Any gardeners out there?

My wife and I started our tomato plants (ox hearts) last month among other vegies. I'm starting to get pumped for starting the garden in. This year I think we are going to double the size of it too.
And you?

I did one last year and had a great time. I want to double it too, but first I'm looking for a tiller.

My wife has been planting the veggis around the house for years now. I've been slowly clearing an area 160' x 80' for a garden. Cricky!! Fencing cost alot these days! Gotta make it high enough to keep the blasted deer out. Maybe next year.....

My wife and I are in the down size mode. After upsizing to 250 tomato plants, we(she) decided that we'd done enough of that and we will only be putting in around 20 or so. Same thing for everything else. Scott

10 ft 4x4's burried 3-4 ft keeps em out up here. just 25ft x 50 ft feeds a small army here too.

the counter roatating troy built from the low's does a decent job.

we are trying one of those upsidedown tomato gizzmos this year too!

use to have a fairly large garden but we put the pool in that space 18 years ago now just have 6 or 8 tomato plants in 5 gallon pails and trellice them on the chain link pool fence but i think it's time to put in a small garden now that i'm semi retired down to 50 hrs per wk jim

I've got a post here about a doe that got trapped in my garden, freaked out, flipped herself over the wire fence and broke her own neck. My landlady agreed to let me put in that same garden; and I aquired some left over wire deer fence and put together some posts and rigged up a six foot enclosure. Small critters helped themselves to my other veggies. Then my landlady told me the garden was ugly and wanted it taken down, this was around September. She's also my friend of 20 years, so that's women for ya. I lost my temper, and hooked my GMC Jimmy to the corner fence post with a chain, and pulled the whole freaking garden out of the ground! I was dragging 60' of posts, deer fence, tomato vines and dirt across her field! There was a dumpster on the property at the time, it all got thrown in there. Ha! She never saw me do all that, "Oh you took the garden out...."
I have a 5hp Sears front tine tiller that I just revived. Took it out of the shed, cleaned it, popped the carb and disassembled it since it wouldn't start. Put it back together and it's ready to go. That took 4 hours. Somebody wants me to go till their garden, I've been travelling so much I'm not feeling too generous. So I'll let this other friend kiss my ass for a while ha!
Another year I made a fence that was too short, came up to it one morning to check my vigorous tomato plants--Hiroshima. Deer ate everything overnight.
I used to till gardens as a small side business with another old Sears tiller I had; sometimes easy, sometimes nightmarish.

Just divided my rhubarb the other day & it seems like they all recovered, a bit too early to think about tomatos or peppers around these parts but getting close. The high temp for tomorrow is only gonna be 45 & then a couple days later near 70, wish it would make up its mind.

I am doubling the amount of veggies we carry in our store. People are asking for them NOW, which is crazy. Problem is
the BOX stores are selling them now....ah well, we will sell no plant before its' time.

I think thats a marketing ploy by the box stores, they sell them way too early for their area betting that they won`t make it to the real spring & then people will go right back & buy more. Happens every year, that & selling plants that won`t survive in that zone but look good for one season.

The house creapo had a buy 1 get 1 free sale here sunday. Went there on monday while it was SNOWING again. (didnt stick but enough is enough) and they honored that sale. Bought 12 strawberry plants, several artichoke and a couple of the rutgers tomatoes . will use the tomatoes in the upside down bags. I thought it too early also but guess they need sales for the numbers.

They sell the plants, knowing that they will die and that you or half of you will not go for a refund. Plus, the box only
pays the grower for what they sell. If it dies on display or the customer returns it, the BOX does not pay. Couple problems
with this model, many growers refuse to play that way. And those that do, are not too concerned with quality shipped to the
box with the crappy hard deal. See where this goes? Keep in mind that you do not need a freeze to hurt a plant. Stress on
living things is a big deal. So a plant that still looks OK, but has not been cared for properly, is still shocked, and will not
perform at it's best. So, you get growers shipping less than top shelf to a place that does not care for them one way or another. Oh, and the bonus is, the BOX is not cheap any more. Anything that is nice, or supposed to be nice, is real money.
As a high volume independent, I can give you quality and price at the right time. I can give you VALUE and your best chance for success. So competition
wise, they are good, because they make me look better. If you get to the BOX the day of shipment, you have your best shot
at a decent plant.......maybe. 1 day on display, or less, it needs attention, which it will not get. Many times walking through the BOX garden areas, you will find nasty stuff. The biggest problem , I think, is that their model is hard on the industry as a whole in that results are less than ideal for the end user. You know, the customer. How many "brown thumbs"
are actually crappy plant material

coaledsweat wrote:I did one last year and had a great time. I want to double it too, but first I'm looking for a tiller.

Bingo! I picked up a Troy Built for $400 last night.

Half the backyard is a garden this afternoon.

We've been gardeners for 32 years and find ourselves expanding this year. Tomatoes, green and wax beans, carrots, peppers hot and sweet, potatoes, onions, etc. We can and freeze as much as we can. At least if we grow it, we know what went into it. We also have chickens for eggs and meat and have raised beef cattle and pigs. Nothing like homegrown.

I just put a new pair of tires on the rear tine tiller my dad bought for his garden operation in the late 40's

It has a 9 hp single cylinder Wisconsin that is the size of a small car motor

Yeah -- I garden a little too!