This Homestead Failed! But Why?
This city girl enjoys watching the homesteading channels on yt. I thought this one was full of good tips for beginners in homesteading and helping to establish good garden soil. I had a few questions but I do not comment or discuss on yt so guess my questions will go unanswered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZoOR1X9BwA
25:22 video runtime
This Homestead Failed! But Why?
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•Aug 12, 2020
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An American Homestead
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Gardens can totally fail. Why did your garden fail? A very special thanks to Homestead How on the video they did and asking for advice and tips on how to better their garden. This video explores what I might do to if I were in their shoes.
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Re: This Homestead Failed! But Why?
I didn't watch any of the videos but some important things to consider when first starting out are:
-Get the ph of the soil right. Get it tested if need be. Ashes will sweeten the soil and sawdust will sour it.
-Water. Duh.
-Don't add leaves to the soil, they contain compounds that inhibit growth until they are very well composted.
-You must have at least 8 hours of sun a day, so get the site laid out right.
-Don't plant near walnut trees, they put out a compound called juglone that inhibits plant growth in many plants.
-NPK....nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium; gotta have em, so get a good amount of manure in the soil early but be careful not to burn the plants with too much fresh manure. Soaking manure in water and making manure 'tea' is a tried and true way to get good plant health.
-You will have better luck if your soil has organic material so if sandy; amend with compost/manure. If heavy clay; amend with compost/manure
-Don't weed when the soil is very moist; it upsets the roots. Pull the weeds out at a heavy angle away from the plants so the roots of the plants aren't compromised.
-Keep the fucking deer out and that goes for rabbits, gophers, chickens, ducks and a slew of other varmints.
-burn plant remains at end of season and plant in different spots from year to year so pests aren't in place to ruin the same crop they ate last year.
I guess I could go on and on but who would listen?
Re: This Homestead Failed! But Why?
Well, I would listen. Your comment was helpful and positive and generous.
My grandfather had a farm in northeastern Oklahoma. He never used chemicals to my knowledge. Everything he grew was "organic" but they did use hybrid seeds from Burpee and Parks catalogs. Only pest he had sometimes were moles. He had a trap and caught one and showed me that animal one time. All I remember was that they have prominent fingers with claws.
Zach in that video said rabbit manure/pellets was the best manure and did not burn plants and you could put them directly on the plants. That made me wonder what you do with the chicken coop floor sweepings. It will burn your plants and he said don't fool around with making compost, so I guess you just have big hole somewhere remote on your property and just put it there.
As my grandparents got older they gradually went to smaller and smaller garden and stopped canning and no longer had their own cow or milked a cow, but they had chickens all the time. They rented out their grazing land to nearby cattle-owners. And grew certain pasture crops like cyrissa Sp? and the government would send him checks if you grew whatever crop they said to grow.
He only did full time farming when he retired from his job, but he grew really great tasting vegetables and fruits and he would take them and sell them to the grocery store in town. Now when I buy the things in the grocery store, I know they just cannot be compared.
There is a channel called Hollis and Nancy homestead, in Florida, and that guy just built a very tall sturdy expensive looking fence all the way around a large field for future garden and other things. The fence is to keep deer out as that is the main problem they have for their garden, but I bet that fence company cost him over five thousand dollars at least.
Re: This Homestead Failed! But Why?
^Chicken manure is 'hot', so you must compost it first or make manure tea with it. It is very good though. Rabbit manure is excellent and I'm told sheep manure is 'the shit'.
I have had so much trouble with moles! One year they discovered that they could travel down freshly planted corn rows, must have been easier to navigate, and eat all the sprouts. I was growing potatoes once in mounds of straw and they were doing awesome; a damn gopher/gophers got in there and ate them all. I have had deer come through my garden and take a bite out of each pumpkin. Just a quick taste!
I have found effective and cheap deer fencing both online and at home depot. It is 7 foot tall woven vinyl and does an excellent job.
Re: This Homestead Failed! But Why?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
woodman
I didn't watch any of the videos but some important things to consider when first starting out are:
-Get the ph of the soil right. Get it tested if need be. Ashes will sweeten the soil and sawdust will sour it.
-Water. Duh.
-Don't add leaves to the soil, they contain compounds that inhibit growth until they are very well composted.
-You must have at least 8 hours of sun a day, so get the site laid out right.
-Don't plant near walnut trees, they put out a compound called juglone that inhibits plant growth in many plants.
-NPK....nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium; gotta have em, so get a good amount of manure in the soil early but be careful not to burn the plants with too much fresh manure. Soaking manure in water and making manure 'tea' is a tried and true way to get good plant health.
-You will have better luck if your soil has organic material so if sandy; amend with compost/manure. If heavy clay; amend with compost/manure
-Don't weed when the soil is very moist; it upsets the roots. Pull the weeds out at a heavy angle away from the plants so the roots of the plants aren't compromised.
-Keep the fucking deer out and that goes for rabbits, gophers, chickens, ducks and a slew of other varmints.
-burn plant remains at end of season and plant in different spots from year to year so pests aren't in place to ruin the same crop they ate last year.
