2017 SFG in Brooks, Ga

Thank you.

Well my tomato wagon worked to help me get extra early tomatoes.  Also, the Early Girl Tomato was early.  The wagon and the variety allowed me to harvest my first tomato on 5/11 and two more tomatoes today.  I started seeds about 1/21.  First uppotted on 2/8 and again and again and finally put the large pots on my Tomato Wagon on 3/17.  I was able to roll the plants in at night to keep them from freezing and then roll them back out again each day after the temps went above 50*F.  I planted them in the ground sometime between 4/1-4/15.

My Tomato Wagon:

Wow! Tomatoes already. I want to tell you that I converted from one middle trellis to two "sandwiching" trellises for my two 1' wide x 3' long beds of pole green beans. Long sentence! Well, the beans are doing so much better grabbing one or the other trellis and shooting straight up. Only had to guide one vine to the trellises instead of herding them like cats. I got the idea from you, so thank you. PS I have triple trellises on the 2' x 4' beds, at the zero foot, 1' and 2'. Converted last summer. So much better for the cucumbers and pole beans in those.

sanderson wrote:Wow!  Tomatoes already.  I want to tell you that I converted from one middle trellis to two "sandwiching" trellises for my two 1' wide x 3' long beds of pole green beans.  Long sentence!  Well, the beans are doing so much better grabbing one or the other trellis and shooting straight up.  Only had to guide one vine to the trellises instead of herding them like cats.  I got the idea from you, so thank you.  PS  I have triple trellises on the 2' x 4' beds, at the zero foot, 1' and 2'.  Converted last summer.  So much better for the cucumbers and pole beans in those.

I like this idea. I've never been able to get peas or beans to trellis, but sandwiching sounds like a super easy solution. 

Here is this years bean trellis.  The bed is 9 ft x 2 ft.  I am now planting differently than I did a few years ago.  I took out the middle trellis because last year I planted sweet potatoes in this bed.  I decided not to replace the middle trellis because this year I am going with two rows instead of three rows because it was a jungle in there and I could not find the ripe beans but the pests could and it was just too many beans for me to process.  So now I have a trellis on each side of the bed.  It is actually 22 inches wide.  I plant a row on each side of the bed 5 inches in from the side.  That gives me 12 inches between rows.  I make a trench down the middle of the bed to use to run water down the middle of the bed and to side fertilize the beans if necessary.  In the following picture you will actually see a few bean plants in the middle of the bed.  I always plant a few extra plants in case I need to replace one or two that somehow die.  After the plants get up and attaching to the trellis, I remove the beans in the middle row.



I also have a metal decorative trellis on each end of the bed.  I will plant a vinning cucumber on each trellis just to keep my cucs spread threw-out the garden to try to keep downy mildew from killing all cucs.

Looks REALLY nice, Yolos! Good idea to spread the cukes around.
CC

Yolos, You always have great looking beds and ideas!

Thanks CC and Sanderson.

This years spring project was to clean the area on the East and West side of my garden.  So I just completed this project.

This is the west side.  The first picture is before and the second picture is after.  The spot had about 1/3 bermuda grass, 1/3 weeds and 1/3 bare ground.  So over the last year I have been killing everything that was growing.  Then I laid down pine bark nuggets.  It is really a nice place to sit now.  And next year I am going to try to plant some fruit trees and/or blackberries and/or raspberries and/or asparagus.



The following pictures are of the east side.  I do not have any before pictures of this area as it was always so ugly I never took pictures. It was filled with piles of junk, tree limbs and small scrub trees.  The first part now has 4 artichokes in pots, then 3 bee hives, then some old farm equipment (I planted some bee friendly flowers in one of the pieces of equipment), then the dogwood trees and dog house.  There are two dogwood trees in this area so there is lots of shade and lots of roots and I haven't tried to grow anything in this spot.

Today's tomato Harvest.  These were from the tomatoes I put in large pots on the Tomato Wagon and rolled in the garage when it was too cold.  Then when it warmed up I planted in the beds.  I started getting Early Girl tomatoes about 2 weeks ago.  This is the first harvest of Brandy Boy tomatoes and some more Early Girls.  And an uh oh green Brandy Boy that accidentally got cut off.

Beau-tee-ful!!!

