Home gardening

[jverne]

Well as younger i never bothered really to care about growing stuff...but now and considering the situation my stance changed a little bit.

Well we already have quite a large back yard, also a garden and a green house, but it's run by my mom and i only partially help.

For starters...no i won't be growing pot because as usual the "farmers" get the least money out of it unlike the dealers and besides i don't smoke so no point in making it for myself. Also it's highly illegal in my country. But don't worry i had propositions to do it, but it's just not worth the trouble. But if it does become legal one day...sure, why not.

So the point is that i should get into it and start producing my own food which i can constantly monitor it's health. Since i don't have a good habit of keeping to routine tasks (i.e. lazy) i plan to automatize it as much as possible.
The green house is pretty large and can house several small to medium trees, plus ground plants.
Since the greenhouse is a closed environment i can automatize ventilation, temperature, moisture, irrigation,... i think there's never been a better time to do gardening, since we have an abundance of technology that does the work for us.
Plus there are many innovative ways to plant stuff, such as vertical gardening.
We also have a rainwater capturing system and a compost.

Well i'm not aiming at self reliance but, right now during the spring/summer years we almost don't have to buy fruits and vegetables. And that's now where we invest almost nothing into growing, that's mostly what nature does by itself.
If it would be organized and well designed the output would be enormous.

Also i'm not strictly for that all organic farming...i still plan to use modern advances in agriculture. The thing is i can monitor pesticide use and artificial fertilizers. Since my grandfather is a professional farmer i know how the agriculture industry works...pesticides are used excessively, because in the event that crops fail it may cost you your livelihood. So all farmers "abuse" chemicals in order to basically survive.
And if anyone ever had the pleasure of eating fresh ripe fruits you would know they are immeasurably better than supermarket artificially ripped food.

For instance now, we grow oranges and mandarins which are almost impossible to grow in our climate, i probably don't have to tell you they taste phenomenal.

Actually i take this as more of a challenge rather than just some hobby. And from experience i can tell you that farming as a livelihood is horrible but small scale production is very rewarding, productive and relatively easy with modern technology.
And besides...i need an excuse to go outside and not stare at this ****ing monitor 10 hours a day.

So...any comments? Anybody already doing it? What's your take on it?

 

[Raziaar]

I've always wanted my own garden, but I have no knowledge and no real desire to actually bust my ass to get it going. I have no greenhouse, and shitty tough soil. So it would require a ton of effort.

Tomatoes and Onions are the things I would want to grow the most.

I could live off onions... they're so ****ing awesome.

Onions, Celery and Carrots... I could eat nothing but a mirepoix all the time!

 

[PvtRyan]

Whatever you do, do it on salvia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVllL4tNZsI

 

[jverne]

Whatever you do, do it on salvia:

oh lol...that was funny. that's certainly not the most productive way to grow food.

 

[Maestro]

You should have a look at instructables.com. They have a lot of stuff using the programmable "Arduino" chip in the green section that relates to automating your garden.

 

[jverne]

You should have a look at instructables.com. They have a lot of stuff using the programmable "Arduino" chip in the green section that relates to automating your garden.

cool, i'll check it out.

yes... the plan is to do as much as possible with as little work as possible.

i should probably get some environment measurement devices so i wont have a rain forest in there.

 

[Shakermaker]

/thread

 

[Raziaar]

 

[MJ12]

Look at all that grass they found.

 

[Shakermaker]

http://i46.tinypic.com/n8hlu.jpg[img][/QUOTE]

Is the DEA going to come for one plant? We can legally grow a maximum of 5 plants over here.

 

[jverne]

Is the DEA going to come for one plant? We can legally grow a maximum of 5 plants over here.

until the muslims take over that is

 

[Maestro]

until the muslims take over that is

Nah, they only have a moral objection to beer and the like. They refine heroine for a living in their caves!

 

[Krynn72]

Is the DEA going to come for one plant? We can legally grow a maximum of 5 plants over here.

No shit, you're in Amsterdam. The rest of the world is like Nazi Germany in comparison.

 

[Danimal]

Except Canberra, 2 plants for personal use per person.

Funny, that's where all the politicians live.

