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Discussion about farming, homesteading, gardening, sustainable agriculture, plant science, etc
How to get rid of groundhogs? — A few weeks ago my wife and I started a small experiment in soil building. We thought that if we took a bucket of wood chips (carbon) and soaked it with urine (high nitrogen content) that we might be able to accelerate the process of breaking down the wood chips into soil. So for three weeks we collected our piss and dumped it in the bucket of wood chips. We're not crazy, we're just really in to soil building, promise! (I'd never do this if we had any...
💬 3 comments · 2023-06-24 · 2 weeks ago
I built a quail tractor today from 95% recycled or leftover components. We'll put a few males in here so that they don't harass the females too much. They'll get a new slice of land every day and improve our soil fertility in the process.
💬 1 comment · 2 likes · 2023-06-13 · 4 weeks ago
felled a couple trees this weekend. stoked to fill the woodshed and get more light on the lawn.
💬 1 comment · 2023-06-11 · 4 weeks ago
Sprouted radishes — I planted some radish seeds on sunday, and they've already sprouted! It's just mad how fast some plants grow. Useful though, because I can use them as a way to practice growing a type of plant a few times -- iteratively learning from my mistakes -- in a single growing season.
💬 6 comments · 2 likes · 2023-06-07 · 5 weeks ago
My 6 yo and I have been getting sweaty and dirty off and on the last three days building a small, very low-rise raised garden bed. Our house had a bunch of paver bricks scattered around the property when we bought it so we gathered them up all up and put them to use to make the garden. It has been too hot to do it all at once so we've been going out and working on it 30-45 minutes at a time. He has been a good helper and was very excited about doing the planting by himself. We got radishes...
💬 1 comment · 5 likes · 2023-06-05 · 5 weeks ago
I've been making blueberry syrup. I cooked 40 gallons of blueberries today and got 10 gallons of juice - still have to boil it down more and add maple syrup before it's done. The blueberries are seconds from last year, smushed ones that we couldn't sell and have been keeping in the freezer all year. But the finished product is gorgeous and delicious! The color is amazing.
💬 3 comments · 4 likes · 2023-06-03 · 5 weeks ago
re: @satch: on the spiciness of chillies — here's a new post to not dilute the one about balcony gardening. @satch you clearly have more experience than me, and I dont quite understand what you meant: depending on where you buy chilies from, that could be true or totally wrong. often times on smaller farms lots of different varieties are grown together, and so saving seed is not really an option as you can get some really strange hybrid peppers. if your pepper comes from a giant field of...
💬 3 comments · 1 like · 2023-05-23 · 7 weeks ago
Any advice for gardening on a balcony? — I'm just starting out learning some basic gardening on my small balcony I've got a couple of tomato plants, which are doing quite well, and some herbs which are a mixed bag. Anyone got any advice for growing stuff in such small spaces?
💬 10 comments · 2 likes · 2023-05-18 · 8 weeks ago
I live and work at the Benson Place, a blueberry farm in western Massachusetts. My family has goats, chickens, rabbits, and we grow just about every vegetable which can survive on our windy mountaintop. We produce over 50% of our own food by value. I know many geminauts are interested in these things, and I'd be interested to hear what kind of food-growing endeavors you are up to!
💬 9 comments · 2023-05-14 · 8 weeks ago
