Modern ploughing turns the soil in order to get rid of weeds, but in doing so it exposes microbes under the soil that are vital for its wellbeing. These microbes, now exposed to the sun, die and the soil loses its fertility.
Just spread some clover seed over the dirt patches in the yard. I tried it last year and it failed but this time I used a different seed supplier, thrice as much seed and spread a bit of seed starter mix on top so fingers crossed it works this time.
That's just two days' worth, and the third day has the bucket topped off. I'd say there's 10 to 12 pounds there. It's been quite a bumper crop this year, which is a relief because I was worried the chestnuts would succumb to the post-derecho disease like so many others in the area.
Being a canuck, I've been working on an idea for a high yield indoor garden & ordered myself a bunch of 50W LED grow lights for about 2.30$ a pop. I didn't want to spend on overpriced aluminum extrusion heat sinks & noisy fans so I figured I'd try a DIY water cooled fixture since I could use the heat to warm up the nutrient water. All the materials are leftovers I had laying around.
I used a copper sheet as mounting plates & made 2 manifolds our of 1/4" & 3/4" pipe, copper is a joke to solder but the next one will be aluminum.
Let me tell you, this thing is fucking bright! Rough math makes it equivalent to 3300-4000W of incandescent grow lights. I figure it'll be good for at least a 3x8 area.
For now I'm using an aquarium pump in a bucket, I have to gauge how many fixtures I can run on a certain volume of water at a given flow while having good nutrient temps. The next fixtures will be smaller, I just had fun with this one.
One of my 3 plumerias finally bloomed after 4 years. Still waiting on the 5 year old one to bloom for me. I also grew Carolina reapers, Trinidad scorpions and bhut jolokias to make hot sauce. Just harvested about 5lbs of grapes from my 1 plant to make wine. The cucumbers didn't do well but that's probably because I planted them behind the acorn squash that did great. My honeydew melons aren't huge but I'm curious how I know when they're ready to pick. The carrots are so sweet as well as the pineapple ground cheeries. The pasta sauce I made from the tomatoes last week was amazing. Last night we had roast quail from my flock and my hens are finally laying eggs. Mind you, I live on a quarter acre in a major city.
I will be moving into my grampa's property in about a year. It is an old house that sits on about 14 acres that is 90% old growth trees. In central Ohio Amish country.
There is a small patch that they used for a garden at least 40 years ago, probably untouched since then. The immediate bordering areas are commercially farmed.
I'm wondering what advice you could lend on what to do with the land. I want to finally start an in ground garden. My questions are:
I should probably just use the previous garden patch. Will the soil be depleted of anything? What should I add? Will the neighboring farms chemicals have seeped into my side?
There was recently a bad windstorm and knocked down a lot of trees. Should I attempt to call a logging company to sell the wood or will they just go in, take what they want, and leave?
Finally, what could you recommend for turning woodland into vegetable garden land? Would the soil be super rich or way off to grow vegetables? Any other things I can plant in the woods? I know morel and big fat round mushrooms grow out there.
This is interesting cause I have put the tomatoes in the same spot for 6 or 7 years and never had a problem. Anyway, put out mose and rat traps last night, but caught nothing by morning. I'll keep the traps out, but I'm gonna keep looking for a creature to kill. Updates to come 😁
after two seasons manually de-beetling the yard, i have finally figured out the chickens love eating the japanese beetles. they also like eating my fingers when i feed them to them, so i will be installing this rig in the chicken pen next year
Intercropped them between my potato rows, with a good dusting of mayweek, cilantro, and radish seeds. My first year to get good dense heads of cabbage that weren't tunneled throughout by cabbage loopers, and I lost no garden space to them.
Claims are made that its tiny leaves contains 7 times the Vit C of oranges, 4 times the Vit A of Carrots, 4 times the Calcium of milk, 3 times the Potassium of Bananas, and 2 times the protein of yogurt. It also has almost all of the essential amino acids available as simple proteins that we humans require that are easily digestible.
I have no idea what I'm doing half of the time so I kind of winged it with the whole compost thing and accidently guerilla gardened.
the squash that didn't take last year grew this year everywhere.and the tomatoes seeds I think just walked around everywhere so now I have squash and tomatoes plants like right in with each other .. I googled it to see if I needed to transplant and woohoo they're great companions apparently
I lucked out. Oh and an even better surprise the honey dew is germinating !!!!
Fuck haarp I'm know they were gunning for me but as the title states god loves me and smitted? Smote? their weak ass efforts.
