Veggie Garden Porn XXX (Dialup Warning)

[bvar22]

Twilight Harvest

Starkraven bringing in the goods. Our little hilltop in the Ouachita Mountains is pretty exposed. The windbreaks on the fencing help protect the garden.



Hopes & Dreams

This is how it looked on May 21st. We use organic methods, and "Gardening by the Square Foot" as a guide. While we have plenty of room, Square Foot Gardening helps conserve water, control weeds, and assists in organic insect control. The previous owner kept a Bull Buffalo corralled here a few years ago. We reused the old timber posts and thick oak planking of the Buffalo Pen to build the garden fence. We backed the fencing with welded wire rolled outward and buried 6" underground to provide protection from rabbits, deer, and other critters.

The soil in the garden location is red clay with lots of sandstone rocks and gravel...not that fertile, but there is an old chicken yard and goat pen on the other side of the hill that contains very rich, black aged compost. We wheel barrowed this soil over the hilltop to fill the boxes.

Visible in the front box are (from L to R) are: Pole Beans, corn, cucumbers, dill, marigolds, lettuce, and garlic.



Don't Go in there without a Gun

This photo was taken yesterday from about the same angle as the one above (2 months later).
The garden exceeded our expectations (!). The poll beans overwhelmed the corn and merged with the cucumbers. Its not unusual to find cucumbers while picking the through the beans. Though overwhelmed, the corn did give us five very tasty ears yesterday.
Next year, we are planning on giving some crops more room.




Maters & Berries

Early Girls on the right, strawberries in front. Behind the scarecrow and in the center of the garden is a flower garden to attract bees and butterflys. We also keep two bee colonies in a more protected location on the backside of the hill. The bees are doing well, and love the garden.
In addition to the Early Girls we also have Rutgers, Amelias, Celebrity, Yellow Plum, Arkansas Travelers, and Romas.




OMG, Its ALIVE

This was an experiment with Watermelons and Cantaloupes. The wooden support structure is faced with 2"X4" welded wire. In theory, the vines would climb up the wire, and we could put little support nets around the fruit and connect the nets to the wire while the fruit ripened. The melon vines quickly overwhelmed everything and are growing wild through the garden, over the fence, and down the hill. Not shown are the pumpkins and gourds which have also jumped the fence and joined the melons in conquering the hillside. It is difficult to walk in that part of the garden, and we have watermelons and cantaloupes everywhere.
Behind the melons is another section of corn planted 3 weeks after the corn we harvested yesterday.



"Oh LOOK! Here's another One"

Most common phrase overheard in that part of the garden, "Oh LOOK! Here's another one!"
OK. How do you tell when they are ripe?



YUM




Kitchen Window



Our Home on the Hill

Garden on the left. The old chicken house and goat yard on the right.
We are currently rebuilding the chicken house and hope to have some free range chickens in a couple of weeks. We love the old weathered wood, and are reusing it when possible.



Wall O Glories

Included this photo because I like it.

[GardeningGal]

1. Very impressive!

Can't believe you already have watermelon. I've never been successful growing melons here.

[feminazi]

2. Looks great! I'm jealous.

Where are the Ouachita Mountains...Kentucky? Tennessee?

[BOSSHOG]

3. Arkansas

The mountain chain is called "Wash-i-ta" named for an Indian tribe and I believe the state name was a derivative thereof. Arkansas has some incredibly beautiful geography especially that way up north in the Ozarks. My homestate and I'm incredibly biased.

[feminazi]

12. I knew they sounded familiar.

My mom lives in AR...Mtn Home....in the Ozarks. Really nice except there's a church on every corner in her town.


I should have know it was AR.

[Bjornsdotter]

4. Beautiful

...and I'm so jealous, my garden isn't doing at all well this year.

Your pictures are an inspiration. I've wanted to switch to square foot gardening and maybe now I will be able to convince Mr Bjornsdotter.

Cheers

[bvar22]

9. The Square Foot thingie was Starkraven's idea.

I was skeptical at first. I've always planted in rows or mounds with plenty of space between plants. Starkraven showed me the books and Inet sites, and I felt like it was a great idea for limited garden space, but since we have mucho space, I felt the crowding would limit growth and production. As you can see from the photos, I was wrong.

The selling point for me was the water conservation aspect of the raised boxes. This area can have several weeks without any rainfall during Summer months, and our hilltop location is naturally dry. Our water comes from a rather shallow well, and past experience has taught me that wells can be limited during the dry season. Our emergency plan for drought was to haul water from a nearby river, but it would be a lot of work hauling water up the hill (some here say mountain). I was willing to opt for the raised boxes because I thought it would minimize the water we would have to haul in case of drought.

