Mr Bill's Dirt Garden

iammr.bill · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 7:26 am

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bushy · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:06 am

Excellant crop Bill....... :joy:

Simo · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 10:07 am

Either you have some very small children or some very big sweet potatoes :shock:

Nice dirt by the way :thunbs:

iammr.bill · **Posted:** Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:04 am

Kind words, thank you.

Got a late start in life. Have a 5 yr old girly-girl, 4 yr old working man/boy. Neither of them mind getting dirty and helping out around the farm. Good thing they don't mind fetching things for their :old:

Papa.

Yes and yes. Small children and large sweet potatoes, lol.

Been working on that dirt for quite a few years. Still a ways to go to get it right. Plan on rotating crops around so there is a root crop then a bush crop in alternating years. If the dirt gets to be right at neutral 7.2 or so I should be able to grow an annual crop of anything I choose, right?

iammr.bill · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:07 am

Almost had the area cleared for the last no-boards dirt raised bed area... and blew a hydraulic hose for the bucket tractor. $20 and an hour or so later... ran out of diesel. No hopes of getting any more until the end of the week. Bummer.

But looking on the brighter side of things, a neighbor offered to bring his backhoe over sometime this winter and take out the tree stumps.

And on the worse side of things, my wild chickens are eating the broccoli plants in the raised bed. No, not eating, ravaging. I have yet to harvest one head of broccoli. Bummer again.

But looking on the brighter side of things, ... I know there's a brighter side of things somewhere around here... I just have to find it. Let me think on it for a while.

iammr.bill · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:40 am

Back in June or July, someone kept driving across my front yard so instead of loading the gun, I loaded the bucket tractor with some good compost. A few bucket loads of good soil, a few snips of the existing sweet potato vines, and we have an instant garden bed. About 3 times per week the bed got a bucket of water distributed down the length.

Stopped the bonehead from using my front lawn as a turn-around spot. Gained some sweet potatoes out of the deal. When I finally quit work for today, I headed out to dig up those potatoes to see how they did. Not bad for just a few months worth of growing. Maybe a half of a 5 gallon bucket or so, about the size that you can buy in the grocery store.

And then...

Out in the dark of night, planting garlic cloves in the front yard raised bed. Good thing to do on Halloween night.

iammr.bill · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 7:58 pm

Doing a little here and a little there, always moving forward. Some updated pics...

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Chickens decimated my broccoli. But they couldn't reach my cauliflower plants through that chicken wire PVC cover. Ha. Most people use chicken wire to keep chickens in a cage. I use a cage to keep chickens out.

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Simo · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 9:40 pm

Man that looks like a nice piece of dirt you got there :thunbs:

Excuse mt antipodia ignorance but what state are you in, does "GA" stand for Georgia?

iammr.bill · **Posted:** Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:26 pm

It does indeed. Georgia is known, amongst other things, for it's red clay soil. And we have it bad here. I figure that if I have red clay, might as well use it... to mske a pizza oven. Been reading up on how to create one out of clay. Hopefully I can get started on one next year.

iammr.bill · **Posted:** Tue Dec 27, 2011 11:58 am

Tonight the kids and I made homemade lasagna with homemade pasta and using farm fresh eggs. Snatched two heads of cauliflower from the raised bed. My little girl snapped the flourets from the stalks and set them aside. When we were finished cooking the pasta, I put a colander over the still boiling pasta water, dumped the cauli in and steamed them. Oh wow. They were so good.
Put one on your mouth and they just seem to melt.

Chickens decimated the broccoli, but I have more started in my indoor heating pad.

Do have a question though. Some of the Snow White cauliflower heads are turning dark. Wonder if that is from the rain, the cold, or have I missed the harvest on them? They are in a wooden raised bed with good compost dirt supplimented with chicken litter mixed with pine shavings.

Anyone?

gnash · **Posted:** Tue Jan 03, 2012 2:30 pm

Unless its a form of mold, I'd say you need to harvest them quicker.

iammr.bill · **Posted:** Wed Mar 14, 2012 1:26 pm

Yeah, Gnash, I didn't get to them quick enough. They all went bad. Except for the ones we ate!

Planted 26 crowns of asparagus in the wooden raised beds and some wicking beds. That ought to keep them from spreading to where they are not wanted. Maybe. Too bad I have to wait a couple of years for the roots to take hold before I can harvest.

Potatoes, white, gold, and red, were planted a few weeks ago and are starting to poke their heads through.

Sweet potatoes from last year are sitting on the kitchen counter growing sprouts. Have snapped a few off and dropped them into jelly jars to grow some roots. Have to wait for warmer weather to plant them though.

Just today I planted (too many) cucumber seeds. Will have to start some marigolds on the heating pad. They are supposed to be good for bug control, so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully they bring in the bees as well to assist with pollination of other plants in the garden.

iammr.bill · **Posted:** Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:15 am

Asparagus and rhubarb are already coming up. That didn't take long. I reckon they like the wicking barrels. Maybe its all that beautiful compost. Too bad I have to wait to harvest them.

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iammr.bill · **Posted:** Tue Mar 20, 2012 11:10 am

Potatoes have come up. Made another raised bed. Father-in-law had a boat trailer that he removed all the boards from. I picked them up for no cost and brought them home. Makes a good raised bed.

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