I know this is the start of fish season, but the garden we wanted took priority. We're trying both hybrid and heritage tomatoes this year and hope to save the heritage seeds.

We've been doing the raised bed deal in town for years, and wanted to do the same here. I've waited 13 years to play with the pond every day, and now I have the urge to check the garden before I head out each morning. Tomatoes are blooming, potatoes are poking up, and all the seeds are peaking through.

I put in flower beds, and we've filled those with herbs. The rosemary we love, and the Lavender attracts butterflies.

I see now why few farmers have trouble sleeping. Between fun projects, my garden, my fish, getting the pastures ready for hay season, and fixing leased pasture fences for cattle, I'm gassed!

nice Al!
i want a salad from your garden

I tilled mine up today got alot of work to do in it tomorrow before Thursday chance of tornadoes..

Al, come on up here in a month and you can do it all over again.

esshup, magic 8 ball says "Outlook not so good".

I have a early 80's troybuilt that has been an absolute workhorse. A shot of Deep Creep and it runs like a champ. But, I got a Mantis several years ago, and the troybuilt is just about retired. I forgot what I payed for the Mantis, but if it crashes, I'll go buy another one. They're perfect for raised and flower beds. After a year or two, we'll just use the broadfork. No reason to turn the soil over once it gets settled in.

Al,

Looking at putting raised beds for a garden either this spring or next and was wondering how you constructed them. They look like a 4x4 every x feet (maybe 8) and a 1x8? Did I guess right?

Mark

Made some for Mom by using two 2x12's with posts every 8 feet. Wanted to get it higher so she wouldn't have to bend over that much. 4' wide so the middle could be easily reached from either side.

Those little mantis tillers are awesome, especially for raised beds. Pull em' backwards and they'll dig forever!

By the way...Mantis, and Echo are one and the same as far as mini-tillers.

Al, are you going to high fence the garden?

Looks good, Al!

Lookin good amigo - don't forget to fence those beds like Dave says.

My uncle uses a motion activated water sprinkler to keep deer out of his garden. Been the most effective measure for him ever.

lassig, that's basically it. We have a runoff area just outside the raised beds, so I had to get creative with the layout. But, I used 2X10's 10" long for the sides, and 4X4's 8" long for the posts. This left me with as few cuts as possible. I built the sides in the shop, then just carted them out and laid them out upside down before I drilled the post holes. That took any measurement errors from hosing me. It was much easier than drilling holes and then trying to put it all together in the mud.

Yeah guys, I think a fence will be up soon. Critters don't worry me as much as the huge grasshoppers we'll get in a few months. Momma has some type of homemade Tabasco cocktail that works great in town on the hostas. We'll soon see how good it really is.

TJ, you and you're damned camera thread! Now we sit out every evening and watch the birds. I'll have to drag the real camera out soon now. Right now, the bluebirds are nesting in the houses we set up for them on dead oak stumps, and we love watching them.

Our favorite birds are the killdeer. If you haven't watched them nest, then you've really missed something cool. They're shore birds, but somehow have adapted to our asphalt parking area.

killdear faking injury

Killdeer will lay eggs pretty much anywhere. I have seen in gravel, concrete, and in wheat fields.

I built a fence around the garden to keep the deer and rabbits out, only to discover that the local squirrels like to destroy tomato plants. First, they pick all of the green tomatoes off and chew a hole in them, then they chew through the plant's trunk, a few inches above the ground, killing it.......... I guess they ain't called squirrels for no reason.

Got 6 rows of taters in and all the fresh greens you can think of. All the greens are sprouting rapidly with the recent warm up. Hope you all have a great season.

There are killdeer that nest at the edge of our stone driveway every year. Nearly impossible to spot their nests....camouflage is dead on.

Me and the wife watched these little guys hatch. It was awesome. We ended up staking the area off because they were so hard to see even though we knew right where they were.

I had every intension of transplanting my tomato and pepper plants from the indoor growing room to the garden yesterday, but ran out of daylight...good thing though, we were hit with a hail storm last night. The window folks are going to be busy for a while.

That's very true. We put out markers so we wouldn't run over them. Very hard to see.

I have Kildeer nest lining my driveway every year.. Pretty much turns into a buffet for the local owl that hangs out on the light post... Picks them off one by one every year kinda sad..

Also my garden aspirations have been washed away literally at this time.. I bet were pushing 4 or more inches of rain since I tilled it..

So the question on wood to use for the raised beds, treated or Cedar?

Understand the wetness, 1.5" inch here in Schuyler County.

Cedar isn't available locally for a reasonable price so I used treated.

Personal taste here, I'd use whatever that lasted the longest.

Pulled out the broccoli and added tomatoes...in one bed

Gonna do one last harvest on the greens and then rip them out and plant sweet datil peppers this weekend....

Hot datil pepper over wintered again, of coarse only the roots so it is cut back and just starting to re-sprout now from the cut back trunk.

