|
Post by synergy on Apr 27, 2020 11:35:22 GMT -5
I have yet to invest much in anything that does not produce food at my 'new' property , but I miss the tree peonies I had at my old farm that I had planted 25 years previous . It seems to memory that they never took more than 2 years to start with blooms . I had planted horseradish in my garden and now started to dig it out after two years when a friend mentioned that it took over her mothers garden . Then I saw in the plant catalogue that the plants they sell for $17 each and wondering if I could do some sort of monetized crop . I seem to be slow and not all that productive but I have a plethora of Heritage raspberry starts, everbearing strawberries , horse radish and chocolate peppermint to start a friend who has room to naturalize some spots away from his garden and he has the mindset of a forager so it may cheer him up having some free plants .
How big is your farm Steev ?
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Apr 24, 2020 13:15:24 GMT -5
Some people will be smart enough to remain taking every precaution they can, surely a few have learned protocals that make it safer ? I feel I have and will be at it into 2021 ?
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Apr 24, 2020 11:28:29 GMT -5
Right now I am chomping on the bit to get some 16 foot livestock panels but no one around to haul them here that I know. I put some feelers out for transport since the company here that sells them is an hour away and they do not have any delivery service . I can only drool at pictures of panel arches and greenhouses made out of them and temp fenced areas for my goats and chickens etc. Today I am stealing taller panels from other areas to fence in chickens in an area for them through summer .
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Apr 24, 2020 11:12:27 GMT -5
I managed to move a clapped out , cheap light weight barbeque to my 'new' property 5 years back and finally put it to use as a potting bench with the potting soil kept under the hood, seeding trays stacked underneath and two shelves on either side perfect height for filling pots and trays all very neat looking . I always knew this is how I could put it to use but it took 5 years to DO something that simple !
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Apr 24, 2020 11:06:34 GMT -5
Well let's hope earth has more earth days in the very least . I was too busy plotting chickens and more places and ways to grow garden . Putting in long days and getting remarkably little accomplished at times . At least it is organic . Actually I think these earth days here will last all summer into fall as I Stay Home and make it the year to get on top of weeds .
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Nov 30, 2019 1:49:03 GMT -5
It seems like no one has posted here for a while so here I go, I mucked out half the goat stall and I am dumping a wheelbarrow of prime muck at the base of 2 chestnut trees I have planted. As I get more I will dress the other 2 chestnuts .
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Oct 15, 2019 1:06:10 GMT -5
Thank you for the welcome back . At my new abode , it is closer to wilderness and more rural . We haul our garbage to a very small transfer centre one day a week which has a 'free store' shipping container where we can drop off goods for others to use and take anything we can use rather than let good things go in the waste stream . Last trip I dropped off toys and picked up a Rubbermaid outdoor storage trunk I will scrub up tomorrow and put to use. In our climate storage out of the elements is always useful on a little homestead. Other frugal living things daily is using every stone I come across to fill in around the chicken yard and in the next two weeks I will be raking and hauling carts of big leaf maple leaves to dress the veggie garden in.
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Oct 7, 2019 9:43:59 GMT -5
I moved to a new location in a forested valley in coastal BC and trying to establish a garden here it dawned on me that since I have vast amounts of deadfall I need to burn and a penchant for weiner roasts , that I would make small controllable campfires in my garden area to try to burn both weeds, brambles and stumps of trees and it occurred to me that maybe terra preta was the result of a similar need to both cook or smoke foods and try to tame wet rainforest just as I am , by making these small fires so I can work some gardening space ? Being in heavily forested lands, we are very careful not to burn in the dry season, so perhaps the rainy season climate has something to do with the nature of terra preta, that fires are made to cook but extinguished thereafter with rainfall ? Or are deliberately smoldering to smoke foods for preservation ?
Today I have a chared spot in my garden and I wait for a drier day to now double dig the remaining charred wood in and burn another area that has blackberry bramble and needs to be weeded, fire will give me a bit more of a fighting chance with less aches and pains in my middle age and being the fairer sex ( ha ha ha ) I am looking for the easy way to tame this garden spot .
I have been away from this forum for four years as I moved to a new location with much work to make it livable and apparently in the duration I have been elevated to being a " Master Gardener" which is laughable at best , I definitely struggle with it and have to learn anew as I am in a less ideal, low light , heavy rain, northern location .
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Oct 7, 2019 9:09:34 GMT -5
This year I cut up aluminum cans and impressed plant names on them for labels which worked better than any marker I have tried previously. Yesterday I got a free nearly new wood pig shelter 4' x8' which I intend to modify a bit and use to house my muscovey ducks which have been cramped in with chickens . We located this new little shelter so the ducks will be able to access our orchard that has a drainage swale and a wee pond by walking themselves through a little sloping vineyard. I tried keeping the ducks last winter in the orchard but the hillside proved a chore to hike up and down the hill in snow and ice carrying food and water and shut the ducks in when they took to a shelter at night then I would be traversing down the snowy hill in the dark. So this change is to cut steps and risk as I am aging and have more difficulty so I have to think smarter and let the ducks do the walking . At my previous home I enclosed the fruit trees in pallets, cut a few access holes in the bottom and sprinkled grain in one tree enclosure each day. I placed a small plastic pool and filled it each morning for the beside and uphill of the tree and each evening tipped the water to deep water one tree each day in rotation . The ducks trample the weeds and fertilize the tree while retrieving the grain . At night the coyote had access to hunt the voles that previously were destroying my young fruit trees . At night my ducks will be secured in their shelter for their safety . This system worked brilliantly at my old farm but now I am starting over at a property I moved to 4 years ago and I have not been posting for that duration .
|
|
|
Post by synergy on May 22, 2017 19:19:44 GMT -5
Both my chestnuts are planted out and are doing well, today I buried my grandfathers ashes in the soil by the one chestnut as I thought it would perhaps never be disturbed .
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Dec 30, 2016 15:29:38 GMT -5
Thank you for mentioning this, I didn't really have words to add, not knowing him or being familiar but I had come across some mention to his books time and again and I keep rediscovering why we need permaculture .
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Dec 24, 2016 1:57:33 GMT -5
Of the chestnuts that Castanea kindly sent me, two germinated and live still, growing ever so slowly in half barrels that made the move with me to my new home . They will get planted out this spring on the forest edge , thank you so much !
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Dec 24, 2016 1:32:34 GMT -5
Well I live in the boonies somewhat and the computer is a lifeline, a connection, a resource for so many things. I don't have a cell or a tv but I cherish my ability to peruse the internet
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Dec 24, 2016 1:21:14 GMT -5
I read in Wired Science that December 20th the day before the solstice had a lunar eclipse in the northern hemisphere making it the shortest daylight day in the last 500 years . My christmas is always part Thanksgiving and part relief the daylight minutes will be growing again
|
|
|
Post by synergy on Dec 12, 2016 14:48:51 GMT -5
Homesteading activity of the day , shoveling paths to push the wheelbarrow and carry water buckets .
|
|