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We're still waiting for the weather to warm up enough for us to get out and start working on our garden area. We got a lot of the wood chips down late in the fall and we collected bags of leaves from all over the city to put on top, and then we'll put another layer of wood chips down. Been saving my empty toilet paper cylinders so my seedlings will have some protection until they're up above the wood chips etc. We're also going to do some serious container gardening in other areas of the garden, and grow "vertically", some of the vegetables etc., that want to crawl out and take over everything around them :-( Also planning to do some potatoes in separate containers rather than in rows. We haven't put in a garden for several years (the Sq.Ft.Garden method) and had good results, but we're putting in more stuff this time and besides, I want to do the Back To Eden method (somewhat). The soil at the Homestead is very good so we've got a good base to start with. The wood chips were free from a tree trimming business and the bags of leaves were free from running a "beggars ad" in our local internet service, we just had to go pick them up.

Edited by The WE2's
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I am doing some planning here. Mainly trying to decide what types of peppers and maters to grow. We will probably grow less this year. DH is just having a harder time doing physical things. We will probably put more things in large containers too. Hopefully it will help keep down weeding. It will be spring before we know it.

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Know what you mean Momo. That's why we're doing the Back To Eden system and containers. No tilling, no serious weeding and no mud when it rains :-) We're both well into our 60's and just can't do the old system garden without having serious garden equipment, and we just don't have the space for tractors etc. Tillers are hard to hang on to (for me anyway!) and who wants to dig in dirt with a hoe? Not me. We'll do the hardest work when we plant and put our "low tunnels" over the plants. We did that several years ago and started planting in March. We saw it was going to snow (we got 3 inches!) so we covered the hoops with some opaque plastic and the next morning there was actually moisture driplets on the underside of the cover :-) We cracked it a bit and our tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, bell peppers etc., didn't suffer a bit. Almost as if they didn't even know it snowed! I'm going to start some seedlings of my own this year. Want to get back into the spin of DIY...just in case!

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I planted (rather, I pointed and my son planted) some water chestnuts in the bathtub in the back yard, under a mulberry tree, this weekend.

 

It was the traditional day to plant potatoes locally too, but my one set of seed potatoes had rotted and the second set didn't really have enough eye growth to bother with. So they get to wait a bit longer.

 

While looking at the potatoes I found some unplanted garlic. It's really too late to plant garlic here--works best to plant it in October, and harvest June/July. I might do it anyway, when I get around to planting the potatoes. Or I might eat this garlic and look forward to planting next October.

 

I'm really afraid of my ambition outstripping my strength this year. The doctor took me off formal restrictions, but warned me to take it easy as my muscles and ligaments have become immensely weak. They need to rebuild slowly, or they'll tear. Like I need another injury.

 

I've ordered cage-building materials, some of which have arrived, but might leave them in kit-form for a while. I want cuy, the livestock form of guinea pig, but I might have to settle for rabbit. The 6-pound eating cuy is a lot harder to find (and a lot more expensive to buy) than the 3-pound cuddling guinea pig.

 

What I'm really looking forward to is restarting my bee colonies. I miss my bees.

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I planted (rather, I pointed and my son planted) some water chestnuts in the bathtub in the back yard, under a mulberry tree, this weekend.

 

It was the traditional day to plant potatoes locally too, but my one set of seed potatoes had rotted and the second set didn't really have enough eye growth to bother with. So they get to wait a bit longer.

 

While looking at the potatoes I found some unplanted garlic. It's really too late to plant garlic here--works best to plant it in October, and harvest June/July. I might do it anyway, when I get around to planting the potatoes. Or I might eat this garlic and look forward to planting next October.

 

I'm really afraid of my ambition outstripping my strength this year. The doctor took me off formal restrictions, but warned me to take it easy as my muscles and ligaments have become immensely weak. They need to rebuild slowly, or they'll tear. Like I need another injury.

 

I've ordered cage-building materials, some of which have arrived, but might leave them in kit-form for a while. I want cuy, the livestock form of guinea pig, but I might have to settle for rabbit. The 6-pound eating cuy is a lot harder to find (and a lot more expensive to buy) than the 3-pound cuddling guinea pig.

 

What I'm really looking forward to is restarting my bee colonies. I miss my bees.

 

You'd better behave yourself and guard your body! Don't know what your area is like, but is there anybody that you could "barter" with to do your garden work etc., for this year (perhaps giving them some of the produce) ?

Edited by The WE2's
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All I have planted right now is a few mustard greens and some collards. Well, and a half lick tub of onions and one of garlic. I'm not sure if I will do a garden this Spring since we are supposedly moving back to FL sometime around Summer. Guess I will wait and see how things are looking in April.

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In my teens I helped a family , where the father and sons worked building houses, so I helped do clean up after they were done and also worked in their home garden because the mother and daughter ( about my age) but disabled, and was able to bring home day packs of produce and quince fruit home every week and quite frankly it was nice for the dinner table. I made great pies that year! It was a great exchange.

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I haven't had quince in years and years.

I planted it, but got the flowering kind instead of the fruiting kind. I replanted it, and lost it with all my other new plants to a bad winter. Now...maybe in the fall.

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If an apple is a pear's brother, a quince is a pear's cousin, or maybe second cousin. You can still graft pears on quince rootstock. Quince is inedible raw, like a sweet potato, but when cooked undergoes a chemical change to become sweet. And it usually turns a rose or purplish color as it sweetens.

