Home gardens designed like agricultural operations, What?!?!?!

[jasonvivier]

I'd like to see pictures of all the things that you are growing.

Mary

I am unfortunately not a photographer. I will make an effort moving forward though - I don't actually have many useful pictures,but I have a few with awkward camera angles. lol I'll try to find them.

 

[seedcorn]

@jasonvivier IF you are of belief that solar energy makes nutrients, try again. Photosynthesis is the gas of the plant that allows it to convert the nutrients it gets from the ground (small amount through leaves) into the plant (& it's fruits). While air is mostly nitrogen, the plant gets most of its nitrogen through the root system. In trouble shooting problems, always look at pH and roots first-unless it's an insect problem.

On a personnal note, I use no commercial chemicals on my garden-never have. I do the old back breaking job of hoeing and mulching. My sand burns roots off if I don't mulch.

We will not be able to discuss this because of definitions you choose to use. Starting with monoculture. Just because a field is in corn doesn't mean that is the only crop that he grows and that field is in corn every year. You are limiting the size. Whether my garden is 1,000 acres or 10 sq. feet, at some point only one crop will be at a certain point. I use companion crops but I can tell you with 100% certainty that in Indiana, the moths will find tomatoes and you will have horn worms. IF you don't kill them, they will destroy your tomatos before the wasp finds them. Been there, done that.

What some refuse to understand is that predators only come in when the food source is plentiful-which means they have done their damage. I clearly prefer to take the damaging insects out before they get to that point.

I'm gone-peace.

 

[ninnymary]

Jason, I'm not a photographer either. Do you have a cell phone that you can take pictures with?

Mary

 

[flowerweaver]

@jasonvivier , I'm in my third year on many things, so I hope to see better results this year. As many of you know last year we had a late freeze, flood, drought, and a tornado with baseball sized hail. How's that for natural selection! The latter kind of set some of the landrace projects back. Out of 100 pumpkin plants only 12 fruits survived, but I'm expecting their offspring to be nearly indestructible!

@seedcorn as a botanist I have some basic knowledge of plant genetics, but I am not a geneticist. My knowledge is primarily of wildflowers and native plants of the Southwest. I have read books by Carol Deppe (who has taken an interest in my projects) and have developed friendships with many folks way more knowledgeable in genetics than myself as my own survival strategy!

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

@jasonvivier IF you are of belief that solar energy makes nutrients, try again. Photosynthesis is the gas of the plant that allows it to convert the nutrients it gets from the ground (small amount through leaves) into the plant (& it's fruits). While air is mostly nitrogen, the plant gets most of its nitrogen through the root system. In trouble shooting problems, always look at pH and roots first-unless it's an insect problem.

On a personnal note, I use no commercial chemicals on my garden-never have. I do the old back breaking job of hoeing and mulching. My sand burns roots off if I don't mulch.

We will not be able to discuss this because of definitions you choose to use. Starting with monoculture. Just because a field is in corn doesn't mean that is the only crop that he grows and that field is in corn every year. You are limiting the size. Whether my garden is 1,000 acres or 10 sq. feet, at some point only one crop will be at a certain point. I use companion crops but I can tell you with 100% certainty that in Indiana, the moths will find tomatoes and you will have horn worms. IF you don't kill them, they will destroy your tomatos before the wasp finds them. Been there, done that.

What some refuse to understand is that predators only come in when the food source is plentiful-which means they have done their damage. I clearly prefer to take the damaging insects out before they get to that point.

I'm gone-peace.

I disagree with the "What some refuse to understand is that predators only come in when the food source is plentiful-which means they have done their damage." The seeds that you use, climate, and other things can also play a part in how much damage pests do. I think that it's pretty hard to isolate a single variable like that in a subject like growing things. Other than that I agree with most of the rest of your post, the rest of what I disagree with being your definition of monoculture.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

You don't need to be a geneticist to breed crops. Humanity has been doing it for thousands of years and has managed very well up until recent times.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

seedcorn, I like how gracious you are being!

Mary

I agree, seedcorn's going about it very well.

 

[Beekissed]

I'd say if you don't have two hours to watch the vid, you don't want it bad enough! And that applies to most anything in life. Most folks waste that much time watching TV every evening....there's ALWAYS time if what you want is in the balance. Folks spend more than 2 hrs watching a movie in a theater and on TV and don't consider it wasted because it was something they wanted to do.

If you really wanted to solve this problem, you'd read or watch just about anything someone suggested would solve the issue. I recommended this vid because it contains far more information than just what to put on the ground as mulch. It includes why folks have pests in their garden, what to do about weeds when using this method, how to make the garden less work intensive and more sustainable, etc.

I've been gardening for over 40 yrs, reading and studying on it just as long, and I learned something...actually learned a lot, so it's well worth the time to learn something you may not know already about gardening.

 

[majorcatfish]

between the raised beds and main gardens have incorporated the uses of commercial/organic/petrochemical and a ton of reading either by books or online.
still can not beat all the bugs and weeds, after a long day of hard work i find it very satisfaction pulling some weeds, watering and killing bugs it's a learning experience every year. if you have a weed and bug free garden it sure sounds boring to me, what's the challenge to improve........ might as well live in a bubble house. so being a home gardener i am having the best time growing my family veggies.

 

[Lavender2]

@jasonvivier , I may have lost track of the topic of this thread ...
But, food forests are a wonderful concept, but I think you may not be considering the goals of most home gardeners. Essentially, you are applying the practices of permaculture, until you actually have a forest, correct? The goal would be to create (or use) a forest for the production of whatever food will grow there.

Home gardeners also incorporate many of the principles of permaculture, however, growing only, or mostly perennial shade loving foods does not provide the benefits they are seeking... to grow and store a large supply of a variety of foods for their family. I have a large woodland on my property. I have gardened in there a bit and nobody is going to convince me it is low maintenance, no matter what you try to grow in there.

eta - I also would not want to introduce into a native woodland, the many reseeding and invasive type plants you have listed.