Wheel Hoe Blog

Importance of Attracting Pollinators

The reason behind attracting bees or other beneficial pollinators is the many different benefits they can provide the vegetable garden. The first benefit of attracting pollinators is the better production of plants. By transferring pollen from one flower to another flower can help plants produce healthy fruits. For crops that are self-pollinating such as corn, pollination is still very beneficial in order to help increase bountiful yields of crops for harvesting. The second advantage of attracting bees or beneficial insects is they help control pest pressures in the garden area. When pollinators are available in the garden not only are they transferring pollen but they are also eating unwanted insects that will overall reduce pest problems from the vegetable garden.

Planting Flowers That Bees Love

On this week’s episode, Travis has planted many different flower varieties that is helping when attracting bees in the vegetable garden. When attracting bees or pollinators, Travis has a designated flower area that has three different species planted on a double row to ensure he achieves maximum pollination. The first species of flowers planted is the Cosmos Versailles Mix which is a cut-flower that is a brightly-colored blend with strong stems that consistently bloom throughout the warmer months. The second species planted is the Benary Giant Zinnias Mix which has a variety of different colorful flowers that is known for being one of the easiest cut flower varieties to grow. The third species variety is the Ageratum Blue Horizon that creates tall, sturdy bloom clusters of vibrant blue or purplish cut-flowers. The reason behind planting these flowers on double rows is Travis is able to get maximum production in small space and he is able to suppress weeds that would otherwise take over the garden area. Travis also has a patch full of Pro-Cut Sunflowers that bees love and attract to in the vegetable garden. He recently planted a mix of several different sunflowers such as the White Nite, Lemon, Joker, Orange, Red Lemon Bicolor, and Plum all together and planted them using the garden seeder. When you direct seed these varieties you are able to get a nice stand of thick sunflowers or flowers in the area. Another benefit of planting the sunflowers so dense is you are able to get a nice stratification which means you achieve blooms that come out at around 5 or 6 inches tall and some at 8 or 9 inches tall.

Garden Seeder

The Hoss Garden Seeder is the ideal tool for planting various different seed sizes and accurately plant seeds without overplanting. This tool is constructed with Amish-crafted hardwood handles that contain 15-inch steel wheels and a powder-coated steel frame. It includes six different plates that vary in size for different seed varieties. The first seed plate works great for crops like broccoli, cabbage, mustard, turnips, and cauliflower. The second seed plate is ideal for crops such as onions or small coated seeds. The third seed plate is for okra and pelleted carrots, beets, or lettuce. While the fourth seed plate is made for smaller sweet corn seeds and the fifth is ideal for small beans or peas. The sixth seed plate that is used with the seeder works best for medium size beans and peas or large corn varieties. The seed plates should lay flat in the hopper to ensure they flow through the seeder properly.

Perfectly Spaced Rows

On this week’s episode, Travis is planting perfectly spaced rows of okra using the garden seeder. He has a 30 x 35 area that is one of the six subplots that has been established in the dream vegetable garden. When preparing the garden for perfectly spaced rows of okra plants, he is not going to use drip irrigation and is planning to direct seed. Before planting you will need to make sure the seed plate is calibrated correctly for planting and the seeds are flowing properly through the seeder. When using the third seed plate for planting okra it contains six adjustable holes and based on the seeder gearing the seed spacing should be a little over 3 inches. Then, Travis can thin them out around 8 or 12 inches to allow for plenty of room during the growing process. The planting depth for okra should be about half an inch which can be adjusted on the depth gauge located on the seeder. Travis is going to use his row marker accessory for the seeder to ensure he gets straight planting lines in the vegetable garden. The row marker has several different spacing options and it can extend out to 36 inches or 3 feet. The row marker is going to fit and slide inside the groove that is located on the back of the garden seeder frame. Travis uses the row marker for the first row to achieve a perfectly spaced row and the rest of the rows should be straight following the first. When planting with the garden seeder a slow and steady pace is the best to ensure you get accurate seed planting. Overall, summer planting is the ideal time to grow a maximum crop of okra that is able to withstand the hottest temperatures.

Okra Varieties

The several different okra varieties that we have available are all excellent in production and flavor profiles. The first variety is the Jambalaya which is a hybrid that produces the most productive okra in the vegetable garden. Next, is the Red Burgundy which is another excellent variety that produces deep red pods that remain tender when growing longer pod lengths. The Silver Queen is an heirloom variety that creates light green pods that are almost white. Another heirloom variety is the Cowhorn Okra that makes slender pods that remain tender even when grown at 6 to 10 inches long. However, the Star of David variety is the go-to okra for frying because of it’s thicker pods and the Clemson Spineless produces pods that can reach 7 to 9 inches in length and be harvested between 3 to 4 inches long. The newest okra variety that is now available is the Perkins Long Pod which is an heirloom that creates elongated pods that tend to produce early in the vegetable garden.

Summer Planting: Sweet Potatoes

On this week’s episode, Travis is talking about how to plant and take care of sweet potatoes throughout the growing process. As a warm-weather crop, sweet potatoes are ideal for growing during the summer months because they love the hotter weather and don’t mind when it is dry. In the South, summer planting sweet potatoes can be anytime in May till late August. They typically take around 100 to 120 days to mature, therefore, you will need a 3 to 4 month window of time for summer planting. Once you harvest some of the spring crops from the garden we recommend to follow up the area by starting summer planting with sweet potatoes. Unlike Irish potatoes, we plant sweet potatoes from slips which are basically a sprout from the potato that you plunk off. It contains roots on the side that once planted in the ground it will start growing leaves and start bushing out from there. You can grow your own slips from sweet potatoes that were harvested previously in the garden. However, Travis recommends buying sweet potato slips from Steele Plant Company based in Gleason, Tennessee. When choosing a spot for planting sweet potatoes they will need plenty of room because they are a vining crop and tend to sprawl all around the soil surface. If you happen to plant the potatoes to close to another crop they will start to climb on the other crops and end up smothering them out. Once the rows are laid off using the wheel hoe, Travis will add good compost along the planting furrows before summer planting. When planting the slips they should be spaced about a foot apart in the vegetable garden. Instead of planting the slips up and down, Travis is going to plant them in the furrow horizontally and cover up almost the entire slip, leaving only a little bit sticking out. Another factor when planting sweet potatoes is they do not have to be planted on drip tape since they do not need a ton of irrigation throughout the growing season. Instead of using drip tape, Travis is going to use overhead watering to ensure he provides the plants with the needed amount of irrigation. For the first couple of days, the plants will look rather pitiful and will begin to perk up once the roots are established in the soil. Once the vines start to become more prevalent in the area you can begin to hill the sweet potatoes or throw soil to the middle of the plant rows. Travis has not found where hilling the plants makes a significant difference, but it is a great technique for weed suppression or smothering out the weeds in the garden. Another technique that he has tried is trimming back the vines as they continue to grow during the summer planting months. Travis found that when trimming the vines back it makes it easier to harvest the sweet potatoes from the vegetable garden.

Sweet Potato Varieties

There are several different sweet potato varieties that do well in the vegetable garden. Travis has grown a couple of different potato varieties such as Beauregard and Centennial. He mentions that the sweet potato variety that does the best in production in his garden is the Covington. However, upon recommendation from Steele, Travis is going to plant the Georgia Jets which is supposed to grow really well in the south. All of these sweet potato varieties have excellent storage life and are ideal for summer planting.

Benefits of Replenishing Garden Soil

To have improved garden soils using cover crops can help replenish the area by increasing organic matter, suppress nematode populations, control weed germination, and improve overall soil tilth. When building up the garden soils you should supply the best cover crop that fulfills the characteristics you are wanting to replenish in the soil and incorporate the needed compounds back into the soil properly to better fulfill the vegetable garden.

Cover Crop: Sunn Hemp

On this week’s episode, Travis is discussing the best cover crop to use when you need to replenish the garden soil. The best warm-season cover crop that adds many benefits to the garden soil is known as Sunn Hemp. This variety is a legume which means it is related to crops like peas and peanuts. This cover crop allows you to add a significant amount of nitrogen, suppress weeds, and quality organic matter into the garden soil. However, compared to other warm-season varieties the Sunn Hemp is the only nitrogen fixer cover crop. As a nitrogen fixer, it is able to grab nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into your garden soil. This fixer is important in the garden because when you get rid of the cover crop you will gain lots of available nitrogen for the next vegetable crop you plant in that area. Some recent studies have shown that Sunn Hemp can fix up to 100 pounds of nitrogen per acre which is excellent when planting heavy feeder crops like onions and corn. Sunn Hemp should be planted when soil temperatures are around 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. When planting it can be broadcasted or with a precision planter like the garden seeder. This warm-season cover crop grows extremely fast and typically reaches maturity in 8 to 12 weeks. This cover crop variety is pretty much maintenance-free and does not take a lot of effort to grow in the area. Since it grows so quickly it suppresses weed pressures by outpacing weed germination which is a major benefit in the vegetable garden. Like all cover crops, Sunn Hemp should be cut or mowed before it reaches seed to prevent reseeding issues in the future growing seasons.

Warm Season Cover Crop Varieties

Along with Sunn Hemp, there are three other cover crop varieties that we have available that beneficial characteristics for the garden soil as well. The Brown Top Millet provides ideal ground cover for weed suppression and for adding organic matter back into the soil. This tall bunching grass can reach up to 12 feet high and usually matures within 60 to 70 days. As a millet, this green manure can add a significant amount of organic matter to depleted soils which can improve soil quality and tilth. Next, is Buckwheat which is another fast-growing cover crop that is ideal for planting in small windows between fall and spring plantings. It works best for weed suppression and provides organic matter that helps loosen up the topsoil making it more workable and increases soil drainage for planting. The best warm-season cover crop for reducing nematode populations is Sorghum Sudangrass. As a bunching grass, the sudangrass creates a dense mat of tall vegetation similar to corn, but with smaller leaf blades. When mowing down or decomposing the cover crop vegetation it releases natural compounds that are suppressive to nematode populations. We recommend using the sudangrass as a transition crop between spring and fall planting.

The Dream Vegetable Garden

Every gardener imagines having a dream vegetable garden that is designed and laid out to fit your ideal gardening needs on the homestead. This past year, Travis has established a new area on his homestead that is designed as his dream vegetable garden. The dream garden is designed with six subplots that are all around 30 x 35 in size. The subplots are important to ensure that the area can be more manageable and workable. Another benefit of subplots is the ability to move crops around the plots to establish a steady crop rotation system and avoid harsh pest and disease pressures.

Producing Any Crops in the Garden

On this week’s episode, Travis is doing a walk around the dream garden to show whether any crops are growing or working well in the area. Since the dream vegetable garden is a new area that is being managed and worked on the soil is harder to work with because it has never been used to grow any crops on. To get the area more workable, Travis will need to grow some beneficial cover crops, add some organic matter, and adjust the pH levels in the soil. The first subplot that was planted on in the vegetable garden was potatoes. Since it was the first crop to be planted he has already harvested and stored all the early varieties of potatoes such as the red potatoes, purple, and the Yukon Gold. However, in the garden area, there are still three rows of German Butterball potatoes to be harvested. As the potato varieties are harvested, Travis comes in with the tiller to level out the soil after digging potatoes so it will be prepared for the next crop to be planted soon. On the second plot, all of the cucurbits are planted such as summer squash and cucumbers. The summer squash is planted in the middle, while the cucumbers are planted on the cattle panels along the outside of the plot. In the garden, there is one row of the Calypso pickling cucumbers and one row of the Stonewall variety which is slicing cucumbers. The summer squash have done well in the plot except for a few that were lost due to disease problems that need to be controlled better in the future. However, Travis has been able to harvest a pretty good amount of summer squash and cucumbers from the vegetable garden. In the next plot, he has Rattlesnake Pole Beans on a trellis as well as indeterminate and determinate tomatoes. The Sun Gold tomatoes are producing an excellent cluster of tomatoes at the base of the plant and are continuing to produce along the rows. Travis has three rows of determinate tomatoes such as Mountain Glory, Brickyard, and Bella Rosa varieties all on the Florida Weave trellis. In the south, it can be kind of tough to grow tomatoes because of the high disease pressures, but they are producing really well so far in the vegetable garden. In the fourth plot, Travis is growing peppers and eggplants which are part of the nightshade family. He just established new stakes for trellising and added wheat straw to help manage the weed pressures. While in the fifth plot there is Incredible Sweet Corn growing and the six plot contains winter squash which includes the Small Wonder Spaghetti and the Hai Kabocha.

Wheel Hoe Handles

On this week’s episode, Travis explains how to adjust wheel hoe handles to fit you perfectly. The new accessory that makes it easy to adjust the wheel hoe handles is the offset handle brackets. The handle bracket kit allows you to shift the wheel hoe or garden seeder handles to the left or right so you don’t have to work directly behind the tool. This offset handle kit works with the Single Wheel Hoe, Double Wheel Hoe, High Arch Wheel Hoe, and the Garden Seeder. The first step to installing the offset brackets you simply remove the handles that are already on the wheel hoe or seeder by using a 7/16 wrench. Once the handles are off we can install the offset brackets by aligning them with the slotted groove that is already established which allows us to move the handles up and down and still have the functionality needed with the tool. Travis simply takes the bolts that are included with the kit and installs the offset brackets so they can either kick out to the right or left. It is important not to tighten the bolts all the way down because he still wants to figure out where his handle height needs to be. Then, once the handles are installed we can adjust the handles to our desired height and tighten the bolts on the offset brackets. Another important thing to remember when installing the offset handles is to make sure the brackets are kicking out in the same direction to ensure the handles are going to match up. When the offset brackets are installed it is time to add the handles in the top slots of the brackets. Travis is going to use the two square spots because he does not want the handles too far back on the wheel hoe or seeder. However, if you do want the handles farther back you can use the diamond-shaped spots on the bracket. Once the handles are added to the brackets and tight, then he can tighten down the bolts to set his handle height. When everything is set up it is time to place it in the garden and get to work along the rows.

Handle Types

The three different types of wheel hoe handles that we offer are the pistol grip, steam-bent, and stock plow handles. The Pistol Grip Handles are designed with a fat end so the handle fits directly in the palm of your hand for pushing the tool through the garden soil. However, the Steam Bent Handles have a design that features a curved end to the handles that lets you grip and squeeze the entire handle in your hand. While the Stock Plow Handles are used to maneuver or fit into most horse-drawn implements and other gardening equipment such as a disk harrow cultivator. All of these handles are Amish-crafted and made out of hardwood ash that will last a long time on the homestead.

Incredible Sweet Corn Variety

On this week’s episode, Travis explains the many different tasks of growing sweet corn. Travis previously planted a sweet corn variety known as Incredible which is sugary enhanced that has a higher sugar content than other standard varieties allowing it to have excellent flavor profiles. Another benefit of this variety is it contains a great disease package and improved storage than older heirloom varieties. He planted the sweet corn using the Garden Seeder and spaced them about 4 to 6 inches apart since they were planted on drip tape.

Hilling, Side-Dressing, & Fertilizing Sweet Corn

The first major reason behind hilling sweet corn is for weed suppression. By using the Double Wheel Hoe and cultivating between the rows of corn you are able to keep the weeds down. By smothering out the weeds between the plants you are reducing weed pressures because they cannot get sunlight or continue to grow and will end up dying in the garden. The second reason for hilling sweet corn is for better plant stabilization. By throwing soil up around the sweet corn it ensures that the plants are stabilized and it will be less likely that harsh wind or rain will cause your crops to lean over. It also allows the roots to grip into the soil a little bit better throughout the growing sweet corn process. The third reason for hilling is for better side-dressing and applying granular fertilizer to the sweet corn. When it comes to side-dressing corn the first step is to simply apply granular fertilizer to the side of the plants along the garden row. Then, take a wheel hoe and cover the fertilizer up while throwing soil to the corn for plant stabilization and weed suppression. The ideal tool for hilling is the High Arch Wheel Hoe with the plow set attachment in the hilling position. The high arch has a gap or space between the two toolbars and the wheels which allows you to easily straddle the rows to throw soil to both sides of the plants in one pass through along the rows. Another benefit to this wheel hoe is the 15-inch clearance that allows you to straddle even the taller plants as they continue to grow. When it comes to the fertilizer or mainly nitrogen requirements for sweet corn it is recommended that 250 lbs per acre of nitrogen is needed throughout the life of the plant. However, since most gardeners are growing sweet corn on a smaller acre, Travis suggests about 5.7 lbs of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet. Travis recommends spoon-feeding throughout the entire life of the plant, therefore instead of giving them five and a half pounds of nitrogen at one time he will break that up and give them around half increments about 4 to 5 times. Travis uses three sources of nitrogen when growing sweet corn which is chicken manure, Chilean nitrate, and 20-20-20 garden fertilizer. He places the chicken manure compost down beside the plants for his first nitrogen application. For the second spoon-feeding he will use the Chilean Nitrate as a side-dress because it is a natural source of high nitrogen and it has a little granulated form that makes it easier to sprinkle around the plants. For a 1,000 square foot plot if the entire bag of Chilean nitrate is used it will give the area 1.5 pounds of actual nitrogen which is just the right amount for spoon-feeding sweet corn. All that’s left is to provide three pounds of nitrogen using the 20-20-20 garden fertilizer. Travis simply uses the 20-20-20 in the fertilizer injector which runs through the drip system in the vegetable garden. Overall, when growing sweet corn is very important to hill, side-dress, and fertilize throughout the growing stages of corn to ensure you get maximum production and healthy plants.

Why Plant Cut Flowers in the Vegetable Garden?

