Official Gardening/Homesteading thread: Our back yards are our grocery stores

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by lhprop1, Apr 9, 2015.

  1. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    What hardiness zone
     
  2. Marbles

    Marbles Trudging the road to happy destiny
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    I dunno. Central Mississippi
     
  3. comrade static

    comrade static i love french fries
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    I’m up to my eyeballs in okra. Can I freeze it and thaw it out in a few months to grill?
     
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  4. Beachy Toast

    Beachy Toast He wants you too, Malachi.
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    [​IMG]
     
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  5. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Not sure how it would do for grilling, but for frying it's fine.
     
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  6. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    I love them cut in half length wise and cooked on the grill. Just make sure to pick them early before they taste like wood.
     
  7. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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  8. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    Planning on growing arugula and spinach this fall in some sort of container tray. Anyone got any recs on containers to grow lettuces in?
     
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  9. Why?Pokes

    Why?Pokes Take me back to the kine
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    Went a little nuts today:

    D87B91F4-A3F1-4FF1-B74E-B3E147B7C4BF.jpeg
     
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  10. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    Anyone tried using 1/2 whiskey barrels for raised garden beds? We are moving soon and I thought about going that route for raised beds.
     
  11. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Had our first lamb of the new season this morning. Have about 13 more ewes due so could have around 25 lambs over the next month or so
    23632.jpeg
     
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  12. comrade static

    comrade static i love french fries
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    You still selling the farm and moving?
     
  13. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    No. When we couldn't sell it and the school year was coming up, my wife looked at the nearby schools again. We were able to get our 4 year old into 4k, but only at the local school, not the one we had school choiced our oldest into. We decided to move them to the nearby one and see how we think they were doing there. Everything seems to be going well and the teachers are good, so we decided to stay. Which is nice not spending all that money for selling and moving. Plus we and girls really enjoy the farm.

    The only problem is my wife's honey-do list is now 3 pages, single spaced, in size 10 font.
     
  14. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Have had 3 more ewes give birth in the last few days. One lamb was cold initially so we brought it in to warm up for a little bit with a heating pad and hair blower.
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  15. Beachy Toast

    Beachy Toast He wants you too, Malachi.
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    How many sheep are on your farm?
     
  16. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    20 adults, 14 were pregnant. So far 5 lambs born to 4 ewes.
     
  17. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    Why?Pokes sorry to bother you but I want to hear more about your passion fruit growing set up
     
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  18. Why?Pokes

    Why?Pokes Take me back to the kine
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    We’re just got one big vine in a ceramic pot, run a small tube off the irrigation for agua.

    95DA14C2-8626-4381-9452-20FF72A20C5B.jpeg

    The vines need to stay warm (no freeze), but are fairly easy to care for. They grow like crazy so consider some sort of trellis. If you plant next to a tree/shrub stay on top of trimming or the vine will kill it. Ours climbs a pergola, and is looking a little rough (needed a big trim last year to keep it off the house):

    CD9FB11C-C420-4BE4-BBDC-0F446D462398.jpeg

    Harvest the fruit when it drops, the 2 main varieties are gold and purple, they should be smooth at harvest like:

    31422FCA-F030-45B8-BA01-54319B766699.jpeg

    At this point you can eat/use it (just halve it and scoop out the interior), or let it fully ripen and develop a wrinkled texture:

    EE7DD10B-3E56-4BAA-946C-8C1A4013BB07.jpeg

    Note, that’s either half of the same lilikoi, it’ll wrinkle around the entire fruit eventually. Use before the skin begins to break.
     
  19. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Had some more lambs born over the last few days bringing our total up to 11 lambs.

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  20. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Just got a bunch of seeds and a couple of seed starter thingys from home depot

    I've never started my tomatoes and peppers from seed before so I am gunna give it a go



    Ohh, and gotta rebuild the engine on my tiller soon too
     
  21. timo

    timo g'day, mate
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    I'm trying this as well. Bought a seed warmer pad, because that's supposed to be helpful for pepper seeds.
     
