Im so cheap I just read books and watch youtubes about stuff and figure it out.
I did do a week Master Permaculture course... and learned the importance of cover crops and building soil... but basically forgot everything else... and I kind of knew those things already!
I Just experiment! And Grow in ABUNDANCE. I have tried spacing... rows, overplanting, chaos, order...
ONe thing I know is that the seeds dont read the seed packets...
Ive been growing my food for 20 years. Since 27.
Sometimes you can grow silverbeet in 33 degrees.
Sometimes you can plant corn 2 months early...
Its almost random.
The main things I have learned is -
Grow lots of food. Grow what you will eat. Ignore most directions and try things. Save your best seeds.
Plants like heat and water and fertilizer. And LOTS of it.
You can cheat by mixing 10 10 10 with the organic stuff, but dont let your plants get hooked, so only do that once a year.
Plant so much you can share with the bugs.
Lots of bugs is fine, soon predators will come.
When you have millions of seeds you can just scatter them everywhere and stuff will grow.
I can look and listen to the plants.
You will find out many many experts do not have gardens that they have to live on.
I cannot believe the timing of your essay Sam! An answer to a prayer, an answer to a feeling of being unsettled lately. Thank you. I am doing a literature course right now and it is 10 weeks long. Up until this week I have felt able to participate, make connections in the broader reading and discussions. This week I have come to a wall. It is not quite your situation where I do not have the tools available but it is more needing to sit and listen and ponder with an open mind, as you have discovered with your garden. So that is what I will do this week, feeling that it is fine and I can be curious as to why I have a wall and what that means. I am a very curious person. Having our granddaughter in our home since birth, reawakened wonder and delight in the world again. It has been 6 years now and it has been the biggest blessing. This was a great essay Sam, I am grateful.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so very much! How are things going with your literature course? Children are so wonderful, their perspective on life is so un-ruined by the culture. It's a shame we have to rediscover the curiosity and joy that we used to have as children, but at least it is possible to find it again!
I am enjoying it a lot and learning so much from the course reading and from the other participants. It is a Jane Austen online short course with Oxford Uni over 10 weeks.
Great stuff! I am always so happy to see what comes up each spring that I haven't had to sow. If it survives the winter chicken-tilling it sure deserves a place in the garden. Seeds definitely don't read the packet. And full sun doesn't mean New Zealand sun for any more than about 8 or 9 hours in a day! I've had to get creative with providing shade for the gardens that get too much sun in the summer. Your farm sounds awesome, and wonderfully chaotic. By mid-summer nobody but me would have a clue what's going on in my vegetable patches, and I only know because I remember where I planted stuff.
This is SO TRUE.
Im so cheap I just read books and watch youtubes about stuff and figure it out.
I did do a week Master Permaculture course... and learned the importance of cover crops and building soil... but basically forgot everything else... and I kind of knew those things already!
I Just experiment! And Grow in ABUNDANCE. I have tried spacing... rows, overplanting, chaos, order...
ONe thing I know is that the seeds dont read the seed packets...
Ive been growing my food for 20 years. Since 27.
Sometimes you can grow silverbeet in 33 degrees.
Sometimes you can plant corn 2 months early...
Its almost random.
The main things I have learned is -
Grow lots of food. Grow what you will eat. Ignore most directions and try things. Save your best seeds.
Plants like heat and water and fertilizer. And LOTS of it.
You can cheat by mixing 10 10 10 with the organic stuff, but dont let your plants get hooked, so only do that once a year.
Plant so much you can share with the bugs.
Lots of bugs is fine, soon predators will come.
When you have millions of seeds you can just scatter them everywhere and stuff will grow.
I can look and listen to the plants.
You will find out many many experts do not have gardens that they have to live on.
:) :)
I cannot believe the timing of your essay Sam! An answer to a prayer, an answer to a feeling of being unsettled lately. Thank you. I am doing a literature course right now and it is 10 weeks long. Up until this week I have felt able to participate, make connections in the broader reading and discussions. This week I have come to a wall. It is not quite your situation where I do not have the tools available but it is more needing to sit and listen and ponder with an open mind, as you have discovered with your garden. So that is what I will do this week, feeling that it is fine and I can be curious as to why I have a wall and what that means. I am a very curious person. Having our granddaughter in our home since birth, reawakened wonder and delight in the world again. It has been 6 years now and it has been the biggest blessing. This was a great essay Sam, I am grateful.
I am so glad you enjoyed it so very much! How are things going with your literature course? Children are so wonderful, their perspective on life is so un-ruined by the culture. It's a shame we have to rediscover the curiosity and joy that we used to have as children, but at least it is possible to find it again!
I am enjoying it a lot and learning so much from the course reading and from the other participants. It is a Jane Austen online short course with Oxford Uni over 10 weeks.
That sounds very interesting, I am a big fan of Jane Austen.
Great stuff! I am always so happy to see what comes up each spring that I haven't had to sow. If it survives the winter chicken-tilling it sure deserves a place in the garden. Seeds definitely don't read the packet. And full sun doesn't mean New Zealand sun for any more than about 8 or 9 hours in a day! I've had to get creative with providing shade for the gardens that get too much sun in the summer. Your farm sounds awesome, and wonderfully chaotic. By mid-summer nobody but me would have a clue what's going on in my vegetable patches, and I only know because I remember where I planted stuff.