Priority shift for the new tomorrow

[Tubetec]

I found myself over the last few years having to re-evaluate the priorities in my life ,
shifting back to an even more basic lifestyle than I already had ,
Its turned out to be right on the money for what were facing now ,

I just wanted to put the question out to others ,
what changes do you plan on making  for the future ?

WTF do we need investment/vulture  fund managers crying crocodile tears as their portfolio goes down the pan  for now ?
contrast that with the work front line health staff or people who are voluenteering within the community are doing .

Decided to get some seasoned timber cut . Took out my trusty Stihl chainsaw after winter , a drop of fresh juice and a few tugs on the cord ,watch out for your ears , here comes the screamin' demon 

 

[fazer]

i like the thread.  Being retired I want to do a real garden and small greenhouse for starter plants .  Grow onions peppers tomatoes lettuce and other vegetables.    I want some beehives chickens.  More wide open spaces.  A shop to service items I’m capable of.  A small music room.    Daily hiking and a Electric assist bicycle for grocery store runs .  I’m already some what self isolating.  Oh and a portable Ventilator with  Diy tracheotomy kit. 

I’m not sure that’s scaling back.  Less is more is appealing.

 

[JohnRoberts]

i like the thread.  Being retired I want to do a real garden and small greenhouse for starter plants . 

Last year I bought a cheap chinese greenhouse kit... it didn't work out well, getting buffeted in the wind etc. After one season out in the elements the plastic cover disintegrated.

This winter I moved the greenhouse into my unheated laundry room and put it up on shelf so it can get sunlight from the one window. I sourced a new plastic cover and added a fixture with three incandescent light bulbs and a cheap thermostat to heat  my greenhouse at 60' or above.

It worked well and I now have a bunch of tomato, hot and bell pepper sprouts, etc.

Grow onions peppers tomatoes lettuce and other vegetables. 

I just assembled a modest raised bed garden for vegetables... I recaptured top soil from my rain ditches, but of course not fun. I mixed in some compost from my compost pile, but only into one bed as an experiment,. You can see a difference in color of the rain ditch dirt and compost (lots of coffee grounds, etc). 

  I want some beehives chickens. 

we had chickens when I was a kid growing up... not much fun.

More wide open spaces.  A shop to service items I’m capable of.  A small music room.    Daily hiking and a Electric assist bicycle

I have a 24 speed pedal bike and do a 5 mile loop on nice days.... My once a week grocery shopping is beyond comfortable pedaling distance, not to mention carrying a weeks worth of groceries. 

for grocery store runs .  I’m already some what self isolating.  Oh and a portable Ventilator with  Diy tracheotomy kit. 

I have been social distancing for decades....

you need a ventilator?

I’m not sure that’s scaling back.  Less is more is appealing.

Life is short, die broke...

JR

 

[fazer]

That looks like good compost

 

[Tubetec]

I have a few trays of seed potatoes just starting to sprout ,
they'll be ready to go into grow bags in a week .
I have a raised grow bed here , its around three feet high ,
saves having to bend down  and naturally keeps certain pests off .
I'll rake in some composted veg waste and maybe a bit of wood ash ,
I avoid chemical fertilisers if I can .
6x10 glasshouse which I must make more use of this year too .

 

[ruffrecords]

Here in the UK most of us live on much smaller plots than most of our USA cousins. Despite that we still make good use of the garden. We will be growing tomatoes, radishes, carrots and runner beans this year. None of them are in any way economic but they taste way better tha shop bought.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Tubetec]

Theres a table below , well out of date now but just to give an idea of the proportions across the UK.

Current situation :
England                130,395 KmSq              population  56 million
Ireland(Rep)        84,400 KmSq              population    5 million

Theres been a government drive(including tv shows) in Ireland in the last number of years to get older people to sell up the ground under their feet in favour compact tidy apartments.  Crooked friends to the people in power are  running property management companies that are bleeding people dry. One friend of mine now apparently has to pay Euro 30,000 for renovations on the apartment he owns before he's even allowed sell it, the problems are down to corner cutting by the original builders  . My dad has had to step in and become head of the residents association for the block where his apartment is , lift is out of action now for 18 months ,  repair company  apparently cant source the part  and they have left about a couple  of kW of work lights on permanently in the lift shaft.

