# Show us your garden



## eugene13

Here's why I don't participate very much during the warm months, my 25 ft X 50 ft vegetable garden, water is expensive here so I have everything on a drip system.  In the foreground (that you can't see) are the pumpkins, lettuce, carrots, kale, onions, beans, and leeks, all of this is just now coming up, and where I'm standing is squash, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, fennel and more peppers.  All surrounded by an 8 ft high smooth wire fence energized with a Gallagher solar charger.  Very entertaining when the current crop of mule deer fauns are out and about.  My wife and I can and freeze a lot but we share with the Senior Citizens and the local food bank.  It would probably be cheaper to buy at the store, but it's good exercise and I just like to grow stuff.  The second picture is a box of U-joints given me by a friend, they're marked GM-Delphi and have a sliding shaft, if anyone needs one they're free, just pay postage.  The last pic is my rusty wrench collection that I finally got around to hanging up on the wall, the two stillotsens on the left I got from my grandfather, those are his keys hanging between them, and the rest I got from yard sales and junk stores.  Happy Summer Everyone.


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## Gaffer

That's a great garden! I have two, 4x8 planters with some herbs, tomatoes and strawberries, but it doesn't compare to your operation. It's great you are looking after our seniors.


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## silence dogood

Looks almost like that painting by Grant Wood "American Gothic".


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## speedybtx

yes Sir!  Nice plot.   I need some Bees to come around. Lots of flowers on Melons, Cukes, Squash. 

BTW that hill behind you (a mountain in this area) is lacking only a nice Howitzer


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## projectnut

Both my parents were big into gardening.  When we were kids we lived in the country.  My dad was into vegetable gardening and my mom loved her flowers.  The main vegie garden was about half an acre.  Then there was the watermelon patch, the pumpkin patch, the fruit trees, and of course a patch to grow gourds for decorations.  In total there was about 1 acre in fruits and vegies, and another 1/4 acre in flowers.

Every spring dad would plow and disk the gardens.  Then the whole family would lay out the rows and begin planting.  As things started to grow the 5 boys were assigned rows to weed and hoe.  Dad would do the cultivating with the tractor, but the tedious hand weeding was done by us kids.  We knew everything would taste good and there would be an abundance to eat and give away in the fall.  Somehow it still seemed like punishment to crawl around the garden on our hands and knees weeding the plants in the hot summer sun.  It seemed like the job never ended.  By the time you got through every row it was time to start all over again.

When my wife and I got married she thought growing some veggies would be fun. I bit my lip and said SURE.  I cut the sod, rototilled the plot, laid out the rows, planted the veggies, and sat  back to admire my work.  That lasted about a day.  The rabbits, squirrels, and birds immediately came to feast.  By the end of the summer the only things left were a few scraggly tomato plants.  When the tomatoes did start to ripen once again the rabbits showed up. 

For a summers work we had about half a dozen half ripe tomatoes.  That was as far as it went.  We pulled up the remaining plants, rototilled one more time and planted grass seed.  Now I drive over the area with the mower every 4 to 5 days and smile.


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## eugene13

Thank you, my neighbor in the white house in the background has the bees and I'm one of those crazy people that doesn't mind pulling weeds, but mulching with grass clippings nearly eliminates that chore and helps conserve water.  My biggest threat is spring thunderstorms with hail, this is my favorite time of year, I will post more pictures as things grow, thanks again.


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## savarin

I love the planning and planting but hate the maintenance, luckily swmbo enjoys the maintenance side.
Just finishing a glut of wing beans and loofa (eaten as a veggie), still producing heaps of kang-kong, Okinawa spinich, sweet potatoes, passion fruits, basil, thyme, oregano, paw paw and those twice dammed cherry tomatoes, the bananas have just flowered so another 6-8 months for those. We will have left the house when they ripen.
No pics, too lazy.


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## finsruskw

1st pass through then sweet corn with my 1964 Cub Cadet model 100 and Brinly cultivator.
Was late getting it in due to all the rain last month.
Will hit it one more time (I hope) before it gets too tall in a week or so.
Was going to use the walk behind tiller  but the rows were too close together for comfort.
This was more fun anyway!!


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## mmcmdl

Fin , ya gotta luv them Cubbies !


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## eugene13

I have a Cub that was sold by Montgomery Ward, it sat in my neighbors yard for years before I bought it, all it needed was a new ignition.  It's an 80s vintage and you can still get parts for it, just now replaced the deck belts and idlers.  It's name is the Turd Launcher, it's kind of ratty but it gets the job done and it saved the summer four years ago when the wife's new Craftsman rider puked and engine after only two hours running.  Ok here we are with a months growth, all we needed was some warm weather and some rain, so far we've dodged the bullet with three thunderstorms.  Sorry about the lack of pictures, the rest are all too big to download.


