Need advice for gardening.

[MargueriteBee]

If you haven't planted a garden before, now is the time to get ready so you can get it going in the spring. This is my assignment for my radiant zone out in the boonies. I haven't done this before any suggestions on books or websites?

I did plant tomatoes, zuccinni and squash this year on my patio. I learned a lot. In this big city there are very, very few bees. I had to pollinate my tomatoes. (I harvested five tomatoes and there are three new ones now.) It didn't work with the rest. zuccinni and squash don't do well in pots but I do have ONE squash finally! Out in the boonies there are lots and lots of beautiful bees.

Come on experienced gardeners give us advice.

[doodah]

Hello MargueriteBee

Gardening! A subject close to my heart. There are many theories about how to do this.

1. The old way is to plow the ground up, turn the top-growth [grasses or weeds] under, let it sit like that over the winter, so the grasses decompose and make compost. In the spring you plow again to loosen the soil. Add manure if you've got it, to fertilize. Or dig in more compost if you've got that. Plants are laid out in rows or however you want to organize them. Weeds will grow, so mulching will be needed to control them, and to help retain water. Or you can hoe the weeds out in the old way.

2. There is soil-less gardening also, using alfalfa hay. This is done when you are ready to plant, but you need to get the hay in advance. Basically you build a bed of alfalfa bales, breaking up the hay and intermingling compost or manure. Your plants are put directly into this mix. As it breaks down and gets compacted, you just keep adding more alfalfa hay around the plants. No weeds grow and this needs less water because the hay acts as a mulch.

3. Then there is the Native American way. No plowing, just make small mounds of earth, throw in a fish and a seed. Plant corn and climbing plants together so that the climbers use the corn to climb up.

Maybe this will help get you started! Out in the country there are other pollinators, too, in addition to bees. Many small insects help this process -- varieties of flies, wasps, etc. which collect moisture from plants, not pollen, but they spread pollen as they walk around, as do butterflies, even hummingbirds.

Some vegetables that require bee pollination for a good harvest can be a pain. What I learned from my Great Grandfather is this, invite the bees to your garden! You do this pretty easy just plant a lot of bright yellow flowers in the area of your garden and you should have plenty of bee hives popping up, they naturally will be attracted to food source areas. Hope this helps

[Nik]

Definitely subscribing to this thread to get more valuable advice! Thanks everyone!

I have been growing raspberry bushes in my back yard for 2 decades. This is the first year the bushes didn't have fruit. The bushes grew like crazy- just no flowers or berries. I'm assuming it's the lack/loss of the bees. I miss the bees.

Anyone else experience this?

i grow wheatgrass year round... but I also believe a person can live on prana

To add to the Native American gardening techniques mentioned earlier:

Many North American horticulturalists planted what they called "the three sisters," and is commonly called today "the sacred triad." They were corn, beans, and squash, and the three types of seeds were all thrown in the same hole. It was really the perfect triad from a botanists perspective. For the soil, corn is rough and nitrogen depleting, but beans and squashes actually alleviate some of that problem. Nutritionally, corn and beans were the key - corn has the essential starches and beans provide the protien during periods when hunting was bad. Unless you use a fertalizer, however, you will have to rotate your growing patches - no matter what you grow. A patch growing the sacred triad will have human-sustaining output for about 2-3 years without fertalizer use before you have to find another plot. It takes about 5 years for the abandoned patch to replenish itself with nutrients.


Corn is a must - I strongly urge you to grow it. Pumpkins and "spaghetti" squash are good squashes that work in the triad. The only bean I ever tried growing in the triad were lima beans, and it worked fine. I like them, you may not, so try something else. If you are novice, you need to get practicing.

Hope some of that helped

OH Yeah,

On the attracting bee comments - you might try sunflowers. I've grown those every year for ten years, and that is the only downside - - the ungodly amount of bees they attract. Plus, you can use the sunflower seeds for food and oil.

