Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Breaking New Ground, The Veggie Garden

After building a house for the four years and having a few surgeries before and after the construction, I'm ready for my veggie garden again. We have a very large yard with nothing landscaped in it, perfect! And mostly sunny! One problem, my husband blew the engine in the rototiller, I mean he blew it. Crankshaft went out the front of the engine...glug..glug..glug, spilt the oil. So we called around to all the local shops and could only rent a tiller with front tines. It wouldn't break new ground.

Someone, had the brilliant idea to turn by hand, ugh. It was slow going then we found this giant rock, probably placed there by us when we were building, actually I know it was....Okay, that will have to be a very deep raised bed for ....say, carrots! We'll be choosy about the soil and leave it undisturbed, we'll have to. This is as far as the two teenagers got, my son and his friend. See all the rocks this spot was growing?


So the next day, 4-21, we traveled to an equipment place and rented huge rototiller with rear tines. Large, impressive, and heavy. It turned out to be fairly useless. The tines rotated in a forward motion and all this power plow would do is walk the ground! It was easy to stick the shovel in the soil and give it a twist, this thing really couldn't do the job.


Fast forward to the following weekend, our weather was close to if not, seventy degrees. My husband, Jack of all Trades, stopped at a lawn and garden place. The owner was kind enough to let us try a used motor from another tiller, same horsepower and all. If it worked great, if not bring it back. Well, it worked, and worked well. This tiller, although 30 to 40 years old, is one tenuous little machine. It's tines rotate towards the operator while it motions forward and although small, it really gets the job done.


He's HE-MAN teen using a crowbar to remove another rock. A good workout in preparation for football season.


I must say, we are fortunate we know owners of a horse farm, and he was willing to deliver manure on his Sunday morning.


Not only one dump truck load, but two.

We spread it rather fast, I even put some on my flowerbeds and there is more for seeding some grass seed later next month. My soil is dusty clay and needs this amending, it makes it so easy.


Look at the difference in the quality of dirt! I never was so excited about dirt...before. I'm anxious to plant but in my area of Maine, Memorial day weekend is the date.

Well, we still have the sandy loam to put in our raised bed, logs to outline the edge of our plot (to discourage critters from digging), and a fence to install. Next weekend will be another busy, exhausting, two day adventure.


In the Garden, breaking new ground.

34 comments:

  1. That's going to be one nice veggie garden after all the work your family has put into it. :)

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  2. Looks like you have a lot of work ahead, but it'll be worth it. The manure was a great move too.

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  3. Good morning all!

    Dawn that is an awful lot of work. To get those tillers and have them not work! Urgh! I really cannot wait to see it all done and growing your veggies! It's huge! I wish I had that much room let me tell you.

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  4. Good morning guys, 80 to 90 by 1:00 today! Almost never in Maine in April! Guess what I'll be doing? Out in this plot doing more work.

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  5. Dawn ... I have to admit to something ... it is an ugly secret ... I have "Tiller ENVY" !!!
    LOL .. In my fantasy of a home with loads of room .. I buy a Mantis tiller and have so much fun tilling soil it is silly .. that is me this morning : )
    It is so satisfying to see a project into reality isn't it ? Great work and I'm sure GREAT veggies will come of it !

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  6. Its amazing what some hard work and determination can achieve. I hope you have lots of lovely veggies as a reward

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  7. Wow Dawn--you guys have really been working! But it will be so worth this effort this summer and fall when you harvest all those veggies! Yum!

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  8. Good morning Dawn, that is one BIG garden. What fun to have a new garden put in. You will have lots and lots of great stuff to eat!

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  9. Dawn, Your garden is going to be fantastic! I look forward to your monthly update and know it will be prolific! happy gardening! gail

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  10. Your efforts will be greatly rewarded with all of your fresh veggies! :-) That's a lot of work, though. Glad you got your tiller repaired.

    Cameron

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  11. Dawn, my muscles are aching just reading this! Good thing you had some helpers--that looked like a lot of work. I tilled up our small vegetable patch by myself on Saturday--much, much smaller than your bed and without any rock--and I had to rest on the couch afterwards:) With all that manure, you are going to have some fantastic vegetables this summer!

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  12. You and your family are going to be in super shape. All that physical labor followed by lots of fresh vegetables;) Big job well done, everybody.
    Marnie

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  13. tina, stop by my blog-- I have something for you. :)

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  14. Wow, That is going to be one huge vegetable patch! You could fit three of mine in there I think.

    Good luck with you new venture and I can't wait to watch it grow.

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  15. That is one huge garden. A lot of work by all. A huge plus of all that manure. You will have a fantastic garden.
    Now for the rock---that's to sit up your chair/lemonade in hand & watch all those glorious veggies grow.
    Sure would like to see an update.
    Job well done by all, Dawn.

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  16. GREAT JOB! Love those rocks too!!

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  17. WOW! What a huge undertaking. At least you have a few strong men to help. The nice thing about renting equipment is when it breaks down they'll give you a new one, no questions asked.

