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BaseballPCHiker posted:Just placed my seed order at Seed Savers and Burpee! Use the leaves as mulch. Has anyone here used Fruition Seeds? They sort of cater to folks in the north which is nice. I placed an order si we'll see.
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Feb 26, 2020 21:32
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Also, while everyone's buying seeds, reminder that Baker Creek / rareseeds.com associates with Cliven Bundy. A lot of us are boycotting them after that came up last year.
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Feb 26, 2020 21:37
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Fitzy Fitz posted:Also, while everyone's buying seeds, reminder that Baker Creek / rareseeds.com associates with Cliven Bundy. A lot of us are boycotting them after that came up last year. Great reminder, gently caress white supremacy! If folks are looking for flower seeds (a bit off topic, I know), might I recommend Floret Flowers? They're a local farm an easy drive from my house (PNW) and their selection of stuff is really amazing. Lots of stuff I've never seen for sale elsewhere and they typically put twice as many seeds in the seed packs as advertised. Yes the site is twee as gently caress but my wife was absolutely thrilled when I showed her what I picked out so there you go. I'm doing the whole front flower bed in a combination of Dahlias, Globe Amaranth and Celosia. I've already started these and others from their shop and everything is germinating really, really well. 
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Feb 26, 2020 21:49
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SubNat posted:I did the same approach with some black bamboo and lemon seeds I planted last year. This is exactly right. It's an excellent approach if you are dealing with seeds of questionable viability, too. You use more seeds with this method than you do with others, but I still have seeds from 2015 so that's not really a concern for me. That is awesome about the lemon seeds! I want to try that now.
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Feb 26, 2020 21:53
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Solkanar512 posted:Great reminder, gently caress white supremacy! For the Baker's Creek stuff I thought they just were going to have him speak on dry farming techniques at some event and they cancelled his appearance in response to objections which pointed out his racist bullshit? Do they have other ties with Bundy?
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Feb 26, 2020 22:05
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captkirk posted:For the Baker's Creek stuff I thought they just were going to have him speak on dry farming techniques at some event and they cancelled his appearance in response to objections which pointed out his racist bullshit? Do they have other ties with Bundy? They went to visit him in jail and wrote up a thing in support of his work. I believe it was later taken down but I'm sure others have better remembered the details. It's a real shame, they sell some very cool seeds. Not cool enough to support that kind of racist poo poo.
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Feb 26, 2020 22:09
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:This is exactly right. It's an excellent approach if you are dealing with seeds of questionable viability, too. You use more seeds with this method than you do with others, but I still have seeds from 2015 so that's not really a concern for me. Yeah, just make some lemonade, or lemon syrup or something and keep the seeds. Wash 'em, and pop 'em in a bag. I think mine took 2 weeks to start germinating, with some of them taking up to a month. I imagine having a heat mat or something would speed it up more. Really nice and deep green plants. Surprisingly thorny though. (For some reason there's a myth that only organic lemon seeds can grow, but I assume that's just people mixing up organic/non with stuff like sterile hybrids, etc.) And absolutely, I do it with all the questionable seeds I occasionally grab online, since viability on those are always a bit wack. (Still haven't managed tea trees though, even after 3 attempts.) Lemon seeds are surprisingly easy to grow in a pot indoors too, one of my bigger ones (only grown under a cheap ikea lamp with a 1500lumen bulb totalling ~16usd) is a good... 30 cm / 1 foot tall, despite sprouting in august, and mostly growing in a cool room over the winter.
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Feb 26, 2020 22:34
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Solkanar512 posted:They went to visit him in jail and wrote up a thing in support of his work. I believe it was later taken down but I'm sure others have better remembered the details. They talked about his work as a farmer, not politics. He was/is the only person with a particular heirloom melon so it was mostly about heirloom plants and how important it is to keep these foods from disappearing. Said he was a "land rights activist" and claimed they weren't really sure why he was in jail. You'd have to be in the blackest of media blackouts. They did not talk about or support anything he does other than farming stuff. He was supposed to speak at their yearly gathering thing, but that got cxld. I won't order from them. I mean it is very very very possible they do not support his political etc views and really just wanted to talk about farming. Many people try to stay non political, but the whole thing rubbed me the wrong way. Frankly, if they said we know a lot of people don't like him and hate his politics, but we really want to talk about heirloom seeds, here is an interview I MIGHT feel differently. Maybe I wouldn't be shocked if more than a few of the seed companies have similar feelings about land rights. EDIT:some stuff https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2019/04/29/cliven-bundy-visit-baker-creek-heirloom-seeds-cancelled/3617902002/ Dukket fucked around with this message at 23:03 on Feb 26, 2020 |
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Feb 26, 2020 22:51
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Still have a foot of snow in my garden bed and about a 4 foot pile of leafs that I wasnt able to bag up before winter. How messed up will the garden bed be with all of those leaves? My plan is to bag them up ASAP, then spread out compost from my bin and use the garden claw to loosen and stir up the soil, then leave it sit for a while. It'd be probably May until I can actually plant anything outside. Assuming they're not black walnut leaves the soil should actually be healthier under those leaves than if left as bare soil over winter. Dukket posted:Use the leaves as mulch. This. Everything gets several inches of leaf mulch in the fall. No soil is left bare. Come planting time the mulch is pulled back to expose the soil for direct seeding or spreading a layer of compost if it's time for that bed to be treated. The mulch can be left in place and transplants poked through it into the soil. No cultivation necessary other than what occurs digging up root crops. I'm lazy and No Dig works. Why are you planning to bag the leaves?