 

[dfc05]

I live in an apartment so no big gardening projects at the moment, although I've been growing spinach for the past few months.

I would argue that this is false:

So all farmers "abuse" chemicals in order to basically survive.

I've been on a couple of organic farms and they were doing just fine. I worked on a community garden plot with a bunch of other students, and using only natural compost and mulch, we were able to grow a ton of vegetables. Also, we only went out two times per week to water and weed, so it's not like it actually takes that much effort. And if you mulch well enough, you don't even need to weed for several months.

Pesticides and herbicides have a pretty high rate of volatilization which is wasteful. They also tend to get oversprayed so it runs off into natural waters, and most of them are toxic and have pretty nasty chlorine and benzene groups because obviously they were meant to kill things. I can see how a large-scale commercial farm would need pesticides and fertilizers, but I think using them in your backyard garden is overkill. You mentioned you make your own compost, which seems like it should be good enough without having to fertilize.

 

[jverne]

I live in an apartment so no big gardening projects at the moment, although I've been growing spinach for the past few months.

I would argue that this is false:


I've been on a couple of organic farms and they were doing just fine. I worked on a community garden plot with a bunch of other students, and using only natural compost and mulch, we were able to grow a ton of vegetables. Also, we only went out two times per week to water and weed, so it's not like it actually takes that much effort. And if you mulch well enough, you don't even need to weed for several months.

Pesticides and herbicides have a pretty high rate of volatilization which is wasteful. They also tend to get oversprayed so it runs off into natural waters, and most of them are toxic and have pretty nasty chlorine and benzene groups because obviously they were meant to kill things. I can see how a large-scale commercial farm would need pesticides and fertilizers, but I think using them in your backyard garden is overkill. You mentioned you make your own compost, which seems like it should be good enough without having to fertilize.

well, organic farms are different...they are intended to be pesticide free.

as for pesticide use in my garden...i have also doubts. i'll try every natural means first and resort to chemicals if the shit hits the fan.
there are quite and assortment of natural pesticides, i plan to use all modern knowledge of pest control.

i also have the intention to leave natural growth at the edges of the farmland so that birds can nest and hopefully eat some pests. maybe i'll even make bird houses. it would probably be a good idea to keep a healthy quantity of carnivorous insects that hunt "pests".

i'm well aware that the major challenge will be to keep pests and illnesses away.

yes we do have a compost, but i plan to upgrade it so it has better aeration. right now it's not very efficient.

right now i'm quite optimistic, since we have a decent output even now where the investment is almost minimal and only my mom works. but for an example...we have fresh tomatoes through all summer and considerable parts of spring and autumn.

bought vegetables and fruit might sometimes be cheaper, due to their nature of production. but if not for anything else...taste of fresh food is worth all the trouble.
homegrown peaches are ****ing orgasmic compared to supermarket ones. actually that goes for everything. also climbing up a tree and eat fruits beats the hell out of everything else.

 

[dfc05]

Awesome, sounds like you're doing a really good job. I've heard orange oil is a good natural pesticide, although I don't have any actual experience with it.

What kinds of tomatoes do you grow? There are some really awesome heirloom varieties that you can't buy in stores -- my favorite is Russian Black tomato. So good that you just eat it plain, and it has an interesting smoky flavor. My mom also likes the kind that look like Roma tomatoes except yellow... not sure what those are called.

 

[Maestro]

I live in an apartment so no big gardening projects at the moment, although I've been growing spinach for the past few months.

I would argue that this is false:


I've been on a couple of organic farms and they were doing just fine. I worked on a community garden plot with a bunch of other students, and using only natural compost and mulch, we were able to grow a ton of vegetables. Also, we only went out two times per week to water and weed, so it's not like it actually takes that much effort. And if you mulch well enough, you don't even need to weed for several months.

Pesticides and herbicides have a pretty high rate of volatilization which is wasteful. They also tend to get oversprayed so it runs off into natural waters, and most of them are toxic and have pretty nasty chlorine and benzene groups because obviously they were meant to kill things. I can see how a large-scale commercial farm would need pesticides and fertilizers, but I think using them in your backyard garden is overkill. You mentioned you make your own compost, which seems like it should be good enough without having to fertilize.

