You can run my little tiller, too, @Babs Hunt . You will like it better than Sheldon's, I am sure. I have one of those cute little electric tillers, and it is perfect for those small tilling jobs around the yard. it was $29 on EBay, so I got it a couple of years ago. It would never work for someone with a full-size garden; but for me, it is perfect ! Actually, we have three little tillers. The little green one that I was mentioning, and one that is more of a little "digger thing" with two long "claws" that dig through the dirt. It opens up the dirt really well, and then I take the Green Machine and finish tilling the area. We also have a gas-powered Troy tiller, a small one, about the size of the Mantis tiller. It is hard for me to start, and a little heavier than the electric ones, so usually Bobby gets to run that one, and I just point fingers at where it needs to be tilled.
I'm impressed....that's some serious gardening! I am still in the newbie stage of gardening but each year I grow a little more and enjoy seeing my green thumb grow right along with whatever I have planted.
I just want to share what I had planted. But first, please be informed that the gardener of the house is not me, okay? I'm into gardening mostly for the harvest. Now, I had bought good cantaloupes that are so sweet. I really loved it such that I had finished 2 by myself. My husband hearing of my remark about the best cantaloupe that I had tasted, he suggested that I plant the seed. And so I did. There was this sort of empty space in the backyard that I tilled the soil before sowing the seeds. Gee, there were sprouts after a week and after 2 week, the seedlings are now very evident and some have 4 or more leaves already. From the estimate, it will start fruiting by March and April will be the harvest period. I am hoping that my crop will give me the sweetest cantaloupe.
My dad used to cut one in half, scoop out the seeds, then put a couple scoops of ice cream in the hollow. Yummy.
Don't you know that I love ice cream? In fact, there's always a half-gallon of ice cream in our freezer. You have given ma a cute idea with that half cantaloupe to hold the ice cream. But I have a variation maybe, that is to grate the cantaloupe flesh into strips (we have a grater for that) and use the rind as a container for the ice cream cum cataloupe strips. Maybe next weekend I will be able to buy a sweet cantaloupe in the market (I only go to the market during weekends) and also buy an appropriate flavor of ice cream. Right now, what ice cream we have is coffee crumble, not good with cantaloupe.
I tilled 3 of the raised beds with the mantis Wednesday. Yesterday I went to town for some supplies and then put agricultural lime on the beds where the cabbage and broccoli will go ant put some potassium on the potato bed. I cut potatoes to get them ready for planting. Hoping for some rain which the guessers say we have a 50% chance of Sunday. I'll probably put the potatoes in the ground Monday or Tuesday. I might plant the Broccoli and cabbage in a week or so.
I protest! @Ike Willis stole my answer... I'm pouting, yes, yes I am! I was going to say growing older, and hopefully wiser... growing eyelashes and fingernails and my hair even longer. That's about it... nothing that would remotely resemble a vegetable.
I just moved into a new apartment, and I have a small courtyard to garden in. I'm allowed to garden outside around the apartment too, but I'm afraid of things getting stolen if I plant food, so I'm trying to only plant ornamentals outside. It's our "spring" planting season here in FL so I'm already way behind. Just planted a few tomatoes and peppers so far.
I planted taters this morning. Earlier than usual but it's been so warm and we finally got a little rain and I had the potatoes ready.
Awesome, @Sheldon Scott ! Those are the broccoli that you started in the Aerogarden , correct ? For some reason, some of the new sprouter sponges do not seem to be working right. I put squash in three of them, and it didn't sprout. I put watermelon in four more, and that sprouted fine. I took out the squash seeds and put in spinach and that didn't sprout either. The watermelon (in the meantime) got large enough to transplant, so I did, and then started some Black Krim tomatoes, and those have now sprouted. So, this time, I am going to toss the grow sponges, and use fresh ones and start something else in that space. For some reason those sponges must have not been right for the seeds to sprout. We have the tomatoes and watermelon in the dining room window, and then I put the grow light on them part of the day. I also started some lettuce and spinach in a couple of planters and those are already sprouting. Hoping we can just keep those in the planters and help ourselves to the greens for salads as they grow.
Yes, the broccoli was started in the aerogarden as was the peppers I've already put in pots and the cabbage I plan to put in the garden today. It rained all day yesterday and we sure needed it. Our jalapeno peppers never sprouted but I think that's because they were old seeds.
I have raised gardens. Three reasons for this: 1. Our ground is root and rock. 2. I have a hard time getting up and down on my knees. 3. It keeps the ground critters out of them. I have planted lots of things and they grow and sometimes they don't grow. It is like a hit and miss around my place becasue I live on the west side of a forested mountain. We are like a seperate ecological area as we sometimes get weather that nobody else around us gets or we get nothing and everyone else gets it. This year I am thinking about planting Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, lettuce, spinach and purple beans. Last year we grew a boatload of tomatoes and then found out that I am allergic to them. I throew them in the woods for the animals to eat....far away from my raised gardens. Here is a picture of my gardens from last year...
Your raised beds are very colorful, @Debbie Allen ! It looks like you live with a lot of trees around your house blocking the sunshine. We live in town; but we have a lot of trees on the lot, and have to try and garden around the shady areas, too. Some things , we can grow in the shady areas, because it gets so hot here in the summer in Alabama that the more sensitive plants can't take all of the heat. We don't have so much rocks, but the ground is very hard clay, and of course , we have lots of those tree roots also; so we have a combination of in-ground gardening and container or raised beds. We are adding mulch and compost to the ground where we plant, and we now are starting to get more earthworms, which is a good thing. Debbie, your home looks so pretty and peaceful there in the woods ! What part of the country are you in ?
I am in the mid-Atlantic in the north easter panhandle of West Virginia. Our summers are hot and dry which is a contrast to most years of a wet spring and/or winter. The past two winters have been on the dry side, even this years that we had that huge amount of snow at 42 inches. The rest of the winter was kind of dry. Not so sure what this year will bring in the way of vegetables.