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Gardens?

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On 5/18/2020 at 10:10 AM, RickZieger said:

Still waiting on the tiller. Took 27 five gallon buckets of weeds out of the garden.  I hate creeping Charlie. 

 

Rick.

 

I bought a tiller and that's been an adventure. After checking locally, Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, Southern States, and even Walmart, no one had them in stock, even though the sales flyers still showed they were selling them.  I kept looking and thought I found a place in TN that would ship one at a reasonable price, so made an order. They sent me a message after about a week, saying the distributor wouldn't be getting any more in this year because the manufacturer wasn't building any more and they didn't have one in stock. I had ordered a Troy Bilt rear tiller which they had intended to have drop shipped from the distributor. They refunded my payment. 

So, got a flyer from both Northern Tool, which has a store about 50 miles away, and the local Ace Hardware, which showed that they had them on sale, but after checking, the store in town didn't have any and would not be getting any. Northern Tool said they had one, but it was priced about $200 higher than everyone else! So, just by chance, my wife was checking various stores around, and found one at an Ace Hardware store about 45 miles from us. So, called and asked, and they said they had one. Went over there and they had one, and only one and it had been sitting there awhile. 

I bought it, and they cleaned the dust off of it, and a young man who worked there helped me load it in our vehicle. That was on  a Friday. 

Took it home and started to get ready to use it on Saturday, and found that the air filter was missing. The housing was there, but no filter. So, I called the store and they said they would order one for me. I checked in town too at a couple places and no one had a filter. I ordered 2 online, just in case. In the mean time, I checked oil, & all that other stuff, then put it in the garage. I waited to fill the gas tank. 

Well, the 2 filters arrived quickly, since they were only coming from NC and they got there on Friday. The next day,  Saturday, was the next chance I had to try using it. I installed the filter, filled the gas tank, and the fuel bowl was leaking a little so I got some tools and got the leak fixed. Then I attempted to start it & it wouldn't start. Well, I knew the gas was getting into the carburetor, so I got more tools out & pulled the spark plug to test the spark. It worked fine. So, I pulled on it a few more times to no avail. Then I tried some starting fluid that I had, one little shot, and it sputtered once. I don't like using ether on small engines, so on to the next step! 

So, now, I decide to check the float in the carburetor. Well, the carb was clogged up with rust. Apparently, it had been left outside at some point, and got water into the air intake for carb, since the air filter was missing. I wasn't happy! 

I called the store, and talked with the manager and explained the situation. He assured me he would do whatever it took to make sure that I was happy. He asked if I could take it to a local small engine repair & he would pay the bill. that was fine, but this was Saturday and the only one in town wasn't open on the weekends. I told him that I'm a pretty good mechanic, so would see what I can do. He told me if I could fix it, he would reimburse me for my time & supplies, or if I couldn't he would take it back & give me a refund. Fair enough! 

So, I took the carb off and gave it a thorough cleaning. I first checked to make sure there was no signs of rust in the engine and it looked like it had been confined to the carb. 

I got it all back together, made two pulls on the starter cord & it started right up! Boy, was I relieved! 

I did all the tilling that afternoon, and it did a great job. I got the other air filter via UPS from the hardware the other day, and have sent them an invoice for my time, but it hasn't been paid yet. We'll see how that goes, but I at least have a garden tiller now that works. 

The adventures of retired life! 

 

 

 

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Did not rain this am so got most of the garden in.  Just have to plant marigolds and okra to finish off. 

MY wife thought I was nuts to use a ruler to plant beans.  Put them 13 inches apart and stagger the rows when side by side.

This way every plant is like the end one on the row.

 

Rick

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Built the raised bed to do something with piles of cinder blocks. Stacked dead limbs and mulch in the bottom, then topsoil and compost. Planted seedling cayenne and tomatoes, and seeds for ring of fire, eggplant, carrots, broccoli, tomatillo.

 

Cucumber, squash, tomato, habanero, jalapeno, bell peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe in the beds by the house. Wildflower mix in the front underneath hummingbird feeders. And one really happy aloe plant in the rock garden!

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finally put it in had frost up until a week or so ago

black, pinto, & green beans, okra, jalapeno, habanero, cayenne, poblano, & Italian sweet peppers, eggplant, tomatoes- celebrity, big boy, roma  & cherry's, zucchini & yellow squash will plant cucumbers to time tomatoes & winter squash later for a fall harvest.

garden.jpg

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I have a tiny city back yard.   I may end up with 8 tomato plants,  1 zucchini 1 summer squash, half dozen cucumber plants, beans and chili peppers.   Not a lot but it does feed us a bit

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We had a deck garden last year. Tomatoes were great. Squash would get to the size of my index finger and rot. Never could figure out what went wrong.

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41 minutes ago, skeet3t said:

We had a deck garden last year. Tomatoes were great. Squash would get to the size of my index finger and rot. Never could figure out what went wrong.

We lost all our squash last year, same symptons.  Pretty sure it was caused by a squash vine borer, but by the time I figured it out, it was too late to same them.  

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Thanks. Never saw or looked for evidence of critters inside the plant. Never thought of it.

 

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 Watch  the base of the squash plant for sawdust. That is where the squash vine borers go in. You can cut the vine parallel to growth and take them out and then tape it back up. 

Easiest thing to do is to put a toilet paper roll around the plant, I just cut them and slip them over. Replace after every few rains.

 

Rick

 

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1 hour ago, RickZieger said:

Easiest thing to do is to put a toilet paper roll around the plant, I just cut them and slip them over. Replace after every few rains.

Rick

I can remember my Dad rolling newspaper up around the base of certain plants, then piling an inch or so of dirt around that to hold them in place.  Kept the "cut worms" and "borers" away from the plants as neither type worm will (or can) climb over.

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Speaking of toilet paper....When I plant potatoes after cutting and let them dry overnight I open the furough, put little fertilizer in, place the cuts eyes up about 16” apart, and then run toilet paper over them then cover with dirt👍

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Put in the Okra earlier this week and all else is up. Sprayed tomatoes and peppers with epsoms salt Monday for the first time.

 

Rick

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