There are a couple of different benefits behind interplanting cut flowers such as sunflowers in the vegetable garden. The first benefit is it will increase the presence of beneficial insects which helps control harmful pests from taking over the area. However, the most important reason for interplanting flowers is it will increase the presence of pollinators and maximize the number of healthy plants producing along the rows. This will in return give us a bountiful harvest of healthy crops in the vegetable garden.

Planting Sunflowers in the Garden

On this week’s episode, Travis explains the best way to plant sunflowers in the vegetable garden area. Travis has grown ProCut sunflower varieties for around 4 to 5 years. When planting sunflowers the best tool to use is the Hoss Garden Seeder which comes with adjustable seed plates that make planting different seed sizes easy along the row. To get the perfect seed plate for planting ProCut varieties Travis simply takes an existing seed plate and modifies it to match the seed size of the sunflower variety. The seed plate he is using to plant has 6 holes which are a little over 3 inches in spacing since Travis prefers to plant sunflowers thick. Once the seed plate is customized to your preferred hole spacing and seed size it is time to ensure the seeds are running through the seed plate properly within the seeder. Before planting with the seeder, Travis must take the Single Wheel Hoe with a 12-inch oscillating hoe to cultivate the area a couple of inches and make the area more workable prior to planting sunflower seeds. When planting the seeds he places them around 2 to 3 feet apart and is going to use overhead watering instead of drip tape in the garden.

Sunflower Varieties

ProCut sunflowers are the preferred variety of sunflower that is used by all the professional cut flower gardeners. These sunflower varieties will reach around 6 to 7 feet tall and each plant produces a single stem or one flower in the garden. Another benefit of the ProCut varieties of sunflowers is they are pollen-less which means they don’t have any pollen. Therefore, when you harvest the sunflowers and place them in a vase they will not deposit pollen all over the place like traditional sunflowers. There are 6 different color variation varieties that we have available this year. The first variety is the ProCut Orange which produces bright orange petals with dark brown disk center. Next, is the ProCut Lemon which creates beautiful lemon-colored petals similar to the traditional yellow sunflower. Another unusual pretty variety is the ProCut Red Lemon Bicolor which is a bicolor that has red to yellow petals. The White Nite produces solid vanilla-colored petals that make the vegetable garden pop with color. The fifth variety we offer is a ProCut Red which contains deep burgundy petals. While the last variety we have available is the ProCut Plum which is another bicolor that creates plum to cream-colored petals.

Dream Vegetable Garden

On this week’s episode, Travis shows off the finished dream vegetable garden. Travis has designed and laid out a new area on his homestead that is his ideal dream vegetable garden. He is going to go over every variety that he planted in the area today.

Irish Potatoes

He started off in February planting Irish potatoes such as the Adirondack Blue, German Butterball, Red Norland, and Yukon Gold. The Adirondack Blue contains a purple flesh potato that is rich in antioxidants that offer exceptional yields and excellent flavor. Unlike other potato varieties, the best flavor profile is the German Butterball which contains a buttery-yellow flesh. The Red Norland is a newer variety that has disease resistant to scab, late blight, and potato virus. This is another variety that has a great yield, storage, and flavor profile. The Yukon Gold is another popular variety that has been a favorite for gardeners for many years.

Summer Squash & Cucumbers

Next, he planted the summer squash and two cucumber varieties which consisted of a pickling and slicing type. The Goldprize Squash variety is a hybrid straightneck that produces bountiful yellow fruits that contain an excellent disease package. The next squash variety is the Sunburst which is known as a “patty pan” that produces bright yellow fruits with scalloped edges and green rings in the center interior. While the Bennings Green was another “patty pan” variety. He planted two varieties of zucchini which were Spineless Beauty and Golden Delight. While the cucumbers that were planted were two of the most productive varieties known as Calypso and Stonewall.

Tomatoes

He planted both indeterminate and determinate tomato varieties in the dream vegetable garden. For the indeterminate tomatoes, he planted the Brandywine variety using the tomato cages to help support the plants as they continue to grow larger. For the determinate tomatoes such as the Bella Rosa and Brickyard, he planted those using the Florida Weave Technique.

Sweet Corn

The outstanding sweet corn variety that he planted using the garden seeder was the Incredible Sweet Corn. This is a sugary enhanced variety that has a higher sugar content than other standard varieties allowing it to have excellent flavor profiles. It contains a traditional yellow corn appearance with a great disease resistance package and improved storage life. The sweet corn has done really well and has reached around 6 to 8 inches tall in the vegetable garden. He also side dressed those recently with chicken manure compost and soon he will hill the plants to ensure they have plenty of stability as they continue to grow.

Winter Squash

Another crop he planted in the garden was winter squash which consisted of planting the Small Wonder Spaghetti Squash and Kabocha Squash. The spaghetti squash variety is a personalized size fruit that is extremely productive and produces around 10 to 15 fruits per plant. While the kabocha squash is the best-tasting squash around it is also known for its texture and visual appearance. Those two varieties have both done extremely well in germinating and all but two seeds didn’t germinate, so almost 100% germination.

Peppers

When it comes to planting peppers in the dream vegetable garden, Travis planted almost every variety that we have available because he loves growing peppers. The Bayonet Bell Pepper is a consistently sized blocky pepper that is really productive and contains an excellent disease package. While the Merlot Purple Bell Pepper is a hybrid that starts growing as green but matures to a deep purple color when ready to harvest. The Aruba Cubanelle Pepper contains a blend of mild heat and sweet flavor that is a very productive variety. The next variety is Gold Rush Banana Pepper which is a popular sweet pepper that matures to an orange and red color variation in the garden. Then, on the more mild heat flavor pepper row, he planted Poblano, Anaheim, and Beaver Dam. Lastly, in the final row, he planted the hotter varieties such as Jalapenos, Serrano, Brazilian Orchid, and Cayenne Peppers.

Why Cut Flowers Before Planting?

On this week’s episode, Travis explains one thing to consider before planting in the vegetable garden. The ultimate goal when growing your own vegetables is to produce the healthiest crops you can. One way to get a maximum crop of healthy plants is to grow cut flowers. For crops such as cucumbers, summer squash, watermelons, and winter squash they all require pollinators. It is important to attract pollinators to ensure you get an increase in productive vegetables. For a couple of years, Travis has interplanted cut flowers along his vegetable garden and it has done extremely well. Another benefit of growing cut flowers is the ability to easily harvest or cut the stems and place them in a vase.

Cut Flower Varieties

The first cut flower variety is Ageratum Blue Horizon which is a bright-colored flower that produces tall sturdy bloom clusters that make the vegetable garden blossom with color. The Cosmos Versailles Mix is another brightly colored blend of cut flowers that produces a mix of pink, white, and red blooms. There are several different ProCut Sunflowers that are the preferred cut flower varieties. These sunflower varieties include White Nite, Lemon, Orange, and Red. However, one of the easiest cut flower varieties to grow is zinnias. We carry the Benary Giant Zinnia Mix that includes yellow, orange, purple, coral, lime and several different red variations.

Growing Cut Flowers

Before planting cut flowers we prepare the garden by using the Double Wheel Hoe in the furrowing position. Next, make a furrow to create a row and bury the drip tape in the furrow. Then, you can go along the tape and scatter the seeds along both sides of the tape to get a double row of plants. If you’re not using the drip tape layer attachment and reusing drip tape to easily cover it up you should let the emitters fill up to keep it in place while burying in the garden. To bury the drip tape, Travis takes the High Arch Wheel Hoe in the hilling position to simply cover the tape along the row. If you prefer not to direct seed, you can also use the seed starting trays to create transplants for cut flowers. When planting the cut flower transplants he places the in-row spacing around 6 to 8 inches apart in the vegetable garden. Once, the flowers start blooming it is important to come in the garden and prune the flower heads that have dried up or started to go to seed. If you properly prune the cut flowers they will continue to produce blooms all throughout the warmer months.

Key Reasons for Growing Winter Squash

On this week’s episode, Travis is explaining the key factors in growing winter squash in the vegetable garden. In the dream garden, he is going to plant one of his favorite crops to grow which is winter squash. The first major reason for growing winter squash is it can be easy to manage because it doesn’t require a lot of weeding or constant care. Once the plants start to germinate and grow they’ll create a nice dense canopy over the entire plot. You might have to weed it a little bit with the Single Wheel Hoe until the plants become large enough to cover the plot with the canopy to shade out the weeds. Overall, it is a great productive crop that needs little to no maintenance in the vegetable garden. The second reason for growing winter squash is it’s a one-time harvest crop. Unlike summer squash, which must be harvested two to three times a week, the winter squash can be harvested all at once from the garden. The third reason behind growing winter squash is the storage life capacity. Once harvesting all the winter squash it can be stored underneath a well-covered area such as a barn and placed on a drying rack to store for up to six months.

Planting Winter Squash

When it comes to winter squash the ideal time for planting is during the Spring and they typically take between 90 to 100 days to fully mature. Therefore, we harvest them in the middle of summer and they store on into the winter months. Similar to summer squash and cucumbers, winter squash is susceptible to diseases such as powdery mildew and downy mildew. To help alleviate these disease problems you can add a drip irrigation system to ensure water is being added directly to the plant roots instead of using overhead irrigation that can cause excessive leaf moisture. The two varieties that Travis is going to plant this year is Small Wonder Spaghetti Squash and Hai Kabocha Squash. The spaghetti squash variety is a personalized size fruit that is extremely productive and produces around 10 to 15 fruits per plant. While the kabocha squash is the best-tasting squash around it is also known for its texture and visual appearance. Travis is going to plant the crops on four-foot row spacing to ensure he gets a dense canopy by the vegetation and blocks all the weeds. To prepare the garden, he makes a furrow with the Double Wheel Hoe and plow set attachment. Then, he buries the drip tape and plants the winter squash seeds on top of the drip irrigation in the garden area. When winter squash is ready for harvesting they will begin to die back and the fruits will obtain their full color. Once stems harden, this is another indication that the winter squash is fully mature and ready for harvest in the vegetable garden.

Planting an Okra Crop

On this week’s episode, Travis is growing a productive okra crop in the vegetable garden. You can typically plant around two or three crops of okra from spring to fall. Throughout the warm growing season, it is best to succession plant okra to ensure you can get maximum yields for harvesting. In the Spring, Travis always likes to transplant an okra crop to get a headstart on the growing season. By transplanting you are able to get around a two to four-week head start in the vegetable garden instead of direct seeding. To get the best transplants he recommends planting in seed starting trays to ensure you develop a solid root ball with internal root training ribs that help the plants grow properly and reduce transplant shock. If you are in a tight space in the area it is best to plant okra on double rows so you can easily harvest both rows at once. This year Travis is going to plant on a single row with three-foot row spacing. When going to prune okra instead of cutting it off right below the pod, Travis prefers to cut the pod and the lateral branch because it will keep the bottom of the plant clean and easier to see when it comes time for harvesting. Unlike other crops, okra is not a heavy feeder and does not require lots of irrigation or fertilizer. However, we still suggest planting okra on drip tape because the plants can have a tendency to strike-off when it becomes dry during the summer months. Once the vegetable garden is set up and prepared for planting, all that’s left is to plant the okra transplants and wait for them to grow.

Harvesting Okra

The best time to harvest okra pods is when they reach around 3 to 5 inches in length. However, once okra plants get so tall they become less productive and harvesting will be more difficult. A major pest that can harm the growth of okra plants is root-knot nematodes. Which can cause knots on the roots of the plants that can drain the nutrients from the plants leaving them wilted in the vegetable garden. There are a couple of different ways to control these nematode problems in the garden area. Travis recommends using a cover crop such as Broadleaf Mustard that will release chemicals to help suppress nematode, fungi, and insect populations and increase organic matter which will improve soil tilth and quality of the soil structure in the vegetable garden area.

Okra Varieties

The first variety is the Jambalaya which is a hybrid that produces the most productive okra in the vegetable garden. Another excellent variety is known as Red Burgundy which produces deep red pods that remain tender when growing longer pod lengths. The Silver Queen is an heirloom variety that creates light green pods that are almost white. Another heirloom variety is the Cowhorn Okra that makes slender pods that remain tender even when grown at 6 to 10 inches long. When it comes to the Star of David variety it is the go-to okra for frying because of it’s thicker pods. However, the standard okra variety is the Clemson Spineless that produces pods that can reach 7 to 9 inches in length and be harvested at between 3 to 4 inches long. The newest okra variety we have available is the Perkins Long Pod that creates elongated pods that tend to produce early in the garden.

Incredible Sweet Corn

The outstanding new sweet corn variety being planted in the garden is the Incredible Sweet Corn. This sugary enhanced variety has a higher sugar content than other standard varieties allowing it to have excellent flavor profiles. It contains a traditional yellow corn appearance with a great disease resistance package. Another benefit of this variety is it has an improved storage life than older heirloom varieties.

Planting a Sweet Corn Variety

When it comes to planting sweet corn there are three common mistakes that people making in the vegetable garden. The first mistake is planting sweet corn in long rows instead of square plots. It’s important to plant corn in square plots to ensure you get the most wind pollination that will in return give you full ears of corn and the best harvest. The second mistake is not enough water during the growing season. Since sweet corn is heavy-feeders they need plenty of water throughout the entire growing process of the plant. We suggest planting corn on drip tape to provide plenty of irrigation directly to the plant roots where they need it most along the row. The third mistake is corn also needs plenty of fertilizer especially nitrogen. By applying the fertilizer using the drip system and fertilizer injector we can use 20-20-20 or Chilean Nitrate to help incorporate the needed nutrients into the soil. You can also side-dress the Chilean Nitrate or some good compost along beside the plants and incorporate it in that way as well. Travis is planting the sweet corn on three-foot row spacing to allow room as the plants continue to grow. After preparing the garden area, he is going to use the Garden Seeder to help plant the seeds along the row. Before planting with the seeder, he first has to make sure the seed plate is calibrated correctly for the sweet corn variety being planted. This means the holes on the seed plate needs to be the correct size for planting the seeds. Next, we test the seed plate in the garden seeder to ensure they are flowing perfectly through the seeder and into the soil. Once the seed plate is perfect, then it’s time to set the desired planting depth. Once everything is calibrated correctly it is time to plant the Incredible sweet corn variety in the vegetable garden.

Harvesting Sweet Corn

The best time to harvest sweet corn is once the tassels begin to turn brown and the cobs are fully matured. To harvest simply hold the ear firmly, pull down, and twist. When storing corn the best way is in the refrigerator, where it keeps for up to a week. If you prefer to store corn for a longer period, you can place it in the freezer.

Planting Carrots

On this week’s episode, Travis is growing a maximum carrot crop in a tight space in the vegetable garden. When planting a carrot crop on double rows with drip irrigation it has always worked well and we have received a bountiful harvest in the Spring garden for several years. Travis suggests planting carrots in the fall towards the end of October when temperatures are cooler which lets us overwinter and harvest them in the spring. Also, we can succession plant carrots in the spring around February to harvest before the warm weather comes towards May. Unlike other crops, carrots take a long time to germinate, so if you experience heavy weed pressures that can be a major problem when growing carrots. When it comes to heavy weeds in the garden this creates major issues because weeds will compete with carrots for nutrients in the soil. The first step to planting carrots is by using the Double Wheel Hoe with the plow set to help create furrows along the row where the drip tape will be laid in the area. Travis recommends using drip tape to ensure the carrots get an adequate amount of irrigation and fertilizer directly to the plant roots where they need it most. Before adding drip tape, Travis likes to add a good quality compost down to help supply nutrients in the soil before planting. To incorporate the drip he runs the drip tape layer attachment along the furrows so he can bury the drip tape and cover it in one pass through. Once the carrot seeds are planted, Travis is going to take a rake and lightly cover them along the row in the garden. Another important key to planting carrots to save space and maximum crops is by planting them thick along the garden rows.

Harvesting Carrots

Different carrot crop varieties can be harvested at various times. Therefore, it is easy to come in the vegetable garden and pick a few as you need them, so you don’t have to worry about gathering them all at once. Another thing about overwintering carrots is they’re going to take a lot longer to mature than the listed maturity date. When storing carrots, Travis just grabs a handful of carrots to place them in a bag with one end open so the carrot tops are free and then place them in a fridge. Once in the fridge, the carrots can store really well for two to three weeks and sometimes even longer.

Carrot Crop Varieties

The Bolero Carrot variety is an exceptional hybrid that is not only disease-resistant but has a great flavor profile. While the Yellowstone is an open-pollinated variety that produces large yellow carrots with vigorous tops. Another variety is the Purple Haze which is visually appealing with a dark purple exterior and orange interior in the vegetable garden. However, the Deep Purple variety is another purple carrot that is present throughout the exterior and interior of the carrot crop. The Danvers 126 is the traditional bugs bunny carrot that has broad shoulders and a strong taper to a sharp tip. The two new varieties of carrots we have available is Black Nebula and Chantenay Royal.

Planting Squash and Cucumbers

On this week’s episode, Travis plants a bumper crop of squash and cucumbers in the garden area. The first step in planting a bumper crop is to mark off the rows and lay the drip irrigation in the desired area. Travis has a 30 by 35-foot wide subplot area and is going to lay six rows that have five-feet spacing. To lay down the rows and drip irrigation, Travis is going to use the F.A.D. system which is furrow, amend, and drip. He will take the Double Wheel Hoe with the plow set and create a furrow in a straight line where the rows will lay. Next, take a good quality compost and lightly sprinkle it along the garden furrows. Then, with the drip tape layer attachment, he will lay the drip tape in the furrows while covering it up at the same time which will give us buried irrigation and compost that will give our plants plenty of nutrients throughout the growing season. For any kind of plant that needs trellising, Travis likes to use galvanized cattle panels that you can get from any kind of hardwood store. He uses t-posts on the ends and middle to help support the cattle panels along the 30-foot row using zip ties. Another thing to remember about trellising cucumbers is to plant them along the edge of the subplot because they tend to sprawl out along the garden. Therefore, if you plant the cucumbers in the middle of the garden they will end up crawling all over your other plants.

