What are you canning now?

[WthrLady]

I also buy fresh from our local green grocer, who buys from local farms. They can control the bugs and disease better than I, especially corn and beans and berries. Tomatoes are all mine, as are cucumbers, sorghum, and melons. Our orchard is still young, so that is a trip to the local upick place.

My garden is just over 1000 sq feet.

 

[Beekissed]

Our apples usually disappear early due to squirrels and deer, so we travel across the state~we go there twice a month anyway~ where we can pick wonderfully flavorful apples out in the wild. These we turn to sauce and apple butter, sometimes we will can slices for pies but not often.

The chicken we can all comes off this land, though I have in the past gleaned free chickens from the local ads and brought them here to sweeten the meat before butchering them. We don't buy chicken from the store when we have the best tasting, most tender chicken in the world right here on the shelf. I had three hatches this year and a few older hens to be culled, so we should be able to can up 13-16 birds grown here this year.

 

[1FlewOver]

I also buy fresh from our local green grocer, who buys from local farms.  They can control the bugs and disease better than I, especially corn and beans and berries.  Tomatoes are all mine, as are cucumbers, sorghum, and melons. Our orchard is still young, so that is a trip to the local upick place.

My garden is just over 1000 sq feet.

That's still a good sized garden and and about what mine would be without the pond, deck, and old 18' round swimming pool hole.

Do you garden intensively: (raised beds, vertical growing, square foot planting, ect?)

 

[N F C]

Thanks for all the garden/market feedback. I'd love to be able to grow enough to can enough. Guess with gardening, there's always next season! We're pretty much done here with ours for this year...it's too hot and too buggy.

 

[Beekissed]

Unfortunately, with gardening, there may not be a "next season"....this was one of those years, hence having to buy from another source. This year we had so much rain it washed away valuable nutrients and everyone had a huge loss of tomatoes, corn, peppers, potatoes, etc. That's why, if you have the resources, it's a good idea to can enough for 2 yrs consumption, as one is never guaranteed next year's crop. When a bad year comes along, the prices at the farm stand can reflect that, as they struggle in drought, blight and rain years as well, though not as much as us.

 

[rancher hicks]

Unfortunately, with gardening, there may not be a "next season"....this was one of those years, hence having to buy from another source. This year we had so much rain it washed away valuable nutrients and everyone had a huge loss of tomatoes, corn, peppers, potatoes, etc. That's why, if you have the resources, it's a good idea to can enough for 2 yrs consumption, as one is never guaranteed next year's crop. When a bad year comes along, the prices at the farm stand can reflect that, as they struggle in drought, blight and rain years as well, though not as much as us.

Do you have a compost pile? Or two or three?

I don't own horses but folks do give away manure if you're willing to go and get it.

Raised beds for the house can be good too. Perhaps both types of gardening.




Egg plants in pots work best for me.


we even grow the kids in pots too.

















Raised beds will allow you to control soil and help to guarantee some food for the winter.

I always hedge my bets. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I plant more than one variety of everything. I am planting Poorman gooseberry plants this year. Last time was Pixwell.

I keep four or five breeds of chickens. Some lay better in winter, some do better in confinement, etc.etc.

Dels are great layers, but my C.Rocks are heavier for meat.

 

[WthrLady]

I have an open country plot where I simply removed the sod and added back top and composted soil. I use lumber to frame the beds so the walkways are defined but they aren't raised. Raised beds drain too quickly, requiring extra moisture supply and mulching to retain water. Here they just don't work.

I use the deep mulch method. If I have to pull weeds, they aren't rooted into anything, just growing loosely in the air spaces in the mulch. The Hay mulch is 8 inches deep and that's compacted. I simply toss the weeds into the beds where they compost down as green matter to may hay's brown. They do not go to seed, nor does the old seed in the mulch, as I use OLD composted, fermented hay bales.

The mulch holds the moisture and keeps the roots warm.

 

[WthrLady]

We had record breaking rains here as well this spring. I had to replant the corn. Then we had a really late freeze and had to replant it again. Then more rains after it came up. No matter how much nitrogen and food it has had, it has not been enough. It's short and small. Commercial production around me with the large farms is doing gangbusters, but I don't feed like they do. So corn is coming from outside.

Tomatoes didn't even go in the ground until June 1st, and didn't really start making headway until after the 4th of July. It's just been too cool until then. They it was relentlessly hot with very little rain, but stinking' humid! Which tomatoes LOVE LOVE LOVE.

The cucumbers are doing amazingly well, but then came the squash beetles.

Some years you just cannot win with the WHOLE garden, and that's OK.

 

[N F C]

This year was our 3rd for growing a garden and it was the most challenging yet. Too much rain, not enough sun. Then too much sun, no rain. Wild rabbits discovered us. Then one bug invasion after another. Last year any type of pepper grew great, this year only the Poblano and Serrano's did ok. We grew more tomatoes this year than the previous years but squash (which we have had great luck with before), would not grow. I did manage to grow huge sunflowers which the chickens loved. Oh, and we have sweet potatoes almost ready to harvest (our 1st try with those)!

Loved the raised bed photos, we have a few with herbs in them but we want to do more for vegetables next year. We'll have to use something in the bottom to keep moles out but it will be fun to try them.

I guess every year will be different. We'll try again next year.

@rancher hicks ... potted babies, lol.

 

[MistyMountain]

@NorthFLChick
Oooh sweet potatoes! Interested to hear how those turn out for you. I read somewhere they require heat curing, is that correct?