Farming and Homesteading

[Greatshield17]

Depends how much electricity you want to throw at it. Lack of light is the main problem.
If you get some grow lights and such, I'm sure you could readily grow lettuce, spinach, and most herbs inside. Of course, you might just end up paying more for electricity than the food is worth. lol
I mostly bring my herbs in so they don't die. They don't grow inside, they just hibernate there until they can go back outside in the spring. That includes oregano, thyme, sage and rosemary. I keep them in the garage so they are in a cool, but not too cool environment.
I tried keeping some in the house itself once where it's warmer, but the plant spent all winter trying to grow despite the limited light, and by spring it was like the plant had no energy left, and it just died even after I got it back outside again.

I’ve started growing some more onions that I plan on growing over the winter, but I’m wondering if they need time to hibernate and putting them under grow lights will case them to use-up all their energy. Is that true, or am I thinking of this all wrong?

 

[Varzar]

I'm not sure I know the answer for sure as I haven't done a lot of over-winter growing myself.
But, scientifically my understanding would be that if the seed/plant is getting everything it wants to grow properly, it'll do that no matter what the time of year is. So, as long as your grow lights are enough to make the plant think it's sunlight, it should be happy.

I don't know if any plants actually need a "hibernation period". It's just and action many plants take when the conditions aren't favourable outside. But from my understanding, if the conditions were eternally favourable, those same plants would be just as happy to skip hibernating and keep growing.

These are just my ideas based on my limited understanding of the science of plants.. Perhaps someone with more of a biology background could give a better answer.. I'd be curious to know for sure too. I've just been starting to experiment myself with growing things in the winter.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

If you've got the cash, I say go for it. I've studied for decades, dreaming of a country life- things like ecobuilding and permaculture. But everything takes money.

Kansas is giving away free land, if you agree to build a home on the land within a prescribed amount of time. It's a win/win that puts local construction crews to work, and brings new taxpayers into the workforce.

I would love to jump in and do something like this, but the money never surfaced, and you know, unless you want to be an illegal squatter on public land....

 

[Greatshield17]

There appears to be some kind of fungus growing in the box where I’m currently growing my one of my strawberry plants until I can find a larger place for it; does anyone know what it is? There’s also a couple growing in another box beside it where I’m growing a green onion; the boxes originally contained organic soap from a Catholic company called Glory and Shine:

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

There appears to be some kind of fungus growing in the box where I’m currently growing my one of my strawberry plants until I can find a larger place for it; does anyone know what it is? There’s also a couple growing in another box beside it where I’m growing a green onion; the boxes originally contained organic soap from a Catholic company called Glory and Shine:
View attachment 70080 View attachment 70081

Yeah, it's powdery mildew. You're overwatering in an already humid house, most likely. Get it in some fresh soil before it spreads to the plant.

 

[unperson]

ditto, overwatered. Let em dry out a bit.

 

[vidura]

Potatoes also can grow easily. They adapt well to many environments and can grow anywhere outdoors in the garden or pots and indoors in all varieties of pots. And since the only way to prevent the use of pesticides or other potentially harmful substances is to grow your own vegetables, many people are wondering how to grow potatoes.

Guide - 6 Steps Of Potatoes Gardening - Potatoes Pests and Diseases

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Potatoes also can grow easily. They adapt well to many environments and can grow anywhere outdoors in the garden or pots and indoors in all varieties of pots. And since the only way to prevent the use of pesticides or other potentially harmful substances is to grow your own vegetables, many people are wondering how to grow potatoes.

Guide - 6 Steps Of Potatoes Gardening - Potatoes Pests and Diseases

Potatoes are the easiest thing in the world to grow. When you're preparing potatoes for dinner, and you notice potato eyes, cut a fat chunk off the potatoes with the eye attached and place them aside. You just layer those potato eye chunks with soil in a bucket that has holes drilled into the bottom and leave them alone for 3-6 months. You don't even have to water all that frequently.

Green vines will grow out the top of the soil. When the vines die back, you know it's time to harvest. Dump the bucket upside down, and grab out the potatoes.