Squash and Cucumber Varieties

The first bumper crop of squash that is going to be planted is the Goldprize variety. This is a hybrid straightneck variety that produces bountiful yellow fruits that contain an excellent disease package. The next squash variety being planted is the Sunburst which is known as a “patty pan” that produces bright yellow fruits with scalloped edges and green rings in the center interior. Another “patty pan” variety being planted is an heirloom known as Bennings Green. This is a productive variety that produces light green fruits with scalloped edges as well. The two varieties of zucchini that are going to be planted in the garden is Spineless Beauty and Golden Delight. When it comes to planting cucumbers the two most productive varieties is Calypso and Stonewall. Both of these cucumber varieties are gynoecious meaning they only produce female flowers which makes them extremely productive in the vegetable garden.

Controlling Fungal Diseases

An important aspect of growing squash and cucumbers is fungal diseases such as powdery mildew and downy mildew can become a problem. One thing that will feed these diseases is excessive leaf moisture so to control this moisture he likes to use certain spray treatments such as the Liquid Copper or Complete Disease Control. However, the major key to eliminating leaf moisture is using drip irrigation instead of overhead watering in the garden. When using drip tape you can ensure that the water is going directly to the plant roots where the crops need it the most and not on the leaves caused by overhead watering. In the end, we will have fewer disease problems and healthier plants in the vegetable garden.

Making Garden Rows

On this week’s episode, Travis is discussing whether you need to make garden rows or not using the plow set. When the Plow Set attachment is hooked up to the Wheel Hoe will it create an elevated planting surface to plant seeds? Yes, it can make a garden row when they are positioned in the furrowing or hilling position. When it comes to planting on an elevated surface Travis mentions that it does not hurt anything in the garden, but it’s an unnecessary step that we would have to take before planting. If you live in an area with poor soil drainage or a large amount of rainfall throughout the season by building a mound or hill and planting on top of it you’re going to ensure the plants are higher up than the soil which will allow for better drainage and they will perform better. However, if you have a sandy loam soil that drains pretty well, so he doesn’t need to make an elevated surface for planting. Instead of planting on an elevated surface, we like to plant on the flat soil and as some crops grow we will hill them to help with stabilizing the plant and encourage more root development.

Hoss Wheel Hoes

Single Wheel Hoe

The first Wheel Hoe that was made available was the Single Wheel Hoe, which was based on the old Planet Jr. Wheel Hoes that have been around for over 100 years. If you’re a beginner gardener and have a small garden that’s around 30×40 or 30×50 in size, the single is the perfect tool for you. It also comes with a set of three cultivator teeth that can be moved around the toolbar and up to five teeth can be used at once. With cool weather crops like lettuce, the Single Wheel Hoe allows for a narrower footprint when planting in the vegetable garden. However, another thing to keep in mind about this wheel hoe is not all of the attachments work on this tool.

Double Wheel Hoe

There are a couple of advantages when it comes to choosing the Double Wheel Hoe over the Single Wheel Hoe. The first advantage is you are able to straddle smaller plants between the two wheels. This works great for planting potatoes because you are able to straddle the seed potatoes and cover them up using the plow set attachment in the hilling position. Another big advantage of the double is every attachment that we carry at Hoss Tools works on this Wheel Hoe.

High Arch Wheel Hoe

Similar in concept to the Double, the High Arch Wheel Hoe allows you to straddle plants as well, but much taller plants like corn or potatoes. It also contains adjustable wheel spacing meaning the wheels can move in or out depending on your desired spacing in the garden. So basically you have three different settings on the wheel spacing which includes the innermost being 4 inches apart, the middle being 6 inches apart, and the farthest being 8 inches apart. Another difference is the High Arch has two toolbars instead of just one, which provides many more possibilities for planting within the garden.

Best Attachment for Furrowing

The Plow Set attachment is the perfect tool to make furrows for planting or forming beds for hilling or throwing soil to plants to ensure plant stability and better root development in the vegetable garden. Easily attach the plow set individually or as a pair to the Single or Double Wheel Hoe. For example, you can easily place the plow set attachment in the inward position to make a perfect furrow for planting your potatoes and then turn the plows outward to easily cover the planted potatoes in the garden.

Time Frame of Gardening

On this week’s episode, Travis is discussing the needed time frame of growing vegetables in a garden. When keeping everything maintained, growing, and harvested it can all depend on the size of your vegetable garden and what crops are planted. Travis is going to give a personal example of how long it takes him to manage his garden area. He currently has four subplots that all total about 5,000 square feet plus an additional new garden area that has six subplots that will total up to 11,000 square feet of garden area. However, Travis does not always grow food in each of these plots he likes to use some subplots for cover cropping to help build the soil. The time frame that he prefers to use every day is at least 30 minutes a day out in the garden. It can vary from working or just walking around monitoring the plants to ensure there are no pests or diseases that need to be fixed. On the weekends, he likes to spend a little more time in the garden when weather permits to get the garden nice and cleaned for the upcoming week ahead. On average, Travis spends about 10 to 12 hours per week in the vegetable garden.

Maintaining Time in the Garden

Before growing or planting, it’s important to determine how much time frame you will have each week to devote to the vegetable garden. You don’t want to grow to large of a garden where it becomes overwhelming to deal with and you don’t have enough time to work in maintaining the area. In order to break down the garden daily or weekly Travis is going to explain some percentages to help determine what activities take the most time when it comes to growing vegetables. The most common problem that people have when it comes to maintaining the garden is not having enough time to control weed germination. However, contrary to popular belief the time spent weeding in the garden is smaller percentage-wise compared to the time it takes to do other activities. This has a lot to do with having the right tools to control weeds quickly and effectively. Using tools such as the single tine cultivator, push pull hoe, and the diamond hoe are all excellent in providing efficient weed control in the vegetable garden. Similar to weeding, spraying the area will take about the same amount of time as controlling the weeds. It takes Travis about 20 to 30 minutes to mix up an injector tank of Monterey B.t. or Neem Oil and get it nicely coated on all the plants once a week in the garden. Once the temperatures increase and pest pressures get it higher then he will do it at least twice a week. Another task that doesn’t take a lot of time in the garden is fertilizing. By streamlining the fertilizer using the fertilizer injector it only takes about 10 minutes to set it up and flowing through the drip system. When side dressing with Chilean Nitrate he prefers to add that on the same day he plans to weed or cultivate because it saves time by doing both tasks in one pass through along the rows. Using a drip irrigation system is another way to save an efficient amount of time in the garden as well. Not only does it save time, but it allows an accurate amount of irrigation to crops at the roots of the plants. The most amount of time spent in the garden comes when planting or harvesting vegetables. The time spent planting vegetables can vary based on transplants or direct seeding. As well as, what kind of crops you are harvesting in the vegetable garden.

Easiest Potatoes

On this week’s episode, Travis is demonstrating how to plant the easiest potatoes in the vegetable garden. In the South, the ideal potato planting time is around the middle to end of February. Typically, potatoes need to be planted anywhere from two to three weeks before the last frost date. Travis always likes to cut his seed potatoes because not only will they last longer, but they produce bigger potatoes in the garden. For example, if you plant a whole potato you’ll more than likely get smaller potatoes, but if you cut them up and reduce the number of eyes planted in one spot you will get nice big potatoes instead. He also likes to cut the seed potato several days before planting because they need time for the open wound or the skin to heal over or suberize which helps prevent any fungal diseases and rot once we put them in the soil. Another important aspect of cutting seeds is the number of eyes you have per piece. Usually, the cut seeds only need around two to four eyes per piece to help ensure that there is not overcrowding in the area. The first step in planting the easiest potatoes is to mark off the rows in the desired subplot you want to plant them in. When planting potatoes his desired row spacing is three-foot apart to provide plenty of soil to hill the potatoes once they become larger. Using the Double Wheel Hoe and the plow set attachment, Travis created a furrow where the rows were marked off for planting. Then, he laid the little seed potato pieces down in the furrow with around six to eight inches in spacing. Once all the seeds are planted he took his High Arch Wheel Hoe and covered them all up along the row so they can start germinating in the vegetable garden. As they continue to grow you will need to hill the potatoes a couple of times throughout the growing season.

Potato Varieties

Of all the different potato varieties available, we offer some of the best productive varieties that all have excellent flavor profiles. The first variety is known as Adirondack Blue which contains a purple flesh potato that is rich in antioxidants. Usually taking around 85 days to mature this unique potato variety offers exceptional yields and excellent flavor. Another popular potato variety that provides the best flavor is the German Butterball. This variety is a late-season plant meaning it takes between 110 to 135 days to mature in the vegetable garden. The Red Norland is a newer variety that has disease resistant to scab, late blight, and potato virus. This is another variety that has great yield, storage, and flavor profile. The Yukon Gold is another popular variety that has been a favorite for gardeners for many years. All of these varieties work great for roasting, frying, baking, mashing, and so much more.

Creating the Dream Vegetable Garden

If you are a gardener there is no doubt that you have thought about what your dream vegetable garden would look like that you would love to have on your homestead. On this week’s episode, Travis is explaining what his dream garden would like and how he plans to lay it out. Travis has had an area on his homestead that was around 12 rows of planted pines and he plans to change this area into a productive dream vegetable garden. The first step in this process was removing all the pines so he could pile them up and create a burn pile. Once the pine trees are cleaned up, he will take the tractor with a chisel plow and harrow to get the area leveled out, the grass chopped up, and the soil cultivated. This will allow the soil to more workable when it comes to planting in the Spring. The area he is working in is around 125 foot wide by 70 foot long and the first step to laying out the garden is to square off the rectangular spot. To make sure all the sides were even, he figured out what the hypotenuse or diagonal was and ran a string exactly that length to make sure he has right angles on all four sides of the area.

Designing and Layout

Once the area is laid off and squared it is time to divide it off into subplots to provide better crop rotation and manageability. When gardening the entire area in long rows it will end up being harder and you’re restricted when it comes to rotating crops which is very important in having a successful productive garden. However, when incorporating subplots it allows you to work in one desired subplot each day and control the weeds a little bit better in the garden area. Travis took his area and divided it into six subplots that are all 30 by 35 in size which is almost square. He recommends square plots because for planting crops like corn it is better for pollination purposes. Another benefit of subplots is they offer you to plant individual families of vegetables in each plot and rotate those around so, in the long run, you avoid pest and disease problems. In between each subplot, there are walkways that are 10 feet wide to ensure Travis has plenty of room to move his mule around the garden when it comes time to harvest. When the subplots are all laid out, then he can start mapping out what he will plant in each of the individual plots. Travis prefers to map out the garden by sketching it out on a piece of paper in order to have a complete design plan laid out for reference. In this garden plot, he plans to plant potatoes, summer squash and cucumbers, peppers and eggplants, tomatoes, sweet corn, and winter squash in different subplots. Before planting all of these crops Travis plans to till the ground at least one or two more times to ensure he gets good workable soil before the growing season.

Best Wheel Hoe

There are many different advantages to both the single and double wheel hoe. However, when it comes to what you need to do in the vegetable garden this will help determine which is the best wheel hoe for you. Each Hoss Wheel Hoe has a frame made of powder-coated steel, a 15-inch steel wheel and Amish-crafted, hardwood handles that are adjustable to accommodate your height. As well as, a thick steel tool bar that allows you to attach our various different attachments to perform all of your desired gardening tasks.

Single Wheel Hoe

One of the ultimate tools for growing food in your vegetable garden, the Single Wheel Hoe can save you time and energy when doing various jobs in the soil. The best way to use this tool is for cultivating and weeding in your garden. When using the single wheel, you obtain a smaller footprint that allows you to operate in smaller row spacing which is ideal if you have a small garden area. Travis prefers to quickly and easily perform a shallow cultivation to control and prevent weeds from overtaking the area.

Double Wheel Hoe

The Double Wheel Hoe comes with two wheels that provide better stability and enables you to straddle the row when plants are smaller, so you can weed both sides of the row in one pass through. This is an eco-friendly solution for cultivating and weeding in your vegetable garden that works in areas where a tractor or motorized tiller does not. If you plan to use the Drip Tape Layer attachment it can only be used with the Double Wheel Hoe.

Wheel Hoe Conversion Kit

However, we designed these two-wheel hoes to quickly and easily convert from a Single Wheel Hoe into a Double Wheel Hoe, using the Double Wheel Hoe Conversion Kit. By simply switching the arms that extend out to the wheels and adding the longer axle the Single can easily be converted to the Double. Travis explains how to easily make this switch using the conversion kit. The first step to converting the Double is taking off both wheels and the dust caps using two half-inch wrenches. The two arms that extend out to the wheels are bowed out for the double but need to be switched around for the single. Using a socket to remove the arms he switches the arms around so that they are bowed in instead of out. He will place the wheel on the inside of the arms instead of two on the outside then install the shoulder bolt and dust caps. Once this is done the wheel should freely spin around but tight enough so the nuts do not come off. To convert from the single to the double you will need the conversion kit that includes a wheel, a longer axle, and two extra dust caps. To convert from the single to the double you will first remove the wheel and shoulder bolt. Then, switch the arms around so they are bowed out instead of in. Next, run the longer axle through the arms and add the dust caps and the two wheels on the outside of the arms.

Planting Shallots in the Garden

On this week’s episode, Travis is planting shallots with the Hoss Wheel Hoe. Since shallots are Alliums, that means they are related to garlic and onions. Unlike onions, the shallots are planted in sets which is like an immature bulb that we plant and they will multiply out similar to bunching onions. Once they start multiplying they can make anywhere from 8 to 10 shallots in a bunch from each one of the little sets. The ideal planting space for shallot is 6 inches apart along the vegetable garden. After marking off where the rows are going to lay, Travis takes the Double Wheel Hoe and creates a shallot planting furrow. When it comes to shallot planting, he took a pipe and cut it to the perfect length so he could easily drop his sets down the pipe to the desired planting spot while he was walking along the row. Similar to other crops, shallots are heavy feeders and require plenty of water and fertilizer. Shallots should be given at least 1 inch of water per week for best results in the garden. Travis recommends fertilizing with a complete fertilizer like our 20-20-20 initially to promote root development and then switching to nitrogen and sulfur-based fertilizer like our Ammonium Sulfate. When it comes to harvesting shallots, they are ready when the majority of the tops begin to bend and collapse in the vegetable. You simply pull the shallots from the soil and allow them to “cure” in the sun for a couple of days. Once the shallots are cured they should be placed in a cool, dry area that is well-ventilated such as a basement or pole barn. Most shallots can be stored for up to five months in a proper storage area after harvesting.

Shallot Varieties

Travis has four different shallot varieties to try out in the garden. The first shallot variety is an elongated type known as Banana which is similar to our Roderique Shallot Set. These shallots are usually two to three inches long at maturity and consist of copper skin with a crisp white flesh interior. Another elongated type shallot is the Monique Shallot which is a semi-long variety that has excellent disease-resistance and storage life. This shallot variety has rust-colored skin with light pink flesh and produces bulbs that can grow as large as three inches. The last shallot variety is a traditional round bulb that is known as Ambition. This is another variety that has excellent storage life and excellent flavor profiles.

Essential Tools for the Garden

On this week’s episode, Travis goes over the most essential tools needed for growing a vegetable garden. When thinking about the various tools that we have available, Travis narrowed it down to the top five that he believes are necessary and essential to have a successful garden.

Garden Rake

The first essential tool to have is the garden rake which is a popular tool to have in the vegetable garden. This rake is great for leveling out a smooth planting area prior to planting transplants or direct seeding. By using the steel tines on the rake head you can simply cultivate and aerate the garden soil. Bed preparation is important for ensuring you get the best results and the most abundant harvest from your vegetable garden. Not only are they great to use in the garden but also for various tasks around the homestead.

Garden Fork

Another essential tool to have around the homestead and inside the vegetable garden is the Garden Fork. The heat-treated steel tines provide maximum strength for penetrating into the soil for gardens and raised beds. This is a must-have tool for growing potatoes because you can easily lift potatoes and sweet potatoes out of the soil for harvesting. An added bonus to this digging fork is the interchangeable rubber foot pad that provides a wide, firm surface for pushing the fork down into the soil with your dominant foot.

Compost Shovel

When dealing with any kind of loading and distributing compost into your garden for soil amending you will need a quality Compost Shovel to get the job done. The shovel has a comfortable poly-D grip handle that won’t break or slip from your hands when in use. If you have compost on an even surface such as a concrete pad or sidewalk the aluminum blade shovel will work best. While the polymer blade shovel works great on uneven surfaces such as grass or dirt.

Batwing Garden Hoe

Based on the various garden hoes it’s hard to pick just one but Travis suggests that the Long Batwing Hoe is the most essential tool to have in the vegetable garden. Designed with a rounded and sharpened edge it is the ideal tool for removing large weeds or pulling dirt towards or away from plants. The shaft is hand-welded to the blade and the blade is hand-sharpened by a 4th generation blacksmith.

Single Wheel Hoe

As one of our most popular tools to have, the Single Wheel Hoe is ideal for getting into narrow or tight row spacings in the vegetable garden. With the Wheel Hoe, you can quickly and easily perform shallow cultivation to control and prevent weeds from taking over the area. Each Hoss Wheel Hoe is created with a powder-coated steel frame, Amish crafted 15-inch steel wheel, and hardwood handles that are adjustable to accommodate your height.

