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Not likely to be doing much growing this season. In short I have a family medical situation, and there are really no other relatives to step in for now. I'll be around, but I can't put in the consistent time I usually do to pull off a good grow. Who knows, maybe I'll end up w/ some help and can still do a few things - if so, the sheer volume of pre-nuclear seed potatoes could make for an insane grow.
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@collatz Hope everything is okay friend. Was just wondering where you've been.
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@collatz @BowsacNoodle
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@BowsacNoodle Thanks man, I'm alright on my end. Yeah I can still get into streams & things that don't take the kind of consistency growing does, but I ended up losing so much produce as I lost the time to process. Don't want to over-promise, but I'll (probably much less frequently) still do a few smaller things, and turn some of the normal growing spaces into wildflower/cover-crops for this year. Silver lining of building some good nutrition I suppose.
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@EssentialUtinsil @collatz Squash is the best plant for low effort gardening. I disposed of a few of them in my compost pile once and the next year I had 80 feet of squash filled fence line.
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@collatz @BowsacNoodle I feel ya, I ended up abandoning my garden due to having a kid right in the busy season, couldn’t keep up with it and it was stressing me out so I just let it go and ill Try again this year. still got a big squash harvest though, needed that for baby food.
I’m building a new garden this year, too many weeds in the old spot and I just don’t have the time to deal with them. I just ordered some of those steel raised beds, getting a truck of garden mix delivered and shouldn’t have so many problems.
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@EssentialUtinsil @collatz Have you ever looked into cinder blocks? It's a lot cheaper, sometimes free, and you can build a raised bed with them. Easy to control water too since you can put a membrane in the bottom if you want or leave it off and dig to earth for thirstier plants.
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@EssentialUtinsil @BowsacNoodle If I could only grow two things, winter squash & sweet potatoes. Best staple-nutrition/storage, plus disease resistance (at least in this area) ime. I like the sound of people who talk about taking down your "weed seed bank" year over year on a given spot, but I don't think I'm that deft yet lol
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@collatz @EssentialUtinsil Weed seed bank? is that getting residual seeds (weeds) to grow and then yanking them before they propagate?
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@BowsacNoodle @EssentialUtinsil yep, generally, or at least before they flower
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@collatz @EssentialUtinsil What's your thoughts on the "weeds are the soil's platelets to scab the raw soil" mindset? I think some of the regenerative organic gardening strategies that don't involve digging much if any soil.
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@BowsacNoodle @EssentialUtinsil I certainly like to keep a given patch growing. I suppose I think of a weed as anything that's not working along or at least unobtrusively w/ whatever I'm primarily growing. Do wish I knew more about companion species for pest control, etc., but that's another one of those somewhere-down-the-list things to learn/practice.
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@collatz @BowsacNoodle I've tried various 'permaculture' or 'regenerative' techniques over the years, there is a lot of nuance to these things and a lot depends on the specific set of variables you're working with.
weeds are just plants growing where I don't want them. in the context of a high-density vegetable garden, that includes most things that I didn't plant, and the main problem is them choking out my vegetables.
I do minimal tilling (top 3" plus broadfork to loosen the subsoil) to avoid cycling the seed bank around, but to really get them under control would require at least a whole season of focused depletion (actively promoting germination, then killing them all before they seed, repeat over the course of a season because I have several different weed cycles to deal with). I'm confident this would work, and partially why I'm starting a new plot this year, so I can free up some space in the existing area that I can leave fallow and work on weed mitigation if I have time. Otherwise I'll just tarp it as a 'pause' button.
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@EssentialUtinsil @collatz @BowsacNoodle I've been experimenting with the "Ruth Stout method" of piling 4-6" of straw/grass clippings/yard waste/veg scraps over the entire bed and its really helped keep unwanted plants from sprouting at all or if they do, they're much easier to yank out. Also keeps my muck boots a lot cleaner on wetter days.
collatz
BowserNoodle ☦️
givenup
EssentialUtinsil :njp:
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