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Post by lilsparrow on Jan 7, 2006 8:47:05 GMT -6
And what all do you grow on that acre and a half hillside? Do you sell at the farmers market or utilize it all yourself?
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Post by hillsidedigger on Jan 7, 2006 9:05:41 GMT -6
I do not sell anything but give away some produce.
I guess what I do is extensive as opposed to intensive gardening, with the peripheries placed in soybeans, sunflowers, fieldcorn, barley, oats, etc. for wild animals and birds, pretty much just planted and forgot, no cultivation except I must use a power lawn mower between the rows a couple times a summer.
The central area of my garden, much less shaded is more intensively managed with last year's harvest (some crops better, some crops - still learning) including various greens - of course cabbage, peas, green beans, sweet corn, various squash, various pumpkins, various cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, okra, onions, peanuts, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, herbs, watermelons, cantalopes and a few more. We have about 10 acres here and harvested pears, apples, cherries, walnuts, pecans and figs as well (some established by the previous owner) and also blackberries (purchased hybrid plants 5 years in the ground, very productive but with hard seeds), strawberries, tree huckleberries, they get over 20' tall but do not bear prodigously every year (transplanted from my 12 acre mountain farm, nearby but 2000' higher in elevation), marigolds are not harvested but there's a bunch scattered around the garden plus other flowers and I will admit to using 2 Beetle-Bags this passed season, but no other pesticides.
The mountain farm features another crop, native speckled brook trout, which I do not harvest (due to the limited resource, I wish my neighbors up there were so respectful of this rare and endangered habitat and natural production, I am only there an afternoon or 2 a month).
All this, why, well, this maybe the year when the 3 day supply of food in the supermarkets becomes disrupted permanently and I will be out there competing with the deer and squirrels for the remaining soybeans, sunflower heads and field corn ears.
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