You will notice lots and lots of tiny baby potatoes in the soil. These are seed potatoes. When you're putting the soil back in the bucket, layer in these seed potatoes and more potato eye chunks for another harvest 3 to 6 months later.

 

[Greatshield17]

When and how should I winterize my strawberry plants?

 

[Varzar]

When and how should I winterize my strawberry plants?

I usually leave mine in the greenhouse over winter, which gets nearly as cold as outside. They have survived that way, but usually there are some losses. For my herbs though, I have already brought them in to the garage where it's relatively dark and cool. I water them rarely while they are inside, and that seems to encourage them to stay dormant until the spring arrives.

I mostly don't move the strawberries in too because they are in an inconvenient to move pot.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

When and how should I winterize my strawberry plants?

You know, I've never done anything to winterize my strawberries other than let the leaves from the trees fall over the garden.

Then I just leave it like that all winter. The rain, snow, and ice come and go, and in the spring, the strawberries come back. Strawberry plants are very hardy.

 

[Mary Terry]

A part of that answer would have to be age. I'm glad I started this adventure 15+ years ago when I was still in my 20s. I find now that I'm in my 40s, energy is significantly more limited than it once was. Boo for aging.

The other part of the answer for me at least would be that it's a special interest. Self sufficiency. I've always had more energy for my special interests than anything else in life.

I'm in my late 60's and certainly don't have the energy or stamina that I used to have. But I have been working on our garden soil for decades, enriching it with compost and adjusting the pH as necessary. Gardening is so much easier once you have the soil prepared.

I love being self-sufficient, too. There is enormous joy in walking to my backyard garden and harvesting dinner. Last night I cooked my turnip greens, mustard greens, kale and collards mixed together, all from my garden. Dinner was the fresh greens, simple oven roasted chicken breasts, and a cauliflower and broccoli cheesy casserole topped with Panko, melted butter and some Parmesan cheese mixed together. Yum. My cauliflower, broccoli, cabbages and Brussel sprouts are still growing, not yet mature, but they look really healthy and good.

 

[Varzar]

I'm in my late 60's and certainly don't have the energy or stamina that I used to have. But I have been working on our garden soil for decades, enriching it with compost and adjusting the pH as necessary. Gardening is so much easier once you have the soil prepared.

I love being self-sufficient, too. There is enormous joy in walking to my backyard garden and harvesting dinner. Last night I cooked my turnip greens, mustard greens, kale and collards mixed together, all from my garden. Dinner was the fresh greens, simple oven roasted chicken breasts, and a cauliflower and broccoli cheesy casserole topped with Panko, melted butter and some Parmesan cheese mixed together. Yum. My cauliflower, broccoli, cabbages and Brussel sprouts are still growing, not yet mature, but they look really healthy and good.

I'm still working on the soil.. Our house and garden is on top of a rocky knob. We had to blast the top of the hill to be able to dig for the foundation. So, not a lot of soil here at all. I work at it, bit by bit, every year.

I made a cheesy potato dish last night where everything except the cheese came from the garden. The herbs, garlic, onions, potatoes, green peppers...
It's very satisfying for sure!
Not much is still growing up here though. Too cold and dark now.
I still have to get out to the greenhouse though and clean up the remnants of this year to prepare for next year.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Wow! So many folk ideas for growing things. The truth is that there are many paths to the same destination.

I believe in paradise gardening. Creating a symbiotic circle of native wildlife and the things you plant. Making a yard wild like a jungle, with good black soil, and a variety of native and intentionally grown plant life. I like to have a nice, waist high Garden of Eden with squashes, and berries, and greens, and onions just going nuts.

I don't even kill the Himalaya Blackberries or passionflower vines. If I see creepers coming down like they want to spread into the soil, I'll pluck the green tips off for use in medicine, and then weave the canes in and out of a fence where they provide shade for the more tender plants.

I have never had trouble with ants, if anything they have been my garden allies. I enjoy seeing their trails in the cracks, and watching them swarm over a rotted piece of fruit. If something gets spilled, or rots, the ants will come in, the merry maids they are, and within a couple days, it'll disappear as if it never existed in the first place.

