U.S. Gardening Up

Technocrat

U.S. Gardening Up

zogger

Tue May 27 15:23:33 -0700 2008

The+Gentleman+Farmer.

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Well, you can drive less maybe, but you still want to eat as much, so this year seed and fruit tree sales are blooming, with the nation's largest seller reporting double volume over last year, and places that do creative urban gardening are having to find more plots to handle the increased interest.

..""The prices for food are so high," said Sandra Carter, 68, who now grows her own collard greens, green peppers, tomatoes and lettuce in the Bronx."

ed.z.: and for anyone thinking about poultry, consider fowl as in ducks instead. Our white pekins grow twice as fast as the chickens, don't tear up the garden, and eventually lay some really nice big eggs, a lot of times two per day which surprised me no end. They tame up pretty neat, too, you can pick them up and pet them once they are used to you. We made them a little outdoor run with some shade and a little swimming pool they love, cute guys, once they are tame enough you can let them run around the yard and they'll stay busy rooting around in the lawn and like under logs and stuff, then it is easy to shoo them back in their safe area at night. The first batch got eaten by some wild predator, so I reinforced the cage better, that was the only bummer we had originally, something got in and got them, don't really know what it was, just ducks-gone, a few feathers left on one, the other apparently got nailed by a big hawk or owl at night. Oh well, got some more. From what I understand, don't get domesticated mallards, they will fly away if they feel like it, get the pekins.

U.S. Gardening Up

archanoid

Tue May 27 17:58:59 -0700 2008
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We've been growing our own tomatos and peppers for a couple years in our back yard garden. Mostly using it as a "salsa" garden for fresh salsa. This year we tripled the size of it, added more vegetables, more tomatos, some herbs, and strawberries. We also just planted a peach tree and are getting an apple tree this weekend. I hope the trees do well. I'm really looking forward to peaches and apples a couple years from now.

U.S. Gardening Up

zogger

Tue May 27 20:09:37 -0700 2008
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Way cool, good for you! OK, I have a nice *bonus" link for you then, check out this no dirt gardening method for great yields with minimal upkeep and very little if any weeds. Plus it just looks spiffy, very *neat*. I was going to do it as one of my weekend "sunday supplement" type posts but we've been trying to hay and mostly fixing busted machinery for days now and I kept falling asleep from exhaustion mostly. Happens some times, twice a year for me. And now it is raining and I got acres and acres mown and on the ground...sucks, but that's why we have fluffers I guess.... Anyway,here's your link gardening revolution. Technically advanced easy to make raised beds with special no dirt growing media. It's a commercial site and the guy sells plans and offers classes and such like, but I think you can parse the info enough to get the gist of how it works and they link to an online news article about it. Here's a teaser, 16 foot tall tomato plants, talking over a hundred lbs from one plant, stuff like that.

U.S. Gardening Up

President4242

Wed May 28 10:22:09 -0700 2008
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I'll have to look into that for next year- looks like a slightly easier method than what we're doing now (kiddie pool & planters). Sure wish I knew what his growing medium was- looks like some sort of compost with styrofoam liquid retention. I like his idea of using concrete block & pvc construction for raisers & greenhouses. I'm getting quite good at PVC construction with phase 1 of the boat- phases 2-6 will be easier than the first phase because I don't have to worry about a streamlined bow or something that floats entirely on it's own.

Still, the kids will be raising tomatoes, carrots, beats, zuchini, spinach, flowers (the little girls insisted), camomile, and cucumbers this year.