I was out turning over dirt this weekend and it sure felt good, other than pulling the raspberry’s out. I haven’t had a garden since I had to put the Big Guy down 2 years ago, but I’m tired of looking at the weeds.
Big ole tomatoes this year!
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Beauty of a mastiff! We had a matching brindle Great Dane that we had to put down this past summer. 
We moved this past summer, and my big spring chore is building a garden. We really missed it last year, but thankfully, my folks usually share their excess veggies.
Cool dog! I love the coloring on him. Last week I managed to finally pull the dead stuff out of the flower gardens. After the recent rain, I can see a bunch of green stuff popping up already! I love to see that!
Soon it will be tending to the veggie garden. I need to get the dead stuff out of there and turn it over. We’ll probably do the same veggies as usual – romas, carrots, lettuce, cucumber, potatoes, onions, and peas. There’s NOTHING like peas fresh from the garden! 
My backyard is a hill. There is a plateau that is flatter, but not completely flat, so my plan is to terrace into it with block to get a level spot. Also, I want to expand my raspberry patch. We brought some canes from our old house, but I need a bit more room to feed the raspberry addiction of my family. I’m also not used to the heavy, clay soil we have in Maple Grove. We had pure sand at the old place! So, I’ll need to bring in some good soil/compost, as well.
The hill is great for sledding in the winter, but it is going to make hauling in soil and retaining wall block awful.
We’ll do tomatoes (grape, roma, heirloom), green beans, carrots, lettuce, peppers (bell, jalapeno), onions, some peas, and maybe a couple other things. I was at my folk’s this weekend, and they’ve got the tomatoes and peppers going in the basement.
One day I hope to have a garden like my dad had in the backyard of the house I grew up in. About the only thing I can do now is those Topsy Turvy planters which limits what I can grow.
I’ve got my seeds all started. 40 tomatoes were started a few days ago. 30 peppers have germinated. The 6 Brussels sprouts are all thriving and ready to go in the ground sometime next week.
I’ll also get some of the earlier stuff like lettuce in the ground next week if it’s not too wet.
I’ve got my seeds all started. 40 tomatoes were started a few days ago. 30 peppers have germinated. The 6 Brussels sprouts are all thriving and ready to go in the ground sometime next week.
I’ll also get some of the earlier stuff like lettuce in the ground next week if it’s not too wet.
pretty sure some greenhouse has all my stuff started to. 
its way to cold up my way to think of putting seeds in the ground.
pretty sure some greenhouse has all my stuff started to.
its way to cold up my way to think of putting seeds in the ground.
Is Cold Spring 4a? If so, you can put some of your more frost resistant stuff in the ground in the next week or two. The only risk is the hard spring rains washing out some of your seeds.
Of course, it’s still way too cold for tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, squash, beans, etc.
The university extension website should have some specific dates.
not sure what you mean by 4a????? cold spring is 15 miles west of st cloud!
I use 10-10-10 as a fertilizer and was thinking of working that in the ground in my horseradish and winter onion spots! the garden waits till right before tilling.
not sure what you mean by 4a????? cold spring is 15 miles west of st cloud!
I use 10-10-10 as a fertilizer and was thinking of working that in the ground in my horseradish and winter onion spots! the garden waits till right before tilling.
Zone 4a. It’s the hardiness zone. I’m not sure where 4a ends and 3b begins but I think it’s somewhere around St Cloud.
ok! gotcha remember seeing them in the seed catalogs now about the zones!!!!!!!!
For those that have started seeds inside. Do you use any special type of lighting or can you just have them in a regular lit basement with some outside light? Would love to get some stuff started!!
ET
My backyard is a hill. There is a plateau that is flatter, but not completely flat, so my plan is to terrace into it with block to get a level spot. Also, I want to expand my raspberry patch. We brought some canes from our old house, but I need a bit more room to feed the raspberry addiction of my family. I’m also not used to the heavy, clay soil we have in Maple Grove. We had pure sand at the old place! So, I’ll need to bring in some good soil/compost, as well.
The hill is great for sledding in the winter, but it is going to make hauling in soil and retaining wall block awful.
We’ll do tomatoes (grape, roma, heirloom), green beans, carrots, lettuce, peppers (bell, jalapeno), onions, some peas, and maybe a couple other things. I was at my folk’s this weekend, and they’ve got the tomatoes and peppers going in the basement.
My wife loves the Raspberries also (and the cat loves sleeping in the Raz. patch), but they get awful invasive.
Started 3 varieties 18 pots each of my maders last Saturday and they came popping through the soil today! 
For those that have started seeds inside. Do you use any special type of lighting or can you just have them in a regular lit basement with some outside light? Would love to get some stuff started!!
ET
My folks have full spectrum lamps and heating pads. I don’t know if it is needed, but their plants always do very well. A sunny window works, too.
