Gardening

[bobbydean]

Hank. Lot of dairies in Chaves county. Most of the families came from California because it got to expensive to pay taxes. Sold for a profit and bought a lot of farms. Dump trucks full of manure are all over the county. Most on farms, but the pecan orchards are major purchasers. Enough manure and you can grow anything. At 7500 feet, I would think your growing season is short!

Some of those old dairy men are neat characters. Younger generation are nice, but I love some of those old men.

 

[hank4elk]

Where I grew up,at one time,it was largest dairy producer in country.
It's short,June to Sept. Just hate driving to store for poor produce. One good tomato,a chile for the grill,a handful of berries makes my year anymore...lol
Maybe a futile exercise....but a simple greenhouse works for some neighbors.

 

[WildWill]

My greenhouse this weekend. I have a lot of spinach and lettuce coming in right now.

 

[TexanSam]

I keep wanting to post pictures but I don't get home until it is too dark to really get a good shot each night, but the sweet corn is at V3, the beans, sunflowers and cucumbers are coming along nicely. The tomatoes and peppers finally are looking like they are overcoming the stress of being transplanted and 3 inches of rain we got last week. (well all except 2). Now once I get some good weather and if the soil ever dries out enough I will plant the second round of sweet corn, beans along with squash and okra

 

[TexanSam]

We've had a lot of rain lately but I'm getting some peppers, corn is making ears, sunflowers blooming, and have started harvesting beans, cucumbers and arugula

 

[WildWill]

Pulled my onions and garlic last weekend also pulled my tester potato plant decided to leave the rest in a bit longer.

 

[2rocky]

I'm resurrecting this post because I'm NOT a Gardener. I have no desire to BECOME a gardener. I find the work of gardening to be completely unrewarding.

However the suburban raised woman in my life has now decided she wants to grow a vegetable garden and she is upset with me that I don't want to do the work associated with it.

I don't want to be tied down having to water weed and harvest when I would rather do other things.

Any guidance from the relationship counselors here?

 

[Kaitum]

I'm resurrecting this post because I'm NOT a Gardener. I have no desire to BECOME a gardener. I find the work of gardening to be completely unrewarding.

However the suburban raised woman in my life has now decided she wants to grow a vegetable garden and she is upset with me that I don't want to do the work associated with it.

I don't want to be tied down having to water weed and harvest when I would rather do other things.

Any guidance from the relationship counselors here?

Might try container gardening if you have a patio in the right location. You'll be more limited to what you can grow, but maintain and labor are relatively low as well.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

I'm resurrecting this post because I'm NOT a Gardener. I have no desire to BECOME a gardener. I find the work of gardening to be completely unrewarding.

However the suburban raised woman in my life has now decided she wants to grow a vegetable garden and she is upset with me that I don't want to do the work associated with it.

I don't want to be tied down having to water weed and harvest when I would rather do other things.

Any guidance from the relationship counselors here?

Start with tomatoes. They are easy to tell when they are ready!

 

[Pucky Freak]

I'm resurrecting this post because I'm NOT a Gardener. I have no desire to BECOME a gardener. I find the work of gardening to be completely unrewarding.

However the suburban raised woman in my life has now decided she wants to grow a vegetable garden and she is upset with me that I don't want to do the work associated with it.

I don't want to be tied down having to water weed and harvest when I would rather do other things.

Any guidance from the relationship counselors here?

Stick to the easy stuff: herbs, radishes, cucumbers, bush green beans, zuchini, butternut squash, and a couple of tomato plants with cages. Just follow the instructions on the seed packages. Plant in rows so you can tell the plants from weeds when it all comes up. If you’re in a moderate climate you can plant in early May, cold climate early June. Radishes go in now or in early Sept. About a month after planting, weed the garden. This takes time, but it can be a one and done for the season as after that time new weeds won’t choke out the plants. As stuff matures pick it every 3-4 days . Takes maybe 15 minute to pick, wash, and store. When the garden is done, rip everything out, add some bags of cow manure and till it over. That way you’re all ready for next spring.

An OK garden can be had for a little time invested here and there, and minimal skill.

 

[Pucky Freak]

If your wife wanted you to invest whole hog in raised beds, time intensive plants, irrigation, canning, etc., that’s asking a bit much IMO, for something you don’t like to do.

