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[n0razi]

If by "grow" you mean "pick lemons time to time from the lemon tree in my yard that was there before I moved in and requires absolutely no care or maintenance", then yes.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I'll share pictures within the next week (hoping for a sunnier day) but the garden is now almost-completely* planted.

Edible stuff: hot peppers, sweet peppers, cilantro, onions, scallions, a full row of tomatoes, cucumbers, lots of peas, beets, turnips, carrots, kohlrabi, mustard, potatoes, basil, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, broccoli, kale, and baby bok choi.

Pretty stuff: tons and tons of flowers, both annuals and perennials. Mostly lavender, gaillardia, sunflowers, morning glories, and peonies.

Still need to plant watermelon, squash, and pumpkin up on the berm. I also need to find a spot for brussels sprouts which I neglected to put on my garden map.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Growth so far:

This is the product of sowing a handful of mustard seeds last fall onto an unused plot. Pretty much all brassicas follow the same lifecycle as the white mustard: whether sown in spring, summer, or fall, mustard will spring up quickly and build up a taproot as best as it can to prepare for winter. The following spring, the mustard emerges very early and grows quickly. It is a frost-resistant plant and is one of the earliest leafy greens the gardener can harvest.

I am learning that when you think year-to-year in the garden, you can extract a lot more food from your plot of land.

These little mustard plants are peppery. The leaves are tender, and the flower heads are crunchy like broccoli, yet spicy. I wouldn't want to eat a whole salad full of these greens, but that's not the point. I'm pleased that I can get such a potent harvest out of a little effort and a little bit of planning ahead. Tasty when eaten raw and even better when fried up with some kind of fat and spices of your choice.

Early signs of rhubarb. This is another plant that overwinters. It is so hardy that it can be split and planted elsewhere in the hard.

Mature year-2 blackberry canes putting out busy leaves. These canes will die off this year and I'll likely lose the patch after a vigorous harvest. The neighbor cut down the large tree overshadowing this section over last summer, so while these canes will have a great year, I think it'll be too sunny to stay alive in subsequent years. We'll see, but I'm not really bothered either way. The plastic sacks of straw are inoculated with mushrooms. As it warms up, we'll see if they rot properly and produce.

This year, I'm attempting to grow peas, cucumbers, and tomatoes using string. We'll see if the method is effective.

In two months, this will all be bursting with green, so I guess this is the "Before" image to compare against later.

 

[gela94]

I would like to but I only have a west balcony But I still try with strawberries and tomatoes and I've a lemon tree that carries lemons at the moment but will take a while.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Here are some of my ongoing mad scientist experiments. The focus is soil and fertilization. I have a 1/2 acre yard and I want to eliminate as many "outside" amendments as possible. Avoiding artificial fertilizers, pesticides, etc.

Those chemicals absolutely work (former TruGreen employee and licensed agrichemical applicator reporting in ), but I'm attempting to make my yard more self-sufficient.

So I am "growing" fertilizer and compost, as well as growing food. I am not new to soil management, so I've chosen a few methods and I will figure out what works best as I go. None of these options were expensive. The goal is to amend my soil using self-sufficient options in the yard and from my household instead of buying commercial options from the store.

The inoculated mushroom logs from last year are providing a boon of half-decomposed tree bark. As an aside, my mushroom straw bags have not sprouted. I'm pretty sure I failed. But it makes no difference, since I can simply use that straw in my compost. I will try the mushroom bags later this summer since I have plenty of empty sleeves left over from my last attempt.

This stuff takes a long time to fully break down. The bark adds carbon, potassium, and lignans to the soil. I layer it on top of my compost pile. I have been clearing dead trees from a no-man's-land property between my yard and other buildings in the area (most of which are businesses). There are tons of dead trees, fallen and standing. So, my aim is to keep clearing the dead stuff and using the wood and bark for mulch and compost.

There's a daycare directly behind my yard and I would like for those kids to (eventually) have a nice, flourishing garden area next to their playground instead of a swampy-looking bramble patch with half-fallen trees leaning upon one another. I think a bit of neighborly land management will make that a possibility over the next year or two. We'll see.

The compost pile pictured above is mostly made of rotten tree bark, tree logs, straw, and a lot of green weeds from the yard. In spring, you can gather a ton of biomass merely by picking weeds and thinning out wild plants like tiger lilies. Very little compost pictured here comes from our kitchen scraps. I did jumpstart the microbial activity by pouring some milk kefir whey all over the pile.

