got a ton of seedling going in the house, be a month before can transplant outside.
hoping for a good year
got a ton of seedling going in the house, be a month before can transplant outside.
hoping for a good year
Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day!
Light a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life!
Cat's are food... not friends!
If you're going to fight, then fight like you're the third monkey on the ramp into Noah's arc... and brother, it's starting to rain.
Well DH and I have the garden almost done. Tomatoes, peppers, carrots , onions and the squash are all in now. We still need to erect the fencing around the planter boxes . DH is still planting his flowers. I swear every time he goes out,he brings back more flowers. HA HA HA. We plant a lot for the bees and butterflies. I can't have a hive as I am extremely allergic to bee and wasp stings, So we do what we can to encourage their food sources. And one of our neighbors have hives so we can trade for their yummy honey. We got the apple tees sprayed and hopefully will have a good crop this year. Due to the lousy weather last year we lost most of the apples.Other than that we're doing good.
We tried a garden last year, our first, but picked a bad spot, everything that didn't drown rotted.
Moved it to a higher spot, already have onions and beans coming up. I'm not sure exactly what will be in it yet, we have a close friend who had to retire early, he bought a camper, and lives here on the property. There's a camper power/water hookup, and small septic system about 300ft behind the house, in a wooded patch. We both work, retail, so jacked up hours, he's doing most of the farm type stuff, I do the mechanical stuff. We got chickens this year, our first, they're about old enough to run outdoors. Been adding stores all year, flour, salt, sugar, pepper. Have picked up some curing mix to cure meats with.
Originally Posted by Gunfixr
sounds like last year's garden spot could use some attention - wouldn't abandon it as a garden spot if too much moisture was the overall problem - keep an eye open for building materials for raising up the area with growing beds - a foot will make a difference - 18" and 24" all the better - stockpile compost materials and top soil ....
in a serious SHTF - like we have pending & ongoing >>> no such thing as tooooo much garden - having that area prepped and not being utilized is better than not having it available .....
Illini Warrior
Top soil is not cheap around here. I had picked the spot primarily because it was semi-hidden from easy view. We didn't do much ground prep, except to kill off the grass, we put soil on top, in mounds. We scraped them up, and moved them to the new, higher spot.
We have plenty of garden area, plenty. Actually, where it is now, it gets sun over more of the day, and has considerably more room for expansion.
The topsoil here is good, but unfortunately only 2"-4" deep before you hit clay.
Planning a small retention pond. We will scrape the topsoil off and keep it, before digging it out.
yeh, with that kind of soil condition raised beds is almost a necessity - need to dig a pit and then raise the area to get some drainage for the plant roots ....
best thing you can do is set aside a large composting area and keep an eye out for materials - plenty of green grass and fall leaves - any sawdust - and any soil that isn't pure clay can be broke down into decent planting soil
Illini Warrior
First casualties of the garden are the onions and carrots .DH is really disappointed in the seed tapes as very few of them sprouted.Not sure he's going to try to replant the two boxes,durn it. The other plants are really coming along, tomatoes are thriving and so are our green beans,peppers and the peas. Looking like we might have a bumper crop of them this year.We're going to trellis the squash this year. We moved them to a different box and (knock wood) what ever critter was gnawing on the root systems and the unripe squash last year won't find them.We have two boxes on the ground but everything else is in planter boxes 3ft above the ground.We do grub control but I think last year the stuff the guys used either didn't get put down in time or washed away in the rains we had.It wasn't really effective.I hope this year we will be getting apples, last year the rain washed the stuff off the trees (and ground). Unfortunately we couldn't respray as the buds were out, so most of the apples didn't make it. My across the street neighbor's daughter gave(dumped) her chickens to mom and dad when she and fam had to move down south as her hubs is in the service. Jokingly I said we'd trade them apples for eggs. He came over and we got gifted about a half dozen FRESH eggs the other day. PRAY no one rats them out, not supposed to have "farm" animals here. DH and I were talking the other day, told DH he better not rat them out. Neighbor isn't too happy but his wife wants to keep them. So here's hoping we can continue to get fresh eggs, rather than having to buy them. They are one of the few neighbors we know here and they have been wonderful.She also does a garden and NOW that I have my American pressure canner, I'm going to invite her over and these two city gals are going to learn how to pressure can properly. We both only have done water bath canning.Just hope I have enough jars and lids.
HI all, just checking in with you. Have been pretty successful with the garden so far. Only got about 2 qts of green beans but do they taste great. We did get about 6-7 carrots so we've replanted them. DH set up an "automatic" sprinkler system while we were down south,Sorry Lady and BR couldn't get over to see you.Dil1 has a nice house(she had to sell the big one) so we stayed with her for a few days.GRD1 is still having some problems but all of them are going to counseling so we're hoping she will be all right but it's still a big mess. We have about a dozen acorns ripening on the vines. We trellised them this year and it looks like the deer haven't found them(yet LOL) Tomatoes and peppers are doing quite well.going to haul out the dehydrator. My neighbor(the one with the chickens) and I were chatting this morning and she got pressure canner this year so she is learning like I am.She's been putting up meat and still waiting on her veggies as well.We've replanted the peas and the carrots. Provided the weather holds out we should get another crop of carrots and peas like last year. We're heading out for my family reunion in Vegas this week so DH will be activating the sprinkler system again.Neighbor and I were talking about going to the farmers market when DH and I get back and maybe doing a MEGA canning session together.We fenced off the raised boxes and NO DEER this year, YEAH. Looks like I'm going to have a good crop of maters to put up. I've continued to accumulate supplies.Have to haul out the dehydrator and get the peppers done.Other than continuing to trying to heal we're doing okay. Son2 is getting really stressed out as DIL2 is healing, she ha 2 compressed discs in her spine. she has had 2 cortisone shots and she says the pain level is down to 2 now and she can at least get around but she has along way to go. So we've been doing some things for her shopping, taking the kids etc while Son2 is at work..Son 2 has been telling us the warehouse's cranes(pickers) are down so a lot of their frozen stuff and canned goods are not being delivered, can't get them off the 100 foot tall shelves and on top of that the Ohio warehouse was destroyed in the tornado they had so they are now supplying those stores with goods from the warehouses here.
I've done nothing to prep for over a month now on account I moved to a new to me address.and I'll be lucky to do any prepping next month.
You what you can, when you can. There's no set schedule.
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