Food gardening

[Mick Doobie]

Welp, I finally had to come to the unfortunate conclusion that the cherry tree I planted last early fall was dead. "Fruit Cocktail" tree bloomed, is starting to put on leaves. Apple trees are putting on leaves and just starting to bloom. Cherry (Stella) tree, nothin'. Stellaaa! Problem is, I don't know why. It looked healthy all the way through dropping leaves in the fall. Layed straw in the cages to insulate the root ball for winter. Has little (brown ) buds on it. That's exactly the well considered spot I want it. I just don't know.

Luckily, or wisely, which ever way you want to look at it, I purchased the year "for whatever reason" warranty. I contacted Fast Growing Trees dot com, great company. They're shipping a replacement. I do wish I knew what went wrong.

 

[TalismanRich]

It's good that they're sending you a replacement. I just checked my tree today and I see buds starting to develop. Nothing close to the blooming stage yet, of course, but it should yield another crop if we don't get another hard freeze (which has happened before).

I may be looking to put another tree in the back yard since my dogwood is getting really weak. Lots of dead branches, and not many buds. This might be the year to cut that one down, and put in a new tree.

 

[Mick Doobie]

Did you plant the dogwood? If so, how many years ago?

There's a really nice looking dogwood in the yard here. It's almost crowded by a hickory on one side and a cedar on the other, but it seems to like where it is, very nicely shaped. It's probably a wild tree, I would think. Dogwoods are nice. Are you going to replace the dogwood or go with something else?

 

[TalismanRich]

The dogwood was fully grown when I bought the house back in the mid 80s. I thought it might be nice to put cherry in the back yard, although who knows if it will get big enough to yield a crop before I decide to move to a Fla retirement community!!! That what we old people are supposed to do, right?

 

[Mick Doobie]

Hey, fast growing trees dot com sells trees that can produce as soon as the first year. I was planning on possibly not allowing my cherry tree to produce anything this year in favor of establishing itself, root system and whatnot. I'm not sure what the plan is now. It arrives, I put it in the ground and we get another hard frost in April, I'm screwed. I guess first things first, see if it arrives dormant.

 

[Mick Doobie]

-double post-

 

[YanKleber]

We are preparing a small place for this purpose, but it's just for the proud of having in our plates something that grew in our own yard. In my country we are not even close to imagine such scary level of instability, chaos and uncertain mentioned by the OP to the point of it be the reason to start a food garden!

 

[dogooder]

We are preparing a small place for this purpose, but it's just for the proud of having in our plates something that grew in our own yard. In my country we are not even close to imagine such scary level of instability, chaos and uncertain mentioned by the OP to the point of it be the reason to start a food garden!

You won't regret the tomatoes. I have slices sitting in some dirt waiting for them to sprout now. Only two of my MJ seeds have sprouted so far, still waiting on them.

 

[dogooder]

The dogwood was fully grown when I bought the house back in the mid 80s. I thought it might be nice to put cherry in the back yard, although who knows if it will get big enough to yield a crop before I decide to move to a Fla retirement community!!! That what we old people are supposed to do, right?

All the dogwood saplings I planted last fall made it, they are starting to budd. The five fruit trees I planted made it and are now blooming with nice teeny weeny little flowers.
Old people like me bought 6 acres and nice house in Southwest Virginia so they could have a bigger garden. Walking up the hill to it unassisted may kill me, but it is worth it.

 

[Robbmusic]

As this world gets more unstable, chaotic and uncertain, self reliance becomes more important.

Food is something we ALL agree on. Right? I mean we all like to eat.

How many of you grow some kind of food. From a windowsill herb garden to a plot of land or maybe a community garden.

Let’s share tips, experience, ask questions, etc.

This is the thread for all your backyard farmer needs.

No politics please.

This thread is only about growing food.

We all need to eat.

just purple berries. I've been eating them for six seven weeks now probably keep us all alive

 

[Mick Doobie]

The store bought spent celery my wife rooted and stuck in soil seems to being doing well. It only had a few white/pale stalks left, it's greened up and starting to form new stalks. 4 months to harvest if grown from seed. Done this way it could cut that time in half, or less. Wondering if I can do another but quarter it making 4 new plants? Worth a try I guess.

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

Looks great. I say go for it.

 

[Mick Doobie]

Well, goodbye (eastern) prickly pear cactus. They're edible, both fruit and paddle. All year long. The paddles, Nopales, taste between string beans and asparagus, good nutritional value, anti inflammatory, helps lower cholesterol. But the fruit is imo too small to mess with. The western variety has larger fruit. Singe/burn off the pricklies, peel em, eat 'em, jam, make a juice for a fruity spirits cocktail. Tequila! I may consider getting some of the western variety. Deer repellent as well, they don't like em, the pricklies. Where these were, can't have the dogs tromping and nosing around them. Ouch.

Hopefully I won't regret getting rid of them, if and when the collapse occurs. I've never been so sure of the possibility.

 

[YanKleber]

You won't regret the tomatoes. I have slices sitting in some dirt waiting for them to sprout now. Only two of my MJ seeds have sprouted so far, still waiting on them.

Yummm!!!! Cool, thanks for the incentive!

