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Post by billw on May 8, 2013 0:37:32 GMT -5
Lazy bed digging continues. I got all of the seed potatoes planted and I was ready to take a break when a box of potatoes from wingnut showed up today. So, back to peasant labor tomorrow after work. I have room for one more group of beds in the back and that will probably be just enough. For this year. ;D
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Post by billw on May 6, 2013 20:23:43 GMT -5
Funny how different practices develop from relative ignorance. My mother taught me that green potatoes must be skinned, so that is what I have always done. It never would have occurred to me to throw away a green potato. As for sitting down to a meal of 5 pounds of potatoes, Irish peasants apparently consumed 8-12 pounds per day. I really like potatoes, but I have a hard time wrapping my mind around that number. That's a lot of spuds.
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Post by billw on May 5, 2013 12:31:25 GMT -5
Thanks zeedman.
I think maybe we talked bitter melon over at iDig at some point, as I recognize that hedge. That's my goal! My bitter melons look very sad compared to that.
I'll start seeds in the greenhouse this week, with the goal of planting them out along a south-facing wall in June. My usual result is a couple of plants that leaf out reasonably well to about 4-5' tall, suffer badly from mildew, and produce 3-4 fruits at best.
I hope that, with so many varieties, I can find some that do a little better and focus on crossing those for a few years, letting nature work its magic.
The downside is that I am probably going to have to forego eating any, so that I can get those seeds!
I looked around for the Thailand variety, but couldn't find it. Not surprising, since it makes for such a broad search term.
Spindle or "Japan Spindle" is my benchmark variety - that is the best of the six varieties that I have already tried here. These are the varieties that I am trying this year. Based on previous results, I expect that most won't even continue to grow once taken out of the greenhouse - they'll just sit there sullenly until the mildew gets them.
Bitter Melon, Aman Green Bitter Melon, Ant Bitter Melon, Baby Doll Bitter Melon, Beauty Winner Bitter Melon, Best Champion Bitter Melon, Deva Bitter Melon, Extra Jumbo Bitter Melon, Green Bitter Melon, Green Giant Bitter Melon, Green Skin Bitter Melon, Green Queen Bitter Melon, Hong Kong Green Bitter Melon, India Bitter Melon, India Baby Bitter Melon, India Long Green Bitter Melon, India Long White Bitter Melon, India Pearl Bitter Melon, Japan Long Bitter Melon, Long Bitter Melon, Mara Bitter Melon, Nanha Bitter Melon, Nayan Long Bitter Melon, Southern Money Maker Bitter Melon, Spindle Bitter Melon, Tai Guo Bitter Melon, Taiwan Large Bitter Melon, Taiwan White Bitter Melon, White Pearl Bitter Melon, White Vivek
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Post by billw on May 2, 2013 15:25:14 GMT -5
I'm not sure about carrots, but it appears that some plants can be reverted to fertility by callus culture. It is easy to do, so might be worth a shot if other methods fail.
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Post by billw on May 2, 2013 12:25:16 GMT -5
Next year, the grass should be dead and the sod decomposed, so I can do just about anything with it. If you drive around Ireland, you can see lots of washboard farm fields where they apparently kept them going in that form. Since I try not to grow potatoes in the same place for multiple years, I will probably just pull apart the ridges at harvest and flatten the ground for the next planting. With the sod broken down, I'll be able to better amend the plot next year as well. I usually incorporate a lot of manure and then go to greens and brassicas following potatoes.
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Post by billw on May 2, 2013 1:20:55 GMT -5
BillW - doesn't the grass grow through the bed to the top? How deep is the sod layer that you are removing? We'll see. This is the first time that I've tried this method, so I can't be sure. The fold-over is about 4 inches thick, so I think it will suppress most of the grass, but there is a seam down the middle that is just filled with loose dirt, so the grass may find its way through. Hopefully the potatoes will grow faster and shade out any grass that does poke through. If not, that's what geese are for.
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Post by billw on May 1, 2013 18:19:57 GMT -5
I think I'd rather waltz with the BCS. Strike up the band and play something in 3/4 time. Waltzing Matilda? Take this Waltz? I lust after those BCS tractors quite often, but I'm too small scale to justify the expense. I work just about 1 acre, on my way toward 2, but that is as big as I can go. I've found that I use power tools infrequently enough that they are more trouble than they're worth, even though I sometimes regret that in spring. Grub hoe, broadfork, and spade never break down, although I sometimes do.
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Post by billw on May 1, 2013 10:42:43 GMT -5
Well timed. I'm thinking of doing the same this year, so I will benefit from your experience.
I think that I may use plastic either way, just to keep some of the rain off, so that I don't have to harvest in foot deep mud.
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Post by billw on Apr 30, 2013 22:51:15 GMT -5
Well explain lazy beds please. It is a traditional Irish method of simultaneously breaking new ground and growing potatoes. The rows are sort of sod sandwiches, with an overturned layer of sod atop intact ground. It accomplishes the goals of killing grass and weeds, providing drainage, and planting potatoes all at the same time. I've never tried it before, but I had a large area of lawn with poor, rocky soil to convert this year and it seemed like a good way to approach it. This area is about six feet lower than our main garden area with much higher clay content, so the better drainage was an appealing feature. Anyway, you can read more about it the same place that I first did: oca-testbed.blogspot.com/2012/04/breaking-new-ground-for-tuber-planting.html
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Post by billw on Apr 30, 2013 16:16:09 GMT -5
Lazy beds. 10 down, 16 to go.
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Post by billw on Apr 30, 2013 11:33:51 GMT -5
I had a guy tell me that he is allergic to bees, so he wanted to buy the honey that is not made by bees.
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Post by billw on Apr 29, 2013 10:20:32 GMT -5
Is that gorse in the back ground Bill Yeah, acres and acres of it. We live next to a high school that has been abandoned for 40 years and they used it as a landscaping plant. It was pretty bad when we got here, but seven years ago, the county decided to sell the property and came in and mowed down the fields, which had been untouched for decades. Taller native trees and shrubs (and Himalayan blackberry) kept the gorse in check to some degree. But, once they cut it all down, the gorse came back with a vengeance and suppressed everything else. Now, it has completely taken over the grounds, such that you can't even find a path through it anymore and it towers eight feet tall along my back fence line, spitting its seeds in ever greater quantities onto my property. You can see it growing along roadsides a few miles in every direction, which also wasn't the case when we moved here ten years ago. But I guess I looks kind of pretty in spring.
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Post by billw on Apr 28, 2013 12:35:04 GMT -5
I love the idea of cutting the corn in place and following with broad beans. I am going to try that this year.
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Post by billw on Apr 27, 2013 16:38:19 GMT -5
I just received some Highland Kale in trade and so went to look it up. I didn't find anything that indicated species; only that it is a mustard of Ethiopian origin that was originally grown for oil seed. That sounds like B. carinata, which usually gets called Texsel Greens in the US.
So, that's my guess, but does anybody know for certain?
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Post by billw on Apr 27, 2013 15:50:17 GMT -5
Also, do you let your ducks into your garden area? Are they better at eating unwanted bugs than chickens? We consider ours to be indispensable garden assistants. I don't know that they are better bug eaters than chickens, but they eat one thing that chickens usually don't: slugs. Even the big banana slugs. Chickens would just give those a desultory peck and move along. The ducks will swallow them whole and then desperately search about a 10 foot radius for more. They are definitely less damaging to vegetables than chickens often are, but that doesn't mean that they don't do damage. We fence off seedlings and keep them out of crops that are easily damaged by trampling. Even a foot tall fence will keep them out, unless you have a breed that flies. They'll eat the outer leaves on brassicas and greens, but won't whittle them to the ground or pull them up like chickens will. They totally ignore our raspberries, gooseberries, and kiwis while doing weed and pest patrol underneath them. In general, I've found that it is less work to move short fences around to keep the ducks out of sensitive areas than it is to keep up with the pests and weeds that the ducks take care of. And, they do a really nice job on compost. I can't imagine gardening without ducks anymore.
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