OT: MGoGrow- Gardening/Edible Landscape
In my never-ending fight vs. Covid boredom, I thought it might be interesting to know who tends to the Earth around here? I'm really stepping up my garden this year and also plan on starting a food forest. For the garden, Im utilizing a HEAVY hay mulch, no til system, so its completely organic. This requires next to no weeding or watering also. Also trying to set up a gravity fed drip irrigation system, as my garden is on a slope.
For the food forest- (For those that don't know a food forest is basically a permaculture design that grows various perennials year after year. Im concentrating on understory fruit trees, shrubs and bushes.
While the upcoming cold weather has hampered my planting schedule, here is what Im planting:
Garden- onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, mexican gherkins, beans, garlic (harvesting in June, planted in fall), sunflowers, squash, radishes, lettuce
Food Forest (everything has to be deer resistant, as we have many deer)- paw paw trees, spicebush, st johns wort (medicinal) rhubarb, asparagus
So, who else has a garden or food forest? What techniques do you use? Whats your favorite crop? Any advice is welcome. --Also-- the morels are popping, so time to get out and find some!
We moved to our current location this past August so I haven't had much time to start on this. We have an acre here. What I have done was clear a boatload of Pokeberries as I don't want any potential future grandchildren eating them and cut up and burned (in the fire pit) a boatload of fallen pine trees.
I have one blueberry bush still in a large pot we brought from our previous house. Two pots filled with mint. Just got a ginkgo (cool living fossil of a plant) tree mailed to me so I'll be making tea sometime next year. I plan to get two cherry trees sometime this summer (I read you need two different types for pollination). We'll do some potted tomato plants on the deck.
Next year, I'll plant blackberry bushes, more blueberry bushes and probably buy or build a green house.
I tried blueberries and the deer ate them down to the nub in literally 1 night! We are on an acre as well (in Kalamazoo), so trying to be wise about my space as its still pretty much a blank canvas, besides the mature trees (which Im leaving alone).
I hear you about the deer. We had them walking through the yard (our city beagles thought they were giant squirrels) for the first two months we were here. We've fenced in the yard so it's harder for them to get in.
Same here with the trees. We have really tall Eastern White Pines all over. I only found one that needs to come down. It's half rotted and could fall on the neighbor's house. I'm leaving rest where they are.
Have you figured out a solution to the problem with those murderous drop bears (koalas) yet?
Yep.
Give a chimp a gun you make him king for a day; teach a chimp to shoot you make your planet his kingdom
Your county extension may have good prices on trees. I don't know if they sold trees this year or not. Google the name of your county and tree sale. They usually schedule pickups in March and April. Every county seems to have a sale in the spring. I used to work with a lady who got trees from the Arenac county extension. She had a cottage in the area. They had the best prices and selection at the time.
Thanks, I'll check that out.
Good tip!
Make sure you ask for Hank Kimball when you call your County Extension. He can probably get you information too about raising chickens. Or maybe about raising Mr. Douglas's chickens.
Everyday reader, first-time poster (came for greens). Northern Oakland county on 2 acres, we have 4 raised beds that are fenced from deer, etc. The kale, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, beets, carrots, chard and perennial herbs are out growing now. The peppers, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, pumpkin, melons, eggplant, tomatillos are in various windows waiting for warmer weather. Blueberry, blackberry and strawberry all planted last year, hoping for fruit this year.
favorite plant to grow is the luffa, wild cucumber-like grower whose vines can be trained around most anything (we plan on training them around the pool deck this season). Extremely satisfying harvesting the luffas in October (tough to grow in MI as they like the warmer zones).
stupid question- do you eat any part of the luffa or is it just for the "sponge"? If its just for the sponge, what do you do with all the luffas?
Not stupid, I didn’t know luffa was a plant until 3 years ago. You can eat immature luffa and it’s kind of like a cucumber. I have a grown luffa one the shower, but we love them for cleaning/scrubbing in the bathroom or kitchen.
ive been curious about gherkins, are they like a berry or do you cook with them?
They're just miniature cucumbers. Bite size. Really good pickled.
