Farmall Cub

I'm trying to get enough ambition to order seeds. After a total failure, last year, I really need to work hard at talking myself into planting. (First "flop" in over a half century of gardens.). Just too wet!
Ed

Even in bad years we usually have enough for ourselves. In better years we have plenty to share. Still looking for a couple more old windows to put over the extended hotbed by the house. Seeds seam to start better in there than in the house under grow lights and heatpads.

I’m getting the greenhouse ready to start tomatoes in 2-3 weeks to be ready to transplant about the middle of April. I hope things will dry out enough to get the gardens worked up in the next couple of weeks. I plan to get some sugar snap and snow peas planted just as soon as I get the ground worked up. I’m trying to get a load of chicken litter delivered to my farm for my big garden. I can get a tandem axle truck load for about the same price as a dozen bags of fertilizer and I also gain some organic matter with the chicken litter

Now that chicky doo in my opinion is the best . At least in my soil I get very good results

Different ground act different to manures, The only thing I have here in a 10 mile radius is horse manure and last week I lost the biggest supplier that I had,---her barn burned down with 12 horses and 2 cats plus skidloader and feed, bedding, etc. all lost in the fire. Only got 1 small horse out.
Anyway we dont have chicken growers anywhere near us or I would try some of that too!

In 3 weeks or so our onion plants will come and this year they will have to be stored for a while from the looks of the gardens. Snow drifts hear high and ground froze 18 inches deep gonna take a while to get melted down! lol!

It is to wet here to do anything outside.

It finally dried out enough at the farm to get some discing done.

I wish I could disc . Still have snow cover and lots of frost .

Funny how different companies uses different spellings for disk / disc!

IH called it a disk
Oliver called theirs a disc

Garlic planted last fall survived and appears to be doing well.

Today planted; Chicago Hardy fig (2 ea.), Blue Damson plum (2 ea.), Hardy pecan (2 ea.), Red delicious apple (1 ea.), Honeycrisp apple (1 ea.).

Have three different English walnut seedlings ordered and should arrive shortly. Son will bring back some hazelnut seedlings from daughter's house, Iowa.

Have to enlarge the electric fence around the seedlings to keep the cattle from eating the seedlings.

Greasy mess here on top with frost below. No disking here for some time, but spring fever has set in!

My wife and I had a good weekend at our farm. I moved another 8 yards or so of dirt on an ongoing grading project Friday afternoon before stopping to grill some steaks for supper. Saturday was a beautiful day and we spent it in the garden. I got the last of my plowing and discing done with my david brown 880 and then switched to the cub to put out some fertilizer and hill up a few rows. Planted kennebec, red Pontiac, and Yukon gold potatoes. 10 pounds of each. Each row ended up about 80 feet long. I flattened the top of a couple of hills to make a couple of nice long wide beds and planted a double row of golden beets and a couple of double rows of spinach. They are calling for some rain later this week so maybe I’m off to a good start. I managed to get just over 500 tomatoes seeded a week ago and it’s looking like close to 100 percent germination. They will go in the ground about the 2nd to 3rd week of April in my garden in Raleigh that’s just around the corner from my house. With the exception of the spinach this year I usually just plant crops at my farm that don’t need daily attention as our farm is two hours from our house in Raleigh. My wife moved to the Raleigh area as a child and I’ve bern here 41 years now. I never left after graduating from NCSU. We are transitioning to our farm full time over the next 5-6 years and will then sell out in Raleigh. We can hardly wait for that day

I'm impressed with the 100% germination , are they seeds you purchased or your own ?

They are seeds I purchased. Some from the local hardware store and most from johnnys seeds. I planted seven different varieties and planted a flat of 72 of each. 5 flats are very close to 100 percent germination ( 2-3 cells without a seedling) and two flats are not as good at only about 90 percent (7-8 cell without a seedling). I usually have pretty good germination but this year seems little better than usual

Just for the heck of it I went and checked the germination rate listed on the seed packages. The listed rate ranged from 85 to 88 percent. The seeds from the local hardware store were Ferry-Morse seeds