On composting, Starbucks and other coffee stores are your best friends. If you ask the baristas, they'll often give you a trash bag full of grounds at the end of the day! You don't want to put fresh coffee grounds on your plants, but if you're dumping it in the composter, it'll add the "heat" that the composter needs to break down the organic stuff. Just put torn cardboard or paper on top of it to give a good mix. I find that dumping kombucha into the composter really speeds things up, as it adds another layer of microbes to the biome.

Ah, one of my favorite scents is compost. Like when it's finished and there's this sweet, hay like scent, oh yeah, you know it's going to rock that garden soil.

One year, when I had a large garden, I had a good friendship with a large huntsman spider. It was very odd and quite disturbing. He lived under the composter. I'd watch and an unsuspecting bug would walk by and he'd come out from his den, capture the bug, and disappear within seconds. He kept the garden healthy.

But then again, on bugs, most bugs are your friends in the garden. They're the ones who are breaking down the organic matter in the soil and making it into rich humus.

I've not been a fan of pulling weeds. Those are your native plants that the bad bugs want to eat, but when they're gone, they only have your garden to attack. On years where I pull the weeds, I lose a good amount of produce to pests. When I leave them in place and just tactically pull some up to make room for plants, most of my produce survives. The cabbage moths lay their eggs on the weeds, the slugs eat the weeds, and my veggies and flowers are left alone.

Some years, I even didn't pull up any weeds at all. I would just use the shovel to sort of make a crack in the soil and then I'd wedge the roots of whatever plant into that crack and gently lower the original soil over it.

There's one plant that everyone seems to pull up, it's called nipplewort. I hate saying that name. It gives such a yucky visual. I like to call it "Oregon Sunflower" lol. Anyway, it's the plant that all the slugs and all the moths actually want to eat. When you pull it up, they go after whatever else it is that is edible.

If there's a crop that really, really is delicious to pests, try planting garlic around it. Like within a few inches of the plant. OMG most everything in nature hates garlic.

And I've also found that in those years that I let the weeds have a little fun, I don't have to use Corry's Slug Pellets.

I've found that gardening in this way, working with and not against nature, has really worked for me.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

In my current garden there is an old rotted stump. A few years ago, when I first moved in, it was the stump of a freshly cut tree. Judging by the outer bark, it might have been a very old western larch or ash tree.

Within a year, I noticed Turkey Tail Mushrooms growing all over the stump. Just going wild. Oh you know I was down with the polypores! I harvested those and was able to make beautiful, immune boosting medicine from tiny chunks of the dried beauties.

I think that the mushrooms must have really innoculated the entire stump. Perhaps that's why they had to cut down the tree, it was so rotted away. Because within another year, the stump had sagged inward. A family of moles soon moved in under the stump and within months, they had eaten away everything but a pretty ring of thick, gnarled bark. I like to think that they chose it because of the Turkey Tails.

I now use that ring of bark where the stump once was as a planter. I fill it with soil, and put flowers in there. It's quite stunning.

 

[Varzar]

A family of moles soon moved in under the stump and within months...

I got to this part and thought, "uh oh, what did you do with the moles? soup?"

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

One thing that's fun: Plant a small patch of amaranth or millet, and every day at sunset, you'll see flocks of little birds come down from the trees and jump and dance all over the stalks, nibbling at the tiny seeds.

Then again, if you're farming grains... this would be a terrible problem. But for a hobbyist like me, who just finds it fun to have good soil, fresh produce, and pretty flowers, it's an incredible sight.

 

[Mary Terry]

I'm still working on the soil.. Our house and garden is on top of a rocky knob. We had to blast the top of the hill to be able to dig for the foundation. So, not a lot of soil here at all. I work at it, bit by bit, every year.

I made a cheesy potato dish last night where everything except the cheese came from the garden. The herbs, garlic, onions, potatoes, green peppers...
It's very satisfying for sure!
Not much is still growing up here though. Too cold and dark now.
I still have to get out to the greenhouse though and clean up the remnants of this year to prepare for next year.

At least you have a greenhouse! I wish I had one. Down here in the deep South, we can grow something or the other that is edible all year round, not necessarily something you want to eat every day! But you can grow things in your colder climate that I'll never be able to grow here. Like rhubarb and celery?