Using them on your garden is not only overkill, it's expensive. 'Tis cheaper to go buy mulch and such when you can give attention to it than buy artificial stuff, since if you let your garden lay fallow as it should and plant nitrogen fixing legume plants it will maintain the balance needed.

I would use some natural-base pesticides, though, the little ****ers will eat your vegetables otherwise.

 

[jverne]

Awesome, sounds like you're doing a really good job. I've heard orange oil is a good natural pesticide, although I don't have any actual experience with it.

What kinds of tomatoes do you grow? There are some really awesome heirloom varieties that you can't buy in stores -- my favorite is Russian Black tomato. So good that you just eat it plain, and it has an interesting smoky flavor. My mom also likes the kind that look like Roma tomatoes except yellow... not sure what those are called.

to be honest i don't know the specific name but we have these two

very yummy for pizza, salsa and also salad, because they have few seeds that get in the way

the general type...but we plan to reduce these in favor of the plum ones.


but that's just part of what we grow...
we have

vegetables:

-potato
-tomatoes
-cucumbers
-eggplant
-endive
-garlic
-onion
-carrot
-lettuce
-spinach

*some more some less, but most can last the whole summer if consumption is mild. that's why i plan to help here the most, because this is usually the most "labor" intensive...plowing, seeding, watering,...
thing is my mom does all manually because she takes this as a relaxing hobby...i'll try to bring in some equipment, although i fear this might have just opposite effects. so it would be probably be smarter to start slow. first i need to buy some leak pipes and some sprayers. it's a shame because we have another water reservoir in the making but it's far from completed and has inbuilt flaws...hmm. but thing is that not that much water as some think it's needed...if you're not growing stuff like watermelons.

fruits (trees):

-two trees of peaches (i added one a few months ago...i hope it catches on)
-one nectarine (one was added at the same time as the peach)
-two pears
-4 figs
-2 apples
-2 cherries
-3 plums
-some vines
-one apricots
-kiwi
-oranges
-mandarins
-lemons
-and some other endemic stuff

the citruses are fairly young and not much can be said right now, but they do seem to grow in the closed greenhouse

the peaches, nectarines, cherries, kiwis, apricots get eaten first (because they're so good, and also they're somewhat exotic)

-the rest (apples, plums, pears, figs) are in such an abundance we can't even eat them all and are left to rot on the ground (eventually self-recycled) or we give some away to friends and family.

ok i have to be honest...usually some less resistant trees if not sprayed they practically give no output, such as the apricot...i haven't eaten one in the last 2 years, but i remember that there were so many i used to literally stuff myself up with them.

we have to many vines that IMO are not useful so in their place i'm quite confident additional 20 fruit trees can flourish.

ok we have almost no nuts.


the worst thing about agriculture is that it takes time...that's the worst part for me. the newly planted trees need at minimum 3 years to give any reasonable output. if only i wasn't such an ignorant idiot earlier and planted them when i was 20. by now i might have been rich...in fruits that is.

now i understand why so few young people want to get into it...the wait can be quite boring. but ok, i have other stuff to do in the meantime, like my job and finishing school.

edit: some more "progressive" friends i know said i should do hydroponics...meh, i have enough land for my needs, don't really want to go high tech. though i've heard it has a much higher yield, i'm not that interested.
that's more suitable where space is limited. to people interested and living in cities...you might wanna check the new trend of urban farming which i learned while researching.

 

[Letters]

Please, tell me more.

Did you win at the Bunko game tonight? Take your Lincoln Town Car in for a tune-up? I bet it drives like new again doesn't it! Oh yeeeeeah.

Spoiler

I'm not picking on you, I swear. You should have at least pretended about the weed... at least then you would have been meeting expectations!

 

[jverne]

Please, tell me more.

Did you win at the Bunko game tonight? Take your Lincoln Town Car in for a tune-up? I bet it drives like new again doesn't it! Oh yeeeeeah.

Spoiler

I'm not picking on you, I swear. You should have at least pretended about the weed... at least then you would have been meeting expectations!

:dozey: