Author Topic: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"  (Read 4353 times)

Atash Hagmahani

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Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« on: January 29, 2009, 02:35:24 PM »
In my part of the world, peas, potatoes, fava beans, and a few other crops go in next month. A month after that, I start seeding tomatoes and squashes INDOORS. Those are long-season, warm-weather crops that need a head-start. Actually, I can direct-seed squashes, but the head-start helps.

Watch the wiki (www.mutuallyassuredsurvival.com) for some big get-ready events.
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opsec

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2009, 02:42:16 PM »
That would be usefull information. If everybody that is growing food could post what they plant, when they plant it and their USDA hardiness zone, everybody would probably benefit from that info. Maybe you could pin this post to the top of this forum and just let everybody post as their time allows?
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Atash Hagmahani

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2009, 02:59:51 PM »
OK.

Folks, start posting. If you have questions, post those too. Let's get moving on this!  :hug004:
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Rusty Shackelford

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #3 on: January 29, 2009, 03:25:03 PM »
Ok - here goes -

At my house up north I had some luck with tomatoes and winter squash.  Now that I live - basically in Atash's neighborhood, the only thing that works is Blueberries and Blackberries - and they were established before I got here.   I've got about a foot or so of soil, and then it's either hard clay or sand.

I'm at the point, where I may put in some raised beds.
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Atash Hagmahani

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #4 on: January 29, 2009, 04:19:12 PM »
Probably glacial till. It is extremely common here. You probably have glacial deposits covered over in old forest duff, that is highly organic and acidic. That's why the blueberries grow (and the Rubus aren't picky).

I am closer to the Sound and have sandy loam, which sounds ideal, except it is riddled with disease organisms and is deficient in just about everything.

One foot of soil by the way is plenty. As long as it drains--which it will if you live on a hill but not if you live in a basin.

Actually, the glacial till is not a tragedy. You need a tool that I have, and some bags of gypsum. Heck, the tulip growers up in Skagit Valley can grow tulips (which have very little tolerance for poor drainage) in sticky mud near sea-level, just by tilling, probably adding some gypsum, and creating drainage ditches.

Are the blackberries feral ("Himalayan" and/or Evergreenberries), or domesticated? I suggest switching to an upright, thornless cultivar, if you don't already have one, as they are so much easier to manage. Really a very easy crop.

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Dame

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2009, 04:55:47 PM »
Zone 3 (or up to zone 5 in some spots if I am careful.)

My last date of frost is June 6, so the trick here is to not start too soon with the warm season stuff.  Peas etc can be planted with a chisel in frozen ground and still grow.  I am not that ambitious so they can wait until late March or early April when at least the surface of the garden has thawed out.

This month is check my seeds and garden plan.  Order/buy any seeds that I don't have or have misplaced (I do that a lot) & buy new cultivator shovels for spring cultivation.

For those of you wanting to start slow growing herbs from seed, this is the time to do it also.  I am lucky in that a friend really likes starting herbs and starts enough for me to if I send her the seen and pay the freight for the plants back to my house.

Atash Hagmahani

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2009, 05:33:44 PM »
Dame, grow Seaberries!!

They are hardy enough for your climate, and rich in nutrients.
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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2009, 05:48:29 PM »
I have lots of wild Saskatoon berries, (somewhat like blueberries) buffalo berries, chokecherries, sand cheries (if I would get out and prune them) hawthorne berries, rose hips (really big ones), gooseberries, rhubarb and for some reason strawberries, raspberries and asparagus all do really well here with no fussing at all.

My apricot and cherry trees are due to fruit this year, and plum, apple, and pear all grow well once they are established.  My daughter has had good success with grapes.

My Mother and I went to a seminar on seaberries a few years ago and decided they would have to wait.  They need stable, higher than normal, moisture conditions until they are established.  I need more fruits to be larger, (apples, plum pear, walnut) mostly because they take way less time to pick, process and store.  What I did learn was PRUNE:  I want to produce fruit not wood.

Which reminds me, I need to get looking for an apple tree with multiple variety grafts on it.  I doubt that we would use the volumn of fruit off multiple trees and I do get behind with the pruning.

Rusty Shackelford

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #8 on: January 29, 2009, 06:54:36 PM »
Probably glacial till. It is extremely common here. You probably have glacial deposits covered over in old forest duff, that is highly organic and acidic. That's why the blueberries grow (and the Rubus aren't picky).

I am closer to the Sound and have sandy loam, which sounds ideal, except it is riddled with disease organisms and is deficient in just about everything.

One foot of soil by the way is plenty. As long as it drains--which it will if you live on a hill but not if you live in a basin.

Actually, the glacial till is not a tragedy. You need a tool that I have, and some bags of gypsum. Heck, the tulip growers up in Skagit Valley can grow tulips (which have very little tolerance for poor drainage) in sticky mud near sea-level, just by tilling, probably adding some gypsum, and creating drainage ditches.

