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Author Topic: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.  (Read 5800 times)

MarcAFK

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #15 on: June 18, 2012, 11:35:57 am »

My farming efforts have been terrible lax these last few years, all i have currently still alive is a few random pumpkins, tomatos and chilis that always sprout by themself from the seeds in my compost, and some hairy greek oregano which is almost impossible to kill.
I used to have good luck growing white radishes, tomatos, green beans and snow peas, passionfruit (i have no0 idea how that one managed to die, it's generally a weed around here) cucumbers and pumpkins.
I haven't really tried since i got a chicken many years ago, she scratches everything up when it's too young and i haven't the patience to micromanage the seedlings.
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Levi

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #16 on: June 18, 2012, 12:28:55 pm »

I just started to attempt minor gardening in pots on my apartment balcony this year.  Being a person with zero life skills, I pretty much just bought some potting soil and stuffed as many seeds into it at random as I could and drench it with water once in a while.

So far I've got:

- Tomato plants sprouting, but no actual tomatos on them yet.
- A massive amount of Thyme growing.  Seriously, it sprouted in no time.
- Some onion garlic chive things.
- A couple strawberry plants have sprouted, but they are still tiny.
- A few other things that I lost the tags for and don't remember what they might be.  I'm hoping for peppers.
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aenri

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #17 on: June 21, 2012, 02:45:56 pm »

I got a pretty nice field behind my house with many, many potatoes, some beans, carrots, radishes, parsley, tomatoes, onions and some more. Also cherry, apple and peach trees (but no cherries or peaches this year) :(.

I also have some chickens mainly for eggs. I like to eat my homegrown stuff, it is much tastier than shop counterparts. It's lotta work to plant, sow and harvest but well worth it, when you eat it :).
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RedKing

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #18 on: June 21, 2012, 02:52:44 pm »

Some cherry tomato plants which my daughter tends and harvests (and usually eats before they even make it in the house), and a variety of herbs (rosemary, basil, mint, cilantro). Eventually I'd like to put in some green beans and strawberries. And we're hoping the town will legalize chickens so we can get a small flock going for fresh eggs.

As much as I'd love to do sweet corn, you really need a lot of room to do corn right.
Might try my hand at sweet potatoes once we get the "field" established.
We've also started composting, since--this being central North Carolina--our soil is basically a kiln away from being one giant brick.
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jaxy15

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #19 on: June 21, 2012, 03:37:13 pm »

Do wild strawberries count?
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MarcAFK

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #20 on: June 22, 2012, 02:38:39 am »

You don't need heaps of room for corn, just a shitload of nitrogen and organic matter, also very good drainage is necessary.
I grew some corn in my front yard which had extremely dry sandy clay soil with barely any organic matter in it.
I put a small quantity of manure in a hole near each plant and watered it every day, despite the poor soil quality i got results, not full sized corn, but it was large enough to eat/pop.
It didn't grow for as long as it should have either, i probably planted in the wrong season.
But anyway, as long as your soil is rich, well drained and you load up the nutrients corn is pretty easy.
I've been cleaning up my garden and will probably soonish replant my garden bed, once i've sorted out the rampant banana overgrowth that's threatening the uh, openness of the bed, then i'll be able to retill the soil and get it ready for something.
Probably since it's winter i'll only manage to get beans or something, maybe radishes.
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RedKing

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #21 on: June 22, 2012, 07:32:36 am »

Typically though when you plant corn, the outer couple of rows do poorly but take the brunt of weather/wind so the inner rows do much better. If you only have enough room for four rows, they're ALL outer rows. You can do it, but the yield will be smaller and the ears will be smaller.

It's also a nutrient hog. Given that we're working with nutrient-poor red clay, we're probably better off going for sweet potatoes and some legumes (and composting) to get the soil built up.
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Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

MarcAFK

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #22 on: June 22, 2012, 08:45:41 am »

Considering that i only had ONE row of corn, hah. But it was shielded from bad weather by my house and other trees.... also shielded from probably 25% of the sunlight it needed.
Anyway my point was that even in those bad conditions it will grow, just not well.
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Tabbyman

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #23 on: June 22, 2012, 09:08:51 am »

http://imgbox.com/g/8viNRNRzIL

A few pictures of my very limited gardening projects this year. Just getting my feet in the water.