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  22. timo

    timo g'day, mate
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    also... putting this in this here thread
     
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  23. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    Building my list of plans for our new house and garden...

    6X Blueberry Bushes
    2X Blackberry bushes
    3X PawPaw Trees
    2X Persimmon Tree
    2X Meyers Lemon Tree
    4' X 12' Raised Garden Bed for seasonal garden veggies
    1 Small bed for Potatoes
    1 Small bed for Jeresulem Artichokes
    1 Small bed for sweet potatoes
     
  24. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Where did you find the PawPaw trees? Nowhere around me has them.
     
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  25. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    That is the only item I've got to order online out of my list. There are a few places that sell them.

    Amazon has some but I probably won't go that route.

     
    billdozer likes this.
  26. thunderstruck

    thunderstruck I'm a Boss

    Just started my compost pile, better late than never though.

    Went with 3’x3’x3’ with chicken wire and stakes.

    Layered the bottom dry brown material with hay and old shrubs, then green waste from the kitchen, and topped off with more hay.

    Green wastes are coffee grounds, banana peels, avocado skin, egg shells, carrot peels, and other vegetable scrap.
     
  27. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    I am planning on getting something like this...

     
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  28. dalbers32

    dalbers32 Well-Known Member

    I started getting into gardening about 3 years ago when my wife and kids decided they wanted some chicks. Built a coop and have 9 laying hens right now. We live in a small town and can have up to 12.
    My yard is pretty shady except where the kids and dogs run so I haven’t been able to do well with tomatoes and peppers. I want to make our own salsa so I’ve been looking into some container gardening. I could put them on the back sidewalk and they might do better. My thoughts have been 5 gallon buckets or those mineral tubs that ranchers use.
    Anyway, I look forward to checking in on this and any tips are welcome!
     
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  29. BayouMafia

    BayouMafia Thought Leader in Posting
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    a friend of mine has had great success getting trees from here
    https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/

    I ordered/planted a couple of peach trees from them this fall so I'll know in a year or so how they will do
     
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  30. pockets

    pockets Lesser-Known Member
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    They're awesome. They only seed from good plants and mine have come in perfect shape. Got my parents some 2 foot blueberries last year and they're already 5 feet.
     
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  31. Why?Pokes

    Why?Pokes Take me back to the kine
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    Houseguest bought a ripe cacao pod from a fruit stand the other day and I stuck a few seeds in some dirt on a whim. Got the mf‘ers poppin!

    23284B4C-500C-487E-8568-0BA8CDFE08A3.jpeg
     
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  32. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Had more lambs born to bring us up to 20 lambs including 2 sets of triplets. Still have two more ewes due in the next week or so.
    [​IMG]
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  33. timo

    timo g'day, mate
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    about to enjoy a Superbowl arugula, radish, and winter choy salad.

    I know this winter has been far too mild and DC is going to suffer this summer from heat and bugs, but I'm enjoying the fact that my garden is producing on Feb 2.
     
  34. gritzy

    gritzy I am a hurricane on the golf course

    who wants to teach me the ways of drip watering?
     
  35. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    20200203_171426.jpg
    Got my first little sprouts
    Those are some Roma and some black krill tomatoes
     
  36. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    What you needing to know?
    I made my own drip line last year using an old water hose, just laid it out along the plants and drilled 3 small holes in the hose where each plant is, then wrapped ove the holes with duct tape
    Seemed to work really well.

    I'm gunna have to lay that hose out to lay out where my plants go this year
     
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  37. EdmondDantes

    EdmondDantes Both winner in league and apparently at life, haha
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    Either should work. Plenty of drainage holes and I would put a couple inches of gravel or small rocks at the bottom of each container so you dont lose a bunch of soil through the holes.

    Personally, if you want to be able to move them at all (like in case of an impending hail storm), I wouldn't go larger than 5 gallon bucket but that's up to you.
     
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  38. gritzy

    gritzy I am a hurricane on the golf course

    how did you control the water? did you just turn it on when you wanted or did you use a timer?
     
