yee-haa spring's almost here!

[Alex Linder]

So nice today, I went over to the bed and prepped it for two hours. The strawberries are already up and growing. What an amazing little plant they are. They stay low and don't get beat. I planted 24 last year in about a 8' x 2.5' rectangle. They've fanned out in very short order, invading potato and tomato space. I expanded the perimeter of the garden to give them more room. I'm going for simplicity this year. All the cauliflower I planted came up, but they never really produced edible heads, only got a couple. I suspect they need a longer growing season than we have at this latitude. I did not have a bug problem with them, as I was warned. I think I'll plant another two dozen strawberries, and four tomatoes, and as many potatoes as possible, up to 60. Last year I had 41, and they produced some awesome potatoes, which I have documented on digital camera.

The long dreary winter is almost over, thank god.

[COTW]

I got the seeds (20 varieties) for my garden planted yesterday. My goal is to eventually eliminate going to the supermarket for any canned goods. I downloaded the canning procedure linked by RMac and will use that as a guide when the harvesting begins.
Good luck with yours Alex.

[Alex Linder]

I got the seeds (20 varieties) for my garden planted yesterday. My goal is to eventually eliminate going to the supermarket for any canned goods. I downloaded the canning procedure linked by RMac and will use that as a guide when the harvesting begins.
Good luck with yours Alex.

You too.

You're ambitious. I'd like to learn to can, but I don't have enough to make it worthwhile at this point. My grandmother did all kinds of canning, but she's too old for that now. I guess it's not really difficult, but it does involve a bit of a process.

[Alex Linder]

You too.

You're ambitious. I'd like to learn to can, but I don't have enough to make it worthwhile at this point. My grandmother did all kinds of canning, but she's too old for that now. I guess it's not really difficult, but it does involve a bit of a process.

Like Harriet Tubman fighting the pigs for the potato peels, I fought the nigger birds and ants for the strawberries last year. I just wash them off and eat 'em, a little dirt or ant-spit never hurt anybody. The more the berries spread, the more the non-me animals don't get to. When berries are ripe you have to pick them pretty much daily, which is a hassle since I'm off site, but the sweet taste is worth it. They're much better than those silicon tit berries as big as small apples you see in stores. True of potatoes too. I don't know how to explain it, but you can taste the home soil in the potatoes, it's wonderful. I'm no oenologist, but the description of vintners of being able to locate a region in a bottle is the only comparison I can think of.

[COTW]

..., I fought the nigger birds and ants for the strawberries last year. ....
I know the feeling. I had a blueberry bush years ago but between the birds and sneaky neighboring kids I could never get more than enough to top a couple of bowls of cereal. I eventually quit tending to it and it was overcome by honeysuckle.
It's been years since I've had a garden but I've become more earnest in attempting to become self sufficient as possible these past few years.

Both of my parents grew up in self sufficient families by growing their own food and rearing either chickens or pigs for meat. The satisfaction of feeding yourself is as enjoyable as the taste of fresh food.

[Kind Lampshade Maker]

...They've fanned out in very short order, invading potato ...space. I expanded the perimeter of the garden to give them more room. I'm going for simplicity this year...
Potatoes don't really care, because they start underground. My potatoes had much better survival chances when surrounded by other plants. Pests are lazy and will go after the unprotected potatoes. You might get less potatoes per plant, that way, but at least you'll get something

[Gott]

You I'd like to learn to can, but I don't have enough to make it worthwhile at this point. My grandmother did all kinds of canning, but she's too old for that now. I guess it's not really difficult, but it does involve a bit of a process.

I tried canning, freezing and drying last year and the drying - dehydrating - came out the best and was the easiest to do. It also uses the least resources. Canning is a real pain in the butt being messy and time consuming (and when the stuff spoils it's really gross). And freezing doesn't work too well for some things like strawberries and tomatoes. Tomato sauce freezes well, but whole or sliced tomatoes just turn to mush.

You all should think about giving dehydrating a chance - either go and get one of those really cheap machines to play with or go whole-hog and buy the super model (Excalibur - $250 or so). You can make cheeses, yogurts, dry herbs, raise bread, make jerky and fruit/vegetable rolls, etc, in the Excalibur as well as dry lots of vegetables and fruits. They cost very little to run and then the food just stores in air tight bags when it is done. Also, the dried food takes up very little space and it lasts forever as long as it's really dry.

[Antiochus Epiphanes]

we have strawberries as flower-bed cover in one area, and they produce very sweet little berries. the critters love em so we dont find too many, but when they do they are great. Alex's analogy of a real boob versus a hard tasteless silicon teat is apt.

