Hobby Farms Forums / Gardening and Crops / HobbyFarms.com Forum Topics

soil type

ihenigman2 — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:35:39 GMT

im from central illinois, and the soil is as black as a new bag of potting soil from the store. ive had a few gardens over the years and have never used fertilizers or anything. just tilled it and planted, however my property that im moving to in a few days is in southern illinois, and the earth is clay like its got an oarnge color to it ,and seems more coarse than loamy. i plan to till up a garden spot around 40x40 feet square. im thinking i should till something into the soil but am not sure what .there are some cattle ranches nearby. i thought i could check if they have a pile of manure. not sure if this is best .anyone have any suggestions?

Open pollinated field corn

Douggifford — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:18:50 GMT

I got a little overambitious when ordering corn seeds this year and that creates a problem. I ordered enough Reids Yellow Dent open pollinated seed corn to plant about 1/4 acre. I also ordered a small amount of Oaxaca Green and Hopi Blue corn, and Strawberry and Mini-Blue popcorn. My problem is that I only have three separate fields in which to raise these six varieties. Some how I'm going to have to space the planting times to make sure the different varieties don't pollinate at the same time. For those of you who have experience raising open pollinated field corn, realistically, how far apart do I need to plant the varieties to keep them from cross pollinating? I've read everything from 100 yards to a mile.

Growing Tomatoes on a large scale

GrandmasGarden — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:45:43 GMT

This is my first year growing produce to sell at the farmer's markets. i plan on planting over 100 tomato plants and i've never grown this many before. Do you still cage each plant or just let them grow naturally? Also, what about cucumbers? Do you give them a trellis to climb or just let them grow? I know growing on a larger scale is going to be a lot more work, but I also want my farm to be efficient.

Thanks for the help!

Josh

My seeds are planted.

txmisshorsey — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:11:19 GMT

In a window box for now. Everyone keeps saying they expect a late freeze so I decided to start them inside and move them out when the weather is a little warmer.

Anybody else get started yet?

What heirloom fruits or vegetables do you grow?

Community Moderator — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:43:32 GMT

What heirloom fruits or vegetables do you grow?

Mini greenhouse

doglover5 — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:40:49 GMT

Looking for a small greenhouse to start seeds and seedlings for my very large garden. I spend a lot of money every year buying plants. We grow about 40 to 60 tomato plants and as many various types of pepper plant. Over the years I have tryed starting them indoors in the basic flat tray hothouses. I never seem to get them past the leggy part and they die. Saw a mini greenhouse online (19Lx27Wx62H). Anyone ever use something like this to start seeds inside. I live in Southeast Ohio. Oh and as of right now I do not think the snow will ever melt...would love to get started on something other then shoveling! Thanks to all

Companion Planting

GardnersGardens — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:10:52 GMT

Just thought I would see how many people here use companion planting.

Here is a link that is very helpful.

http://www.figtree.org.au/companion_planting.html

Winter Garden

amandahagarty — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:31:48 GMT

Here in Dover, DE we have pretty mild weather. We just however had the mother of all storms dump close to 2 feet of snow on us. I had planted some lettuce late and it was about 2 inches high before winter set in and I thought maybe I could keep it going until spring under a plastic tunnel. But now with all that snow on it I am wondering if it will survive. Should I dig it out?

Urban Farming

vigilant20 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:39:29 GMT

Since the urban farm crowd is slowly trickling in, I thought it might help to have a thread to identify yourself, share your blog (if you chronicle your adventures), and network with each other :) I'd love to hear what other urban homesteaders are up to.

Extreme Agriculture - Giant Vegetables

brian08628 — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 22:52:43 GMT

Hi,

I just started a subscription to this magazine and found this website. I'm looking for anyone else out there that is interested in growing giant vegetables and looking to share ideas or trade seeds, etc. My main interest is growing plants tall. The majority of my work is with corn, amaranth, sunflowers, pearl millet, and sorghum, but I also grow a lot of other plants as well.

