I loved this step by step article from 2004 from Greg Bickal, I take no credit. It shows how to use a 55 gallon barrel as a filter. In this case, he is using it for a pond. I want to continue to look at good methods to filter out chlorine from my garden water. I do know there are inline-filters available and that may be the quickest solution. But I would also like to combine some rain water catchment and our city water into a single solution for garden at some point.
Security
It is not OK to dismiss security and privacy concerns. I highly recommend the following read: https://www.nbtv.media/newsletter/privacy-101
I would highly recommend working to actively remove the following companies from your life. Google, Apple and Microsoft.
I started moving in this direction several years ago after actually reading the privacy policies from the above companies. I am now using a linux pc as my home OS, but am also trapped into the greater world requiring Microsoft for work related tasks.
I also pay for privatized email where I am not beholden to exchanging the body of my messages for free services.
My next phone will likely remove me from the google tracking. Take a look at graphene OS. https://grapheneos.org/. There are a variety of other options.
Out for now, always go the smarter not harder route!
Spring Garden Time
Good Morning SNH’ers, it is spring garden time. I just pulled up my first Namé yam from the garden. I plan to propagate it a bit since access to true yams is fairly limited before I start eating them.
Last year I made a purchase at publix in one their non-standard site bins of vegetables after a recommendation from DTG for sourcing. I buried it in late February as a small potato sized root after I started to see it pushing up some leaves inside the pantry. It is fundamental to get them into the ground when breaking dormancy.
I put a long trimmed piece of wood from our “money tree” that I trim every year as a support along with a standard metal stake I had laying around and connected the two with some twine. The twine support was not enough as the growth over-weighed the twine and eventually broke near the end of the season during dieback in November. This next year, I will support each vine with metal t posts and a stronger runner line between them.
The total growth size is about 4x from the original yam and yielded 2 full sized tubers. I’ll use the ash method to propagate this year cutting several pieces and burying at the base of each post, hopefully yielding enough to be worth eating next year.
Additionally, I weeded out the carrot bed, it they are starting to get to a noticeable size. We planted black, white and orange varieties this year. I am usually harvesting in march/april and convert that bed to a new crop afterwards.
Peppers (Jalapenos, Cubanelle and Calibelle) were planted along with 16′ of our naturalized snow peas. I am hoping to get more than a few stir fry’s worth since I like them so much. I also replanted our peanuts that were planted by a random squirrel 2 years ago. We had probably 30 pods this year, so the growth is really taking off. I think it is a Virginia variety, but it doesn’t matter, they are a fun experiment.
The winter crops (red and green cabbage) and pak choi are doing well. In fact, the pak choi is starting to go to see, so we will need to harvest this week or I’ll just be saving seed.
My onions have stalled in their growth, I am hoping the spring weather will kick them into high gear, otherwise, I may have to do an order with dixondale’s or another group.
2 yams and a random turnip
Time to get busy out there. Please grow as much food as you can for your own pesticide free produce!
Oh, and one of the little SNH’ers placed in the county science fair. Couldn’t be more proud!
Can’t Believe it
It has been fully a year since I last posted. Todays topic is preparedness. With the BOA collapse, the dock workers strike, hurricanes and the Iranian attack on Isreal and increase stresses at work – it has reminded Mrs. SNH and I that we need to stay vigilant and stay ahead of the potential threats that we face.
Americans have become accustomed to purchasing items on their debit/credit cards linked to their bank accounts. I am recommending that we ensure that there is enough cash on hand to cover a months worth of expenses in addition to the standard emergency fund recommendations by the financial pro’s out there for 3-6 months in a high yield savings account.
In addition to cash, we are seeing the stores completely empty of supplies in our local area which reinforces the idea that you need to make sure you have enough food to feed your family for a period. Of course – becoming a producer and growing as much of your food as possible is the ultimate in resiliency. Become independent, become hardened and have backup plans for everything!
It’s a short post and there is much more to explore in these topics, but it will have to wait. Check out the money guy on youtube! Tons of great financial info.
Fall Plantings
I have been doing tons in the garden while on vacation. Here is a matrix of our fall plantings.
Also planted plenty of Nantes Half long carrots, Yellowstone Carrots and red granex onions as well. It’s going to be a tasty winter!
Well, sometimes the garden produces funny shapes.
This is a sweet potato that I harvested this week just to check on progress. It is of edible size, so I am confident that we will have a good harvest. But seriously, that is quite the shape.
A great look at wood ashes
Thought I would post a link to the original article discussing the chemical makeup of wood ashes for garden use as well as the pdf stored here in case the original site is removed.
We have some apples
Greetings SNH’ers! As we work to improve our food security, we have landed some southern apples to add to the yard. Anna, Golden Dorset and Tropic Sweet will all work to pollinate each other. Come to think of it, we now have quite a few fruit options growing on our little pretend homestead.
- (3) Apples
- (1) Avocado
- (2) Peaches
- (2) Oranges
- (1) Lemon
- (2) Figs
- (8) Blueberries
- (2) Blackberries
- (4) Watermelon
- (1) Maybe beautyberry ..more below.
This afternoon I was trying to identify some plants in the yard.
If you know what these are, send me a message. I think beautyberry is also a nitrogen fixer.
Just a meme
Just felt like making a meme today after seeing all the news.
Garden Plans for July
Since the last of our big harvests in May, we have been pulling a few random items like everglades tomatoes, purple hull peas and couple of cucumbers. Today, I removed the cucumber plants seeing a fresh batch of insect damage and small black insect eggs on them.
Since our garden becomes a bit dull during August with sweet potato production being the real focus, I am thinking about starting a run of peppers for the fall when we comfortably get back into the 80’s and production picks up again. I’ll also re-order some seed stock to replenish the fall plantings like carrots and lettuces that did well last year.
The compost bins however are doing great work. I added a “trash can” composter to handle larger amounts of rubbish and it seems to be breaking down fairly fast in the heat. Maybe we can get a 6 month cycle to usable compost instead of my 1 year mark as has been in the past. The addition of red wigglers has also hastened the tumbler bin significantly and the kitchen scraps seem to be breaking down much faster than before.
The addition of a mechanical timer on the drip system has made watering much simpler allowing me to get out of that chore (mostly) and focus on the weeds. I am setting it for 30 minutes in the morning and occasional evenings when the day has exceeded 95 degrees and the humidity is high.
Lastly, a big shout out to the youtube community for showing me better ways to manage the garden and also show that my own struggles are not unique. It’s funny how we all want the perfect landscape with a massive harvest all the time, but its not the reality. Summer gardens, here in Florida, often look like a total mess in July and August, most just give up. With some tenacity and good crop selection, you can remain productive and keep the weeds at bay.
Happy Gardening.
Mr. SNH.