[Alex Linder]

And freezing doesn't work too well for some things like strawberries and tomatoes. Tomato sauce freezes well, but whole or sliced tomatoes just turn to mush.

My grandmother froze huge amounts of strawberries back in the day, and they came out great. I'm not sure how it's done, but I think she added some sugar and mashed them up somewhat, but not completely, made a sort of half-puree like a thick soup or stew of them, and then froze it in cartons. Then you eat that for dessert over vanilla ice cream. She always preserved tomatoes in those Mason jars (?). I don't think she ever froze them. She made all kinds of sweet pickles too, good stuff.


You all should think about giving dehydrating a chance - either go and get one of those really cheap machines to play with or go whole-hog and buy the super model (Excalibur - $250 or so). You can make cheeses, yogurts, dry herbs, raise bread, make jerky and fruit/vegetable rolls, etc, in the Excalibur as well as dry lots of vegetables and fruits. They cost very little to run and then the food just stores in air tight bags when it is done. Also, the dried food takes up very little space and it lasts forever as long as it's really dry.

I'll try this once I'm in the right set-up. Right now I'm out of space, I have too many books!

[Alex Linder]

Potatoes don't really care, because they start underground. My potatoes had much better survival chances when surrounded by other plants. Pests are lazy and will go after the unprotected potatoes. You might get less potatoes per plant, that way, but at least you'll get something

I never have any problems with potato pests. If they eat the plant, so what? But I haven't seen much of that. I think we have pretty good soil in Missouri for growing potatoes. We're only 70 miles off the Mississippi here. I like making huge termite mounds around them. I planted the potatoes too close together last year, but didn't really see any negative effects. Out of 41 mounds I got seven potatoes as big as softballs, and many just a size smaller.

[Alex Linder]

I know the feeling. I had a blueberry bush years ago but between the birds and sneaky neighboring kids I could never get more than enough to top a couple of bowls of cereal. I eventually quit tending to it and it was overcome by honeysuckle.
It's been years since I've had a garden but I've become more earnest in attempting to become self sufficient as possible these past few years.

Both of my parents grew up in self sufficient families by growing their own food and rearing either chickens or pigs for meat. The satisfaction of feeding yourself is as enjoyable as the taste of fresh food.

This was how my grandparents use to have it on my grandmother's property. They had horses, pigs, barn, chicken house, all kinds of fruit trees. They use to render pigs and had a big garden a few decades ago. All gone now, just a big hayfield. Too bad because there are apple trees around here that make the best apples I've ever tasted.

[Kind Lampshade Maker]

I never have any problems with potato pests. If they eat the plant, so what? But I haven't seen much of that ....
My dial-up service automatically set me on a cheaper rate as I was replying to this at midnight here. As I had to log back in, because it doesn't happen automatically anymore, I got fucked out of the reply and will try posting it again:
The above ground pests are a small problem here because potatoes aren't native to this continent. These beetles aren't a big nuisance. They seem to go after the less healthy plants 1st.
Itz the below-ground pests which are a gardner's daymare. Especially the rodents

[Gott]

Itz the below-ground pests which are a gardner's daymare. Especially the rodents

The dreaded voles...they ate a lot of my stuff last year and have sent colonizing groups into a second garden I built pretty far from the first one. I tried a few things to kill them with no luck and will have to be a lot cleverer this year or it's another season of decimated lettuce, beets, carrots, onions. They did a good job on the bush beans too by eating the roots off the occasional plant. There seems to be hardly anything they don't like.
I use BT (from Garden's Alive) for most of the above ground bugs and it works great by paralyzing their digestive systems. The bugs immediately stop eating, then die.

[Kind Lampshade Maker]

The dreaded voles...they ate a lot of my stuff last year and have sent colonizing groups into a second garden I built pretty far from the first one. I tried a few things to kill them with no luck and will have to be a lot cleverer this year or it's another season of decimated lettuce, beets, carrots, onions. They did a good job on the bush beans too by eating the roots off the occasional plant. There seems to be hardly anything they don't like.
I use BT (from Garden's Alive) for most of the above ground bugs and it works great by paralyzing their digestive systems. The bugs immediately stop eating, then die.
The problem with pesticides is that they are not selective, thus eradicate useful insects, also. Many of them, species which are mortal enemies of destructive breeds.
I once started a thread which included a formula for smoke powder, but our forum gopher snuck it away

[Faceless Goy]

I downloaded the canning procedure linked by RMac.



Hmmm, I missed that thread. Can you link please? :cool:

[Alex Linder]

Look in the archives for this subforum. It only shows threads from the past few weeks, but you can search back all the way to the start. Look below the posting area on your screen and you should see where to do it.