As it turned out (luckily), our well is spring fed, and my worries about limited water were needless. We have plenty of good tasting, clear spring water for everything. Some of my neighbors are not so lucky, bad smelling water at low flow rates.

The Square Foot Gardens have proved beneficial in other ways.

*Weeding..There was some work involved early. The soil from the chicken/goat yard was loaded with seed and spores. We spent hours in the early days pulling out the little weeds, but after to veggies took off, we really haven't had to weed. The good plants crowd out the weeds. The raised beds made the weeding easier on the back because we didn't have to lean over so far. We built little stools so we could sit while weeding....no lower back pain! :) Now, the only weed problems we have are on the garden paths. We plan to put down sterile straw or gravel on the paths in the future.

*Staggered Planting...EZ with the little squares, especially for carrots, onions, cilantro, lettuce and radishes. Simply plant a new square every couple of weeks for a continuous season long staggered harvest of garden fresh veggies. It is easier to keep track of the schedule with the boxes and squares.

*Insect Control...The raised boxes seem to limit or minimize insect damage. We had horned tomato worms in one box, but not the others. Because the boxes are raised and accessible, it was relatively easy to find and pick off the tomato worms. In early Spring we also had some cut worm problems limited to two boxes. Starkraven treated those two boxes with some organic magic potion...no more cut worms. The boxes present an obsticle to their free movement among the plants. This wouldn't apply to the ones with wings, but so far we haven't had any big problems

*Water Management...Just dig down in one of the corners to determine how dry (or wet) the soil is. Makes it a snap to determine if the plants are getting too much or not enough water. The raised boxes also have a natural resistance to overwatering...it just runs out. We had some heavy rains in June. Most people had problems with tomatoes splitting, but only a few of our tomatoes had minor splits on the tops.

*Support Structures...The plants have produced so much that we have had to add supports for most of the beds. With the raised boxes, it is simple to just fasten support poles to the sides of the boxes with a couple of long screws and a battery powered screwdriver.

*Easier on the Back...The plants are higher so not as much stooping. We are both tall (6') and really appreciate this feature.

*I also have grown to like the cosmetic appeal of the raised box garden. We have outproduced (by far) everybody else in these parts. We feel a little guilty that our garden is so luscious while almost everybody else is having a bad year. This is probably a combination of several factors in addition to the Raised Square Foot Garden:

--The soil from the abandoned goat/chicken yard is incredibly fertile and aged just right.

--We haven't had to ration water

--We chose an exposed hilltop that gets more sun than a protected low area. (Starkraven's idea again. I wanted to put the garden in a lower, flatter, more protected place at the bottom of the hill where most people put their gardens :))

--The windbreaks we laced into the wire on two sides of the garden because of its hilltop location seem to reflect sunlight into the garden. We have both noticed that it is hotter, brighter and more humid inside the windbreaks. We have had a couple of pretty good storms that would have flattened the garden without the windbreaks.

--Bees...our two colonies have obviously increased production. I have never seen so many flowers turn to fruit on a single plant. This is a new thing for us. Neither of us had any previous experience with bees, but they seem to be doing well, and we are fascinated by them. We learned bees on the Internet.


We are planning on giving some plants more room next year. Some of the boxes became too dense to manage well, and in a couple of cases some of the individual crops were crowded out. That is probably a product our good luck more than a criticism of the method, but you can tell from my testimony that I am an enthusiastic convert to this method. Hopefully, you can use this to influence any skeptics.

April 2nd Laying out the Garden

We have added 3 more boxes since this photo.

[TygrBright]

5. Gorgeous! Lucky you!! They're ripe when they go "pounk!" instead of "thud" when you rap on them.

Not a hard rap, just a tap with the knuckles. You'll know. It's a nice, resonant sound.

helpfully,
Bright

[bvar22]

10. Hi Bright!

I remember you from the early days at DU, right after the Supremes appointed bush*.
DU was a different place back then.
People had time to think before they posted, and I really enjoyed the clearinghouse of new and thoughtful ideas presented on these pages.
Not so much anymore.

I lived in Minnesota then.
Rural Arkansas is a recent development not all together unrelated to the grave dangers facing our World.

:hi:

[TygrBright]

11. Them was the days, wasn't they? I remember ya...

...since I was born and raised across the river in St. Paul, I was always please to see a Minnesotan on DU. We were in Maryland then, Zone 7 gardening is a fabulous experience after Zone 4!

We're in Santa Fe now so I can empathize about elevation. Try learning to cook at 7,000 feet!