Past year my wife worked as a supportive teacher in a public school and her main project was to teach kids the basics of environment concepts and it included to start a food garden from the scratch. It was a great success and at the end the school kitchen was gathering all the vegetables to prepare the children meals. Unfortunately such projects depends on someone to keep it alive: less than four months after she leaving the project (it was a temporary job) she knew from a friend that the garden is now completely abandoned and surrounded by bush. In any case she got all the know how to do ours!

 

[dogooder]

The pear tree in full bloom. Most of the flowers are gone now. I had to put fences around the trees I planted last fall
or the dear were going to decimate them.

 

[RFR]

The store bought spent celery my wife rooted and stuck in soil seems to being doing well. It only had a few white/pale stalks left, it's greened up and starting to form new stalks. 4 months to harvest if grown from seed. Done this way it could cut that time in half, or less. Wondering if I can do another but quarter it making 4 new plants? Worth a try I guess.

View attachment 127523

Nice.

Whenever I grow from stalks, by the time they root, they also mold up. WTF? I change the water often

 

[dogooder]

I found a guy who manufactures clear plastic sheets. I went and bought 12 4x8 sheets 1/8 thick and 4 4x8 sheets of credit card thickness. 200
dollars, not so bad. The plastic is very flexible, it wont break or shatter. You can just make the shed out in the very middle of the picture. It is about
10x10 with about an 8 ft of head clearance before the peak starts. I will be tearing the sides and roof off the old tobacco shed and I WILL
have my greenhouse. Wish me luck.

 

[Armistice]

House I moved into 21 months ago - suburban block, near the beach. Down the "utility" side, where the water tank is, and which the clear glass splashback in our kitchen overlooks, a vine growing on our neighbour's place has poked through the fence. Noticed it last year when it was uber wet and just ignored it as a green vine thing was better than looking at the wood fence. This year it's gone berserk, and because I'm so used to ignoring it, I continued to ignore it, until a couple of weeks back when, wait... there is stuff growing on it!!!

Go outside to have a closer look... passionfruit. The big gold ones.

Not sure how it's going on the neighbour's side but as at now I have 19 large passionfruit growing on my side, slowly ripening - the thing's gone nuts - and probably a few more to come, still some flowers happening randomly.

Already planning what I'll do with them come harvest time. I don't want to ask the neighbour how it's going over where he is - he's rarely in that part of the property - but I suspect I have the better aspect for it and most of the fruit will be on my side .... I might feel guilty if they don't have any and feel like I have to give him some of ours, but, damnit, I want to make passionfruit syrup.

Also need to persuade Perky, the local possum, to keep her claws off them once they're ripe.

 

[Mick Doobie]

House I moved into 21 months ago - suburban block, near the beach. Down the "utility" side, where the water tank is, and which the clear glass splashback in our kitchen overlooks, a vine growing on our neighbour's place has poked through the fence. Noticed it last year when it was uber wet and just ignored it as a green vine thing was better than looking at the wood fence. This year it's gone berserk, and because I'm so used to ignoring it, I continued to ignore it, until a couple of weeks back when, wait... there is stuff growing on it!!!

Go outside to have a closer look... passionfruit. The big gold ones.

Not sure how it's going on the neighbour's side but as at now I have 19 large passionfruit growing on my side, slowly ripening - the thing's gone nuts - and probably a few more to come, still some flowers happening randomly.

Already planning what I'll do with them come harvest time. I don't want to ask the neighbour how it's going over where he is - he's rarely in that part of the property - but I suspect I have the better aspect for it and most of the fruit will be on my side .... I might feel guilty if they don't have any and feel like I have to give him some of ours, but, damnit, I want to make passionfruit syrup.

Also need to persuade Perky, the local possum, to keep her claws off them once they're ripe.

Nice first paragraph. Like stream of consciousness, setting the stage, suspense building. Maybe it's the Humphrey Bogart features I've been watching on the TV as of late, couldn't help hearing it narrated in his voice.

Nice, the passion fruit. Much, much better than the potential for something bad. The place we moved towards the middle of last summer, planting different things, the wife picked up a plant/tree/vegetation from hell from somewhere..... Wisteria. I'd heard the name, looked it up to see what it was and the proper place to plant it. Oh hell no. Can be beautiful, but can also spread and take over, with a passion.

 

[Mick Doobie]

What a pisser...

The 3-in-1 apple trees seem to be doing well. Something I didn't know about until after I ordered and planted the apple trees, Cedar-Apple Rust. Sort of a symbiotic relationship. I've been watching for the orange tentacled balls on our cedar trees. Had a nice rain the last couple of days, looked this morning and there they were. To my understanding the as the balls dry the spores are blown in the wind and infect apple trees. Rust colored spots on leaves and ultimately the fruit. Can kill the tree(s) in time if left untreated. I can spray with a fungicide several times, which in the long run as the trees grow I don't anticipate keeping up with, or cut down all cedar trees within a mile of more, not possible.

I've got a couple hundred bucks each invested in those grafted trees, one Granny Smith, Gals, and Red Delicious. The other Granny Smith, Gala, and Fuji. There are (less desirable?) varieties that are not susceptible.

Fuck.