serious gardening
Return to DiscussionsYah; I'm a serious gardener. Maybe call me a farmer. Where gardening turns into farming is a bit vague though.
While I own a farm. My folks bought it very cheap a third of a century ago. It's mostly a tree farm across the side of a mountain, and the harvest has been ongoing for the 34 years we've had it a little at a time cutting trees for market. But timber trees grow slowly, and I can't eat them. I tried truck driving and decided it wasn't my thing, and I am getting all the more determined to pursue something I can do naked. I just need to be naked all I possibly can be for my own health, spiritual mental and physical. And I need to be eating the fresh healthy food I can grow.
So I'm working on repairing my trackloader, plan to use it to clear a path around the area I've been working on to put in a deer fence. Try to surround about 6 acres and then work on garden and orchard planting inside the fence. I can still do a little logging and sawmilling to keep up some income, but only just enough to get by. By spring I hope to go at gardening naked full time and grow some vegetable and fruits to market. With the machine and the truck I just bought from a nearby fire dpt I can do some logging a little easier for a couple neighbors and make back the money I dropped on the truck. Wed night I was told it was available, Thursday morning I went and bought it. It's a 1975 International tank truck they used for water hauling to fires. 44 years old with 22,000 miles on it. Well maintained and garage kept mostly. It just sat too long since the last time it was used and wouldn't start right away when they tried, then I guess they decided it was too old to keep maintaining. I give em a grand for it, worked on it a short time and got it running and drove it home. I'll have to pull the stainless tank off it, probably a couple thousand gallons, use it for irrigation water. Build a wood flatbed on it and it'll make a good utility truck that can handle up to 8-10 tons.
Anyway, the fenced in area will have close to an acre relatively level with spring water line through the middle of it that I can tap off of to fill tanks of water, swimmin pools or whatever. The rest can be orchard on more or less sloping land, mostly not what I'd call steep, down at the bottom of it the mountain drops off sort of steep and rough with rocky terrine, but the farm area will be fairly smooth. Once I fill that up with fruit trees and garden there's more above it I could fence in and use. I like to experiment with high brix fertility, don't need a lot of area to work with, just need to maximize production and quality on what I do put in. Then if I can make some pasture and get another horse that would be very nice. I love horses and trail riding. Love going to trail ride camps. And love riding naked when possible back in the forest trails from home base. So that's my plan. Try to add some greenhouses to it for winter gardening. Maybe fill one with citrus once I get it set up so I can reliably keep it from freezing all winter.
You might want to check into the methods of Indian (India) farmers. I read in a article their farms are 2 to 4 acres and that's how they provide for themselves. Also...the use of goat manure is supposed to be better than cow...they might live on your mountain & provide a little 'natural' stimulant for your plants. Good luck with your efforts...John.
I'm well acquainted with goats, almost too well. They're OK. But really good tough fences are the key. They will force their way through or over any fence if it isn't tough enough and eat everything in sight, especially what they aren't supposed to be eating. In india I think they usually have more manpower than anything and the children have the task of watching after the animals constantly. At least I've seen pictures of children herding goats from that area. Between when I was about 12-18 we had goats, got em because my brother couldn't eat much of anything but goats milk yogurt bananas and rice. Tried to keep them in with electric fences, every time they got out they'd head strait to the fruit trees and eat the bark off of them. They do do a nice job of keeping the leaves ate off tree sprouts, so I'll probably put em in a pasture clearing when I get that far. I make biochar from the excess wood, Think I'll plant some areas of legumes and use them for making compost to mix with the biochar. Ive got a barn yard full of horse manure to clean up. And add a lot of minerals to it as well, since the soil is poor on everything. Local high calcium lime (haul that in with the 'new' truck) plus soft rock phosphate from the old phosphate mines in FL, azomite, a mineral rich volcanic ash from a hill in Utah. The combination of carbon from charcoal, manures, and compost, plus the minerals is what makes for rich soil and really good production. Then there are nutritional folier sprays than can be made up to feed the plants even further. Using a calcium/phosphate mix made for the purpose by an ag lab in MN, add to that sea kelp extract and sea minerals. It can push the mineral density of the plants quite high, which boosts flavor and nutritional quality. I've had on occasion some wonderful flavored melons and maters from my own experiments, all I need is set things up to get that consistently and my produce will give me wonderful health and sell like crazy for top prices.
And doing all the work naked, that just makes it easier to do. No need to suffer under heat retaining fabrics when it just isn't necessary. And the cool spring water readily available helps a lot. I can handle a lot of hot weather work if I can cool off frequently in the cool water.