Peace and good luck

[atom.Man]

Originally Posted by MargueriteBee

[...]In this big city there are very, very few bees. I had to pollinate my tomatoes. (I harvested five tomatoes and there are three new ones now.) It didn't work with the rest. zuccinni and squash don't do well in pots but I do have ONE squash finally! Out in the boonies there are lots and lots of beautiful bees.[...]

crap. THAT'S why i didn't get a single tomato?!?! Shows you how much i know about gardening . There ain't lots and lots of bees, as you say, out in the boonies. At least not here. I can probably count the number of honey bees i've seen this season without using my toes and only one of my hands. The soil here is acidic though (pine trees) and i didn't use lime. Cucumbers grew crazy mad (then died overnight) but everything else did very poorly (literally lost money and wasted my time by planting -- ended up buying from local farmers who don't spray).

[Nik]

What about soil types? Any advice on that field (no pun intended)? I mean what sort of soil to look out for, mix, 'clean', etc... Some people may be in areas that different substantially in terms of the soil that they have around them (I'm talking German forest areas vs. South American jungle! )

[arcora]

We're coming into the fall/winter season now.

We'll be planting cabbage, spinach and other sorts of leafy greens.

They don't need bees.

[doodah]

Originally Posted by Martell

I have been growing raspberry bushes in my back yard for 2 decades. This is the first year the bushes didn't have fruit. The bushes grew like crazy- just no flowers or berries. I'm assuming it's the lack/loss of the bees. I miss the bees.

Anyone else experience this?

Martell, I'm curious as to why the bushes didn't make flowers. If they didn't make flowers, there couldn't be fruit; first there are the flowers, then each flower produces fruit; the fruit contains next year's seeds for new plants. So the bees aren't the issue, I wouldn't think, because they would only be helpful after there were flowers. But there were no flowers. Have you thought of calling your local Cooperative Extension people to ask about this?

The only parallel I know of has to do with plants like geraniums and marigolds. If the soil is too rich, too well fertilized, lots of greenery grows but no flowers. Did you fertilize these bushes or do anything unusual this year? Am very curious what the answer is here. I dont' think it's the bees.

[JohnWdoe]

Originally Posted by MargueriteBee

If you haven't planted a garden before, now is the time to get ready so you can get it going in the spring. This is my assignment for my radiant zone out in the boonies. I haven't done this before any suggestions on books or websites?

I did plant tomatoes, zuccinni and squash this year on my patio. I learned a lot. In this big city there are very, very few bees. I had to pollinate my tomatoes. (I harvested five tomatoes and there are three new ones now.) It didn't work with the rest. zuccinni and squash don't do well in pots but I do have ONE squash finally! Out in the boonies there are lots and lots of beautiful bees.

Come on experienced gardeners give us advice.

Ill send you a message tomorrow when my mum wakes up, she is a wonderful gardener and ill let you ask her a few questions! is that cool?

She is what id call a green thumb! such a wonderful woman!

[doodah]

Originally Posted by JohnWdoe

Ill send you a message tomorrow when my mum wakes up, she is a wonderful gardener and ill let you ask her a few questions! is that cool?

She is what id call a green thumb! such a wonderful woman!

John and Marguerite ... can you share with us whatever John's mum has to say? I'm sure we can all benefit from a green thumb's knowledge! Thanks.

[Dantheman62]

Tomatos are easy so are green beans,wax beans,carrots, and garlic is easy too, organic fertilizer from home depot works,, Hi doodah!

http://www.foodforeveryone.org/

Mild exercise is a good idea. Penny Kelly in her prophetic
book "Robes" describes folks who have lived their lives in
office cubicles falling over dead from exertion while gardening with hand tools. There is a huge difference
between gardening because you want to and gardening
because you have to for survival.

[doodah]

Originally Posted by doodah

2. There is soil-less gardening also, using alfalfa hay. This is done when you are ready to plant, but you need to get the hay in advance. Basically you build a bed of alfalfa bales, breaking up the hay and intermingling compost or manure. Your plants are put directly into this mix. As it breaks down and gets compacted, you just keep adding more alfalfa hay around the plants. No weeds grow and this needs less water because the hay acts as a mulch.