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Feb 27, 2020 00:35
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Dukket posted:They talked about his work as a farmer, not politics. He was/is the only person with a particular heirloom melon so it was mostly about heirloom plants and how important it is to keep these foods from disappearing. There was an internal facebook post about it supporting Bundy that put them in the argument in a not good way. It's back in the thread somewhere, but I'm too lazy to go look it up. I think everyone might also agree that it's more than fair to have feelings about land use rights, but it's much more important that you express those feelings properly and with respect for human life. Also, maybe don't associate yourself with the white supremacists in that land use rights militia garbage in the PNW.
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Feb 27, 2020 00:54
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Anyone have any experience growing Chinese/Vietnamese kind of vegetables, especially greens? I’ve been getting into cooking in those cuisines lately and since I live in a hot, humid, wet swamp growing some of them myself might be easier than driving out to the Vietnamese market. I don’t quite have enough sun/space in my main garden bed for tomatoes, and maybe greens don’t need as much sun? I’ve grown plenty of Italian basil before-is there much difference in growing Thai/holy basil? I’m also wishing I hadn’t done quite such a vigorous purge of my garlic chives last year.
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Feb 27, 2020 04:19
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Anyone have any experience growing Chinese/Vietnamese kind of vegetables, especially greens? I’ve been getting into cooking in those cuisines lately and since I live in a hot, humid, wet swamp growing some of them myself might be easier than driving out to the Vietnamese market. I don’t quite have enough sun/space in my main garden bed for tomatoes, and maybe greens don’t need as much sun? Here I'm calling Thai basil the small-leafed, anise/licorice-scented stuff that's actually more used in Vietnamese than Thai cooking, and holy basil is kaprao or the fuzzy-stemed, peppery stuff that's used more in Thai (and some Indian) cooking. I've also grown a lot of yu choy/yu choy sum and gai lan, and they're pretty easy to grow: I've always had good luck with direct sowing, and usually have good productivity through the first harvest. They're both greens that you can cut back to harvest and then wait for re-growth, but they can be temperamental about re-growing. Gai lan in particular seems to be sensitive to temperature, and once it starts getting warm it ends up bolting when regrowing, which ends up producing woody stalks with few leaves. Yu choy seems to be consistently reliable in producing harvest-able regrowth once or twice before bolting. What else are you thinking about? Pretty much every year I grow bitter melons, one or more Asian eggplant cultivars, and I've got some self-propagating Okinawan sweet potatoes, but none of those are greens.
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Feb 27, 2020 04:41
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Anyone have any experience growing Chinese/Vietnamese kind of vegetables, especially greens? I’ve been getting into cooking in those cuisines lately and since I live in a hot, humid, wet swamp growing some of them myself might be easier than driving out to the Vietnamese market. I don’t quite have enough sun/space in my main garden bed for tomatoes, and maybe greens don’t need as much sun? I tried out a bunch of different greens from seeds I got from Kitazawa last year. They have variety for all seasons and have good instructions for what the plant needs for most everything. I had good success with some of the mustard greens during the warmer months and the misome did great in the shade in the hotter part of summer. The ones that did the best with less shade was the Japanese chard and of course collards. If you don’t have room for tomatoes, of course skip the collards. You could have space for the chard, and it was delicious sautéed or blanched when young. Humid and wet you could do some Chinese celery if you keep it out of the afternoon sun probably?
