# You know you're a redneck if  (aka let's start a garden discussion)



## Mrs. Krabappel (Jan 30, 2011)

If you come home from work and your chickens are perching on your 'tater tires.  (from last spring)

The temperatures have perked up a bit and I'm thinking about the garden.  I've been too ambitious the last couple of years.   I planted by looking through seed catalogs and ordering "pretty" or "yummy."   Overall, I've not had a good year yet.  

This year I'm trying to be smarter.  I want to plant what will thrive and what I would pay too much for at the market.   This rules out carrots, taters,  squash, and others.   

I think I'm going to focus on greens, but I also want to plan things that fruit.     


Anybody dreaming about spring?  What are you planting this year?  Making any big changes from other years?


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## henkmeuzelaar (Jan 30, 2011)

(You know you're a redneck if)

you come back from the garbage dump with more stuff in the back of your truck than you drove up with.

(sorry, but that's as close to gardening/harvesting as my brown thumb gets 

Henk

PS: My apologies for misunderstanding the direction of this discussion; I thought it was just another redneck joke thread as I had no idea that Heart.com has such an impressive horticultural division! 
I hope y'all burn your garden wastes in an environmentally green and efficient way though


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## szmaine (Jan 30, 2011)

Oh, I don't know Kath, looks to me like you're going to end up building a redneck joke thread with that title. 
You might want to change it.....

We grow a bit of everything because we have the space I love potatoes -we grow 3 40ft rows of various varieties.
We had a terrific year last year with cauliflower and broccoli - they are relatively expensive at the store and freeze very well if you have the space.

How big is your garden?
Nice chickens - I get eggs from a coworker - nothing beats fresh eggs. I want my own one of these days.


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## bogydave (Jan 31, 2011)

Not thinking about spring yet
but will in 2 months.


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## wahoowad (Jan 31, 2011)

I want to grow onions this year but don't know how


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## bogydave (Jan 31, 2011)

buy some onion sets, stick'm in some soil


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## szmaine (Jan 31, 2011)

bogydave said:
			
		

> Not thinking about spring yet
> but will in 2 months.



Man, that is gorgeous I mean it, I gonna look again tomorrow when I have a bigger screen available.

I'd like to do some raised beds nearer to the house - a little kitchen garden with herbs.


Onions need lots of water. We suck at onions, I don't know why.


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## begreen (Jan 31, 2011)

bogydave said:
			
		

> Not thinking about spring yet
> but will in 2 months.



Fantastic growing space. Do you have some outside shots?


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## begreen (Jan 31, 2011)

~*~Kathleen~*~ said:
			
		

> If you come home from work and your chickens are perching on your 'tater tires.  (from last spring)
> 
> The temperatures have perked up a bit and I'm thinking about the garden.  I've been too ambitious the last couple of years.   I planted by looking through seed catalogs and ordering "pretty" or "yummy."   Overall, I've not had a good year yet.
> 
> ...



Yep, cleaned out the herb beds and starting to fertilize them. I was going to start some plants today, but setting up the flicker nest box took all afternoon. We will have seeds starting by next weekend for sure. Still harvesting lettuce and greens from the greenhouse. We also got some arugula, mache and carrots from outside beds.


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## btuser (Jan 31, 2011)

I'm scared I won't finish my inside projects before March.    I was thinking about starting some seeds in Feb.


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Jan 31, 2011)

I forgot to mention that BeGreen is not allowed to post and make the rest of us mortals feel inferior.      ;-)   Then Dave posts those insane greenhouse pics.  Nice

I have 3 8x4x8 raised beds, though I may let the chickens keep their favorite one.   At some point I will build more, but it probably won't be this year.   I also love potatoes and loved growing/harvesting them.  The tater tires were a bust though.   Broccoli and cauliflower are a good idea.   I've done okay with the broc.    I love early sweet peas but anything sweet and trellised gets snarfed by the chickens.


Re: the flicker nest.   I worked a job studying wildlife response to snag density.  I had a camera on a telescopic pole that peered into cavities.   Fun stuff!   Though that set-up was heavy and awkward to carry through the woods.   And the snag data collection was tedious.  Anyway, flicker nests always had a pretty big clutch.  I did some research and found out that in one study they kept removing eggs as the female laid.  She ultimately laid 71 eggs in 73 days   :bug:    In another study they tested the egg composition and found them the energy density to be among the lowest.