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If an apple is a pear's brother, a quince is a pear's cousin, or maybe second cousin. You can still graft pears on quince rootstock. Quince is inedible raw, like a sweet potato, but when cooked undergoes a chemical change to become sweet. And it usually turns a rose or purplish color as it sweetens.

Here in MS they eat them raw. I tried a bite once and they are so sour! Some put salt on them raw and say they are ok. Not me!

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Did a little work in preparing the garden area for spring. Burned the leftover stems and stalks from last year. Set up 2 new 24" x 48" raised beds which I'm going to put strawberries in. Still have to put dirt in them. These were freebies from work. We get in sheet metal in these crates and I take them home and paint them so they'll weather better.

 

Weeded the 2 established raised beds. One still has spinach growing. Picked enough to make us some spinach mashed potatoes.

 

Anyway, it's a start.

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Our weather here is still in the "fluctuation" mode...cold nights, warm days, cold nights, cold days, windy and some possible rain and mix for the next two days or so. No further gardening activities "yet". When it gets warmer and MrWE2 is finished with the new countertop, we'll see if we can get some leaves unbagged and spread out and some more wood chips on top of them...IF the weather is not totally prohibitive. I'm still not feeling the best. I'm thinking perhaps my bout with "something bad" in the food at Golden Corral last week set me off more than I thought :-( Almost feels like an ulcer or something, so I took a ranitidine tab. Will see how that works. I've made three visits to the bathroom so far today :-( Drank some mint tea a bit earlier and that seemed to help some.

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Keep yourself hydrated WE2. Hope you get to feeling better soon.

 

We're still having the fluctuating weather too. I've not even started any seeds yet. Going to wait until mid March to start anything I thing. I usually only start tomatoes indoors anyway and I won't plant then in the garden until May.

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Spent a miserable evening last night, until about midnight when my intestinal issues finally settled down. Ended up taking some anti-diahreal and then hunting up some of my aquarium supplies. Fishies need to be taken care of too! Today was pretty good, but I ate lightly and yes...drank lots of water. Only drank mint tea for this morning (miss my coffee!) and only water after that. Still very chilly here so no immediate garden plans.

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  • 1 month later...

Still haven't gotten anything planted yet. the storms have put a stop to that momentarily and I'm glad we didn't. The hail and high winds that moved through here today would have destroyed young plants! Did get some of the fence strung that will keep son's dogs out of the garden area and then bought some more to fence off a nice yard in the front for Abby. Hate to plant some wonderful newbies and then see a huge paw print mashe one of them down :-( With all the rain we will probably have to low-tunnel some of our veggies this year. Only going to plant for a harvest this year and will concenrate on saving seeds next year after we're "hopefully" moved to the Homestead. The four beds that are ready aren't going anyplace and we'll finish up the other five once all the fence is trong. I want to plant my squash, cucumbers, zucchini and other "crawlers" a bit different this year. Planning to dig a hole, fill it with compost etc., then plant the seed with a toilet paper cardboard around it. When it comes up I plan to put wood chips around it to "ring it", then we'll drive a T-post or ??? and train it to climb...vertical gardening. That way each plant will have it's own space. The time for experimenting is now...not when we have to survive off our gardens :-(

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Over the weekend we cleaned out a friend's duck shed (knee-deep in muck). I pitched it with a fork and DH wheel-barrowed it to the trailer which was hitched to the back of our truck. I was thankful our friend used straw with the manure, but the matting of it made the forking very difficult. Did I mention that ducks love water and the duck shed was extra wet? :0327:

 

Some of the manure was used to warm up my compost piles. The rest was used in the 'savings account' section of my garden. I've got tons of shredded leaves on one end of the garden. They are slowly breaking down but they could use a boost. :whistling:

 

I mixed about 30 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet of leaves with the fresh manure. I layered it fairly thin so neither material would mat. It was all done with a fork and wheelbarrow. :0327: We took Sunday off and enjoyed our church fellowship. The project was finished by Monday night and the rains came just in time to get my 'savings account' cooking for later application to the main garden. :hapydancsmil:

 

We're planning on selling the place this summer. I hope the next owners enjoy the homestead as much as I have. :hug3:

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We have planted a few things. One row of potatoes and 2 of onion sets. It's time to get peas, lettuce, and other cool crops planted. Not in the garden but we've planted a Catawba grape, a Mount Royal semi-dwarf plum and a Lambert semi-dwarf cherry. We still have 6 trees to plant--Hosui Asian pear, Yellow Delicious apple, two native persimmons, Jefferson filbert, Duchilly filbert. Apple and pear are semi-dwarf and the filberts are naturally small.

 

We usually plant around 19 rows of potatoes. DD1 and DSIL want to help us plant and care for stuff so they can get part of it, especially the filed corn for grits and meal and the popcorn, beets, kale and other greens. They live 3 1/2 hrs away from us and SIL's parents live 3 hrs away from then in the other direction. They will be growing the potatoes, winter squash and stuff to share with the kids. I hope this works out for them and us.

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When I came home last eve, I had 2 full rows of tomato plants up in my planter. This morning most of them are gone , there was a rabbit in the yard early....

My second planting of radishes are up ,spinach and lettuce.

Blueberries are blooming,pears have fruit ,the Keifer has 11 and the Asian 5 plus it is blooming again, peach trees, while not loaded have a good many fruit.

Potatoes are coming up, a squash is coming up on an old compost pile.

I too, have my place for sale

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I have known and used Irish Spring soap as a deterrent for deer in my garden.

Then I found a mouse hole in a hard to fix area, so stuck a bar in the hole. This morning I found the bar seriously chewed on, a dead mouse, and obvious signs that it died gut clean!!

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