Garden 2017... New Roots

[sluckey]

Remember my corn/high wind incident last year? Never again! That broke me and I'm tired of pushing a tiller around. So, my garden got a major face lift. Blue berries, plums, pomegranate, and muscadines from now on. I will continue with two rows of tomatoes, cukes, and peppers while the bushes and trees are young. Probably get two more seasons.

I've been eating tomatoes and pepper poppers for two weeks now. Tomorrow I'll pick the first cukes.

[shooter]

Nice layout.  Gardens are going in up norte finally, our last frost was 2 weeks ago!  The soil in the Boggs were I live is so saturated the mower leave slosh tracks!  Your bushes should hold up well to the winds, and you can always get fresh corn at the farmers market

[sluckey]

and you can always get fresh corn at the farmers market

Absolutely! Better quality, 1/10th the cost, and no sweat! 

[EL34]

Looks good Steve

1st time in ten years, no garden for me
Too busy

[sluckey]

We are getting older! 

[shooter]

no garden for me

I gave up 8ish years ago, I have an abundance of blackberries, raspberries, apples, grapes, strawberries, elderberries, autumn olives, onions, garlic, morels  and they are all wild, zero maintenance
we also have a great farmers market/ice-cream/sandwich shop 5miles down the road!

[Ed_Chambley]

What you gonna do with the muscadines?  I hear tell folks in South Alabama drink the things and chase young women, you ain't planning on chasing any young women are ya!

[sluckey]

Muscadines are easy and I have a sweet tooth. Chasing young women ??? What would I do if I actually caught one? 

[Ed_Chambley]

no garden for me

I gave up 8ish years ago, I have an abundance of blackberries, raspberries, apples, grapes, strawberries, elderberries, autumn olives, onions, garlic, morels  and they are all wild, zero maintenance
we also have a great farmers market/ice-cream/sandwich shop 5miles down the road!

From my office I can walk to the Georgia State Farmers Market.  Huge place, but I really prefer the smaller markets in the North Carolina Mountains.  I really like the trend of local markets where you can get same day eggs and what city folks call raw milk.

[Ed_Chambley]

Muscadines are easy and I have a sweet tooth. Chasing young women ??? What would I do if I actually caught one? 

Now I know you ain't that old.  Plus, if you could catch one she could run your tiller once she got the drive shaft engaged.

[shooter]

I really like the trend of local markets

At the beerbaitngas you just bring in your empty egg crates and the next day they are filled ready to eat!

[sluckey]

Today's pic. Tonight we eat garden salad and pepper poppers. Tomorrow we make salsa!

All those cherries came from two plants and I just picked that many 4 days ago!

[shooter]

Very nice! and I see you moved up to a weekend beer
we been eating wild strawberries as we walk around the yard.  We wait all winter for times like these, enjoy your harvest

[sluckey]

That beer was just to mess with Ed! 

[PRR]

Plants. Bah.

Anybody know "knot weed"? Grows like bamboo, 4 inches a day. 6 to 10 feet tall every summer. Very few plants will grow this vigorously in Maine, but knotweed does. It is mostly considered "invasive". A mature stand has roots 8 feet deep. Mowing encourages it. Digging is a bad idea because it spreads. It is illegal to have any knotweed in Australia. In the UK, banks are denying mortgages on property "near" knotweed infestation. Koreans eat it, but we don't have that many hungry Koreans here.

The house I just bought has hundreds of square feet solid mature knotweed.

Lawnmower won't touch it. Common string trimmers are not really up to the job. A sickle will but that's hard work. I just borrowed an antique DR trimmer: it cuts then wraps the stalk around the shaft and kills the engine. With a helper to pull-back the stalks, I got some of it down today. Then heavy spray of RoundUp to start going down the stubs into the roots.

What isn't knotweed is beach roses, sticker bushes. I've seen worse (another house had roses grown up over the telephone line and all the way back to the ground). But still no fun at all.

It will be a nicer place (easy to sell) when all the neglected overgrowth is tamed. But I'm gonna be a plant-hater this year.

[shooter]

neglected overgrowth is tamed

It took us 10 years to cut back all the "growth" just to have a real 2.5 acre yard, another 10 to create a 1 acre park, the last 1/2acre swamp/pond is just all natural!

in MI our biggest pests are Ivy, all types, wild grapes, wild berries, then the snag brush, like stinging nettle, ragweed, thornapple.  In the end, Nature wins everytime!

[sluckey]

Salsa party was fun yesterday. It's been a few years since we did this. 19 pints in all plus what we ate while cooking and fine tuning the taste. 

[shooter]

Fancy label, farmers market, startup money for the next build

[sluckey]

Ha! Like I need another money pit! The only way I can justify this stuff is 'cause I enjoy doing it. Sell it. No way. Would you pay $25/pint for Alabama salsa?    Didn't think so!

Forgot to mention... I like hot, chunky salsa. My wife likes medium (to me) watery salsa. We compromised and did it her way.   

[shooter]

We compromised

her way

works every time!

[shooter]

Would you pay $25/pint for Alabama salsa?

I was doing a little barn cleaning, making room for my paintings and I stated laughing, kinda like trying to sell abstract art here in farm country   If it ain't a john deer or kitten.............

[drew]

Lawnmower won't touch it. Common string trimmers are not really up to the job. A sickle will but that's hard work. I just borrowed an antique DR trimmer: it cuts then wraps the stalk around the shaft and kills the engine. With a helper to pull-back the stalks, I got some of it down today. Then heavy spray of RoundUp to start going down the stubs into the roots.

Has that worked?  I was under the impression that Roundup has to be sprayed on foliage.

[PRR]

> impression that Roundup has to be sprayed on foliage.

1) Knotweed grows FAST. It's got leaves by the time I get the RoundUp.

2) Read the label. For stumps, you cut, then while fresh you apply RoundUp *concentrate*. I know this technique works on other plants. The cut tissue is expecting to receive sap from the upper plant. It will take-up the RoundUp and move it to the roots. I just got some concentrate and will re-spray what isn't dying. I expect to repeat this.

[Ed_Chambley]

Yep Imjust ignored the import brew.
Salsa looks great, ever tried it on fried shrimp? Yum yum.

[sluckey]

Never tried it on fried shrimp. But now I'm wondering about boiled shrimp. Hmmm! Someone left that green beer at the house. I do like it, but it's not cost effect for a backyard beer! 

[PRR]

We got (free!) one of those 1970s "greenhouses" that people put over a house window to grow stuff. Very expensive then. Very sad now, with dew and moss between the double-panes. Wrong-size and too gross to put on the house.

So I put 2" of foam and some plywood on the back, re-rigged the side windows, and put it on the deck for winter/spring growing.

[Ritchie200]

We took one off our house when we put in new windows a couple of years ago.  I told the guys to leave it as I was going to use it as a cold frame setup.  Perfect, right?  The window guys started laughing at me and I'm like, eh, what do you kids know.  I turn around and my wife is behind me with her hands on her hips and she is giving me "the look".  It got hauled away....  Then several years later she is talking about BUYING a little greenhouse to start veggies early.    Did I tell her "I told you so!"?  I thought about it...  She puts up with my music, gotta pick your battles!    PRR, you are the MAN!


Jim

[Willabe]

 

[Willabe]

Looks like a winner PRR.