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## bogydave (Jan 31, 2011)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> bogydave said:
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The one pic was outside. 1 with tomatoes & cucs was in the green house.
Grand kids growing as fast as the garden.


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## bogydave (Jan 31, 2011)

One more pic of my moose fence.
I found that moose won't jump over raspberries so i planted them all the way around the garden.


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## bogydave (Jan 31, 2011)

OK ~*~Kathleen~*~
I had a trace of cabin fever.
Now you got me thinking about Spring 2 months early.
My "Cabin Fever" temperature is getting higher.
 I'm going outside for a walk in the freezing cold to get my mind off Spring &
back where it should be, 2-1/2 months left of lovely winter weather, ground hog or not.  LOL


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Jan 31, 2011)

:lol: no regrets.  Thanks for sharing the pics.


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## begreen (Jan 31, 2011)

Outstanding Dave and very impressive for AK. Nothing like 20 hrs of sunshine to keep those plants working. I'm surprised the moose fence works. Down here the deer would happily munch right through it. 

Kath, lots of good gardeners here on Hearth.com, I'm an amateur in comparison. And we still don't have chickens. 

Interesting to hear about the flickers. I got the nest box up today. Now if I can just keep those pesky starlings away from it.


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## nate379 (Jan 31, 2011)

Couple years ago I tried doing a garden at the house.  Damn moose pretty much ate everything.


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## wahoowad (Jan 31, 2011)

bogydave (and anybody else),

what is that black material called you put down between rows? Is that to control weeds? My garden is in the middle of a large grass field and I get a LOT of grass growing in my garden. I try to pull up the clumps to keep them from competing for water/nutrients but it can be a continual battle. I'm wondering if I should consider using something like the plastic to snuff it out?


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## btuser (Jan 31, 2011)

Last November I picked up over 200' of bridge curbing so I could re-work the garden beds.  I ordered another 5 trees for this Spring (2 plum, 1 peach and 2 3-in-1 cherry)  I have NO IDEA where I'm going to plant.   I've got plans for another shed on my desktop.   STOP IT!  YOU PEOPLE ARE STRESSING ME OUT


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## RNLA (Jan 31, 2011)

Does anyone here have a fabulous idea for raised bed construction that would be readily available for me or that I could do myself, IE: concrete walls or the like? I have a good size space to put in some raised beds and would like to get some good ideas. Sorry Kathleen, I'm not trying to high jack your thread I just want to ask the pros here, the pictures I have seen of the gardens say "you know what your doing". Oh yeah I forgot "you might be a redneck"!  :smirk:


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## JustWood (Jan 31, 2011)

RNLA said:
			
		

> Does anyone here have a fabulous idea for raised bed construction that would be readily available for me or that I could do myself, IE: concrete walls or the like? I have a good size space to put in some raised beds and would like to get some good ideas. Sorry Kathleen, I'm not trying to high jack your thread I just want to ask the pros here, the pictures I have seen of the gardens say "you know what your doing". Oh yeah I forgot "you might be a redneck"!  :smirk:


If you realLEE wanna go redneck style try junked out  chest freezers or refrigerators on their side. The insulation keeps the  dirt warm and the heigth keeps stuff off the ground where frost starts.
Recycling and they work great


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## RNLA (Jan 31, 2011)

Ha, LEE you crack me up! I do not think my wife would go for that. I also would be driven out by the nieghbors they have a realee nice garden and yard.


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## burr (Jan 31, 2011)

Did you say focus on greens ?  These are collards, photo from november, and I'm still picking batches weekly.  Hope to harvest until early spring, just before preparing ground for summer garden.  They were planted ('Georgia collards') Sept or so, after the summers' garden was totally fried.  Last season, we had another summer that was hot and dry.

By the way, we've had one of the harshest winters I can remember and these babies were laid out flat on the ground more than once.  Course after a couple days in this region, it's back into the 60s (or even 70s) and they recover and continue to produce.


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## bogydave (Feb 1, 2011)

wahoowad said:
			
		

> bogydave (and anybody else),
> 
> what is that black material called you put down between rows? Is that to control weeds? My garden is in the middle of a large grass field and I get a LOT of grass growing in my garden. I try to pull up the clumps to keep them from competing for water/nutrients but it can be a continual battle. I'm wondering if I should consider using something like the plastic to snuff it out?