The disgusting vat pictured above is half-liquified green yard scraps. It consists of a lot of water and about 5 wheelbarrows full of dandelions, cleavers, random turnip and mustard plants that survived the winter, wildflowers, and all other various weedy plants. The goal is to put as much green stuff -- doesn't even matter if it's a weed -- into the bin and let it rot down over the course of a month, give or take. This 55-gallon/208 L drum of worthless yard scraps will produce at least 250 gallons / 946 L of liquid fertilizer, since the stuff is watered down to a 5:1 (or even 10:1) ratio. Like the compost heap above, this was inoculated with a bit of milk kefir whey to jumpstart the microbial processes. Once the cauldron of awful-smelling stuff turns black, I'll know it is ready to use. The rotten scraps can later be put onto the compost pile when the liquid is all used up.

As an added bonus, hoverflies lay eggs and multiply on the top layer of the liquid compost. Not only will they help to pollinate my plants, but they will control aphid population in my garden. Aphids destroyed my brussels sprouts last year.

The compost pile, the liquid vat, and the worm bin (below) are not very active right now. The warmest days are only getting up to 65F/18C and nights are still plunging down to 45F/7C. Once it is warmer (especially overnight), these should take off much faster.

I purchased worms. I think that officially makes me an old man.

The worm bin will be an interesting experiment. I aim to get three products from it: worms (obviously) to scatter in the garden and in the yard, worm casings to use as fertilizer, and "worm juice", which is made by soaking the worm casings in water and using the filtered water as a fertilizer.

Between the milk kefir whey (produced by cheesemaking), the worm juice, and the disgusting vat of rotten veggie juice, I hope to start spraying a mixture of these three (watered down, of course) in my garden and on my lawn this year. I have a nice 4-gallon backpack sprayer so this will save me a lot of time. In a pinch, I can also inoculate the soil with sauerkraut leaves and/or juice. Building up the microbial activity in the soil helps to improve its health over time.

I predict I will be able to manage the weed population with healthier soil underfoot. That's the idea, at least.

And finally, here is a comparison shot to the mustard from last week:

The flowers will eventually drop seed, After, the mustard plants will weaken and die. You can see how leggy they are when packed closely together. This makes for excellent self-fertilizing "hay" that you can chop up and put right back into the soil once the flowers drop their seeds. In the meanwhile, I've been harvesting several handfuls of leaves and tops (which taste like spicy broccoli).

 

[Scopa]

Here are some of my ongoing mad scientist experiments. The focus is soil and fertilization. I have a 1/2 acre yard and I want to eliminate as many "outside" amendments as possible. Avoiding artificial fertilizers, pesticides, etc.

Those chemicals absolutely work (former TruGreen employee and licensed agrichemical applicator reporting in ), but I'm attempting to make my yard more self-sufficient.

So I am "growing" fertilizer and compost, as well as growing food. I am not new to soil management, so I've chosen a few methods and I will figure out what works best as I go. None of these options were expensive. The goal is to amend my soil using self-sufficient options in the yard and from my household instead of buying commercial options from the store.

The inoculated mushroom logs from last year are providing a boon of half-decomposed tree bark. As an aside, my mushroom straw bags have not sprouted. I'm pretty sure I failed. But it makes no difference, since I can simply use that straw in my compost. I will try the mushroom bags later this summer since I have plenty of empty sleeves left over from my last attempt.

This stuff takes a long time to fully break down. The bark adds carbon, potassium, and lignans to the soil. I layer it on top of my compost pile. I have been clearing dead trees from a no-man's-land property between my yard and other buildings in the area (most of which are businesses). There are tons of dead trees, fallen and standing. So, my aim is to keep clearing the dead stuff and using the wood and bark for mulch and compost.

There's a daycare directly behind my yard and I would like for those kids to (eventually) have a nice, flourishing garden area next to their playground instead of a swampy-looking bramble patch with half-fallen trees leaning upon one another. I think a bit of neighborly land management will make that a possibility over the next year or two. We'll see.

The compost pile pictured above is mostly made of rotten tree bark, tree logs, straw, and a lot of green weeds from the yard. In spring, you can gather a ton of biomass merely by picking weeds and thinning out wild plants like tiger lilies. Very little compost pictured here comes from our kitchen scraps. I did jumpstart the microbial activity by pouring some milk kefir whey all over the pile.

