[Diana in Wisconsin]

Cross-Ping to the Weekly Garden Thread Gang!

Having managed a Garden Center for 10 years...I cannot express to you all how RELIEVED I am to be retired from that life these days!

I’m glad to see more people giving it a try, but I predict more failures and quitting versus learning and improving their skills for many that are jumping on the bandwagon for the wrong reasons. :(

We saw this with people buying baby chicks this spring so they could have a few laying hens at home. Lots of fatalities. :(

However - if any Freepers want advice, we are here to help - and we will! We have a HUGE knowledge base and we all LOVE to grow food and flowers and raise small (and large!) livestock. Just ask! We’re glad to help!

[Sacajaweau]

We have a small Community Garden with 15- 10'x10' plots. We have yet to fill it and people quickly find out that it's a lot of hard work and it's much easier to go to the store or farm market to buy a couple tomatoes, cukes, peppers or whatever.

15 plots and we only have eight gardeners.

[greeneyes]

Great Idea Diana. When I started gardening, the FR garden thread really helped me a lot.

I also in my research, ran across a web site that was so great-I printed a lot of the articles for reference in my garden planning and emergency planning files:

I have checked and Grand Pappy is still active and penning more articles even now. Some particular Topic Headings:

HARD TIMES SURVIVAL
HARD TIMES RECIPES
GARDENING TIPS-check out the Vegetable Recommendations for New Gardeners.

https://www.grandpappy.org/indexgar.htm

LIST OF MANY MORE ARTICLES-just a sample and there’s more topics such as survival, firearm topics, the economy, etc. He’s even got articles about the current Pandemic and Preparations etc.

Home Gardening Articles by
Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.

“The information on these pages could be useful to anyone interested in gardening. However, they were written with the average home gardener in mind.

By home gardener I mean someone who plants and maintains a small garden each spring using a simple shovel, hoe, and rake. These are the basic hand tools I use each year and they have consistently served my needs in my small home garden quite well.”

During Hard Times Should You Know Some Basic Gardening Skills? - Added February 19, 2011.

How to Maximize the Harvest From Your Vegetable Garden - Added March 4, 2014.

How to Select Vegetable Seeds for a Hard Times Garden - Added February 2, 2015.

Why Should You Buy a Few More Vegetable Seed Packages Each Spring? - Added February 2, 2015.

Vegetable Recommendations for New Gardeners - Added January 14, 2011.

Crop Rotation Strategies - Added September 1, 2014.

How to Grow Your Own Vegetable Seeds - Added May 1, 2007.

How to Harvest, Process, and Store Vegetable Seeds - Added May 1, 2007.

How to Grow Fruits, Nuts, Grapes, and Berries - Added March 1, 2011.

How to Grow Fruit Trees From Seed - Added March 1, 2011.

Some Bad Gardening Advice and Some Good Gardening Advice - Added April 8, 2013.

The Benefits of Mulch - Added May 17, 2008.

How to Convert Human Waste into a Safe Garden Compost Fertilizer - Added December 31, 2008.

Ant Hills: A Simple Solution - Added October 1, 2008.

Grandpappy’s e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com

[daniel1212]

https://primepatriot.com/2020/05/09/a-nerve-racking-time-for-growers-dnyuz (from New York Times) A ‘Nerve-Racking’ Time for Growers – DNyuz Across New York and New England, farmers and growers watched with worry on Saturday morning as a late season blast of Arctic air and even snow descended on fragile fruits and vegetables that had just begun to poke through. Workers at Westwind Orchard in Accord, N.Y., about 70 miles south of Albany, on Friday night sprayed water, molasses and kelp mineral on budding apple blossoms to help protect them against the cold. In New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine, people woke up on Saturday to find snow falling. The temperature in Worcester, Mass., fell to 30 degrees, breaking the previous record of 31 set on May 9, 1934, according to the National Weather Service.

[a little elbow grease]

However - if any Freepers want advice, we are here to help - and we will!

_____________________

We have a 500 foot long gravel driveway.

For around forty (40) years we have been using those very strong "grass and weed killers" from the stores to keep the driveway clear of grasses and weeds.

I'd like to know if there is a "less toxic" mix I could use that would keep the green down in the gravel.

Thanks for any help you may suggest.

.... we also have a brick patio somewhat like this (without all the fancy stuff) with white sand. Grasses and weeds can be drag in there too.

[a little elbow grease]

Having managed a Garden Center for 10 years...I cannot express to you all how RELIEVED I am to be retired from that life these days!

_____________

You're too young to be "retired".

;-)