Gardening,organics,sustainable gardening,food crops,etc

[Beth]

Posted by caren (here)
And don't forget the others (chickens) yaya - might we see them all? I suspect one will have a cast on it's toe, poor girl (the chicken)
Blessings,
caren

Sure will Caren, I'll try to get them all. I would have gotten pics this evening but we had storms roll in. The hen seems to be doing better though. Love to ya!

[Beth]

Caren, the chicks are running around the yard today and being unruly. So is Ladybug, but Birdy decided she wanted some attention today so here goes the hillbilly pirate.

[HORIZONS]

aye, that be there a mighty fine chicken on yer shoulder Elli May

[Beth]

Posted by HORIZONS (here)
aye, that be there a mighty fine chicken on yer shoulder Elli May

Thanks hun, I have a couple that are pretty tame and they just jump up. Just gotta watch for them pooping on my back, lol.

[Caren]

Hey Horizons,
Your hilarious!
caren

[1love]

Posted by dddanieljjjamesss (here)
My main concern right now is how to effectively grow food in New England to the point of being able to survive...

I have been looking at indoor gardening, and it seems feasible, but in the event that one can't pay the electric and heating bills there's not much you can do up here during the cold season.

I was considering buying a high pressure sodium light and transforming the pantry into a little garden. It would be enough fresh organic food to help my roommates and I get through a rough period. As far as outdoor gardening, I don't live in an area that will support it, and it isn't viable because of the weather.

Anyone want to come up with a fool proof food solution? A way to TRULY be "self sufficient?"

There is a book called "Four Season Harvest" which is available on Amazon. It's written by a guy from Maine so i suppose it is possibe!

[onawah]

Posted by Samarkis (here)
That's why "canning" was so popular.....one would grow things in warm times and "preserve" it for winter......Things like tomatoes,sweet potatoes,muscadine grapes....these grow like weeds and are usually hardy & then one can can them....if ya want fresh greens, learn how to grow sprouts....alfalfa,beans,other exotic greens......they usually sprout in a jar of water within 2-3 days & are fresh greens.....just rinse out two times a day so ya don't have bacteria growing amongst it......: )

Lentils, mung beans and clover sprouts are my favorites. I sprout flax seeds and blend them in my morning smoothie. Spirulina and Chlorella powder are good superfood staples for winter months.

You can also grow things like wheat grass, sunflower sprouts, buckwheat "lettuce" in shallow trays of soil indoors. There are some good full spectrum light bulbs available on Dr. Mercola's site.
http://products.mercola.com/light-bu...FQl_5Qod2nv4ow I keep my trays on the floor on plastic sheets near the windows with light bulbs on nearby.

[Nenuphar]

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Neat way to grow mushrooms...

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pibnCO3HKHI

Supplies are available HERE

I also think this herb spiral is beautiful and practical...

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HxGqUnHz-1A

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[Highwhistler]

Hello Friends,

About 70% of all the food that I've consumed in the last 3+ decades has been from food that was grown in my own back yard. I grow open-pollinated plants, which produces the seeds that will become next year's garden.

Here is a page on my site that has a half-dozen photos of my last garden, plus an introduction my unique growing methods that include no-tilling, and self-replicating naturalized vegetables, herbs and flowers.



Home gardeners with very small growing spaces can create diverse plant communities like in this photo below ... so that when the plants mature, their outer leaves touch. They are not too crowded ... the spacing between each plant is just right to encourage their rapid, robust growth, as well as their happiness ...

[lightblue]

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thanks highwistler, i do want to copy you.. l


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[Highwhistler]

GROWING QUINOA FOR LEAVES



One of my all-time favorite plants is Quinoa. I have grown it for seed, but I always grow it for its leaves.

The leaves taste delicious and are mild -- I think Quinoa and Lambsquarters are related -- and you can start harvesting the leaves when the plants are very young ... and continue harvesting every day for a couple months.

Our friends on this forum only need a little area -- say 3 feet by 3 feet of garden space. Broadcast Quinoa seeds so that they appear to be about 1" apart. Cover the seeds with a light sprinkle of organic, loose soil ... then water daily. Keep the soil evenly moist. When the plants come up and are 3" tall ... begin harvesting the plants that are close together. The plants that you harvest can be added to salads.

The plants will, of course, continue to grow ... and continue to harvest the plants until eventually the individual plants are about 8" apart. Then ... let those plants grow up-up-up and out-out-out ... to beautiful maturity. As they are growing ... you can come back each day and harvest a handful of leaves or more.

Never take too many leaves off of a single plant as the green leaves are solar collectors and the plant needs a good amount of leaves to capture the sun's energy. A good idea for the gardener is to keep the plants looking about as leafy and robust as that small patch of Quinoa that you see in my garden above, as that patch is harvested daily ... but you can tell by looking at the plants that they are happy, vibrant, and have enough leaves to continue rapid continuous growth (and leaf production).

[Highwhistler]

AMARANTH



This beautiful Giant Red Amaranth, is 10 feet wide and 10 feet tall. A typical healthy, mature red amaranth is 1/10th this size. To the left you can see a 7-foot tall tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) ... a plant that many gardeners are more familiar with.

The reason for this amaranth’s life-energy and size is not only attributed to my selection of the most robust individuals year after year, but also because the soil is so amazingly rich, alive, deep and loose.

The bed in which the amaranth is growing, has not been stepped in by any human foot in 15 years.