I mean to say, you access the archives from the page that lists all the current threads in a particular subforum, such as gardening. At the bottom of that screen, you can check back farther if the thread you seek isn't listed.

[Sean Martin]

Re: Ricky Nelson
Here is the URL you are seeking
http://foodsafety.cas.psu.edu/canningguide.html

Re: Alex Linder

Ok it was difficult to picture Alex Linder saying Yee Haa. I had a big old Ford tractor plowing up a couple acres today and soon I will have my Farmall plowing up about 40 acres. I have had 2 full sized tractors and a garden tiller running all day. Dad's cousin is going to let him plant on his land also free of charge. He is 75 and has and has a huge garden of his own to keep his hands full. Not to mention the 3 gardens I have at my house. I don’t know how I am going to find time to operate the family business (carpentry) this summer. Makes me wish I had a regular job.

[COTW]

I have sprouting already! Corn, blackeye peas, sunflowers and onion so far.:cool:

[Kievsky]

I am clearing virgin land and I plan my beds around stumps, to use as posts, and I nail boards horizontally to the stumps and to logs I set in the ground. The boards are 1 foot high and I will try to dig one foot down, and mix the native soil in with leaves and horse manure.

John Jeavons says that for maximum yields you want to have 2 feet deep of loosened up, amended soil, so 1 foot dug down and 1 foot above ground seems reasonable to me.

We were considering having stumps taken out with a backhoe, but yesterday I thought "what the hell, maybe I can get the stump out myself." I dug a circle around it, bowsawed 4 thick roots that were growing horizontally out the sides, and then gave the stump a push and to my surprise, the thing fell over! No backhoe, no dynamite, no stump grinder. 4 side roots cut and a push and that was it, and it left a nice hole in the ground for planting a berry bush.

I saved some money and we ordered about 300 worth of berries, fruit trees, and flower bushes from jungseed.com and millernurseries.com

The weekends are a frantic blizzard of work in every moment of daylight, because during the week I am gone from sunup to sundown. Speaking of which, I shouldn't be sitting here typing.

I think the day is coming where there are no more "jobs" or very few, and this property is going to be my "job." I look forward to this, but I also fear it will be a time of difficulty. Of course, not everyone agrees with my chicken little prophesies, and they may very well be my own wish fulfillment fantasies of apocalyptic deus ex machina. then again, we hit peak oil and see the economy collapse an starvation in the streets. We'll see one way or another now, won't we?

Have a great Sunday!

Rob

[MOMUS]

horseshit is not as good for manure as cow or sheepshit. With its single stomach the horse doesn't process feed as well as ruminants do.

Do you have a compost pile?

[Sean Martin]

Do you have a compost pile?
My compost pile is made from cinder block I salvaged from a building that was being demolished. We do a lot of land clearing and use a chipper shredder so there is never a shortage of mulch. Also there is about 10 tons dumped up the road from me (the county did this) last year if we ever needed more. You have to be careful about what types of manure you use. Some manure has to be mixed with other substances and some has to sit in a compost pile for a year to lose some of it’s potency (chicken or turkey manure) because it is to powerful and will burn your plants. When I too agriculture and studied a farm system here the people had cows, hogs and chickens. They liquefied all the manure in a man made pond and sprayed it over the crops. They had some of the highest yields in the state and was completely self-sufficient. They raised their own food for the animals and in turn the animals provided meat, eggs and fertilizer.

I have about 20 really good farming books covering all aspects of farming I purchased from the local bookstores. I have around $15.00 in all of them.

[Kievsky]

Yeah, you are right, horse manure is partially digested hay. I have more than once picked up a fresh one and crumbled it up, and though there was a layer of brown on the outside, inside was just barely digested hay.

I have seen the multiple stomachs of a cow, including the one with the fresh grass in it. Looked like regular old grass clippings.

I have heard different things about horse manure, some warning it would burn my plants, while the Farm Extension people told me, "just let it sit for a couple weeks then mix it with shredded leaves and the native soil and it will be fine." At any rate, I am working with what I got.

This farm project is extremely limited in its financing while it's not paying for itself, so I always have to find the cheapest way. Getting organic matter was getting expensive, so I got a horse job, and now I get paid and get a free daily load of horse manure.