  39. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    I used a battery powered hose end timer
     
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  40. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    It's amazing how fast these little guys are popping 20200204_173143.jpg
     
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  41. BayouMafia

    BayouMafia Thought Leader in Posting
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    I’m using rock wool to start seeds this year on the advice of the lady at my local hydroponics shop.

    Will report on success rate

    Previous years I’ve used Fox Farms potting soil which worked well but I had some mold issues due to overwatering.
     
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  42. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    Need some advice on pruning fruit trees. I am entering year three on some plums and peaches and have realized I fucked up. The leader is way too tall. Will I kill the trees if I over prune them or am I ok to cut lesser back to a much lower bud?
     
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  43. arrdub

    arrdub Well-Known Member
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    Would love to have some pruning wisdom itt too

    have 2 oranges (Hamlin, Valencia), a Meyer lemon, 3 peaches (2 Florida king, 1 rio grande), and 2 apple trees (have to check species again). The citrus are well established but most apples and peaches are less than 2 years and feel insecure about where they’re headed.
     
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  44. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    I have 2 10+ year old pear trees that need some trimming
    Last time I trimmed them about 6 years ago, I butchered them pretty good, but they live on and make shit loads of pears
    The problem is the weight of all the pears regularly breaks branches, but they hang on and grow back solid, but like a broken arm all crooked
     
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  45. arrdub

    arrdub Well-Known Member
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    Old pear tree in my yard (RIP) was the ugliest tree I’ve ever seen

    suckers shooting up everywhere, half rotten. I tried to convince myself there was some charm in it but just fugly

    I wasn’t that sad to see it finally go
     
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  46. StevieJanowski

    StevieJanowski Owner of a rug that really ties the room together
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    Some good info on pruning apples in this 3-part series from UMN:

    Some more good info on general fruit tree pruning from Mich State here;
    https://www.canr.msu.edu/beginning_farmer_webinar_series/fruit_webinars

    If you care to check out a couple books on the topic, I would strongly recommend The Pruning Book by Lee Reich and The Pruner's Bible by Steve Bradley. Both are great resources with tons of great info. The Pruner's Bible has really nice visual examples on how to prune all sorts of trees and shrubs.

    I'm in zone 4b, so I have no experience with citrus, but I have a bunch of apple trees and a few pear. I'm attempting to espalier a row of apple to border my veg garden this year, so I'll be pruning a ton for the foreseeable future.
     
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  47. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    “The Pruner’s Bible” is exactly what I need to be reading in trendy coffee shops to nail down some pussy
     
  48. StevieJanowski

    StevieJanowski Owner of a rug that really ties the room together
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    Pears tend to exhibit really vertical growth habit without training. Any narrow angle branches on a fruit tree are going to be weaker and more prone to breaking. Have you tried training the pears to have more horizontal (wider angle) branches? On my younger pear, I use some wood spacers to keep the branch angles wider coming off the central leader. Worth a try to reduce branch breakage, if you haven't already.
     
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  49. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    I've tried talking to the pears every year, but they seem to not be very coachable
     
  50. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    About 7 or 8 years ago I put an ad on craigslist that I was looking for a rear tine tiller that needed engine work
    Ended up buying a troy built pony that had a 5 hp Briggs that the guy said was knocking, paid $150
    Brought it home and fired it up, it was noisy but ran strong, so I filled my garden with it
    I have a couple of extra 5hp briggs engines that I know are good, so I didnt care if it blew up

    Little tiller has kept running every year until last year, right as I was going to do a final pass of tilling and it stopped and was smoking like crazy and wouldnt start
    I put it away. Too busy to worry about right then

    I finally pulled it back out last weekend, and it fired right up lol, was noisy as hell
    After a little thinking, I couldn't remember ever checking the oil in it
    So I checked and it's bone dry
    Put some oil in it and fire it up and its burning oil like crazy and would barely stay running

    I had been running that little engine for years with no oil in it :laugh:

    In the middle of swapping out the engine for one of my others now