Hey y'all, it's about time to start getting my gardens going for the year. Thus far I have 100-125 sets of onions from dixondale as y'all suggested. I got all my pumpkin seeds and this weekend I'm gonna go by ace hardware and grab some fertilizer and few hundred seed taters. I'm also gonna pick up another box or two of onion sets because the 100 onion sets aren't nearly as much as I imagined and I have alot of space to fill up. I also need broccoli and radish seeds still. I'll get tomatoes from a green house later next month.

I'll have gardens at 3 different locations this year. My vegetable garden is in raised beds here at home. I have a neighbor right up the road who owns a horse riding ring and stables. They boarded horses there, gave riding lessons and all that for awhile and have a huge pile of composted manure, hay, and saw dust. I've got a couple loads of that and tilled it into the vegetable beds. I'm gonna grab enough to add another 3 inches or so to just dump on top. I figure this compost probably has less weed seeds than the dirt so I'll let it set 2 weeks or so and make sure to weed good and then mulch heavy with hay. I'm gonna try to turn the raised beds into a no till system from here on out. I got carrots, lettuce, and cabbage in the ground today.

My pumpkin/melon garden will be at my aunt's, she has a large field that I'm gonna be planting in. The ground is hard as a rock, my big rototiller literally just bounces off it. I have a couple loads of compost I'm gonna start dumping over there as I have time and form those into mounds to plant the pumpkins in. Not very efficient but when you ain't gotta tractor you do what you gotta do. This year will be my 2nd attempt at growing a dills Atlantic giant. Last year I started a couple inside, two just kinda held on for a week or two then finally died. The 3rd took off like a rocket. I had blooms on it and a few little baby pumpkins the day I was planting the main garden. Then literally over night squash bugs killed it. I hate those things so much. I'd rather spend the day with Obama than find one on a plant. I literally wouldn't wish those little spawns of satan on the most freedom hating commiefornia nut job's garden. Well...maybe I would.

My potato and onion garden will be at my grandmother's. I've had pumpkins here previous years but the squash bugs are getting exponentially worse year after year so I had to move the pumpkin garden. This'll be my 2nd year growing more than a few onions and potato plants  and my first growing a really relatively largeish amount with the intent to sell. Last year I did unexpectedly well and had such a surplus I sold probably 25lbs of both. I made more money per lb from them than I did pumpkins so I'm gonna really focus on them. If I didn't love pumpkins so much I'd probably just grow onions and taters. I did a soil test on this garden and added the fertilizer I need onto a friend's order who's getting a pallet to put on his fields. It should be here soon. Also a neighbor with a tractor plowed this garden up and will be discing it after it settles some.  As soon as he does that I'll get my onions and taters in the ground.

Tomorrow I'll figure out when exactly I'll need to start planting my pumpkins. I think I'll start end of April and be planting different varieties up to the end of May. There's a certain time frame the guy I'm selling to wants them so I gotta make sure I don't plant too early or late. My different spring and summer jobs are starting to pick back up so I should have the cash flow to get a hydroponics set up going here in the next 1 month. Gonna figure out how much and how fast I can grow lettuce and see if I can be harvesting enough volume on a regular basis to sell it and maybe let the whole system pay for itself by the time summer is over. I'm 99% sure i have a market, just need to know if I can get a satisfactory volume of produce.

That's everything going on currently and plan for the year. I typed alot but writing it down really helped get everything that was just floating around in my head straight. Any suggestions, tips, questions or whatever I'd love to hear. Hopefully I'll have pictures of stuff growing here real soon.

OST 

The local high school has a great big green house, and part of their horticulture class every year they grow vegetable and some flowers and sell them to anyone who cares to stop by and buy some. We got cabbage, purple cabbage and some sort of lettuce. The lettuce is doing fine, but both kinds of cabbage the leaves are turning yellow and the plants look droopy. I was worried it was something in all the compost I dumped on the gardens but since the lettuce is fine I guess it's just something with the plants themselves. No carrot seeds have popped up yet. I feel like I'm checking for them and the first sprouts of asparagus almost every day. I also went ahead and spread some hay on all the raised beds. Hopefully I'll be able to stay ahead of the weeds.

The neighbors still ain't tilled up the garden at my grandmother's. I think Saturday I'll bring the roto tiller over and go on and get it done. I really need to get the potatoes and onions in the ground. I've been lazy and aint actually bought the taters yet, or started bring the horse manure/compost over to that garden plot yet. I have a friend with a cattle farm who I get a load of cow manure from every year. She teaches during the winter and I think their spring break is here in the next couple weeks. I need to get all the compost out of the way for room to dump the cow manure to start a new pile. I also apparently bought pumpkins that all have relatively short grow time. All sub 125 days, so I won't start planting them till end of May or June, I'll have to go back and check what I wrote down for sure.

