Reader request

A faithful reader (son in Minnesota) requested photos of the garden, probably to make sure I didn't buy the produce at Kroger that was pictured in an earlier post. So, here it is.

Photo at left is inside the fenced garden. Foreground is cantaloupe, then zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers. Photo below, from left to right, are sunflowers, onions, radishes and turnips.

The photos were taken today right after a nice rain of about 45 minutes. It was needed badly.

A passing grade for this year's garden

Although a river of clay runs through it (see earlier post), our vegetable garden is furnishing us with a modicum of produce this year.

We will have plenty of radish, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, sweet peppers, yellow squash, turnip greens and sunflowers. The sweet corn is about 4-feet high and there might even be a watermelon or two in the offing.

We are hurting for water at the moment, so I've been doing a little drip irrigation early in the mornings.

I think my 8-foot fence has solved the deer problem, but if the drought persists the coons and squirrels will start eating the tomatoes for hydration. Also, as soon as the sweet corn tassels, coons will gather from all over the county. A family of coons can take out a row of sweet corn in a single night.

The only real solution to the clay is to dig it all out this year with the tractor and replace it with new top soil. I'm thinking of a new book: The $300 Tomato.

Woulda, shoulda, coulda

Because almost half of my garden plot was virtually impossible to till and plant, I tilled a 15 X 40 foot patch of land just south of my fenced garden. The soil is perfect. I planted radishes, okra, turnips, onions and sunflowers and it all seems to be doing fine. I added not one cup of organic matter to the soil.

If I could just move my fence 30 feet to the south, I would have a good garden. Close, but no cigar . . . or bush beans for that matter.

Bad spot for a garden plot

In several posts last year I related how I carefully went about picking a spot for our vegetable garden. I had the soiled analyzed and was told the only thing wrong was that it needed more organic matter. I proceeded to haul almost a hundred cart loads of leaves and clippings into the site. The 32 X 40 foot plot is surrounded by an 8-foot deer fence and the bottom 4 feet is covered with chicken wire.

The problem is that a swath of the nastiest clay and gooiest muck I have ever seen runs through the middle of the garden. The highest part of the garden (top photo) seems OK, but the middle third (bottom photo) is better suited for earthenware pottery than plants.

My plan of action now is to watch my vegetables die this summer, and then in the fall take my tractor scoop and remove the top 18-inches of soil. I will replace it with new topsoil.

If I were to calculate the money and time I've spent on my ill-fated garden, I could never eat another home-grown tomato. Every time I get the hoe and start chopping up dirt clods, I get this feeling that the Deerfield wildlife are snickering in the woods. Or it may just be that giant sucking sound of my boot trapped in the muck.

Vegetable garden on temporary hold

Assuming that discretion is the better part of valor even in vegetable gardening, I've decided to wait for the late summer/early fall planting season.

Three reasons:

1. The soil needs further amending. I have access to some good barnyard manure, but it's been too wet to get it.
2. My drainage problem is more serious than I thought. I need to figure out that conundrum before a garden is planted.
3. The fence posts are in the ground, but I still don't have the stringers and chicken wire up. Our five inches of rain (more is on the way) will keep me from working on the fence for at least a week.

I'm glad I'm not a settler depending on a vegetable garden to stay alive.

A few more "hickory chickens"

We have found another half dozen morels around the place, but they are small and look like they need rain.

We found one stand under our biggest hickory tree. In Kentucky morels are known as "hickory chickens" because legend has it that they grow near hickory trees.

I cross-plowed the garden today in anticipation of rain tomorrow. As usual the plowing brings old roots to the surface. In the last two months I'm sure I've carted off 50 wheelbarrow loads of roots.

I should have some vegetables planted by now, but I'm still prepping.

The plot thickens

I completed the layout today for my vegetable garden. I've had to move it several times because I'm finding areas of my land that do not percolate well.

The final plot is 48 X 32 (1536 sq.ft). It will have a 6-foot high fence built on 4 X 4 treated lumber posts. Each 8-foot section will have three 1 X 6 stringers wrapped with 48-inch chicken wire. Around the top of the posts will be a wire to which I can attach aluminum pie plates if the deer seem to want to get inside.

My neighbor with the auger attachement is on call to dig the 21 post-holes, but it is still too wet for the tractor. More rain is expected tonight.

I have been trying to amend the soil with organic matter (dead leaves, grass clippings, sawdust, ashes), but I have a long way to go. I will wait until the first week in May to start planting. I should have the fence completed by then.

I have not decided exactly what to plant. Any suggestions besides the normal tomatoes, cucumbers and cabbage?