The disgusting vat pictured above is half-liquified green yard scraps. It consists of a lot of water and about 5 wheelbarrows full of dandelions, cleavers, random turnip and mustard plants that survived the winter, wildflowers, and all other various weedy plants. The goal is to put as much green stuff -- doesn't even matter if it's a weed -- into the bin and let it rot down over the course of a month, give or take. This 55-gallon/208 L drum of worthless yard scraps will produce at least 250 gallons / 946 L of liquid fertilizer, since the stuff is watered down to a 5:1 (or even 10:1) ratio. Like the compost heap above, this was inoculated with a bit of milk kefir whey to jumpstart the microbial processes. Once the cauldron of awful-smelling stuff turns black, I'll know it is ready to use. The rotten scraps can later be put onto the compost pile when the liquid is all used up.

As an added bonus, hoverflies lay eggs and multiply on the top layer of the liquid compost. Not only will they help to pollinate my plants, but they will control aphid population in my garden. Aphids destroyed my brussels sprouts last year.

The compost pile, the liquid vat, and the worm bin (below) are not very active right now. The warmest days are only getting up to 65F/18C and nights are still plunging down to 45F/7C. Once it is warmer (especially overnight), these should take off much faster.

I purchased worms. I think that officially makes me an old man.

The worm bin will be an interesting experiment. I aim to get three products from it: worms (obviously) to scatter in the garden and in the yard, worm casings to use as fertilizer, and "worm juice", which is made by soaking the worm casings in water and using the filtered water as a fertilizer.

Between the milk kefir whey (produced by cheesemaking), the worm juice, and the disgusting vat of rotten veggie juice, I hope to start spraying a mixture of these three (watered down, of course) in my garden and on my lawn this year. I have a nice 4-gallon backpack sprayer so this will save me a lot of time. In a pinch, I can also inoculate the soil with sauerkraut leaves and/or juice. Building up the microbial activity in the soil helps to improve its health over time.

I predict I will be able to manage the weed population with healthier soil underfoot. That's the idea, at least.

And finally, here is a comparison shot to the mustard from last week:

The flowers will eventually drop seed, After, the mustard plants will weaken and die. You can see how leggy they are when packed closely together. This makes for excellent self-fertilizing "hay" that you can chop up and put right back into the soil once the flowers drop their seeds. In the meanwhile, I've been harvesting several handfuls of leaves and tops (which taste like spicy broccoli).

When do you get time to play games? Lol.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

Let's put things into perspective.

My sister spent $600 on fertilizer, seeds, composting equipment, etc.

So far after ~8 months her garden has produced ~$20-$30 worth of veggies. Perfect, giant, juicy veggies. But the scale is scuffed. You can't make it worthwhile without planting thousands of crops.

It's just not worth it unless you own a farm sized plot of land. But even then, governments have to subsidize farmers here in the west...

 

[Scopa]

Let's put things into perspective.

My sister spent $600 on fertilizer, seeds, composting equipment, etc.

So far after ~8 months her garden has produced ~$20-$30 worth of veggies. Perfect, giant, juicy veggies. But the scale is scuffed. You can't make it worthwhile without planting thousands of crops.

It's just not worth it unless you own a farm sized plot of land. But even then, governments have to subsidize farmers here in the west...

Unless you subsidize it yourself using available equipment.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

Unless you subsidize it yourself using available equipment.

Those multi-purpose tractors cost like $200,000 a pop. Then there's the water bills...

I think here in NSW Australia farmers get $30,000-$50,000 a year from the government and sometimes they fail to break even...

 

[Scopa]

Those multi-purpose tractors cost like $200,000 a pop. Then there's the water bills...

Where we’re going, we don’t need tractors...

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

When do you get time to play games? Lol.

I still play games. The garden doesn't take a ton of my time.

Because of my work situation, I can usually take a 5 minute stroll, pick some weeds, turn some compost, and return back to my "desk" without issue. I don't invest a lot of time into the garden. Most of my methods are long-term and "natural" since that is conveniently the low-effort way of doing gardening too.

Let's put things into perspective.

My sister spent $600 on fertilizer, seeds, composting equipment, etc.

So far after ~8 months her garden has produced ~$20-$30 worth of veggies. Perfect, giant, juicy veggies. But the scale is scuffed. You can't make it worthwhile without planting thousands of crops.

It's just not worth it unless you own a farm sized plot of land. But even then, governments have to subsidize farmers here in the west...

There are volumes of books dedicated to the idea of a sustainable homestead using only an acre, 1/2 acre, or even 1/4 acre. The approach must be different than traditional farming but you can get high yields in very small square footage. For instance, with potato boxes or square-foot gardening or aquaponics.