Also fighting back and forth with myself to either finish off a half built AR, or order some grow lights and chemicals to get this 1+ year long hydroponics project going. Man it's a hard life. But I suppose someone's gotta live it

I planted a bunch of radishes yesterday. Carrots are starting to pop up. The purple cabbage is looking better, but the normal green cabbage is looking worse. I'll take a picture and post it tomorrow. This evening I got the onion and tater garden tilled up. Planted 30lbs of seeds potatoes and 225 onion sets. I got a chunk left that nothing is planted in so I'll probably just toss some sun flower seeds in that. Here in a week or so when stuff starts popping up I'll take pictures of it. If everything works out how I'm hoping I should have a hydroponics set up with lettuce growing mid may.

Coontrapper,

Sounds like you got a good start and a huge garden effort.  Where are in in VA?  I tend to add leaf compost since the red clay where I'm at needs more structured organic matter.  Manure is good, but I've found that horse manure isn't clean - well from seeds.  If they graze on grass/weed, prepare to get seeds.  Their digestion isn't as complete as some other animals (cows or lamas).  Of course, proper hot composting of the manure will take care of the seeds.

Mine is a small plot, so not too much work.

Ok, I've been meaning to update for several days but keep forgetting when I have the time, and don't have wifi or the time to update when I am thinking about it.


This past Wednesday I watered all the onions and potatoes really good. Most of the onions were starting to perk up and show signs of growth. Unsurprisingly the potatoes hadn't busted through the ground yet. In the onion growing guide dixondale sent me they said to fertilize with a mix with a very high middle number compared to the other too. I have some 15-30-15 water soluble fertilizer and figured why buy more when I can just use this? So I'm planning on watering with that once a week. That oughta give close to the same benefits as side dressing with normal peletized fertilizer I think. Today I put down some black plastic weed barrier between all the rows. The onions have definitely jumped since I watered Wednesday with the fertilizer mixed in. Potatoes still haven't poked out. There were some showers over there during the last half of the week so I didn't water today. It's supposed to get really warm Tuesday and Wednesday so I'll give them another good drink early early in the morning.


The radishes have popped up in full force. Carrots are coming along. Not a great germination rate to I'll add a bit more seed tomorrow. I have pictures of the cabbage leaves on my phone. Maybe I'll get them up tomorrow. I have a neighbor who's a master gardener and she was over at the house earlier this week and she said it looked like to her the outside leaves go hit by something. Wether that was a heavy dose of fertilizer that burned them or something got set down on top of them I don't know. I pinched off the crappy leaves and the plants are definitely growing. The greenhouse we got the cabbage and lettuce from is opening their tomato sale tomorrow. At some point this week I'll make it over there to grab some plants.

308, I'm nearish Charlottesville and Richmond. The ground is definitely pretty clayee. (Either I just butchered a word or made a new one) I've done a ton of work to the inground garden plot (potatoes and onions this year) by adding copious amounts of cow manure, compost, and tilling leaves in a couple time a year. It's definitely much better than the first time I ever filled it.

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Finally getting around to uploading pictures!! I pulled off all the crappy looking leaves so that's why some of the pics are just the leaves off the plant.

I've had a lot going on and haven't had a lot of time to devote to the garden. My potato and onion garden is doing good. Most of the potatoes have popped up, and most of the onions are doing good. Under 20 onions have died, and I'm pretty sure all of those are the cheap crappy ones I bought from the hardware store. Last week I got most of the garden mulched with leaves. Not gonna have time to do more this week but I hope to finish next week. I have a neighbor who had some purple potatoes they grew last year sprout so I also planted those. There's only like 10-12 of them.

In the vegetable garden here at home stuff is chugging along. We got some tomatoes in the ground, (don't remember the varieties right now) all the cabbage is looking great now. My radishes are growing like crazy and we've gotten a couple cuttings of asparagus! I've missed that stuff. All my carrots are dead... I walked out to check on things last night and was shocked to see that whole bed empty. We must have had a little frost I wasn't aware of. I'm gonna replant it today. I'll take some pictures while I'm out there.


Kitties, the cabbage getting hit by frost is a real possibility. Since February we've been on a see saw of temperatures ranging in 20+ degrees from day to day so it's entirely possible.

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These are a few of the plants we got growing at home. Cabbage lettuce and tomatoes.

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Here are most if the potato and onion plants.

Wow it's been awhile since I updated this. I've been ridiculously crazy with work. I haven't been doing much garden stuff because I've been so busy. The potato/onion garden is doing good. The potatoes have gone nuts, the plants are easily 2.5-3ft tall. I didn't put down tons of nitrogen so I hope not all the growth is going to the plant and none to the root. I got that garden tested and fertilized it almost exactly the the standards VT told me to for growing potatoes. They're starting to get some holes on the leaves where something is eat them. I'm gonna put some DE on them today so that will hopefully stop that.

A decent chunk of onions have died. I'm pretty sure all the ones that died were the ones I got from the hardware store, the ones I got from dixondale look good. There's a pile of weeds growing so I also hope to get them all dealt with.