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Feb 27, 2020 05:27
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Hexigrammus posted:Assuming they're not black walnut leaves the soil should actually be healthier under those leaves than if left as bare soil over winter. Not black walnut leaves, mostly just burr oak and some ash and maple mixed in. The reason I planned on bagging them is just the sheer volume of them. The pile is like 4 feet high and about 7 feet by 5 feet, its huge. We have a small compost bin and in the fall I'd mulch some to throw in there but it was to many leaves for the single bin. I was told, and now this seems to be incorrect, that leaving the leaves directly on the soil like that would compact the soil and blanket everything causing stuff to die off. If thats not true great! But there are still a ton of leaves. My plot is maybe 15 by 8 feet. I could rake the leaves all out onto my plot and mow over them once the snow is gone. Then try and rake them into the soil but I'd think it'd be to deep. The first like 6 inches of "soil" would be mostly chopped up leaves instead of dirt.
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Feb 27, 2020 14:23
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That’s a lot of leaves. They might kill off a few things, but that’s just really good insulation. You probably could have overwintered some hardier plants under that without issue and they’d start growing again in April. Leaves do make good mulch, but I think you just have too much volume. I’d definitely mow some over the top of your bed and work it into the top of the soil, but you’ll still be bagging 2/3rds of that pile I would guess? I keep bags of leaves for adding to my compost during the winter and spring when I don’t have other brown matter to add to the green matter. It does help it turn faster, so maybe that could be useful for you too?
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Feb 27, 2020 14:35
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Jhet posted:I keep bags of leaves for adding to my compost during the winter and spring when I don’t have other brown matter to add to the green matter. It does help it turn faster, so maybe that could be useful for you too? Thanks for the tips. Maybe I should look into getting a bigger compost bin. The one we have now is about 30ish gallons I'd guess, the size of a small garbage bin. We dont normally compost over winter as its to small to keep things insulated and our food scraps just freeze and dont break down until spring. Living in Minnesota means its like that until March/April or so. But if I had a bigger bin I could potentially use more food scraps and leaves.
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Feb 27, 2020 15:00
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Yeah, that never kept my family in northeast Wisconsin from putting scraps out in winter. They just freeze and you turn it when it thaws. With all that mass it kicks right into gear and gets hot early. I’ve seen it finish melting the snow on and around it. Just takes the right mix of scrap and yard waste and it goes nuts. Usually is ready mid- end- of May when you’re planting anyway. Now I have a space the size of a 50 gallon rain barrel, so it kicks into gear when it’s about 40F.
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Feb 27, 2020 15:23
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SubG posted:What else are you thinking about? Pretty much every year I grow bitter melons, one or more Asian eggplant cultivars, and I've got some self-propagating Okinawan sweet potatoes, but none of those are greens. I've always hoped/wondered if there were local Asian varieties of stuff like carrots and garlic that are better adapted to a warm, wet subtropical climate with no real winter than the European/American varieties usually grown. Somehow they manage to grow carrots in Vietnam, but maybe they grow them in the highlands or something?
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Feb 27, 2020 15:48
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Thanks for the tips. Maybe I should look into getting a bigger compost bin. The one we have now is about 30ish gallons I'd guess, the size of a small garbage bin. We dont normally compost over winter as its to small to keep things insulated and our food scraps just freeze and dont break down until spring. Living in Minnesota means its like that until March/April or so. But if I had a bigger bin I could potentially use more food scraps and leaves. Check the these two Youtube channels = MIgardener (NE MI somewhere) and One Yard Revolution (northern CHicago burb). Both do a lot of composting and use leaves to great effect - MIgardener just did a video on over winter leaf mulch (they had a bit thaw) and trench composting (or whatever he calls it). I've been adding to our compost bin all winter. It was a new pile that was started with leaves and branches in the fall and gets a dump of kitchen scraps and coffee grounds every couple of days. I've been throwing every paper bag, packing paper and cardboard box I can as well. Thanks again for the rhubarb byw. I planted it kinda close to a tree stump that we decided to have ground out in late fall. I'm hoping it survived. Assuming it does, there will be pie. So, I kept our xmas tree and I think I'm going to remove all of the branches and bury it in my one our new raised beds this spring and see what hugelkultur is all about.
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Feb 27, 2020 16:42
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Dukket posted:Thanks again for the rhubarb byw. I planted it kinda close to a tree stump that we decided to have ground out in late fall. I'm hoping it survived. Assuming it does, there will be pie. No problem I hope it does well for you! We ended up with a bunch even after splitting it, made a ton of rhubarb tea and cookies/pie.
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Feb 27, 2020 17:17
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The rhubarb in my yard is one of the most reliable and prolific producers. I regularly have far too much and have to beg to give it away, I've been trying to make it into a jelly of sorts for breakfast in the morning with yogurt.
