BYC gardening thread!!

[SunnySkies]

Hate doing it on line.  I want an actual catalog with pages that I can turn and wear out and drool on.

Me too. I study them like textbooks, lol. I love reading and writing notes and making list after list. I order online once I've finalized everything, not via snail mail, though.

I got the Whole Seed Catalog, and, yesterday, the Seed Savers Exchange catalog came too! Yay! I'm expecting several more.

A stroke of brilliance hit me yesterday....I buy pig feed in paper sacks. I've been using them as trash bags, but I'm going to start opening them up and laying them over my garden then covering with straw to reduce weeds! I haven't been able to find a consistent source of cardboard, but I buy 6 bags of hog feed every 2 weeks. Now to find a reasonable source of straw.

 

[marktoo]

I know right? We must keep in mind that my In laws version of spaghetti consists of a can of tomatoes, ketchup and bbq suace

I don't understand how something like gardening or preserving has become such an alien concept in less than 50 years!
I think my happiest times this past Summer were spent in my garden

Nice lookin garden ya got there. Don't let your FIL discourage you. Providing fresh organic produce for your family is a good thing & if you love doing it, so much the better. There's just no down side to it that I can see, proponents of factory ag could probably come up with a few though.

Me too. I study them like textbooks, lol. I love reading and writing notes and making list after list. I order online once I've finalized everything, not via snail mail, though.

I got the Whole Seed Catalog, and, yesterday, the Seed Savers Exchange catalog came too! Yay! I'm expecting several more.

A stroke of brilliance hit me yesterday....I buy pig feed in paper sacks. I've been using them as trash bags, but I'm going to start opening them up and laying them over my garden then covering with straw to reduce weeds! I haven't been able to find a consistent source of cardboard, but I buy 6 bags of hog feed every 2 weeks. Now to find a reasonable source of straw.

I also study the catalogs pretty closely, compile a list & order online. I try to order from only a few companies & only from those with reasonable shipping rates. Some of these companies really try to rake you over the coals when it comes to just shipping seed packs. Their loss!

Clever use for the feed bags. Should work out well for you. I save the brown shipping paper to line the flats I put my soil blocks in, when starting seedlings. You can get more per ton for cardboard than for scrap metal, bulkier though. Many companies that generate a lot of it have compactors, it's cheaper than paying to have it hauled away.

 

[urbanchange90]

Do you use non GMO seeds or does it not matter to you? I'm just curious as to how many others try to avoid any GMO product in general(which is why I started gardening in the first place)

 

[marktoo]

My wife & I stay as far away form GMOs as possible, which can be difficult with current labeling laws in most states. There are only 8 GMO crops at present, legally, but they're in everything, in one form or another. Conventional Agriculture is bad enough but this is a whole new ball game. Science has clearly overstepped! Didn't they learn nuthin from watchin the Jurassic movies? You really don't want to get me started on this. Strongly opposed to GMOs!

 

[Allysha1990]

Do you use non GMO seeds or does it not matter to you? I'm just curious as to how many others try to avoid any GMO product in general(which is why I started gardening in the first place)

I order all my seeds from Heritage Harvest Seed. They are all non-GMO heirloom seeds. I just find there is something wonderful about cultivating seeds that come from plants that were around several hundred years ago. One of the beet varieties I have comes from the time of Charlemagne, and one of the cucumber varieties I have was around during the late medieval period Likewise, many of the seed varieties I have happen to be what is the only known strand in Canada. I just love it!

Also, I haven't ordered a catalog from Heritage Harvest Seed because they only have illustrations rather than photos, and some don't have any pictures of the plant at all. I want to see what my plants are going to look like

 

[SunnySkies]

Do you use non GMO seeds or does it not matter to you? I'm just curious as to how many others try to avoid any GMO product in general(which is why I started gardening in the first place)

I try very hard to order non-GMO seeds, but I knew my corn would be contaminated...two farms within a mile raise nothing but GMO corn. As a result, I'm not bothering with corn again.

I did recently learn the exact definition of heirloom. An heirloom is a seed of a plant that has been around for at least 50 years, usually OP. OP does not mean heirloom though. You can have modern day OP plants. Then you have hybrids, and some hybrids have been around forever. I remember my dad growing some hybrid tomatoes that I still see in Gurney's, lol, 35 years ago, and he said he grew them as a young adult.

 

[Allysha1990]

good post There are a lot of hybrids on the site I buy from too. I don't think there are any GMO corn for sale where I get mine from, but only 1 type is really for eating as corn on the cob. The others are all for grinding into flour. I didn't bother last year buying any corn, but this year I want to try growing my own. All the corn I purchased from the farmers markets and what not tasted awful!

 

[lazy gardener]

The company I buy seed from tests for GMO with their corn, and has recently started testing their beet family seeds as they are also GMO targeted. They won't knowingly sell anything GMO contaminated. Free shipping on orders over $30. Fedco Seeds. Excellent prices. Also in a legal battle with several other companies against Monsanto. IMO, that alone is reason enough to support this company. No, I am not affiliated with them, just like their product and pricing.

 

[lazy gardener]

If readers are finding that straw is too pricey, try hay. I can get it in my area for $2.50/bale, compared to straw at a minimum of $8.50/bale. I have not found the weeds in a garden mulched with hay to be any different than a garden mulched with straw. I love using cardboard between the rows/beds in the garden, with a generous heap of mulch on top of that. It adds an other layer of weed protection/moisture retention, makes the hay/straw go further, and the worms LOVE cardboard.

 

[Allysha1990]

If readers are finding that straw is too pricey, try hay. I can get it in my area for $2.50/bale, compared to straw at a minimum of $8.50/bale. I have not found the weeds in a garden mulched with hay to be any different than a garden mulched with straw. I love using cardboard between the rows/beds in the garden, with a generous heap of mulch on top of that. It adds an other layer of weed protection/moisture retention, makes the hay/straw go further, and the worms LOVE cardboard.

I wish hay was cheaper than straw! Hay is way more expensive here.