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Re: How well did your garden grow?

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:46 am
by TractorChick
I'm still harvesting about 30-80 tomatoes a day... even at this late part of the year. It's pretty cool!!! :)

Re: How well did your garden grow?

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:35 pm
by DaveR
I have two gardens, one here where I live and one on some borrowed ground up the road from me. Gardening was difficult here in SW Missouri this year. We got a late start on the big garden, but got lots of beans. The tomatoes were a flop this year. Just didn't set on and were small when we finally had a few. We have planted Early Girls for years. Several years ago we had tomatoes that wouldn't quit with about 6 plants. This year didn't do much.

Next year I plan to break the big garden with the Cub, providing I can find a moldboard plow. I have two TroyBilt tillers to do the finish work and keeping it clean during the summer.

I would heartly recommend Garden Ways Joy of Gardening book by Dick Raymond. He has a lot of good hints in there. It hasn't been published for several years, but it was sponsored by TroyBilt tillers. The books appear occasionally on Ebay. Next to a Cub a TroyBilt tiller is one of my favorite pieces to operate.

One thing I did learn from him was to plant wide rows. I planted a fall crop of Blue Lake Green beans in two rows about 4 to 6 inches apart, then spaced wide enough for a TroyBilt tiller to pass through and then another double row about 6 inches apart, and then the space to till, etc. and on and on. This works great, you have plenty of beans, I plant them thick enough to discourage weeds. The yield was fantastic, and they are easy to pick. I take a camp stool, or a plastic bucket turned upside down to sit on to pick them. Being 6- 4 tall, its a back breaker to bend over to pick a grocery sack of beans, so I slide a seat along with me.

When I was a kid we planted a little over a half acre. Plowed it with the Cub and a moldboard plow, and disced it with a cub disk. Worked great. That Cub was bought by my dad with a front blade, sickle bar mower, disc and moldboard plow and belt pulley for $500. in probably 1953. He sold it and bought a new one in about 1970 or so.

A Cub has always had a place in our family.
Regards
DaveR

Re: How well did your garden grow?

Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:01 am
by howard950
Our garden did well this year overall. However, because of the heavy summer rain, the tomatoes didn't begin to ripen until the last week of August. I had put a lot of effort into setting up soaker hoses throughout the garden. Because of all the rain, they were used only a few times.Tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts, cabbage cauliflower and broccoli were started from seed with pretty good results. I've trellised cucumbers for the last three years with excellent results. We had a bumper crop of butternut and buttercup squash. I planted only a few zucchini and and summer squash. It was enough for our needs, families and neighbors and not enough to sneak in folks cars to get rid of them. I have fairly heavy soil. However with heavy composting, the root crops like parsnips,carrots etc are doing a little better each year. Next year I plan to expand the size of the garden to include corn. I got an old 23A harrow this fall from a friend. It did an amazing job preparing the garden for it's cover crop. Because the disks straighten when putting the cub in reverse, little damage was done to the lawn bordering one side of the garden when I turned around. For the most part, my roto-tiller days may be over-plus it gives me more "cub time." Thanks for asking!

Re: How well did your garden grow?

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 3:29 pm
by phildidit
i planted and all heck broke loose at work, so by hthe time i got to see my garden there was grass and a few corn stalks, which became goat feed. try again next year.