so what do you say we spend a little time in the garden today all right all right all right
i tell you what i'm close i'm real real close to putting some warm season seeds and transplants in
the ground i was looking at the weather forecast looks like the next two nights we're going to get
down to 35 and then we look pretty good on out to march 15th i don't see any freezing temperatures
so i think after we get through these two cool nights the next few days i think we'll be good
to go so i'd say in five days or so we'll be getting some warm season stuff in the ground
i've been out here all day trying to get some of these plots ready getting cover crops cut down
getting cover crops turned over and today i want to walk you around kind of show you what
we got going on in most of these plots here and kind of talk about the order in which we'll be
getting some of this warm season stuff in the ground so let's start off with these six plots
here we call the dream garden we're gonna skip this plot right here because on the next video
we're gonna try to put some english peas in the ground right there so we're gonna skip that plot
let's go over here to where we planted our potatoes a video or two ago
and i want to show you we got some good signs right here see that ground cracking right there
and that ground cracking right there and that ground cracking right there that means them taters
are about to bust loose now i don't see the ground cracking in all eight of these rows but almost all
of them those two rows on the end there we've got those german butter balls i haven't noticed any
cracks there yet but all these other rows are just about to come up now i'll be honest i was
a little bit worried earlier this week so i planted these about 10 days ago and then about
four days after i planted them we got like three and a half four inches of rain and lots of rain
is not really good for taters that haven't sprouted yet because that can make them rot
but now that we see the ground cracking i feel a lot better about it what i did do is i came in
here with my tiller and i tilled between those rows as soon as i could get in there as soon
as it was dry enough to till it just to help it dry out a little more now i don't usually like
to run a tiller in my plots once they've been planted i'd usually just till these spots once or
twice a year but i ain't scared to do it if i feel like it's something i need to do to save my taters
over here in our no-till experimental plot there's not a whole lot going on
we got there's bella we got a row of beets here we've got a row of spinach these vulture beets
are growing just not super fast i haven't been a fan of all that rain we've had in the last
month or so same thing with spinach but it's there i did side dress it with some of our
complete organic fertilizer earlier and kind of scratch that into the soil so maybe that'll
give them a little jolt the rest of this plot here has just kind of been chilling
just waiting for us to plant some winter squash and pumpkins in here now on our last video when
i was in the greenhouse i told you all a bit of a story not intentionally but i did tell a story
so i told you on that video that the only things i had left to start in the greenhouse were okra
and maybe some sunflowers i completely forgot about my pumpkins and winter squash which i do
like to transplant so i got to get those started so then we can hopefully get some
transplants on the ground in this plot come you know first or second week of april and while we're
waiting on those transplants to grow out we're going to get us several more tons of compost
just gonna put it on top of that plant debris there there's a few weeds in there i need to get
out we're gonna come in here with another heap and load of compost and continue our no-till
experiment this year this plot here has just been kind of chilling too this is where our seedless
watermelons are going to go and on the last video we got this started in the greenhouse and
you can see how great of a job that tarp did this thing's not had a tarp on it in several weeks and
you know haven't had to worry about any weed growth or not really had to worry about that cover
crop coming back or anything it's just sitting there ready to go when we get ready there are
any doubts about how well that frosty brazilian clover can take grazing or mowing check this out
so this right here by this stop was mowed scalped when we mowed the rest of this before we tarped it
and you can see there how much it grows back so that's a great cool season cover crop to grow if
you've got livestock goats chickens whatever and want to graze the cover crop after it gets up it
can certainly take some traffic and grow right back this plot here i just pulled back the tarp
slightly so i could mow around it but this is where we had our chickpea cover crop during the
winter put the tarp on it to kind of extinguish that cover crop and let me pull this back here
you can see some nice weed free ground there to start with so i'm just letting a little bit
of that water there dry up more and then i'll fold this tarp up i won't need it
for a while because we'll be planting all my plots soon just letting some of that water
evaporate off the top of that tarp and then we'll come in here cultivate this one time