So, on yer beds... did you just set the boxes on the ground, or did you sink corner posts in a blob of concrete first? I'm gonna do some boxes here, thinking about three 4' x 8' beds for veg, and a circular 3-level pyramid for a strawberry bed. You have to haul in topsoil for everything here, it's hardscrabble adobe. But I'm making lots of loverly compost to mix in with the boughten topsoil.

reminiscently,
Bright

[bvar22]

14. WE just set them on the ground.

I have a tendency to over engineer projects, and am a little OCD about "square corners" and "absolutely level". Initially, I was going to use corner posts and interior corner blocks, but reality intervened.

We have a very hard red clay & sandstone base. Impossible to dig with a shovel. We have to bust it up with a pick. It was impractical and unnecessary to dig holes for the corner posts, so we just set the boxes on the ground, butt joined the planks, and screwed them together. We packed some red clay powder around the bottom seams to seal the bottoms.

It worked out OK.

We chose to use untreated pine. There is still some controversy about the possibility of chemicals leaching (leeching?) out of treated lumber. The majority opinion seems to be that there is no problem using modern treated lumber, but we wanted to be safe.

4'X8' works out good, especially since 8' is common at the lumber yards.
That makes 2' the longest reach into the garden for weeding & stuff. Any further than 2' would move into the uncomfortable on the back realm.
We also have a variety of depths (board widths)...some are 8", others are 10".
We may add some 12" next year, but really haven't yet noticed any difference due to depth.

We built two 2' X 8' boxes for an experimental melon crop. We planted inline down the middle of the box, and let the vines grow over the side. Initially, we were going to direct the vines off one side of the box into an open area, but that has gotten out of control and they are going everywhere now.

I love the idea of a pyramid for the strawberries!

[puebloknot]

27. I'm in Santa Fe, too. Returned here from a long sojourn in California.

I remember the first carrot cake I baked here, with a CA recipe. Flatter than a flitter (whatever that means)! :)

Let there be snow and rain in great abundance in Santa Fe. It's looking so much more "lush" over the last couple of years, compared to the terrible dry look it had when I returned five years ago. I want to stay here, and I hope not to have to leave because of water shortages, as it's surmised the Anasazi had to do!

[TygrBright]

28. Oh, yeh. DEFINITELY keeping fingers crossed...

...on the snow/rain thing. Definitely.

And learning to make all kinds of cookies and pies that do not require any rising-type activity.

::sigh::

philosophically,
Bright

[flying_wahini]

6. You are living my dream, baby!

What you have is what I want.....
I fantasize about having a garden like that and the space to do it.
Can't wait till we retire and get there.

How long have you been there and what zone are you?

[bvar22]

7. We moved here from Minneapolis last October.

We spent a lot of time researching different places. Starkraven is from Montana, and we both like the Pacific NorthWest, but property was too expensive. We also wanted the longer growing seasons of the South.

After a lot of looking, we settled on Arkansas. Areas of West Central Arkansas are still pristine, unspoiled, and property is inexpensive. The rivers in this part of the state are clean. No industry for miles, no large agri farms, no large urban areas for many miles. Property taxes are very low.
We actually found our place on EBay, got a GREAT deal, and couldn't be happier. The property is 8 acres, 1/3 cleared, fenced, small pond, wet weather spring & creek, great well, and septic tank in place. The cabin was only half finished, and still needs a lot of work. We are doing everything ourselves and aren't really pushing things. The property and house were pretty trashed. The first couple of months were spent just hauling off trash, cleaning things up, and making things livable.

The downside is that the area is pretty backward and depressed...not a lot of money and no good jobs. The majority are Fundy Christian and bigoted. Our county is dry (no big deal, we don't drink), and social services are pretty limited. The roads are bad, restaurants are pretty bland (we loved the variety of ethnic foods in Minneapolis), and if you refuse to go to Wal-Mart, you will die.

The upside is that the people are genuinely nice, and you almost never have to wait in line for anything.
There is a strong Democratic Populist minority though most are afraid to show it in public. There are also others like Starkraven and myself that have moved into these beautiful, undeveloped and unspoiled mountains to pursue a more green, sustainable lifestyle. We have met several and enjoy their friendship.

We are in Zone 7, but at a pretty high elevation for that zone. We planted some tomatoes in early April, but lost them to a late freeze in mid-April. We weren't ready for it, but we will have tents and light bulb heaters for some boxes this Fall. We are going to see how far we can push it into the Frost season, and plan on some early plants next year.

West Central Arkansas may be the best kept secret in America.
Shhhh. Don't spread it around.