No offense intended to your sister's attempts at gardening, but this is not a hobby where more money = better payoff. This game is all about leveraging your knowledge and ingenuity. There's a market built around people who prefer to buy their garden stuff instead of finding ways to do the same tasks for little/no cost. I do not say this as an expert. I say this as someone who has also frittered away money on gardening stuff that didn't pay off.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

She used the square foot gardening method, with some fancy soil (our soil here is trash, kills anything you plant in it).

Some regions are just not naturally arable, that would be 95% of Australia.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

She used the square foot gardening method, with some fancy soil (our soil here is trash, kills anything you plant in it).

Some regions are just not naturally arable, that would be 95% of Australia.

Dang, that's awful. It sucks to invest so much money and to have it fail. My soil is pretty dependable, compared to Australia.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

We have a high amount of salty sand in our soil near the coast where there is ample rain. Then the further away from the coast you get, the soil gets super dry and dead due to lack of rain. There are very few sweet spots and they're almost all used by vineyards. We import 99% of our food.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

We have a high amount of salty sand in our soil near the coast where there is ample rain. Then the further away from the coast you get, the soil gets super dry and dead due to lack of rain. There are very few sweet spots and they're almost all used by vineyards. We import 99% of our food.

One might import / harvest sea plants from Australia's own coastal regions and slowly fertilize inward. I'm just spitballing, not trying to solve Australia's agriculture with a forum post. I know that rainfall is a huge problem. It fascinates me how differently each region of the world deals with agricultural issues.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

If we had more fresh water, arable land wouldn't be an issue. But almost every state has water restrictions up to the suburban level. We could use nuclear power to desalinate ocean water. But our governments are scared of nuclear, so there goes that solution.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

This is a $15 aquarium bubbler kit + a pair of $1.00 5-gallon buckets. I drop the bubbler stones to the bottom of the bucket and it aerates the liquid. This keeps it from going rotten too quickly. Instead, the water turns into a fertilizer. This fertilizer can be watered down and is high in nitrogen.

Each batch takes 2-3 days. Easy, inexpensive, highly effective. Off-shot to the right is my worm bin, and if you peer into the darkness you can see the jar underneath the drain hole that produces worm leachate.

 

[Liljagare]

Well, temps are up and all frost nights should be behind us here now, so tilling and planting on friday! F'ing finally..

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Biochar, pea sprouts, and mushrooms have been the main harvests lately.

Pea sprouts can be taken at any time but usually I want the plant to have at least 12"/30cm of height before doing so. It's an easy mid-spring salad filler. I have a patch of peas dedicated 80% to harvesting sprouts, though I know I'll get a much smaller pea harvest later.

So far, I've gotten a pound of wine caps and two pounds of golden oysters from my mushroom logs. You can see the growth of these oysters in just three days:

(sorry for the out-of-focus first shot)

Biochar is another interesting linkage that I've been learning how to produce. It improves the soil's moisture, nutrient, and biology retention. However, since it acts like a sponge, it can actually decrease crop yields if you mix the biochar directly in with the soil.

Instead, it should be mixed with compost, rotting grass, soluble minerals, worm castings, etc. and left to soak up nutrition for several weeks. After it is added into the soil, it will leech these nutrients into the surrounding area while providing food and shelter for beneficial soil microbes.

 

[Liljagare]

Well, no pictures yet, but, everything on the colony lott is up and growing, never had the corn up so early! Everything has taken, except for the cucumbers, think something ate the seeds.

So, corn, squashes of several kinds, summer and winter pumpkins, beets, lettuces of various types, different herbs, strawberries. radishes, tomatoes and broccoli are on their way.. Will replant the cucumbers.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

More golden oyster mushrooms from the same set of logs as last season's harvest (pictured on the first page of the thread). On the right is a jar of air-dried oyster mushrooms and I'm about to dry this fresh bowl now. Dried mushrooms are my preferred way of storing them even though I do like to fry them up in a dish, too.

Strawberries and sweet peas are the first major crop to come in. I've gotten ~two quarts/liters of peas so far and many more to come. I'll take a picture of those when I fill a bowl of them. Strawberries are not as prolific as I would've liked, but I have to be patient. My plot of of strawberries is about 12'x30' and so there's a lot more room for them to fill up before I get big harvests each year. When we have enough, my wife and I will make jam out of them (currently, we have to buy strawberries from the store to do this yearly routine).

