating out. In dry periods last year, the soil was still moist under the leaves. Leaves also prevent weeds from growing. Its a lot of work but once it's done, there's not much more work involved.