[Panda]

I noticed many guys here are either farmers or have experience with gardening and landscaping. I hope we can help each other and expand our knowledge on the subject.

Let's start.
My kid planted sunflowers on one of the beds. Beginners luck or a good hand for plants? The one on the right is 16 feet tall and still growing.

 

[Panda]

Panda, the greenhouse setup you described in the other thread, I think would work. I would still be concerned about too much heat and it drying out. As long as there is proper venting and everything was watered regularly, it should still work.

These are tropical plants we are dealing with. They like heat and humidity but too much would kill off anything.

Too much heat is the biggest problem.
I remember my grandma saying that it's crucial to open doors in the morning and close at night in the spring. In the summer you leave them all open, but no drafts...


I may be changing one more thing...
When I started our vegetable garden we had no neighbor and plenty of sun. My neighbor planted his hedge and in the spring it was 12 feet tall, we both cut it down to 8 feet and now I get more sun but not as much as 12 years ago. Looking at your photos got me thinking and I may be moving the whole vegetable garden to a different place. With plenty of sun and no shade.

 

[Panda]

because of the Un-global warming , it was cold wet and rainy all summer here in New England [ its raining right now ] just about every thing died that l planted , l usually do pretty good with my garden , l plant-ed 4 kinds of Tom's , Zucchini , all kinds of peppers , its all water logged and l,m not the only one = nobodys garden did well , even the local garden flea market is empty , l dont grow corn but theres tons of that

You know how it is. There are good and bad years.
Good that you're no farmer and your income doesn't rely on the crops. That would really suck

Let's hope next year surprises us with plenty of everything

 

[Panda]

I’ve got 30+ laying hens roaming the place
View attachment 620392

I was raising sheep for a while but I’m concentrating on goats right now. They are a lot easier. I’ve got both meat goats and dairy. I milk two of them, getting about two gallons every 3 days.

View attachment 620393

My old billy goat, Buzz. He didn’t want his picture taken today I guess

View attachment 620394

Your place looks really good. Are you guys farmers? Is your farm fully sustainable?
That would be my goal

 

[Panda]

this works great [ for old people that cant get back up ] l,ve been use'in it for years and its just cheap 2x6's [ well they were cheap ]



View attachment 620423

That's a good idea. How many pounds/kg do you get out of one tower?

 

[Panda]

@TheBohunk that looks really good, I see you. Making a whole dinner out of your own farm is really something.

We get plenty of fruits, rhubarb, berries and strawberries which is our main goal because children love them. As for vegetables, plenty of zucchini, pumpkins(which i hate BTW), kale, leeks and some peppers. This year we struggled with tomatoes and cucumbers - we ate only a handful, the rest was eaten by diseases.

 

[Panda]

I like creating plant compositions, where one grows into another making it look more natural. I like having many places to sit and look at the garden from different angles. We added some red and white elements like benches, tables and old doors to add some colour the landscape

 

[Panda]

Thanks, but artistic garden does not put food on the table...
I started looking a bit different at things after to Covid. I took some things for granted and boom, pandemic started and turned the world upside down. It hit our life and business so hard that I started questioning if my approach was right.

It turned out very good financially after all but the doubts remained. I always treated home and garden as a place to rest and spend good time in nice conditions... now I want it to be more self-sufficient.
That's one of the main reasons why I installed photovoltaic, have three independent heating systems, our own well and want to have a garden that gives us crops and not just looks good on photos!

Maybe I'll become a prepper one day

 

[Panda]

I always kind of hated that term, prepper. Even though I guess I am one. It's such a loaded political term.

What we call prepping today was what my great grandparents just called "living" That's really all we are doing.

I don' like the word prepper or rather what it represents right now, but... I like the general idea.
Being fully self-sufficient is impossible in my case(or in any case?), but I'd like to get to a point where I can 30-50% of food from my garden/farm. That would give me a piece of mind.

 

[Panda]

That's my wife & my goal, more self sufficient, like our grandparents were.
We are looking at land, maybe some livestock, garden, possibly a greenhouse. Luckily my upbringing had a lot of that, even though I was raised in the city/suburbs my family roots are rural Texans/Okies. Country folks can survive said Hank.