I think it's called "landscape fabric"
It lets water thru.
I was 30" wide & staked up as a fence along the road where some construction was done to. 
I saw it wasn't picked up after construction was done& gone, about 300 feet, so I scarfed it up. (I scrounge, more than just firewood)


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## bogydave (Feb 1, 2011)

RNLA said:
			
		

> Does anyone here have a fabulous idea for raised bed construction that would be readily available for me or that I could do myself, IE: concrete walls or the like? I have a good size space to put in some raised beds and would like to get some good ideas. Sorry Kathleen, I'm not trying to high jack your thread I just want to ask the pros here, the pictures I have seen of the gardens say "you know what your doing". Oh yeah I forgot "you might be a redneck"!  :smirk:



I use 2X10s at an angle now now, at 1st, I made some square with 2X8s, 2X6s. Found the 2X10 to be right depth to be able to rotate crops.
Now I like the pyramid base ones, I can lift them up easy & they stay so I can add more compost when needed, hold moisture better, sun angle heats them better.
Easy to make, get 2 say 12' 2X10s, cut a piece of 1/2" plywood at the shape wanted & nail it to the ends. some 30" at bottom 22" at the top for beds, some 
18" bottom 10" top for rows, various lengths.  Cut one sidewall out of an old tire & turn inside out.
Lay them in the garden, I fill them with 100% compost.
I'm experimenting with a solar heated one, using GH plastic for the sides. I get a few degree warmer soil, good for some crops.
Some painted black to see if I can get soil temps warmer, some plane wood. (not much difference in the soil but heat radiate to the plants in the evening does it help ?? dont know
You can see there are lots of ways to go. Some use 1" thick wood sides with  2X2 in the corners. **Just don't use treated wood, the chemicals are toxic & leech into the soil**


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## begreen (Feb 1, 2011)

I love it. You're a man after my own heart. You should write a book Dave. How do you manage the compost with your cooler temps?


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Feb 1, 2011)

You've given me an idea.  I have been getting rid of my tater tires, but I may re-comission them.  Were they easier to cut along that seam?


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## RNLA (Feb 1, 2011)

Nice, I wonder what others do too.


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## bogydave (Feb 1, 2011)

~*~Kathleen~*~ said:
			
		

> You've given me an idea.  I have been getting rid of my tater tires, but I may re-comission them.  Were they easier to cut along that seam?


I use my stiff bladed very sharp hunting knife, right near the tread, cut thru easy. Sharp is key so you don't slip by pushing to hard.
Now inverting them takes a little practice, but once you do a few, you find the easy way, "self teacher kinda thing".
I do potato tires like this:


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## bogydave (Feb 1, 2011)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> I love it. You're a man after my own heart. You should write a book Dave. How do you manage the compost with your cooler temps?


Takes about a year here. New bin (made it out of some pieces of a GH I lost in a wind storm, double walled to help hold in some heat so it cooks longer & thaws sooner) started every Sept mixed with garden plants, leaves & fresh grass clippings. cooks into Dec then freezes, In the spring when it thaws, I mix in some fresh grass clippings to heat it up so it'll cook, done by mid August, empty in the "done" bin.
Then I scored several ton of Horse Manure, few tons a year (but recently lot my supply). So I have 2 to 3 HM working piles. then I  run it through it through a manual screen plant & it goes into "done" storage bins.
Got several yards stored & covered so it don't get leeched out from rain/snowmelt etc. Got one small bin using 3 pallets as sides for kitchen scraps etc thru the summer


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## begreen (Feb 1, 2011)

Nice. We have to be really careful of horse manure here because of the usage of herbicides to grow weed free hay. These poisons are persistent for several years and really mess up certain crops like beans and peas. So now we stay away from horse manure. 

When do you find time to split wood?


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## bogydave (Feb 1, 2011)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> Nice. We have to be really careful of horse manure here because of the usage of herbicides to grow weed free hay. These poisons are persistent for several years and really mess up certain crops like beans and peas. So now we stay away from horse manure.
> 
> When do you find time to split wood?



