"thinking of mustard on one half," As long as you don't mind battling it for the next ten years... Some years back I decided to plant me some nice healthy mustard greens. Before I knew it the mustard had taken over my entire garden. Year after year I couldn't get rid of the damn nuisance plant. I'll never plant mustard again - FWIW. J
. Well with that noted I decided to go with crimson clover legume. All in all I won't be at this house more than Two summers. will be good experience, For a novice gardener who's only experience being a summer/fall growing season on a 400sqft garden. was only tilled one time Before planting, no composts used. But top dressed with Various organic nutes I deputed into a 55g Drum and then let run through a soaker hose I made. All in All I had a great time with it and look forward to gardening every place I ever live. I also have all the gear I need to keep going all winter indoors. Its great to have good threads to read through. Iv found GC a much better place for me to learn than all the books I've spent money on. Lol
It's a sunny day here in the PNW. Thought I would take a picture of my garden area. The pile under the tarp is my thermal compost. I'm going to use it to expand my garden.
We are in snowy freeze mode here right now Pak. You're lucky you can get a jump on this. It will still be several months before we can start here. It still inspires me. J
That's not a bad price. Mushroom compost is pasteurized two different ways: ammonium nitrate or poultry litter. That would be the first thing to ask. Mushroom compost is ok. I bought two kinds of compost last year. The mushroom compost was a bulk compost that looked like a giant horse apple and straw mixed up. I was kinda bummed. I put it on the garden and nothing really happened. After that I put down a sprinkle of Oly Fish Mountain compost, a thermal compost that is premium quality. A light dusting on the top of the mushroom compost made all my plants raise their leaves up! Compost is the driving force of how well you will do. Since this is a business venture, profit would be nice so you could order 25-50% of the mushroom to mix with a premium compost. Adding OM to soil is going to be beneficial to any soil like the mushroom compost but by cutting it with a premium compost would help with expense big time but you still have a good dose of microbiology from the premium to add to the not so premium. I also dumped manure on the ground and came back two weeks later to a 50/50 mix of manure and EWC from all the worms that it attracted. You could do something similar. I thre straw on top of the beds after adding it and later came back to worms chowing down on that too. The dirt under the manure and straw is fluffy and dark black brown now. This happens so quick and that is what I tried this year after noticing that from the year before. They do all the work and all I do is dump manure and straw in rows. Lol I know you're really focused on learning about how this is going to work but I think you would benefit from also focusing on maybe a business book or two on agriculture crops and the business side of things. People can grow crops all day but mismanagement of money, time spent working the fields and cost of supplies is another world to learn and where most businesses fail. You have to learn to marry the two together because without one, you'll struggle. Sounds like fun! I've always wanted to grow veggies for profit but our markets here are flooded with home farmers selling their stuff. Ooo! Maybe you could take a different approach. There's a farm I know that gets grant money because they employ disabled adults teaching them job and life skills. That would be rewarding and very low labor costs because it's supplemented by foundations and government grant money. That would take longer to do but a lot of people support their local farm over others because they've really made a great program. It's a really positive impact.
The first of next month I'll be getting in some peas, garlic and onions. Towards the end of next month I'll be starting my other vegetables. We don't get much snow here in the PNW and last winter and this have been very mild.
Just got my veggie seed ordered for this season. I got all open pollinated varieties so hopefully I wont have to buy anymore seeds (for these varieties at least). I have 2 more beds planned out, one of them being hugel. We have had such a mild winter here in MI that I should be able to plant by mid March. My new plant Im trying out this year is Hopi red dye Amaranth
Its just a small home garden right now. But I like the idea of Community service. Even if there is no grant money, but helping out one or two troubled middle schoolers for a couple hours a week. Might make them Interested in school more(earth science/plant biology) plus would make upkeep much easier ha! I am currently looking it Agricultural classes at PSU but I have not been to school in 12 years and only got a GED after freshman yr HS. So I am a bit nervous as to all the extra classes that they will try and force me into taking costing me $$ and debt. I was told I'll have a job 2 days a week on a commercial organic farm about 15 miles away. Won't pay well but good experience and my buddy said he is generous with the food. So I'll have more of my own to sell. I noticed immediately at the Markets here ppl go for the Flashy stuff that has mild flavour instead of the flavorfull non flashy looking. So I order quite a few flashy looking plants. Mainly beans and tomatoes. A couple flashy peppers.
When would be the best time to use mushroom compost? Its a poultry litter composted of stray peat moss, apple, and various other OM. I'm going to call and find out more. Thx
I have put compost in the garden already this week. If you slap some hay and alfalfa on top down the row, it should warm up the soil and get the compost going while drawing worms to feast on the compost. They'll poo all over and work the soil underneath the compost. That's what I've been doing and it's working out so far.
I ordered some tomatoes, Black Krim, Black cherry, and some canning varieties along with some basil. Can't wait to try my hand at canning this year on veggies. I have already perfected it for salmon. I like the idea of canning as the end product doesn't need to be refridgerated.
got all my seeds together for this year's planting. Probably going to run some lettuces indoors while I wait for the ground to thaw Sent from my SM-G860P using Grasscity Forum mobile app I got those black krim and black cherry tomatoes also, can't wait to grow them out
Mr. August West, Esq., has been putting several feet of autumn leaves in his fenced in vegetable garden for the last 3-4 years. If I remember right, the garden is around 30'x30'. I have never seen as many native worms on anyone's property as there is on his. To say that I'm jealous is an understatement. Even in the surrounding woods when we peeled back the top layer of leaves there was incredible amounts of worms. One could easily start big worm bins just by collecting native worms, and he has. Back to the veggie garden though - a few years ago he had leaves like 4' deep - literally. Local landscape crews dumped their leaves in his garden. Lots of snow compacted the leaves but they were still probably a foot thick come spring/summer. This is absolutely and without a doubt (IMO) THE BEST mulch you can use. He just moved the leaves away from specific planting holes and then tucked the leaves back in place once the veggies were in place. No weeds! That's huge, for me at least. I don't have the time or energy to pull weeds. I think the only "weeds" that came up were some maple saplings out of the leaves. Not a single weed. How cool is that? No watering needed. The leaves keep all the moisture in the garden, and not evaporating. Roll back the thick mulch and I'm sure you know what's thriving there. Masses and masses of worms eating up the breaking down OM. Some years back I read somewhere about "the mulch lady". I don't remember who what where but this woman simply kept adding mulch on top of mulch on top of mulch. IMO it's all you need for the best veggie garden ever. The bottom layers are constantly breaking down into rich compost. Worms feed and leave castings. No weeds to compete. No watering. Who could ever ask for a better setup? My snow is melting off now. I'll be raking more leaves for my vegetable garden. This will be my 4th year of no till vegetable gardening. Mulch mulch mulch. Anything and everything. J
Sup friends! Just snapped a few pics of whats going on here today. Been warm as heck here already. Been high 80s lately with a high quality of 77 today. The garden is moving along. Cherry tomatoes ...taste so good! Beef steak tomatoes.... Black Krim finally putting out.... Aloe plants are still flowering as well... Have a great day everybody!
Hey Jerry, everyone ! So I started a worm bin right, and ive been adding scraps and what not. I popped the top this morning, and some Delicata squash seeds have sprouted. Now J.. I decided to dig in and collect 4 of um. Figured worse case id have to grow them indoors..whatchu think? Fabulous Triple..I see you cat !
Waiting on these onions and peppers... Looks like some nice weather almost time to get some stuff in the ground
nice work station, very neat and clean! looking at it makes me want to get busy and fill that tray with seeds