Blackberry bushes are going wild. I will take pictures of those ones the berries darken.

Wild grapes are also growing prolifically. No promises, but I'm hoping for a decent harvest which I will rinse and ferment into a simple wine in a swing-top bottle. Wild grapes are excellent for this exact purpose.

My biggest additions this year are six new apple trees and two cherry trees. They are pruned stems/whips and won't produce anything for another 2-3 years. However, I'm kicking myself for not planting these trees the day I moved in, because right about now I'd be enjoying a yearly harvest of fruit. Oh well. Better late than never.

The worm-bin and the compost piles are doing quite well and will be ready for a fall distribution of compost. I've sown cover-crops on the marginal parts of my yard to create a bulk of green biomass that can be used as "straw" over the winter.

Beets, carrots, leeks, onions, kohlrabi, cucumbers, tomatoes, turnips, mustard, kale, broccoli, and bell peppers are still growing but are not yet ready to harvest. The hot days and heavy rainfall have made gardening this year very easy so far.

I also released a nest of praying mantises into my roses, my sweet peas, and in a few other parts of my yard. You can buy them off Amazon for about $10 or so. What a wonderful, strange world we live in where I can have garden bugs shipped to my doorstep for the cost of a decent 6-pack of beer. There is a lot more fauna in the yard compared to last year: more robins, more worms, more dragonflies, more butterflies, more bees, more hoverflies, etc.

 

[Scopa]

More golden oyster mushrooms from the same set of logs as last season's harvest (pictured on the first page of the thread). On the right is a jar of air-dried oyster mushrooms and I'm about to dry this fresh bowl now. Dried mushrooms are my preferred way of storing them even though I do like to fry them up in a dish, too.

Strawberries and sweet peas are the first major crop to come in. I've gotten ~two quarts/liters of peas so far and many more to come. I'll take a picture of those when I fill a bowl of them. Strawberries are not as prolific as I would've liked, but I have to be patient. My plot of of strawberries is about 12'x30' and so there's a lot more room for them to fill up before I get big harvests each year. When we have enough, my wife and I will make jam out of them (currently, we have to buy strawberries from the store to do this yearly routine).

Blackberry bushes are going wild. I will take pictures of those ones the berries darken.

Wild grapes are also growing prolifically. No promises, but I'm hoping for a decent harvest which I will rinse and ferment into a simple wine in a swing-top bottle. Wild grapes are excellent for this exact purpose.

My biggest additions this year are six new apple trees and two cherry trees. They are pruned stems/whips and won't produce anything for another 2-3 years. However, I'm kicking myself for not planting these trees the day I moved in, because right about now I'd be enjoying a yearly harvest of fruit. Oh well. Better late than never.

The worm-bin and the compost piles are doing quite well and will be ready for a fall distribution of compost. I've sown cover-crops on the marginal parts of my yard to create a bulk of green biomass that can be used as "straw" over the winter.

Beets, carrots, leeks, onions, kohlrabi, cucumbers, tomatoes, turnips, mustard, kale, broccoli, and bell peppers are still growing but are not yet ready to harvest. The hot days and heavy rainfall have made gardening this year very easy so far.

I also released a nest of praying mantises into my roses, my sweet peas, and in a few other parts of my yard. You can buy them off Amazon for about $10 or so. What a wonderful, strange world we live in where I can have garden bugs shipped to my doorstep for the cost of a decent 6-pack of beer. There is a lot more fauna in the yard compared to last year: more robins, more worms, more dragonflies, more butterflies, more bees, more hoverflies, etc.

What do the Praying Mantis’ do?

Also, cherry trees are awesome to have.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

What do the Praying Mantis’ do?

Also, cherry trees are awesome to have.

The praying mantises are predators and will eat a lot of pest insects in the garden. Since I am not using any artificial fertilizers or chemical sprays, I have to use other means of pest control.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Top left: sunflowers, taller than myself by about a foot, so 7 feet or 2.1 meters.
Top right: writing spider (identifiable by the yellow and the zig-zag web vertical stripe) is new. I've never seen this on my property before and I've found three other webs with writing spiders in them. This one is the biggest, though.
Bottom left: bacteria clustering around soil aggregates in my new microscope. It came with a cool smartphone attachment, so pics are easy. This is helping me get a better idea of what's going on in my composts and compost tea brews, as well as checking the life diversity in my soil.
Bottom right: this is a tomato hornworm. I noticed it only because of all the white things on its back. Apparently, these are wasp sacs. My tomatoes have not suffered any damage from worms this year, unlike last year, and these wasps are why.

