Time To Garden...

My sister and brother-in-law do a lot of gardening at their place in the suburbs.  Just last week I offered to try to go over there once a week to help out. I think it will be a fun way to reconnect with the earth and get to spend more time with them.  It's also just a nice back yard to hang out in, and will get me out of the city environment.

Thanks for the reminder.

Tomatoes (8 varieties) peppers (4) broccoli and Brussels sprouts seeds ready to sow. Mini greenhouse going up, grow lights all set.

In the last 3 years my garden has gone from 2,000 sq/ft to less than 100. After 30 years I stopped enjoying gardening, and we were barely eating any of the food.

Garden?  We're in the mid 30's with a possibility of snow flurries (Chicago).

bk you sound like a curmudgeon. 

Heater you sound like a little bitch.

whaaaaaaaaa?

firing up the T-5 this weekend...

time for a victory garden.

first up, tomatoes and peppers.

^nice. 

Good thread 

 No, ogkb, I simply wanted a break from gardening. Is there a law that says that I have to enjoy it every year of my life? The kids are out of the house, much less is getting eaten, the tenants don't help with the costs or upkeep, and I'd rather be out biking, swimming, running, canoeing or hiking than weeding the fucking onions.

You are honestly just not a nice person. If I really cared, I'd wonder what makes someone so young so mean, angry and rude.

Putting in potatoes, garlic, carrots, and strawberries this weekend. Added third species of both rosemary and sage, pruned the roses (which I guess I have never really appreciated, and contemplated digging them out - I am taking a liking to) and just got a carport to dep these some bubba s1 seedlings real quick. Moving to a new, permanent home is awesome but discouraging when leaving established constant indoor and outdoor gardens one has tuned to their liking. The gardens and orchard here will take many years to build, but it’s exciting because I have pasture here and we will eventually get some fowl and goats. Never had animals before, save for a few chickens or rabbits. I don’t love that I’m trucking in soil, but it’s necessary at this point to get the proverbial match lit. Trying to look at it as something of a living art project. Dig the hugels, cut the trees, build the compost, feed the soil. Let it grow zone.

We've been eating peas, lettuce and radishes for the past month. Tomatoes are in and looking good. The crop from my indoor tent was fantastic and should keep me happy for a good while.

I hear the burnout factor bk , it hit us last year and we did barely anything.

our garden has always been 50 - 25 ft rows and only my wife and I only tend them.

good news is the current situation we face globally, has brought back the motivation to get back to the garden.

I hope we can keep this thread going.

I became disheartened. I have the early blight, late blight and tomato hornworms, so I can't do tomatoes or potatoes anymore. I don't have enough space to build a new spot. Last year, with no tomatoes to feed on, the hornworms hatched and ravaged the peppers and eggplant. 

I'm still going to do herbs, some cruciferous veggies, and maybe some tomatoes and peppers in pots. I have to say, it's pretty liberating to not have to think about 2,000 sq/ft.

Plus, I've been having way more fun putting my gardening energy into my 4 legal plants. 

Already have the following in the ground:

Peas

Fava Beans (overwintered from fall sowing)

Green Cabbage (overwintered)

Red Cabbage

Kale (both new and overwintered)

Radishes

Lettuce

Carrots (both new and overwintered)

Garlic (lots of garlic)

The usual herb garden assortment.

Just got some cauliflower starts this morning, which I hope to get in the ground before I take off for Mexico tomorrow.  Had to bump up my travel before they close the border to keep out infected gringos.

But once I get back in April, will be going gangbusters on the garden, including some outdoor ganja.   Didn't grow last year because I was awash with past harvests, but time to change my strain.

I am stoked because as of this spring, I have been fully year round self sufficient on garlic, hot peppers (dozens of different kinds), carrots, kale, cooking herbs, squash, and ganja.   Hope to expand that even more this year.

"Round and round, the cut of the plow in the furrowed field
Seasons round, the bushels of corn and the barley meal
Broken ground, open and beckoning to the spring; black dirt live again

The plowman is broad as the back of the land he is sowing
As he dances the circular track of the plow ever knowing
That the work of his day measures more than the planting and growing
Let it grow, let it grow, greatly yield"

Even though our garden is all south facing, we live in a cloud forest at 3500ft.

so blight is the biggest pain in the ass.

our solution that has faired well considering the early blight is hardest to deal with...

is alternating between Serenade and (garden's alive) soap shield "flowable copper"

and adding coco-wet as a natural spreader sticker.

at least once a week or after every rain. it's monotonous, but it works.

also, there are some blight resistant tomato strains that have been bred at

Western Carolina University.

that you can get at Totally Tomatoes that have done well.

Our chickens eat everything they can get their beaks on.

We do have a couple of fenced in edible plant beds, but they look like vegetable concentration camps. 

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won’t compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion — put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark the false trail, the way

you didn’t go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

Hey Ken, how do you stay supplied all yr with garlic? It only lasts 3 months if stored well.

My garlic is doing well. Planted in Nov.  Not sure it will make it to June/July(normal harvesting time) but we'll see.

Planted  100 bulbs.  My little olive trees are hanging in there.  The sage is kicking ass but not very strong smelling. Getting the next bed ready to plant this month. Or early next.   Supposed to snow here in next couple days.  Been a month and a half of super sun days.

The Nepenthes are starting to put out their new monkey cups, and I've been transplanting the sundews for sale / gifts / barter

>>>>how do you stay supplied all yr with garlic? 

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/a20707233/how-to-store-gar...

I must be lucky.  I harvested mid-summer last year, put the braids outside under a carport area until the rainy season came, then put them in a dark, unheated store room.   I am still using them and still have enough to get me to the next harvest.

>>>>Our chickens eat everything they can get their beaks on.

They will do that.  We used to put netting on the raised beds to keep the out.  Now, we let the chickens run freely in winter, but in summer, we have a wire chicken tunnel set up (chunnel) that links their coop to a side yard where the only thing growing is raspberries.  They demolish the lower level of raspberries, but the upper levels are out of reach.

Mark, among garlic varieties there are known better keepers. Where I get bulbs (heads) for planting that is one of the designations, along with hard neck or soft neck, as well as ready to harvest early, mid-season or late, good keeper, easy to peel, especially good for roasting or eating raw...

I grow Lorz Italian , a softneck that is supposed to grow well here.   But I think I got the 3 month rule from maybe Farmers Almanac. I know this last crop, after 7 months, mine was kaputt.  

Ken,   after they cure in the garage, I keep them in my wine fridge, and I plan on pickling a lot this yr.

The German Porcelain stores well. My early July harvest is still edible.

I keep mine in a brown paper bag in the mud room, with the temp set to 48 in the winter. As soon as it warms up and the room hits 60, the garlic will start to sprout.

Gardening for survival

Wish I had land for gardening. Maybe plant some stuff at my parents houses

Great song.

IMO lettuce is the best winter crop for me in the Bay Area. These little guys just got transplanted yesterday, the second full crop of the year.

>>And now, a message from our sponsor 

Lukas sang that at the Frost last summer. Very sweet song.

My flowers will be raging in a month

and dahlias in 2-4

perfect gardening weather

light rain 

got like 30 hours in the last three days weeding clean-up Prep and planting

social distance and meditation.  I don't fret when so engaged