I've never gave much thought to it but they say don't use treated because of the treating chemicals.. you know what would work great but are hard to find is old barn flooring that stuff that's like 2 1/2" thick..

I use deep raised beds with no sides works great and no limitations I can expand a bed or make a bed skinnier very easily..

Also I just tilled Tuesday night and it proceeded to dump 4.89 inches of rain since then..

Thought I had some better pics but here's one of my onions last year

They used to use an arsenic based formula to treat wood, but it formula has been changed a while ago.

How much will leach into the soil? That's a good question. I have no idea.

If I was really worried about it, I'd still build the raised beds with the treated wood, and line them with EDPM pond liner, leaving the bottom of the bed open to the soil for water drainage. Minimal wood to earth contact, and it might let the wood last longer too.

Personal choice here, but I think I'll die from something else first.

Good idea and good point lol.. I think the smoke that poured into my lunges for 16 yrs will be more of a factor than anything else.. Haven't had a cig in 2 weeks and it feels great.. First time I've ever quit just cold turkey woke up one day and said that's it I'm done haven't touched one since mind you only 2 weeks but it gets easier everyday..

Good for you, BGK!!! Keep it up...

Man you guys are so lucky. Still have about 20"s of ice on one end of our pond the water temp is 28F. Still have a snow bank in our garden plot and it is so so wet still.

Any good golf in Texas? We do Florida but if there is some nice early courses in Texas and houses to rent maybe next year.

Cheers Don.

Congrats BGK! Keep it up!

Donno, the only golf courses that I know of in Texas are these type. Texas golf courses

My golf club selection is usually pretty limited. Usually, the only set that I bring to the course is this one:

My golf clubs

Wife laughed and said "that would be mine", concerning the "golf clubs".

Last year when I started my raised beds, I researched the treated lumber question. The answer is that so little leaches out of treated lumber as to be almost undetectable. Even the old stuff. You can get a little more expensive treated lumber that is rated for ground and water contact, which has insoluble forms of copper in it.
Cedar would be nice, but would pay for many trips to the local farm market. Not worth the expense.

My garden is not much this year finally got it retilled and all my deep beds repiled and ready to plant again Friday and wouldn't you know 2 1/2 of rain again.. haven't even looked at it too see how it's doing especially since we've been under freeze warning last 2 nights..

Garden? HA! We matched a record coldest HIGH temp today that was set in 1905. 35°F. Record low cold was 19°F and they think we'll come really, really close to tieing it or breaking it tonight.

Heck, my fruit trees haven't even started to bud yet.

Went and looked at mine today it looks perfect for planting maybe I can get too it next week..

Heavy-Wet-Snow coming down here. At least it is wet stuff.

Garden's doing well. All we lost with the usual Pre-Easter freeze was the okra, but new plants are doing well.

Already pulling tomatoes, broccoli, squash, onions, green beans, and cilantro.

We've already decided we need to add a lot more beds next year, but will probably put them in a different location.

Does anybody water gardens from an aerobic septic tank? The water is technically supposed to be potable, but I wouldn't drink it.

Looks good, Al. Are those beans/peas staked out in mid right of pix? What are you using horizontally - string, wire fence??

Yep, Randy they're green beans. We used cheap t posts and wire fencing zip tied together. Funny thing is the row on the left hasn't climbed at all, but they have the most beans. Go figure.

Looks good Al!!

About another month before our last potential frost date.

Maybe their bush variety beans.. If so I'd like to know what they are I wanna give bush type a shot..

I think I'm going to start some raised bed next year and quit the regular garden..

BGK, try Contender Bush Beans. They make well and and are hardy.

Our garden's winding down, or burning up, but our first garden here was a huge success. We've already canned 48 quarts of tomatoes, and gauging by the dining room table, we have 12-18 more to go before we're done.

We planted Yukon Gold potatoes, and they did very well before it got hot. One 8X8 raised bed produced around 20-25 pounds. When they were almost ready, I planted refrigerator watermelons on top of them. Right now we have around 10 that are almost ripe.

The last of the carrots and onions were pulled today, and picking the tomatoes is a daily task. Soon, our okra will be also.

We'll double the number of raised beds next spring, and will drip irrigate the whole mess thanks to my West TX neighbor.

My garden is a disaster this year.. I have lots of tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes my corn is sporadic to put it best don't know what the hell happened there blaming it on seeds.. zucchini and cucumbers are good.. But with all this rain my weeds are uncontrollable to say the least I weedeated my garden yesterday with a stihl lol.. I'm converting to 4-6 irrigated raised beds next year and I'm gonna try the sqft garden method..

Crabgrass is our weed of choice this year. I've already used more MSMA this year, than the last 5 years combined. The grasshoppers in the yard may glow at night, but I'll get it gone or die trying.

Mold and bugs wiped out half my garden, the other half is doing poorly.