For those that have started seeds inside. Do you use any special type of lighting or can you just have them in a regular lit basement with some outside light? Would love to get some stuff started!!
ET
A window sill is a poor choice for any number of reasons:
1. The light is not strong enough. You need 14-16 hrs/day of consistent light for them once they germinate.
2. Window sills are cold and drafty. The soil needs to be around 70 degrees for proper germination and to avoid damping off.
3. You risk water damage to your window sill from drainage/seepage.
Plain fluorescent light bulbs are fine. You can get a grow light that will raise and lower to the proper height above your seedlings. Fluorescent light provides the necessary spectrum of light for your seedlings to thrive.
You can also get a heating pad that will warm your soil to 10-20 degrees above the ambient room temp. If you’re really nerdy, you can get a thermostat to control the temp exactly, but it’s not usually necessary. I keep mine in a lower level closet where the ambient temp is around 55 degrees. The heating pad warms the soil up enough to get it into the 70s.
I keep records of what I can and garden notes. have records back to 2003 I believe. looking at them last nite I’d say my average start date to till and plant is around the 3rd week of april. if I remember right earliest was april 3rd and the latest was last year when I tilled on may 5th!
I always till in the fall. It helps work in the old plant material that I leave on the ground after harvesting and I don’t have to wait for the soil to dry.
If you till in the spring, it also gets pretty compacted going the entire summer and winter. When I till in the fall, the ground stays nice and loose and is ready to go in the spring when it’s time to plant. It’s one less thing you have to do that’s weather dependent.
I use to till both fall and spring. seem to run out of time in the fall. I usually don’t pull my carrots or kalarabi till the last minute.
that and hunting and fall fishing get in the way! OH AND SO DOES MY JOB!!!! 
lhprop1, you make some good points about tilling in the fall! Perhaps I should make more of an effort to do that this fall, but I’m usually not thinking about the garden at that point. My mind’s on hunting season! 
Billy spoke of plating Brussels sprouts this year in lieu of planting potatoes… I said No Way! I’ll eat Brussels sprouts, but I absolutely love our garden potatoes. I think we need a bigger garden. And it’s pretty big already!
I keep records of what I can and garden notes. have records back to 2003 I believe. looking at them last nite I’d say my average start date to till and plant is around the 3rd week of april.
Glenn
Would you expect that start date to hold true this year?
My kids want to do a garden this year and I’ve never done one before.
yea I do!!!!!!!! actually thinking seriously about tilling real soon. the wet weather forecast next week my change things though. you should be able to put in cool weather seeds like radishes kalarabi onions. I’d wait for maters cukes and the like. my target date for them is soon after fishing opener.
My 5th generation moss roses are emerging… 
OH AND SO DOES MY JOB!!!!
That would suggest you actually work. Be real now and fess up. You only go around starting arguments and then ducking out of the ensuing fights. Not much work involved in being a trouble maker.
I till in the fall and again in the spring. About mid-August I begin to bag the grass clippings when I mow and those go on the garden between the rows. Helps keep weeds down and also helps to keep shoes clean while picking. When the leaves fall I continue to bag and store those in 50 gallon contractor bags. I give them a good spray of water, tie the bags shut and store them in a corner of the garden upside down over the winter. I just dumped this green manure on the garden a couple days ago and it will get tilled in when I do the tilling….soon. There’s nothing like natural food for a garden. The only thing I fertilize in the garden is to feed my tomatoes occasionally thru the growing season with a high grade vegetable product and only do the maters until they start to turn. My raspberry bed gets a liberal dose of 10-10-10 about now and then I add a few bags of woodchip mulch in and around the canes. Some people hose things down with Miracle-Gro but a person has to be careful of molding issues when using that stuff and really it doesn’t do much. There are better things to use for a healthy garden.
but tom that is my job. 
once the maters start producing fruit I put a teaspoon of Epson salt by each plant where it meets the ground about every third watering.Epson salt – tell me more. is that to guard against wilt? Every year my plants hit the wall and turn yellow from the ground up no matter what I try.
I set about to upgrade our raspberry patch yesterday. After hauling 80 of those blocks (27 lbs each) up the hill, I was about ready to keel over, but it looks good and is a big improvement.
Next up is the veggie garden, which means about 145 more blocks up the hill. Then, some soil for both plots. Ugh. 
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Epson salt – tell me more. is that to guard against wilt? Every year my plants hit the wall and turn yellow from the ground up no matter what I try.
Have you got any black walnut trees near your garden? Juglome disease from soil tainted with the black walnut residues will ruin a tomato plant right about the time they set fruit. Have the soil tested to see if theres another sort of toxin in there.
Here’s my starting pile. It’s shrunk a bit, but lots to go.
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its way to cold up my way to think of putting seeds in the ground.
