With all that’s going on with me this year I’ll be getting a late start on my garden, plus with the new water restrictions in place, I’ll be needing to reroute all my secondary water lines for my drip irrigation system. Our secondary water has come on but I haven’t turned it on yet because of the rainy weather. I have however planted snow peas and green beans and they are just starting to come up, this is in one of my mini green houses, so they have been protected from the frost. In another GH, I had a peach tree growing from as year but this year two more peach trees came up. Plus I decide to try an experiment from one of last years kale plants and not pull it up but leave it in the ground, surprising to me, once I started watering it, new leaves started growing, not sure if it will do any more but it’s interesting to get kale this early in the season. Finally, I decided to put in some metal grow boxes this year, in an area right beside a peach tree because last year I found the roots from the peach tree was growing up right into my vegetables but now I need to fill the boxes with rocks and dirt and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do that, considering my health condition.
I got my potatoes in and beans but that is all so far
At least you are making progress. As warm as it’s been I feel like I’m way behind but next week I’m going to start buying some plants at our local nursery and gets some more seeds in the ground. I need to repair one of my hoop greenhouses and turn my secondary water one but after that I’m hoping that I’m good for a while.
Curt, glad to see you are on the mend. I am looking to get my wife some metal grow boxes and I would like to know where you got yours? I showed them to her and she like the way look.
Thanks, the one big one cost as much as to two smaller ones, around 70 dollars. Now I have to fill them. Wish I had bought two more of the smaller ones, instead of that one bigger one because of the amount of rocks and soil it’s going to take to fill it. Here is a link to the two smaller ones.
Here is a link to the one bigger one.
Great thank you
I’ve been known to scratch in the dirt as well. I usually dont put anything into the ground until mothers day but if these late cool snaps keep coming, it may be a week or three later. I grow glass gem corn, pumpkins, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, onions and cukes. Nothing like a fresh BLT with tomatoes right out of your own dirt.
Amen to that!
Hey Curt, it has been such a crazy year with all these late frosts… I had 21 degrees Friday so I’m kind of glad I have been slow planting, it would have died if I had planted it… Well I guess I do have beets, peas, carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes and spinach growing but last year I had planted all the tomatoes and peppers in the high tunnel and they did great, so I was hoping to plant that stuff the first of April and held up when the report of 25 degree nights was showing up in the ten day… Since then we’ve had three different hard kill frosts, so now I’m gun shy and don’t know when I dare plant stuff… I bought all the plants and have been nursing them in the house, but they are starting to look like it’s time to plant them out… I really hope we can get them out next weekend… Been building a new chicken coop, hopefully that will be done soon… So I can kick into full market garden planting.. Frosts ruined all my fruit this year and things looked so good, I’m really sad about that… I’d planted a bunch of new trees and this year would have been the first real crop, but looks like the frost killed all the blooms and a lot of leaves are also burned off
I decided to try metal garden boxes, found some online wife and I liked checked Amazon found same boxes cheaper! Then saw 2 pack with higher price than eachs 
So I bought 4 4x8 and 2 3x6 read about filling bottom with wood, cardboard, branches, buddy works in tree trimming, so picked up a load of trimmed branches and will throw in peices of cardboard the grow boxes are packed in, will save cost of garden soil and it will break down over time adding nutrients to the soil! Replacing entire garden with boxes. I May starting putting boxes together today and plant soon . I usually wait till Mother’s Day, I live in a sink hole that frosts two week earlier and later than areas just a couple miles away!! The latest freeze hammered my grape vine buds and neighbors fruit trees lost all the fruit that had just started developing from early warm temps.
I plan on using the wooden Boxes that I built and continue to use the Straw Bales to grow my plants in. I am in search of straw bales right now. I need about 35. If anyone knows of some cheap.
Hey Dan, The last straw bale I bought was from that nursery in Lanton, I think it’s called JJ nursery but I bet all nurseries have them. That being said, if I needed that many, I’d ask Jeff(skunkedagain}, he might know someone that has them.
Great Idea Pat, I never thought about putting cardboard in the bottom and I have several boxes I need to get rid of anyway. I was planning on putting some old tree branches in the bottom but I don’t have enough to fill all these planters, So you think if I talk to a tree trimmer, I might be able to get some for free? How much soil do you think is enough to start growing vegetables? Do you think a foot is enough or maybe 10"?