Al, if you're successful with the glow in the dark grasshopper thing, I might be interested in purchasing a few for bait....

Rust is killing my fruit trees. 9 have rust on every leaf! Killing me!

Tony, you don't fool me. You're already trying to calculate how big HBG could get eating irradiated grasshoppers.

Jay123, please explain the rust thing. This is my first year with peach and plum trees.

"Cedar apple rust (CAR) is an important fungal disease of apple in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. It can defoliate trees and blemish fruit making them unmarketable. The CAR fungus requires two hosts, apple and eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana L.), to complete its life cycle."

Google it for more details but I think you might be OK with plumb and peach, I don't have any of those. Its really bad on my apple verities. Come to think it may be well apples. I'm going to check now haha

Thanks Jay. I'm trying to stay on top of problems since there were so many fruit trees, specifically peach trees, lost to the drought during the last few years.

No problem at all. I am fairly new to fruit trees. Just got into them a couple years ago now I find myself buying more every year, this year I got into grapes on a trellis as well. Didn't realize there were so many funguses and insects that specifically spend there life trying to wreck everything I love!

Good luck with your trees, lost my plum trees due to the hard winter, going to buy more next year.

There is a spray for cedar apple rust, forgetting the chemical name right now but I spray for it every year. Really took care of the rust problems I was having. I had a new problem this year, we had a 17 year Cicada outbreak and they made a mess of the trees. Looking at the two orchards last night I think most of the trees will survive but going to take a couple of years to recover and all the branches that where/are going to be lost.

I have wanted to try raised beds, last year I tried grow boxes and they did good at first then the heat and grasshoppers just destroyed me. I planted some fruit trees this year and decided I couldn't handle a garden too. now I regret it. Long story but A few years ago I had a sweet potato patch and the deer were eating me alive. I ended up driving a t post every 15 feet or so and hanging an old t shirt on a hanger on them and it kept the deer away.

I have purchased the rust spray, but I was told it may be to late now in the year. I sprayed anyway but results are negligable. Fingers crossed.

Yes spraying for rust has to be done early in the spring for my it is late March or early April most years.

Guess I'll know for next year I just hope my trees make it. There only two years old so there tender

Dale k we're just about done here with all the heat and the grasshopper damage also. It's been almost impossible to keep our garden hydrated over the last several weeks.

One thing I have learned is to pack clay or native soil in the bottom 3-4" of any boxed beds. Much like putting a piece of broken tile in a flower pot, the denser bottom helps retain the water.

The only real problem we had this year were potato beetles. We spayed the plants with the correct insecticide, but won't do that again. They're very easy to hand pick, and catmandoo told me he saved them as snacks for his fish. We'll certainly do that next year.

Spring's here, and the garden's doing well. I thought I'd post my 9 year old garden that has evolved into a pretty productive clump of dirt. We've added tons of organic material into the beds, and the compost pile is ready for a turnover. As of today, we have red and yukon gold potatoes, squash, zucchini, red and 1015 onions, and garlic up and going. Tomatoes, okra, and green beans like the warmer weather, and they will be added next week.

I won't say we've gone 100% organic, but I can't remember the last time we sprayed pesticides on the plants other than homemade pepper solutions. The soil has evolved into a very rich mix, and the only fertilizer we use is on tomatoes. I'm on my 3rd broadfork, and I rarely drag the Mantis tiller out anymore.

Picking weeds is always a PITA, so we quit doing it. We load the beds with straw, which helps keep moisture, and block out weeds. We burn the beds each spring, and then till or fork in all the burnt straw.

The fence is up to keep the sticken' does out of our garden.

Al, that looks great! I'm doing the same thing except making the beds 2 boards tall. (2x12's)

Nice garden! The pond is gorgeous, too. Just in case the you know what hits the fan, you should be pretty well set for food.

Just train the goats to eat the weeds and leave the rest - problem solved!

Our goats are a tad spoiled, and unlike most goats, they're extremely picky. Merle, my goat, won't eat anything out of my hand unless he smells my hand first. I save their "raisins", and put them in the compost pile. We cut back summer hay usage by cutting elm and hackberry limbs for them. They eat the leafs, and strip the bark off the limbs themselves.

My wife's goat, the one in my avatar, is one more screwup away from being barbacoa. I like to think of her as Satan's little helper.

Is your wife in on that plan as well?

Negative. She loves my wife, and hates me. I handle the monthly hoof trimming, and I get dagger eyes the first of every month.

"Here Honey, you trim the hooves this month." LOL

I didn't spy a close by water source (other than the pond), is the straw adequate enough to to maintain moisture in the beds, or what are you using as a water source? I'm starting to catch grief for foregoing some convenient garden space for a larger pond, though I'm considering clearing a spot next to my barn and collecting rainwater from the 2 downspouts on that side.

They have a watering tank in the goat pen.

You are the only hoof trimming, big bass hating pondmeister I know. That makes you the Greatest Of All Time!