I always garden, but it's going to be somewhat limited this year. If it ever warms up, only going to plant tomatoes and peppers for sure, but I'm also researching what other veggies are unattractive to the numerous deer and rabbits in my neighborhood.
we have most of our fields in alfalfa this year because our cows and sheep are 'on grass', meaning we do grass-fed beef and lamb, and we pasture our poultry, too. smaller animals, leaner, no GMO feed, no hormones, pesticides, etc.
we usually do a small sweet corn field because everyone likes to eat it. normal planting is 5/5 to 5/25 every year. but we have to wait until the ground warms up. this has easily been the coldest spring i ever remember below the bridge: the majority of the last two months have had highs and lows 15-30 degrees below normal, respectively. it is supposed to snow on friday. yes, snow.
lastly, we have some raised bed gardens that we dump a mixture of topsoil and manure in and grow super-charged table veggies. the kids like it and we'll do that again this year, but it'll have to wait also with the cold.
All that sounds fantastic.
It's been chillier here in VA too. The first day of work from home over a month ago was warm and sunny and I sat at the table on the deck doing my work and I thought, hey, this is great. It's been cold and rainy every day since.
It'll get sunny and warm when they open the office and have us return to work.
Good for you with the animals, done the right way it seems. Do you harvest the alfalfa for hay as well or have just enough for grazing? Is your farm in Michigan?
yes re: hay
yes re: michigan, hence the 'below the bridge' comment
Do you drink the milk raw, like I mentioned in a thread yesterday? I had uncles on both sides of my parents' families who had dairy farms and whenever we had dinner at either home, it was served with fresh unhomogenized raw milk, direct from bessie and quick-chilled in the fridge. Once I got used to it, it actually wasn't too bad.
we aren't 'in milk' right now, meaning we don't have a dairy cow. they take more time and because of other farm/kid/sport things we haven't had one for a year+. when we do have a dairy cow we 'cold filter' the milk, meaning we basically pour it through a cheese cloth type of filter that is packed over ice and into a bottle. bottle goes in fridge although since its not pasteurized it would keep quite a while at room temperature. it is the pasteurization and homogenization of milk that kills all the great stuff in it.
Yeah, dairy cows are definitely much more labor-intensive. Grandparents on both sides also had just a few dairy cows too, and as they got up in years and my parents and then most of their younger siblings eventually married and left the farms, the dairy cattle were the first critters to be "discontinued". But I still remember (from when I was very young) Grandma B. pouring off the cream from the milk jar in the morning for her and Grandpa's coffee.
There is a company called tree pros. They use recycled milk cartons to essentially create small greenhouses for trees and also protect them from deer.
https://www.treepro.com/miracle-tube-tree-shelters
I use them on my apple trees in our food forest or the deer would decimate them. I tubed 10 trees this year for under 100 bones. Very reasonable.
I also do everything no till. I use straw and wood chips. Hay works well, too, just make sure it is composted well or you could be transplanting a lot of seeds. Depending on where you are there is a site called chipdrop.com that you can sign up for and get wood chips aroborists are looking to offload, sometimes for free.
I am jealous you can grow Paw Paw. It is too cold where I am (northern WI). I have heard really good things about them. My food forest doesnt have a ton of variety. 10ish apple trees, lots of raspberries, currants, blueberries, asparagus. Looking to get some perrenial herbs established this season: sorrel, lovage, lemon balm, sweet marj, walking onions.
Nice! You give me hope I can plant some different fruit trees at a reasonable price. Im going to look into those. Also, good thoughts on the mulching with the hay. The issue with the seeds dawned on me two years ago, when I first started, but I've been really good at keeping the mulch on,deep, so nothing can germinate. Since then, I've also found that farmers love to give away their "moldy" hay for dirt cheap that others won't buy. This hay isn't good for feed, but great for mulching as the seeds are all dead.
Was originally planning to do a 10 x 10 plot, but decided to go with raised beds since we rent our property and there’s no telling how long we will stay. Planned 4 4x4 raised plots, have purchased 3 so far and will get #4 shortly. Cold weather is posing an issue for me as I am stunting my seedlings due to lack of light (I think anyway). Will also probably build a small raised bed to house the herbs closer to the house.
