Gardening for Old Folks (Adaptative)

[sharron]

If you can find them free or cheap, food grade 55 gallon drums cut in half make great containers, so do 5 gallon buckets. Both will need lots of holes drilled in for airflow and drainage. I continue to increase my container count. Hoping to grow enough tomatoes this year to can up a bunch. I've been out of whole and diced tomatoes for more than a year and mine are way better than what I get in the store. When it was just DW and me (me being the only corn eater) a 4'X10' raised bed with about a foot of soil produced enough corn to eat through the season and freeze a little. Figure each plant will give you 2-4 ears (avg 3). I need to get the soil tested in my former pig pen, which housed my compost pile prior to the hens discovering it. The pigs tilled it pretty good and removed all vegetative growth. Considering planting corn there. Now that I have the LGD, deer are unlikely to raid it at night.

home grown is always much better than what you buy from the grocery store, that what i keep telling our son but his wife likes to buy frozen vegetables from sams club, i used to offer her veggies from the garden but no more, shes not much of a gardener or cook, maybe one day

 

[Searsmom]

I call them also LIMB CHICKENS.

I just realized how FAT that squirrel is. Wow.

 

[bruceha2000]

Our soil is very heavy with clay about 6-8 inches below the topsoil.

You have topsoil? Here the clay IS the topsoil.

 

[R2elk]

You have topsoil? Here the clay IS the topsoil.

It has only taken me 30 years to develop 1/2" of topsoil on top of this sand dune here.

 

[microchick]

I just realized how FAT that squirrel is. Wow.

We have big grey squirrels here. The big ones look like concrete blocks with tails, about twice the size of the common brown squirrel. I hear we have fox squirrels also but I've never seen one. Usually the hawks keep the population under control.

The funniest thing I've ever seen one do is chew all the edges off of our solid oak deck stairs. Couldn't figure out what was doing it till I caught one of the little freaks in the act. We finally thwarted their destruction by putting metal angle iron on every step edge. Still can't figure out why they were doing it. True that they need to wear down their teeth but we have 29.5 acres of hardwood timber around us and they want to eat our steps?

 

[microchick]

You have topsoil? Here the clay IS the topsoil.

Gee Bruce and here I was feeling like we had crappy soil.

It has only taken me 30 years to develop 1/2" of topsoil on top of this sand dune here.

We have sand, but only in the ravines. This whole area of MO was once under a salt water sea but you wouldn't know it if you looked at the soil. If I want sand for the runs, DH has to take the tractor back to the timber and scoop out sand from one of the runoff areas and haul it back to the coop for me.

 

[R2elk]

We have sand, but only in the ravines. This whole area of MO was once under a salt water sea but you wouldn't know it if you looked at the soil. If I want sand for the runs, DH has to take the tractor back to the timber and scoop out sand from one of the runoff areas and haul it back to the coop for me.

If I need sand, I just stick a shovel in the "ground".

 

[k9grammy]

Just found this thread and wanted to add my bit. I'm a bit long in the tooth (78) and the old knees and back complain about bending down or crawling around, so this year a garden buddy (wh0's 84) and I are experimenting with Straw Bale gardening, except we are using hay bales. These are OLD bales that have been sitting in the barn for several years. I have some containers I have used in the past and have already planted some things in them because I am impatient about getting started. Fortunatly (I guess) my gardening buddy is VERY methodical. He carefully read the books on the straw bale method and insists we follow it step by step. I'm assuming we'll get to actually plant something out there someday. This fall I plan on turning the chickens out to do clean up and fertilizing for next year when we'll try the deep mulch thing.
Can't figure out how to put in a picture of our bale rows.

 

[microchick]

Just found this thread and wanted to add my bit. I'm a bit long in the tooth (78) and the old knees and back complain about bending down or crawling around, so this year a garden buddy (wh0's 84) and I are experimenting with Straw Bale gardening, except we are using hay bales. These are OLD bales that have been sitting in the barn for several years. I have some containers I have used in the past and have already planted some things in them because I am impatient about getting started. Fortunatly (I guess) my gardening buddy is VERY methodical. He carefully read the books on the straw bale method and insists we follow it step by step. I'm assuming we'll get to actually plant something out there someday. This fall I plan on turning the chickens out to do clean up and fertilizing for next year when we'll try the deep mulch thing.
Can't figure out how to put in a picture of our bale rows.

Glad you joined us! I haven't tried the straw bale method but I have seen people around us using the bales as an edger for their gardens maybe with future planting in mind.

That same neighbor inherited a barn full of straw bales when they bought the property. I told DH that I wished we had inherited that hoop barn along with the straw in it when we bought our farm 10 years ago.

Gardening plans on hold here thanks to rain rain and more rain.

 

[Leahs Mom]

One caution on the straw bales. If they came from a crop that was sprayed with an herbicide, they will kill your garden plants. You have to be sure they are from crops that aren't sprayed. Some folks have not been able to plant under where they used straw for a couple years before it cleared out.