Two Important Tips

On this week’s episode, Travis explains the important tips for growing the best onions in the garden. When it comes to growing the big softball sized onions there two very important tips to consider during this process. The first important key tip to consider is the time of planting in the garden. When it comes to planting onions, you need to plant them as soon as possible so you are able to get as much growth out of the plants during the growing season window. Onions have two growing stages such as the vegetative stage and the bulbing stage. During the vegetative phase, the key is to get as much leaf growth on the onion as you can because each leaf represents a ring on the onion bulb. Therefore, the more leaves you get the bigger the bulb you are going to get and the better bulbing stage that will occur. In the south, the ideal time to plant onions is in late November. The second important key tip to growing the best onions is proper feeding. Onions are heavy feeders they like plenty of water and fertilizer, therefore Travis recommends planting onions on drip tape to ensure they get equal amounts of both.

Growing the Best Onions

The two onion varieties that Travis is planting in the garden this season is Texas Legend and Red Creole. Before planting, he prepares the area by using the Double Wheel Hoe and the drip tape layer to lay the drip irrigation on two-foot row spacing. He prefers the two-foot row spacing because once the onions emerge this spacing will provide plenty of room to go in between the rows for cultivation and keeping the garden area clean. Travis also plants onions on double rows because he is able to get maximum production off one row of drip tape all while making the most out of spacing in the garden. Along the row, he spaces the onions about four inches apart and they will need some thinning if you want to get really big onions. Once the bulbs get about the size of a quarter, Travis will come in the garden and harvest every other onion along the row to use those as green onions. When it comes to feeding the onions, we can feed them using two different methods. The first way is to use the injector fertilizer with 20-20-20 through the drip irrigation system. When onions are young they require plenty of phosphorus and potassium to help encourage root development, but as they get older they simply just need nitrogen. As the onions continue to grow, he will switch to a primary nitrogen supplement such as Chilean Nitrate that can be injected through the drip tape or used as a side-dress along the rows. For side-dressing, we simply sprinkle it alongside the onion plants and then take the wheel hoe with the cultivator teeth to incorporate it back into the soil. By supplying an accurate amount of irrigation and fertilizer we can ensure that the vegetative stage will get as much growth as possible to fulfill the bulbing stage.

Row Maker

The handy and effective tool that Travis will be using to create the garden rows is the Row Maker. This tool will allow you to make multiple planting furrows in the garden by simply dragging it along the soil. It contains a nice 54-inch hardwood handle that attaches to the frame with U-bolts that are provided. The powder-coated steel frame is three-foot-long with six holes for arranging the spades in a number of row spacing combinations. Along the frame, the spades can easily be adjusted by loosening and removing a small wing nut. The row maker comes with four spades, but we have additional spades if you would like to add more.

Making the Best Garden Rows

On this week’s episode, Travis is demonstrating how to create the easiest garden rows for planting in the garden. Travis is going to use the row maker to plant some beets along the edge of the garden. The area he plans to plant beets in is around five foot wide and usually used for intensive planting. For planting beets, he is going to use the row maker with 4 spades equally spaced a foot apart. Before planting, he prepares the area using the Single Wheel Hoe and the cultivator teeth attachment to break up the soil before running the row maker along the soil. Next, Travis takes the row maker and simply walks backwards dragging it along the soil to make four evenly-spaced planting furrows. You can either direct seed or transplant in the furrows, but Travis likes to transplant beets because it is easier to thin in the trays versus doing it in the ground later when they start emerging. Also, the beets tend to grow out a little better when germinating in the seed starting trays because they tend to be in a controlled greenhouse area and don’t experience severe pest and disease pressures. Travis is planting the Touchstone Gold variety which makes an orange-goldish beet that contains excellent flavor profiles and consistently round when spaced properly in the garden. He is also planting the Merlin variety which is a red beet that has a high sugar content that makes it sweeter than any other beet variety. When planting the beet transplants, he places them about four to six inches apart along the furrow to ensure there is plenty of spacing in the garden. Overall, the best garden rows are made using the row maker because it is the simplest tool to quickly and effectively make straight rows in the vegetable garden.

Guide to Planting Carrots

On this week’s episode, Travis is explaining how to grow maximum yields of carrots in the vegetable garden. For about three years, Travis has tried a particular technique when growing carrots that has done extremely well. The guide to planting carrots is finding the perfect time to plant them in the garden. When it comes to germinating carrots they prefer soil temperatures to be around 75 to 80 degrees which means carrots cannot be grown during the hotter months. Travis suggests planting carrots in the fall towards the end of October when temperatures are cooler which lets us overwinter and harvest them in the spring. Also, we can succession plant carrots in the spring around February to harvest before the warm weather comes towards May. Unlike other crops, carrots take a long time to germinate, so if you experience heavy weed pressures that can be a major problem when growing carrots. When it comes to heavy weeds in the garden this creates major issues because weeds will compete with carrots for nutrients in the soil. To help prepare the garden for planting, Travis likes to take his Single Wheel Hoe to cultivate the area about twice a week for a month to ensure he maintains a stale weed seed bed. Another way to reduce heavy weed pressures is by using a Silage Tarp to kill off weeds before planting carrots in the soil. This year, Travis’s area for planting carrots is 15 foot wide by 40 foot long and he plans on planting in double rows to ensure he gets maximum yield. When adding double rows he spaces them three foot apart and places stakes to mark off each row in the garden so he can create straight rows using the wheel hoe. The first guide to planting carrots is using the Double Wheel Hoe with the plow set attachment to help create furrows along the row where the drip tape will be laid in the area. Travis recommends using drip tape to ensure the carrots get an adequate amount of irrigation and fertilizer directly to the plant roots where they need it most. Before adding drip tape, Travis likes to add a good quality compost down to help supply nutrients in the soil before planting. To incorporate the drip he runs the drip tape layer attachment along the furrows so he can bury the drip tape and cover it in one pass through. When using a mechanical garden seeder you must use pelleted carrot seeds so it will feed through the seeder properly. However, you can also use raw carrot seeds for planting by hand as well. Once the carrot seeds are planted, Travis is going to take a rake and lightly cover them along the row in the garden.

Carrot Varieties

The three varieties of carrots Travis is planting this year is the Bolero, Yellowstone, and Purple Haze. The Bolero Carrot variety is an exceptional hybrid that is not only disease-resistant but has a great flavor profile. While the Yellowstone is an open-pollinated variety that produces large yellow carrots with vigorous tops. The last variety he is going to plant this year is the Purple Haze which is visually appealing with a dark purple exterior and orange interior in the vegetable garden.

Benefits of Growing Sweet Potatoes

The most beneficial benefit when growing sweet potatoes is the variety of vitamins and minerals the crop provides. Another benefit of growing sweet potatoes in the garden is the ability to produce a maximum yield of crops that will ultimately store for a long period of time on the homestead. Also, after harvested they can be cooked and used in various recipes. When growing sweet potatoes, not only are they easy to grow, but they bring different and unique varieties to the vegetable garden.

Planting the Biggest Sweet Potato

On this week’s episode, Travis is harvesting some of the biggest sweet potatoes in the garden this year. When it comes to planting sweet potatoes, we aren’t planting the actual potato we are planting what is known as slips. When you leave the sweet potato out long enough it will begin to grow shoots off of it kind of like a regular potato with buds. With the sweet potato slips, you simply pluck them off the potato, place the potato slips in the water, and they start to develop roots when placed in the vegetable garden. Travis planted his sweet potatoes around the middle of June after the spring crops were done because it just works the best with his crop rotation in the garden. However, you can also plant sweet potatoes as soon as the temperatures start to warm up in the spring and harvest them in the late summer as well. At the end of October, Travis is digging up four rows that are 40 inches long of sweet potatoes. Using the Large Shallow Tubtrug for harvesting he has dug up around 80 pounds for sweet potatoes along each garden row. Over the years, Travis has a few tips and tricks for growing the biggest sweet potato varieties. Unlike other crops, sweet potatoes do not really like to be spoon-fed with a lot of fertilizer or water making them maintenance-free in that aspect. Travis recommends hilling the sweet potatoes because not only does it make them easier to harvest but it helps eliminate weed pressures throughout the growing season. This year Travis tried a new trick for growing better sweet potatoes which included pruning back or cutting the trailing vines that grow along the middle of the rows. Around every two or three weeks, he uses his tiller to run through the rows to chop all the vines so the crops can focus all their energy back into growing the biggest sweet potato. By tilling the vines along the rows it allows for easier harvest and better production of sweet potatoes overall.

Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

When harvesting sweet potatoes, we recommend using our garden fork to easily lift and dig sweet potatoes out of the vegetable garden. Once all the sweet potatoes are harvested it takes several weeks for them to cure before they are ready to be used in the kitchen. To start the curing process, Travis begins by placing them underneath an area that is well covered, cool, dry, and aerated area. He has a storage rack that allows for the sweet potatoes to be spread out over netted shelves instead of on the ground. When the sweet potatoes are done with the curing process, then they can be kept in storage for sometimes as long as six months.

Wheel Hoe Attachments

When it comes to the several different wheel hoe attachments they all vary in capability but are very useful when it comes to maintaining the vegetable garden. Some of our most popular wheel hoe attachments include the drip tape layer, seeder, dibble wheel, sweeps, cultivator teeth, winged sweeps, and plow set. Only used on the Double Wheel Hoe the Drip Tape Layer attachment is the ideal tool for easily laying drip irrigation in the garden. Next, is the Seeder attachment which is a precision seed planter that uses customizable seed plates to accurately plant seeds in the soil. While the Dibble Wheel attachment is used to make indentions in the soil for planting transplants or seeds in the garden. The traditional Sweeps provide shallow cultivation with the left and right cutting blades when running along the rows. The Cultivator Teeth consist of a wide foot design that allows for cultivation underneath the soil. The last popular wheel hoe attachment is the Plow Set.

Winged Sweeps

On this week’s episode, Travis demonstrates the best wheel hoe attachment for the vegetable garden. The best wheel hoe attachment that has been released is our new Winged Sweeps. Similar to the cultivator teeth, the winged sweeps have exceptional strength and versatility in the vegetable garden. They work best for removing larger weeds and cultivating compacted soils in the garden. These sweeps are available in 4″ and 6″ wide blade models that can be used in a variety of ways to fit your personal needs in the garden. Made in the United States with high carbon steel and powder-coated surface, they come professionally sharped and will hold an edge very well. Due to the high carbon steel, it will also be easy to sharpen after prolonged use in garden soil. The winged sweeps can be used on the Single Wheel Hoe, Double Wheel Hoe, or the High Arch Wheel Hoe. Depending on your desired cultivating width, you can use up to three winged sweeps on the single and double wheel hoe.

What are Muscadines?

A staple crop of the South, muscadines can be used for a variety of ways such as fresh off the vine or used in the kitchen to make jelly, cobblers, and wine. The muscadines do best in warmer climates where temperatures don’t get below 10 degrees. Therefore they do best in the south and not as good in the northern climates. There are several different muscadine varieties, but Travis is not sure which varieties he currently has growing on his vines. However, the four different types are a larger purple muscadine, smaller purple muscadine, smaller bronze muscadine, and a larger bronze muscadine. Another benefit of growing muscadines is they are rich in antioxidants making them a very healthy crop from the vegetable garden. However, when eating muscadines fresh off the vine you should definitely avoid eating the seeds inside the muscadine.

Making Muscadine Wine

On this week’s episode, Travis is making muscadine wine straight from the vine. As far as taking care of muscadines they are pretty much maintenance-free once they are established on the homestead. The only maintenance we recommend is during the wintertime the need to be pruned back. Usually, around January, Travis will take his pruning shears to prune back the vines real close so they can grow back out and produce more muscadines. Also, he does not add irrigation or fertilizer to the plants just prunes them back for maintenance. On Travis’s particular vine it is around a 100 foot long and the purple muscadine type produces the quickest over the bronze muscadines every year. After harvesting, he received around 12 to 15 gallons of the purple muscadines and normally the same amount for the bronze when they finish maturing. To make muscadine wine he starts by placing them in a grape crusher to crush them all down. Then, once they are crushed we can place them in a juicer that has a bladder in the middle that fills up with water and squeezes them against the sides to release all the juices out. By releasing all the juice in the juicer we are able to extract all the juice for the muscadine wine making process.

Irish Potatoes

On this week’s episode, Travis is trying to grow Irish potatoes in the Fall vegetable garden. The variety of potatoes Travis is planting today is Yukon Gold. Since seed potato producers do not usually have any potatoes available towards the end of August. Since that is the case, he had to buy the potatoes a couple of months ago and let them sit in the fridge until it was time to plant them in the South. We place them in the fridge to help stunt the growth until planting since some of the potatoes already have a few buds on them. When you are ready to plant them you simply take them out of the fridge, cut them up, and start planting. The two main reasons we like to cut our potatoes instead of planting them whole is to get more and produce bigger potatoes. By cutting the potatoes up, Travis is able to make them go further and get more potatoes to grow in the vegetable garden. If you look on the seed potatoes, the eyes or buds are where the potato is starting to sprout and the more of those that are planted in a specific spot the more potatoes you are going to produce. However, with too many eyes in one spot, you will end up planting smaller potatoes in the garden. Also, once you cut the potatoes the skin needs time to heal before planting in the vegetable garden. This ensures that the potato pieces do not become susceptible to soil fungus and rot in the garden.

Planting Potatoes

When it comes to preparing the garden for planting Irish potatoes, Travis has tried many different row spacings but has found that three-foot is about as narrow as you can go in between the potato rows. The first step in preparing for planting is to mark off the rows and make a furrow using the Double Wheel Hoe to plant the potatoes in the garden. Then, he takes the cut up seed potatoes and places them along the furrow with around 8 inches apart. After he has laid all of the potatoes along the furrow it is time to cover them up and make a little hill on top of those potatoes. To cover them up and make a hill we highly recommend using the High Arch Wheel Hoe with the plow set attachment in the hilling position. However, if you do not have a high arch available to use, you can also use the double wheel hoe for both the furrowing and hilling portion of planting the potatoes. When it comes to irrigation, Travis has had issues in the past with planting them on drip tape therefore Irish potatoes are one crop that he does not put drip irrigation on.

Different Potato Varieties

The first variety is known as Adirondack Blue which contains a purple flesh potato that is rich in antioxidants. Usually taking around 85 days to mature this unique potato variety offers exceptional yields and excellent flavor. Another popular potato variety that provides the best flavor is the German Butterball. This variety is a late-season plant meaning it takes between 110 to 135 days to mature in the vegetable garden. The Red Norland is a newer variety that has disease resistant to scab, late blight, and potato virus. This is another variety that has great yield, storage, and flavor profile. The Yukon Gold is another popular variety that has been a favorite for gardeners for many years. All of these different potato varieties work great for roasting, frying, baking, mashing, and so much more.

Thornless Blackberry

Around any homestead, a blackberry bush is a well productive plant that is great for most regions. The thornless blackberry varieties provide exceptional flavor profiles, large blackberries, and much easier to harvest due to no thorns on the plants. Another benefit of having blackberries around the homestead is the many different health benefits they can provide.

Maintenance on Thornless Blackberry Beds

On this week’s episode, Travis is demonstrating how to maintain yearly maintenance on thornless blackberry beds. About a month ago, the thornless blackberries stopped producing and so now it is time to clean the bed area. Travis is not quite sure what thornless variety of blackberries he currently has, but it does produce heavy yields and requires a little bit more maintenance. The first step Travis is going to do is trim them back to about knee-high because they will grow fast in the garden bed. Next, when it comes to pruning blackberries you do not have to be as particular as you would pruning a fruit tree. However, Travis suggests cutting them at the lateral limb just below that limb to ensure he provides some room for growth to help it continue photosynthesizing. You can also trellis the thornless blackberries but you still have to trim them back every year. Since Travis has small beds, instead of trellising he just prefers to prune them back which works just fine. The second step is to add mulch such as wheat straw around the plants and rake it in. He is going to lay a thick layer of the wheat straw to provide a nice structure and keep it maintained inside the thornless blackberry beds. After the wheat straw is laid all we have to do is water the plants in the bed. We don’t have to worry about controlling weeds due to the wheat straw in the bed that helps control it for us. Overall, the thornless blackberry beds are pretty much maintenance-free with the exception of coming in the bed to add a new layer of wheat straw about once a year. Then, when it is time for harvesting blackberries the best time is in early spring when they start producing.

High Arch Wheel Hoe

Similar in design to the Double, the High Arch Wheel Hoe allows you to straddle plants as well, but much taller plants like corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. It also contains adjustable wheel spacing meaning the wheels can move in or out depending on your desired spacing in the garden. So basically you have three different settings on the wheel spacing which includes the innermost being 4 inches apart, the middle being 6 inches apart, and the farthest being 8 inches apart. Another difference is the High Arch has two toolbars instead of just one, which provides many more possibilities for planting within the garden. When it comes time to hill sweet potatoes we use the High Arch over any other wheel hoe because of its ability to adjust the spacing on the row of plants that are in the garden.

