Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[Hastur]

Daddy Warbucks over here, too good for beans.

[SuburbanFarmer]

50 lbs of seed potatoes...……….. You're going full on Irish sustenance there.

Tell me about Blood meal. What is your application rate, how do you use it ?

It’s dried blood from the slaughterhouse, and very high in nitrogen. That, and alkalinity have been my bane in this garden. Too much damn clay, and I’d have to mix in a dump truck of soil to really fix it.
I’ve been working it for about 5 years, and it’s improving slowly.

I worked out that I’ve got roughly 5,000 sq ft of garden, so that came to 100lbs of it. Planning to just spread it out along with the compost before I till.

Cool. I might give it a try.

I got my tiller for my tractor. Did a little work on it so I could use it this Spring, but the price was right.

So fucking jealous of you right now. The kid scored a single blade plow for a riding mower, but there’s only one with a hitch, and it lives in his grandpas garage, buried. Still hoping to somehow get it working next week. I’ve been using a little retail tiller - usually takes 2-3 days to do it all.

[SuburbanFarmer]

Dude fuck beans, they’re useless. Green beans are as far as I go, and they have to be picked early.

[C-Mag]

What are you planting in that 5000 sf ?

[SuburbanFarmer]

What are you planting in that 5000 acres ?

Potatoes, carrots, onions, pumpkins, lettuce, peppers, and green beans.

Winter wheat is finally taking off, it’ll be a shame to plow it all under, but hopefully it did it’s job and loosened up the soil some more. I spread my composted manure today, and realized that I need about 3x more of it to make an impact. Neighbors are already complaining of the smell tho. #ClaySucks

Personally, I like it. Reminds me of Texas.

[TheReal_ND]

What are you planting in that 5000 acres ?

Potatoes, carrots, onions, pumpkins, lettuce, peppers, and green beans.

Winter wheat is finally taking off, it’ll be a shame to plow it all under, but hopefully it did it’s job and loosened up the soil some more. I spread my composted manure today, and realized that I need about 3x more of it to make an impact. Neighbors are already complaining of the smell tho. #ClaySucks

Personally, I like it. Reminds me of Texas.

My grandpa said it smells like perfume and would joke that he dabs it behind his ears.

[Hastur]

What are you planting in that 5000 acres ?

Potatoes, carrots, onions, pumpkins, lettuce, peppers, and green beans.

Winter wheat is finally taking off, it’ll be a shame to plow it all under, but hopefully it did it’s job and loosened up the soil some more. I spread my composted manure today, and realized that I need about 3x more of it to make an impact. Neighbors are already complaining of the smell tho. #ClaySucks

Personally, I like it. Reminds me of Texas.

Have you tried No dig gardening? It’s supposed to work well with clay.

[SuburbanFarmer]

What are you planting in that 5000 acres ?

Potatoes, carrots, onions, pumpkins, lettuce, peppers, and green beans.

Winter wheat is finally taking off, it’ll be a shame to plow it all under, but hopefully it did it’s job and loosened up the soil some more. I spread my composted manure today, and realized that I need about 3x more of it to make an impact. Neighbors are already complaining of the smell tho. #ClaySucks

Personally, I like it. Reminds me of Texas.

Have you tried No dig gardening? It’s supposed to work well with clay.

The gardens a bit large for that

Adding 6” of compost to 5000sqft would be 2500cuft of material. I just added 30cuft and the neighbors don’t like it lol. That’s like 3-4 dump trucks worth.

[C-Mag]

I have the opposite problem, sandy gravel soils.

I just found a source for old hay, and I'm adding a foot to my garden. Pretty easy to handle.

Reportedly works well with clay soils too

[SuburbanFarmer]

I have the opposite problem, sandy gravel soils.

I just found a source for old hay, and I'm adding a foot to my garden. Pretty easy to handle.

Reportedly works well with clay soils too

Yeah we typically add 10 bales of straw or so after planting, for weed control. It’s completely disappeared by the next year.

Haven’t really considered hay, but there’s quite a bit of grass out there by now. It all gets tilled back in each spring.