Vegetables:
white and red onions, cucumber, bell pepper, Romas, brandywines, cherry tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, Bibb, romaine, spinach, beans
Herbs:
cilantro, dill, rosemary, thyme, parsley, chives, mint, thyme, oregano
Flowers:
Nasturtium, marigold
Might be missing one or two crops, just going off the top of my head. My house is up on a hill too and was planning to do a rain barrel with a tap that utilizes a gravity drainage drip irrigation system, so interesting that you would mention something very similar. Always down to talk gardening. My buddy is an avid gardener and got me the “week-by-week vegetable gardeners guide” which I’m reading through. Will probably use some of it to guide this season and then use it as more of a bible for next season. Would love updates on your progress; strongly considered hay as well, but the wife wants me to start small.
EDIT: we also have a few apple trees and grape vines on the property, as well as elderberries. We don’t personally do anything with those, tho I got a few pecks worth between the few trees. Very little production from the grape vines; mostly novelty. Coyotes eat our elderberries so I couldn’t tell you anything about them, before they are digested anyway.
Re: deer and other larger pests; has anyone ever used those repellant pucks? That was going to be my thing to try this year and I’m skeptical. They are apparently filled with dried blood from various animals and invoke the flight response on pests.
Rolls some ground lamb and rice in those grape leaves. Thats about all they were good for when I was a kid since the fruit was pretty tart.
Grape leaves are also irreplaceable in pickling.
We have long grown much of our food...and this is how I grew up as a child. We have about 25 cubic feet of freezer space and we can somewhere around 100 quarts of goods.
We have 55 acres out here on the Kansas prairie. At this writing we have 6 head of Angus cattle, 46 sheep, 16 chickens-10 laying right now, 3 great Pyrenees dogs and a gaggle of "barn cats". There are "meat" chicks ordered to arrive the end of September. We have a 40 X 60 foot garden, around 15 fruit trees-apple, peach, cherry, pear, plum and apricot, rhubarb and blackberries plants. We had significant late frosts this Spring that will likely render us fruitless. The garden, however, is spectacular-onions, lettuce, radishes, spinach, red beets, carrots, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, green beans and wax beans, zucchini, cucumbers, cantaloupe and watermelon with sweet potatoes and butternut squash yet to be planted.
We make all of our own tomato products-from juice to spaghetti and pizza sauce to catsup and salsa. Our hens supply us and family and friends with eggs and we order about 20 meat chickens that we butcher ourselves. My wife refuses to eat lamb (due to a "lifetime quota" as a child) but we have our own beef. We buy half a hog at a time. Yearly, we buy and put up 75-100 pounds of strawberries, 3-4 bushels of peaches, a bushel of concord grapes for grapes juice, 2-3 bushels of apples for sauce and pie filling, pears as our trees produce...and on and on. I make most of our pastas and bake all our breads, pies, cakes and cookies. There are additional special items-especially candy and deserts that get thrown into the deal. A bonus with all this is that our 10 and 13 year old grandsons are becoming increasingly involved, more independent and proficient at making a wide variety of things
I have been retired for about five years and have a long list of "hobbies"...and I love growing, processing and making good food. It is what it is.
Life. Fucking. Goals.
Reading this aloud to my wife, and she said "Sounds like our new best friends." This is exactly what we have for decades talked about doing during our retirement years. Probably now won't happen due to her cancer, plus not having a convenient five acres. We'd probably skip raising the beef and lamb, though, and increase our vegetable production to barter with a friend who raises animals but hates gardening.
So for now we are content to raise what we can protect from the rabbits on our tiny one-eighth of an acre of clay.
But it is nice to know that there are people out there living the dream!
If I wasnt in an apartment Id grow some Sour Diesel
My yard is small, so all I have atm are a decently sized strawberry patch, raspberry canes, and a couple of young mulberry trees.
This weekend I'm building a raised bed for vegetables and herbs. Something like 10x18 in size. Luckily I have a lot of really high quality soil, that may or may not have been used to grow something else several years ago, behind my garage to fill it with.