Here are a few pictures from some of my gardens

My mom and twin daughters standing next to some really tall Tehua maize

20+ feet tall giant amaranths (Amaranthus australis). Tallest plant was 23 feet 3 inches and was listed in the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest amaranthus. The record was broken later that year. My tallest to date is 24 feet 4 inches, still short of the new 27 feet 10 inch record.

daughter standing under some giant amaranths Amaranthus australis & Amaranthus cannabinus X Amaranthus australis

Row of sunflowers

Me and the twin daughters standing in front of the garden (mix of tropical maize, pearl millet, sorghum, and hybrid amaranth)

self-sown multi-headed sunflower and Jala Maize from Mexico

Tehua maize at nearly 26 feet tall

3 year old daughter standing in front of a row of tropical maize (Uchima Grande from Ecuador, Olotillo-Tuxpeno from Mexico, Tehua from Mexico) and giant amaranths (Amaranthus australis)

Tidalmarsh amaranth (Amaranthus cannabinus) at 18 feet tall and an amazing 16 feet wide

Straw

NTRotty — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:10:06 GMT

Looking for ideas to produce, harvest, and store straw for small group of farm livestock. Wheat straw is all I am familiar with, are there other options for production in the North Texas climate?

Also small scale harvesting tools and techniques that work for you, I know scythe method, looking more toward Stihl trimmer with steel blade or something similar ??? Your suggestions appreciated.

One more try.

txmisshorsey — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:09:45 GMT

I have had good intentions with gardens in the past but never much results. Mostly because I start with a small dream of a green bean plant and the people around me somehow convince me it need to be a half acre (not really but pretty big). When it gets that big I don't have time to weed or take care of it.

So this year small is the name of the game and I figure my best bet is a raised bed since I haven't taken the time to prepare my soil I will have to cheat with a little potting soil mixed in. I'm thinking of doing 5 rows, each with 4 plants, thats it! One Jalapeno, one tomatoe, one green bean and one squash with the possibility of a fifth if I decide there is something else I have to have.

The biggest problem is finding a spot, if its in the yard the dogs get into it, if I put it outside the fence the horses and cows eat it

Anybody else doing a small garden?

Use for wire hangers in the garden

hotrodryder — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:34:55 GMT

I absolutely hate wire hangers in the closet and since I stopped using them, had to come up with a use for the ones I had. Well, I was looking thru a garden catalog and checked out the prices of tarp pins and row cover pins and got thinking. I took my wire hangers and cut each bent end off about 5 inches long and will be using these to pin down my tarps, row covers and plastic mulch. I also kept the hook part and turned the ends up a bit and will use those to hang bundles of herbs to dry this winter. I suppose if you were industrious, you could untwist the top of them and make several out of each hanger but I got 2 pins and 1 herb hanger so only wasted about two inches of metal off the straight side of each. I may find a use for those in the future too.

Seed Orders

JohnnyAd — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:51:31 GMT

Just wondering when do you order your seeds and from where? I am trying to find a good place for bulk seeds, not the little packets you get at the hardware store.

feed the hungrey

little tague farm — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:21:39 GMT

I was reading a artical I think on here but for got where. I understande that alot of people lets there love ones come and help there selfs in the garden but does and one help out the shelters or homeless people? My church agree will the people at church with who plants a garden is gonna plant a extra roll to feed the hungrey. To me its doesnt sound like it be to hard or to costly, spend a little and get a bigger return in your money for donation. Any body eles do this? How did it work for you? Would it be something you might like to try?

Garden Seeder / Row Planter

JohnnyAd — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:28:31 GMT

I have been keeping my eye out for a row planter to adapt to my tractor when I stumbled across two product. One from Earthway and one from Lambert:

Earthway
http://www.earthway.com/product/garden-products/

Lambert:
http://www.mid-west-products-inc.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv+Screen=PROD&Store_Code=Lambert+Products%2C+Inc.&Product_Code=GSF31M&Category_Code=GARDEN+PRODUCTS

Both look rather light weight and poorly built. Anyone have one and if so how do you like it?

I am thinking about getting one of the Earthway ones and adapting it to work on my tractor and give it some down pressure to make up for the light weight issues. May need some other improvements once I get it but its pretty cheap so I wont be out to much if it doesnt work.

Composting with newspaper scraps

Calantha — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:33:52 GMT

Hello!

I have yet to start gardening; just picked up my first copy of Urban Farm Magazine a few days ago. However, I have hopes to start this season, and eventually work my way up to a small hobby farm. So this may be a rather naive question, forgive me.