Not compressing the soil in any way over long periods of time makes a huge difference in the vitality of the plants that are grown.

[sister]

Posted by Beth (here)
Chicken coop is done! YAY!

Nice coop!
Thanks for sharing your photos. My husband and I have been on the fence about raising chickens for a couple of years now.
Seeing other folks do it is very encouraging to me

[Ella]

WOW Highwhistler, your garden looks amazing. I'm a very new veggie gardener, but I really want to give it my all. I'm interested in using permaculture techniques this year. And I really want to try Quinoa! Thanks for giving me some inspiration, thanks to everyone on this thread, I hope I can ask you all for some advice in the future and share how my project is going.

Right, about time to check out the seed catalogues me thinks.....

Happy gardening to you all.

[Highwhistler]

Thank you Ella & All!

If you have any gardening questions, present them here in this topic and I'm sure we, collectively, can give you several good answers.

Here's another plant that is grown in a lot of gardens -- the Love Lies Bleeding Amaranth that is visually striking, its an ancient grain that is very prolific, you can use it for cut flowers ... and the little birds (like chickadees and goldfinches) enjoy their tiny seeds, as well:

[Dennis Leahy]

To try to make the garden fun, whimsical, and inviting to my daughter, we did a family project to make the garden sign (arch above the garden gate.) I just did the carpentry; my wife and daughter made the cool art work.

I also bandsawed out a wiggly handle for the door, and we planted a lot of colorful veggies (both for extra phytonutrients and fun!), such as 2 kinds of purple potatoes, purple string beans, purple ("Purple Haze") and white carrots, purple sweet basil, purplish tomatoes, and 8 different squash of various colors.




A big day of tomato harvesting (3 or 4 varieties in this giant bowl.)




This was the purplish variety, "Pruden's Purple " that we grew.





Fresh garden salsa, "salsa fresca" - one of the best instant gratification rewards for gardening. Several kinds of tomatoes (the sweet Sungold dominated the flavor), onions, jalapeno peppers, garlic, cilantro. All organic - only the garlic was purchased. Organic non-GMO blue corn chips. Can you taste it?

Dennis

[ZuLiZ]

Posted by bluestflame (here)
companion planting , back in the old days they used to do this , course things were harvested by hand ...like planting herbs among the vegies to reduce the insects also certain types of plants compliment each others growth , might see if i can find some of them farmers almanac old books

¤=[Post Update]=¤

pumpkin vines can be trailed up chicken wire fixed to a side wall the pumpkins hang down like basketballs and sit nice on the plate when cooked and cut

Wow! Never heard of this I was thinking that pumpkins take up so much space due to growing along the ground. I will keep this one in mind when I finally get my sustainable garden up and running! Thanks..

[ZuLiZ]

Posted by onawah (here)

Posted by Samarkis (here)
That's why "canning" was so popular.....one would grow things in warm times and "preserve" it for winter......Things like tomatoes,sweet potatoes,muscadine grapes....these grow like weeds and are usually hardy & then one can can them....if ya want fresh greens, learn how to grow sprouts....alfalfa,beans,other exotic greens......they usually sprout in a jar of water within 2-3 days & are fresh greens.....just rinse out two times a day so ya don't have bacteria growing amongst it......: )

Lentils, mung beans and clover sprouts are my favorites. I sprout flax seeds and blend them in my morning smoothie. Spirulina and Chlorella powder are good superfood staples for winter months.

You can also grow things like wheat grass, sunflower sprouts, buckwheat "lettuce" in shallow trays of soil indoors. There are some good full spectrum light bulbs available on Dr. Mercola's site.
http://products.mercola.com/light-bu...FQl_5Qod2nv4ow I keep my trays on the floor on plastic sheets near the windows with light bulbs on nearby.

Wonderful information thanks! One thing I'm still not privvy to is if we get to a point where the seeds become hard to buy, how do we harvest seeds from alfalfa and other sprouting seeds - I live in the tropics and so they go mouldy really quickly which is something I've discovered even with commercially bought seeds. I have to refrigerate everything!

[ZuLiZ]

Posted by sister (here)

Posted by Beth (here)
Chicken coop is done! YAY!

Nice coop!
Thanks for sharing your photos. My husband and I have been on the fence about raising chickens for a couple of years now.
Seeing other folks do it is very encouraging to me

Same here Sister. We live in Indonesia where chickens roam around the village scratching in the dirt. However we would prefer to keep our chickens seperate - in the case of avian flu and other nasties around here. I just love your coop Beth and its given me some hope for our own. Do you ever let them out to roam?

[Highwhistler]

For growing sprouts in places like the hot tropics and deserts, you may have to create a small temperature controlled room (using a cooler or air conditioner) so that the air temperature can be held around 72 degrees.

I live in Arizona's high desert (which is much cooler than the low desert, of course) and I grow sprouts year-round. But even now, on warm days, I've noticed that the sprouts in the jars are getting a little too warm. When that happens I just find a cooler place in the house to put the jars. Moving the jars to a place that is 5 or 10 degrees cooler makes them much happier.

My thoughts on growing plant varieties in the garden to produce seeds for sprouting -- try growing mung, lentil, fenugreek and clover. They make a terrific sprouting mix.

In the garden ... wheat, sunflower and buckwheat are easy to grow to maturity. Harvest their seeds to grow wheatgrass, sunflower sprouts and buckwheat sprouts indoors, year-round.