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  18. That looks like a lot of work! It's going be a nice big veggie garden for sure. Can't wait to see how it looks all planted.

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  19. Great job by all and it looks great. The manure looks like nice rotted stuff. Can't get any better than that. I think I will go plant a few things today and hope for the best. Our last frost date is a weel before you but it has been so nice I will take a gamble. I did it one other time and did not get caught so might this time. Oh well, worth the try I think.

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  20. Dawn, you and the gang have been hard at work and it will soon be paying off for you in the form of yummy delights! I wish we had a big patch of ground such as you that we could call a veggie garden. Cant wait to see what all you plant and the progress of this garden as it takes shape. Job well done by all....

    Here we live in the Deep South and your temps are higher then us. Global Warming maybe? :-)

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  21. Jean, I will keep my fingers crossed for you that you are not jumping the gun. I know the anticipation of wanting to plant something and have been bit myself at times for jumping the gun. Good Luck on the planting and have fun...

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  22. Whew thats a lot of work!!! Good thing you have help. Don't you hate it when you have everything planned, then it doesn't go as planned!!! Then you have to improvise. I can't believe you got all of that manure. That is really going to help!

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  23. What a fantastic bed! Memorial Day weekend is our traditional veggie planting time in Massachusetts too (well we can put in the cold loving veggies earlier, but all the heat loving ones, such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant, etc. go in Memorial Day weekend). I can certaintly understand your excitement and look forward to seeing the wonderful bountiful it will produce!

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  24. Hi Guys,
    Perernial Gardener, I hope so. My 10 year old daughter helped too! She was better about it than my teen son. (of course!)
    Randy, I live by the manure! Can't beat it, best stuff.
    Tina, you held me to my veggie bed. Here it is, and it is huge. I'm already thinking more. arghh!
    Joy, bust out laughing! You must be a riot in the morning! Do you sing also?!
    Patient gardener, Love those fresh veggies, I plan on a summer of chasing squirrels.
    Meadowview thymes, I was soooo wanting a bubblebath made out of absorbine jr! I ached. Thanks
    Janet, It felt good to reach a stage I knew it was a go.
    Gail, I'm looking forward to photographing my progress, especially with my new camera, hope I can figure it out.
    Cameron, I glad about the tiller too, I have grass to put in and it would of been a chore to loosen the soil with out it.
    Roses and Lilacs, I sure felt my age when we were doing this, hubby and I were laughing at each other thru wheezing!
    Dan, Thanks, I'm planting some stuff I never had room for.
    Lola, I'll have to do something with all that rock, what I don't know but give me time....
    Darla, thanks!
    Woman and Flowers, I didn't know that about rentals, everything else we've rented did well, this thing was awful, I'm surprised my plot didn't cause it to break!
    Catherine, Thanks, I can wait to see it full either, should be nice.
    Mom, Nice, nice, nice today! Great to get outside, I thought your date was 4/20, or maybe that was for the peas. Are you having peas?

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  25. Skeeter, This is a fluk for us, such a fluk that the temp swing is 40 degrees up from the morning temp. and starting at around 3pm, another 40 degree swing down, twice in one day! Can't decide whether or not to leave the windows open!
    Dirt princess, Yep, so annoying when things go the way they want to. We plan so often!
    Ellie Mae's cottage, I so want to plant! I'm quite sure this weather won't effect the weeds that will pop up soon!

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  26. Whoops, I missed ya, Rose! I spent all that time spreading and throwing manure that when I awoke the next morning, I was convinced I'd got up during the night a switched to the floor, I was some stiff! Took about a hour. Winter hibernation I guess.

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  27. Whoops, I'm on another computer and I'm getting my email, I can see it's worm and flower, not woman and flower, sorry :). I have to laugh at myself about that one!

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  28. Hi Dawn, you are going to have a fantastic veggie garden with all the tilling and amending! Good thing those big strong mens are around too. I would hang on to the tiller too, it seems perfect!
    Frances

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  29. Hi Frances, Yes, thank goodness for the strapping guys in my family. I truly don't know how I would get this in w/o them!
    They don't make things like they use to. My tiller is a testimony to that.

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  30. I'm sure the horse manure you used was well composted (one, two, or even three seasons old). I learned the hard way never to use horse manure unless its had time to compost and break down all the weed seeds.

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  31. Tc, Yes it is well dried, it smelled more like a barn than anything else. Yep, I burned many plants thinking ANY manure is good manure.

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  32. Good luck with the veggie garden, then it will be time to dust the canner off :). Canning tomatoes is one of my favorite summer things.

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  33. Thanks, Iowa gardening woman, dusting the canner and calibrating the thermostat! You got that one, if for beans alone! Fall will be busy, as always!

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  34. You know, a lot of garden blogs seem to mention this mystical creature "the husband." I'll take your word for it that they a) exist and b) do menial labor (as my ex never did!). ;-)

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