Reading the section on composting in the Spring issue of the magazine, I noticed it suggested to add newspaper and junk mail scraps to your compost pile. In the interest of being organic/chemical-free, etc., I was wondering about the possible leeching of dye and chemicals in the ink used in newsprint and junk mail? Does this not affect the quality of the soil, as well as add additional chemicals?

I'd appreciate any insight!

Thanks,
Calantha

Old Fashion Cocks (Rooster's) Comb

cweick — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:23:10 GMT

Does any one grow this?

How hard is it to start from seed?

Are they annual flowers?

Do they come in any variety other than the red velvet color?

Can they take FULL sun? That's all we have left around the house.

If we get them started, will they come back?

Thanks.

Potted Rosemary

cweick — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:34:18 GMT

P2 has a potted rosemary bush that I've been trying to bring back to life. It got a bigger pot last month with new soil.

Does anyone know the lowest temperature (night) that this plant can take?

It does better outside than setting on the back porch with the evergreens that P2 is growing.

Thanks.

Is there any hope for my asparagus?

Melody — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:19:19 GMT

I planted a 20-foot row of asparagus about 5 years ago. The following year, the middle third of the row did not come up, and it's been barren ever since. The ends do well, but I have been a lazy gardener. It's been weeded at the beginning of each season, and piled with compost at the end, but, that's all the attention I've given it. Do you think I can rejuvenate it by replanting that middle third, then weeding, weeding, weeding and mulching, mulching, mulching? Or should I just till it all under and replant the whole thing?

Red Raspberry in a pot?

amandahagarty — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:43:12 GMT

I had to go in to the hardware store today and of course they had a bright shiny small fruit plant display right in the entry way. I succumbed to the lure and purchased a Red Latham Raspberry. Now I grew a Red Manitoba Raspberry in a pot at my mom's house for her and it does quite well (with little care too since I am not there any more to take care of it). We are in a similar climate here in Dover, DE (zone 7). So I am assuming that putting this plant in a pot won't be too rough on it. I can't remember but I think I used a huge 14" pot for the last one but that was for a permanently potted raspberry. I dont think I have anything but a 10 or 12" pot right now though. The pot will only be a short term solution though and hopefully by the end of the year I will have a permanent in ground home for it. So my questions are do you think it will hurt the raspberry to live for about a year in a 10-12" pot or to be transplanted a year from now? Will it hurt the floricanes? I would hate to lose the second years fruit!

Anyone grow Luffa Gouard?

BirchCreekBliss — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:03:12 GMT

Does anyone know if you can grow luffa gourds in pots? The best place to grow anything is on the south side of our house, like RIGHT next to the house because the rest of the yard is either shady or tends to flood. I was thinking maybe I could set up a trellis and grow gourds in pots next to them so that the roots don't try to bury into our foundation or the vines try to grow up our siding. Could this work?

bed presses (shapers) for raised bed gardening

lpcrose — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:34:43 GMT

Hi Farm Friends, this is my first post. I have also posted this on the Equipment forum, but am posting it here to as it is gardening related. I have subscribed to Hobby Farms for a while now and am a small market gardener in western North Carolina. Does anyone have any ideas for formulating a bed press or bed shaper like the commercial farmers use, for hobby farmers to utilize? I have investigated them, and they seem to be cost prohibitive for the market gardener. I have a Class 1 tractor with many 3 point attachments (tiller, back blade, scraper, etc...) After so much digging for my raised beds, I have finally succumbed to seeking an attachment for the tractor. Do any of you have any suggestions? Do you have any methods of using other attachments to create raised beds (besides human power :). Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! LPCROSE in WNC

MrsKK & sweet potatoes

britboy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:51:10 GMT

Karen,

"One thing you might want to try is sweet potatoes - you need to buy organic, as the others are treated to prevent them from sprouting. Stick 4 toothpicks around the middle of the sweet potato and submerge the bottom in a jar of water, keeping approximately half of it wet. It will need to be in a warm place with plenty of light. Eventually, it will send out shoots, which can be clipped off when they are 4-6 inches long and put in soil to start developing roots of their own. Then, when the soil is warm in the spring, you can put your starts out for your own sweet potatoes"

I have never grown sweet pots before and was going to plant quite a large patch next year. I had already budgeted quite a decent sum of money for the sprouts. Can you ellaborate on your above statement?

