going overboard with plants?

[42OhmsPA]

For anyone in the US, here's a smoking deal that won't last.
I ordered one with the 2 year protection plan.

 

[D71]

That is a bargain and rear tines. Those use to cost thousands of dollars. The big hp models with front tines were a handful to tile with. Rear tines were always preferred.

Are the wheels motorized?

 

[D71]

It is self propelled. The front tine models actually pulled themselves with the tines.
look like a phase out with changes for the cheap price.

 

[DaiwaTrout]

And incredibly sticky come harvest time, hopefully it gets some nice colored 'hairs' too ?

Last years sticky hairs are in. Pure afghani (the original cannabis), grown from plants from Afghanistan (clones). Great when you need to sleep.

Don't need a tiller, I grow in 45-gal fabric pots. Mix the dirt in a cement mixer.

 

[JeepHammer]

Watermelons AND apples this week...
They came in together this year, so I'm WORKING MY BUTT OFF!

Can't complain much, other than living on ibuprofen for the old, sore muscles.

The apple trees are so loaded we have had to rope the limbs off to keep them from breaking, and the fridge size melon vines are producing about 50% above average!

There *Might* be watermelon wine this year, they are REALLY sweet... ?
The rain in the last month came exactly right.

 

[brandnewb]

I NEED daily phsyical therapy. If I don't I lock up solid because of nerve/bone damage.

If you DON'T need the exercise, then go with a POWERED cement mixer.
Try and find one you can get (or make) different drums for.
Most of what you do won't be anywhere near the weight of concrete so plastic drums (cut off) work fine.

One with screen sides, one intact for mixing compost, sand, fertilizer etc.
They run $150-$300 (USD) from Harbor Freight to the big box stores.
Plastic drums can be had from free to a few bucks used and it's usually 3 or 4 bolts to hold it on the drive motor.

Just something I stumbled onto, the plastic cement bins you dump mixed cement into work really well for bedding trays and since they are made to be disposable they are inexpensive.
Come in all sizes, for drywall mud, for mortar mix, for cement mixing, etc.

It's going to be work, as you found out, but I find gardening very satisfying. Many people will think it's too much work, for others it doesn't happen fast enough, etc.
I just enjoy it...

My early crop is strawberries.
The issue with strawberries is beating the birds & bugs to your produce.

What I evolved into is a garden bed with tall posts in the corners, plain home rain gutters up the north side posts, and I grow 'gutter berries'. Vertical gardening.
The posts let me use nets when the berries start to ripen, up off the ground no fungus/rot in the dirt, the gutters let me control water/fertilizer and recover/reuse that water mixture.

Running the water/fertilizer back and forth from end to end of the gutter, just pully, rope & buckets on the posts at the ends and some hose into the buckets...
Lower a bucket on one end, rase the bucket on the other end, let the fertilizer flow down the gutter...

The vines hanging over the sides keep berries from getting shaded & ground rot, and they ripen all the way around at the same time. Vine ripened are MUCH sweeter than picked green so there is demand for them.

It's all in how you want to do things and what their is a demand for...

I think I will just accept that keeping in motion is better than delegating work to eitgher others or power tools.

 

[brandnewb]

If you go commercial,

nah, I am still in this panic mode.
I am currently scouting bali as a possible retreit for a food forest and the people that seem to be able to help me all seem to steer into a commercial mind set.

Nah I am a small man with a small wish. just the ability to keep my familiy alive when the bombs have fallen.

 

[brandnewb]

so my unions are doing really poor ;(
View attachment 154601
i see some "weeds" that in my opinion look quite attractive.

What are those and should I keep them?

I think to keep them

who would have thought that those weeds seem to turn out as potatoes?

 

[brandnewb]

so my unions are doing really poor ;(
View attachment 154601
i see some "weeds" that in my opinion look quite attractive.

What are those and should I keep them?

I think to keep them

this is why we think the "weeds" might be potatoes

 

[brandnewb]

This year's first onion harvest ready and hanging on the drying rack , around 70 total

dude!! sweet!! I have yet to ever get unions to get going.

granted this is my first season

 

[brandnewb]

View attachment 158002
My cucumbers went over board in the 2 days I didn't check on them.
Bunch of broccoli went to flower too...

hahahha going overboard with cucumbers

this is the best ever in the context of the thread title

 

[SamDeleted]

dude!! sweet!! I have yet to ever get unions to get going.

granted this is my first season

Onions are easy, forget seeds grow from sets

Shallots are even better cause they clump, 1 patch of shallots this year becomes 10 patches next if you play your cards right

 

[brandnewb]

Onions are easy, forget seeds grow from sets

ok, i'll try learning more about that before next season

 

[brandnewb]

this is why we think the "weeds" might be potatoes

View attachment 160993

I realize now that not all weeds are accounted for, in terms of what they are. Please gang give it your best shot.

what kind of plants are in this mystery basket.