Hill Sweet Potatoes

On this week’s episode, Travis is explaining the best way to hill sweet potatoes using the High Arch Wheel Hoe in the vegetable garden. To hill sweet potatoes you don’t necessarily have to, but Travis likes to for a couple of different reasons such as weed control, production, and ease of digging along the rows. For reducing weeds growing along the sweet potato rows, Travis has been using the single tine cultivator to help control the weed germination until the plants have grown a little bit bigger. Once, the plants have become established we can go in with the High Arch to hill the sweet potatoes and smother out the weeds in the middle. Since sweet potato plants grow in vines along the ground which in return produces runners that spread throughout the entire garden plot. The vines or runners will set roots in the ground and start to produce even more sweet potatoes in the vegetable garden. In other words, Travis is going to concentrate on those vines or runners in one spot and cover them up by hilling it will increase our overall production of sweet potatoes. As a warm-weather crop, when it comes time to dig sweet potatoes it can become tough because the summer sun is baking the ground and make the garden soil hard to work in. To avoid digging in the hard ground, Travis likes to go in between the rows using the Double Wheel Hoe with the sweeps attachment to break up the soil and have some available soil to use during the hilling process. Using the High Arch, Travis is going to use the widest setting in order to throw up a wider hill to the sweet potatoes. If you happen to run over a couple of the plants, it will be fine because sweet potato plants are really resilient and the vines will grow back quick. As the sweet potato plants continue to grow, Travis will continue to hill the plants to maintain the garden. Then, towards the last hill, before harvesting, he will probably have to use a garden rack to hill the plants and get a nice mound towards the end of the growing season.

What is Spaghetti Squash?

Spaghetti squash is a winter squash variety that is known as a personal-sized squash because they are about half the size of a normal-sized squash. The Small Wonder Spaghetti Squash is a very productive hybrid variety that produces higher yields than any other spaghetti squash varieties. This spaghetti squash variety has a vining growth habit that produces 10-15 bright yellow fruits per plant. The best way to cook with this variety is to use it as an alternative to pasta and prepare it by cutting in half, bake or microwave, and tease with a fork to reveal the delicious strands. Then, you can simply enjoy the taste of this wonderful spaghetti squash.

Planting Spaghetti Squash

On this week’s episode, Travis is preparing a bumper crop of spaghetti squash in the vegetable garden. When planting spaghetti squash we recommend direct seeding every 12 inches along the garden row. Once plants emerge, thin plants to one every 2 feet. Since winter squash can be susceptible to plant diseases like downy mildew and powdery mildew if leaves receive excess moisture. We suggest using drip irrigation on winter squash to reduce plant moisture and feed plants more effectively throughout the growing season. Also, during periods of heavy rainfall, using a fungicide like Liquid Copper will help alleviate disease pressure as well. Since spaghetti squash is classified as a winter squash it is a crop that will produce a one-time harvest at the end of the growing season. You will know when to harvest squash because the plants will die back and the fruits have obtained their full color in the garden. Also, when stems become hard this an indication of fruit maturity and fruits can be harvested using pruning shears. Once all of the winter squash is harvested it can be stored in a cool, dry place for several months, depending on variety and sugar content. Usually, we can store winter squash for up to 6 months in proper storage conditions. It is also very important to remove the plants from the garden to prevent any fungal spores from overwintering and becoming a problem in future growing seasons. By implementing a proper crop rotation in the garden this will also help eliminate pest and disease pressures in the vegetable garden.

Popular Winter Squash Varieties

The Hai Kabocha is one of the tastiest winter squashes to grow and produces dark green fruits with gray speckling and a bright yellow flesh interior squash. The hybrid, Hoss Butternut Squash is a productive variety that produces large uniform fruits in the garden. This is another variety that has excellent flavor and texture. Another variety is the Delicata Winter Squash that contains a higher sugar content and sweeter flavor than other squash varieties. This variety produces fruits with a creamy-white color with green specks and stripes. Two new winter squash varieties we have available is Sweet Dumpling and Table Ace Acorn. The open-pollinated, Sweet Dumpling Squash variety is a delicata-squash type that has a sweet flavor profile and produces personal-sized fruits. With a look similar to pumpkins, the sweet dumpling has an ivory coloration with dark green stripes and light yellow flesh interior. The Table Ace Acorn Squash is known as the best tasting acorn squash on the market. This is a hybrid variety that produces maximum fruits in a little amount of space allowing you to save space in the smallest gardens.

Benefits of Succession Planting

Succession planting is known as staggering multiple crops in the same area throughout the growing season to ultimately get a continuous harvest. We suggest succession planting squash, okra, cucumbers, and other vegetables to increase the maximum yield of crops for a longer period of time within the vegetable garden. Some additional benefits of succession planting are pests, weed and fertility control in the area. By succession planting, you can allow the garden space to germinate weed seeds in between plantings of crops. Then, lightly cultivate to eliminate the weed seeds before succession planting the next round of crops. For pest and disease control, succession planting allows you to determine what pest or disease problems you might have and where certain crops do well in a specific location in the garden. When it comes to fertility control, by succession planting you can determine which crops need more amending or fertilizer in the soil to improve plant growth throughout the season.

Succession Planting Squash & Okra

On this week’s episode, Travis explains how you can increase yield by succession planting in the vegetable garden. When it comes to succession planting squash, Travis is able to get up to 4 plantings in the area from early spring on into summer. When succession planting okra, he is able to do 3 successions per year. To prepare the garden for succession planting, Travis likes to use the fad system which stands for furrow, amend, and drip. First, he uses his Double Wheel Hoe to make a furrow in the ground where our compost and drip tape will be laid. Next, we will add a little layer of good compost to the furrow to help improve the organic matter in the soil. Then, Travis will use the Drip Tape Layer attachment to lay the drip tape and cover it up all in one passing. To plant squash and okra, he will allow the drip tape emitters to fill up with water and place seeds along the water spots of the emitters on top of the soil. When succession planting squash he will direct seed the Sunburst Squash. While he uses the garden seeder to succession plant the Jambalaya Okra.

Planting Squash & Okra

When planting squash we recommend direct seeding seeds every 12 inches along the garden row. Squash is a crop that requires multiple harvests throughout the growing season and should be harvested every 2 or 3 days to ensure no fruits become too large and unpalatable in the garden. Travis recommends transplanting okra in the early spring to get a jumpstart on production and early germination of plants during the growing season. By transplanting in our seed starting trays this ensures a solid root ball because of the internal root training ribs that help the plants grow properly and reduce transplant shock when placed in the vegetable garden. When it comes to succession planting squash and okra we recommend maintaining your garden in between each planting to provide better plant growth, maximize space, and improve harvesting yields.

Planting Sweet Corn

The best time to plant sweet corn is during the spring after the last frost date has happened. When it comes to planting sweet corn or any kind of corn variety it should be planted in blocks or squares for better pollination. Planting in blocks instead of long rows ensures that once the crop starts tasselling the wind can effectively pollinate the corn. Corn is a self-pollinating plant that produces a male flower, which is commonly referred to as a tassel, and a female flower, which is commonly referred to as the silks. In order for kernels of corn to be produced by the plant, the male flowers must pollinate the female flowers. The male flower is located at the very top of the plant whereas the female flower is formed along the stalk of the plant. The male flower contains the pollen, which is primarily spread by wind, that will be used to pollinate the female plant in the garden. Another major factor of planting sweet corn is it needs plenty of drip irrigation to grow throughout the season. Since corn is a heavy feeder it needs plenty of water and fertilizer to get healthy producing plants during the warmer months.

Removing Silks

On this week’s episode, Travis is demonstrating the easiest way to remove silks from sweet corn. This year, Travis planted Ambrosia Sweet Corn that is a hybrid, sugary-enhanced variety with excellent flavor profiles. When sweet corn is ready to harvest from the garden Travis explains that the corn silks become brown. After harvesting all the sweet corn, then he uses the corn silking brush to easily remove the silks from the corn cobs. The brush has extra-soft bristles that allow you to brush the cobs without damaging or puncturing the kernels. This brush works great on many different field corn and sweet corn varieties.

Different Sweet Corn Varieties

The Silver Queen has been a popular older corn variety that has been grown in the garden for several years. It usually grows 8 to 9 inches tall and produces ears that are 8 to 9 inches long. An All-American Selections winner, the Honey Select Sweet Corn variety is a sugary enhanced hybrid that has an excellent flavor profile. While the sugary enhanced Peaches and Cream variety contains bicolor ears that are white and yellow kernels that perform best when creamed and frozen for later use on the homestead. Another variety that is our personal favorite is the Incredible Sweet Corn which contains an excellent disease resistance package. Lastly, the Stowell’s Evergreen is an heirloom, open-pollinated variety that produces consistent white kernels that have a great flavor profile and stores well after harvesting from the vegetable garden.

Best Potato Varieties

The most popular variety of potatoes is the Yukon Gold which is a versatile potato variety that produces heavy yields, has an excellent flavor profile, and makes consistent medium to large-sized potatoes. Similar to the Yukon Gold the German Butterball produces medium to large-sized potatoes. This variety contains a buttery-yellow flesh with an excellent flavor profile and longer storage life. While the Adirondack Blue is a purple-fleshed potato that is rich in antioxidants and provides maximum yields. It has a unique color that remains the same when cooked and has great flavoring profiles too. Finally, the Red Norland is known for having exceptional storage and is great for boiling or roasting. It also has better disease resistance to scab, potato virus, and Rhizoctonia, unlike other potato varieties.

Harvesting Potatoes

On this week’s episode, Greg is explaining the best ways to harvest and store potatoes from the vegetable garden. Recently, here in the South, we have received rain just about every day or at least two to three times a day. Due to all the rain, Greg can’t spray anything and the weeds have pretty much taken over the garden which has caused a major issue. He has even experienced the best crop of potatoes that he has ever grown, but hasn’t been able to harvest them. So for the first time ever, he is going to dig wet potatoes from the garden. Since he is digging up the potatoes while it is still rather wet it is important that he lets the potatoes air-dry underneath the barn before storing them. Our favorite tools to use when it comes to harvesting potatoes is the Garden Fork and TubTrug containers. A garden fork is a handy tool that is great for digging potatoes or cultivating the soil. We recommend using the Tubtrugs because they are great for harvesting multiple vegetables and for a variety of uses on the homestead as well.

Storing Potatoes

When storing potatoes the best way is to place them on a storage rank underneath a barn that is dry and has plenty of aeration. While placing them on the storage rack, Greg suggests inspecting all the potatoes for soft spots, mold, and pest damage. Similar to several other crops that are harvested from the garden, we do not wash the potatoes until we are ready to use them which allows for longer storage life. The storage life of potatoes is typically around 2 to 3 months with proper storage conditions.

Why Plant Sweet Onions?

According to Travis, planting onions are one of the most valuable crops in the vegetable garden. They generally don’t take up a lot of room and the storage life is great for multiple months. Another benefit of growing sweet onions is they provide plenty of beneficial vitamins and minerals. When using sweet onions in the kitchen there are a variety of ways that it can be cooked and used in recipes on the homestead.

Harvesting Sweet Onions

On this week’s episode, Travis is discussing ways to harvest and store sweet onions from the vegetable garden. When growing sweet onions the best time to plant is November through December in warmer climates. You will know when to harvest sweet onions because the necks will get soft and start to fall over in the garden. Travis recently harvested his Texas Legend and Red Creole onions from Dixondale Farms that he planted in November. Since onions are heavy feeders which means they need plenty of water or fertilizer we like to plant our onions on double rows with drip tape running through the middle. When planting double rows, Travis will plant on either side of the tape which allows for saving space in the garden and maximizing yield. When growing onions, Travis mentions that depending on the amount of water added to them throughout the growing season the sweeter they will become. Once Travis has pulled all of the sweet onions, he likes to lay them on the ground beside the garden to ensure they get plenty of sun for curing or drying out for a few days before storing them underneath the barn. However, during the onion curing process, it is important to keep an eye on the weather because rain can be an issue.

Storing Sweet Onions

In the South, most people don’t have storage cellars or basements to store vegetables. However, most people with homesteads do have old open-air barns with a dirt floor that is used when storing sweet onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and winter squash. Travis recently built a storage rack for keeping vegetables up off the ground and to keep them drier underneath the barn. The storage rack was made with 4×4’s on the end while in the middle it’s about 6 inches tall and 10 inches long. He also has 4 different racks that are all 1.5 inches apart which allows him room to stick his head in the comfortably while sorting through the vegetables. For the shelves, Travis used 1/2 inch squared hardware cloth and simply stapled that to each of the shelves. When Travis goes to store his sweet onions, he prefers to lay them out instead of stacking them on top of one another and leaves the tops on them because it keeps the onions from rolling around on the hardware cloth. Typically underneath the barn on this storage rack, the sweet onions can store for up to 6 six months or even longer.

What is a Weed Seed Bank?

The weed seed bank is the amount of weed seeds you have stored in your garden soils. However, we want to eliminate the weed seeds in the soil because they can cause some serious issues in the garden. The contributions that we can’t control when it comes to weed seeds are wind, water, and animals such as birds. In other words, we can’t control the wind blowing around seeds from outside the garden into the garden, weed seeds getting added to the garden by water runoff caused by rainfall, and birds that eat plants then come into our garden adding the weed seeds to the area. However, the one thing we can control is maintaining the weeds that are growing in the garden to eliminate them from developing more seeds.

4 Simple Solutions

On this week’s episode, Travis talks about reducing your weed seed bank in the vegetable garden soils. Once you start seeing weeds pop up in your garden that is the best time to start removing them so they do not overpopulate your garden. If you have a new garden area the weed seed bank will be much higher than a garden that has been growing vegetables for a couple of years. Over the years of growing vegetables in a garden and removing weeds properly from the area, your weed seed bank will lower the amount of pressure every year. The first solution to keeping the weed seeds eliminated is through frequent shallow cultivation. In order to do this, we suggest using the Single Wheel Hoe which allows you to cultivate the top layer of the soil enough to disturb the small weeds from continuing to grow and keep the new weeds from germinating. We also recommend using the wheel hoe at least once a week or every time it rains so your garden does not crust over and it is easier to cultivate in the following weeks. Travis also alternates between two different wheel hoe attachments such as the cultivator teeth and winged sweeps to ensure he gets the best cultivation in the garden. The cultivator teeth will help lift the small weeds to the top of the soil so ultimately the sun will be able to bake them and kill them. The winged sweeps will do a good job of cutting through any of the weed roots underneath the soil layer. However, if you harder clay-like soils instead of using the sweeps the oscillating hoe will be a better attachment to use in those soil types. The second solution is to reduce the amount of overhead watering going on in the vegetable garden. If you use drip tape you are able to provide an accurate amount of irrigation directly to the plants and avoid watering unnecessary spots that can cause weed germination. Another solution is to keep the grass cut around the garden. Keeping the grass cut eliminates a weed seed reservoir on the outside of the garden where wind, birds, and water can move weed seeds into the garden. The last simple solution that Travis mentions is to avoid letting your garden get away from you when you aren’t using it. There are a few ways to avoid letting this happen such as grow plants year-around, grow cover crops, or use a silage tarp to prevent weed germination. By establishing these practices in the garden you should be able to remove the weed seed bank and overall have a better vegetable garden throughout every growing season.

Importance of Trellising Tomatoes

When it comes to trellising tomato plants there are many advantages that improve the overall health of these plants. The easiest Florida weave trellis technique is used for determinate tomatoes, while tomato cages are typically used for indeterminate tomatoes in the vegetable garden. We use the tomato cages for indeterminate tomatoes because they have continuous growth and will grow a lot taller than determinate tomatoes. We use the Flordia weave technique for determinate tomatoes because they tend to grow smaller and have earlier harvesting times in the vegetable garden. The advantages of trellising tomato plants include more exposure to sunlight, improve the quality of foliage, and reduce disease pressures. With better exposure to sunlight, the tomato plants will continue to grow and increase productivity. Another benefit of adding the trellis technique is it makes pruning, fertilizing, and harvesting easier when it comes time. Also, the plants are growing vertically so there is a decrease in soil-borne disease pressures due to the plants not growing on the ground in the vegetable garden.

Florida Weave Technique

On this week’s episode, Travis is going over the easiest way to trellis tomatoes using the Florida weave technique. He currently has both indeterminate and determinate tomatoes growing in the garden. For his indeterminate tomatoes like the Brandywine variety, Travis is using his tomato cages to help support the growing plants. Now it is time to run the Flordia weave technique on the determinate tomatoes like the Bella Rosa and Brickyard varieties. To begin setting up the Florida weave, you will need t-posts, wooden stakes, and Gro-Tie Garden Twine. Travis prefers to use T-posts and squared wooden stakes because they tend to work better than the stakes that are round because do allow for enough friction like the wooden stakes. So by placing the T-posts on each end of the row and one in the middle, this ensures plenty of stability for the tomato plants as they continue to grow. Then, in between each plant, he will add a wooden stake to provide additional support. Before, Travis runs his twine along the rows he likes to prune the bottom lateral stems of the plant to ensure the first line of twine is clearly at the base of the tomato plant. With the Gro-Tie twine, you are able to put the box on your belt loop and then with a piece of pipe, he is going to guide the string throughout the garden row. By weaving the string through one plant and around the stake a couple of times then weaving through the next plant along the entire row. Then once you reach the end of the row you should go back through to the opposite side of each plant to provide support on both sides of the plant. As the plants continue to grow and get a little taller you should add more twine to ensure the tomato plants get plenty of support in the vegetable garden.

Importance of Hilling Corn

Some of the important reasons we like to hill corn is for weed control, to prop the corn up, and to create more brace roots at the bottom of the plant. Greg doesn’t like to use any herbicides on his corn, therefore small weeds will begin to pop up around the corn plants which is not good. To gain weed control, Greg simply goes down the row with his wheel hoe and throws soil to the plants and in return smothers the weeds out of the area. Another reason we will hill corn is to keep the plant from sulking out down at the bottom which is not needed. It can also make your corn stalks stronger because when we throw soil to the plants we will develop healthier root development in the garden.

