Moving toward sufficiency with a prepper garden

[SavedByGrace3]

End blossom rot hit our tomatoes, peppers, and squash last year. We added some bone meal (calcium) and have been throwing egg shells in too. Also trying to regulate the watering more carefully. Some say irregular watering can cause the end rot by messing with the calcium.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

7 plus foot rattlesnake beans. Grown a foot in the last few days.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

5/18
Looking forward to some grapes...

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Mystery squash identified. This is an Acorn squash! We did not plant Acorn squash last year. This was volunteer from kitchen scraps thrown into the compost heap months ago.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

3 foot rhubarb leaf. 2 foot stalk. I am ready for some pie!

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Tomatoes are soon to be had.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Jerusalem Artichoke blooms. Seems really early in the year for theses. Plants are already 5-6 feet tall.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Added a bug hotel for pollinators.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Left - some big Lima beans.
Right - starting some sunflowers.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Adding some sunflowers, stevia (for the anticipated loss of sweeteners), more of other things like tomatoes, squash, beans, and cucumbers. Shooting to be 2/3s to 3/4s self sufficient with vegetables.
Looking more at fruits... more grape vines, rhubarb (technically a vegetable... but it eats like a fruit). Looking for good perennials.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Should start pouring in now...

 

[SavedByGrace3]

If all goes well, and we faith it will... we should be self sufficient in vegetables throughout the summer. We should have enough for daily use and a goodly amount for canning and dehydrating.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Since we are on the Keto diet we will have to store all the potatoes since they are a definite keto no-no.
I have lost 50 pounds since September.. and my wife has lost 9. We just got back from cruise with the family and we backslid a bit... but we will be back on track with good low carb food.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Pulled in about 20 pounds of Yukon Golds potatoes yesterday. Boiled 8 pounds of them and mashed them.. they are in the dehydrator now. Replaced the plants with 14 Sweet Potato slips today.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

End blossom rot hit our tomatoes, peppers, and squash last year. We added some bone meal (calcium) and have been throwing egg shells in too. Also trying to regulate the watering more carefully. Some say irregular watering can cause the end rot by messing with the calcium.

Yes, I think it is either too much or too little water. In mine it must be too much.

https://ucanr.edu/sites/placernevadasmallfarms/files/86509.pdf

http://plantclinic.cornell.edu/factsheets/blossomendrot.pdf

https://www.uky.edu/ccd/sites/www.uky.edu.ccd/files/blossom_end_rot.pdf

 

[SavedByGrace3]

We have done a lot of work since four years ago. I am upgrading the raised beds. I am purchasing 2-foot-high galvanized steel raised beds. Four feet by eight feet. We have 4 of them already. They run about a hundred bucks each, so it is a pay-as-you-go project. We will end up with about 9. The problem is filler. We don't want to be burdened with filling the beds with 64 square feet of soil! We use several kinds of filler, including tree trunks and branches, old boxes filled with year-old leaves, bags of leaves, and other refuse. I fill the 24-inch deep beds to about 16 inches with the filler and then top it off with soil, black kow, and compost. We already have two beds planted with carrots, rutabaga, and kale. Barbara may have some cabbage planted which is her favorite. Other beds have brassicas like greens. Broccoli and cauliflower have not done well here, so we stopped trying. We live in SC so a winter garden is doable... but we do cover things if a hard freeze comes along.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Some pics from our developing garden. 2nd year garden. Much of it is new this year. New projects and new vegetables being tested.
Thanks for dropping by!!!
I encourage you to do a garden if you have the space. We are retired so we have a lot of time to dedicate to the garden.

How do you turn dirt into healthy dirt that grows things?

My husband and I aren't really gardeners and it's not been going well so far in his efforts.

Wondering if there's anything you could suggest?