[Blue Gardener]

8. I Envy You

What a beautiful place to live. I have very little room for vegetable garedening since I have mostly shade, and a small yard. I manage a couple of tomato plants every year, but would love to have a place like yours where I didn't have to limit what I could grow. As it is, I have to stick with mostly flowers and shade-loving plants.

[bearfan454]

13. Your garden kicks some ass !

Great pics too.

[Imalittleteapot]

15. Your garden

is a dream. You are fortunate to live in a gorgeous location with great growing conditions. Good photos!!!!!

[Kolesar]

16. This thread has soul--like we used to say

Does anybody still say "soul"?

[LWolf]

17. That is beautiful,

and I'm envious.

I've been doing nothing but cleaning up since moving into my old place 2 years ago. We've hauled out 30 or so trailer loads of rubbish, we've burned, we've torn down things, we've rebuilt things, and we've moved tons and tons and tons of old goat manure/bedding out of barn and sheds to compost mountains. Currently, I have a spot picked for one single raised bed, and the stuff to get started. I've been delayed, though. 6 acres of cheatgrass, mustard, mallow, and other weeds is hard to keep up with.

I need to get rid of the cheatgrass and replace it with other stuff, but there is just so much of it, and it keeps coming back again and again. I'm wondering if I'll ever be free of it.

On the other hand, my little flock of free ranging chickens are happy, and two of them are currently setting.

[baby_mouse]

18. Fantastic! I'm so jealous!

I bet they taste way nicer than shop bought stuff, too!

Home grown tomatoes have such an amazing smell...

[murray hill farm]

19. Soooooooooooooo beautiful.

You are living all of our dreams! Arkansas is one place I have never been to...and never even thought of in my search for a place to settle. What general area are you in..in the state? I would like to get online and check out real estate in the area..and get some idea of the land. and then next summer, do my annual search camping trip to the area.

[bvar22]

20. We are in West Central Arkansas.

70-80 miles west of Hot Springs/ a few miles from the Oklahoma border (Ouachita Mtns).

The NW and NorthCentral parts of the state are also very beautiful (Ozark Mtns).
We (in Central) have about a 1 month longer growing season(between the frosts) than the Northern parts of the state, and we have a better chance for plums and peaches to survive late Spring frosts.

Prices are crazy. The Realtors are worth checking, but the best deals are on Ebay and local papers.
Some areas in NorthCentral (Mountain View) and around Hot Springs are being "developed" and the prices are higher.

A decent 2 bdr house in Mena, AR on a nice size lot with room for a good garden can be bought for $10,000 with property taxes of less than $140/year.

If you are looking at rural property, the WELL or a spring is MOST IMPORTANT. We are very fortunate to have a Spring fed well. Some of our neighbors are not so lucky.
August was very dry. No rain (usually 6"+ in August). We were able to generously water our garden and young trees daily in addition to all the other water uses (bathing, washing clothes, cooking etc.) without any problems. We even accidentally left the water ON all night and flooded the yard without any noticeable problems with the well.
If I buy again in this area, my FIRST questions will be about the well or springs.

Good Luck!
It would be nice to have some more Liberal neighbors!

Camping Camping in this area cool, and ranges from Full Service (RV hookups) right on the highway to primitive and unspoiled in the National Forests (Shady Lake/South of Mena).
Mid July to September was too hot and dry this year to enjoy camping.
:hi:

On Edit: WOW. I just chcked your profile....Isla Mujeres!
Beautiful, though it is a shame what the "Tourism Industry" has done to the area. I was fortunate enough to see QRoo 35 years ago.
If I were already in the Yucatan, I would seriously look at Panama or Costa Rica.

[murray hill farm]

21. Thank you so much!

I am already into the maps and planning my spring camping trip to the area. Primitive camping is what I love...although I now have given in to some comforts and have a real blow up matteress..ha! I no longer live on Isla Mujeres, but yes it is a truly wonderous place. I lived there for almost five years, but moved back to the US almost 2 yers ago after hurricaine Wilma. I had planned to return in another year or two anyway, but Wilma just pushed up that date. I live now in Brunswick, GA. An unfortunate side effect of Wilma was that the island got international coverage and became a place that so many people learned about...and now the island is growing in population...many condos being built, etc. so, I am thankful that I got to live there in the time that I was there. So, I am here now and love this area, but am always looking for higher ground..ha! Explored the north west Georgia and north east Alabama border areas on a camping trip this last spring...looking for foothills to mountainous small towns this last spring...a very beautiful area along the Chattahooche river, but most of that area has already been discovered by the developers, etc. Anyway..I do blather on...so thank you so much...and as I said, planning my next trip to hang out and get feel for your area and check it out in the spring. And I will also get on the realestate sites to get the feel for what is available starting now. I did check ebay, but nothing listed there now..and did check the MLS listings, but didnt know where to start...so I just picked a town.Mountain View...not anything in my price range in that area, but now I know where to look, thanks to your input. Thanks, Pat

[bvar22]

22. Katrina was a motivating factor in our choice of "higher ground".

I grew up in what once was New Orleans, and co-owned a house there until Katrina.
Give me a shout when you come to this area.

