Posted on 11/08/2013 12:23:38 PM PST by greeneyes
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Nice thing about these is that I can knock them down and store them when I'm not collecting as much stuff. Right now, with leaves falling and everybody putting bags of leaves on the curb, I've got a glut of compostables available.
/johnny
I have two compost areas. One is in the back yard corner and the other is in a garbage plastic. I put all our kitchen fruits and veggies in the plastic, kick around the
back hard, upright it, spill in some soil, seal it and wait for the next kitchen goodies to go in it.
I like it. The panels look to be relatively lightweight, the plastic can’t be terribly expensive, and it might also be a good way to clear a weedy area at the same time. It would help to keep animals out, too.
/johnny
Territorial does carry Fingerling Potato slips but they won’t have the 2014 season to mail until March.
Nice compost piles. You must not have too many raccoons down there. We had something similar for years and have gone to a hard plastic with holes drilled, plus it’s covered well. Too many raccoons here and it’s on the side of the garage with no windows, iffen you know what I mean.
/johnny
We have a creek, 11 acres of old woods lots of natural cavities. It’s like disneyland for them.
/johnny
We let some trappers in along our creek one year, in 2 weeks they pulled out 37 raccoons.
/johnny
The turnips doing so well for me are Seven Top Turnips. I've found another one I'm going to purchase for one reason besides the customers say they taste mild and creamy, and the reason is, they grow extremely fast and do that in spring as well as a fall crop. See, if you don't have food to buy, you plant and want it producing the next day. I always look to see how long I would have to wait for food on every plant I get.
From Burpee: Tokyo Cross Hybrid
Here is some of the info.:
“Best variety for a spring crop. Harvest in only 35 days at just 2” across. All-America Selections winner. Best variety for a spring crop. Harvest in only 35 days at just 2” across. Grows to 6” across. Tasty raw or cooked. Excellent greens.”
In 35 days you have home grown food, both greens and turnips. If you have some Walking Onions that propagate themselves once you have planted them, you can exist on greens/turnips/onions and some beans and rice you have stored. I must buy some bottles of pepper sauce like we had growing up. It had a vinegar base, was clear, and that on turnips greens/turnips with cornbread and butter could not be beaten - well, some crisp bacon would make it heavenly.
While I am buying these various seeds, I am getting enough to last for two years planting (see list of seed life below). I don't want to get into saving seeds from plants unless I have to if the SHTF. I do have instructions how to do that.
I did buy lettuce on strips because the lettuce I wanted was also sold that way so I have enough strips for two years easy. I wanted a crisper lettuce than the lettuce I just grew, and “Ez Serve Lettuce” seems to be what I want. I always read customer comments and this lettuce is a good producer and crisp. The tape it is on is 15 ft. long. Having the tape for easy planting is better than my cussing because the seeds are so small. I now have the kneeler helper so it won't hurt me to get down to plant this strip.
I bought a tape of lettuce from Lowes last year before I knew what I was doing. I still have some of that tape with the seeds on it and it is “Salad Bowl Lettuce” (guaranteed to grow), planted it in a long planter on the ground, which meant I had to bend over a number of times, and it was eaten by squirrels or birds or both and even the tape was gone. THAT WAS THE EVENT THAT STARTED ME ON A SQUIRREL RAMPAGE. I had suffered to bend over that much and that effort and money was wasted. Hell, no, I won't put up with that. Some freaking squirrels are not going to win that battle.
It took all summer before I thought up the net room to keep squirrels out, and put other net permanently over other plants (such as the Walking Onions). When I plant this new lettuce strip in the spring, that planter will be protected with net firmly attached just like I did with the Walking Onions in that other planter.
SHELF LIFE OF SEEDS
Bean 3 yrs. max of 8 yrs.
Basil 8 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Broccoli seed 5 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Cabbage 3 yrs. max of 4 yrs.
Carrot seed 5 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Celery 2 yrs. with max of 6 yrs.
Corn seed 10 yrs. max of 10+ yrs.
Cucumber 6 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Lettuce seed averages 5 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Okra 5 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Onion 2 yrs. max of 7 yrs.
Pea 3 yrs. max of 8 yrs.
Pepper 4 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Pumpkin 4 yrs. max of 9 yrs.
Radish 5 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Sage 3 yrs. max of 7 yrs.
Spinach 5 yrs. max of 7 yrs.
Squash 6 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Thyme 3 yrs. max of 7 yrs.
Tomato 4 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Turnip 5 yrs. max of 10 yrs.
Asparagus 3 yrs. (didn't get max)
Brussels Sprouts 4 yrs. (didn't get max)
There is this comment about this list:
“The table above has been drawn up from a combination of personal experience, talking to other gardeners, and researching in books and on the internet.”
Naturally, you want to keep your seeds dry and not in high temperatures. I have a bought package of numerous seeds sealed for long term storage and that is in the freezer as suggested by the company that put it together.
Mistake - I say I got the lettuce strip from Lowes “last year” and that isn’t right - I got it earlier THIS YEAR. I wasn’t into plants last year at all.
/johnny
Well, Hubby is the one that does most of the work. I just clean up inside, and hold the ladder for him and hand him tools and stuff.
I did paint the window trim last summer. It took so long I was embaressed when compared to all he got done-course he’s a lot more experienced, and less particular than I am.LOL
Well I didn’t know it either when I first started, but it makes sense, because they are related to tomatoes. I think that our gardeners will be well situated to make a few bucks or barter for some stuff in the future if they should want to or need to.
That has been my philosophy too. Hubby insisted on the pressure canner, so I made a deal that he has to operate it. So I get everything ready and screw on the lids and hand it over to him. Otherwise, I would just do the water bath canner and maybe make some jerky.
It seems to me I don’t get enough done. Guess I just don’t want to acknowledge that I am no longer 20 something.LOL
Simple pleasures are best they say.LOL
We have several area, mostly because I don’t want to walk too far. Hubby has his in the back forty corner. I tend to use an area on or next to a couple of my raised beds, in addition to the plastic compost bin about 20 feet from the basement kitchen door.
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