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  1. Alan in Vermont

    Working the soil with "Heavy Equipment"

    Bringing in the REAL heavy equipment tomorrow! One of the plots I garden has absolutely wonderful soil. It also has the remains of an old foundation just under the surface. Best guess is that the soil and the foundation are the legacy of what was the stage road from Burlington, VT to...
  2. Alan in Vermont

    Planting in Tires

    I'm way behing my normal gardening schedule this year. The weather messed with us at first, we had snow here on May 9. I am also working with a partially disabled left shoulder and hand as well as a torn meniscus in my right knee. Those things have made it very slow going, even with the...
  3. Alan in Vermont

    what is your hardiness zone and elevation

    Zone 4 here, around 300', on sand flats that were once the floor of the sixth great lake, or maybe an inland sea. Might even be both, a lot of our soils have either mini-seashells or calcified/fossilized clam shells. The white shells are very soft, much like chalk, the black "specks" on the...
  4. Alan in Vermont

    Little update

    My first batch of peppers was a total flop also. Second ones are coming good, they will get moved from the starting tray into cell trays in just a few days. I'm a little concerned about them getting time to actually fruit before September. I may, just to hedge my bets against early frost, buy...
  5. Alan in Vermont

    Seedlings coming along nicely

    When there is frost danger I lay a sheet of 2" styrofoam over the top of the frame. The walls, above the timbers, is also insulated with foil faced foam to reflect sunlight around the interior as well as hold heat. I use a recording thermometer to keep track of both high and low temps inside...
  6. Alan in Vermont

    Seedlings coming along nicely

    It was once pretty common for gardeners to start seedlings in an outdoor "hotbed", usually a low wooden frame on the ground and covered with old windows. It would sit over a shallow pit filled with fresh horse manure. The manure would generate heat as it decomposed. Quite a lot of heat in...
  7. Alan in Vermont

    Seedlings coming along nicely

    And then there are onions. This may be a once in a lifetime experiment for me. They go in the ground in four weeks, I sure they get growing before then. Major PITA as they have to be covered after 10-12 hours of light so I can be sure they don'y try to bulb too soon. If I start them again...
  8. Alan in Vermont

    Seedlings coming along nicely

    Gone, ask and ye shall receive! :) I sell through a farmers market in my town and occasionally set up a temporary roadside stand when the corn is in season and I'm getting buried by it. Right now I have used all the space I have for starting plants. I can only do six standard, 10"x20"...
  9. Alan in Vermont

    Seedlings coming along nicely

    That's reassuring to know about the onions. I wanted to try starting them myself after we fell in love with Walla Wallas after I bought some started plants last year. They're expensive(IMO) to buy as plants, $17 + shipping for 120+ plants, seed was somewhere around $3 for a 300 seed packet...
  10. Alan in Vermont

    Seedlings coming along nicely

    I've been mother henning a bunch of seed starts. Along with two full trays of onions(first attempt at them) there are six varieties if tomatoes, cauliflower(another first try), two varieties of cabbage, mixed sweet peppers, and some broccoli. I was thinking I would sort out some of the...
  11. Alan in Vermont

    Starting Onions From Seed

    8 days into it and the seedlings are doing fine. I covered two domes with black plastic to keep the light duration low on the onions but stll be able to keep light on the rest of the wee 'uns.
  12. Alan in Vermont

    Starting Onions From Seed

    Seeds went in the pots on 3/13. Two 72 cell flats with two seeds each. Yes Virginia, there really ARE 300 seeds in that package! The weak sisters will be getting trimmed out at some point. Should be able to set them out in about 6 weeks. I think I'll try some high domes over the plants with...
  13. Alan in Vermont

    Working the soil with "Heavy Equipment"

    Levi, check out the first post, I admitted my habit. No mushroom operations around here. Found a rabbitry that has manure to get rid of but you have to clean it out of the barn with a wheelbarrow then shovel it into the truck. With my bad wing that is not an option. I'm going to try to...
  14. Alan in Vermont

    Mulch?

    I got some of the mulch I need but we had warm weather early and the ground thawed too much for chip trucks to get in without getting stuck. I'm hoping to get started next week, if I can get the %^$^%#@ tractor to start.
  15. Alan in Vermont

    Working the soil with "Heavy Equipment"

    Given access to material to amend it with I think I would rather deal with clay than sand. Around here we seem to have two choices, one being sand, sometimes about like beach sand and loaded with tiny seashells, the other being clay that is very close to potters material. There are bands of a...
  16. Alan in Vermont

    Shredded downed trees for mulch?

    You're right about compost but the original poster's, and my previous, comments were regarding chips as mulch, not as a soil amendment. Even if you did want them as a amendment it is far easier to work them into the soil, keep the N level up and let them decompose than it would be to relocate a...
  17. Alan in Vermont

    Shredded downed trees for mulch?

    Why? If you are using it for mulch it would seem to me the last thing you would want is for it to decompose. Being on top of the soil it's not going to suck up N too badly. Depending on what you are mulching it migh be possible to leave it down for 3-4 seasons. At throughout the last season...
  18. Alan in Vermont

    Soil Types

    I have always heard that "raw" manure would "burn" plants. I went against that when I had access to truckloads @ 6-7 cubic yards each only 1/2 mile from where one of my plots. That lead to yellow, sickly plants. First thought was Ph had gotten thoroughly messed up. WRONG! Nitrogen depletion...
  19. Alan in Vermont

    Starting Onions From Seed

    That's nice to know and would be far more helpful if you had a location listed so we could know where you are. I figure I need to get the tops growing well before they can go outside. If I'm getting it right the plants will grow until they are seeing 12+ hours of daylight, at which time they...
  20. Alan in Vermont

    Starting Onions From Seed

    I received shipping confirmation that my onion seeds have been shipped. Should have them in a couple days. They will go directly into 72 cell seed trays. I would normally plant them in flats and transplant them into cell trays but with very limited use of my left hand the transplanting isn't...


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