When would you start doing this to plant out when?

Can you take a large shop bought organic and cut into smaller chunks to increase numbers or would you just try to buy small stock to start?

Do you need to try to find a likely spot where the root will emerge? or do they just inexplicably appear?

How long does it generally take for roots to appear?

Who here cans thier own veggies?

txmisshorsey — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:13:40 GMT

I am more talking about staples such as corn, green beans and peas but anything really? How do you think you come out money wise and also food quality wise?

Hobby Farms Chat #3

HFfriend — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:32:12 GMT

January is National Mailorder Gardening Month and the Hobby Farms editors want to know, do you use gardening catalogs to buy plants for your garden? If so, answer the questions below:

1. What are you planning to order for 2010?

2. What are your favorite catalogs to browse?

3. Do you prefer online catalogs or print catalogs?

Please let us know, and you might be contacted for an article to appear on HobbyFarms.com.

Thanks for your help!

The Hobby Farms Team

Selling seedlings?

amandahagarty — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:55:07 GMT

So I have a bunch of hanging fluorescent lights in my basement and it stays pleasantly warmish down there due to an inefficient heating system (which we would fix if we weren't selling the house anyway). I got the idea to buy more chains and drop the lights lower and get some other supplies and start my seedlings that way. Last year I used the bay window but there wasn't a lot of room and not quite enough light either. With this set up though there is plenty of room and I remember last year, even with not quite enough room, I had excess seedlings which I placed at the end of the driveway for neighbors to take. I thought this year maybe I will grow excess seedlings on purpose and see if neighbors family and friends might be interested in paying a few dollars for them. This might at least offset the cost of some of my gardening supplies?
I havn't looked closely at doing it yet as its just an idea floating around in my head. But I figure the cost of starting mixes, potting soil and especially pots will be the place where a money making venture could turn into a money draining venture. LOL. Does anyone know where to get a supply of low cost pots? I have seedling trays for about 300 plants but I figure I will need to repot them once they get to a certain size. Does anyone have any advice? Is it even possible to profit on a small scale like this? I would love to hear the experiences of others.

Root Cellars?

Drawbar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:37:16 GMT

When I was a kid, we went to these friends of ours and my Dad was mesmerized by this huge root cellar they had. They built it in the side of the hillside, made it out of field stone and supposedly it was a great rodent proof way to store crops and food stuffs all winter.

We never did build one, but it did seem cool at the time. I have seen some articles on it now and wondered if anyone on here has a root cellar, or plan to build one, or is this a yesteryear idea?

St John's Wort shrub

amandahagarty — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:28:04 GMT

The temperature is ranging from 38-50 during the day this week and down in the 20s F at night. I have a potted St. Johns Wort Shrub that I bought out of curiosity, and re-potted in a bigger pot in the fall. I have to leave it in a pot because the house is on the market and I had to repot it because all of a sudden the leaves started drying up after having it a few days. It was doing ok, even the first few days of this snow fall its leaves were staying nice and green and shapely. This morning I noticed they are starting to look dry and brown and shriveled. The trouble I think is that they are buried under snow with the leafy branches poking out above and the dry winter wind is taking its toll. It is a deciduous shrub so its possible its finally succumbing to the winter in that respect, but I think its more likely getting a little dried out. Should I try to water it? How warm or cold should the water be? Any advice would be much appreciated...I am not really a flower/shrub person and I have no idea why I bought the darned thing. LOL

Gardening on rocks

Porky54 — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:40:03 GMT

Here is my dilemma:
I live in the hills of Tennessee on 15 acres of mostly woods. The area is unbelievably rocky and I can't find much of a place for a garden. I think I can find a fairly sunny area but rocks everywhere. It isn't feasible to dig up the rocks because there are rocks on top of rocks. How would container gardening work? If I go that route what do you use for dirt in the boxed in area? Will I be limited on what i can grow? Should I give up the idea of a garden and concentrate on other less fun activities?