A man after my own heart
Good to see you. How's the quarantine going? They have you working from home? Bet you're glad you got divorced before this all happened.
If anyone knows anything about blueberry bushes, mine are a fail.
I probably have a half dozen planted in various locations around the yard, some for five years and more.
They are alive but barely grow. Maybe two feet tall maximum. Nearby blackberries and raspberries grow eight feet or more.
Whats wrong?
Check the soil ph. Blueberries need an acidic soil to thrive.
I've grown several blueberry bushes at a couple of my homes over the years with mixed results. My best luck was in rich moist soil with LOTS of organic matter mixed in, just don't let it be flooded for any length of time---the soil has to have adequate drainage. Heavy clay or very sandy soil won't work---thats where I've had the worst luck.
I read gardening and edible and was expecting something a bit different.
You can chew on my edible underwear anytime big boy!
Post your picture
I live in Tampa, so crops are a bit different here, and we grow year-around. I have two raised beds 2'x20' on the south side of the house where we plant all sorts peppers, tomatoes, egg plants and herbs. They are shaded by plantain and papaya trees - and a large oak tree with a passion fruit vine growing up it. I also have a green house where I grow green onions, culantro, and start other veggies (got some calabaza pumpkins started there). We also have 5 pineapple plants (soon to be 20), guava, sour sop and Barabados Cherry (acerola). Not too bad for 3/10s acre.
We've created a bee-friendly yard with a pond and lots of flowering plants mixed in like Jasmine and bottle brush.
I love gardening, but have let the garden go to hell over the last 2-3 years due to the usual excuse (too busy). Not this year. The garden is undergoing a major overhaul. I covered the 5 old raised beds and surrounding areas with landscape fabric to stunt weed growth. I'll uncover a few old beds later and plant tomatoes. I also installed 5 new raised beds and just put new soil in. Seeds arrive tomorrow. Lettuce, spinach, and onions go in immediately. Snow peas in another week or so. Then the warmer weather stuff in late May (peppers, tomatoes, beans). I'm experimenting with some new tomato varieties this year, but will plant slicers, cherry, and roma/paste. Also cilantro and basil for herbs.
I'm very stoked. I spent all of last weekend digging, prepping, etc. I forgot how therapeutic digging in the dirt can be.
First question I'd ask is if you live in an HOA, that would dictate what you can and cannot do; if you do, you signed on the dotted line regarding certain use restrictions.
If you're not in an HOA, then enjoy, plant a whole bunch of stuff... you may want to get some essence of fox (pheromones) you can place this around your lawn and the deer won't come near.
would love some advice. we live in ann arbor with a reasonably sized lot. i love the idea of growing food but feel a bit lost in the weeds. we put in a 4x8 raised bed when we moved in (6ish years ago) and i just kind of throw seedlings in and see what happens. we have a timed irrigation system and bird netting enclosing it and the critters seem to leave it alone for the most part. the first few years the tomatoes did well, but the last few years have been very poor. lettuce and kale do great. zucchini does well. peppers have never done well and i've given up on those (it's in the sunniest spot we could put it in, but it's not quite full sun). other things i've tried (cauliflower, cucumber) doesn't grow large enough to make it worth it. i tried bush beans, but didn't get enough beans off them to be worth it. i throw in a bag or so of something (compost, manure) before planting, but i'm wondering if i need to test the soil to see if it's been depleted of specific things.
i also have a couple a blueberry bush i bought and put in a few years ago. it seems to do well and fruits but i'm wondering if i need to be thinking about the acidity of the soil - does it deplete? would also love to plant strawberries and maybe fruit trees, but have no idea where to start, if our yard would work for them, etc.
tldr - i'd love a 'edible gardening for dummies in southeast michigan' that will tell me step by step what i should do.
October 16th, 2020 at 10:59 AM ^
Hello. Good thread! Farming is my passion. I have a field and we grow different plants and vegetable there. Of course it is not so simple to maintain all this, it usually requires a lot of time. But with modern equipment and tools all work became more easy. For example now I'm building electric fence with special charger from https://mygardenzone.com/best-electric-fence-chargers/ it will protect my field from unexpected guests!