Someone tell me its gonna be OK

Pam,
thanks for the thread link. Just what I was looking for!

Wormboy
It's gonna be OK

branches....now lets be truthful...you know what happens bout the second week in july.....when your pulling weeds, no rain, and the attack of the critters begin.....JUST kidding wormboy!!!...(sort of)
it's going to be so much fun!

I seem to have forgotten about all the weeding required two weeks after tilling the soil...

hehehe....it is odd how we all forgot branches, we are just so ready this time of year we just don't think of all the other little things that happen later!

What am I missing....Branches??? Do I want to know?

Oh, a quick quest...anyone have experience with Troybilt tillers? Just bought one in Feb, having some quality issues, want to know if I should return the whole deal, or if this thing is gonna last me long term and make it worth it. I want to have someting to turn in the spring and fall. Used it 3 times, have broken tines, and last night shredded the clutch drive cable. Do I call customer service and dump it?? garden is only half tilled. HELP!!!

wormboy...i don't know about the troybilt we use a different brand. but all i know is if i only used something 3 times and had trouble 2 of the times....out the door it would go. it doesn't sound user friendly to me!

and wormboy....i was teasing you....experience is the best teacher. and remember when people talk about different garden problems they have it doesn't mean it's going to happen to you. your first year of this garden you will learn so much and apply it to next years. that's how everyone learns. and after all.....if there were no problems what fun would that be! :)

Wormboy, my biggest weed problem is crabgrass in summer...

My biggest weed problem is the !@#$! deer. Actually I don't mind weeding so much, I kinda like puttering around my plants...we chat...

pam

flirt is more like it from what I hear Pam ;-)

Hey whatever works... :)

pam

Hi Wormboy and welcome to Suffolk County. We're out east, in Southold, and came from Rockville Centre and a typical 60 x 100. Now we have 1/2 acre.

Loved to hear from the Cape Ann person and the Port Jeff person, too!

We had almost nothing to remove and put in a 20 x 30 fenced vegetable garden and my DH put in a brick entrance to the garden and a brick path down the center to cut down on weeding. We also have six huge compost piles and he adds nine wheelbarrow loads just for the tomatoes each year.

The side facing the next door neighbors is lined with red and gold raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. A separate 12 x 12 patch is just asparagus.

If anything I think you might be short on space. Did you use the entire space for vegetables or did you leave space around it?

I'd never again make the mistake of putting any herbs inside the garden. Our mints are in a pot on a stand to avoid any chance of having them spread. Even the horseradish is in a huge (pretty) plastic pot (if plastic can be pretty!) The herbs now have their own 10 x 5 space (with female scarecrow) on the outside edge of the vegetable garden.

Just a few cucumbers can supply your neighborhood!

We have nine tomatoes in the garden and harvest a few hundred pounds each year, giving most of them away to neighbors. Two more tomatoes (and some lettuce {at the side of the house} more basil and other herbs) are in containers at each side of the garage door so even if it rains I can get salad without getting too wet.

Is your compost near the vegetable garden? Shed?

Good to have you here with us.

Edited to add that we do have a Troy Bilt tiller and love it!

This message was edited Apr 8, 2006 10:11 AM

Pirl, wow, sounds like you guys have it dialed in very nicely. With my scatter brain it will take me a while to get around to all the things I want to do. The last owner said that there are over 200 bulbs planted around, so figuring out what the heck I have will be fun and a challenge.
But, if I may trouble you all for a bit of advice on this: I have reworked my soaker hose layout 8 zillion times and finally have complete garden coverage, but think it may not be a good ideas to bury them. Maybe I shouldjust lay them on top and cover them with about 5" of leaf mulch. I'm just thinking that to get them low enough to not be hit by the tiller would be a huge job, not to mention that they should come out in fall from what I understand and be overwintered in the house. This is what I am leaning toward. Last week I completed fabricating the green hose segments with about 9 Y's branching off for the soakers, so its ready to be put together. I didn't even approach flow rates and all that nonsense, I have good pressure from my back faucet and it totalls to about 650' of soaker, so I think it should be OK without getting into head loss calculations and other things that cause brain meltdown. Thoughts?

We don't use soaker hoses. The house had an irrigation system when we bought it and we had it changed many times to circumvent the 45' brick terrace we had laid in '92, and for many other areas.

If you bury the hose you have a built in guarantee to cut through it. Lay it on top, as you said, covered with leaves or mulch. You can always drag out the hose and turn on the sprinkler for six hours if you don't get enough water from the soaker hoses.

You'd have to leave the soaker hose on for a few days to get the soil wet (I'd think) and then turn it off and see how often you'll need it by just putting your little hand shovel into the soil to make sure it's damp - not drenching.

On rainy days you might want to stay on the computer for more cucumber recipes!

Melons are notorious spreaders! I'd get them out of the garden and someplace else. "Been there, done that, got the tee shirt".

Wormboy, I do it the way you are proposing. Soaker hose and a minimum of 3 inches mulch sounds excellent.

Pirl, Beautiful garden! And you look lovely in fuschia!

Hah! She's my Inca medicine woman with a supposedly authentic (??) mask. She gets a different thrift shop outfit every year, much to the enormous aggravation it causes one neighbor.

Very cool! Too bad for the neighbor. Can the medicine woman "fix" that?

I tried but she just gags on the poison every time and refuses to eat the mushrooms.

You are on a roll!

My kinda gal!!! Dave - you'll have to hop the ferry and join me when I go out to Pirl's this summer!

Unless the Inca medicinewoman doesn't like us!

She'll either be a Norse-Dansk hefty woman this year or possibly the Queen of England - I have the head gear for both - just need the outfits. She was terrific as the Prom Queen with a spaghetti strap hot pink dress and sun visor to match with Christmas sparkly ornaments for her jewels.

She loves everyone but this one biddie!

LOL!! I LOVE your oh-so-fashionable medicine woman. How cool is that???

So, did everyone get outside and dig this weekend? (It rained here Saturday but was gorgeous today).

pam

Lots of digging, tilling, fertillizing and some planting. A good weekend!

I had done alot of the work last weekend - so yesterday was just some minor stuff

I think its wise that all the raking, tilling, digging & lugging come at the time of year where I'm desperate to garden. They are really not my favorite part of gardening but I never remember that until May. Shhhh! Don't tell me.

LOL Dave47 :) I always forget just how darn heavy clay soil is--at least until my back reminds me. :) I, too, did lots of digging and some planting this weekend. My front garden is finally starting to come together--very exciting! (Maybe I'll post pictures if it actually turns out halfway decent.)

pam

Pam - take before and after pictures to show us!