I do like a small vegetable garden, as there is just nothing better than to be able to go out the back door to my small patch that is in view of the kitchen and dining room windows, to pick fresh produce. Its a manageable size, but can be work if you let it. I try to put in as much variety as I can fit, so its all there within the fence.
I do plant extra when I have time, that is more work, but to get by, the small patch is easy for me, so at minimum, I always have that.
I can til this garden with the troy bilt horse, I add compost made from my firewood sawdust and I'll call it guano, (have a few pet voles). Soil seems to be good, PH neutral per the the test. Once the soil bed is tilled, and as I do that, I will rake up the sides, its a raised bed of sorts. I then use the earthway planter to plant sweet corn on the side close to the house, then lay a couple of planks in between where the rows will be, use a hand post hole digger, take 2 bites out of each hole, then drop the plants in, and back fill. I used to drop a little dried blood and bone meal in each hole, but some darned critter will come in and dig them up, so I just spread it on the surface before a rain or watering.
Ahead of time, I'll cut the grass here and across the road, I lay it in swaths with the deck by how I cut it. I leave that to dry, or get it close, so its easier to handle. Most times its like nice fresh green hay, I can smell it in the house, more so when piled. I then collect it with a lawn sweep, pile outside the garden fence, then pitch in where needed. My garden was late this year, but its in, and I will cheat by buying a few mature plants as well. I just mulched it yesterday before a nice soaking rain, with a thick layer of that nice green and sweet smelling dry hay like grass, which mind you is loaded with nitrogen given what I have seen with using it around sweet corn. It also will keep the soil moist, prevent erosion too. There will be NO weeding, no hoeing, no extra work, except to manage the tomatoes, trellis or get them onto stakes, cages etc. I do water this garden as needed, but with mulch down, the soaking rain will last quite awhile if I do not, so there might be a few periods of hot dry weather. I don't get any growth of weeds using grass mulch, though you might get a scant few poking through in a season, its nothing to speak of as far as work is concerned. Once done, just watch it grow, water and fertilize as necessary. The only issue I have seen is powder mold on the cucumber leaves, but I think that either spread from some nearby peonies or possibly the grass mulch mold, hard to say which if any. Only other issue I have seen was horn worms on tomatoes. Worst case I turn on the floodlights on the house, go out at night (when they are active) and remove them by hand, then till in the late fall to break the cycle + there is a wasp that lays eggs on them, kills them off and makes new wasps ! I have not had those in years now though.
The enjoyment is the best produce, I know whats in it, nothing is sprayed, organic fertilizer is used, the only real but limited work is tilling, planting and closing up the fence.
Take a small patch, address the soil needs, mulch with a thick layer of grass, you'll have good plants. Even a couple of big planters, you can grow anything in those, patio tomato plants are nice in those, so are cherry tomatoes, easy to maintain, not hard to work once set up.
It takes me 2 hours to plant, an hour to till, an hour to mulch, and an hour to cage or string up a trellis, the rest is just watching it grow and harvesting the produce. I'll keep rotating greens through, by alternating small areas. any unplanted areas are covered with thick mulch until used.
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Today's Featured Article - A Lifetime of Farm Machinery - by Joe Michaels. I am a mechanical engineer by profession, specializing in powerplant work. I worked as a machinist and engine erector, with time spent overseas. I have always had a love for machinery, and an appreciation for farming and farm machinery. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Not a place one would associate with farms or farm machinery. I credit my parents for instilling a lot of good values, a respect for learning, a knowledge of various skills and a little knowledge of farming in me, amo
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