You MUST Start a Garden NOW

The How Do Gardener ^ | February 26, 2022 | The How Do Gardener

[orsonwb]

Rick Bickling, The How Do Gardener, describes how inflation, rising fuel costs, and the Russia/Ukraine conflict will cause food prices to rise dramatically and how many items will just not be available. See what the experts are forecasting and see why you must start a garden now.

[orsonwb]

Sounds good.

[orsonwb]

I’ve heard of him but haven’t read his books yet. Will check him out. Thanks.

[orsonwb]

I’ve heard some good feedback on that. But, to me at least, seems a lot more complicated than just planting in soil. Good to look into more though.

[Jane Long]

Pretty elaborate?

What keeps the water pumping/circulating, etc?

Requires electrickity, right?

I love the thought....just wondering how involved...compared to say...container gardening.

[Ellendra]

I’m just the opposite. I’ve tried to grow zucchini for six years, and the bugs get them every time.

Squash vine borers? If so, you might get better results planting squash from the C. moschata branch of the squash family. They tend to have vines solid enough that borers have a hard time getting in. "Zucchetta Rampicante" is a good one. It makes a great zucchini, and if they get too big you can also let them ripen fully and use them as a winter squash.

[Bob434]

We get tiny biting ants on our raspberries- they don’t hurt or anything, but are annoying-

[Bob434]

lol- good idea=- will have to try that-

[Bob434]

lol- good idea=- will have to try that- Could cover the real tomatoes- and hand the red fake ones outside the netting, and the animals will get frustrated and not even bother trying for the real ones- -

[Ellendra]

Hybrids either don’t produce viable seeds or they revert back to the parent plant, which may not be what works best for you.

The majority of hybrids produce viable seeds, but the plants that grow from those seeds will have some unpredictable combination of traits from the grandparent plants. Some will be better that the first-generation hybrid, some will be worse, some will be nearly identical, and some will be similar in quality but with different traits than the original.

If you continue to save seeds every year from the plants you like best, eventually those traits should stabilize. This is where new varieties come from.

[metmom]

Or one could just pee in the garden.

[metmom]

Squash vine borers can be defeated by wrapping the stems in foil just at ground level.

Also, as the plant grows, every few feet, bury part of the stem under dirt and weigh it down with a rock. It will put out new roots there and if the vine borers get the stem the new roots will provide the water and nutrients the plant needs to keep it alive.

There is also the factor of timing. Start the plants in large peat pots and don’t put them in the ground until after the vine borer egg laying time is over. It will be a later crop, but you will still get one.

Plus there is the option of row covers over the plants until vine borer season is over.

Another thing to help stop pests is to burn plant waste at the end of the season and if, when you are digging in the garden, you find the grubs in the soil, squash them.

[metmom]

I have the same curse on my potatoes and cabbage.

I had great success with planting my potatoes as bucket potatoes.

Cut the bottoms out of white plastic buckets and place them on the ground. Inside the buckets, lay the seed potato pieces right on top of the dirt and cover with wood chips.

I had my best crops that way. The potatoes I planted in the dirt got half eaten by slugs but the ones in the wood chips were untouched and a great size.

The added bonus is that they come out so clean when you harvest them.

I did have a battle with tomato hornworms one year and now regularly go out and monitor my plants about twice a week and pick off bugs. Nasty business but it helps a lot. UV flashlights are great for finding the critters at night.

One thing I am trying this year is beneficial insects from this place - Arbico organics.

https://www.arbico-organics.com/

[metmom]

The best places I have found for seeds are Territorial Seed Co, Jung Seeds, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, and Pinetree Seeds.

[metmom]

That is a fantastic idea.

[Pollard]

Too strong. Pee in bottles, age for at least a few days, then dilute 10:1

I guess there’s a book on the subject called Liquid Gold. For extreme times, there’s another book called The Humanure Handbook.

[GingisK]

I think you could hand pump, or dump buckets of water/nutrient into the system. Solar panels should help a lot.

The water flow is not supposed to be fast; and, the grow pipes are almost horizontal. An elevated tank would supply steady flow for a time, then you'd have to pump it back up again.

[Texas resident]

Going around the horn, I have:
Tomatoes, serrano peppers, onions, carrots, cantaloupe, artichokes, bell peppers and a baby avacado tree.

I grow enough so that I can barter with my neighbor for venison.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yes we just had collards the other night and I took a bag to my sister. They were great. We had them at Christmas and New Years also. I’m making salads with the spinach and Swiss chard.

[orsonwb]

That’s a good variety of produce. Barter will probably become even more important before too long.

[Augie]

Growing some/most/all of your own food is, and has always been, a prudent thing to do.

I’m adding a greenhouse to our self-sufficiency arsenal now. If the weather cooperates I’ll finish it up this weekend.