and we'll get all our flower transplants in the ground they're not quite ready in the greenhouse
but they will be in a few weeks and this plot right here is going to be ready to go for us
that's the nice thing about that tarp man it just you just set it and forget it then pull it back
and you're ready to go now for this next plot i'm going to warn you i'm about to do a little bit
of bragging i don't usually like to brag on these videos but it's been a tough winter growing stuff
down here a lot of rain a lot of colder than normal temperatures but i got one plot that is
just looking awesome ain't that pretty right there eight rows of short day onions and uh
man they just they're looking good they didn't look that great three or four weeks ago honestly
but when i was able to get in here and wheel hoe beside them get some air to them roots
and i need to do it again but i was able to get in here with the wheel hoe and cultivate a little bit
man they popped they green back up they stood up and we're looking good the um first ones
we planted these plethora onions making some pretty good size onions right there
some of these other rows i need to start thinning out a little bit i ain't got my piece of paper
in front of me that tells me what all these are but um this particular variety right here
like i said i just look at my sheet of paper see what is is looking particularly impressive man the
stalks or the necks on those are a lot thicker than some of these other varieties i think
they're all gonna make pretty decent sized onions but whatever this variety is right here
i have to check i'll get back with you on another video but this one here looks really
really impressive so far now most of those onions there have all started bulbing to some extent so
no more fertilizer for those guys but i have give some fertilizer recently to my elephant garlic
and my leeks here so i came in here and side dressed these some with some
ammonium sulfate elephant garlic's looking good it's kind of turned the corner from
too much of that water too much rain my leaks here looking really really good still good ways
to go on those guys when i do get some compost for that no-till plot i'm gonna come in here
and i'll put me a thick layer of compost down the middle that double row and on the sides to kind of
heal up those leaks a little bit so we get some nice big leaks when it comes harvest time now
as i was walking out in that alley and plot just seeing i realized i think it's dry enough
to wheel hoe it one more time kind of kill some of those tiny little weeds that have formed and
aerate the soil help it dry a little bit get some air to them onion roots so they'll pop again so
if y'all don't mind i promise this will only take just a minute let me take care of this real quick
all right all right all right about 10 minutes worth of work there we get her nice and aired out
again and hopefully dried up a little bit i tell you what that wheel hoe has really saved my honey
and my onions highness several times over this winter just being able to get in there as soon
as i can get in there without making a huge mess and lightly cultivate it just so it can air out
dry out a little bit before we get another two three inches of rain has really helped
keep those onions moving along keep them from yellowing too much it looks like we're gonna
have a pretty decent harvest of onions now i haven't been able to fertilize them as much as
i would have wanted to before they started bulbing just because we have so much rain
but i think we're gonna be all right now back over here to some other plots we'll be planting some
stuff soon a video or two ago we put some of this cabbage and broccoli and cauliflower in the ground
those things are starting to grow a little bit they've suffered from three or four inches of
rain we have but i did get in here with the wheel hoe kind of sane concept with the onions just kind
of helped dry it out a little bit and as soon as it dries out a little more we'll be ready to
shoot some juice to them through our drip system here so we'll start feeding them pretty regularly
and uh they should pop pretty soon after that over here we had our cover crop cocktail all kind of
cool season cover crops i've got this ready to go this is getting squash and cucumbers first
also gonna get some field peas maybe some butter peas in here and so that'll be one of the first
warm season things i get in the ground that's direct seed and some squash and cucumbers over on
this end and then a few weeks later we'll get some field peas in right here but we uh tilled this
in one direction tilled it the other direction there's still a little bit of debris out there but
we can handle that with a wheel hoe once stuff gets up and going it's ready to direct seed
right now and i used to kind of connect the drip systems between this plot and this plot here but
i'm not gonna do that anymore i'm gonna make me a little grass walkway here between them like i do
most of my other plots i had a monster rosemary bush right here and i enjoyed having it but it
just started getting in the way it got so big so i took that out earlier today r.i.p big rosemary
bush anyway we're gonna let that just have grass there and we'll just mow that lane there and