The big bright idea of the present Irish caretaker(pisstaker) government was reach for the skies ,stack em 'n' rack em in tower blocks , needless to say those plans are now in absolute tatters with Covid. 


Just to leave things on a more upbeat note ,
The taste of home produce will have your taste buds doing a Mexican wave , add to that the self satisfaction of doing it yourself 
, its the way to go .

 

[fazer]

One of the reasons for beehives is you can get your property tax as agriculture instead of residential.  The house is still taxed as a residence but if you own a few acres,  the taxes for the land is cheaper. 

Chickens are a maybe. I’m lazy and not sure that has to be but I’ve been told this sandy land in the forest east of Denver and castle rock is good for potatoes.  There are lasagna gardens that interest me.  They are a circle garden .  It would be about 30 feet in diameter and one impluse sprinkler in the middle.  You build up about a foot with layers of wood chips manure and compost.  You build a tall fence around it to keep critters and deer out (and lots more to the design).    But the soil wakes up with organisms and retains water very well.  Colorado is a dry climate and has drought cycles.  These gardens allow for adequate water during such cycles and not exceed your water schedule during drought. 

There could be some people who know more about it than I do in the group.  Please chime in. 

The electric bike is to assist riding ups and downs for 5 to 10 miles to the grocery store and bring back groceries.  Like beer and such.  But might be better to make beer like JR.  Anyway you can turn the assist on and off so you use it when you have heavy loads going up hill.  I hear they are popular in europe.

 

[Scodiddly]

I bought my current place, a house in the burbs, partly so I could have a bigger garden than just containers out back at work.  Currently starting tomato seedlings, and when the weather dries up I need to dig up the garden beds, mix in the accumulated compost, and plant some peas.  Later there will be a bean trellis, and I'll try to plug in some squash.  Never had much luck with squash, oddly enough.

 

[fazer]

Never had much luck with squash, oddly enough.

Yellow and zucchini have grown great for me when I’ve grown them.  I’ve mostly grown tomatoes in pots off the raised deck for the last 10 years.  They taste so good.  My family owned a greenhouse for 40 years.  I would just go get vegetables to grow.  That was sold 2 years ago and so I have to buy them.  I like the idea of starting my pun starter plants now.  I’m sounding like the God Father.  “Hey Vinnie ,  How do a you a like my Tomato’s “

 

[JohnRoberts]

One of the reasons for beehives is you can get your property tax as agriculture instead of residential.  The house is still taxed as a residence but if you own a few acres,  the taxes for the land is cheaper. 

Living in a poor area, I feel a little guilty about how cheap some things are. I could lower my taxes some by claiming a homestead exemption but I never did... I recently kicked in an extra dollar on my garbage/water bill to support the local volunteer fire department.

Chickens are a maybe. I’m lazy and not sure that has to be but I’ve been told this sandy land in the forest east of Denver and castle rock is good for potatoes.  There are lasagna gardens that interest me.  They are a circle garden .  It would be about 30 feet in diameter and one impluse sprinkler in the middle.  You build up about a foot with layers of wood chips manure and compost.  You build a tall fence around it to keep critters and deer out (and lots more to the design).    But the soil wakes up with organisms and retains water very well.  Colorado is a dry climate and has drought cycles.  These gardens allow for adequate water during such cycles and not exceed your water schedule during drought. 

I guess chickens can be relatively low impact, but I recall the unpleasant task of cleaning out the chicken sh__  from under the coop, once a year. We would also harvest pine straw from the nearby water shed woods to make comfortable nests for the hens to lay their eggs in (mama was a redneck who grew up on a farm, so we had chickens, despite living in North Jersey just miles from NYC.). 

There could be some people who know more about it than I do in the group.  Please chime in. 

The electric bike is to assist riding ups and downs for 5 to 10 miles to the grocery store and bring back groceries.  Like beer and such.  But might be better to make beer like JR. 