I've decided I'm going to try to never plant a vegetable garden without hay for mulch again. It's incredible what the hay has done for the garden here at home. The only time I've watered the vegetable garden is when I first put the seeds or plants in. We haven't gotten any more rain than usual and the dirt is still very moist and just as loose as the day I tilled it. I pulled a few weeds yesterday but that was the only time any weeds have been pulled from it this year. Most of the plant have gone nuts and are looking great. I gave up on the rest of my radishes yesterday and pulled them up. They had gotten really tall but had no root on them. I planted peanuts and cucumbers in their place. I also put in one mound of honey dew melons.

I'm completely out of space in the vegetable garden but I have some room left in the potatoe/onion garden so I will continue there. I have a bag of corn, some bush beans, a few more melons, more peanuts, mammoth sunflowers and a Dill's Atlantic giant pumpkin I hope to plant there today. I was hoping I'd have the pumpkin and sunflowers ready in time for the county fair but it may be too late. I'll just see what happens.

I got a bit by the gun bug again so all my spare cash has been going to a new revolver and ar build. I'm almost done with the ar so what was originally May as the latest for getting a hydroponics set up going is now July. I also decided I really don't feel like fighting the deer and squash bugs again this year so I'm not going to grow a ton of pumpkins. I'll grow a few rows but not tons like I have been. I'll take pictures of everything a the to upload them today.

Garden work last Sunday didn't happen. I went and hung out at a friend's pool and had grilled flat head caught the night before and steaks from their farm instead .

Messed around in the garden some this evening. I found space for a dill's Atlantic giant, a few more rows of peanuts and some cucumbers. Got those in the ground, found some spots the hay has gotten thin and weeds were starting to show up. I pulled the worst of them (the worst with the hay is what I'd have called just a few last year without the hay) and thickened the hay anywhere it was looking rough.

I'm getting a load of compost tomorrow that I am gonna use to expand the potato/onion garden. I'll put together a fence hopefully enough to dissuade the deer and coons and plant corn, squash,  and probably a few hills of melons and pumpkins. There's also a small raised bed over there I forgot about I'm gonna put some bush beans in.  Tomatoes

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I haven't updated in so long because I was saving up pictures and was going to put a bunch up at once. Internet here at home is beyond terrible. Most of the time I can't successfully upload a single picture much less entire garden updates. I got home from 2 weeks at the beach today and planned to do a few big picture updates while I had good WiFi there. But my phone died and I lost all the pics before I got a chance.

I did end up expanding the potato/onion garden. I planted corn, pumpkins, peanuts, green beans and sunflowers. As of 2 weeks ago when us left stuff was starting to pop up. My potatoes were starting to die back, and with 2 weeks of hot weather and not a drop of rain I'll probably have to dig them up soon. I'll probably get started tomorrow. Unfortunately this is a solid 2-3 weeks ahead of when I hope to dig them as the guy I'm selling them too doesn't want them yet. So I'll talk to him and maybe he'll take them earlier, otherwise I'll have to store them. After I dig them I think I'll plant some squash in the empty space and maybe lettuce kale and spinach to sell this fall. We shall see.

With no rain the vegetable garden here at home is in really rough shape. I picked a decent haul of tomatoes this afternoon but the plants are looking rough and there's not many green tomatoes coming still. Normally a nice healthy tomato plant is dark green and kinda moist to the touch. These are a light green/yellow and dry feeling. They were fine until I left and no water got on them so I'm pretty sure they must just be thirsty. My pumpkins here at home have barely grown at all, the squash are really wilting. The peppers look rough too. In short, zero growth has happened in the past two weeks, stuff is just barely hanging on. I watered really good this evening and will add another 3-4 inches of mulch and keep watering heavy until (hopefully) I pull everything back from the brink and we get rain again. They say it's gonna be under 95 until Wednesday when it jumps between 95-100 for a few days. Hopefully everything will survive that. Next year I know to get someone to watch and water the garden. The one bright note is that my peanuts are looking good. They've actually grown a significant amount and look pretty happy. After the chain of unfortunate events after even shi*ier events I've been having these past couple weeks that was nice to see. I'll start taking pictures with a camera and may or may not (I don't know any more) get something uploaded.

I've been digging 'taters. I'm up to 190ish lbs so far. I have probably another 5-10 lbs left to dig. I'll probably get them Thursday evening. The guy I'm selling the potatoes too was happy to take them early so I got 120ish lbs at his place now, gonna bring another 70 something tomorrow and 20lbs of onions as well. I just got way to behind with weeds this year and ended up weed whacking alot of the garden so I could see where stuff was.

Next year I'll order probably twice the amount of onions from dixondale I got this year and an extra 20 or so pounds of potatoes and make sure to stay on top of weeds.

We got an inch of rain last night which was awesome to see. Most of the tomatoes and zucchini are perking back up. The really hot weather starts tomorrow so we'll see what happens.