Posted on 04/04/2014 12:54:31 PM PDT by greeneyes
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Alfalfa meal is a great organic fertilizer. Alfalfa is also something that can be grown at home if you have the space. Makes great feed as well as great fertilizer.
I am not big on soy either, but I am not allergic to it. I did have some edame that was in a container of assorted veggie platter for dipping. It was good in stir fry, but is not something that I would normally buy, nor grow. For beans I like Pintos and Navy or Great Northern as well as green snap beans.
I have a little less than 200 sq. ft, and 96 sq. feet of that is quite close to a walnut tree. I work around that by using containers for the Tomatoes and Peppers at least once every 3 years.
Hubby has about 1000 sq. ft. for regular garden, and then he has his fruit trees, grapes, and berry bushes. We are blessed with several native species: Walnut trees, butternut, hickory and persimmon trees. Blackberry bushes, honey dew bushes, wild roses.
I don’t add high nitrogen materials to the space where I plant those carrots and other root veggies. After the heavy feeders such as tomatoes and peppers, I just add in some compost and plant the root veggies like carrots.
Do you ever grow any winter cover crops?
Not much happening around here, its been in the low 40's and we still have snow piles on the found and the valley is pretty much still covered. I did get a new backyard composter, square black, snap together, and we put it in a new spot where hubby won't snow plow into it and bust it up.
Looks yummy and not too much fruit. Perfect!
Make come chutney - cranberries, some Texas carmelized onions, maybe a few pinenuts.
Those are looking good.
I checked my farmer’s almanac, and it didn’t start until November 2013, so no luck there. I have the full year for 2014 though, so I can give you the Oct. 2014 moon phases:
First quarter 1st
Full Moon 8th
Last quarter 15th
New Moon 23rd
First quarter 30th
Plant root crops on 10,11,14,15 per the almanac
Thank you! You are up pretty late for a part time Farmer?
During the week, I have to get up at 6:30 am and get my grand daughter on the bus at 7am. Then I drink warm herbal tea or milk and go back to sleep for a while.
Sometimes my cycle goes in 3s and 2s. I sleep for 3 hours, can't go back to sleep, so get up and read or put something in the crock pot, check the Internet, and then in about 2 hours, I can settle down and sleep again. Then I sleep for 3 hours, and then up for two. Eventually, I get 8 to 9 hours.
I do have some ambien, but I won't use that unless I have an appointment in the AM, then I take it to make sure I have a good night's sleep so I am not too sleepy to drive.
I have tried just staying up all night and all day, so I would go to sleep, but I don't. I just tired and grumpy but it doesn't help me go to sleep any better the next night.
My Dr. told me to quit trying. He believes I have a sleep disorder where my circadian rhythms are out of sinc. He told me to just sleep every time I am sleepy and make sure to get at least 8 hours any way I can, including afternoon naps if needed.
On October 15, 2013 the moon was waxing gibbous at 85%. The full moon was on October 18th 2013.
Thanks, greeneyes. I’m pretty excited about that parsley and the other little green babies!
Are you really going to hold out til May to plant???
I thought about lettuce, but after my disasters last year, I just can’t bring myself to try them again yet. I have purchased several different varieties of seed that supposedly are more heat tolerant, but I’m already getting a pretty full dance card! Just curious, would lettuce be a shady kind of plant?
Great idea about hitting up a restaurant for coffee grounds. Bet you can get some of those! I haven’t committed to working on an experimental compost heap yet, but I’m working my way toward it! It would be so simple to once a week get a few of them to put on a pile.
Thanks, Silentgypsy! How is your garden doing?
Thanks for the suggestions on good (free/cheap)bio-resources! You’ve got the wheels in my head turning! We also have a source for free sand, so we have that covered.
We have lots of leaves in our yard too - pecan, maple, cottonwood, elm... a little oak. I started using them for mulch at the end of the season last fall. But I shall certainly begin putting them into the tilling process.
Snow Peas came from seedsofchange.com; “Sugar Pod 2 Snow Pea” - totally organic. Thanks for the shade suggestions as well; I may go for the carrots and definitely some herbs.
