A Garden

Quote: Face

Remember to rotate as well. I can't remember the exact "families", but was something like beans (beans, peas, peanuts), squash (squash, pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon), lettuce (cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower), and tomato (tomato, potato, pepper). Don't plant the same family in the same spot two years in a row. Something to do with disease, and also soil degradation. Beans put nitrogen back into the soil, while tomatoes take a whole bunch. Rotate, rotate, rotate!

Also to OG, fish scraps make a good fertilizer. Many natives still bury carp and sucker in their gardens.

The best fertiliser I've found here is from up the island. 'Sea soil', with it's own mix of dead fish and forest litter.

Quote: Face

fish scraps make a good fertilizer. Many natives still bury carp and sucker in their gardens.

My grandfather always said the Indians buried a fish under each "hill" of corn. I had always wondered about that - he had lots of tales - and also whether animals wouldn't be attracted by the rotting fish and dig them up.

We had relatives who ran a dairy farm and would haul buckets of cow manure to put under the tomatoes.

Quote: Evenbob

I had a garden 20 years ago, then I discovered
the produce section of my local grocery. Sweet
corn is real cheap this time of year.

If it's just about money, then don't garden. Refer to the tomato song if you need to [g]

It is kind of dumb to plant stuff that is pretty good and cheap to buy in the store. My wife wanted to do cabbage, which has been a 'complete fail' and never promised to be better than that in the store and is cheap to begin with. The good thing to come out of this is, we ain't doing any more cabbage.

In fact fresh corn for us has really been good and cheap in this area. This was not the case most of the time where we moved from. So, as long as this holds up, we're not planting corn.

Quote: chickenman

My grandfather always said the Indians buried a fish under each "hill" of corn. I had always wondered about that - he had lots of tales - and also whether animals wouldn't be attracted by the rotting fish and dig them up.

I've heard the fish thing since nursery school. My gut tells me that the fish will help *next* year and if the Indians did it every year it just sort of worked itself out. I doubt they understood crop rotation or else it wouldn't have been figured out 100 or more years later.

Quote: odiousgambit

If it's just about money, then don't garden. Refer to the tomato song if you need to [g]

It is kind of dumb to plant stuff that is pretty good and cheap to buy in the store. My wife wanted to do cabbage, which has been a 'complete fail' and never promised to be better than that in the store and is cheap to begin with. The good thing to come out of this is, we ain't doing any more cabbage.

In fact fresh corn for us has really been good and cheap in this area. This was not the case most of the time where we moved from. So, as long as this holds up, we're not planting corn.

Correct on if it is about money. It is a hobby. I get to be the crazy uncle with the pumpkin patch in the backyard. One year the Great Pumpkin should rise because my patch is very sincere. My mother loves the corn stalks to decorate. My dad loves that this means they don't have to go to the farm market to buy old corn stalks. There is no feeling like picking produce you grew and cooking it up to eat. And there is the feeling that you are doing your own "Victory Garden" and if the worst happens you at least can grow some of your own food should times get bad.

There can be a cost-effectiveness to it. For $4 in seeds I can get 30-50 lbs or more of pumpkins. If I get ambitious I will try and sell a lot for maybe $20 to some Cub Scout Den or something.

Or make pumpkin wine.

Quote: chickenman

...and also whether animals wouldn't be attracted by the rotting fish and dig them up.

I never had problems. I don't even bury them, instead just tossing them on the top soil. Occasionally the neighborhood cat takes one, but most stay to be taken over by maggots and ants (makes feeding my fish easier, too). Apparently there's coons about; I left my garage door open and found muddy little coon prints on my race car. They didn't touch the fish, but I think they killed my frog =(

Quote: chickenman

We had relatives who ran a dairy farm and would haul buckets of cow manure to put under the tomatoes.

That works, too. I guess it's up to you what scent you want wafting through your house on a hot summer's day =)

Quote: Face

That works, too. I guess it's up to you what scent you want wafting through your house on a hot summer's day =)

Cowshit, hands down :-)

Quote: chickenman

Cowshit, hands down :-)

I won't argue. It never fails to bring a smile to my own face =) Pigs, tho... we'd have a problem if we were neighbors

I just use fish because it's easier. I get them all the time. And the only time I smell fish is when fishing, and if I smell like fish, then I've had a great day. So no matter how potent the miasma of offal and decay, it can be strong enough to taste it, it always makes me happy.

If only magic markers were fertile... ;)

Ah, pigs. Years ago I lived a few miles from a pig farm and on occasion had to go by there. No olfactory memory is as intense...

excessive olefactory stimulation is a sign of wasted protein. Pigs in confined feedlots smell, pigs left to run around and forage for themselves generally don't have any odors until you are within a few feet of their grassy bathroom.