Process of Hilling Corn

On this week’s episode, Greg is demonstrating how to hill corn using the High Arch Wheel Hoe. He is currently growing bloody butcher field corn to make grits and corn mill once it is ready to harvest. However, he also is going to try the Jimmy Red variety which is rare red corn that he has not grown before in the garden. When Greg’s corn gets up to about 12 inches tall that is when he likes to hill the corn. When preparing to hill corn, Greg is going to side-dress the corn using Chilean Nitrate because it is a natural form of nitrogen that hits the plants quickly when water reaches it. For hilling corn, we suggest using the High Arch Wheel Hoe that has a 15-inch clearance that ensures we get plenty of room that allows us to straddle taller plants. Another advantage of using this wheel hoe is the ability to adjust the furrows in and out depending on spacing needed to hill the plants. After you hill the corn once and it grows taller it will create a higher shade canopy that will almost eliminate the number of weeds germinating in the soil.

Planting Field Corn

The best time to plant field corn is during the spring and can be grown throughout the warmer months up until fall. We recommend planting field corn using our Hoss Garden Seeder to provide accurate spacing in the vegetable garden. We also suggest using drip tape irrigation because corn is a heavy feeder and requires plenty of water and fertilizer for growth. When growing corn it is best to avoid overhead watering because the plants grow so tall that the irrigation will not reach the roots effectively in the garden. In order to lay drip tape quick and easy, we prefer to use the Double Wheel Hoe with the Drip Tape Layer attachment. In the garden, we can succession plant field corn to get maximum productivity and save space. We can get two succession plantings of field corn when planting in early spring and late summer. Another important factor when planting corn in the garden is to plant in square plots or blocks to ensure the corn receives the needed amount of pollination it requires to develop productive quality ears of corn in the vegetable garden.

Benefits of Beets

There are several health benefits when it comes to eating beets. The first benefit to growing beets is they can detoxify your blood and liver. Also, lower your blood pressure and provide lots of antioxidants to fight free radicals. While providing Vitamin C and fiber which is going to help with your digestive system. The last benefit is they can boost your stamina and give you good healthy energy needed for your body.

Growing Beets

On this week’s episode, Travis is planting beets in the vegetable garden. Travis’s favorite beets to plant are the red and gold beets that both have outstanding taste profiles. He is currently on his third succession planting of beets which means he has already harvested some from the garden and is continuing to plant more to get maximum yield of beets throughout the growing season. When dealing with raw beet seed it has a crinkly look that is uneven and looks similar to chard seed. If you plan to plant raw seed using a mechanical planted it is not going to work well so you will need to direct seed instead. However, with the pelleted beet seed, it works much better when planted in our Hoss Garden Seeder. We recommend transplanting beets in our seed starting trays to ensure we get better plant growth once they are planted in the garden. If transplanting in the ground the preferred spacing is 4 inches along the row. While direct seeding beets can be done it can also be a little tricky because beets do not germinate as well in certain soil conditions. You can direct seed beets with multiple rows close together and spaced as close to 6 inches apart. When planting beets in the garden, Travis likes to plant them on double rows to ensure he gets maximum spacing and yields during the growing season. In the episode, Travis is using our new Dibble Wheel attachment on his Single Wheel Hoe to mark the plant spacing for the beets going down the garden rows.

Multigerm vs. Monogerm Beets

Beet seeds are naturally multigerm varieties which means that each seed contains more than one embryo. Multigerm seeds happen when flowers grow in clusters which in return produces multigerm seed balls. When the seed balls germinate they produce 2 to 5 seedlings at once. So when planting you will end up with more than one seedling or plant per seed which requires some form of thinning of the plants. The thinning is important to ensure we get large production and uniform beet seeds. For instance, with our beet seeds, we want the same size round beets all along the row in the vegetable garden. In order to get these results, the beets should be evenly spaced along the garden row so we have to thin those to ensure they are 4 to 6 inches apart in the vegetable garden. Monogerm means that each seed contains one seedling per seed or one plant per seed. Therefore if you prefer to direct seed in the ground you should go with a monogerm hybrid variety like our Solo Beet variety.

Varieties of Beets

There are several different beet varieties that contain all the health benefits we mentioned earlier. The first variety is the Detriot Dark Red Beet which is an heirloom that is perfect for baby beet production or for pickling in jars to store for later. The Early Wonder Beet is an early-maturing variety that produces harvestable beets around 5 to 10 days quicker than most of the other standard beet varieties. While the Kestrel Beets are a productive hybrid variety that produces consistently shaped beet roots. It also has an excellent disease package against downy mildew, powdery mildew, and Rhizoctonia. Another variety we offer is the Merlin Beets which contain high sugar content which means it’s one of the sweetest beet varieties you can grow in the garden. A different beet is the Touchstone Gold Beet contains orange to gold skin with a bright yellow flesh interior. This beet retains its unique gold color after harvesting and when cooked with around the homestead.

Why Hill Potatoes?

On this week’s episode, Travis is demonstrating how to hill potatoes in the garden. Here in the south, we have experienced a good bit of warm weather which has caused our potatoes to grow quickly and they are around six inches tall. Since the potatoes are around six inches tall it is time to hill the potatoes in the vegetable garden. The two main reasons we hill potatoes is quantity and quality. On a plant, there are three main organs the root, stem, and leaves. The actual potato is a modified stem, not a root, that is used by the plant for storing energy and nutrients. In other words, the more plant we cover leads to the more stems we bury, and that in return gives us more potatoes (modified stems) to harvest at the end of the growing season. Another factor is if we do not hill the plants then the potatoes get exposed to sunlight which causes a buildup of chlorophyll and decreases the greenness of the plants. They can also build up a chemical known as Solanine which is a toxin that can be poisonous if you consume it. Therefore, the quality of potatoes is best when kept buried or underground in the garden.

Hilling Potatoes in the Garden

When planting potatoes they do best when planted in late winter or early spring while the temperatures are relatively still cool. They should be harvested before the heat of summer becomes relevant in the garden area. To begin the hilling potatoes process, the first step is to use the Single Wheel Hoe and cultivate the pathways between the rows to ensure we have plenty of soil to throw on the plants. Once, the pathways are cultivated it’s now time to the potatoes using the High Arch Wheel Hoe. As opposed to the Double Wheel Hoe which has a clearance of around 5-inches, the High Arch has a clearance of 15-inches which allows the potatoes to become bigger before we have to hill them. Another, reason to use the High Arch over the other wheel hoes is your ability to adjust the spacing on your row or plants. For example, if you wanted narrower cultivation on corn or wider cultivation on lettuce. Using the plow set attachments allows you to throw the soil directly to the plants while working along the rows. After, hilling the potatoes this week, Travis mentions he will probably hill them again in another week or two. However, he will move the plows out even wider to create a wider hill onto the potatoes.

Potato Varieties

We currently have four different varieties of potatoes that all do great in the vegetable garden. The German Butterball produces medium to large-sized potatoes that contain a buttery-yellow flesh with an excellent flavor profile. The Adirondack Blue is a purple-fleshed potato that is rich in antioxidants and provides maximum yields. Its unique color maintains when cooked and has exceptional flavoring profiles. The Red Norland is known for having exceptional storage and is great for boiling or roasting. It also has better disease resistance to scab, potato virus, and rhizoctonia, unlike other potato varieties. Lastly, Yukon Gold is the most popular and versatile potato variety around the world. It is another variety that produces heavy yields, excellent flavor, and makes medium to large-sized potatoes.

Pollination of Sweet Corn

On this week’s episode, Travis is planting ambrosia sweet corn in the vegetable garden. Previously planted was crimson clover and Travis decided to let his chickens graze on the spot in order to clean out the area. When planting sweet corn or field corn you always want to plant it in a square plot for better pollination. Corn is a wind-pollinated crop meaning that once the tassels start forming on the tops the male flowers with the pollen will begin to pollinate the female flowers on the ears or silks of the corn. This allows for maximum pollination by planting in a square plot instead of a long row in the garden.

Planting Ambrosia Sweet Corn

To start planting Ambrosia Sweet Corn in the garden we begin by laying our drip tape. Corn is a heavy feeder crop meaning it needs lots of irrigation and fertilizer to get the best growth. However, Travis is not going to add compost in the garden since the crimson clover previously planted and grazing chickens added a lot of amending in the soil. We are going to create a furrow using our Double Wheel Hoe and the plow set attachment. Then, to add drip irrigation in the garden we are going to use our Drip Tape Layer attachment to effectively lay the drip in straight rows. Now, Travis is going to plant six rows of Ambrosia Sweet Corn using the Hoss Garden Seeder. With the seeder, it has a disc furrow opener and we can plant right on top of the drip tape without puncturing the drip tape that is already buried in the garden. Before we plant, we always want to test to make sure the seeds will fit the correct seed plate and modify the plate if they do not fit the sweet corn variety. When planting six rows of corn, Travis recommends planting with 30 or 36-inch spacing. Next, he will plant his Ambrosia sweet corn along the rows in the square plot of the vegetable garden. Finally, after planting he will ensure that his drip irrigation is running effectively and wait for the germination of sweet corn to begin in the garden area.

Three Levels of Sweetness

There are three categories when it comes to sweet corn varieties. They are broken up into levels of sweetness and length of storage capacity after harvest. The first level is Su which is the standard type that is typically the older sweet corn varieties such as Silver Queen or Stowell’s Evergreen. The second level is a sugary extender known as Se which tends to be sweeter than the Su type and can store a little longer after harvest. The sugary extender type includes varieties like Ambrosia, Incredible, and Peaches and Cream. Lastly, the Sh2 is a supersweet or triplesweet type that is the sweetest of corn varieties and has the longest storage rate after harvesting from the garden. We have one variety that is Sh2 which is the Honey Select hybrid variety that has the perfect combination of corn flavor and sweetness.

Planting Tomatoes

On this week’s episode, Travis has the complete guide to planting tomatoes in the garden. The first step to preparing the garden for planting tomatoes is to set up the drip irrigation. Travis went ahead and laid the mainline tubing down the day before planting to allow the newly laid tape to stretch out and lay flat. He ran four rows of drip tape for not just tomatoes, but eggplants and peppers as well. Once the drip irrigation system is set up, then we allow water to fill the tape to ensure we get accurate planting where the drip emitters lay along the rows. With the drip emitters laying every 12 inches which allow a good indication for spacing if you prefer to plant every other emitter for two-foot spacing or every third emitter for three-foot spacing. Travis prefers to plant tomatoes in the seed starting trays to get more productive plants for growing in the garden. When planting tomatoes, they require some form of support to keep the plants growing upright. With the indeterminate tomatoes, Travis is planting with tomato cages on a three-foot spacing to allow plenty of room for growth all season long. While planting determinate tomatoes on two-foot spacing with stakes and twine to use the Florida Weave Trellis technique. When planting, Travis likes to apply a little pelleted gypsum at the base of the plant to help with preventing blossom end rot from destroying the tomato plants. After adding the gypsum, we plant the transplants real deep to allow the roots to form out from the stems and provide an anchor for the plant. Once, the plants have started growing and get a little taller then Travis will add the tomato cages to the indeterminate tomatoes. To add the tomato cages you simply put it square around the plant and push into the ground. When using the Florida weave technique we need T-post, wooden stakes, and twine. Travis starts by adding the T-post to each end of the row and one T-post in the middle of the row. Next, he will add the wooden stakes between the T-post and every plant. As the plants grow, Travis will add the twine to provide plenty of support for the heavy yields of fruits in the vegetable garden.

Harvesting Tomatoes

The best time to harvest tomatoes is once you have reached the end of the growing season, which is typically late summer. When tomatoes have reached there full mature green stage, you know they are ready to pick. If you watch the bottom of the larger tomatoes, typically that is where it begins to ripen as well. You can also test the firmness of the tomato by lightly squeezing it. After, all tomatoes have been harvested it is very important to remove the plants and clean the area to avoid pests and diseases from taking over the garden. To properly remove the tomato cages after harvesting, Travis takes his pruning shears and cuts the stems around 10 inches above the soil to allow him to pull the cages out of the ground. For tomatoes that were on the Florida weave trellis, he simply uses his knife to cut the twine, and remove the T-post/wooden stakes. Then, Travis will remove the tomato plants by the root mass and place them in a burn pile. We place the plants in a burn pile in order to kill off all the fungal spores and insect eggs that remain on the plants after harvesting to ensure they do not cause any future pest and disease issues in the garden.

Planting Transplants

On this week’s episode, Greg decided to plant some beet, bok choy, and broccoli transplants using the new Hoss Dibble Wheel. Back in the day, Greg just cut a stick to his desired spacing and used it to determine the spacing between each plant in the garden. However, with the new dibble wheel, it lays off the desired spacing perfectly for planting transplants. When planting the broccoli, he adjusted the dibbles to turn in every other one which makes the spacing around 10 inches between plants. The seed starting trays make perfect plug transplants for the dibble wheel indentions made into the soil. To ensure the transplants are ready for planting they will simply pull out of the trays with a breeze making them ready to plant in the ground. If you have sandy-like soils the best time to use the dibble wheel is when there is a little moisture to help hold that opening you punch into the ground using the dibble. With clay-like soils, the dibble wheel should do fine leaving an opening or indention in the soil. If you use drip irrigation you can still see where it lays if buried because there is a split in the soil where it lays and you need to straddle that split using the dibble wheel to ensure you don’t puncture the drip tape. You can basically plant any kind of seeds, transplants, or bulbs using our dibble wheel attachment to ensure you get the perfect amount of spacing, straight rows within the vegetable garden, and efficient planting is done.

Benefits of Planting Transplants

There are a couple of benefits to planting transplants instead of direct seeding. The first benefit is a quicker jumpstart to the growing season. By having plants growing in the greenhouse you can start prior to the desired growing season allowing you to plant the transplants as soon as the weather conditions are just right. Another benefit of planting transplants is more productive crops. Due to the transplants starting their early life stage in the greenhouse, they are reduced from being affected by pests, diseases, and inaccurate weather conditions that could ultimately harm them if they started in the garden. In other words, starting transplants in the greenhouse will allow you to have stronger and healthier plants that create maximum yields in the garden.

Hoss Dibble Wheel Attachment

The purpose of the Hoss Dibble Wheel is to make indentions into the soil for planting transplants and seeds in the garden. With the Dibble Wheel Attachment, we offer a single, double, or triple wheel kit. Each wheel has adjustable dibble spacing and wheel spacing to fit your desired planting needs in the vegetable garden. Each dibble wheel has 12 holes and may be arranged for plant spacing of 4″, 8″, 12″, 16″, 24″, and 48 inches. This attachment works on the Single Wheel Hoe, Double Wheel Hoe, and the High Arch Wheel Hoe. However, when using on the High Arch we suggest getting two of the Single Dibble Wheel Kits, to ensure the unit is stable and equally balanced on the wheel hoe. With the Single Dibble Wheel, the wheel sits inside the attachment bracket and is secured using the should bolt axle. The standard axle length is 15 inches long, but we can make a 30-inch axle or easily cut one for whatever size you need. With each multi-wheel kit, we include lock collars that allow you to lock the wheels in place along the axle.

Potato Varieties

On this week’s episode, Greg is planting the best potatoes in the garden. When planting potatoes he likes to plant them around the end of February. Some of the potato varieties that he plans on growing this season are Jelly, Blue Belle, and Red Pontiac potato. The Jelly variety produces a large potato that has a nice yellow color that contains a buttery flavor profile. The next variety is known as Blue Belle which contains a little bluish color outside and produces a smaller potato but is very productive in the garden. Lastly, the Red Pontiac variety is an old standard potato that is really accessible anywhere. Along with Irish Eyes potatoes, we also carry several varieties of potatoes that are really productive such as Red Norland, Yukon Gold, Adirondack Blue, and German Butterball.

Preparing Potatoes for Planting

When cutting up seed potatoes, Greg recommends cutting at least two or three eyes off at a time, which ends making little slices of potato. If you have a potato that does not have well-defined eyes you can just cut the potato in half. After you get done cutting the seed potatoes, then we use fir bark dust fertilizer which is used to heal newly cut seed potatoes so you can basically plant them the same day you cut them. The fir bark dust is also slightly acidic which in return helps as a fungicide, keeping diseases out of your seed potatoes. Greg just pours the fir bark dust over the freshly cut seed potatoes and stirs it around to get good coverage. Once the fir bark has been added to the seed potatoes they are ready for planting in the garden. If you do not plan on using the fir back dust to heal potatoes, you should allow a couple of days for the seed potatoes to “heal” or suberize before the desired planting date.

Planting the Best Potatoes

As a cool-weather crop, potatoes do best when planted in late winter or early spring when temperatures are still relatively cool. When planting the potatoes, Greg uses the High Arch Wheel Hoe because of its many adjustable abilities for whatever you need in the garden. The first adjustment, Greg will make with the high arch is a position for digging a furrow for the plants. Next, he will adjust the plows to turn out and create a hilling position so he can cover them up in the garden. When planting potatoes be sure to plant with the “eyes” facing upwards in the vegetable garden. Greg ended up planting four rows of the different potato varieties. After the potatoes start to come up and it’s time to hill them, we will take the high arch and move the spacing out to create a wider hill with our plow attachment in order to throw more soil to the plants. Potatoes tend to not do well once temperatures begin to warm up, so they should be harvested before the summer heat conditions.

Biggest Con of Too Much Rain

The biggest problem with accumulating too much rain in the garden is disease pressure. Some of the diseases that could overtake the garden include powdery mildew, fire blight, and anthracnose. However, if you monitor the garden and have a prevention plan set in place to eliminate these disease issues you could save your plants from becoming completely ruined in the garden.