Actually, a neighbor asked us to take an orphaned puppy because the mama rejected her, so Mr. Sg and I have been occupied thus lol! I thank The Creator that the little tyke celebrated her fourth week last Tuesday. Here’s hoping she continues to do well. Will post photos as soon as I upload them. The daffodils I planted last year are doing well, and the naked ladies (sp?) my friend gave us are sprouting. Yay for spring!!!!
I usually plant my lettuce in late September and then cover it and harvest it during the winter when we get an occasional nice day. Then I don't even have to plant spring lettuce. I have the plants thinned out from winter harvest, and they grow so much slower that crowding is not an issue.
By the time normal planting comes around, the lettuce already has a head start, and good roots, so the spring cold and variable temps don't bother it. It lasts till about mid June.
So I plant some lettuce Mid May where it will get afternoon shade, and have lettuce during the rest of the summer and fall from that.
Yes, lettuce will appreciate the shade when the full heat of summer hits, so I guess you could call it shady.
Our extension service advises May to 1st week of June for many of our “summer veggies”. I have found that starting tomatoes in April with an eye to transplanting in May or 1st week in June works pretty well.
Last year May was more like April and a lot of my summer stuff failed due to the damp, wet, and cool weather. I had to replant the stuff at the end of May and up until June 15.
I don't like double planting/failure.
So this year I am going to make sure the warm weather is really here before I put out all that effort. So far, April is feeling more like the first week of normal March or maybe even the end of February.
Indoors is it for a while I'm afraid. Even temp of around 70 degrees, regular watering at much less effort. When the weather is nice, I'd rather just plant in the ground, but it's just not nice.
It's really simple to put stuff in a milk jug or coffee can under the sink, and dump it once a week onto a compost heap too. The main thing is to have lots of air for the heap.
I bought one of those composters that looks like a tall trash can for 100 bucks. It has lots of air spaces every 3 inches. It's about 4 feet tall. Has a door on the side at the bottom that you can pull up to get the finished compost from the bottom.
So once a week or more often if the mood strikes, I dump the compost and throw a bunch of leaves or shredded paper on top of it. Dump a pot of dirt in there now and then too.
It never really smells, because of the air circulation. When you close up a container, that's when you get nasty smells, due to anaerobic bacteria.
Now you could take an old five gallon bucket and drill plenty of air holes in it and use that for a composter. When it's full, Put the lid on securely. Let it be in the sun and lay it down and let the kids roll it around a bit to keep it churned.
Lots of containers can be used for compost. And there's lots of ways to do composting that I have tried.
In the fall, I sometimes just dig a hole at one end of the garden, and dump the milk jug of stuff in it throw in a handful of leaves, and put the dirt back on top. Then just work my way up to the other end of the bed that way. It'll finish up before my composter does that's for sure.
We have several areas where we just made a big round circle of chicken wire and threw in all the leaves, and some small twigs, remainder of plants that been harvested, and pulled up for a followup second crop, and stuff for yard compost.
Those we locate in a space where we'd like to have a garden. When the yard waste is fully composted, then we get it ready to plant and that's how we expand our garden plots. Eventually, I guess we'll run out of room for that, but then we'll just let each garden plot take a turn at being the yard compost pile.
Do potatoes need full sunlight?
I have an aging Apricot tree that I want to cut down but the old girl still gives huge amounts of fruit every year on the left over branches that are left.
Anyway, If I plant some potatoes near the apricot tree, the area will not be blessed with sunlight (I have huge pecan and walnut trees on the property next door, I’m amazed my backyard gets any sun at all.)
Ahhh... you answered my question...Thanks!
Now that’s pretty good isn’t it? Question answered before it was asked. LOL
As for grass clippings adding nitrogen as you shared plus use for mulch and adds in to compost. I live in a residential neighborhood and often pick up bags of cut lawn grass at curbsides during the season. Can never have enough mulch or compost and grass clippings work great and breaks down quick too. The neighbors must think I’m an idiot but I don’t care—free mulch with pickup truck.
Good tip.
Tnx,
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