normally the safe-date for planting stuff in my region is the first week of may, but the long-range forecast shows no freeze, so I transplanted and planted lots of stuff!:
Tomatoes:
Ponderosa
Peron
Royal HillBilly
Roma
German Strawberry
Mexican Giants
Bush Cherry
also
dark zucchini
golden zucchini
yellow squash
Egg Plant
pickling cukes
english cukes
danvers carrots
red potatoes
fingerling potatoes
Green onions
white onions
red onions
Peppers:
Jalapenos
Serranos
Cayennes
Anaheims
Peter Pepe
Cajun Bells
Green Bells
Beans:
Bush beans
String Beans
Pinto Beans
Black Beans
Melons:
Watermelons
Cantalope
Honey Dew
Already out for the season we had lettuce, brussel sprouts, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, mustard greens and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting... (and a full herb garden)
--- We have all this crammed into about 2000sq ft on the SW side of my property. - Fed with three 275 gallon rain barrels and chicken poop.
This is nowhere near enough to be self-sufficient but it does take a load off the grocery bill... during the summer we pretty much only buy junk-food and meat/dairy. (and some of the chicken/eggs we trade veggies for).... and I have hot sauce and tomato sauce year-round.
I'm thinking about putting in a berry patch this year, but would have to take out a tree if I want to keep it near the rest of the garden... or would have to set up another rain barrel at a different downspout to water it.
Any other big time gardeners here? I've seen some posts from real-deal farmers... any more hobby gardeners in the mix here?
view the rest of the comments →
[–] nosejobsforequality [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
it really doesn't provide much benefit other than a couple hours of shade from like 2pm-5pm for a couple thousand sq ft... I'm just weighing the cost/benefit. it's probably 75' tall not very big around at the trunk but lots and lots of smaller branches in all directions... I bet it's a solid 15-20 man-hours of work to bring it down and cut and stack (Mainly the geometry and getting to the right cut-points to not hit anything on the ground or the neighboring trees) - this year's set-up is almost twice as big as what I did last year... I hope I can keep up with it all... should probably hold off on the berries just for that reason (I just don't really have any fruit other than melons and want to change that)
[–] middle_path ago
Well, trees drink a lot of water and prevent erosion big time. If you're near water, I really suggest keeping it.
[–] nosejobsforequality [S] ago
indeed... one of the other things I was thinking about is trying to chop off this tree at about 10ft high and then grafting on fruit branches... keep the roots and turn it into something beneficial.