Backyard Gardening?

i actually want to see how many of you guys out there have backyard gardens. This can actually be a really efficient way to save money. Instead of spending money on watering your lawn, spend your money on watering a garden that actually produces something of value. Hopefully this got you guys brainstorming. Cheers!

 

OK, so Old Geezer is a backyard gardener. Click +1

A backyard garden often isn't about saving money. We bought this place a year ago and didn't bust the ground year one due to having all manner of moving issues and interior work to do. This year I busted ground and prepared a growing area. Boys and girls, that is work and it ain't cheap. Growing a garden is about having more security in the realm of food. If a disaster goes down, grocery stores get cleaned out and in a hurry. Therefore one must store food and grow their own food. And oh by the by, fresh vegetables taste better and still have their nutrients intact.

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, in my family raised gardens or had a small farm (grew food to sell and/or give extras to family). Everyone hunted game or raised meat animals/birds. In my youth, I never knew anyone, male or female, who hadn't personally killed birds and animals for food. My father's mother (born just before 1900; her husband, my Pap, was born just after 1890, he was my best friend when I was a child) perpetually canned fruits and vegetables. In her dirt basement, she had shelves and shelves and shelves of canned vegetables -- any kind you can think of. At the end of the growing season, she let sauerkraut "work" on the screened-in back porch then canned the procedes. We picked blackberries and she made dozens of jars of jams and jellies. We picked herbs for teas and medicines -- these and peppers were always strung up on the back porch drying. Both of my grandfathers would bring home critters they'd shot for supper. My dad's dad was a dynamite shot and would stick his revolver out his car window to kill rabbits and squirrels -- all head shots, so as not to ruin any meat. My mom's dad always killed with a shotgun and liked to eat the squirrels' brains. One fries the squirrel with head still attached, then you crack its head open with a spoon and suck out its brains. Me, I loved squirrel gravy and used a 20 ga pretty much exclusively (doesn't blow a critter to bits).

A topic you may be interested in, may already may be familiar with, but I'm sending a few links anyway -- you are under 20; I am over 60, so I don't know where younger people are coming from / don't know what you are being taught or not being taught these days -- concerning the, "The Victory Garden". If interested in gardens, you need to understand this topic. So here is some information readily available on the web:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/crops_02.html

http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/americas-patriotic-victory-gardens

 

Sir geezer. I would like to point you in the direction of mini farming. Mr. Markham who wrote the books has some excellent information in his books that can help you farm and to keep the cost minimal. This is where I am currently trying to gain some of my information from.

 

There is more then just burying some seeds in the ground and putting water on them and hoping for them to grow. Start with the soil by testing it as you can get the small testers for very cheap to check for acidity. Take advantage of your produce waste and leaves by starting a compost. Research the plants you are hoping to grow as some will benefit others and some can stunt other plants growth. You need to learn your growing zones as some will not have enough growing days to support certain plants.

 

With my health, I can't really garden like I used to when I was a kid. But, when I was a kid, I used to grow tomatoes.

I would argue that garden produced fruits and vegetables are probably going to be more nutritious than what you would get ina store.

 

I grow tomatoes, Peppers, Mint, Stevia, and herbs mostly in pots and then my kids have several garden areas where there are all sorts of things grown. In total we have between a quarter and a half an acre in plants.

 

This year's garden out-produced last years ... by a lot ... by a whole lot. We are now drying, freezing, canning, ... . We've sliced, shredded, grated, you name it, to put it back.

Cocozelle zucchini massively over-produced, however it tastes great. Great fried & great for making bread.

The tomatoes have been turned into spaghetti sauce and preserved in jars. This isn't really to be stored a long time ... we really like spaghetti.

Even the onions did well and we're not wizards at growing onions. Peppers did great. I like banana peppers, however we put out hot peppers this year. These we'll pickle.

From local farm & garden I bought a bunch of Coast of Maine, "Bumper Crop Soil Builder". Plus before starting the season, I turned the soil with a bunch of grub killer mixed in. Dried horse manure is always a benefit.
https://coastofmaine.com/product/bumpercrop/

 

My health this year pretty much precluded me doing much gardening.

 

I got our garden put out, then another region of my skeleton blew-up. Surgery. Massive rebuilding.

Poor wife! My body coming apart is NOT fair to her. Her health leaves a lot to be desired also. My oldest son is horribly crippled.

I could come back from all of this. My braces help very, very much. Last I mowed, I was wearing three braces to hold me together. Now things are now much worse. Mr. Surgeon has lots of confidence in himself. If I live another decade, I will be utterly shocked.