Vegetable Garden Update

On this week’s episode, Travis mentions ways to deal with too much rain in the vegetable garden. Here in South Georgia, we have recently dealt with the coldest and wettest winters thus far which has caused us to overcome some challenges when dealing with our crops that are planted in the ground. One area of the garden has been established for around four years which means it has accumulated a good amount of organic matter and been able to reduce the weed seedbed in the ground. In other words, this area of the garden is extremely manageable when it comes to growing vegetables in the plot.

Greens Mix

Travis currently has a Premium Greens Mix that has done well considering the amount of rain we have experienced in the garden. He planted the mix with the Hoss Garden Seeder on a 30-inch bed and squeezed in as many rows has he could to get a maximum yield of greens mix. Typically, we can harvest this crop at least three times along the garden bed.

Onions

A positive of a lot of rain is that the onion plants are completely loving it. In the garden, there are six double rows of Red and Texas Legend onions planted. The Red Onions seem to be growing quicker than the Texas Legends so far, but Travis has been keeping them fertilized and is really excited about harvesting these crops soon.

Carrots

Next to the onions plants, Travis has different multicolored carrots such as purple, red, orange, and yellow plants growing that should be ready to harvest around late spring or early summer. We also have five double rows of carrots that are getting overrun with weeds due to the amount of moisture in the soil. Travis can’t really do too much about the weeds since he planted them as intensively as he could, but the carrots are still doing well overall.

Crimson Clover

Travis has a cover crop of crimson clover still being worked on by some chickens. He has a chicken tractor and poultry netting placed in the area that allows the chickens to freely roam within the netting allowing them to graze and provide good manure in the area.

Toscano Kale

The kale that is currently planted, Travis has harvested around five or six times and will continue to harvest throughout the growing season. To harvest a few, he just pulls off the bottom leaves and allows the top leaves to remain on the stalk to keep growing taller.

Empty Garden Plots

For the remaining plots in the garden that have not been planted yet, Travis has tons of transplants growing in the greenhouse that will be placed in the ground as soon as they are ready. Some of the early spring transplants that are growing are kale, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and lettuce. He also has an area planned for planting potatoes as soon as he gets them in the mail from Irish Eyes. Travis also shows off a brand new garden plot that he has added to his homestead. This area has been tilled once and he plans to till it once a week until spring to help eliminate weed pressures in the new garden.

Why Should You Have a Sustainable Farm?

The three main objectives of sustainable farming is to create a healthy environment, economic profitability, and social/economic equity. This way of farming is to seek techniques that will promote farming practices that will help improve the soil environment and are economically good for the community. Unlike commercial farming, sustainable farming focuses on producing crops that have not been sprayed with harsh chemical pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizers. This makes for a safer growing environment and healthier producing plants in the vegetable garden. Along with having a healthy environment, a sustainable farm allows you to save money around the homestead. By producing your own food you are saving the amount of money you spend in supermarkets and increase your supply of healthier crops grown in the garden.

Methods of Sustainable Farming

There are a couple of different methods or techniques when it comes to sustainable farming. The first method is crop rotation which is the process of rotating crops to avoid planting the same crop in the same area every year. If one crop is planted in the same area every year you will cause pest problems and reduce soil nutrients in the garden. Accurate crop rotation helps eliminate the reproduction cycle of pests and will replenish soil nutrients because of the different crop benefits being planted. Another technique of sustainable farming is planting cover crops to improve soil build-up. With warm-season and cool-season cover crops such as Sunn Hemp, Sorghum Sudangrass, Crimson Clover, and Tillage Radish there are plenty of benefits that ensure improvement is being incorporated back into the soil. The third effective method of sustainable farming is the use of good compost for soil enrichment. Travis and Greg are believers in the FAD system which is furrow, amend, and drip. When creating a furrow this allows for a destinated place to plant the crops. Once the furrow is created, you can amend the furrow with a good quality of compost which will improve the overall garden soil. Then, by adding drip tape we can effectively supply the growing plants with the needed amount of irrigation in the vegetable garden. We recommend using quality compost such as cow manure or chicken manure to get the best results in the garden. One more method of sustainable farming is integrating livestock to help with the garden. Allowing livestock such as cows, chickens, goats, or pigs to graze on crops after harvesting can create organic matter in the soil, feed the animals, and allows the garden to be worked in different ways depending on each animal.

The Lazy Acres Family Farm

On this week’s episode, Greg is at The Lazy Acres Family Farm in Marianna, Florida talking with Ryan Ziglar about leaving his everyday desk job for sustainable farming. Ryan used to own a video production company but wanted to leave this to pursue a healthier lifestyle and spend more time with family in the future. Ryan showed off his garden area where in the winter he planned to plant wheat, rye, and oats. He also planted a cool-season cover crop known as Hairy Vetch to improve his nitrogen within the garden soil. Before it was a small garden, Ryan mentions that the area where his garden is now used to be farmed for row crops meaning four to five rows of different crops. Along with compost, Ryan has livestock such as cows, goats, and pigs to help forage the garden. His favorite animal to use in the garden is cows because they supply the ground with lots of manure in a quick amount of time.

Building Up Soils in the Vegetable Garden

On this week’s episode, Travis shows how he uses the chicken and cover crops to improve soils in the vegetable garden. He set up the poultry fence and added the chicken tractor inside the fencing to allow the chickens to cover more area in the garden than just inside the coop. The poultry fence comes with a solar panel charger to provide an electric charge net to keep predators away and chicken inside. You can adjust the angle of the solar panel based on the growing seasons to help with keeping the panels charged and working correctly in the vegetable garden. Travis plans to let the chickens forage on the crimson clover till they basically knock it all down, then he will move the fence and chicken tractor to the other side of the garden. He will move the fence and tractor back and forth for about a month till it’s time to prepare the garden for planting.

Chicken Tractor

A chicken tractor is usually a mobile chicken coop that contains wheels, it is small enough to move around from one spot to another as well as rotate around certain areas. There are several different designs of chicken tractors available online, but Travis built one for himself that is 4 inches wide by 12 to 13 inches long. It has a 4×4 enclosure that is shaded allowing them to cool off during the hotter days and it contains nesting boxes and food/water boxes. Some benefits to using a chicken tractor in the garden include providing natural fertilization, chickens will eliminate overwintering insects, and they can shallow till garden beds. Overall, the chicken tractor is a really good way to utilize what livestock you have on the homestead to improve garden soils for planting in the future.

Cover Crop: Crimson Clover

Travis has planted Crimson Clover to help eliminate weed pressures, add nitrogen to the soil, improve soil workability, and supplies feed for the chickens on the homestead. This cool-season cover crop is a legume that fixes nitrogen and adds in back into the soil which improves the overall soil quality in the garden. It should be planted in the fall at least a month or two before the average frost date. Planting ahead will ensure that the cover crop can germinate and establish in the garden before cold temperatures arrive. The clover should be incorporated into the soil or livestock can graze on the crop to remove it from the vegetable garden.

Other Cover Crops

There are various different cover crops that offer plenty of characteristics that help improve the garden soil. Some popular cool-season cover crops include Broadleaf Mustard, Hairy Vetch, Austrian Winter Pea and Tillage Radish. While some well-known warm-season cover crops include Buckwheat, Sunn Hemp, Sorghum Sudangrass, and Brown Top Millet. You can also make a cover crop cocktail with some of these varieties to obtain different benefits in one area. Most of these cover crop characteristics help with nitrogen fixation, erosion control, weed suppression, pest control, and improve soils. In order for these cover crop characteristics to really work in the soil, they must be mowed down or tilled in and incorporated back into the ground. If they are not incorporated back into the soil they can cause reseeding and weed issues in the future growing seasons.

Benefits of Removing Weeds

There are several benefits of removing weeds from the vegetable garden such as improved plant growth and garden soil. Weeds can cause restricts on plant growth due to them competing for nutrients, soil, water, and space that the plants you are trying to get growth development. One more issue with weeds in the garden is they may even smother smaller plants that are trying to germinate or prevent them from growing at all. Also, some invasive weeds can destroy a habitat and damage all the native plants that grow there. To avoid these harsh and invasive weeds it is best to remove them quickly before they become a bigger problem and destroy the plant growth in the vegetable garden.

Weeding Carrots and Onions

On this week’s episode, Travis is using two tools to demonstrate for weeding carrots and onions. In the garden, Travis has five rows of carrots that are planted on double rows with drip tape buried in the middle. He recommends planting on double rows because we get the most utility out of drip tape and once the carrots get bigger they will help shade out in the middle area where the drip tape is buried. The first tool that Travis suggests using when weeding carrots and onions is the Single Wheel Hoe. Since the single wheel hoe is smaller it has an advantage over the double wheel hoe when it comes to weeding in the vegetable garden. With the cultivator teeth attachment, it makes weeding carrots and onions easier and quicker between tight rows of planted plants in the garden. However, when needing to weed on top of the beds and in between the plants along the double row the best tool to use is the Single Tine Cultivator. When using this cultivator, Travis turns it sideways to skim across the area to remove weeds in tight spaces and avoid damaging the drip tape that is already buried in the garden.

Additional Way to Remove Weeds

If you experience a serious problem with weeds in the garden another way to suppress those weed pressures is by growing cover crops in the garden. Some cover crops like Buckwheat, Sunn Hemp, Daikon Radish, and Brown Top Millet all have characteristics that grow faster in order to outpace weed growth. When planting cover crops we prefer to use our garden seeder to get precise planting in the vegetable garden. When growing cover crops the key to making them succeed in the garden is they should be incorporated back into the soil before going to seed to prevent reseeding problems.

Carrot and Onion Varieties

There are a couple of popular carrot and onion varieties that are known to be the best to grow in the vegetable garden. Some of the carrot varieties include Danvers, Scarlet Nantes, Bolero and Viper. The best way to grow carrots is by direct seeding in a think band along the rows in the vegetable garden. The well-known onion varieties include Texas Legend, Candy, Savannah Sweet, and Warrior Bunching. When growing onions they should be planted on drip tape to ensure they get an accurate amount of irrigation in the garden.

Growing the Best Onions

It’s that time of year to be thinking about growing onions in the vegetable garden. When growing the best onions we recommend either transplanting or direct seeding. If you prefer to transplant plants you can grow onions in our seed starting trays for improved germination. The trays contain internal vertical root training ribs that improve aeration and root ball drainage that ensure properly germinated and growing transplants. When direct seeding you can use our walk-behind garden seeder with the #1 seed plant and modify the hole size to accommodate the onions seed size properly when planting. The seeder makes it quicker and easier to plant seeds without worrying about overplanting along the garden rows.

Planting the Onions

On this week’s episode, Travis is discussing different ways to grow the best onions in the vegetable garden. In the garden, Travis is getting ready to plant the Red Creole and Texas Legend variety of onions. Before planting onions, Travis has prepared the vegetable garden by using the drip tape layer attachment to lay tape along the garden rows and create a nice little furrow for planting onions. He plans on planting six rows of onion plants on a double row system in the garden. This means that along the drip tape he will plant on either side of the tape where the little furrows were established when laying drip tape in the garden. Another benefit of planting on double rows is you get better efficiency by saving space in the garden and maximizing yield. Travis is planting the onion plants around six inches apart to ensure they get plenty of room for growth. Once a week, Travis will use the Double Wheel Hoe down the middle of the rows to help control the weeds from being an issue in the vegetable garden. He also likes to use his Single Tine Cultivator to run in between the onion plants until they get big enough to shade out the area of weed germination. Since onions are heavy feeders they need plenty of nutrient inputs to continue productive growth in the vegetable garden. We recommend using the 20-20-20 and Ammonium Sulfate fertilizer to maintain solid root development and vegetative growth of onion plants in the garden.

Different Onion Varieties

There are several onion varieties that are hands down the best onions to grow in the vegetable garden. The first variety is the well known Texas Legend onions. This variety produces uniform yellow bulbs that have a mild to sweet flavor profile. Another well-known onion variety is Candy which is a hybrid that does well in a wide range of conditions. This variety produces a sweeter tasting onion that has round bulbs that are slightly flattened in the garden. The Warrior Bunching onions are a fast-growing variety that produces crisp nice green tops and overall easy to grow. This variety does really well when left in the garden to grow in return allowing us to get a longer harvesting window. Next, is the Savannah Sweet onions that are a Vidalia-type variety that has early maturity dates than other varieties.  While the Walla Walla variety performs great in the northern climates and contains a milder or sweeter flavor profile similar to Vidalia type onions. Another variety is the Sweet Harvest onions that contain higher sugar content and low pungency. This variety produces larger to jumbo size bulbs that are fairly bolt resistant during the late spring. Lastly, the Natsuguro Bunching variety has an extreme heat-tolerance into the warmer months and can be planted throughout the spring months while harvesting happens in the summer months.

Benefits of Using Drip Tape

The easiest way to maximize garden production with effective irrigation and steady water-soluble fertilizers is through the use of drip tape. Most people believe that drip tape can be used either on top or buried in the soil. However, drip tape was really made to go underneath the soil in the garden. This allows the irrigation tape to stay in place, decrease disease pressure and reduce damage caused by natural causes. It also provides plenty of needed nutrients for plant growth and healthier plants in the vegetable garden. Not only does it apply equal amounts of irrigation to the plants, but it conserves water by going directly to the plant roots in the vegetable garden, unlike overhead irrigation systems.

How to Reuse Drip Tape

On this week’s episode, Travis is explaining how to reuse drip tape in the vegetable garden. Since we like to plant in the garden year-round, we reuse our drip tape for multiple growing seasons at a time. Travis currently has red cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and Brussel sprouts planted. As well as, harvested some broccoli and swiss chard from the vegetable garden. There is currently an empty spot where he had his bok choy variety planted, but now it’s time to plant another vegetable variety. When reusing drip tape we simply clean up the area and lay the drip tape back down to plant more in the garden. In order to reuse the drip tape, Travis is going to leave the drip tape attached to the mainline of tubing and pull the buried drip tape out of the ground in order to lay that piece of tape out the garden area. Then, he will take his Single Wheel Hoe to cultivate and remove any weeds from the area before replanting. Next, Travis is going to use the F.A.D. system to lay the drip tape back into the vegetable garden. Which the F.A.D. system stands for furrow, amend, and then drip. So first he will create a little furrow using the plow set attachment which will establish a place to lay the drip tape in the garden. Then, we will amend the furrow by laying good compost in the area. Finally, we will lay the drip tape back in the garden with the emitters facing upward for planting. However, Travis wants to move the drip tape that is attached to the mainline tubing over around five or six inches for planting lettuce. In order to move the tape over, he will take a goof plug to fill the existing hole and move the tape over a little bit then punch a new hole in the mainline tubing. When the drip tape is laid in the garden where it needs to be then we will simply cover it up for burying. Normally, Travis would use the double wheel hoe with the plow set in the hilling position to straddle and cover the rows up. However, since he is only covering one line of drip tape he will just take the dura rake and cover it up in the garden. Once the drip tape is buried, we suggest turning the water on and letting the emitters seep out to indicate where we should put our lettuce plants. To ensure the lettuce plants receive the needed amount of irrigation and spacing, Travis likes to plant them right on top of the drip tape emitters.

Planting Mixed Greens

On this week’s episode, Travis is demonstrating how to easily plant mixed greens in the vegetable garden. We recommended using the wheel hoe and garden seeder to create these productive elevated green beds in the garden. You can use either the Single Wheel Hoe or the Double Wheel Hoe and attach one plow blade to help throw dirt to the middle. Then, Travis will take a rake to smooth out the area and apply compost to prepare the beds for planting mixed greens. Once the beds are prepared for planting, it’s time to plant with our garden seeder. The seeder has six seed plates that ensure accurate planting of various seed size varieties. Travis is using the number one seed plate for planting mixed greens meaning we will get a little over 1-inch spacing which would be good and tight for the beds we are planting in. Travis planted the mixed greens about a quarter-inch deep in the garden and allowed the weight of the garden seeder to compact and press the seed down for great seed to soil contact for germination. Another important key to planting mixed greens is they need to be hand-watered about twice a day in order to get excellent germination until they come up and get established in the garden. If you prefer to transplant the mixed greens we recommend using our seed starting trays. This ensures the plants will develop solid root balls that will make germination and productivity better when planted in the garden.

Mixed Green Varieties

The premium greens mix that we offer has a combination of popular greens that are used in salads, stir-frys, or any other lettuce substituted dish in the kitchen. When harvesting this mixed greens variety use a sharp knife and cut the leaves off once they have reached your desired size. If you want a little more milder flavor green, you should harvest when the leaves are rather small. If you prefer a bolder flavor allow your leaves to grow larger before harvesting from the garden. The mixed greens will continue to grow all throughout the growing season for a productive repeat harvesting. The different varieties that the premium greens mix includes are tatsoi, mizuna, arugula, and red Russian kale. The Tatsoi greens are an Asian style mustard variety that makes really productive smaller leaves with excellent flavor profiles. Then, the Mizuna greens contain a milder flavor profile, excellent texture, and bright green appearance. While the Arugula produces the longer darker leaves that do best when planted during the cool season growing months. This variety of green is known to be easier to germination and have maximum production in the vegetable garden. Lastly, the Red Russian Kale contains flat leaves that have purple veins that will intensify when encountered with frost.

Other Green Varieties

Along with the greens varieties, we offer a few productive mustard varieties for the vegetable garden. The Southern Giant Curled mustard is known as a southern favorite and produces larger yields for crisp and curled leaves that have the traditional “mustard green” flavor profile. Another popular mustard variety is the Florida Broadleaf that produces light green smooth leaves that can be harvested early as baby leaf or left in the garden to grow to full size for a larger harvest. The Red Mustard Green is another variety that contains a rather bolder flavor profile that will intensify as the greens become larger in the vegetable garden. This variety works well for multiple harvestings throughout the growing seasons. It also does well in any salad mix or stir-fry recipes around the homestead.

