General Categories > Non Gun Stuff
Spring Gardening: preparation to bounty.
gigabelly:
You can go ahead and plant your peppers indoors. They take a while to produce and so often you get your tomatoes and cilantro up but your peppers and onions are not producing till late summer. Timing is important. Learning to can is helpful in case you miss the timing. You can save your tomatoes till the peppers are in, for example.
Two problems solved at once: Compost any plant based clippings or left overs. Do NOT add dog poop to your clippings. Cat poop either. Chicken and rabbit poop is the best, but basically, you want the poop from herbivores, not carnivores. Dogs kibble is made with meat. Maybe. Anyway, the only real exception to this is egg shells. they compost well. The other problem this solves is the clay. Compost is not dirt. It is organic matter that holds moisture and fertilizes. It also will cut your clay when worked in. Note that term: worked. It is work to get it in there good, but it will do it in time with regular tilling.
Make sure your plot gets full sun. Put up a deer fence, even if you live in town. I live near Southpoint and I have had deer in my back yard. Electric fences help with coons, but keep the ground wet below the fence.
Start your Heilooms with just one. Some stuff is hard to seed save. Tomatoes are a great starting point. I personally love the Nebraska Wedding tomatoes the best, but they are yellow and kinda sweet for salsa in some peoples opinions. You may want a Brandywine or other variety. you can harvest the fruit, just pull the seeds out and dry them. Then store in a zip lock in the freezer after they are completely dried out. Next year, pull em out and plant them. You can do this every year as long as you live. And, they taste better.
Cilantro is easy, too. I actually get two seasons of cilantro in one year. Take the coriander and just stick them back in the dirt. Doesn't always work, but it does fairly well.
Hope this helps. Oh, get a rain barrel. Plants prefer rainwater to processed city water.
This hobby will pay for itself, by the way. We hardly buy any produce in the late spring, summer, and early fall. With food prices skyrocketing, it will be a skill others will envy. Till they outlaw gardening, of course.
gigabelly:
Mudinyeri is right about introducing weed seed into your compost. That is why a container helps. When composting, your organic matter will heat up to around 120 degrees, thereby killing any seeds in it. That is one reason why separate composting is superior to mixing in through the year.
Also, you will be amazed at how much matter you add to your compost and how little compost you get out of it. I have a large lot and I save all my clippings and a couple of my neighbors. I would say I get about 4 wheelbarrels worth when it is done cooking.
Neeco:
--- Quote from: gigabelly on March 06, 2013, 11:50:43 AM ---You can go ahead and plant your peppers indoors. They take a while to produce and so often you get your tomatoes and cilantro up but your peppers and onions are not producing till late summer. Timing is important. Learning to can is helpful in case you miss the timing. You can save your tomatoes till the peppers are in, for example.
Two problems solved at once: Compost any plant based clippings or left overs. Do NOT add dog poop to your clippings. Cat poop either. Chicken and rabbit poop is the best, but basically, you want the poop from herbivores, not carnivores. Dogs kibble is made with meat. Maybe. Anyway, the only real exception to this is egg shells. they compost well. The other problem this solves is the clay. Compost is not dirt. It is organic matter that holds moisture and fertilizes. It also will cut your clay when worked in. Note that term: worked. It is work to get it in there good, but it will do it in time with regular tilling.
Make sure your plot gets full sun. Put up a deer fence, even if you live in town. I live near Southpoint and I have had deer in my back yard. Electric fences help with coons, but keep the ground wet below the fence.
Start your Heilooms with just one. Some stuff is hard to seed save. Tomatoes are a great starting point. I personally love the Nebraska Wedding tomatoes the best, but they are yellow and kinda sweet for salsa in some peoples opinions. You may want a Brandywine or other variety. you can harvest the fruit, just pull the seeds out and dry them. Then store in a zip lock in the freezer after they are completely dried out. Next year, pull em out and plant them. You can do this every year as long as you live. And, they taste better.
Cilantro is easy, too. I actually get two seasons of cilantro in one year. Take the coriander and just stick them back in the dirt. Doesn't always work, but it does fairly well.
Hope this helps. Oh, get a rain barrel. Plants prefer rainwater to processed city water.
This hobby will pay for itself, by the way. We hardly buy any produce in the late spring, summer, and early fall. With food prices skyrocketing, it will be a skill others will envy. Till they outlaw gardening, of course.
--- End quote ---
Sooo... Are you saying the manure from the dog kennel is a bad thing? It is, remember, not our kennel but the previous owners, And has since been removed, the area tilled and clippings worked/tilled in all last year.
And we have a wood fence for deer, I live in Waverly so they are common enough in the town, but if a deer can get into my backyard, I have other issues....
Coons are likely not going to be able to squeeze in, but we have plenty of rabbits and cats and other critters on a regular basis... Wish I could harvest the rabbits, but there is no trapping/hunting in town limits (I am assuming)...
gigabelly:
Yes. I am saying the dog manure is crap....oh, sorry. Get it out of the garden. Ever notice how dog urine and poop kills your grass?
Get some backyard chickens. It is the right time of year. We have 6 and love it. The poop is Plentiful and the eggs are sooo incredibly good. If you have kids, they will love em. THe feed is cheap...well it is chicken feed. and they eat some of the compost. That is okay because they break it down further and it composts much faster. They help with insects...a lot. But, they will eat your maters and kale, and spinach, and on and on and on. Plus, you know what your chickens are eating so you know what you are eating.
They actually sell chicken poop. It is called coop poop at earl may. go figure.
Neeco:
--- Quote from: gigabelly on March 06, 2013, 12:25:25 PM ---Yes. I am saying the dog manure is crap....oh, sorry. Get it out of the garden. Ever notice how dog urine and poop kills your grass?
Get some backyard chickens. It is the right time of year. We have 6 and love it. The poop is Plentiful and the eggs are sooo incredibly good. If you have kids, they will love em. THe feed is cheap...well it is chicken feed. and they eat some of the compost. That is okay because they break it down further and it composts much faster. They help with insects...a lot. But, they will eat your maters and kale, and spinach, and on and on and on. Plus, you know what your chickens are eating so you know what you are eating.
They actually sell chicken poop. It is called coop poop at earl may. go figure.
--- End quote ---
How am I supposed to get the dog poo out of the ground when it has been broken down into particles for the last year?
Maybe I am not making it clear, there is no actual poo left, and I am not supplimenting with ANY manure at this time.
The track that I repurposed into a garden was the track the kennel sat on, as there wasn't any grass there anyway.
I haz a sad now if my veggies are going to have a hint of dog to them...
I have thought of getting chickens, but that may be a little out of my scope at the moment. I would have to build shelters and not sure my neighbors would like the smell. While I am sure they would love the bounty...
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