Homesteading

[DeepseekerADS]

I am not from your area but I did live south of you in VA quite a few yrs ago. Also when I was in the Army I spent some time at Camp AP Hill VA.

I was referring to what the locals say to me I'm Yankeefied......

 

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[DeepseekerADS]

Deep, have you heard anything from the dog next door lately?

Very interesting thing going on now. Day before yesterday the boy came up looking for his dominant dog, said it was missing from the day before and asked me to call him immediately if I saw it, and please not kill it.

Yesterday while my brother and I were digging up the unistruts, his mother drove up and asked me if I'd seen the dog. I told her I hadn't, and that I did not kill it. And, I told her to tell her son that I would not kill it. After all, the boy did come to me about it.

And, I tell you all, that I DID NOT KILL IT!

May not have had to do it

Sometimes things just work out on their own! It pays to be patient!

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

I have never heard you say anything about a man living next door. Does this young man have a father to guide him? If not maybe you could help him. Just talking.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I have never heard you say anything about a man living next door. Does this young man have a father to guide him? If not maybe you could help him. Just talking.

There's no father there. The lady divorced him and moved here to her mother's land, from Newport News, back a couple years ago. When I say the "boy", he's a grown man, maybe 30ish, but he has the mind of a child.

I was just down there with the forester - he wanted my agreement with his boundary plottings, so we walked the boundary. He and I agree, we're both comfortable with his findings.

I didn't talk to the boy or his mother, but noted that the dominant dog was still gone

Now, as for the lady, I find her extremely attractive - puts me into rutting season when I'm around her. But that's just physically. Emotionally, not a chance, just like I won't knowingly thrust my hands in boiling water. That's asking for trouble period. Thus I prefer to keep distance, since sometimes those hormones lead to great trouble.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

I know where you are coming from with your whole post. My wife died Oct 2012, she was never sick in her life. I have been lonely since them. Every day life keeps me busy. When I lived in VA everybody tried to figure out my brogue that I still have from being brought up Amish. We were not allowed to speak any English until we started school at 6 yrs old. It is not like that in the Amish settlements now. The children are allowed now to speak Dutch German and English from a early age.

 

[CHUDs]

Deepseeker, if you find that you do have a surplus of produce, a good way to contribute to your community and maybe get some history, treasure hunting tips from the old timers is meals on wheels. The older folks get lonely and don't often get the chance to eat some of the delicious organically produced veggies and they are a wealth of knowledge. Just a thought on how to feed your community, soul and hobby! Good luck and I hope everything is growing right along!

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Today I transplanted the Postage Stamp Orchard (from Four Seasons Nursery) which included 6 dwarf fruit trees. I added 2 plum trees to the order. Built a fence earlier, was impatient for the trees. So, now they're in the ground and secured (hopefully). Supposed to fruit as early as the second year, but putting these plants in the ground, I'm looking hopefully at the third year, but maybe later. But that's still far earlier than standard trees for which I'd be looking at 10 to 15 years.

Everything else is doing well, I'm seeing a lot of sprouting going on with the sowed seeds. For all this I have to say that Mother Nature is still more powerful than all my bunglings

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Good morning all, we have a new day to enjoy - when it warms up a little!

I have an ancestral pear tree, very large and very old. Last year was not a productive year for the tree, not many pears where the year before the fruiting was monstrous. This year the tree it blossomed like crazy, so I expect abundant production and will need to do something like putting up netting to catch the pears before they hit the ground.

One of the trees in my Postage Stamp Orchard was a dwarf pear tree. Perhaps recklessly, I couldn't resist transplanting the dwarf pear closest to the ancestral pear tree - pollination.... I'm wondering what kind of interaction and results will be with the cross pollination.....

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

Probably your older tree is a normal eatable pear tree and maybe your new dwarf tree is a wine making pear tree, the pears are harder. They will pollinate each other but they won't cross. All my fruit trees are dwarf. I have a regular and a wine pear tree planted 25 ft apart. All my fruit trees were planted at least 20 yrs ago.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

My dwarf is a Kiefer pear, need to read up on that myself.

These transplants are pretty small, most no more than branches. That's why I don't believe I'll see any fruiting soon.

Now that all the mail order plants are in the ground, I'm sure I'll buy more live plants, but don't believe I'll order them on-line. I'll get better trees that way. At least everything is alive.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

This is down the road a ways, make sure after your trees have taken a hold and got some yrs on them you have to trim them every yr, also for keeping the worms out of your fruit mix joy soap and water spraying on the roots part of the tree, not on the upper part of tree. Mix it 75% water-25% joy soap. Wet the ground all the way around the tree. It works great.

 

[BIGSCOTT]

goode ole lemon joy, I use this and dr bronners peppermint soap, both are great bug deturants, yea the fist time i ordered fruit tree's mail order I got a box full of sticks, but they all did ok, I actually got fruit the first year, and i was gatting them for about 10% of the cost's at wal mart, or the home improvements stores.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

yea the fist time i ordered fruit tree's mail order I got a box full of sticks, but they all did ok, I actually got fruit the first year.

Now THAT is encouraging

My brother was cleaning the sides of the creek running by the garden, and he found a live fox grape with clean roots in the water. So we planted that as my 4th grape plant. Mom had a sack of potatoes going to sprouts, so I planted them as well - 4 of them. I put some coffee grounds around my strawberries and blueberries, as I'd read that those plants love them.

The planted beds are all doing okay, but except for the potatoes, they're very slow growing - I wanna see them grow!

I'm heading out of town for the evening, but when I return tomorrow I'll build two more framed raised beds, and will sow a bunch more seeds. And then I will patiently await whatever harvests I get.

My brother and I are in our 3rd week of juicing. I have an antique Vitamix picked up at a Salvation Army for $75. Dates to the late '60's and is a beast. I also have a Champion juicer, and a wheat grass hand cranked juicer. Had been looking at a Nutri-Bullet for ease of clean-up, but then chose a Ninja - which works absolutely great.

In addition to feeding us, my real reason for the large garden is the juicing = I'm a believer, have been juicing for 15 years - but often sporadically. Now with the time and motivation, it is a daily thing. And, I'm siring beautiful little green children

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

Deep are your Goji Berries showing any life yet?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

The planted beds are all doing okay, but except for the potatoes, they're very slow growing)

Correction to the statement above for clarity. The potatoes are doing the very best of the vegetable garden, except the frame with the live plants the guru gave me. (just returned from the Farmer's Market, where I bought a bunch of juicing greens from him)

The Goji berry plants are turning into bushes, they're doing fine. Of course I'd like to see everything going crazy.

The blackberry sticks I planted are perhaps the most impressive. Instead of the sticks I planted, they're actually spreading. Each one has three stalks now, with the other stalks popping up from the roots. Them things are spreading already, and going full blast on the leaves. Looks like they'll take over the area. Mom said you can't kill them

Some of the strawberry plants already have blossoms.

All of the raspberry plants are alive, but a third of them are doing just as well as the blackberries.

 

[rockhound]

Unfortunately, when a nursery sends plants through the mail they are always dormant and look like sticks. I have had good success with these though. My kiefer pear began bearing after two years and has not stopped since. I have had mixed results with apple trees, although they are healthy they don't seem to produce fruit consistently. Many fruit trees require a pollinator to produce fruit. Locate a local nursery to acquire living, growing and ready to fruit trees and bushes. Some local department stores sell these in my area in the spring, Roses, Big Lots, etc. as well as home improvement stores, Lowe's, Home Depot. Not started my garden yet as I have had too many other projects going on, so I will have a late garden. I have been rebuilding my utility building after last winters snowstorm brought the roof crashing down, I have already tilled my garden so I am going to start my seeds today and hopefully be ready to plant by the middle of May. Good luck. rockhound

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Locate a local nursery to acquire living, growing and ready to fruit trees and bushes.

Thanks rockhound. That's a great idea, and I just happen to have a little more room in my fenced in orchard plot, especially for an apple tree

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Here's a scan of my garden & orchard layouts. I've filled just about each available spot. But there's still more I want to plant. I will attend to that.

I keep a running AutoCAD file documenting things and keeping it updated. That'll help in the coming years = record keeping. I should be keeping a diary!



And here's a list of crops alive and growing. I made a mistake on the tomatoes, have far too many. I had picked up a plat of live plants at Friday's Farmer's Market locally and planted far too many. Whole lot of tomatoes to give away the end of Summer. Rookie mistake

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I was limiting myself to 2 cantaloupes and 1 watermelon.

And then I just read this article. Making space!

How to Grow Watermelons Vertically | Home Guides | SF Gate

 

[BIGSCOTT]

the Roma, and Pik Red, are both Determinite tomato's they will make a whole lot of tomato's all at once then quit, one or two crops.
The Big boy is indeterminite and will keep making untill the frost gets it.
The Pik Red is a great tomato plants dont get to big and neither do the tomato's, they are very high acid so the seeds are very small some times allmost seedles
the high acid makes them great for canning, also the high acid allows you to let them get red on the vine even if you are carrying them to market.
I grow lots of Roma's since I sell to several taco wagons and mexicans think that is the only tomato wort eating.
the big boy is one of the best all around tomato's there are it's the only kind my mom grows,every year I bring her a couple of hierlooms that I think she will like but she say's no I'll just stick with the Big Boy's.