I guess I could go on and on but who would listen?
***
^Chicken manure is 'hot', so you must compost it first or make manure tea with it. It is very good though. Rabbit manure is excellent and I'm told sheep manure is 'the shit'.
I have had so much trouble with moles! One year they discovered that they could travel down freshly planted corn rows, must have been easier to navigate, and eat all the sprouts. I was growing potatoes once in mounds of straw and they were doing awesome; a damn gopher/gophers got in there and ate them all. I have had deer come through my garden and take a bite out of each pumpkin. Just a quick taste!
I have found effective and cheap deer fencing both online and at home depot. It is 7 foot tall woven vinyl and does an excellent job.
Thanks for all of this info--this is very helpful.
Do you have a link to what you found at home depot for a deer fencing-- a couple of weeks ago, I went out and found my new apple and peach trees were stripped bare of leaves b/c of a deer!! As a temporary fix, I tied pieces of Irish spring soap on them (on line it said that could help keep deer away). The leaves on the trees have come back.
Okay, but now I have a real problem. I was just out in the garden watering and I saw a baby mouse!!! What do I do?? I tried to trap it under a bucket but it got away.
Re: This Homestead Failed! But Why?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Amanda
Thanks for all of this info--this is very helpful.
Do you have a link to what you found at home depot for a deer fencing-- a couple of weeks ago, I went out and found my new apple and peach trees were stripped bare of leaves b/c of a deer!! As a temporary fix, I tied pieces of Irish spring soap on them (on line it said that could help keep deer away). The leaves on the trees have come back.
Okay, but now I have a real problem. I was just out in the garden watering and I saw a baby mouse!!! What do I do?? I tried to trap it under a bucket but it got away.
This is the last stuff I bought and it has worked out well.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/allFENZ-...034B/301859957
I have purchased more robust netting/fencing some years back, but it was more expensive; not too bad though. For deer, you want 7' high at minimum. Get some T-post that will be tall enough after pounding in place (7' out of ground). A T-post pounder is helpful but with two people you can use a sledge. I also found that surveyor tape or caution tape works well wrapped at height around garden posts. It rumbles in the wind and the deer tend to shy far away. surveyors tape is cheap and I'd bet it would be enough even without fencing.
I have never had a problem with mice outdoors but indoors is a different story. I set traps for them and I feel like I've really scored when I hear the traps snap. Great white hunter! If you want to get a good belly laugh you can search for a post by Tumbleweed about shooting mice indoors. He even posted a picture with an enormous and vicious buck mouse that he vanquished. I would not be surprised if it was mounted and hanging on his wall.
Re: This Homestead Failed! But Why?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
woodman
This is the last stuff I bought and it has worked out well.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/allFENZ-...034B/301859957
I have purchased more robust netting/fencing some years back, but it was more expensive; not too bad though. For deer, you want 7' high at minimum. Get some T-post that will be tall enough after pounding in place (7' out of ground). A T-post pounder is helpful but with two people you can use a sledge. I also found that surveyor tape or caution tape works well wrapped at height around garden posts. It rumbles in the wind and the deer tend to shy far away. surveyors tape is cheap and I'd bet it would be enough even without fencing.
I have never had a problem with mice outdoors but indoors is a different story. I set traps for them and I feel like I've really scored when I hear the traps snap. Great white hunter! If you want to get a good belly laugh you can search for a post by Tumbleweed about shooting mice indoors. He even posted a picture with an enormous and vicious buck mouse that he vanquished. I would not be surprised if it was mounted and hanging on his wall.
I posted this before. Tumbleweed shooting mice indoors reminds me of a summer a retired rancher with a degree in mining engineering who spent his time during retirement prospecting took me on a tour around central Nevada prospecting for tungsten as there was a tungsten boom at that time. I was 12 years old so it was quite an exciting trip for me. We had been around the old ghost town of Belmont, Silver Creek and Meadow Canyon where the famous photo of Wayne Hage was taken.
Charlie decided he wanted to go to Grantsville, another ghost town in Reese River Valley. We got to Indian Valley near sundown and decided to spend the night. The house at Indian Valley was a one room concrete building. The bunkhouse was a building moved in from the Hawthorne Naval Base. The east wall was missing. Charlie told me that was so the buckaroos would be awake at first light. Normally there was nobody living at the Indian Valley ranch. However when we arrived we were met by the wife of the owner, an infamous rancher in Nevada during the 1940s - 50s.
She and her two young daughters were camped there waiting for the men to come and start gathering the cattle. The girls were 6 and 8 years old.
Charlie and I rolled out our beds on the floor of the bunkhouse. We got up at daylight and went into the house. When we entered the first thing we saw was a bullet hole in the water pail. Charlie asked Myrtle what had happened. She said there was a rat on the table so she shot at it with her revolver. The bullet went across the top of the table cutting the pages of a comic book the girls had left there in two, then through the water pail and then ricocheted off the concrete walls before finally dropping to the floor. Everyone was pretty well shaken up but uninjured. As far as the rat, I don’t remember if he was a survivor or not.
