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Gardening Thread 2020

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posted on Apr, 16 2020 @ 03:44 AM
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As food supply chains collapse at least temporarily? consider adopting some food habits of 1st Americans whose diet often consisted of dried fruits, nuts, seeds, carrying food with them when migrating and staying in one place.

For years, I have a couple dozen wide mouth Mason jars on my sink with awakened almonds and awakened sunflower seeds (easier to digest that way, filberts, Brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds, coconut strips, hemp hearts, cashews, figs, dates, candied or cocoa dusted ginger cubes, prunes, apricots, mangoes, cherries, peaches. I freeze them for a couple days every few months to prevent bugs. I buy in bulk at places like HummingbirdWholesale DOT com Eugene, OR. Most organic. I used to keep jars in cabinets but would sometimes forget them so I keep them on counter now. Also have about 5 kinds of nut and seed butters. Mixing nuts and seeds in Osterizer make your own butters and add healthy hemp oil-that should be kept in frig-or other oils if nut/seed butter gets hard.

I also put potato chips, corn and sesame rice crackers, comfort foods in jars so that rodents not attracted to them.

Knowing that dried fruit is more sugary and sometimes hard to chew, I can recall Mom's trick of soaking in water overnight also can be use in fruit soups or smoothies. Have not tried soup idea, but as teeth age I may.

When working in SF near Chinatown I saw numerous fish dried, some hanging on strings. Meat and fish can be dried also, since I a vegetarian, I bring this up only for others to consider. Have not eaten fish, chicken, meat since 1976 after fasting. Used to love applewood smoked salmon dried!
edit on America/ChicagoamThu, 16 Apr 2020 03:49:37 -050030033703494America/Chicago by EarthShine because: clarity



posted on Apr, 16 2020 @ 04:32 AM
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On the subject of home gardens and growing for yourself.

I have long banned the use of pesticides, herbicides and unrecognisable fertilizers.

Pesticides - Rather than killing pests I find ways to live with them. I know that a certain proportion of my chillies will be eaten by slugs, so accept the problem. To protect my brassicas (cabbages, sprouts et al) from the pesky cabbage white caterpillars I plant colourful nasturtiums, which sometimes work. Live with pests and find a balance. Dissuade them rather than kill them. Years ago when I kept chickens, I found these to be good pest control. I hear ducks are the best pest controllers money can buy.

Herbicides – I hoe out weeds. Is it that difficult? I have an abhorrance of chemical herbicides and pesticides.

Fertilizers – Horse manure from the neighbours, compost from the compost heap, ash from the fire. Blood, fish and bone is something I habitually add out of tradition rather than need! I also make comfrey feed... HERE.

Thieves – I get badgers who once ate all my red currents, or it could have been a neighbour. Oh well, that’s life. Plus, the birds steal my uncovered raspberries. I like badgers and birds, so consider these to be crops which I share with my untamed visitors. I also get deer, but these don't seem to cause any issues as anything edible by them is behind a fence.
edit on 16/4/2020 by paraphi because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 16 2020 @ 07:39 AM
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Great thread!

I don't profess to be much of a gardener, but I do seem to plant a garden every year. Gardens are challenging here. The sun is brutal (you can have too much of a good thing), and the wind will gladly remove (to the next county) anything you put up to combat the sun. Still, I try. This year I'm going to try to be more regimented about it.

So far I have some green beans, wax beans, cantaloupe, turnips, beets, bok choy and carrots all started from seed. They're all about 4" tall now. Also have about (90) trees all started from cuttings. Everything is inside so far, we keep getting dumped on with snow (and it snowed again last night, for the 3rd time in the past 7 days). The master bedroom looks like a forest with all the trees and plants in it. A couple months ago I bought some of these nifty little LED grow light panels. Man, do those things work great!

My wife found this really great idea to get plants and trees to take off. Basically how it works is, she bought a stack of those plastic shoe storage containers from the dollar store. Then she takes a half a sheet of newspaper and wraps it around a standard sized can to form a cup, which she then fills with dirt (just the paper, the can is removed). Then we transfer the started seeds from a seed starter tray to the newspaper cups, 6 of which fit in each shoe box. After that we put about 2" of water into the bottom of each shoe box, so the plants all basically water from the bottom up. It's kind of the same principle as a hydroponic system. Then when you get ready to plant, you just plant the whole newspaper cup in the ground. By then the newspaper is just rigid enough to hold its shape long enough to get it between the box and the ground. After that the newspaper just biodegrades and the roots grow through it. This method just about completely eliminates any transplant shock. And it works great!