Soon...

Not pictured: I've seen several toads of various sizes, various species of hoverflies, one hummingbird flew by last evening, and more kinds of butterflies (tiger swallowtail and monarch) are visiting. I have more species of birds and a skunk has wandered by a few times. My biggest problem is water retention in the soil, and since I didn't do any extra watering this year, many of my garden beds underproduced, or failed.

I am spraying compost teas on my front lawn, as well as in my garden beds. Results are impressive so far. Next year I'm not tilling the beds.

I guess if there's a takeaway from this summer: allow an ecology to build up in your area -- including the soil itself -- and a lot of plant problems will solve themselves.

 

[Kenpachii]

Got this huge grapes area and i do absolute nothing with it. But they grow really good every year so this guy always comes in and takes them all to make some whine or whatever from it.

Also have some other fruit like apple tree's and a few pear tree's and they also grow really well.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Okay, another update as the year winds down, probably the last.

I got more tomatoes than I knew what to do with. About one third of my tomatoes went to waste, either through bug-bites, overwatering (to the point where they burst), or getting knocked off the vine prematurely. I should have made that italian tomato cruda paste again, but with the new baby I didn't have time.

I got several more batches of mushrooms over the year. Most of my logs have not sprouted (and/or may never sprout) but the few logs that have sprouted mushrooms have provided repeated harvests through the year. In my area, mushrooms still command a decent price unless they are the farm-grown portabellos or the white caps (which are actually just immature portabellos, same species). My favorite use is to gently dry them in my tea roaster and then reconstitute them in miso or pho soup broth. Mmmm.

Harvests each week have slowed down to about the amount pictured below.

Cilantro in the plastic container, radish, turnips, leeks, scallions and green mini-bell peppers. Not pictured, two pounds of bright orange carrots. Not a huge haul, but it takes a dent out of the grocery bill each week. It's satisfying to fine-tune the system to produce more food and better-quality food. I feel as though I made so many avoidable mistakes this year. Oh well.

Next spring I plan to make at least one large trellis tunnel between the two tomato beds. I will use 16' cattle fencing and curve them in an arch over the pathway. The goal is to intermix peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, and maybe kiwifruit on the same trellises and have them climb together. It will help confuse pests and provide a diverse environment for predators.

Still in the ground: turnips, a few scrawny beets, and radishes. We're already getting frost warnings in some parts of Michigan so I am not expecting many more harvests before the year is over.

My worm bin has been a marvelous addition to my toolkit this year. The worms are very easy pets. They eat my kitchen clippings and turn it into soil much faster than a compost pile. I have made about a dozen batches of "worm tea", a bubbling potion of worm castings (poop) in a 5 gal pail of water. I mix in 1 tbsp of un-sulfured molasses and 1/2 tbsp of hydrolyzed fish fertilizer. I run a 950 g.p.h. air pump with aquarium stones at the bottom of the pail and churn it for 24 hours. The process spikes the population of aerobic bacteria. This liquid can be sprayed directly on plants and on soil. If made correctly, it will restore even the most destroyed soils and it will protect plant foliage from disease and pests. Process.

I am also building a compost bioreactor. It is about 5 1/2 feet tall. I named it "Nurgle". I would take a picture but it's already dark outside.

I have high hopes for next year. This year was not as bountiful as I hoped, yet I am grateful for what I got. My strawberries continue to spread, my fruit trees continue to grow, and I tried a new thing (flowers) this year. Blueberry bushes will have to be replaced (they got torched by the summer drought). I think I'll interplant a few in the garden beds themselves.

 

[Gamerguy84]

I grew hot peppers this year. We just canned a bunch and got about 30 jars and made 10 jars of hot pepper mustard.

Also recently got pears from my tree and made lots of pear butter and jelly.

As a kid growing up i stayed on the farm with my grandma. She did things the old way. Wveryrhing we ate all year came from the garden. Raised pigs and cows for meat. Also deer and squirell.

I miss those rhubarb pies.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Soon...

 

[Scopa]

When this thread started I was like “lol, are you a prepper?”.

Now I’m like “TEACH ME OBI-WAN!”.

 

[kbear]

How’s it going, Dundun?

 

[HellforLeather]

I just started our first garden yesterday. Most of the garden supply places have been wiped out of starter plants so we have tomato and cucumber annnnddd thats it for now!

