Taters and beans and some cherry tomatoes all I need now

Out there in Indiana do you guys plant your peppers before Memorial Day? Here in north central Iowa it has to be pretty warm to plant them before then.

All goes in the ground at the same time as far as I'm concerned. When safe from frost!

I have been experimenting with starting stuff indoors. Been working and gets you a few weeks head start.

Canned a ton of stuff last year and we are currently dealing the rewards of the hard work! So we are going all in this year.

I think we will start producing 90% of our yearly food requirements this year.

Here we really stagger plantings based on potential frosts and even more importantly soil temperatures. In our wet clay soils that stay wet and cold near the lake we need to watch planting too early as many seedlings or young transplants like tomatoes, peppers etc. just don't do well when soils are cold and stay wet. We can and do many kale type species early as well as early peas etc. I like to plant many things early and I am learning too early for many. I am going to wait until the soil temps get into the mid 50s or warmer for much of what I plant here. Many garden species have not been bred or selected for cold temps like several of the commercial crops like early corn etc. have been.

Bryce

Taters in the ground here. Rest of the garden,besides purple hulls and okra, will go in Good Friday. Peas and okra a couple weeks later.

Like Bryce said here we can get away with radish’s,peas, and turnips early most everything else needs to be later, interesting fact here if you plant your cucumbers after June 15 the Beatles wont bother them.

I ordered most of my seeds from Jung's last night and some plants for redoing much of my strawberries etc. Our winter last year really damaged even my raspberries and asparagus as well. I always look forward to spring and planting. I do two gardens one in lighter soil at home and one 6 miles east by my son that is 2 miles from the lake and heavy clay. Gives me a lot of flexibility but a lot to learn too.
I am trying something new this year. I used to mulch my garden with sheep poop after it was planted and up and growing. This year I am going to dig deeper trenches for all my seeds and plants and wider too and put the compost in the trench then some dirt and then the seeds or plants. Hopefully good nutrients by the plants and far fewer seeds in the rows. Great I hope for onions, carrots etc. It will take a lot more time to plant but what the H with all trips cancelled it is fishing, sheep and gardens this year. It will be a test. I plan to dig out all my established raspberries, asparagus etc. and dig trenches, mulch and replant. I am hoping to find ways to lessen weed growth and not use any inorganic fertilizers or pesticides if I can.

Bryce

Something I tried last year that really did well was pole beans. I have always grown Bush beans, both yellow and green. I put 16 seven foot poles down in a raised bed full of mushroom compost. Put 4 beans at each pole. Beans came up, climbed poles....picked beans for 6 weeks. Ended up with 1.75 bushels.

I will be starting mine this weekend. Still need to get m bean and pea seed.

Are those leggy things tomatoes?

Cauliflower, broccoli, 3 types of tomatoes, black diamond watermelon, cantaloupe, and strawberries in pictures above

Potatoes, beans, and carrots I'll plant directly in garden

If you use good sheep poop-it is excellent-as long as you are getting it from a sheep farmer etc-I don't believe that the fertilizer bags that say sheep manure are in fact sheep manure-they probably stuff anything in there.Our friends had goats and sheep and they are an excellent source of good manure-my garden was amazing! Have not been able to get it anymore-as they quit ranching and moved away.

I try to have my garden in the ground by Easter, but IDK if I'll be able to this year. I didn't get plants started like I normally do. Now, we have had rain every couple days for the last 6 months, IDK when the ground is going to dry out enough to till.

I bet goat manure would work too for your garden.

We have used llama manure with good results.

I started mine in the house for several years and it was so much work, so dirty (wife), and never seemed to take off outdoors.

I could never get my matters short and stout like at the store there were always long and spindely.

Yes I did fans and kept lights close and tried everything. I decided its alot easier and better just to go to the greenhouse and get good stuff at the right times.

I wanted to be really good at it though and just never could get it.

Tomatoes only took a week or so to pop and start growing.
Peppers took 4 weeks to pop so you had alot of time in them. Actually I did pretty good with peppers.

Goats and Ash from wood heat

We started ours beginning of March and they are doing great. Have tried other years and they always turned out spindly and leggy . This year I did a little research and found out 12 to 16 hours of light and only 2 inch away was best otherwise they are reaching for the light causing them to be spindly. Also researched the bulbs and found out you don't need the expensive grow bulb just need between 2,000 to 3,000 lumens and 4,100 to 6,500 kelvin we had some old fluorescent shop lights and found the right bulbs at the local restore. Need to get everything repotted soon .Now I need to hurry up and get my greenhouse done. .