I decided to be preemptive last night and sprayed all my veggies except the lettuce which doesn't have foliar insects as I remember it from last year. The cucurbits (tumbling veggies) all get squash vine borer so I sprayed all of them with acephate, a systemic insecticide. There are no fruit yet but I'm pumping these plants with chemicals BEFORE they get infected. My thought is that by the time the fruits develop the plant will have multiplied immensely and the chemical will have been diluted into insignificance. 

Potato trench with last year’s spuds supplying me with this year’s food. Fertilizer put in trench for FAST GROWTH.

Meow Meow found the catnip!

I let the grass grow long then cut it, collect it, and mulch the plants for weed control and soil moisture conservation.

Ear buds/pandora/cervesa/goals for completion kept me in the garden till dark last night.

Last years potato crop providing me with this year’s potato crop,

You must slice em up a few days before planting so the wet scar gets dry and crusty before planting.

Potatoes are cheap in the grocery store, why grow em??? Because ITS COOL! Last year I got about 100lbs, this year, much much more than that. Ever made cold potato soup with your own potatoes???

This caught my eye. I read the back and saw potential in trying something different so three of these are going in my garden tonight, along with a flat of beets.

I make an INCREDIBLE hot sauce. It’s hot but not so hot you can’t eat it. Now, I will be making an even hotter sauce- the trick is to make it so it’s hot but does not put you in the hospital.

One can have fun with food from the garden also. Here is a guy eating one of my peppers from last year! Fun!!!

Turnips. Who the hell eats turnips??? I ate dinner at “Romano’s” in Monroe and had the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had. I complimented the waiter (Juan) who corrected me and said “those were mashed turnips, not potatoes. I’m a fan now, but where do I find turnip plants to plant?

Im tired of the same old stuff!!!

Starting seeds: I feel much better starting em in pots and transplanting ‘em into the garden. Not much work but safer for the plants (damping off).

This am I saw a cat print in a mud puddle at the nursery. I wonder what kind? It’s not a house cat!

Peetee, my dog waiting for Kyle (my son) to come outside and join us. Dogs are cool!!!

Sunlight coming through a tomato plant leaf. One does not see beauty like this in grocery stores- you can only enjoy the finer things in life when you work outside on your hands and knees toiling. I pity people who don’t know how to view the world- too busy on their iPhones!

cucumbers/squash/zucchini need to all be in the same row so you can control the squash vine borer. Plant these plants twice as far apart as everything else!

Gardens need not be ugly, they can be sophisticated places of beauty. Tight weedwhacker string pulled tight and anchored at each end for straight rows

Slow release fertilizer in a bucket for ease of use. This is a must. Do not bother having a garden if you don’t feed the plants.

You need the right amount of your most used veggies. Plan well on this step!

Line plants up along the string for reduced toil!

Dig hole with your bare hands. If you need a tool your soil “ain’t prepared right!” If you need to work to dig your holes, your garden will fail.
Put the RIGHT amount of food in the hole BEFORE the plant is put in. Stir it up a bit in the soil.

Space the plants at the proper intervals. Don’t put ‘em too close- BIG MISTAKE! Plant them straight!

For stuff like onions, just dig a trench. Put food in, put plants in, then get down on hands and knees and plant n scoot backwards. Plant n scoot. Plant n scoot.

Efficiency in toil is great for the brain too.

Order in agriculture is pleasing to the eye.

Sobriety does not guarantee order.

Tomatoes get planted deep due to their unique ability to produce roots on their stems. They also get 50% more food. Space them intelligently or you will have a hot mess on your hands!!!

Use your head to space tomatoes. Grab a shovel or a stick to get em spaced properly. Too close=sloppy horrible situation.

Our veggie garden soil being spread on top of existing grade.

soil raked smooth over existing soil

I don’t think that we are going to have any more frost this year so I started getting my garden ready.
​I spread 15 more yards of our vegetable garden soil over the top of the lawn last night to double the size of the garden from last year. Now it’s 35’ by 65’.
I figured that last year I saved thousands of dollars on food. I’m still eating out of my freezer from the products from last year‘s garden.
Some weeds started growing in last year’s area so I sprayed it thoroughly with round up twice to kill those weeds. For those who don’t know about round up there’s a lot of bad press about round up but it’s misguided information.

I am not going to pull weeds by hand- I’m going to spray them with round up. I know a lot about round up- it decomposes upon contact with soil, there is no residual, and it does not leach into groundwater so your vegetable plants will not absorb it.

Hand pulling for me is out of the question so roundup is my weed control solution. Others choose hand weeding. Grass clippings as mulch at the base of each plant is a great solution later in the year.

Our veggie soil is mixed at the nursery- half topsoil mixed with half rotted mulch. I mix it like this so the microbes in the soil have something to eat. The steam in this video is the byproduct of intense microbial environment in our soil as the microbes munch on the carbon in the soil. If there’s life in the soil, there is “LIFE” in your garden!

Veggie garden soil kept dry under this house. $45/yard, pH=7.0 (perfect for gardens). You can come pick it up or we can deliver it. Our truck can hold 10-12 yards.