Thanks,
DP of TN

Tree Grafting

MrsKK — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:53:07 GMT

Tree grafting is something I've always been interested in, but have only attempted once and not successfully. I recently came across an online article on it at the Backwoods Home Magazine online: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/clay121.html

I think I will try again!

Winter preparation

cb3725 — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:25:02 GMT

Good morning,
I have just purchased a house with a 25x40 garden plot in the backyard. The previous owner had corn, okra, peppers, lettuce, and some other things growing back there. It is very overgrown right now. I want to keep the garden, but have never really done any gardening before. What do I need to do to make what they have planted come back in the spring? Also, here in north Georgia, is there any winter work I need to do besides just getting rid of the weeds in preparation for the spring?
Thank you!
Corey

Chicken Manure

Emily — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:50:55 GMT

[font=Comic Sans MS][/font] I have JUST started my chicken farm. I live next door to my husbands grandparents. They LOVE that I have chickens and told me that I should sell my chicken manure. My Chicken manure is mixed in with straw and what ever cracked corn and feed is spilled into it. Do I need to separate all of this before I sell it? If so how do I do this? AND I need to dry it so it doesn't get moldy this winter how do I do that? Does any one know were I can get burlap bags to put it in, or should I find something else to put it in? How much does chicken manure usually go for? Any tips would be much appreciated!

saalet seed master garden seeder

gardentractorguy92 — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:52:56 GMT

does anybody on here use a saalet seed master. their similar to an earthway but cheaper

Fava Beans

cweick — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:31:45 GMT

Well last week was our Fair and P2 did great. I even walked away with some free fava bean pods.

First, how do you dry them (with or without the pod being on)?

Second, when to plant them?

Third, is it true that they will take over the garden?

Fourth, does any cook with them?

Snowed in Fever

amandahagarty — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:33:06 GMT

Its only been two full days of being stuck at home due to snow. We are in between trucks right now and all we have is a Lexus (hey it is a fantastic car and we don't really need a truck just yet). Now being Canadian I am proud to admit that last March, when we had almost a foot of snow, the only vehicles on the road were trucks and SUVs, and I had to go to the pharmacy for medication I absolutely needed--I plowed that little Lexus through the streets until I came to the cleared highway. This time however I was more prepared and I had all my ducks in a row when the snow came--that is we were well supplied with meds, gorceries, heating oil, etc. Not only that but with 2 feet of snow, and a "state of emergency" which I am not sure is lifted yet, there is no way my Lexus would make it where even the trucks and SUVs are failing. So we sit in the house and wait it out.
To top it off, I am recovering from major surgery and a subsequent serious infection, so I am pretty much a couch potato right now. Tho I did get out and shovel a teensy bit yesterday, I quickly ended up over doing it.
I guess I am getting a bit of snowed in fever along with a bit of couch bound fever. I must be!
I sit here, in between browsing the web, watching movies, making Christmas cards, feeding and watching the birds outside, and playing with my cats, dreaming about the spring when things will start growing again and I will have my garden to tend to once again. I start to get myself excited and start wondering if I could start now. I plot the planting of seeds under the fluorescent tubes in the basement. I scheme the using of heaters if the basement isn't warm enough.
Our house is on the market--long story short: it's inherited and owned by 2 siblings, enough said. So the reality is we may not be here come spring. Hopefully, we will have a nice big property--with more light so I can have bigger gardens and some animals, but what will that mean for seedlings planted indoors? Well, not too much if I start now--since they will all be pot bound or worse by the time spring is here anyway.
Last year I jumped the gun just a little bit. I planted peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and zucchini indoors many weeks before they could be planted outdoors. The peppers did fine. In fact they were my best producer. The tomatoes were managed by pinching back the strong ones and letting the stragglers grow. I still had to repot them 2 times before I planted them outside. They did ok, but I attribute that more to the fact that even my sunniest location is barely sunny enough and we had a lot of cloudy rainy weather this summer. The cucumber and zucchini did terribly. I was desperately pinching off flowers with weeks to go before they could be outside. Once they did get outside the cucumbers never got off the ground, though I got a few stunted cukes. The only reason I managed to have a good cucumber salad was because my neighbors cucumbers did so well he was giving them to me by the bag. The zucchini suffered the worst fate. It took a long time to really start growing at all after it went outside. It eventually grew nice and big but by that time it was too late to get very much out of it.
Now I know some of my difficulties arise from the fact that my back yard is heavily populated by tall trees and even the best location for a garden has barely enough light for some of these veggies. The later in the year it gets the more the sun dips below the trees and the less light I get. I have often sat in the back yard looking at the trees and imagining what branches and trees I might strategically remove--though the house is on the market so it wouldn't be practical.
I also know that I got way too excited last year and when I should have been planting these seeds at the appropriate times, I planted them all at once. Now here I am in December with 2 feet of snow outside and I am conspiring to plant seeds waaaay too early.
I can only conclude that I have some kind of snowed in fever syndrome or I have gone couch crazy.
I have been having more reasonable thoughts about growing some indoor herbs or something, so that rational brain of mine must still be intact in there, but sometimes I do wonder.
Does anyone have any suggestions for me to get this early bird bug out of my system?