Learning to retire isn't easy, I thought it was going to be "live Hawaii for the winter, AK in the summers" LOL.
 I got lots on the "to do list" that I saved up.  Not enough time to retire yet, but working on it.
Who did it when I was working? **  I got that one :it didn't get "done", was just close enough to done to get by.

**Redneck screening plant** with vibrating electric sander


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## nate379 (Feb 1, 2011)

Good deal on that!  The last roll I bought about that length was close to $100 if I remember correctly.



			
				bogydave said:
			
		

> wahoowad said:
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## semipro (Feb 1, 2011)

My gardening has really not gone well the last few seasons.  I can't seem to find the time to devote to it.  

You guys have impressive gardens.  I feel my determination growing.


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## Wood Duck (Feb 10, 2011)

I am going to get more serious about fencing this year so that I can grow a wider range of crops. Potatoes and onions have been staples here because they are among the few crops that can grow outside the backyard fence without being eaten by groundhogs, rabbits, and deer. Someone asked about onions, and they are among the easiest foods to grow in my experience. The simplest way to go is to purchase either sets (imature onion bulbs) or plants in the spring. Some of the sweet onions like walla walla and 'Vidalia' onions are sold as plants. Onion seeds are tiny and a slower way to edible onions, so start with sets or plants. Just turn over a bed and plant the sets or plants around May. Keep the weeds down and you should get decent onions. Rich soil will give bigger onions, but any soil and indiiferent care should still yield some useful onions. I haven't seen a lot of pests on my onions through many years of gardening around the US.

I am also planning some food crops for my chickens, who are probably on the front porch right now. They don't like to stand in the snow, so right now that means they are hanging out either in the coop, the driveway, or the porch. I plan on creating some areas of clover lawn and beds of sunflower which will also include lots of Giant Foxtail Millet that springs up everywhere. I have winter rye right now, and they eat that but it is covered in snow. I hope they can get to it next week after the predicted warm spell.


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Feb 10, 2011)

Wood Duck said:
			
		

> I am also planning some food crops for my chickens, who are probably on the front porch right now. They don't like to stand in the snow, so right now that means they are hanging out either in the coop, the driveway, or the porch. I plan on creating some areas of clover lawn and beds of sunflower which will also include lots of Giant Foxtail Millet that springs up everywhere. I have winter rye right now, and they eat that but it is covered in snow. I hope they can get to it next week after the predicted warm spell.



Great idea.  Will you keep it fenced while the plants mature?


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## Wood Duck (Feb 11, 2011)

I hope I can get away with not fencing. We have a couple of acres for the chickens to range, and in the spring and summer there is plenty for them to eat. I hope I can grow crops that will feed them through late fall and the part of winter before it snows. Knowing how chickens are, they will probably ignore all the other food and eat the seedlings I am trying to grow for them. If I had to bet I'd bet I'll be putting up fence.

I have been trying to get the chickens to turn over and fertilize garden beds by moving their mobile coop and pen over the bed and leaving them there for a couple of days. I think they are not hungry enough. They do a little turning and lots of fertilizing, but I still have work to do before I can plant.


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## begreen (Feb 11, 2011)

We have been thinking about chickens, but it seems ducks might be better. How do you avoid the chickens eating young plants or fruit like strawberries if they are not kept out of the garden when these crops are present? How do you deal with predators like raccoons?


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## begreen (Feb 11, 2011)

bogydave said:
			
		

> **Redneck screening plant** with vibrating electric sander



Oh, I missed this picture. I love it! How well does it work? I have an old sander that really vibrates. It would be great for this purpose. Do you have any shots taken at another angle? I want to make one.


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## szmaine (Feb 11, 2011)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> We have been thinking about chickens, but it seems ducks might be better. How do you avoid the chickens eating young plants or fruit like strawberries if they are not kept out of the garden when these crops are present? How do you deal with predators like raccoons?



Have you had duck eggs? I ask because, they are not eggs-actly like chicken eggs and some people don't like them. I don't like them egg-cept in baking, and mixed with chicken eggs they make a truly superior omelet but not by themselves - rubbery.


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## dvellone (Feb 11, 2011)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> We have been thinking about chickens, but it seems ducks might be better. How do you avoid the chickens eating young plants or fruit like strawberries if they are not kept out of the garden when these crops are present? How do you deal with predators like raccoons?