I don't mind social distancing at all. Never was a fan of being around crowds....and people piss me off more than anything, even the weather.

Bucky

Good luck with your plan

Our grandparents were a totally different generation, and as @TheBohunk said prepping was what they called living. I truly like that comparison.
There's nothing wrong with social distancing IMO! We live on the edge of a small village (population - 2.500) but with big cities all around. I'd rather call it slow living than distancing. You still have access to all the good things cities have to offer but without the crowds and rush...

 

[Panda]

Panda, this is my wife’s flower beds. She started selling cut flowers at the local farmers market this year. She did pretty good with it, she made about $200 a week. Much better than I thought

It’s starting to die off, it looked much
better a month ago. I don’t know much about flowers, in fact this was almost totally her project so I don’t know much about anything

The nets on the flowers are to protect them from the corn borer beetles that emerge from the neighboring corn fields and like to eat flowers.

The tarps are where she is expanding her beds for next year

View attachment 620517
View attachment 620518

View attachment 620519
View attachment 620520
View attachment 620521
View attachment 620522
This last picture is just a Bush she has growing by the grain bins. I forget what it’s called but she likes the tiny white flowers.

Your wife is doing a great job. Really nice looking garden. I can only imagine how it looked a few weeks back.
I can see you guys got a more practical approach to garden - food and money from the flowers. I like that!

We actually have some of the plants you're having.

What's that net on the beds doing? Dogs or goats protection?

You need to ask your wife what's that last white bush called. The flowers look like tiny daisies(but i know they aren't).

 

[Panda]

I like Dr. Pepper!

I wonder how your prepper's kit would work with only Dr. Pepper in it

 

[Panda]

Panda, the wife says those white flowers are called Snowbank Bultonia.

Thanks. I found it in an online store in Poland.

 

[Panda]

Now is the time when grasses finally add plenty of color to the garden... One of my favorite plants this time of year

 

[Panda]

My chilli peppers finally got some sun and are ready to eat 🥳
My wife let's some of them dry for a few weeks

 

[Panda]

@TheBohunk I noticed a basketball net on one of your photos. Are you playing ?

 

[Panda]

We thought there would be no pumpkins this year because they were growing very slowly, but...

I noticed that this year everything is a bit off time. Some plants grow like crazy and some are ready few weeks later than usual.

I also found some mushrooms while lawnmowing.

 

[Panda]

Panda, the wife says those white flowers are called Snowbank Bultonia.

As it turned out I got a plant from the same family. Grows up to 1m/3 feet.

 

[Panda]

Yes there definitely seems to be some shift in the seasons. Real Winter doesn't start around here til Christmas, which is normal I suppose, but we still are having cold days in May. Summer spills over into October. It was 103 here on September 20 & will be back into 90's this week. We got more rain in July (traditionally our driest month) than in September (typically our 2nd or 3rd wettest month).

Bucky

Back in high school, they taught us about the Greenhouse effect but I thought it was moving so slow that I won't live long enough to see its global effects. I was wrong!

I remember glaciers in Austria 20 years ago, now they look nothing like back then.

Another example, 15 years ago my friends sailed thru The Nort-west Passage, and it was SOMETHING. Now the number of ships increased by 44% where most of the traffic is made by bulk carriers - the ice is melting that's for sure and the sea is open, therefore will be seeing an increase in Arctic traffic in the next decade.

https://safety4sea.com/ships-sailing-the-northwest-passage-increased-44-from-2013-to-2019/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=pmd_Gbnyzd6BtGsyBGk0bq3BjOAhZf5nhmt1lisAzLbYtTM-1633345612-0-gqNtZGzNAiWjcnBszQi9

19 years ago I went to Antarctica where we saw plenty of HUUUGE iceberg, last year I spoke with a scientist working there and he told the winters are not as cold as they were 20 years ago, and the icecap is disappearing rapidly.

All this has a big influence on our lives....

 

[Panda]

not really, the planet started warming rapidly after 1920