600 billion$ VS Your $; y'all'd best be planning a garden for spring

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
I don't think you're all that far off. In the past 7 years a good number of the things we regularly purchase have increased in price by about 50%.

 

[Dunkopf]

I've been planning more self raised stuff anyway. When I heard that the agriculture committee is almost completely anti farm aid. The day after the election a number of food producers came out saying that prices would be going up. The writing is on the wall. It should help to raise the price of eggs and milk and poultry produced by small farmers though. At least that is a plus.

Hard to say what the 660 billion will actually do. I'm sure the pundits are having a hay day with it. All you can do is wait and see what happens. Our only power has already been used for the next two years. Of course it doesn't really matter what the actual outcome is. As with the stimulus the only people that anyone listens to are the ones that don't know anything. The pundits. They just say what they get paid to say. So it doesn't matter anyway.

When unemployment finally starts coming down everyone will credit it to whatever party they back. It's all a moot point. All you can do is CYA and hope for the best.

 

[annie3001]

my husband and I are planning on expanding our veggie garden def in the spring time, just as early as we can after the frost. we will be planting alot next year. grocery stores are so expensive lately. my weekly spending there is about 100.00 and thats not including meat!!! ugh!

we are starting to just do small baby steps in savings, like reusing zip lock bags, washing them out and hanging them etc. i buy the store brand detergent, and lately i have been checking out the below sister websites. very good tips offered there.

 

[Orchid]

You really don't need good soil in your ground to grow a great garden. You don't need fancy raised beds made from lumber, either. You can grow a garden in most anything - old rubbermaid-type totes, old wheelbarrows, old bathtubs. I grow tomato plants in pots. You don't even necessarily need soil for some things - I know a lady who fills old bathtubs with half-rotten hay and grows amazing pumpkin and squash plants in them! There was an article in Mother Earth News this spring/summer about growing a garden in potting soil bags laid flat on the ground - doesn't get much easier than that.

Re: blossom end rot. Put some crushed up eggshells or oyster shell in the bottom of the planting hole before you plant your tomatoes.

 

[muddstopper]

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Blossom end rot is a sign of a calcium deficency in the soil. Eggshells and osyster shells are pure calcium carbonate and work excellent as a source of calcium. Shells should be finely crushed before using. Whole or half eggshells, are very slow to decompose and therefore slow to provide any benefit. I did read somewhere where someone was using half egg shells as seed pots for their seedlings. When the plants outgrew the shells, they simply planted the whole shell/pot and plant in their garden.

 

[mordarlar]

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They are 4x4 corners forming our 2x6 boxes. We did cut the 4x4s to the six inches and simply set the beds onto the ground and roughly dug before starting the layers. We were fortunate, we found all the lumber marked way down at liquidation sale for a closing lumberyard.

We grew turnips, beets, carrots, 4 types of lettuce, 3 types of onions, parsnips, garlic, corn, two types of cukes, beans yellow squash, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, 4 types of tomatoes, watermelon, green peppers and eggplant. One point for those doing raised beds, watch spacing. We planted some things a little too closely. Otherwise this is a great soil enrichment method.

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
Blossom end rot is a sign of a calcium deficency in the soil. Eggshells and osyster shells are pure calcium carbonate and work excellent as a source of calcium. Shells should be finely crushed before using. Whole or half eggshells, are very slow to decompose and therefore slow to provide any benefit. I did read somewhere where someone was using half egg shells as seed pots for their seedlings. When the plants outgrew the shells, they simply planted the whole shell/pot and plant in their garden.

OK will do that!!!!!!

I hope it would not attract mice because we do have plenty of field mice here and there sometimes.

 

[Wifezilla]

I just sprinkle the oyster shells I buy for the ducks in the holes I dig to put in the plants. It worked a little too well since my tomatoes went nuts and took over the yard

 

[Pelican49]

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Nice garden soil, but not worth living in a cold climate for me. I'm a cold sissy. I do agree with the raised beds. I got very VERY lucky when I bought this place late last spring. This land is in the foothills and is nothing but rock. Even digging to plant a tree is a nightmare. But... the previous owner put in a huge raised garden. I don't know where he got them, and it took me a couple examinations to figure out what it was, but the raised garden is made of garage door panels, supported by T-posts.

It is 36' x 44'. He had topsoil brought in to fill it up several years ago. He has let it go a few years and it's full of weeds and pine needles. He put the garden under a couple HUGE pine trees. Messy nasty things. I don't have the money to have them taken down professionally, but they're far enough from the house that we may give it a go ourselves. May have to rent or buy a chain saw.

We'll be planning a big garden for next spring. I've never done any canning, and I'm afraid the biggest problem (besides storage) is going to be affording those canning jars and a canner. We've been watching garage sales all summer with no luck. This is the country. People just don't get rid of canning jars. We have a couple outbuildings we could put shelves in, but would that be alright for storing canned jars when we live in such a hot climate? I have this vision in my head of a bunch of canning jars exploding. A root cellar would be wonderful, but again, digging here is a big joke. A big expensive joke.

We've also talked about getting some meat chickens a couple times a year. We all like rabbit, but I don't think either of us could butcher them. We think we can manage meat chickens, but rabbits? I'd also like a Tom and a couple hens to put a few turkeys in the freezer each year. With all these new chicks we got a few weeks ago, we should have plenty of eggs next spring with lots of extras to sell. On down the road a couple goats or cows would be nice too. We're thinking of the small cattle, either Dexters or the African one I can't remember the name of at the moment.

What else do you all do to make a buck go further? Anyone have a really good recipe for canning ketchup & tomato sauce & paste?

The garage door panel garden. It's redneck, but it's better than trying to till rocks. I think it's going to work out just fine.

The pines I hate. This one is right on the back edge of the garden.

and this one is right over the bed with the strawberries and rhubarb.

 

[Q9]

I don't know if anyone has brought this up yet, but Square Foot Gardening is AMAZING. It's just so easy!

Oh, and despite what you may have heard, sweet potatoes are actually easy to grow. We just put ours in the ground and ignored them until the first frost.

Thanksgiving dinner, here we come!