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## eugene13

I started this thread to try to keep in touch during the summer, but when it's nice outside the computer has a very low priority, so I'm going to finish it off as what I did on my summer "vacation".  I cleaned up the back yard, and helped a friend who was moving clean up his lot and ended up with enough scrap metal to fill my trailer and justify a trip to the shredder.  Part of the the cleanup bounty was these 16 ton Duff Norton screw jacks, I don't know what I'll do with them, but they were just too nice to scrap,  I also got a 2766 to 1 gear reducer, it has a intermittent duty 120 volt, and the output shaft turns at 12 RPM.  My friend told me it was for the traveling screen on a river pump intake.  Supper time, more tomorrow.


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## mmcmdl

Hey , I see a Pinto !  Hopefully , I cut the grass for the last time today .


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## middle.road

We're not discussing how our tomato patch turned out this year. It was pitiful.
In years past since we moved here we've been planting 6-8 plants in a strip up close to the house to keep the varmints at bay.
And in years past we pickup our plants at a local church rummage sale that happens in May.
Well with the virus that sale didn't happen this year. Picked up six plants at HD. Darn costly!
They didn't perform well. Thankfully there's a number of local farmers around here that know how to do it up correctly.
We have four tomatoes left on the counter to eat this week.


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## mmcmdl

I don't think we got one mater this year Dan .


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## f350ca

I start my tomatoes from seed in March, then out to the green house in April. This year bought seed at the local hardware store, small tomatoes that never went real red, more orange and got black spots on them. Poor crop.
Grow hot peppers in the green house all summer, bumper crop of them this year.
Pathetic garlic crop again, huge tops, small cloves, switched seed this fall, see if next year is any beter, plant about 400 cloves.

Greg


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## fixerup

I also spend more time enjoying the summer outdoors or in my vegetable garden, I keep most of my hobby shop time for the cold winter. I wish I had a huge garden plot like, your place looks amazing. I live in city and have limit garden space but I use every inch of it and very close to each other.  I like to try new crop, I grow lettuce , kale, mizuna, goulaga, couve, spinach, malabar,chard, garlic, carrots, chuffa nut, ochra, tomatillo, tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, green purple yellow beans, sun flower, zuchini, sorel, walking oinions, chives, peppers, cucumber ..........
 I also install an electric fence to protect my garden but mostly my grape arbor from the raccoons. Finally this year no raccoons was able to climb the arbor.  I harvested more than 10 X 5gallon pails of concords and somerset grapes, which I made jelly and juice. Now that the weather has shifted, I have turn the heated floor in the garage and getting ready for some cozy winter project. I plan to restore a Keller die filer and 1956 TRW 500  Triumph.


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## middle.road

Way back when...
The tool room was up on the mezzanine that went around the shop floor, steam radiators darn near all around also, with those circa 1928 industrial building windows.
The Tool Maker Carl, whom I've mentioned a time or two in other posts, would start tomatoes & pepper seedlings in March in those small Dixie bathroom cups. And they were on ledges by the radiators everywhere.
Then when planting time came he'd pass them out to anyone who wanted them. Never had enough to satisfy demand.


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## bill70j

New Mexico Hatch Green Chiles - growing, picking, roasting, ready to be turned into comida muy rica.  My brother & his garden:


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## Gaffer

mmcmdl said:


> Hey , I see a Pinto !  Hopefully , I cut the grass for the last time today .


Memories - my first car was '78 Pinto. That one looks a little older. Back then, a guy in town had a brown one with aa 289 in it. A sleeper until he fired it up.


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## Flyinfool

My poor little garden is no where near the scale of what you guys have. It is just 6' x 10'. But I do over crown and pack it like mad.
That wall of maters is just 3 plants. Yes the plants are above the rain gutters on the house and this was taken mid summer, they were ll another 3 feet higher yet. and I need a step ladder to pick the tomatoes. One is a cherry tomato monster, We literally got close to 2000 cherry tomatoes off the one plant, And around 150-200 normal tomatoes off the other 2 plants.
In front of the tomatoes are the peppers, Carolina Reapers, Hungarian, Pablano, and Fooled You. Then comes everything else, lettuce, spinach Green, yellow and Purple beans, carrots, radishes, parsley, oregano, onions and garlic. Most of what is in the garden goes into out salsa, We canned 31 quarts of salsa from this little garden.


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## matthewsx

Earlier this year, time to replant since it's a year-round thing here in Santa Cruz.







John


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## eugene13

I had a great cucumber year and a mediocre  tomato year, blossom end rot, everything else did OK. I added 650 lb of gypsum before my fall till. That ought to fix it. Here's a shot of my garden in July, that's my weeding chair in the foreground.  Sorry, no picture, the uploaded file is too large and I don't have file compression software.  Many beautiful gardens. I'm attracted to the fresh roasted green Chiles.  The shop demanded my attention in July, the Bert transmission for our racecar pushed the yoke bushing out of the tail shaft, I bored it out and replaced it with a needle bearing.  I also sold a lot of my Pinto junk and bought a self centering vice for use with round stock or tubing.  My only complaint, it doesn't have swivel base, so I can't cut compound angles.  I guess there's a project hiding in there.