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Here's a few things we are about to plant heading into Australian winter. We just finished a raised garden bed this last weekend and soil is being delivered to fill two sections during this week, one for each kid to maintain. They love it.

Vegies section (son to tend) is cauliflower, carrots, onions, potatoes, spring onion, 2 lettuce types, brussel sprouts, snow peas and spinach. Herb section (daughter to tend) is chives, garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley, coriander and oregano.

We would love to give corn a run down the back of the yard and once our pool is installed later this year we will then know where to finally plant our lemon tree and hoping for an apple tree too.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

How’s it going, Dundun?

It's goin' good. Nearly complete with the beds and setting up a new "Nurgle bin" to compost more woodchips and leaves (should be done by Autumn). Gonna plant first seeds and sprouts this weekend (May 9-10) if the weather holds.

 

[Liljagare]

Got it all planted for this year, hoping it will be good. We had a frost take all the flowers on the berry bushes though, so that sucks, cherries seem to have survived though, and the apple trees.

Going for the regular, corn/beets/squash/pumpkins/tomatoes/lettuce/raddishes/cucumbers/sugarpeas - alot of different pumpkins/squash, since they do so well with longterm storage. A few potatoes, but everyone else grows those so just enough for a nice dinner.

I am worried though this year, tons of bored kids at home might mean more damage to the colony lots, have had lots of luck the last few, just 1 or 2 torn up corn plants, but other people have had half their lot ruined by asshole kids.

Oh yeah, we moved, so had to get all the spices back too, got tarragon/thyme/sage/parsley/rosemary/lemon chives/chives going too, everything is up and allready harvestable.. Nice, easy spices that come back year after year. I am still missing garlic and asparagus, but I am out of room on the lot. :\ Might plunk a few in a box on the balcony.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Thanks for the update Liljagare

I couldn't find it online so I hope you don't mind me asking: what's a colony lot? I'm guessing it is some form of community garden or apartment-complex garden area?

I've planted most of my stuff. So far I've harvested about 1/2 lb of golden oysters each day for the past week. The warm, humid weather is really making them sprout. They are an excellent base for soup and sauces, so I'm drying them in my roaster and will then grind them into powder in my mortar and pestle. This is the third season of golden oyster mushrooms. Originally it was just one cluster on one log (which you can see in the OP) but I have successfully spread it to several other logs in my stack. Potato tubers from last year have successfully propagated in their box, so it's nice to have yet another "perennial" food growing in my yard.

I installed two more cherry trees and two more apple trees a week ago. They seem to be doing fine so far. Everything is sprouting and flowering. Strawberry + asparagus beds are much thicker/healthier this year. Overall the garden is primed to do better but ya never know.

Also this is the first year when I get serious about herbs. Very simple to grow but I've only really messed with cilantro so far. What a dummy. I'm attempting basil, italian parsley, cilantro (again), dill, oregano, and ginger (maybe not an "herb" but kinda).

 

[jshackles]

My wife and I are buying our first house together. It's been an absolute whirlwind. One of the things we really like about it: there are a ton of raised bed containers on the property and we're excited about maybe growing our own food in them.

This is one of about 8 and they're all about 6ft wide by 40-50ft long. These things are obviously going to need a lot of work to bring them up to snuff but we're hoping we'll be able to use them to grow food.

The only concern was that we're not sure what type of wood they used here exactly and whether or not it's been weather treated with some kind of chemical that might leak into the greens. Anyone have any insight into that? Sadly it'll be too late in the season to plant anything in them this year most likely, but next spring we're hoping to get these up and running.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

jshackles Congrats on the house! Those beds look awesome. My family and I are 5 years into our first house and so I have some (solicited?) advice for you. Hopefully it applies:

- if you want to have perennial trees with fruits or nuts, set aside a few hundred of your local currency and put in at least three or four of each kind you want. Do this at the next available opportunity. In a few years, you'll be grateful you did, I promise. If trees aren't interesting to you, skip it.

- cover your beds with a thick layer of leaf mulch + woodchip mulch at the next available opportunity. Even if you do not plan to plant this year, get them covered. Chopping up hay / straw would also work well. Your #1 priority is to flip those beds into no-till, organic soil. This requires an input of organic plant matter.

- If you don't mind a bit of extra effort, you can scatter some garlic bulbs, beets, onions, turnips, radishes, etc into this wood/leaf/straw mulched area to see what comes up. These species drive deep taproots past the mulch and will help convert the soil on your behalf, even if your season is ending and winter is coming. Those specific plants will survive quite well over the winter.