OK here's an old anecdote that combines both... When younger I owned motorcycles, and purchased rather than brewed beer. One time I loaded a case of beer into my back pack on my motorcycle. I didn't account for how the weight of the beer changed my center of mass and balance. The first time I twisted the throttle I pulled an unintentional wheelie... Fist and last time I shopped for beer that way.  :

Anyway you can turn the assist on and off so you use it when you have heavy loads going up hill.  I hear they are popular in europe.

There is a dealer selling them in town (golf carts are big in this part of the country, so an e-bike is a companion product). A couple times while on my 5 mile loop that includes some serious hills, I have encountered that local dealer taking someone on a test ride. I was not amused when they passed me on the uphills with a cheshire cat smiles from ear to ear.... I did not smile back. 

I will concede an e-bike is better than not riding at all, and can see the obvious benefit for dealing with commuting to a day job in a hilly city, where you don't want to show up at work all sweaty. Before they started buying cars like westerners, the chinese were very big on e-bikes. Now they are big in e-cars.

JR

PS: I just went out and checked the handful of sprouts I transferred out to my raised bed garden yesterday... so far so good, several look like they may make it. I still have a bunch in my greenhouse. I killed a bunch last year during this transition to outside. March is a little early to plant outdoors but I feel lucky... no freeze warnings in the long range weather report.

 

[fazer]

Outside planting in Colorado is after Mother’s Day excluding Mountains.  Hot beds or small hoop Or glass top beds were the way it was done in the old days before my time.

 

[Tubetec]

Bright sunny days here , cold nights and frost in the morning , very uncharachteristic of this time of year in Ireland where its normally rainey .
I heard on the radio earlier ground temperature has jumped 2 degrees C in the last week alone , were seeing a big reduction  green house gasses as well as a reduction of particulate matter ,that  means less of the suns energy is reflected and more is absorbed by the ground . A bit like the days after Sept 11 , its probably a good time for climatologists to check their baseline assumptions .

Another factor that might come into play with less pollution in the air is people with pre existing breathing problems may see a reduction in their symptoms and at the same time help their body to better cope with the virus if they were unlucky enough to get it . 

 

[Matador]

If you have some time to kill, please watch this video:

https://youtu.be/O3prLPF9l4o

I had a chance to meet Gary during a trip to LA, and he completely changed how I view gardening and soil, especially related to composting/fertilization.

TLR:  what you think is good soil probably is wrong.  Good soil is mineral based (sandy loam), which should be largely rock, sand, and clay/silt.  You should *not* be growing plants in black soil, and roots should not be intermingled with compost, which will cause the plants to die after a few months.  Potting soil sucks, and 95% of soil you can buy in the store meant for potting/seed starting is based on pulverized wood which will kill the plant due to root rot.  Roots belong in rocks, and the compost sits on top and leeches down through the rocks to feed the plant.  You should never mix compost directly into the soil.

 

[JohnRoberts]

If you have some time to kill, please watch this video:

https://youtu.be/O3prLPF9l4o

I had a chance to meet Gary during a trip to LA, and he completely changed how I view gardening and soil, especially related to composting/fertilization.

TLR:  what you think is good soil probably is wrong.  Good soil is mineral based (sandy loam), which should be largely rock, sand, and clay/silt.  You should *not* be growing plants in black soil, and roots should not be intermingled with compost, which will cause the plants to die after a few months.  Potting soil sucks, and 95% of soil you can buy in the store meant for potting/seed starting is based on pulverized wood which will kill the plant due to root rot.  Roots belong in rocks, and the compost sits on top and leeches down through the rocks to feed the plant.  You should never mix compost directly into the soil.

Now you tell me....   I only mixed compost into one of my two raised beds... I like to experiment using scientific methods so I will find out soon enough how the compost enhanced bed does vs the control bed.....  8)

FWIW I see lots of plants growing in my compost pile, often discarded garlic cloves sprouting, etc. Maybe some wild onions that are growing all around my yard.

I will second his disdain for commercial potting soil.... I have much better luck planting seeds into soil I harvested from run off in my rain ditches.

JR

PS: sorry I could watch the whole thing...