Preparing for Fall Planting

On this week’s episode, Travis is demonstrating how to prepare for fall garden planting. He recently has added on a new plot for gardening and it is a 20 foot wide by around 35 feet long area. Originally this plot was just grass and in order to prepare it for planting, Travis tilled the area during the summer and since then has tilled it about once a week for a month to break up all the grass. Then, after that, he started to use his single wheel hoe to maintain the weeds until it comes time to plant in the garden. Travis is planning on planting five different vegetables such as green magic broccoli, Denali cauliflower, Toscano kale, rainbow swiss chard, and bok choy. To begin preparing the garden for planting, Travis is going to start by using the wheel hoe and cultivate the area to get rid of any small weeds. Next, we laid off our five rows to be three feet apart in the garden. Then, Travis uses the plow set attachment to begin preparing the garden with furrows where the drip tape will lay. Once, the drip tape is laid then it is time to set up the drip irrigation system such as the Filter Regulator Combo and Mainline Tubing. When everything is set up we turn the irrigation system on and let it run for a while to let the water start seeping up out of the soil where the emitters are for planting. Travis is going to plant right on top of the emitters to ensure that each plant is effectively getting the needed amount of irrigation right to the plant roots for overall better production.

Green Magic Brocolli

A heat-tolerant variety of broccoli the Green Magic does best when grown during late spring and early fall. This broccoli produces uniform heads that are slow to bolt and go to seed which allows for excellent texture and flavor when harvested from the vegetable garden. It is time to harvest broccoli once the crowns become dark green before any seeds or flowers develop on the crowns.

Snow Bowl Cauliflower

This hybrid variety is known for having bright white cauliflower heads that are uniform and well wrapped producing great flavor and tender texture in the garden. The Snow Bowl variety does best when planted during the fall so you are able to harvest in the winter. We suggest transplanting cauliflower to ensure you get consistent planting spacing, effective germination, and better production.

Lacinato Kale

One of the most productive crops to grow in the garden is the Lacinato Kale. This is an Italian heirloom variety that produces long and slender blue to green leaves year-round in the vegetable garden. It is a cold-tolerant crop, but it is also resistant to bolting during the warmer months too.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

A colorful blend twist of swiss chard is the Bright Lights that works great for baby leaf or full leaf production. The different leaf colors include shades of orange, pink, red, and green. An All American Selections winner, this swiss chard variety has excellent bolt tolerance for extended harvests into the late spring and early summer growing seasons.

Pak Choi

A popular Chinese cabbage variety that produces darker leaves and stems with upright heads is the Pak Choi. This is an excellent heat and cold tolerant variety that does well throughout the spring and fall growing seasons. You can either direct seed this cabbage variety with our garden seeder or transplant with our seed starting trays.

What is a Chicken Tractor?

A chicken tractor is basically a mobile chicken coop that does not have a floor. Usually containing wheels, it is small enough to move around from one spot to another and rotate around certain areas. There are several different designs of chicken tractors available online, but Travis built one for himself that is 4 inches wide by 12 to 13 inches long. It has a 4×4 enclosure that is shaded allowing them to cool off during the hotter days and it contains nesting boxes and food/water boxes. In order to expand the possibilities of our chickens and the chicken tractor, we have looked into getting a poultry fence kit that will allow the chickens to fertilize and cover more area in the vegetable garden. Some benefits to using a chicken tractor in the garden include providing natural fertilization, chickens will dispose of overwintering insects, and they can shallow till garden beds. Overall, the chicken tractor can prepare the garden soil and minimize the inputs you have to supply when you start growing your own vegetables.

Fertilizing the Garden with Chickens

On this week’s episode, Travis is incorporating his chicken tractor to fertilize the vegetable garden. In the vegetable garden, Travis has an area that normally gets planted on year-round causing the soil to get depleted quickly. Along with getting planted on year-round the heat temperatures in the south cause the organic matter to burn up leaving the soil depleted of nutrients as well. In return, we have to come up with ways to add more nutrients back to the soil to fulfill our plant needs. So Travis decided to use a chicken tractor to effectively have a way to get rid of leftover crops and move fertilize around the garden area allowing us to incorporate the nutrients back into the soil. In the garden, the chickens have been grazing on the leftover zipper cream peas which in return adds lots of nutrients back into the soil instead of Travis pulling the peas up and placing them in the compost pile. So Travis puts them on the plot which contains four rows or two double rows of peas and basically move the chicken tractor up and down the rows. The chickens remain on a certain spot for around five to seven days then move the tractor down a little bit where fresh vegetation is located. In addition to using the chickens to remove old plant debris, we also like to use them with our cover cropping in the fall as well. For example, we can plant crimson clover in the garden and rotate the chicken tractor around the plot to keep the clover mowed down.

Cover Crops for Improved Garden Soils

On this week’s episode, Greg is discussing how to build up the soil by using cover crops. The many benefits of growing cover crops are the increase of organic matter, nematode suppression, and weed control. When building up your garden soils you have to supply the best cover crop that fulfills the characteristics you are wanting to replenish in the soil.

Warm vs. Cool Cover Crops

When deciding which cover crop variety to grow in the garden you also have to think about the weather temperatures in your area. The warmer cover crops we have available are Brown Top Millet, Sorghum Sudangrass, Buckwheat, and Sunn Hemp. The Brown Top Millet variety provides excellent livestock foliage and green manure for adding in organic matter in the garden soils. It is a variety that is ideal for weed suppression, improving soil tilth, adding nutrients to the soil, and improves water retention. When it comes to planting Sorghum Sudangrass it contains deeply penetrated roots that help loosen the compacted soil which in return provides better soil aeration and soil drainage. If you struggle with nematode problems in your garden this sudangrass is an excellent variety that helps suppress nematode populations. Another warmer cover crop is the Buckwheat variety that is known for being fast-growing which allows for quick turnover in the vegetable garden. It can be squeezed in smaller windows such as spring and fall plantings when you want to break off pest and disease cycles to improve future plantings. Sunn Hemp is another popular warm-season cover crop to grow in the vegetable garden. This variety works well in sandy soils or nutrient-poor soil types and is another cover crop that adds improved organic matter and suppresses weed pressures. There are several cool-season cover crops such as Broadleaf Mustard, Crimson Clover, Winter Rye, Hairy Vetch, Austrian Winter Pea, and Tillage Radish. The most popular cooler cover crops that we recommend are the Broadleaf Mustard, Crimson Clover, and Tillage Radish. The Broadleaf Mustard is the top crop to plant if you are needing to suppress nematode populations, weeds, and soil fungi problems in the vegetable garden. It contains a chemical compound known as glucosinolate, which helps eliminate many common pests and diseases. While the Crimson Clover does better at adding the soil nutrients back into the garden soil. The best time to incorporate clover in the garden before you plant heavy feeder crops such as corn, okra, or peppers. Lastly, the Tillage Radish contains long slender roots that will penetrate the hardest garden soils allowing for increased aeration and soil drainage within the vegetable garden. Another benefit of the longer roots is this cover crop can absorb nutrients from the deeper soil layers in the garden.

Planting Cover Crops

The best time to plant warm-season cover crops is during the spring and fall plantings. While the cooler-season cover crops do best when planted in the fall and left to “overwinter” throughout the cooler months in the vegetable garden. When planting cover crop varieties we suggest either broadcasting or using our garden seeder. The most important aspect to understand when growing cover crops is they must be mowed down or cut before they go to seed in the garden. This will eliminate reseeding problems in the future growing seasons. Greg likes to use a flail mower to cut the cover crops and incorporate them back into the garden soil. The green manure that is left in the garden is great because in the south we struggle with organic matter because the temperatures during the hotter months tend to burn it up.

Planting & Growing Field Corn

The best time to plant field corn is during the spring and can be grown throughout the warmer months up until fall. We recommend planting field corn using our Hoss Garden Seeder to provide accurate spacing in the vegetable garden. We also suggest using drip tape irrigation because corn is a heavy feeder and requires plenty of water and fertilizer for growth. When growing corn it is best to avoid overhead watering because the plants grow so tall that the irrigation will not reach the roots effectively in the garden. In order to lay drip tape quick and easy, we prefer to use the Double Wheel Hoe with the Drip Tape Layer attachment. In the garden, we can succession plant field corn to get maximum productivity and save space. We can get two succession plantings of field corn when planting in early spring and late summer. The benefit of succession planting is we are able to extend harvest supplies throughout the growing seasons. Another key aspect of planting corn is instead of long rows, it should be planted in square plots or blocks. This ensures that corn gets the needed pollination it requires to develop quality ears of corn. Without pollination, the tassels and silks will have poor germination and have trouble producing kernels on the ears. Planting in square plots also allows for better crop rotation of plants in the vegetable garden. Crop rotation is important because not only are you avoiding planting the same crop year after year but you are able to replenish the soil with the nutrients that different vegetables need in order to grow in the garden.

Own Corn Meal and Grits

On this week’s episode, Greg and Travis are showing how to make your own corn meal and grits from corn grown in the vegetable garden. This year, Greg grew the Bloody Butcher variety of field corn which is similar to the Jimmy Red variety. In order to shell the corn, Greg is using a sheller that he found at a flea market several years ago. Before making our own corn meal and grits, we place the corn in the freezer in order to kill off any weevil eggs. Then, we take the corn out of the freezer to grind it and then make corn meal and grits. When you grind it the meal will turn out a white type of meal but with red specks in it. Travis grew the Truckers Favorite Yellow Corn variety in the vegetable garden. He also plans to make corn meal and grits out of his variety he planted in the garden as well.

Field Corn Varieties

Along with the Bloody Butcher and Truckers Favorite, there are a couple of different field corn varieties that also work great for making your own corn meal and grits. The most popular variety of field corn is the Hickory King White Corn. This variety has been around for several years, producing 12 to 13-inch tall plants and two larger ears per plant reaching around 9 to 10 inches in length. The Blue Hopi Corn is a variety that produces unique deep royal blue ears in the vegetable garden. This heirloom variety has an excellent flavor and texture profile making it great for homemade corn chips, cornbread, and tortillas. The Wapsie Valley is an heirloom variety that contains bicolor ears such as copper red and yellow kernels. When ground the corn meal has a yellow tent with red flakes. It is a variety that is highly adaptable to several weather conditions and produces well-formed ears of corn in the vegetable garden.

Summertime Problems

On this week’s episode, Travis describes the top vegetables to grow during the warmer summertime growing season. During the summertime, the weather conditions are not ideal to grow many vegetable varieties in the garden. Along with the harsh weather conditions, pest and disease pressures are unbearable to manage as well. Therefore, growing healthy and productive vegetables is completely impossible due to the heat and humidity that causes an increase in pest and disease pressures. Some vegetables that you should definitely avoid growing during the summertime include cucumbers, squash, zucchinis, peas, and tomatoes.

The Top Vegetables to Grow

One of the top vegetables to grow during the summertime heat is sweet potatoes. When the vines are full they create a great foliage canopy that keeps the weed pressure down in the garden. Another great crop to grow during the heat is okra. Some okra varieties that we have available are Star of David, Jambalaya, Silver Queen, Red Burgundy, and Cowhorn. When growing okra, we suggest succession planting throughout the spring, summer, and fall to get maximum productivity. The third vegetable to grow during the summer months is eggplants. We have four different varieties of eggplants such as Nadia, Nubia, Purple Shine, and White Star. The last vegetable, Travis mentions has ideal to grow during the warmer growing season is peppers. We carry several pepper varieties that are all productive and contain excellent taste profiles. Some of these varieties include Beaver Dam, Anaheim, Gold Rush Banana, Bayonet, Jalapeno, and Aruba Cubanelle to name a few.

Other Crops to Grow in the Summer

Flower varieties such as Zinnias do wonders in the garden during the summer. We have several colorful varieties available such as White, Lime, Orange, Scarlet, and Coral. The trick to growing zinnias is to prune once every two weeks in order to continue having beautiful blooms until the frost comes in the garden. The zinnias also attract beneficial insects that in return helps with pest control pressure. Another popular crop that we recommend growing during the summertime that will also benefit your garden soil is cover crops. The warmer season cover crops such as Buckwheat, Brown Top Millet, Sorghum Sudangrass, and Sunn Hemp are perfect to grow in the vegetable garden. The Buckwheat provides benefits to the garden such as weed suppression, increases soil drainage, and provides a significant amount of organic matter in the soil. Compared to other cover crop varieties, the buckwheat grows the fast which allows it to be incorporated back into the soil for quick turnover and replanting of vegetable crops. The next variety to plant if you have sandy loam soils is Brown Top Millet. This cover crop is best known as “green manure”, this millet can improve soil tilth, water absorption, and soil quality. Another warm-season cover crop is the Sorghum Sudangrass, which creates a dense mat of vegetation within the vegetable garden. The sudangrass contains deeply penetrating roots that loosen the soil which provides an increase in aeration and soil drainage in the vegetable garden. The last cover crop that does best in the summertime is Sunn Hemp. The Sunn Hemp is another cover crop that provides weed suppression and an increase in organic matter. As well as, an increased supply of nitrogen into the soil which is beneficial when growing several vegetables during the fall, winter, and spring. All of these cover crops can be either broadcasted or planted with our Hoss Garden Seeder. Along with all the cover crops, they should be incorporated back into the soil before they go to seed in order to prevent any reseeding issues in the future growing seasons.

Step by Step on Growing Okra

On this week’s episode, Travis is growing the easiest crops in the vegetable garden. Being apart of the Mallow family, okra is related to cotton or hibiscus and they all share similar flowers as well. It is pretty much a maintenance-free crop meaning it hardly needs any water or fertilizer to grow in the garden. The ultimate guide to growing okra is planting during the warmer weather months such as spring, summer, or fall. Travis mentions that okra does better when transplanted rather than direct-seeded. We recommend starting the transplants, 4 to 5 weeks prior to the desired planting date. You should start the okra transplants in the spring to ensure you get a headstart on the growing season. Since okra plants prefer warmer temperatures for seed germination, transplanting allows you to have them in the ground before the soil temperature warms up enough to direct seed. Okra plants require a soil temperature of at least 70 degrees to germinate in the garden. To effectively grow okra transplants we like to use our seed starting trays. The seed trays contain internal vertical rooting training ribs that help aid in aeration and root ball drainage of the plants. This in returns allows for better transplants that experience less transplant shock and faster production. If you are direct seeding, you can use our garden seeder to accurately plant without wasting seeds by overplanting. When planting okra, Travis likes to plant them on double rows to get the most production and save space in the garden area. Most okra plants should be harvested once they reach around 3 to 4 inches long in the vegetable garden. If you let them get longer than that they will begin to lose their eating quality and become tough. Okra pods usually need to be cut or picked at least once every other day in the vegetable garden. As the warmer growing season progresses the okra plants will get rather tall in the garden. Many of the old-timers believe in cropping the lateral stems which makes the plants taller and harder to harvest okra pods. However, we don’t believe in cropping the lateral stems. Instead we believe that the more leaves the okra plants have, the more photosynthesis and fruit production can take place in the vegetable garden.

Most Popular Varieties

In the South, the ultimate guide to growing the most popular okra varieties is the Jambalaya, Red Burgundy, Clemson Spineless, and Cowhorn. Out of those four varieties, Travis’s favorite varieties to grow are Jambalaya and Red Burgundy. The ultimate guide to being the first one to harvest okra pods before anyone else is planting the best variety known as Jambalaya. It is known for producing okra pods faster than any other variety in the vegetable garden. Therefore, they will produce pods when they reach about a foot tall which means it does require you to do some bending over to harvest them until the plants get taller. However, the Red Burgundy contains eye-catching deep red pods that make it more noticeable than traditional okra pods in a market farm setting. This variety has a little more slender pods than other okra varieties and works great for pickling, frying, or stewing in recipes around the homestead. The Clemson Spineless is more popular amongst the South Georgia farmers. It contains a rounded pod with no spines on the external layer. The heirloom variety, Cowhorn allows you to grow a little longer pods before the okra loses the taste quality and becomes too tough.

The Best Harvesting Tool Around

The Over The Shoulder Harvesting Bucket is by the far the best tool to use when harvesting fruits and vegetables around the homestead. It allows you to easily cut crops with one hand then harvest with the other hand. The harvesting bucket contains adjustable straps that won’t cut into your skin and a padded area on the back for extra comfort. Another benefit of using this harvesting bucket is it has an 18-quart capacity and a kidney-shaped bucket to comfortably fit against your body. Overall, the best harvesting tool for picking crops such as okra, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, apples, etc., is the Over The Shoulder Harvesting Bucket.

Other Harvesting Tools

The garden hod is a multifunctional harvesting bucket that makes harvesting fruits and vegetables quick and it allows you rinse them off all in one container. The heavy-duty mesh wire with weather-resistant wood will last for multiple harvestings in the vegetable garden. A popular harvesting container is our Tubtrugs that come in various sizes such as the Mini Shallow, Small, Small Shallow, Medium, Large Shallow, and the Colander. These Tubtrugs are virtually indestructible containers that are UV-resistant and lightweight making it easier to carry around the homestead. Another handy tool to have when harvesting vegetables in the garden area is our Handy Twine Knife. The twine knife contains a blade on a ring that is supposed to be worn on your finger. It can fit either below or above the knuckle of your finger and is only sharp on the inside making it safe to use and carry. This allows you to quickly harvest trellising tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cut flowers, and other vegetables. Some must have harvesting knives such as the Cabbage knife, California knife, and Asparagus knife. A great combo that includes the cabbage knife and the California knife is the Garden Knife Combo that also includes a Farmers file.