I need to learn to take my own advice.
Or, at least take Noah Sanders’ advice:
“One year I wanted to grow some corn. I wanted a lot of corn. So I took a field around an acre (we live in the hills so this is a large area of flat ground for us) and plowed it up and planted it with corn. Long story short I didn’t get any corn from that field. The weeds took over despite my best efforts with the limited equipment I had and the coons got any corn that did grow. Compare that with another patch of corn I planted that was much, much smaller, around 30 feet by 80 feet. I was able to generously fertilize the plot using chickens and then was easily able to weed it and even fence it. The corn was tall and beautiful and we had delicious sweet corn, plenty to freeze and sell! And it was a lot more fun to care for.
Planting a garden that is too big is a common mistake that can rob your family of the joy of gardening.”
Yeah, I’ve been there. We tilled up tons of lousy soil and planted great big gardens at our previous rental property. The yields weren’t great, and we were overtaxed taking care of it.
It’s best to go small and do excellently, rather than do something big badly.
3 comments
I guess that was the root of my question the other day, your current garden is smaller than your last garden. I didn’t know if you had plans for other garden beds. Any plans to continue the Pumpkin and watermelon breeding projects?
Yes, we’ll be working on the pumpkins and watermelons again. We’re constrained by deer pressure, so almost everything will have to happen inside the fenced garden area.
I’m here on the fall line in Ga. (zone 7b in the northern part of the county and 8a in the southern part). Our land has some loamy areas, some areas that are almost strictly red clay, some that are sandy, and some areas that have cabbage-sized stones littered throughout (nightmare for a tiller…especially my little Mantis). That doesn’t have a whole lot to do with what I wanted to ask, though…I’m just prolix by nature.
I saw where you mentioned deer pressure. We also have that, but the worse varmint that we deal with is VOLES. Do you have any idea how to handle them?! We’ve been unable to grow regular potatoes or sweet potatoes for years because of how voracious the voles are. This problem has me swapping to Colocasia and Xanthosoma style root crops with some form of natural deterrent (raphide calcium oxalates seem to keep the voles at bay!) to try and grow high calorie root crops. Anyway, I hope you don’t have to deal with voles at your new place. But have you ever had to deal with this scourge of a little mammal?
I hope y’all are well. I found your channel a little over a year ago and have slowly been catching up. You and your family keep my gardening zeal over the top (despite any potential setbacks)! Thank you.