I took down a couple good sized oaks today, well, about 18 inches in diameter. Not monsters, not even worth milling into boards, but still, very tall and heavy. So satisfying to see them go down and shake the ground. The chainsaw dulls quick and I am not yet good at sharpening it myself, so I just use the chainsaw for knocking down trees, and then use a bowsaw for bucking the logs. We cut and stacked a cord just today, and I finished building a raised bed. Phew! A great weekend it was. :) Back to the office tomorrow. :mad:

Rob

[Steve B]

The dreaded voles...they ate a lot of my stuff last year and have sent colonizing groups into a second garden I built pretty far from the first one. I tried a few things to kill them with no luck and will have to be a lot cleverer this year or it's another season of decimated lettuce, beets, carrots, onions. They did a good job on the bush beans too by eating the roots off the occasional plant. There seems to be hardly anything they don't like.

This is gonna sound a little kooky and even Linstedtesque but human urine will get rid of your moles, gophers and groundhogs. It won't kill-em but I guarantee they will find somebody elses garden to fuckup.

It will take about 4-6 consistant tries so "go" out, very late at night in a secluded (hopefully) garden and mark yer own territory atop the open mounds where the voles are. You might wanna shotgun a few beers first for greater...umm...firepower. Within a week the natsy little pests will have up and moved to greener pastures!

Uhh...obviously you don't want to try this when your strawberries are ready to be picked!! :o

[Gott]

This is gonna sound a little kooky and even Linstedtesque but human urine will get rid of your moles, gophers and groundhogs. It won't kill-em but I guarantee they will find somebody elses garden to fuckup.

It will take about 4-6 consistant tries so "go" out, very late at night in a secluded (hopefully) garden and mark yer own territory atop the open mounds where the voles are. You might wanna shotgun a few beers first for greater...umm...firepower. Within a week the natsy little pests will have up and moved to greener pastures!

Uhh...obviously you don't want to try this when your strawberries are ready to be picked!! :o

Thanks very much Steve. I can hardly wait...the rotten little fuckers. It will be awful (drinking all that beer) but well worth the sacrifice. Only at VNN.

[Kind Lampshade Maker]

This is gonna sound a little kooky and even Linstedtesque but human urine will get rid of your moles, gophers and groundhogs. It won't kill-em but I guarantee they will find somebody elses garden to fuckup.
....
My urine seems to be attracting my neighboor's voles. They're probably a fringe group of masochistic faggots of the species
http://tinypic.com/2aq3wg

[Kind Lampshade Maker]

I planted some potatoes, yesterday, even though the danger of frost is not yet absent.
I have enough spudders to gamble on losing, in case it freezes again. If the weather stays above freezing, I should get a double harvest, this year.
I am using a little anti-Gopher-, anti-Vole strategy, by planting the 1st round of spuddlings as far away from each other, so that the pests will have to work harder by dig:cool:ging long tunnels between plants. After having entombed the spuddlings, I have collapsed all existing tunnels between them which will force pests to build new ones with new above ground entrances for my smoke powder

[Kind Lampshade Maker]

Look in the archives for this subforum. It only shows threads from the past few weeks, but you can search back all the way to the start. Look below the posting area on your screen and you should see where to do it.

I mean to say, you access the archives from the page that lists all the current threads in a particular subforum, such as gardening. At the bottom of that screen, you can check back farther if the thread you seek isn't listed.
I've done that & even searched under "Napalm", but the gopher nabbed it, indeed

[Ohio Dutch]

This is gonna sound a little kooky and even Linstedtesque but human urine will get rid of your moles, gophers and groundhogs. It won't kill-em but I guarantee they will find somebody elses garden to fuckup.

It will take about 4-6 consistant tries so "go" out, very late at night in a secluded (hopefully) garden and mark yer own territory atop the open mounds where the voles are. You might wanna shotgun a few beers first for greater...umm...firepower. Within a week the natsy little pests will have up and moved to greener pastures!

Uhh...obviously you don't want to try this when your strawberries are ready to be picked!! :o

I successfully got rid of my moles by putting cayenne peppers down their holes. They kick them out at first but after while they just leave and go to the neighbors lawn. These days I have a few domestic geese, those fellas are carnivores, I have caught them eating moles and baby mice when they can. The moles are completely gone.

I recommend the human scent ex-beer for deer and rabbits.

Here in southern Ohio the potatoes, onions and chard are in. I'm tempted to put in the corn but its too early. Boy, the weather is nice, I could actually use some rain and its coming tommorow.

[Alex Linder]

I think my potatoes are screwed. I planted 66. But I may not have thrown enough dirt on them. Subsequent rains, for two weeks, made their planting points look like sinkholes. This same pattern of weather happened three years ago, and not a single one came up. I used the proud eyesprings of my noblest taters of yore. There were many shoots grown off them, in the dark over the winter, over a foot in length. I left these on when I buried the pieces to make the new plants, which I have been told is a mistake. We'll see, I may try to replant a few as they take up 60% of the garden.

