9 replies to this topic

[PsyBearknot]

How did it go this year
What were your successes...fails...discoveries for next year...funny stories?

[PsyBearknot]

SWIM’s bionchar technique (or the accidental burning of your compost pile)

2 weeks prior to New Year’s Day 2017
Yard and old lumber waste clean up info 2 trash cans
Commence fire pit for 2 days with neighbor, beer and more weed
0 to below 0 weather for next two weeks with periods of snow and rain

New Year’s Day clean up that morning
Ash dumped into 2 of 3 bins of a pallet wood compost pile that was being groomed for mush production that contained
Oak leaves
Sawdust
Wood chips
Straw
Husband 2 hours later ...man somebody got a good bbq going for the new year you can smell it in the house
Quick glance outside in back yard reveals billows of smoke that include 6 foot flames engulfing 2 out of 3 compost bins and the 2 trees next to them in the neighbors yard
Next hour spent trying to get the frozen faucet and garden hose thawed
Next 3 hours spent diucing compost piles with water
Next 2 days spent watching the pile smolder to the ground
EPIC FAIL

[PsyBearknot]

I did not do a garden this past year. Lost the plot of yard that I had been working on so I decided to buy berries for the future and grew them all in containers last year

Most plants were all over one year when purchased. Last year would have been 2 so hopefully this year I will start to get berries if they survive the winter. Going to build 2x2x2 box raised beds for them this year for kind of a hybrid approach that might make it easier to dig up if we move in the next couple of years again

I hate this time of year with perimeals. I loos hope of life and think everything has died lol

[PsyBearknot]

Garden next year
Going raised bed
Not going to do the straw bale again like 2 years ago
Will bring that back in the future as a hybrid approach to raised beds
Thinking of going with baker creek heirloom seeds so I can save seed for next year
Thinking of around a 36 ft by 24 ft area in the back yard

[Juthro]

+1 for Baker Creek seeds. We've had good luck with them here.

Last years garden was exspanded to the largest we've attepted so far. But the weather was very fickle last summer. We never got the couple of months of warmer sunshine that our garden relies on here.

Out of 30 tomato plants, we got one (1) tomato to ripen on the vine, lol. We were able to pick and ripen quite a few in the house.... but its not the same as vine ripened. Though the wetter, and colder summer did give us the best crop of assorted leafy greens that we've ever had. Broccoli, spinach, bok choy, swiss chard, and celery all produced very well.
Cabbage also did very well, with several heads bigger then basket balls. But our improvised moose fence did not live up to its task, and most of the cabbage was lost to moose.

Our potato crop did OK, but we were hoping for more, but at least this year we didn't have a lot of scab. I think we harvested a little under 50lbs.

Our green beans this year were the bitterest I've ever tasted, I have no idea what went wrong there. But that's two years in a row for failure with green beans, so I think its time to devote that space in the garden to something that will be successful.

And carrots... for the love of carrots... We harvested a little over 70lbs of carrots.

[coorsmikey]

And carrots... for the love of carrots... We harvested a little over 70lbs of carrots.

Maybe those Rabbits weren’t abandoned but ran away from their old home.

[Skywatcher]

This year, I amended the 3 raised beds with Fox Farms Happy Frog, and spaced the tomatoes farther apart with only 2 plants per 4'x4' bed. I mixed some onions, herbs, and lettuces around the tomato plants, and fed with fox farms tomato food monthly.

The spacing and natural soil amendments with living additives proved very beneficial. Yield was double what I have gotten in the past. The larger Better Boy, and Early girl, and beefsteak were the best producers. The official heinze variety was a complete flop with poor tomatoes and only 7 for the whole plant. 

 

The main varietys produced for June, July, August, and a small final crop in September. The onions thrived, and I am still taking them as needed as with the parsleys and Thyme and Basil.

 

Cannabis was done in pots with a constant every other day feeding with Fox Farms Grow Big, Tiger Bloom, and Flower food as appropriate for the light and development. Yield was quite good on the Blue Dream, less on the Cotton candy, and the Girl Scout Cookies was a complete loss with the infestation of bud worms at the final stages.

 

Love the fox fams products, and I will use them again next year.

[CatsAndBats]

+1 for Baker Creek seeds. We've had good luck with them here.
 

 

 

 

https://mycotopia.ne...rden/?p=1322416

 

For real, been using baker creek seeds for years.

 

I had pounds and pounds of strawberries, everything else the deer ate. I'm exacting revenge by eating venison jerky in front of them that Needles is sending me.

[PsyBearknot]

Seed porn

[Juthro]

So our stored potato crop from this last season has started to degrade to the point we need to process them to keep from wasting them. We've probably eaten about half of this years harvest at this point.

So we took all the worst non conformists that wouldn't can well, due to their size or shape, peeled them, and then shredded them in the food processer. Soaked them in cold water to separate as much extra starch as possible. (important in getting browns that crisp well)
Then they get blanched for 3min in boiling water, and then flash cooled in ice cold water (our tap water is barely above freezing).

Blanching keeps them from turning black as they age, though it is really only cosmetic issue. As unblanched potatoes are still good, and taste the same. I just prefer my hash browns to be a pretty golden brown once cooked, unblanched spuds tend to have darkish blotches.

This is followed up with laying out dish towels and spreading the shredded spuds thinly on the table with a fan blowing across them to help them dry. Once dry, they get freezer bagged and frozen. (drying is important if you want browns that crisp well when cooked)

The odd balls yielded 6 quart sized freezer bags of hash browns, filled about half full.

The count isn't in yet on the rest of the spuds. But so far I've got 5 quart jars, and 1 pint jar in the canner right now (the limiting factor for my batch size is the size of the stock pot we blanch them in, not the canners capacity), and the last batch is being prepped. The next batch should only be 2 or 3qts.

This still leaves some spuds two small to peel. We will try and eat them in the next few weeks.
They are very good diced, and roasted in a Dutch oven. Lightly coated with some olive oil, and mixed with some onion, garlic, and fresh rosemary.

All in all, I would say our 2017 potato harvest was a success.
:)