[hippywife]

23. I'm kicking this thread for two reasons.

1.) Because it's just so dang beautiful and

2.) Because it's inspired me to the the All New Square Foot Gardening book from the library.

I think we're going to give this a try this year.

[sazemisery]

24. Your just kickin it cause it's icy outside!

Hey, hippywife, what part of OK do you live? I live SE of Muskogee and we didn't get the ice like north and east of us. It is still raining here today and is suppose to rain/ice off and on all day. Temperature here is 31 degrees.

Square foot gardening is the way to go. I have done this for the past 3 years and have had much success. I had to buy another freezer this summer for all the corn, okra, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and squash. I used drip irrigation this year and saved a ton of money on water. And had it all on timers so all I really had to do was harvest and preserve.

[hippywife]

25. Hi, sazemisery!

We're due south of Tulsa for the most part. Southwest of Bixby. We lost our power for 5 days the day you posted this and I just haven't gotten back here to this forum for some reason.

I really am excited to try this method. Glad it worked so well for you. Were there things that you did differently from year to year that improved anything and made a difference for you?

[blondie58]

26. wow-awesome garden!

can't wait to see next years photos, complete with chickens!

[murray hill farm]

29. Just keeping this kicked!

I love the pictures so much (long ago made copies), but am so taken with them that I have reservations to fly out to the area in early april of this year and have a good look at the area. I am always looking for higher country to settle in for the duration. I live now in low country Georgia...so, every year I check out a new area in the spring of the year. This year it is Mena, AR.

[hippywife]

30. We went camping last year

at the Buffalo River National Park. We drove around the area near Jasper and other areas along the park. We loved it and have thought about retiring there, if we ever get to retire, that is.

[bvar22]

31. Veggie Garden Porn XXX *** February Update:

Starkraven and myself want to thank everyone who responded so kindly to this thread.
You're ALL invite to our home for a Summer Salad the next time you are in the neighborhood!


This is how it looks today....very sad and cold. :(
Quite a contrast.
(I wanted to get a photo with some snow cover, but I don't think that is going to happen this year.)

Actually, there are a few things still growing, though you have to look hard to see them.
There is a bed of Garlic that did well over the Winter, also some Onions, Shallots and Chives.
The Strawberries overwintered well, and are showing signs of early growth.

We planted some Broccoli last week, but an overnight temp in the low teens may have chilled it.

We have gotten tons of seed catalogs, and are having lots of excitement planning for this Spring.
The Garden is going to be expanded by 18' on the downhill side where we are going to put well spaced mounds with a trellis type TeePee for corn/bean/mellon combinations.

We have had some daytime temps in the 60s, and both bee hives are showing strong activity. The bees are foraging, and returning with loads of pollen, though I can't figure where they are getting it. There is nothing blooming that I can find.
We have an abundance of clover that stayed green all Winter, and we are looking foreword to our first Honey Harvest which should happen mid-Spring.





:hi:

[hippywife]

32. I just love this thread

and your place. It's a real inspiration! I hope we do nearly as well this year with this method. I did go ahead and buy the All New Square Foot Gardening book. I'm getting so excited over here in NE OK!

[bvar22]

33. Hi

Thanks for the kind words.
Good Luck with the Sq Ft.
You will have fun with this.
We are going to use it again with a few small adjustments.

We are ordering our baby chicks this week and are all excited.
:woohoo:

[NMDemDist2]

34. your place is so beautiful

but I'm about to plant my broccoli and green onions and radishes so I'm a happy camper

mine aren't as big as yours this first year, but I have space.....

[EnviroBat]

35. Now THAT'S Living!

Gorgeous place!

[fed-up]

36. beautiful pics-I am cross-posting this to thread just started in Rural/Farm group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=268&topic_id=1378&mesg_id=1378

Thanks bvar22 for crossposting this on the LBN thread about "shoppers warned bigger bills", its my first time here!

Maybe you can post some of your inspiring pics on the rural/farm thread above.

[Wilms]

37. !

[Horse with no Name]

38. Inspiring. Absolutely inspiring.

I am in East Texas and this is beautiful.

I am totally digging the square foot gardening and think I might possibly want to try this. Do I need to till up the land like I would if I was doing a traditional garden?