Nice harvest!

Question: In the bottom pic of the other post, what's the cross-piece there?

Nice haul!

I told my son about your tomato wagon as a possible solution for his tomato growing.

AtlantaMarie wrote:Nice harvest!

Question:  In the bottom pic of the other post, what's the cross-piece there?

Not sure exactly what cross-piece you are referring to.  Maybe this one.

If so, this is a box blade (I think) for our old tractor.  We used to live on five acres of land with a gravel driveway that kept getting washed away so we needed some equipment to keep leveling off the driveway.  I added a strip of wood and filled the blade up with potting soil and planted some flowers for the bees.  My daughter is sentimental about the tractor and equipment because when she was growing up, my husband would let her sit on his lap while he mowed the grass and worked the tractor.  Therefore, she will not let me get rid of this equipment.  The tractor is on the other side of the property and will no longer run.

Ate my first ear of corn yesterday.  It was so sweet and tender we didn't even cook them.  Ate them raw.  This batch was planted inside in small solo cups on 2/28.  Planted in the garden on 3/7 and used plastic sheeting and Christmas lights to keep them from getting too cold or frozen.  

Planted a 4x6 of Contender Bush beans and a 4 x 4 of Lady Cowpeas this weekend.

Pictures of a few things.  Garlic planted in early Nov and harvested 5/21.  This season garlic was smaller than previous year and ready to be harvested earlier.  I think it was due to them being planted in a new bed and not enough fertilizer.  They seemed anemic all spring compared to last years.


Onions planted inside from seed on 12/18.  Transplanted to the garden about 2/25.  Started harvesting on about 5/24.  I still have a lot left to harvest.  I am waiting until the necks begin to soften and then harvesting them.  This variety is Yellow Granex which is the same variety that are known as Vidalia Onions.


I harvested all my Broccoli starting on 4/26 and ending on 5/13.  They were planted from seed inside on 1/21 and transplanted outside about 3/4.  Except one lonely Curly Kale plant is still pumping out the leaves.  I used the same tulle covered bed and I planted 2 Zucchini and 2 Yellow Summer Squash (on the left side of the picture) and  three Spacemaster Cucumbers on the right side of the picture.  They were fairly large transplants because I was waiting for the Broccoli to be harvested.  They were planted inside on 4/24, the pots were moved outside on 4/28 and planted in the garden on 5/18.

Beautiful! Were your squash starts in peat pots?

It looks like your pushing the season efforts have been pretty fruitful.

CapeCoddess wrote:Beautiful!  Were your squash starts in peat pots?

No they were not in peat pots.  I planted the seeds in 6 inch diameter plastic pots knowing that it would be a while before I was able to transplant them into the garden.  I transplanted a total of 7 squash/zucchini plants and I had no problems with any of the transplant.

Turan wrote:It looks like your pushing the season efforts have been pretty fruitful.

Yes, it worked fairly well this year.  I had a couple of failures but it is a learning experience.  And to have early tomatoes and corn was worth it.  Now that I am retired, I can roll the wagon or uncover the plastic when it warms up during the day and then cover them up or roll the wagon inside to begin warming up for the cold nights.

The diseases hit the tomatoes every year starting about this time. Any tomatoes that survive the diseases are then subjected to high heat in late July.  So planting tomatoes as early as possible works out better for me.  The earlier you plant the corn, the less likely they will be attacked by worms.

Today's tomato harvest.  On the right are Brandy Boy tomatoes and on the left are Early Girl Tomatoes.

yolos wrote:Today's tomato harvest.  On the right are Brandy Boy tomatoes and on the left are Early Girl Tomatoes.

Fantastic yolos.  You are harvesting tomatoes and I am only now putting the plants into the garden.

And mine are little green things.

sanderson wrote:And mine are little green things.  

Same here, and I only have those because I bought them that way from the nursery.  The ones that I planted from seed are starting to bloom however, so I'm not a total failure . . . yet.

Guess what I am having for dinner tonight.  Silver Queen Corn planted 2/28 inside in small Solo cups and transplanted to the garden on 3/7 using season extension methods.

SO NICE!!!

It seems strange to see finished corn when mine wouldn't have even sprouted yet (even if the squirrels hadn't eaten them).