Pond Boss

My lovely bride decided that WE should have a veggie garden, I agreed (because I like sleeping in my own bed)…yes honey….what ever you want. After an hour of searching for Taco and Pizza seeds, I gave up and went with the following….
sugar snap peas
snow peas
spinach
Roma tomatoes
green beans (pole)
bell peppers (red, orange, yellow)
hot peppers
zucchini and yellow summer squash
winter squash
carrots
garlic
various herbs
Egg plant

Fresh CC’s out of the pond, fried zucchini and garlic bread….yes sir…bring it on.

Raised beds look good Jim. Is that a Mantis tiller I see? Great machine.

I'm in for tomatoes, eggplant, carrots, string beans and lots of spinach and leaf lettuce. Added another truck load of horse manure last fall.

What kind of hot peppers are you planting?

We are. The only thing in the ground is onions so far,and some fine JC grass roots starting to sprout.

Looks like a great start Jim. I've got a lot of things in raised beds, including my asparagus. I was checking the asparagus tonight, and one of the beds had big deer hoof prints right through the middle of it. Last year my electric fence was only 5-foot high. The deer jumped over it and ate my raspberry plants and rhubarb to the ground. They even ate my garlic and onions. Needless to say, they did a number on my tomatoes, beans ...

As soon as we have a dry weekend, I plan on 6-foot high fence. This year I'm also planning on using the backhoe to dig down about 2-feet in the main vegetable garden, placing about 6-inches of manure in the bottom, and then putting the soil back.

So far, all I've got are some new raspberry plants and rhubarb plants in a sunny window in the basement.

Tomorrow night I'll start the broccoli, lettuce and spinach in the basement.

My wife and I usually plant a pretty large garden, BUT...

This year we will be too busy planting a "vineyard" of about 3 acres with grapes, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries as well as about 3 acres of orchard trees. We also have about 500 other native trees to plant around the property. We'll be building our new home, a 1500 foot or so driveway, a barn and doing a fair share of fencing. Oh, I forgot the landscaping.... and the pond improvements and.... and.... and... maybe a day or two of fishing on the pond (if my wife will allow it between all the projects).

So the yearly garden will be on hold until next year. I can't wait for 2009 though! We'll be back in gear with the garden.

Boy, are we going to be busy! It's the good kind of busy though.

The only 2 things we've found that our local wildlife doesn't eat before we do are potatoes and strawberries. And I killed the strawberries.

Yep….it’s a Mantis tiller, the little thing is perfect for what we have going on. Hot peppers = pain for me, the wife loves them…I have no clue what kind she is going with this year.

Im getting mine ready to plant.Approx 40x120ft.Gonna plant everything in it this year!

No doubt, the lone ranger was undesireable...so....get him a pal. Wow; 2 of 'em. Ah yes...life is good at Jim's Place.
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what's your take on those side-by-sides?

I got tired of the boss steeling mine, soooo now we have two. Buying the Rangers was one of my smarter moves in life, we use them daily for work and play….no problems in four years. For us older folks…the bench seat is a BIG + and it seats three.

Jim...I have 2 gators and my only regret is they have bucket seats.Im seriuosly considering selling them and getting ones with bench seats just for that reason.On the other hand I used to have a 4 wheeler so Im still MUCH better off

I think above ground beds are the way to go. My sister uses some leaky large water troughs and I just have two bathtubs that I sit outside my shop and drain my fish tanks into them. Not only are they higher than the ground for working, you can add your own dirt ( our dirt is hard clay).
This year I'm trying broccli and cauliflower. I don't think I've ever even seen a cauliflower plant so I hope I can grow some.

My Brother is the family gardener. I have too many trees. He has about 10 fertilizer tubs and has used the same pretty crummy dirt for years. He has a timer for watering but also has a hookup for adding water soluble fertilizer from a 5 gallon bucket. Some of his tomato plants cover the area for 6 ft. around.