Today I planted six tomatoes. Put them under cut milk cartons and heaped up dirt around them to keep the wind off. Also planted two rows of carrots, some squash, and a row of melons. And that will do it. Low maintenance, should be productive except for the potatoes.

[Rounder]

I think my potatoes are screwed. I planted 66. But I may not have thrown enough dirt on them. Subsequent rains, for two weeks, made their planting points look like sinkholes. This same pattern of weather happened three years ago, and not a single one came up. I used the proud eyesprings of my noblest taters of yore. There were many shoots grown off them, in the dark over the winter, over a foot in length. I left these on when I buried the pieces to make the new plants, which I have been told is a mistake. We'll see, I may try to replant a few as they take up 60% of the garden.

Today I planted six tomatoes. Put them under cut milk cartons and heaped up dirt around them to keep the wind off. Also planted two rows of carrots, some squash, and a row of melons. And that will do it. Low maintenance, should be productive except for the potatoes.

Glad to hear you're gardening again this year, Alex. Me too. It's great mental therapy - gets our minds off the kikes and koons for awhile, anyway.

Too much rain rots potatoes, though I'm no expert and seldom plant them.

But I grow cabbages so big I have to cut them in two with a chain saw to get them into the truck.

Don't forget to plant carrots. They're good for your eyes. You've never seen a rabbit with glasses, have you? (har har)

[LUX]

I've noticed that in wet years potatoes seem to be smaller in size. I've gone to planting Kennebeck, a Maine potato variety that seems well suited to the Carolina clay.

An associate of mine who has a PhD from the same jewed university I graduated from tells me that if you continue to pile soil around the stalk of a growing potato plant, it will send off more tubers originating from this part of the plant previously above ground. I'm going to test this out this year.

Rounder, what's the secret to big cabbage? My plants this year are all slow take off anf grow except for one anomalous plant that seemed to be in a slightly mulchier soil.

Brussels sprouts are doing much better than cabbage.

And I'll never set tomatoes outside before May 1st again. The cold nights since April 12th have killed about 25% and another 25%.

[Kind Lampshade Maker]

...
Rounder, what's the secret to big cabbage? ....
Move house to the vicinity of a nearby nuclear reactor

[Rounder]

I've noticed that in wet years potatoes seem to be smaller in size. I've gone to planting Kennebeck, a Maine potato variety that seems well suited to the Carolina clay.

An associate of mine who has a PhD from the same jewed university I graduated from tells me that if you continue to pile soil around the stalk of a growing potato plant, it will send off more tubers originating from this part of the plant previously above ground. I'm going to test this out this year.

Rounder, what's the secret to big cabbage? My plants this year are all slow take off anf grow except for one anomalous plant that seemed to be in a slightly mulchier soil.

Brussels sprouts are doing much better than cabbage.

And I'll never set tomatoes outside before May 1st again. The cold nights since April 12th have killed about 25% and another 25%.

LUX, I may have exaggerated a bit about the size of my cabbages. Lots of water and full sun are important. I use water hose frequently in my 24' x 80 ' garden, btw. And a little Miracle Grow, though I don't know if that crap works or not, considering that old jew spokesman on TV who advertises it (what's his name).

I'm not much on growing potatoes, though I did plant two 75-foot rows year before last, and they came out fairly well. I love the red ones, harvested when they're the size of half-dollars or smaller. My mother called them "New Boiled Potatoes", and would go out with a spoon, and dig some out, while allowing the others to continue growing. Steaming hot, soaked in butter, alongside turnip greens with a few drops of vinegar, black-eyed peas, fat-back meat, and home-made corn bread. Man, life jes don't git no better'n dat !! Eh ??

You being from Carolina, know exactly what I'm talking about, don't ya ??

(I wonder if KLM was impressed with the size of my cabbages. I think I detected a little envy in his post. Or maybe it was suspicion).

[Kind Lampshade Maker]

....
(I wonder if KLM was impressed with the size of my cabbages. I think I detected a little envy in his post. Or maybe it was suspicion).
Actually, I envy the size of that nuke plant in your area and the capacity of that hose which you use to irrigate your garden

[Rounder]

Actually, I envy the size of that nuke plant in your area and the capacity of that hose which you use to irrigate your garden

Nuke plant in my area? What stinking nuke plant in my area ? The capacity of my garden hose is about the same as my peeter - give or take coupla gallons per minute.

[Kind Lampshade Maker]

LUX, I may have exaggerated a bit about the size of my cabbages. Lots of water and full sun are important...
Do they still look like cabbages, when you peel off the wet t-shirt from them? And do they even tan, afterwards?
http://tinypic.com/2bo58i