 

[Matador]

PS: sorry I could watch the whole thing...

Understood, but if you get the chance it's actually worth it.

Compost will work provided you harvest/replace the plants after about 6 months.  Longer than 6 months, compost degrades down to sulphur compounds (e.g. sewage) that kill roots.  If you grow for one season, then completely replace the composted soil then you are fine.  Annuals don't care much but it's a huge killer of perennials.

The 'perfect' soil is actually pure sand:  however it doesn't hold on to water which means constant watering.  Sandy loam is the next best thing.  I spent two months digging out 10 cubic yards to last-years composted potting soil out of my containers and replacing it with sandy loam so we'll see how much better it works.  Peat moss is another good amendment, because it's plant matter that has already undergone decomposition so doesn't break down when buried.

The real ''epiphany' moment for me was he described what everyone thinks of as 'perfect' soil is black, like what you find in Hawaii.  However it's not black because of compost, it's black because of basalt, volcanic rock, and charcoal!  However nobody uses sandy loam to grow seedlings because it's too heavy (12 pounds per gallon), compared to pulverized wood which is only 3 pounds per gallon.

There is so much great information in that video that it's worth the time investment.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Understood, but if you get the chance it's actually worth it.

maybe later, but I had a hundred pounds of old scientific journals I was going to read later, and I never did. I did mail them to somebody else who said he would read them.

Compost will work provided you harvest/replace the plants after about 6 months.  Longer than 6 months, compost degrades down to sulphur compounds (e.g. sewage) that kill roots.  If you grow for one season, then completely replace the composted soil then you are fine.  Annuals don't care much but it's a huge killer of perennials.

My compost pile is going on 10 years old now and hasn't turned to sewage yet..

The 'perfect' soil is actually pure sand:  however it doesn't hold on to water which means constant watering.

My rain ditch run off has a lot of sand in it.  Pure sand does not make much sense as a growth medium since my understanding is that plants get minerals and nutrients from the soil. Of course hydroponics grows plants in water, so they get nutrients from the water. I guess pure sand  and fertilizer could work.

Sandy loam is the next best thing.  I spent two months digging out 10 cubic yards to last-years composted potting soil out of my containers and replacing it with sandy loam so we'll see how much better it works.  Peat moss is another good amendment, because it's plant matter that has already undergone decomposition so doesn't break down when buried.

Like the old stuff in my compost...

The real ''epiphany' moment for me was he described what everyone thinks of as 'perfect' soil is black, like what you find in Hawaii.

who is this everybody.....? Over decades of too much digging in the ground top soil (soil near the top) is indeed darker because of decayed plant matter, worm poop, etc. 

However it's not black because of compost, it's black because of basalt, volcanic rock, and charcoal!  However nobody uses sandy loam to grow seedlings because it's too heavy (12 pounds per gallon), compared to pulverized wood which is only 3 pounds per gallon.

There is so much great information in that video that it's worth the time investment.

Hawaiian coffee (Kona) is over rated too.... just because something is expensive doesn't mean it is good.

The portion I watched sounded a little like a commercial, BUT I DID NOT WATCH THE ENTIRE THING... I rarely ever click on videos, but you graciously described what was in it (thank you). So I gave it a few minutes.

JR

Ps: I moved about another 8 sprouts outdoors into my raised bed... The peppers and tomatoes look pretty similar at this stage so who knows what I put where... It will all become obvious later.

 

[Scodiddly]

Compost will work provided you harvest/replace the plants after about 6 months.  Longer than 6 months, compost degrades down to sulphur compounds (e.g. sewage) that kill roots.  If you grow for one season, then completely replace the composted soil then you are fine.  Annuals don't care much but it's a huge killer of perennials.

Around here we have this thing called "winter" which kills off the plants anyway.  A six-month growing season would be unusually long for backyard gardeners.

 

[Matador]

Around here we have this thing called "winter" which kills off the plants anyway.  A six-month growing season would be unusually long for backyard gardeners.

Winter may kill plants, but it doesn't kill soil: compost does over time however.

6-months is pretty typical here in CA: from April through September - possibly even March through October with appropriate plant selection.