Anyone elses garden this bad?

[Chuck52]

Sounds like if we could have averaged our weather we both would have done much better. My sister in the Johnson City area had a little better luck with her garden I think, but she talked about all the tomatoes rotting like yours.

Maybe I'm just getting old and remembering the old days as perfect, but growing up in East Tennessee, I can't remember anyone having to water their garden, and the rainfall was always just right! What are you folks doing to mess up that perfect weather I remember so well?

Chuck

[Slamfire]

Can't blame it on my wife, in Western Washington she's known as the bringer of droughts. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
We are gonna try raised beds next year, and are gettin' ready to plant greens as soon as we are sure the heats over with.

[fishstixtwo]

I am also thinking about the raised beds for next year. My tiller is capable of building raised rows if the tines are set up properly, there are three diagrams on it that show how to set them. If I could just read japanese I would know which setting to use. I know which setting tills flat, thats how it is set now. So I have a 50/50 chance of mounding the dirt in the center by just picking one. I think I know which is the right one. I guess I will find out when I try it.

[Slydog]

My garden wasnt the greatest overall last year. Seems like there was a virus or blight going around that really got a hole of my tomatoes, then squash, then cukes. Although we did end up getting enough cukes to put up about 40 quarts of pickles.

My peppers did really well. I plant everything in raised rows. I mulched with my grass clippings; letting them sit and die for a week or so, then piling them around my plants. This really seemed to help with both weed and water control. Last year was the first year I planted a garden in this location, so I was battling weeds (hand pulling mostly), and bermuda grass all summer. WHAT A CHORE. Trying to get an early jump on it this year. I applied roundup, tilled, black plastic for a month. Today I took up the plastic, sprayed the sprouts with roundup, and next weekend I will till it again for a final time before planting. I HOPE this will help a lot with the weeds. I've also added 2 yards of promix to help fill in low spots, leaves, a truckload of pine needles, some sheetrock, and some lime, all of which I will till in next weekend.

Ken

[egon]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
a truckload of pine needles, some sheetrock, and some lime,

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Will not the pine needles and lime be at cross purposses for soil PH?

Egon { also know as BROWN THUMB } [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Slydog]

&gt;&gt;Will not the pine needles and lime be at cross purposses for soil PH?&lt;&lt;

Yes, but I was afraid with the amount of pine needles I put in that it would be far too acidic. So I only used about 10 lbs of lime dusted over the pine needles in my 30x35 foot garden. Plus the lime is slow working, I didnt think think it would affect the overall ph for 6 months or so. Im certainly no expert, and I am just winging it so far as I have not tested the soil which I do need to do. Once I get it all tilled in and have a somewhat homgenous mix, I will do that for sure. Last year, being the first year this was broken up for garden, the soil was pretty much hard clay with burmuda and weeds. I'm just trying now to incorporate as much organic material as possible while still allowing me to grow a somewhat acceptable garden in the process of conditioning the soil.

I am also tilling in about a bale of straw that has been used in and around my dog house for the winter months that has somewhat composted as it sat.

Do you think I need to add some good nitrogen fertilizer into the mix to help with the nitrogen depletion as all this "stuff" composts in the garden soil? The organic matter added consisted of 10 huge gabage bags of pine needles, about 10 huge garbage bags of oak leaves, and a bale of somewhat composted straw.

[spunkey22]

What does the sheetrock do? [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[Slydog]

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What does the sheetrock do?

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It loosens up the hard clay. It is like adding gypsum to the soil, but doesn't change the ph. I priced agricultural gypsum at the local co op, and it was 7.00 for a 40lb bag. I can get all the scrap sheetrock I want from local building sites for free.

[egon]

The nitrogen should help.

Perhaps think of keeping some areas acidic for plants liking this type of soil.

Remember " BROWN THUMB" is my second name.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Slydog]

LOL...well I've got a yellow thumb myself. I can grow the he!! out of a weed. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Ken