Another option is to let her run the operation, be willing to allocate funds to it, and offer to help with the heavy lifting like dirt work, construction, etc, so you’re involved, but not tied down all the time. My wife’s contribution to our garden is letting us budget for it, and watching the kids while I garden. She has zero interest in the work, but she is also 100% supportive of my hobby in the ways I need her to be. If I tried to drag her out there to work along side me, blanch beans, etc., she’d be miserable and make me miserable along with her.

 

[dgc1963]

We have romain lettus ,strawberrys, brussel sprouts, tomatos cherry n regular, basil all growning we eat a lot of produce and try to grow as much as we can to lessen grocery bills and i dont mind helping doing the work their are tricks to make things easier .
1 very little weeding when you bury cardboard in garden blocks and weed seed in their and decomposes just have to pull a few
2 rain barrel with pump for water
3 every time i let the dog out I do a little work in garden keeps thing in control without taking a lot of time

 

[WildWill]

I'm resurrecting this post because I'm NOT a Gardener. I have no desire to BECOME a gardener. I find the work of gardening to be completely unrewarding.

However the suburban raised woman in my life has now decided she wants to grow a vegetable garden and she is upset with me that I don't want to do the work associated with it.

I don't want to be tied down having to water weed and harvest when I would rather do other things.

Any guidance from the relationship counselors here?

Have some kids it'll fix everything then use them as forced labor. Seriously though raised beds are worth the initial cost and labor in the long run.

 

[Cammy]

I have 12 raised beds and 2 in ground plots where I grow potatoes and other assorted veggies. I got into canning last year rather than the blanching and freezing we have been doing for several years. Bought a pressure canner and when chicken goes on sale I do a run of canned chicken. A couple of years ago we upgraded to a "commercial" dehydrator (picked it up at Cabela's) and have done cherry tomatoes, onions and mushrooms in it. Cannot even begin to count how much money we save each year growing our own and preserving it. Once planted a garden is minimal work to keep up and the harvest is worth the effort.

 

[SFC B]

One of the things I really miss about home (Indiana) is gardening.....I have tried a few times out here but the results have been woeful. I am sure that if I wanted to go to raised beds and intensive work I could get some growth but that is beyond my scope. Add to that the cost of water.....nope. Back home it was just dropped some seeds, hit them with some miracle grow, water if rain is late and there was really more food than we could eat.

 

[Irrelevant]

I don't ask my wife to get into hunting and she doesn't ask me to get into Game of thrones.

If your lady wants a garden let her, but that shouldn't mean you have do anything.

On the flip, I actually really like gardening but my wife doesn't. It wasn't until I stopped saving the berries (blue, rasp, straw) for her that she started to help. Now she's definitely in it 50/50.

 

[TexanSam]

I'm resurrecting this post because I'm NOT a Gardener. I have no desire to BECOME a gardener. I find the work of gardening to be completely unrewarding.

However the suburban raised woman in my life has now decided she wants to grow a vegetable garden and she is upset with me that I don't want to do the work associated with it.

I don't want to be tied down having to water weed and harvest when I would rather do other things.

Any guidance from the relationship counselors here?

In addition to what everyone says, get a battery powered water timer to put on your hose. Hook it up to a sprinkler and let it run about 15-20 minutes 3 times a week. If your plants get stressed from the heat in the summer then bump that up to 4 times a week. Use your head and don't over water/ turn off for a few days when it rains.

Once the plants get established, pull all the weeds and spread some of this stuff to prevent more from coming.

Y'all are gonna make me miss the long growing season we had in my home state. I would probably have sweet corn starting to tassle, but here I'm waiting for night temps to get up some more before I even think about planting.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

I grew up in New Jersey where my family also had a garden.
I've lived in interior Alaska for the past 27 years and grow tomatoes, broccoli, zuchinni, basil, potatoes, peas.
We have 24-hours of sunshine and pretty warm days...as warm as upper 80s F.
Varieties for high latitudes for example tomatoes: subarctic, polar beauty, tumbler, tanana
Moose leave tomatoes,potatoes, zuchinni alone and eat all other crops.
After harvesting I remove the electric fence and moose clean up the garden.