Aquiring Lime Products...:-(

Drawbar — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:57:53 GMT

What a time suck this has been. Here in Maine we are faced with some very low PH levels. To give you an idea, 6-6.5 is ideal and our soil runs at 5.2. PH is very important as that is what allows the plants and crops to absorb nutrients. You can put down all the fertilizer you want, and if the PH is too low, it just won't allow the plant to take those nutrients up and grow. That is no good, so you need the right amount of lime.

Now I need between 8500-4500 pounds of lime to the acre in a 40 acre field. So I started calling around to get some options, and for simplicity I have it run down to two options:

Algaefiber: Which is delivered free but not spread
Lime: Which costs 85 dollars per ton spread

Algaefiber is a seaweed product that is used in making carotene using in yogurts, cosmetics, jell-o, etc. from a local plant here. They have a lot of it and need to get rid of it and will give it to farmers for free. Because it is an seaweed product, it is the equivalent of lime, but it takes a lot of it. In fact to get the equivalent of 1 ton of lime, it takes 12 tons of algefiber!

So the question comes down to is, which is cheaper...buying 130 tons of lime at 85$ per ton, or getting 1560 tons of algaefiber for free, but having to spread it ourselves? The company does give you a spreader, but we still have to use our tractor and our bucket loader. Those two pieces of equipment costs money. I checked the Maine DOT Equipment Rate website and they pay $50 per hour for the Bucketloader and $60 per hour for a 200 hp tractor. Assuming I can spread 20 tone per hour, that is still 78 hours of work based on an average spread at 6500 pounds to the acre.

$11,050 dollars to buy lime and have it spread.
$8580 dollars to spread the algaefiber

Pretty easy to figure out that algeafiber is the better deal, but what a rigamaroll to get it. I had to take soil samples, ($45), get a satellite photograph of the field, get the operator to sign off on it (my Uncle since he owns big enough equipment to handle the product), my father to sign because the trucks cross his land, then my signature because its my land as well, and finally my soil conservationist to say it is okay to use. Then the company has to come out and inspect where they can dump it, and see the fields where it is going.

I have been doing all this, finally get everything in order and the company says, "it's been so long since I talked to you, I figured you didn't want it any more". I was like, all this stuff takes time to gather up, what do you expect?"

I got 8 hours of my life tied up just in trying to get this stuff here. It gets pretty crazy sometimes all the regulations we have to go through sometimes.

Hoe Mulching

cweick — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:41:22 GMT

Definition: Hoe mulching is a traditional technique that involves repeatedly stirring the top one inch of the soil with a hoe in dry weather; the idea is that the broken-up surface reduces the soil's ability to give off water.

Okay I'm I thinking backwards here, but if your "repeatedly stirring the top one inch of soil with a hoe in dry weather" woundn't it dry the soil out faster.

Does any one do this to their garden and how much time does it take?

Fennel

britboy — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:39:28 GMT

Does anyone have any experience growing Fennel or Anise. We have started to eat this quite a lot and I want to include in the growing plan for next year and would love to hear from anyone that has actually grown it.

I have loads of books but they only really give a couple of paragraphs on the subject.

Apple Seeds

cweick — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:38:23 GMT

To core or not to core the apple before feeding your live stock...

Do you are do you not core your apples to feed them out? Why do you or don't you core your apples?