Author: admin

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.

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.

Golden Dorset Apple
Golden Dorset Apple
  • (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.

Possible Beautyberry
I like the foliage, is this yaupon holly? Not really sure, but I wont be eating the berries or extracting the caffeine until we can identify it.
Another bright beautiful plant, not sure what this one is.

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.

The quest for fresh foods marches on!

Greetings SNH family, my pavement planted hands are finally healing up to where I could get a few things done in the garden this weekend. We had to replace the chicken water container as it broke when I was carrying it across the yard. The ladies were also laying a good bit under the roost. While technically edible, we did a cleanout and hopefully they will be back in the boxes today.

We had a great harvest of pak choi. I put 5 bags into the freezer for soups and save a fresh group for stir fry tonight.

about 20 heads of pak choi in that basket. A lot of work to prep them all.
Pak Choi stir fry with steak, peas, carrots and onions too.

Lastly, we had a mix of white globe turnips and another variety that I had some seeds of but have since forgotten what type. The greens were frozen and the roots stored in the fridge.

Turnip Roots
Turnip Greens, before cleaning.

I also took about 30 minutes to put our tomato volunteers into pots.

Get ready for spring, its going to come fast.