Dantheman62 asked me this question:

won't the hay get, or turn moldy, just wondering because I know if it sits to long it gets moldy in bales anyway.


I can't find my original reply to him, but I haven't heard that that is a problem. The bales are broken up, not used as tight bales, so air circulates. It is recommended that you occasionally go along with a stick or pitchfork and punch air holes down through to aerate. This helps the composting process along. This method of gardening is actually good for the soil, doesn't deplete minerals.

[Nenuphar]

Hi

In the summer, we grow cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and a few peas (I'm a beginner gardener, myself).

Recently, I bought a book called "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew and so far, it makes a lot of sense. The author has a way of making it all seem understandable and "do-able". I can't wait to try some of his suggestions next Spring! We have such a short growing season here.

Hey...I just discovered that author has a website: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

We also have three rows of raspberry bushes at the front of our lawn. Originally we started with two small rows but the bushes suckered, so now we have more! Except for a bit of pruning in the Spring or Fall and watering in the summer, they do not require much work and are fool-proof. Ours produce a LOT of berries (I think this year we got 40+ litres worth). We never come close to using all those berries, and so give some to family and friends, and trade them with friends who have extra vegetables or eggs.

Have fun!

Nenuphar

[angelite]

Only grow from heirloom seeds. (Look it up to find company's who sell them.) Most of the seeds companies have been bought up by pharmaceutical and chemical companies and ARE now only selling genetically altered seeds that are no good for us.
Save heirloom seeds they will be great to barter with in the future.

[alkalurops]

hello
i am from germany, and we cultivate our vegetables since 2005.
if you have to nurish yourself completly alone, you have to take 800 m2 pro person. its realy hard work. from 2005 -2007 we had 200 m2 for 2 and a half persons. we could not handel it, with work , and household und child, like we would....we had potatoes, a green house with tomatoes, and every kind of vegetables. the problem is that you can not eat everything in time, we had to sell or give our salats and vegetables away. now we use an other and smaler system but we need to buy vegetables. next year we try an other way.
by the way the best way to have bees and other insects are wild herbs and flowers, like (lavendel, bohnenkraut, beinwell...) i don´t know the english words, sorry....
and mix up the herbs and flowers with the vegetables and fruits.
we still have strawberrys today, and they taste delicious.

greetings
from the cold germany

[alkalurops]

here are some organic seed links.
www.dreschflegel.de
www.arche-noah.at
www.lubera.ch
www.sativa-rheinau.ch
www.kokopelli-seeds.com
www.jekkashrebfarm.com
www.seedsofitaly.com
www.organiccatalog.com
www.biogartenversand.de
www.oekoseeds.de


if you want some more i have 20 more

[Nik]

To add to the links, I just found this online supplier of heirloom seeds:

www.seedfest.co.uk

Cheap international shipping, apparently.

I like these folks because it is a family run farm in Oregon
http://www.victoryseeds.com/

And this woman in Lancaster County PA specializes in heirloom seed grown in her area since the 1700's by old
order Amish and Mennonite farmers
http://www.amishlandseeds.com/

[peacelovinman]

Look for "The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency" by John Seymour. I picked it up for 50p ($1) years ago and it started me on growing vegetables and much more besides.

Seymour makes a great point in the book when he says literally anything you can do by way of providing the essentials of life, no matter how small, makes a difference.

To quote him, "I am only one man but I will do all one man can possibly do".

[atom.Man]

Originally Posted by angelite

Only grow from heirloom seeds. (Look it up to find company's who sell them.) Most of the seeds companies have been bought up by pharmaceutical and chemical companies and ARE now only selling genetically altered seeds that are no good for us.
Save heirloom seeds they will be great to barter with in the future.

thanks for the tip. I've been wondering if the seeds we buy are genetically modified.