Are the blackberries feral ("Himalayan" and/or Evergreenberries), or domesticated? I suggest switching to an upright, thornless cultivar, if you don't already have one, as they are so much easier to manage. Really a very easy crop.



First, as embarrassed as I am by it, I only speak English.  I have no idea what a thornless cultivar is.  or Rubu.  I'm fairly certain the blackberries are Himalayan.  I have three 6 foot Blueberry bushes and just picked up two more.  I have a low spot by a creek where they are at, and I just plan on filling it with them.  I'm about 4 blocks from the water, probably at about 50 feet ASL.   
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Atash Hagmahani

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #9 on: January 29, 2009, 08:54:59 PM »
Laugh. Rubus is the singular; Latin for "bramble". Cane fruits are species of "Rubus".

"Cultivars" are named clones of cultivated plants. A thornless blackberry cultivar is any type of cultivated blackberry that is thornless--unlike those "Himalayan" (actually, they are believed to be natives of Germany) blackberries, which are hard to manage because of their clambering habit and the thorns that make it hard to get in and do work on them.

Hmm, you're closer to the water than I am (I'm about 1 mile away). I forgot that your town extends to the water. You're also lower; I'm probably a few hundred feet up.

I've got plenty of seed for some common, easy vegetables and fruits. I always grow plenty of tomatoes, and give away extras. I could start a few extra squash while I am at it.
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darwinslair

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #10 on: February 01, 2009, 11:26:56 AM »
It is perhaps noteworthy to point out that the native populations in Atash's area did not grow much of anything.  They existed off of the bounty of the sea and rivers while gathering some native fruits and plants. 

There are a few specialty vegetables that you can grow there with some work, but the area is not real conducive to supporting yourself through sustainable agriculture.  Soils there tend to be acidic and devoid of nutrients.

A few tons of limestone, leaf compost and manure would do your yards wonders.

Or you could live somewhere that those things are already a part of the topsoil (wink)

Tom
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Atash Hagmahani

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #11 on: February 01, 2009, 12:17:21 PM »
Tom is not only correct but is understating the case. They had no agriculture whatsoever. And the native plants are stingy with food, although the tribes did make use of the native dewberries (the blackberries are feral, not original) and one plant they were rather fond of was Camas. They died defending Camas meadows from rivals. (Don't mistake "Death Camas"--an unrelated and highly toxic plan, for Camas). Those succulent bulbs look pretty tempting, actually.

Another native plant, quite generous, that they probably made use of, was cat-tail. They are still abundant and were even more so before so many of the wetlands were drained.

There are also native blueberries and huckleberries. The evergreen lowland huckleberry is super-abundant.

I believe they ate both Salal berries and "Oregon Grape" (Mahonia aquifolia), which are both super-abundant, but have rather pitchy-tasting (but gelatinous--not sticky or gummy) fruits. I have heard of white people making jelly out of them, but the flavor is a little weird. I don't think they bothered with the native Currents, which produce small fruits that are not only pitchy-tasting, but kinda gummy. They are, however, technically quite edible (I've choked a few down out of curiosity). Just not tasty.

I don't think they ate mushrooms, which are super-abundant here mostly in the autumn, but some are "spring-fruiting". Of course you have to know which kinds, as we get both numerous gourmet mushrooms as well as a lot of species in the Fly-Agaric (a common mushroom here) and "Destroying Angel" genus. Oddly enough some of the most grotesque mushrooms are some of the tastiest, while Destroying Angels look more like a typical mushroom.
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opsec

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2009, 05:40:35 PM »
Quote
I don't think they ate mushrooms

I will never eat mushrooms that I find in the wild. Even expert mushroom-ologists can be fooled by deadly lookalikes. I'm sure that the natives were aware of that fact.
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Rusty Shackelford

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #13 on: February 01, 2009, 06:22:22 PM »
Where can I get Camas?  Any recipes?  How's it taste?

I've eaten Oregon grapes and Salah - have them in my yard.  All I can say is that beats starvation, but you're going to need to be hungry.
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The Future

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Re: Time for most of us to be planning "victory gardens"
« Reply #14 on: February 02, 2009, 11:52:55 AM »
They say we are zone 11 but the zoning system is not very complex so take that for what it is worth.

It is still "winter" planting time here which means:
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Rutabaga
Beans
Tomatoes (we plant these any month of the year)
Lettuce
Herbs
Radish
Greens (Broc Raab, Arugula etc.)

Right now it is a chilly 60 - 65 F.  Freezing cold for us.  Wind is more of an issue in unprotected areas than temperature.  Strawberries are doing well right now and many of the fruit trees (loquat, mango (rare), plum, peach etc) are blooming.  While technically tomatoes can grow at any time, I find them germinating very slowly and growing weakly.  Some of my heirlooms have failed altogether.  In time I will figure out which ones work best in winter and which work best in summer.  I went a bit crazy on heirlom tomato seeds.  Bought about 30 varieties from different sources...(red, orange, yellow, green, BLUE and purple!)

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