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Feb 27, 2020 17:23
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^My mother makes a great rhubarb jam. She leaves it slightly less set and it gets used on everything from toast to ice cream. It's very nice to take a spoon of rhubarb and a spoon of strawberry and put them in the same bowl.Dukket posted:I've been adding to our compost bin all winter. It was a new pile that was started with leaves and branches in the fall and gets a dump of kitchen scraps and coffee grounds every couple of days. I've been throwing every paper bag, packing paper and cardboard box I can as well. Be careful of the stickers. They don't like to decompose for me. Regular corrugated boxes do fine if I tear them, otherwise they get caught on my fork.
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Feb 27, 2020 18:59
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BaseballPCHiker posted:Not black walnut leaves, mostly just burr oak and some ash and maple mixed in. Ah, I see your point - that's a lot of leaves and a colder climate. In this climate (west coast Canada) shredded leaves have pretty much disappeared by late spring so my problem is stockpiling enough to last until the grass clippings can take over as mulch. Dukket posted:Check the these two Youtube channels = MIgardener (NE MI somewhere) and One Yard Revolution (northern CHicago burb). Both do a lot of composting and use leaves to great effect - MIgardener just did a video on over winter leaf mulch (they had a bit thaw) and trench composting (or whatever he calls it). Seconding this. OYR had some good ideas for temporary compost bins to deal with leaves.
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Feb 27, 2020 19:13
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Jhet posted:
Yeah, I tear off the tape and stickers. I used a lot of cardboard last year between lining raised beds, creating a lasagna bed and covering a good portion of our back yard to kill grass/weeds. I just put on a pod cast and tear tape off, it always takes longer than you think. Hexigrammus posted:
He makes good use space, that yard is packed. They kinda fell off last year so I'm hoping he'll be back in full force soon. Other Youtube channels everyone should check out: 7pot Club - Find out what happened to Garth from Wayne's World - He is growing hot peppers and writing music about it. Roots and Refuge Farms - infectiously enthusiastic and chill, hobby farm in Arkansas
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Feb 27, 2020 19:44
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captkirk posted:For the Baker's Creek stuff I thought they just were going to have him speak on dry farming techniques at some event and they cancelled his appearance in response to objections which pointed out his racist bullshit? Do they have other ties with Bundy? They basically did that thing like on The Simpsons when Moe said "I don't need your stinkin' money!" and then pocketed it
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Feb 27, 2020 20:05
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What was the random Benjamin Franklin quote in their seed catalogue again? I forget
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Feb 27, 2020 20:56
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Harry Potter on Ice posted:What was the random Benjamin Franklin quote in their seed catalogue again? I forget It was "A garden without Parisian prostitutes is no garden at all."
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Feb 28, 2020 00:35
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How do we feel about front yard vegetable gardens? It's the only place I really have enough sun, and maybe it being out in public view would make me keep it neater? OTOH I'm not sure how it would fit with the sort of design I have going in the front. Any pretty but delicious vegetables? Everything here except peppers and okra really starts looking ratty and played out by August, and if I'm gonna have a veg. garden in the front it really needs to be full of stuff and nice looking all year round so I don't have a big brown blob in the middle of my yard. This would probably be round, (or more likely 2 half moons with a path down the middle), so rows are out.
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Feb 28, 2020 15:37
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I am completely in support of killing lawns and planting front gardens. Landscaping with edible perennials like fruits and berries is also an option.
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Feb 28, 2020 15:47
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:How do we feel about front yard vegetable gardens? It's the only place I really have enough sun, and maybe it being out in public view would make me keep it neater? OTOH I'm not sure how it would fit with the sort of design I have going in the front. Any pretty but delicious vegetables? Everything here except peppers and okra really starts looking ratty and played out by August, and if I'm gonna have a veg. garden in the front it really needs to be full of stuff and nice looking all year round so I don't have a big brown blob in the middle of my yard. Dandelions, thistle, and milkweed. Look at other nightshade varieties too, like ground cherries and tomatillos. If your town will let you get away with it, ornamental corn can be really pretty. Also lots of greens look ok even after they bolt and get bitter bengy81 fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Feb 28, 2020 |
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Feb 28, 2020 16:16
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:How do we feel about front yard vegetable gardens? It's the only place I really have enough sun, and maybe it being out in public view would make me keep it neater? OTOH I'm not sure how it would fit with the sort of design I have going in the front. Any pretty but delicious vegetables? Everything here except peppers and okra really starts looking ratty and played out by August, and if I'm gonna have a veg. garden in the front it really needs to be full of stuff and nice looking all year round so I don't have a big brown blob in the middle of my yard. I feel loving awesome about tearing up my lawn and planting more useful or cooler looking poo poo. I planted three fruit trees in my front yard about three weeks ago. I wonder if you couldn't do a bunch of intercropping to create a bunch of shade for more delicate plants. Tomatoes love sun, and if you single stake them (MIgardener has several videos on this), you'll have a ton of room for herbs or root veggies or even flowers. You also have less weeding to do, taking care of your neatness issue! If you want pretty veggies, I would look at oddly colored heirloom varieties. Tomatoes come in a ton of colors, you can buy purple green beans, there are tons of edible flowers, lots of herbs look cool, etc. In the summer/fall you also have decorative gourds and squash that you can grow on stands and trellises. Seed Savers, Park See, Burpee and others have tons of these sorts of things. Also don't forget your fruit trees! This is a longer term project but they'll look awesome (outside of winter), provide shade and combining them with veggie beds are a little less of a shock to the look and feel of a traditional front lawn than just the veggie beds alone (but don't let that stop you!).