Gaffer said:


> Memories - my first car was '78 Pinto. That one looks a little older. Back then, a guy in town had a brown one with aa 289 in it. A sleeper until he fired it up.


I think the  Pinto is a 71,  it has drum brakes on the front, there's another one in the back yard, it is a later model and has an 8 point roll cage we raced Mini Stock for a number of years.  It's just an empty hull now, but I can't get rid of it.


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## eugene13

Then the follow block for one of our tube bending dies started to score the materiel, I tried to polish it, but it was too far gone so I tried to re- bore it but couldn't get it to stop chattering so I built it up with weld and tried again and then I threw it in the scrap and bought a new one.  Man, if I only had a horizontal mill.  And then I got so bored I made a turners cube using some 2 7/8 conveyor head shaft material, must be some pretty good stuff, nice finish and very close to square.


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## Larry$

Eugene13, I've also got a Jet mill and have used it to horizonal bore. Much to my surprise it worked great that way. I have a very small garden that I find very relaxing. Even get some good eats. Good crop of 3 kinds of peppers, spinach, chives, leaf lettuce, cucumbers but poor crop of tomatoes. I have to have a rabbit fence to get anything.


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## eugene13

Larry$ said:


> Eugene13, I've also got a Jet mill and have used it to horizonal bore. Much to my surprise it worked great that way. I have a very small garden that I find very relaxing. Even get some good eats. Good crop of 3 kinds of peppers, spinach, chives, leaf lettuce, cucumbers but poor crop of tomatoes. I have to have a rabbit fence to get anything.


I've only turned a vertical mill sideways twice in my life, very surprised how easy it is to indicate in.  Nexr spring look for some Nitro Cal fertilizer i think you could grow tomato's in gravel with this stuff.  I have three cats, they take care of the rabbits.


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## BGHansen

Actually my wife's garden.  I play in the shop, she's in the adjacent garden.  Unfortunately, the photos were from this weekend, so no harvest to show.

Most of her beds are raised; 3 courses of 6" block or 24" high.  They set on a 3/4" x 1' wide foundation grade plywood base.  Blocks are "mortared" with garden-formula construction adhesive.  Tops are trimmed out with 8" cedar 1-bys.  The watering system is from a hydrant with 4 zones.  There's small hoses with nipples drizzling out water in each of the beds.

She's in the process of redoing some of the layouts to make it easier to move around in the garden.  She made the initial mistake of just dry-stacking the cinder blocks and some shifting has occurred.

Bruce


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## middle.road

Dateline: Grainger County TN, October 2020
Made a run up there yesterday to pickup the auction items that Honey won. (I didn't score anything...)
Grainger County is known for their tomatoes. And we just happened to drive by one of the larger growers.
I wouldn't want to see their propane bill, there were quite a number of tanks around all the green houses.


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## Marv in Minn

my Micro Tom tomatoes and their big brother


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## cathead

The garden is flourishing this year with an abundant amount of rain.  Here's a couple photos of the
corn crop that is about ripe and a patch of Hubbard and Kabocha squash.  Today I started canning some tomatoes
as they are beginning to ripen.  It's an all organic garden.  My neighbor planted some Roundup ready corn after
killing the weeds off but my stand looks better than his.  I think it was planted for attracting deer.


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## finsruskw

Why in the world would you want to attract deer to a garden for Pete's sake??
I'd love to de-attract the darn critters!!
That and the raccoons as well.
Raising Cain with my watermelons and sweet corn every year.
My son had to put up a 10' high fence around his garden plot.
Despite the Colorado and Japanese beetles, it looks like I will have a great potato crop this year.
Dug a few hills the other day and some of the Yukon Gold spuds are in the 1 # 5oz each category!


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## finsruskw

Dug a few spuds this morning.
These are part of one of 4 rows, so there will be 3 times as many when they are all dug.
Some hills yielded 3 and 4 of the monsters some over 1.25 pounds each.

We have never had this many big ones before!
These were grown in an entirely new location than before.

Kennebeck, Yukon Gold, Pontiac & Russett


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## cathead

Here is a plethora of Jalapeno peppers and a couple regular sweet peppers to boot just harvested yesterday.  



I will be canning these using vinegar and salt to use as a garnish all winter long.


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## cathead

Necessity being the mother of invention, I canned eight quarts of jalapenos in the previous post along with
some other vegetables for a winter supply.  I used up some beets as well for the added red color to four
of them.  I expect there will be some left come spring unless I give some of it away.  

Today on the schedule is the potato harvest so it will be a busy day for me.


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