 

I'm having a problem with pernicious anemia. That makes it hard because without enough iron your blood loses its ability to carry oxygen or nutrition to the cells and organs. I'm doing a lot better now and am getting iron in transfusions. Did you know that iron costs about the same per ounce as GOLD??? It is running about 1500 dollars an ounce. I will say this though it is like the fountain of youth! I've had two infusions and two more to go and I'm ready to wrestle alligators! Great stuff.

 

Your body has to have a protein called intrinsic factor to absorb vit B12. Autoimmune disease can result in attacks on this intrinsic factor.

Autoimmune disease has played hell with my grandfather, my dad and his brothers, with me, and with my adult children still living. We are talking severe, life-threatening stuff here. Of course, I don't have to tell you, TexDanm anything. Autoimmune disorder was part of that which took my daughter's life.

I deeply hate having to put up with living in this world. Hopefully things will be better on the other side of death.

 

I had a backyard garden for 15 years, it was fun i learned a lot. one day in september i went in to the grocery store and they had on sale 5 for five. in other words you would get a bag of each of the following, onions, potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets. for five dollars. it was just so much easier to buy the stuff than grow it. like the other old guys i stopped doing it.

 

We just bought several 1 pound bags of frozen sweet corn from Walmart for $1 each. Sounds cheap even while I stand beside my sweet corn patch. I only have about $4 dollars in corn seed and a little work, but...

 

I store bulk food but still maintain a dozen or so large pots for small stuff like parsley, basil, mint, radish, cherry tomatoes etc
for there vitamin and mineral contents

One can nearly live on rice and parsley

 

First let me report that our success in growing squash was overwhelming ... tomatoes coming in second place. Again let me repeat the word, "overwhelming". And the jalapenos continue to attack. Next the Thai peppers are producing en masse, however drying these red-hot peppers, grinding them, and making red-hot pepper powder is a ready solution to any abundance. The jalapenos production proportion is still a bother. These peppers do have medicinal properties in that if you wish to bring crud up and out of your lungs, peppers will indeed help you do so. Peppers have all manner of health benefits, anti-inflammatory, vit.C, lower BP, help the heart somehow, ...

Back to topic. What WILL keep you alive are beans and cornbread, or beans and rice. Throw in some fatback and you are sure to survive. Poke greens, curly mustard, and such will keep your intestines in proper order. Small game meeting up with the proverbial .22 will stoke the stew-pot. I hate growing potatoes due to my having been pushed into service, as a child, in their growing and harvesting. I still have a potato spade -- but only as a reminder of toils in decades past. The stew-pot beckons taters, damn-it, therefore in hard times ... . But I say, Grow your potatoes in stacks of tires and throw away the spading fork!

 

Squash is a just GREAT thing to grow. There are a lot of different kinds and some of them last for months if stored in a cool dark place. We grew spaghetti squash, patty pan, yellow crookneck and butter nut squash and all of them were good eating and the critters didn't seem to bother them like they do the tomatoes and such.

The native Americans planted squash around the base of their corn with pole beans climbing on the corn and called it three sisters farming. The squash protected the corn and the beans on the corn protected it also from wind. They would plant it in hills in any clearing then move on and come back later in the season to harvest it. I've done this and it works really well. Squash and okra are both a little prickly and seem to put the critters off a little bit. The taters in the tires works really well. We grew red potatoes that way a few years ago.

 

The concept of the Victory Garden is super vital. Every generation of youth should be reminded that self-sufficiency does NOT take acres and acres of land -- far from it. Had our small garden been larger, we would have had real problems dealing with its abundance.

https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/crops_02.html

 

I have a healthy backyard garden. With lots of plants and I love to grow a tomatoes.

 

Yet another reason to grow your own veggies:

"Amid shortage of salad vegetables, UK calls in supermarket chiefs"

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023...lad-vegetables-uk-calls-in-supermarket-chiefs

"Shops have imposed limits on customers buying tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers after supplies were hit by bad harvests.

"Spencer said the crisis had shown how dependent Britain can be on certain trade routes for some types of food.

“'I know families expect the fresh produce they need to be on the shelves when they go in for their weekly shop. That is why I am calling in supermarket chiefs to find out what they are doing to get shelves stocked again and to outline how we can avoid a repeat of this,' he said in a statement.

"Last week, Therese Coffey, minister for the environment, food and rural affairs, warned shortages could last up to another month.

"She has been widely mocked for saying Britons who cannot get hold of salad vegetables might want to consider turnips instead."
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