I'll contribute how we handle the chickens... It's a sore spot for me! We live in the woods and have a great watchdog who is outside 24/7 and so we never have had an issue with deer, rabbits, raccoons or chicken predators (our chickens free range all daylight hours and we sometimes forget to close them in at night). 
We have  two gardens, one large and one small, as well as berries, herb gardens and ornamental shrubs, fruit trees, flowers etc...
Our problem is that we've had to fence in everything to keep the chickens away! Even the lilac bushes, apple trees, and plum trees because  they will scratch so deeply at the mulch around the trees that they'll expose the roots and spread the mulch all over the place. This past year they got into my main garden and scratched two 30' rows of newly sprouted carrots and removed every bit of the mulch that was on my garlic (dry soil and I need the mulch to hold in some moisture.)

So, although I started out not needing a single bit fence to protect my plants from deer etc... I've had to fence in everything I've planted to keep the chickens from scratching and tearing up plants, exposing roots, and decimating my hard-earned mulch. 

So, the answer to your question is fence, fence and more fence! Or chicken and biscuits! You can also fence the chickens in and therein I've revealed the depths of my stupidity.


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## begreen (Feb 11, 2011)

szmaine said:
			
		

> BeGreen said:
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No I haven't and I am not as fond of duck meat as I am chicken. Thanks for the tip. What I like about ducks is that they don't scratch up the soil as much and they love our ubiquitous pest - the slug.


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## szmaine (Feb 12, 2011)

What about building a chicken tractor?

I'd like to get chickens too. I've been eyeballing the 1971 IH Travelall which recently blew it's transmission as a potential coop - earn the coveted redneck status in the bargain.


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## begreen (Feb 12, 2011)

A chicken tractor is what I had in mind. A few local folks have done this. Great for the initial clearing of the beds.


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Feb 12, 2011)

Bantams *might* not be so devastating, but the big girls are hard on many small plants.   I have heard from many folks that ducks are a PITA.   I can't tractor my chickens.  I get too much pleasure and relaxation watching them do their rounds.   Nothing better than sitting out with a beer on a warm afternoon and watching the biddies.   Pitiful, I know, but that's my life now! :lol:


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## szmaine (Feb 12, 2011)

Chicken manure is great stuff! At work I get significant quantities of samples from a large egg producer every couple of months.
We dry it for moisture content analysis. I fill up 5 gal pails with it and bring it home for composting my shredded leaves and other yard waste. That really makes some hot, fast compost - nearly fell over from the ammonia 1st time I ever turned it. I make about 
8 cu yds a year this way.


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## Wood Duck (Feb 15, 2011)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> A chicken tractor is what I had in mind. A few local folks have done this. Great for the initial clearing of the beds.



My chickens sleep in a chicken tractor with a solidly built coop built in. We originally intended to keep them in there all the time, but somewhere along the way we started letting them out and now that is standard practice. I like to have them out so that can eat a more natural diet, even though with the tractor they have access to our weedy lawn or garden, depending where the tractor is parked. When they are out they do scratch avidly and can be a pain. I have to fence gardens for rabbits and groundhogs anyway, so the fencing isn't a new thing, but we have mulch tossed about all the time in the unfenced garden beds.

Overall I have found our chickens are a lot less trouble than I might have expected. They return to the coop by themselves every evening, they lay all their egg in the nest box inside the coop, and we have not had predator problems yet. We have a feeder and waterer that hold enough for a couple of days, so all we need is to lock them up at night and let them out in the morning. We are anticipating that one day one or more chickens will be killed by a predator. That is the chance we and the chickens take in exchange for free ranging. In terms of overall effort required, I think chickens are harder than a cat, easier than a dog (although I haven't actually owned a cat, so I am just guessing). The eggs are much better than eggs you can buy in a store.


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## Mrs. Krabappel (Feb 16, 2011)

Wood Duck said:
			
		

> I think chickens are harder than a cat, easier than a dog (although I haven't actually owned a cat, so I am just guessing). The eggs are much better than eggs you can buy in a store.




Much easier to harvest than cat eggs too.  :lol:  And more delicious.

I've had zero predator trouble so far except dogs.  My own beast (now he knows better) and a visiting friend's dog.   I even have bantams plus a hungry pair of red-shouldered hawks who nest here every year.  Most problem predators are out at night when they are in the coop.


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