Thanks Curt I’ll do that.
Doesn’t your high tunnel protect your garden or are you just talking about you garden that is out in the open? My hoop green house protects half of my garden but I haven’t planted any of my uncovered garden but the forecast looks like warmer weather is on the way, so I might just put out some plants later this week and even some seeds, just in case. I got lucky on my perch trees because of that early warm spell, all my trees got pollinated and I have peaches already growing. Sorry your fruit trees didn’t do so well, hopefully some of them made it. Didn’t you build a chicken coop last year? What do you do with all those eggs?
My first attempt at beds I’ve read 12 inches is good for most vegetables. I got 24 inch deep figured I’d fill bottom a third or so with cardboard , branches top off with 12inches plus figuring it will settle . Little brother did boxes a couple years ago with good soil he had delivered, his garden grew like crazy!! He just sddd a bit of new soil every year. He no more of a green thumb than me 
his garden put mine to shame! I decided I’m doing that!!
Oh Curt this is bad timing, I just got rid of 25-30 straw bales, they had been wet from the winter, but were mulching down nicely, so I broke them and scattered across an alkaline section of soil in my swale… I’ve got some alfalfa that is fairly heavy that I was planning on using as compost around my trees left, but I don’t think most folks would want to use it around a neat yard… This time of year most cupboards are getting kind of bare, but I might be able to find some somewhere if needed.. Jeff
A couple of years ago I visited Wild Valley Farms. Then I purchased a truckload of cow manure compost for a reasonable cheap price to mix with my topsoil which my garden did really good. Have 2ea 4’x12’ x12" raised beds and 1ea 4’x5’x15" raised bed as my starter bed for transplanting.
Wild Valley Farms is located off of I-84 exit 111 just past the cement plant on the road to Lost Creek Reservoir
WILD VALLEY FARMS - Wild Valley Farms Utah | Natural Soils and Fertilizers for Healthy Gardens
Hey Curt, my high tunnel heats up a bunch on sunny days, but the night time temps are only a degree or two warmer than the outside temperatures, so it’s crazy, but I’m still wary of planting it… However, I can use a low tunnel inside the high tunnel and buy maybe 6 degrees of extra warmth… So I think this weekend I’ll get the maters in… Most of my cold weather stuff I mentioned is outside, but I did start some early beets, and spinach in the tunnel… The spinach is pretty close to ready… Well if I had more of it, it would be great for baby spinach salad and such right now, but I only put in a 25’ single row, so I’ll probably leave it for the big leaves… I love the early greens they taste so much better… Glad your peaches made it, that is an accomplishment this year… And yes I did build a big chicken run last year, I thought I was done with that, but sent my daughter to town to buy me an incubator, well she came home with that and 15 new chicks, and I hatched 12, so I just doubled my flock, so needed a new coop… This one is 12x8’ and a laying house, I’ll probably end up building a run later on as well.. It’s turned out pretty nice, not as redneck as my last summer one… And I have no idea what we’ll do with all the eggs… I’m getting about 5 dozen a week now and without the market going I"m sending lots to friends and relatives… But Market opens next month and I put a website together and I’m hoping to get some of our market customers to come visit the farm and buy out of season… Hope that will work… Plus it looks like we may be getting more roosters with my home hatch, so hopefully I can figure out how to butcher a few for the freezer.. Guess they can’t be too different than a pheasant… Hard part will be dispatching them without the shotgun… Anyway sure hope your crops will go well this year… Those beds really sound like they would be nice… I’d love to have mine higher so they would be easier to reach and take care of… I put some strawberries in a 2x6" raised bed and even that much helps to make them easier to work on… That is the one fruit that made it through the frost, at least partially, should have a little crop of them in a week or two… Tell ya what this farmers market stuff is really getting in the way of my fishing… Too much to do all the time… wish I could retire so I had more time to cover it all… Maybe someday… Later Jeff
We put a heater in the high tunnel we had in Idaho, at the kids place. It was an old gas furnace, like the kind they used in garages. They had plans to grow vegetables all year long, if need be but they only used it to extend their growing season in the Spring and Fall.