We built a makeshift table with a sheet of plywood by the southern facing window of our master bedroom, and now we've got about (40) shoe boxes full of garden vegetables and trees on it.

Right now as I look out the window of the office it's snowing again, but all the vegetables and trees are happily growing away under their grow lights inside.

The four legged tilling machine named Rhode has kept the garden bed tilled all winter so I haven't even had to break out the rototiller yet. Long story, but he really does love his "Project Hose".



posted on Apr, 16 2020 @ 08:49 AM
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a reply to: paraphi
I don't use any chemicals in my garden either.
It works out, because I have to be careful, for the chickens and ducks. In return, I will let the ducks into the garden area, and they can eat a lot of bugs!
The chickens just do so much damage to the plants.

I don't have a deer problem any more, since we put up the 5" dog fence, just mostly rabbits, but the barn cat tends to run them off, if he knows their out there.



posted on Apr, 18 2020 @ 12:00 PM
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Quick little update!

Almost all of my seeds have sprouted! Pretty excited about that! Mainly the ones that haven't, are the peppers from around the world. My green peppers have. Weird.
I'll give them a few more days.
Today is almost 50F, and yesterday we had snow.
Spring in MI. So much fun.
That's why I wait until memorial weekend to plant the garden.

OH! I even have an apple seed sprouted, from a member here. I've been ready up on how to take care of that too.



posted on Apr, 19 2020 @ 10:26 AM
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LOL
yeah, should have been Reading, not ready on my last update.

So, it is actually nice today. So I conned hubby into doing a run through the garden with the rototiller, before he went off to do his own thing.
So here he is, with most of our helpers.



posted on Apr, 19 2020 @ 05:25 PM
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Most of our seeds have sprouted so far, but the cantaloupes sure took a while! They only came up this week, and I've had them planted for 3 weeks. The green & wax beans come up in about a day with the grow lights. So do the beets and bok choy.

My wife planted some flowers she really wanted, and they never came up. So I asked if I could over-plant them. Now something has come up, and it doesn't look like my carrots. Uh-oh...now what...garden or flower box? LOL!



posted on Apr, 22 2020 @ 06:48 PM
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I finally got about half of my garden planted. Yesterday I only had time for zipperpeas. Today, I plated bush beans (Kentucky wonder), squash, zucchini, and lima beans. Supposed to rain tomorrow, so hopefully Friday I can get the fence up, and plant some black eyed peas, cucumber, collards, turnip greens, cantaloupe, and put the 8 tomato plants in the ground. Supposed to rain again Saturday, so I may have to put some off until Sunday or Monday.

Also trying to figure out where to put pole beans, and if I want to plant them.


edit on 22-4-2020 by Liquesence because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 11:19 AM
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Good thread and topic!

I love growing my own foods, and am always trying new things and attempting to perfect what I already succeed at, and sometimes I keep trying at what I fail miserably at.

I have no issue growing boatloads of kale, arugula, collards, green onions, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, potatoes, chard and beets, peas, beans, artichokes, carrots and lately Ive been doing much better with tomatoes, even in Seattle.

I try to do more research on what varieties are disease and cold resistant, and if they produce/taste well then I save seed stock for the next year. Most of my tomatoes actually self cultivate and grow when its finally warm enough straight from the soil. I stick to San Marzano, yellow pear, brandywine beefsteak and a cherry tom.

What always trips me up is most of the brassica family, mainly cabbages and those varieties that attract cabbage worms. Also I have mixed luck with radishes, they tend to bolt too fast for me, just like spinach.

Really loving that my vietnamese coriander survived winter, and that my parsley and mints are all coming back fast. Also managed to get a ton of buttercrunch starts in the ground so salad season is ramping up!

Happy farming folks!



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 11:51 AM
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a reply to: Aliquandro

What does "bolt" mean?

I'm thinking I need to know what this is.



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 01:04 PM
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a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Bolting means they go to seed too fast, they get tall lanky shoots and flower without producing much usable leafs or with radishes they don't produce a bulb. The trick I heard with spinach is keep the soil moist and put them in shadier spots.