One barrel of strawberry plants, a picture of the latest batch of strawberries from it, a picture of my squash plant, and a picture of my morning glory vine.
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RedKing

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #24 on: June 22, 2012, 09:18:46 am »

Considering that i only had ONE row of corn, hah. But it was shielded from bad weather by my house and other trees.... also shielded from probably 25% of the sunlight it needed.
Anyway my point was that even in those bad conditions it will grow, just not well.
That's why I said "to do corn right".  :P
Corn will grow almost anywhere. Back in the town I was born (in Iowa), they have a small motel built of adobe with corn growing out of its roof. But I'm sure it's stubby and hard compared to the ears you'd get from the giant fields of corn just up the road. Those things were monsters...ears the size of my forearm.
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Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

MarcAFK

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #25 on: June 22, 2012, 11:53:00 pm »

http://imgbox.com/g/8viNRNRzIL

A few pictures of my very limited gardening projects this year. Just getting my feet in the water.

One barrel of strawberry plants, a picture of the latest batch of strawberries from it, a picture of my squash plant, and a picture of my morning glory vine.
You actually got harvestable strawberries , i r jelly.
My only attempt for strawberrys was particularly failsome. I think i'll take some pics of my garden, before and after, it should be interesting.
Looks like In this season Peas and radishes should be safe, possibly cabbige and onion also.
« Last Edit: June 23, 2012, 12:03:58 am by MarcAFK »
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MarcAFK

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #26 on: June 23, 2012, 07:48:04 am »

Yeah, weeds rock, i ignored a patch of chrysanthemums(hot damn i didn't need spell check) for a few years and now 1/3 of my lawn is missing.
They've been weeded but i'll be pulling runners out for 6 months.
I should have taken pictures, they were awesome.
Except whenever i ran over em with the lawn mower it was like inhaling a can of baygon.
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Caz

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #27 on: June 23, 2012, 10:10:03 am »

we try growing stuff, but them slugs...

no matter how many we kill from beer traps, more always arrive! and we can't use the copper rings because we have a large garden, and they aren't cheap.

Have you tried pouring a line of salt around the perimeter of the garden? :P I know they really don't like coming into contact with salt...
I believe that it can have adverse effects on the soil, and gets washed away with rain.

Truth. Don't pour salt in your garden.

Instead, get a duck. They eat slugs all the day and create delicious eggs. Frogs are also good for this too iirc, if you have space for a pond.
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Pnx

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #28 on: June 23, 2012, 06:08:36 pm »

My mother likes to put milk in eggshells, the slugs go to eat the milk, then drown in it.
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MarcAFK

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Re: Gardening... Stuff you grow for food thread.
« Reply #29 on: June 24, 2012, 04:51:28 am »

You could try planting a border of slug repellant plants, and a couple of plants the slugs like more than your crops, once a week you just pick the slugs off and drop em in a bucket or water or something.
Quick google-fu suggests the best non toxic chemical slug solutions are crushed eggshells or coffee grounds (the caffine is the key, also brew some coffee dilute it and spray it on your worst affected plants).
As repellent you could try garlic and rosemary, other kinds of highly aromatic herbs should be possible,  a bit more googling should find more, also if you have herbs already just plant more of whatever they don't seem to be attacking.
And as i suggested take whatever plants they seem to love the most and plant a few off to the side a few meters away from your main crops, wait for it to be overrun and spray emn with whatever works, just let the plant take one for the team and attract them away to be killed.
Also, you might try different plants altogether, or different varieties of the same plant, not all species have the same chemical warfare capabilities, one again google should help find slug resistant varieties, or just plant several different kinds together and keep whatever seems strongest.
Now an update for harvest Dwarf Real life edition; Bed 1 is now ready for planting, the plan is to place 2-3 month maturing crops there next to the fence (where the bananas were supposed to stay) whilst allowing the bed in front which is now overrun with bananas to compost for the same amount of time, by the end of september that bed should be ready for more nutrient intensive crops that'll prefer full sunlight, the youngest banana shoots will be moved to the back where they should belong (as long as i dont ignore them for 5 years again).
I just need to get the chicken proofing done and then plant.
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They're nearly as bad as badgers. Build a couple of anti-buzzard SAM sites marksdwarf towers and your fortress will look like Baghdad in 2003 from all the aerial bolt spam. You waste a lot of ammo and everything is covered in unslightly exploded buzzard bits and broken bolts.
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