The central lettuce is... lettuce

 

[brandnewb]

even given half the chance (by being contained in a cylindrical object) nature will find a way

 

[brandnewb]

dude!! sweet!! I have yet to ever get unions to get going.

granted this is my first season

mind you that this big mystery bag was intended for unions. hahah well the evidence is there. no unions

 

[brandnewb]

mind you that this big mystery bag was intended for unions. hahah well the evidence is there. no unions

let me rephrase.
this bag was never a mystery bag to begin with.
it began as an union bag.

but since nature has it's own plan which it will not tell me
then all I can do is to call this bag a mystery.

except for the central lettuce I placed there. it was store bought while I could still see roots.

 

[LeoThomson]

let me rephrase.
this bag was never a mystery bag to begin with.
it began as an union bag.

but since nature has it's own plan which it will not tell me
then all I can do is to call this bag a mystery.

except for the central lettuce I placed there. it was store bought while I could still see roots.

It does look like potato, hard to tell how it got there, but some one might have put a potato peel in the ground, thinking it would rot down into compost.

 

[JeepHammer]

nah, I am still in this panic mode.
I am currently scouting bali as a possible retreit for a food forest and the people that seem to be able to help me all seem to steer into a commercial mind set.

Nah I am a small man with a small wish. just the ability to keep my familiy alive when the bombs have fallen.

Honestly, 16 years in the Marines before I went back to farming and metal shop work...

Call it 'Zen' or whatever, but I can't do anything about nukes, so I don't let them enter my plans/thought processes. Either you die or you don't...

With 5 to 7 years of food stored for all my close friends & family, a solar powered canner that will do 250 quarts at a time, and lots of low to no toxic chemical produce production, it's about sustainability for me.

I have a lot of excess solar power production about the time canning season gets rolling, so the old steam boiler retort (canning vessel) is now electro-magnetic induction powered.
Boilers scare the shit out of me...

I keep the soil & water supply clean, it's here for generations.
My home is very low energy consumption earth sheltered concrete, so it's generational, and it's as close to fire, bug, flood, tornado proof (the big 4 home killers here) as it can be.

I let the earth keep the home temp reasonable so I only have to expend a little energy to bump temp/humidity a little.

Canned and jarred food (reusable/recyclable cans & jars) will be good for 5-7 years (or more), and the containers get reused even if the food spoils, which is why 5-7 years has backed up in storage.

I laid hands on some beat up shipping containers, which make good forms for concrete. That's my underground cold/dry storage rooms and my wet (high humidity) 'Root' cellar. Natural floor for wet, man made floor for dry storage...

I didn't plant decorative anything, fruit & nut trees bloom then produce, grass areas are pasture grass for livestock and hay, berry briars bloom, produce and provide passive security (instead of rose bushes, etc).

The solar field does double duty. On tall posts the livestock can freely move under them without damage, and some produce crops don't care for heavy direct sunlight and grow well under the panels.
You can also collect the rain water off panels with a simple gutter...
Why that escapes people is beyond me, but they certainly ask a lot of questions when they see it.

I farm the sun just like anything else. I would farm moving water or wind if I could do it anywhere near reasonably effectively.

People just completely miss the obvious much of the time...
Have a lot of rocks? Build stone houses or fences, raised garden beds. The rocks are free and you have to move them anyway.

I had a lot of rot resistant scrub trees that didn't get very big/tall and were in the way... They are posts for solar panels, fence posts, etc.

No, they won't live 200 years, but there are new ones growing up in the fence lines all the time...

It's all in how you look at things, my compost and natural fertilizer might be 'Weak' and take more, but it also doesn't poison the soil with forever chemicals...
I'm not a 'Tree Hugger', I just want clean food & water that I won't run out of when prices double or triple...

 

[JeepHammer]

I think I will just accept that keeping in motion is better than delegating work to eitgher others or power tools.

If I stop, due to age and injury, I lock up.

I can't say I didn't like the attention given to being fit when about everyone else my age had gained a lot of weight...

Instead of driving 35 miles to do phsyical therapy, then driving back home, I just turned a lot of the chores into phsyical therapy.

I had to stretch rubber bands and pull on a weighted cable after shoulder surgery, so I taught myself how to shoot a bow & arrow. Learned a new skill and and it turns out traditional bows aren't very expensive at all.

You are still pretty much safe in front of my target, but the dog in the parking lot behind me doesn't have to run for his life anymore! ?
Practice! Practice! Practice!

I see the 350-400 pound guys showing off guns, stretching the straps of 'Tacti-Cool' gear...
You know the 'SHTF' guys...
4 guns strapped to him...
DEFEATED by a small walk across a parking lot, a flight of stairs, out of breath getting the mail off the front porch or rolling over or the couch...

You can put bullets in a pressure cooker for a week and still can't stick a fork in the gravy... (cooking bullets ALWAYS goes badly also).

16 years in the Marines taught me phsyical conditioning and LODIGISTICS make things work...
A paper 'How To' library, gardening and preserving tools will always impress me more than firearms & 4 Wheel drive vehicles.