I'm also learning to thin out my seedlings a little better and gives the healthier ones a better chance to thrive



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 01:37 PM
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a reply to: Liquesence
I envy you, being able to get started already. I can probably get the peas seeded, and the carrots and be ok. Are you south of MI?



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 01:40 PM
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a reply to: Aliquandro

Glad you found the thread! I usually have my radishes split, even when I water them well, or bolt, lik you said, so I finally just gave up on them.

Kale is so much easier. I love just picking and eating, and sharing with the ducks. Most of them love it, so I plant several plants, so there is enough for all of us.


edit on 23-4-2020 by chiefsmom because: clarify



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 03:20 PM
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a reply to: chiefsmom
I'm actually north of MI in Seattle, we just have mild winters and summers are getting warmer.

Kale I have everywhere, and keep picking the small leaves so that the plant almost never makes it taller than a foot. The collards I ate last night were wintered over from last season and tasted great still. My peas are just now sprouting as are my first tomatoes from seed, I'm excited to try for better results than last summer. Weird thing was I had a really late hot summer last year and tomatoes were naturally popping out of the ground, and I had plenty.

Hoping for the heat so my pole beans will start sprouting



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 03:26 PM
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originally posted by: Aliquandro
a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Bolting means they go to seed too fast, they get tall lanky shoots and flower without producing much usable leafs or with radishes they don't produce a bulb. The trick I heard with spinach is keep the soil moist and put them in shadier spots.

I'm also learning to thin out my seedlings a little better and gives the healthier ones a better chance to thrive


Bolting is the problem I had when I tried to start tomato/pepper/etc from seed under a grow light. Of course, I didn't have ideal growing condition, but I did have a UV light. Everything sprouted, they just bolted so damned fast.

You mention thinning out seedlings, and I was thinking of starting a thread about that so see if people actually do that. I have NEVER thinned out any of my seedlings when directly sowed (beans, peas, squash, etc) and they have always done wonderfully. 2-3 seeds per hole between 3-5 inches a part.
edit on 23-4-2020 by Liquesence because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 03:27 PM
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originally posted by: chiefsmom
a reply to: Liquesence
I envy you, being able to get started already. I can probably get the peas seeded, and the carrots and be ok. Are you south of MI?



Oh yeah, lol, I'm in Georgia, so the growing season is fairly long.



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 05:24 PM
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a reply to: Liquesence

While I do make sure Tomato's, peppers, kale and such are spread out a ways, (A foot or more), Like you, I have never thinned out my peas. They just seem to like being crowded, plus you need a ton of them to get enough to can, and I don't want them to take up half my garden.



posted on Apr, 23 2020 @ 05:57 PM
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a reply to: chiefsmom

I always spread tomatoes 2-3 feet, because they get so big. Peppers a couple of feet, squash/cucumber/zucchini hills 2-3 feet, but any bush or climbing plants (cow peas, bush beans, lima beans) I crowd. Like I said, seeds every 3-5 inches and no thinning. The first year I planted an approx 100x30 plot, not only did I spend the summer canning, but had to buy another freezer to keep the rest. If you've never tried zipper peas, do they are delicious and easy to shell.

I've never grown kale, but I have grown turnip greens and collards, and I think I sow them about a foot apart.

I accidentally bought mustard green seeds this year, so I may try some of those.

edit on 23-4-2020 by Liquesence because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 27 2020 @ 02:03 PM
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I had to "repot" my pumpkins and cucumbers that I started from seed. I had them in the 3 pack thing you buy tomato's in. I know better. They just got too big. I wasn't thinking. At two weeks, the roots were all over already. I have them in the 3" pots now, and they seem happier. I still have about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks, before I can start hardening them off outside, so they will be ready for planting memorial weekend.
Still so far, so good, with everything surviving, so yea!



posted on Apr, 27 2020 @ 02:17 PM
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And don't forget to stock up on a couple three big bags of Epsom Salt!

Not only for your aching muscles after all your work but almost everything in your garden LOVE LOVE LOVES a sprinkle of Epsom Salt around the roots once the plant is established. Fabulous stuff.

There was a 'home made' fertilizer I used many years back - a recipe from a guy on the radio.

He used a can of beer, can of coke, a cup a pee, dawn dish washing liquid and a few other ingredients. My garden LOVED it but I can't remember the rest of the 'recipe' or the guys name sadly. Maybe one of you know?

Green Thumbs Everyone!



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