my little garden

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viper1

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Apr 13, 2011
169
12
Salem,Ohio
Well a Beautiful day to day and got an itch. So i saddled up the tractor and plow and started. To my surprise it was dry enough to plow and roto till. So thought i'd show you my small gardens. Didn't do the strawberry garden yet but got the veggy garden, the deer's garden and the neighbors garden.
Here is a couple the wife took while I was plowing garden.This is my vegy garden I measured it today. It's 40' x 120 ' not huge but a good size garden for where Im at. This is me on my toy! Deer garden is 40 x 20' and strawberry is 40 20 also.




Same garden








Wife covering seed in deer garden. This one is 40' x 20'





Will post the strawberry garden when I do it.
 
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Very nice! Wish I had that kind of room. Do you can any vegetables for the winter. My wife and I decided to can again this season. We lost all of our equipment in a house fire a few years ago and have to buy new jars this year. Is there a cheap place to buy them.? Everything as gotten so expensive! So far the cheapest place I have found is ace hardware for $11.00 a case (12 pack) Good Luck with the garden this year Viper! Keep us posted.... Jeff
 
Looks like a great start good luck with it
 
Yes we can veggys, meat, and fruit. Like I said mine isnt really as much of a hobby as survival. We live on S.S. and thats not a lot. But we make it fine. We love fresh food and when I found I was to sick to work I bought a home with 3 1/2 acres on the edge of town and moved out of my city house. I also while I still could purchased a tractor to mow,plow and clean snow. I knew my health would continue getting worse so I needed to be able to do these things easier.. I got lucky this was a repo and in great shape with 3.5 acres. Also has 3 out buildings a 2 car garage, a 40 x 60 I believe barn a 4-5 car garage by the house. So I finally got my little garage. There is also a cased well by the garden that makes it easy to irrigate. Sorry I like to brag on my little farm, I know it's not all that much but it's plenty big enough for us. Also I have found good deals on jars at true value. I get a lot off Craig list and garage sales and classifieds.
 
Sounds like a real nice spread.  I think a lot of us could learn from growing our own food.  I think kids think food comes from a can or a package...not GOD's green earth.  One question: how do you keep the deere, rabbits, and other critters out of it to get enough to eat?  I have a cpl acres but don't dare plant a big garden due to the abundant deere population.  We barely get any peaches or plums from the deere beating us to them.
 
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Great start to the spring gardening season....the roto tiller on the tractor is almost like cheating...lol 
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Nice, I miss my garden in Ohio and canning. My dad has a Ford tractor with a tiller like that. My grandma used to can everything including pork, and my uncle has been canning deer meat the last couple years. I never had the canned deer meat but heard it is very good.

Chicken wire around the garden works good to keep rabbits out. Deer I don't know. Think I heard of people putting bars of soap out there, not sure it works though.
 
Viper, morning.....  Garden looks good.... Offset tiller is way cool..... having a bride to operate the manual stuff.. priceless...............

Is that electric wire around the food plot ???? Does it keep the deer out ???? or does the deer plot keep them happy.... 

More pics would be cool.... enjoy the spring....  Dave
 
that's great, I'd brag too if I had a great big garden like that. It's pretty rewarding when you can just walk over to the garden and pluck some fresh food!
 
Well I started these gardens with a rear tine tiller. And We worked a lot out there. But With 5 bad discs in the back 3 in the neck and a couple real killer conditions I decided either to give it up or figure how to beat it. So came the tractor and implements. Spent most my life working hard but was also taught to work smart. So this year I bought the bed hiller and will make raised beds and put plastic on them. The walk rows I'll either kill or mow. The deer I tried a lot of things and talked about a fence but every one said you have to have a 6-8 foot high electric. Well that was out of my budget. So soon after planting I put wood poles for corner and gate way and bought push in plastic ones for the wire.Ran a single strand with a 10 acre shock box and three ground poles. I then took pieces of aluminum foil about 4 by 6 and wrapped around the wire every 6-8 feet and formed a small cup which I filled with a tsp. of peanut butter. Well deer have good smeller's and didn't take long for them to come to the garden . One good lick and they didn't come back. Only problem is one may get a lick and run through it. But never happened to me. And not one deer. I used a 22 rifle on rabbits and groundhogs But think this tear I may run a wire about 4 inches from the ground for them it worked so well. And yes I have counted as many as 30 deer out back before the food. So it works
The deer garden I started last year to keep them around for gun season. Their is also a corn feeder and we haul 500 lb boxes of apple squeezing which they love. It serves several purposes as I can't walk far to hunt these days I hunt out back. It also fattens them up and keeps them out of our plants. And my whole family was raised on wild meats. We love venison. Makes great sausages,bacon and ham.
I am also blessed with a wife who knows nothing but hard work. She can not even watch a movie because it requires setting in one place. LOL She works from sunset to bedtime. I wish I could work as hard as she does. But I did till i got sick. We can mostly veggys and fruits, deer,sausage. But anything is fair game. We also have two freezers for freezing things. Also like to dry meat and fruit. And I'm getting things read to make home dried meats and hams. Not in a smoker but to hang for months, We also have a large rub-barb patch and Garlic patch. Have no garbage service as we burn,recycle or feed to the animals. Heat the house with wood we cut and gas. Have our own well and septic. I am slowly but surely tring to do what this country should do. Be self sufficient as possible. And yes I like to brag and share on that.
That Walleye was one from Lake Erie last year. Nice fish there. We fish 3-6 times a week and get a lot of walleye and jumbo perch . Walleye from 4lb-12 lb. and perch as big a s1 1/2 lb. Thats all the fish we usually eat. Except for some steel-head we can for canned salmon. I try to kill most my own meat or at least al I can. Our fish will last from one year to the next.

Well I think I answer all the questions if not just ask. I love talking about these things. People call me cheap and thats ok. I worked as a Automotive die maker making the big bucks and living the live in a bigger fancier place. But life never really has been enjoyable as it is today with me my wife,kids and and grandkids
 
'Mornin Viper, I just read your posts and think you have the right idea. I have been working at getting to the level of self sufficiency that you have reached. Every season I get a little closer. I'm the only one I know except for people on this forum and my wife who thinks like this. Kudos to you!
 
Well posted new links for photos. I moved them around in photo bucket and killed them here. So there alright now. Well about time to plant my potatoes ,radishes,and peas. In the mean time we have been cleaning and pruning my Grape arbor. People that lived here let it go. So we have spent three years pruning and reestablishing it. Done great last year and should be better this year. They also planted Black raspberries 3 feet a way. So they grew up into the grapes also. I decided to move over and make a 12 foot wide garden and about 60-70 feet long. Same as my grapes. We are transplanting the rasberrys over there and Creating two rows with a walk way down the middle. Cut them back to 12 " to stimulate new growth. Will add posts and contain them better for picking. So now my little farm has a:
Deer garden 40 x 20
Vegetable garden 40 x 125
Strawberry garden about 20 x 40
Raspberry garden 12 x 50-60 feet
Onion garden 15 x 30 feet
Grape arbor about 50-60 feet feed
Four fruit trees Creating a small orchard out back
Thinking of adding a blue berry garden and more fruit trees. I am hilling all the gardens and covering in plastic mulch. Leaving walk ways uncovered. I hope to mow them. So weeding will be to a minimum. Got half of the fertilized with 10-10-10 this morning. Raining lightly now. Should mix it in well then i'll retill and cover and plant. Love my tractor with tiller and all. But wife is worried we wont have grass left soon! LOL But grass means mowing and you can't eat it. Also a little less mowing may mean a little more fishing and smoking. Will update pics soon.
 
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