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Feb 28, 2020 16:41
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If you have the acid soil they like blueberries are quite ornamental. Some varieties have beautiful red bark after they drop their leaves, others are evergreen and hold their foliage all year. I'm going to try to find a Perpetua this year - it's evergreen and produces two crops of berries. My garden keeps creeping towards my lawn but unfortunately that's where the septic field is. I might at least start switching from grass to something useful to the native pollinators.
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Feb 28, 2020 19:09
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Has anyone started (or transplanted) seedlings into jiffy peat pots and successfully just put the whole thing into the ground? I saw some reports that they don’t quite break down but I’d like to be sure.
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Feb 28, 2020 21:51
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I did that with sweet peppers and it worked fine. Not sure if they broke down completely but it doesn't matter because the roots break through it easily. e": I've only used them in the enclosed jiffy sprouting thing, which keeps them wet a long time taqueso fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Feb 28, 2020 |
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Feb 28, 2020 22:01
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I hate those things. They never stay wet and always killed my seedlings. Go with reusing the small plastic ones for as many years as you can. The concept is good, but they just pull the water out and then stay dry unless you drown them. I did toy with making soil into its own block and then transplanting that into a larger block when needed. There’s even tools for doing that. But spending $160 on them when I could reuse stuff for free was not going to work. I just took the blocks and then watered them in a tray. The soil held together great too and by keeping the cubes apart the air flow kept the roots where they needed to be.
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Feb 28, 2020 22:03
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Solkanar512 posted:Has anyone started (or transplanted) seedlings into jiffy peat pots and successfully just put the whole thing into the ground? I saw some reports that they don’t quite break down but I’d like to be sure. I only still use them because I got a shitload for something like $0.25 a stack a few years back. For my more finicky plants I'm reusing some trays & plastic pots I got from a farmers market. I think Bonnie branded? The peat stuff is really prone to letting plants and soil dry out, especially if you've got them on a heat mat. They can also mold in enclosed set ups. And I don't give a poo poo what anyone says, if you plant a start in one of those pots all it does is stunt the growth. I've had the best results starting on a heat mat in plastic pots using a sterile starting mix. Rinse the pots out and leave them in the barn over winter and repeat.
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Feb 28, 2020 23:14
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Solkanar512 posted:Has anyone started (or transplanted) seedlings into jiffy peat pots and successfully just put the whole thing into the ground? I saw some reports that they don’t quite break down but I’d like to be sure. No, it never worked for me either. Even better, some of them started getting moldy from bottom watering in a tray.  I'll just be reusing plastic nursery pots this year.
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Feb 28, 2020 23:28
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I appreciate the feedback folks! My plan was to repot the plants and stick them back into my hotbed where the humidity is a constant 99%. But after seeing this feedback I'll move them to the back of my list of options.
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Feb 28, 2020 23:49
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mischief posted:I only still use them because I got a shitload for something like $0.25 a stack a few years back.  When I priced them out to compare to soil blockers they were running $0.25 - $0.50 cdn each for 3" pots. That, and the tendency to kill transplants in drip irrigated beds made for a big old nope.
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Feb 29, 2020 00:17
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Is a 400 sq ft vegetable garden way huge for one person to tend and eat from? Laying out some different designs in the front yard: Circle laid out with the hose around a central path or a 2 smaller chord arcs marked with flags, also with a path down the center. I think with the bigger circle I could plant zinnias and other flowers across the front to shield it from the street a bit visually 
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Mar 1, 2020 21:44
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