- those wooden walls look like old railroad ties turned into a garden bed. They are treated with some heavy chemicals but have probably washed/leached out over the decades. If grass and moss are growing on/near the wood, it must not be leeching much, logically speaking. If you are genuinely concerned, good soil fixes it over time, especially fungally-dominant soil.

- plant flowers, even if you tuck them into random corners of the garden or into random beds. They are critical for good pollination and for a healthy variety of predators (to eat all your pests)

Video that gives you a good primer on my overall gardening paradigm. tl;dr it's all about the soil.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

I've continued getting golden oyster harvests every other day. I am cutting the stem back and half-drying them in the sun (gills up) to absorb a ton of vitamin D (research below).

A Review of Mushrooms as a Potential Source of Dietary Vitamin D

When commonly consumed mushroom species are exposed to a source of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, such as sunlight or a UV lamp, they can generate nutritionally relevant amounts of vitamin D. The most common form of vitamin D in mushrooms is D[2] , with ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Then I gently dry them all the way in my tea roaster (at about 70C), grind them into powder, and store in a jar. A home-grown vitamin D (and the other numerous benefits of mushrooms) supplement in powder form. Really good as a soup or sauce base.

Most store-bought mushrooms can be laid in the sun to get the same or similar Vitamin D increases.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Mushrooms stopped sprouting for the season. We're getting blueberries and black raspberries every day, and I've planted the fall crops. No pictures to share yet but I'll take at least a few this season.

Hope everyone's garden was a success so far this year.

 

[Liljagare]

Well, got a good harvest this year, 200+ ears of corn, and I am currently making gallons of red currant juice concentrate.. Picked buckets yesterday. Also got some gooseberries and raspberries to juice..

Though, it isn't juice? We make it in a boiler and you get a clear liquid, which is concentrated, you then dilute with water when you want to drink.. I don't think juice is the right word, but..

Got tons of pumpkins and huge zucchinis, red beats, carrots, thyme, tarragon, dill, parsley, peas, beans, and strawberries this year, need another freezerbox..

Locally raised pork, with greens from the plot..

This is the colony lot btw..

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Great work Liljagare , and congrats on your bountiful harvest! That's an excellent haul.

I'm still waiting to pick the last of my stuff (waiting for a frost). Beets, turnips, and some more leeks, potatoes, and onions. Everything else is dying off since we are getting 40F nights, consistently.

 

[GymWolf]

my mother grow some mint, some tomatoes and some fruits.
I'm not good at growing stuff.

 

[Threeshotgamer]

My family has always had a garden but the last few years we've really ramped it up. We normally do the usuals (corn,green beans,potatoes etc) but this year i tried to branch out to some new stuff like asparagus and canned it. Our goal has been to not have to buy any vegetables and we've accomplished that for the last 2 years. Next year im planning on adding some grapes and apple trees.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

My wife does the garden, I do the cooking. She's prepping now for cold crops. I'll snag some pics here and there when I get a chance.

She did a big upgrade in the garden at the tail end of this year, adding in additional raised garden beds. I'm quite impressed with all the work she's done since we moved in a few years back.

 

[teezzy]

Goddammit I love Michigan

 

[Liljagare]

Bonus feature!!

Todays production of Saft, using a saftmaja.. Good and easy way to get juice from any sort of berry, water boils in the bottom compartment, steams the berries that slowly breakup, and juice drips down in the middle compartment.

The finished product you dilute 5/1, so, Red Currant drink to last the winter..

 

[Liljagare]

Best reason to love the fall, it's mushroom season! A nice little haul today, fall chanterelles, chanterelles and, not sure what they are called in english, thornies..

 

[Hinedorf]

Got a tiny back yard but I grow what I can, I've got Tomatoes and 1 big pumpkin growing, pumpkin is still green though, Pumpkins are "asshole" plants as they take over EVERYTHING

 

[Liljagare]

Everything planted and coming up, new season has arrived.

Can allready pick all the spices, the first lettuce should be ok to pick next week. It's allready really dry here though, so have to water every other day. So early for it to be so dry.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Everything planted and coming up, new season has arrived.

Can allready pick all the spices, the first lettuce should be ok to pick next week. It's allready really dry here though, so have to water every other day. So early for it to be so dry.

Similar here. Lettuce, spinach, basil, parsley are all growing like crazy.