Gardening is a lifelong education. I'm constantly learning. I no longer grow tomatoes in the ground because they get diseases and contaminate the soil. I only grow them in large containers along the edge of the patio, south side of house, water sparingly and fertilize as needed, especially calcium. I've learned to rotate my ground crops to replenish nitrogen and keep the soil healthy. How best to stake up runner beans and other climbing plants. How to save seeds for next year. Organic products that actually work and aren't just hype.

If I had rocks and rocky soil like you, I'd try making terraces like photos I've seen from various parts of the world of rice paddies, tea plants, vineyards - whatever grows well for the climate, soil, etc. My new hobby would be building rock terraces.

 

[Varzar]

At least you have a greenhouse! I wish I had one. Down here in the deep South, we can grow something or the other that is edible all year round, not necessarily something you want to eat every day! But you can grow things in your colder climate that I'll never be able to grow here. Like rhubarb and celery?

Gardening is a lifelong education. I'm constantly learning. I no longer grow tomatoes in the ground because they get diseases and contaminate the soil. I only grow them in large containers along the edge of the patio, south side of house, water sparingly and fertilize as needed, especially calcium. I've learned to rotate my ground crops to replenish nitrogen and keep the soil healthy. How best to stake up runner beans and other climbing plants. How to save seeds for next year. Organic products that actually work and aren't just hype.

If I had rocks and rocky soil like you, I'd try making terraces like photos I've seen from various parts of the world of rice paddies, tea plants, vineyards - whatever grows well for the climate, soil, etc. My new hobby would be building rock terraces.

The landscaping we've been doing around the house basically amounts to creating terraces. Not a lot of flat space up here as it is, so I've had to find places I could flatten out enough to make garden space.

I've been trying to learn something new each year in the garden, despite still having a lot of other construction projects to do. This year's experiment was peppers, and I have to say, it worked out really well. I got a lot of peppers, and I saved the seeds from them for next year. I like plants where I don't have to re-buy seeds annually.

I've been mostly growing what is hardy and seems to grow well here. Potatoes, onions, and garlic outside, peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse.
I haven't tried celery yet, but rhubarb grows effortlessly for sure, survives the winters with no problem at all. I didn't realize those wouldn't grow down south, interesting!

I also grew some cantaloupe this year in the greenhouse. It grew well, but in the midst of summer when we had 100+F temperatures, the greenhouse got too hot and most of my plants stopped making flowers, and therefore fruit. Still, I got a couple cantaloupe anyways, and they were soooo much better than any I have ever had from the store.

The thing I'm trying to learn right now is how/when to fertilize to get good sized tomatoes. I grew the same type as my neighbour, but his are always giant compared to mine, so obviously I need to fertilize more..

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

At least you have a greenhouse! I wish I had one. Down here in the deep South, we can grow something or the other that is edible all year round, not necessarily something you want to eat every day! But you can grow things in your colder climate that I'll never be able to grow here. Like rhubarb and celery?

Gardening is a lifelong education. I'm constantly learning. I no longer grow tomatoes in the ground because they get diseases and contaminate the soil. I only grow them in large containers along the edge of the patio, south side of house, water sparingly and fertilize as needed, especially calcium. I've learned to rotate my ground crops to replenish nitrogen and keep the soil healthy. How best to stake up runner beans and other climbing plants. How to save seeds for next year. Organic products that actually work and aren't just hype.

If I had rocks and rocky soil like you, I'd try making terraces like photos I've seen from various parts of the world of rice paddies, tea plants, vineyards - whatever grows well for the climate, soil, etc. My new hobby would be building rock terraces.

I live on the side of an extinct volcano. The crater is less than a mile away, as the crow flies. My soil is very rocky. Mostly big basalt stones the size of soup pots, and littler stones. I enjoy pulling rocks out of the garden soil. It's a good labor that really fatigues you and makes you happy. If you dig and turn the soil in the early spring, when the ground is still mucky and easy to work with, you'll soon have a rock-free garden. Just throw the rocks over the fence, or line a wall with them.

I had a friend who used her garden stones to make a spiral shaped garden bed, that she filled in with soil. Get creative!