then we'll have this plot here more separate now this is where our sweet corn is growing are going
and my cover crop cocktail that was here i came in here with a mower earlier today and scalped
it as low as i could scalp it and so we'll need to cultivate that once maybe twice and we'll be ready
for some sweet corn probably middle of march over here on the other side of the barn last two plots
i got one of our new sizes of tarps this is 20 by 25 tarp you see this plot's a little longer than
25 feet long but i got it on here i'll probably slide it down to the end the next day or two
let it kill the rest of that clover and cabbage and collard cover crop that was in there
and this guy should be ready to plant soon this is where we're going to put
our climbing butter beans what's up we're going to be going with the christmas lima beans so
we're going to do an arch across the width of this plot here with some cattle panels just do
several of them in a row make a big long arch let those butter beans climb all over it walk
underneath it and pick them really looking forward to giving that a try and then finally this guy
right here this long skinny plots where our night shades are going are non-potato night shades so
we're putting tomatoes peppers in here probably can squeeze four rows in here so we had a clover
forged collards forged cabbage in here i came in here and uh mowed this down actually on the
tail end of that plot over there there's some big roots where i got stuck with my lawnmower that's
some of these plots haven't quite dried up enough yet but i'm trying to dry them up and get ready
so i cultivated this and uh it's pretty close to being ready i don't even know if it will need it
one more time this cover crop wasn't super tall and uh most of the rest of this the wheelhole
probably get it as we're just working this plot so this one here is pretty ready to go with tomatoes
and pepper transplants which i have ready to go in the greenhouse so we've got lots to do around
here as far as planting goes as soon as it dries up a little more so we can plant and as soon as
these next few cool days get out of the way now i alluded to it a little bit as we were walking
through all these plots but i kind of want to give you my intended order of operations and
tentative planting dates when i'm gonna try to get this stuff in the ground so the first thing we're
gonna plant is our squash and cucumbers we're gonna direct seed those you can transplant them
we just always direct seed them so squash and cucumbers direct seeded will be first
second will be our climbing butter beans the whole arch trellis idea we're gonna do
that will be second third is gonna be putting tomato and pepper transplants in
hopefully i'm aiming for rounds say let's say march 12th or so would be a good time i think
to get those in the ground or a good goal to have as far as getting those in the ground i wanted to
harden off a little bit more before i put them in the ground march 15th is kind of when i'm aiming
for my sweet corn which would be fourth getting that in the ground obviously direct seed in that
by around that time my flower transplant should be ready to go in the ground
so we'll put those on that plot you saw earlier that we're waiting on the tarp to dry up on
so flower transplants will be going there and then uh probably towards the end of march
early april or so we'll get our field peas in field peas are more kind of heat-loving plants
so no big hurry to get those in the ground so end of march 1st april on the field peas and butter
peas by that time our watermelon transplant should be ready to go in the ground so we'll plant our
seedless watermelons over there and that plot and then lastly will be our winter squash and pumpkins
i still got to get those transplants started so we're at least four or five weeks out on those
so that'll be the last kind of warm season crop of this i don't know early spring period that
we get in the ground i don't really group sweet potatoes into this uh because we wait another
you know couple months before we get those in the ground but for this first round of warm season
crops we're planting that's my intended schedule now that could change if i lose some transplants
or something something could happen and throw off that schedule but i like to have just kind of a a
plan in place some kind of goals to hit as far as when i'm aiming to get this stuff in the ground so
that's my schedule now i want to hear about your schedule in the comments below let me know kind
of your order of how you plant your warm season stuff i'd be interested to see how it differs
for some people i know some of you guys that are south of us already got some of
the stuff in the ground some of you guys up north are still a month or so out but
kind of give me your tentative plan for how you're going to get those things in the ground
obviously most people are not going to do this all in one day too much work to do it all in
one day so we'll like to break it up and kind of plan it out a little bit i'll put some links
below to some of the squash and cucumber varieties we'll be planting here just in the next few days
you can go to our website and check those out if you enjoyed this video make sure to give me
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