Author Topic: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden  (Read 3988 times)

8greenbeans

2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« on: January 14, 2020, 10:43:17 AM »
I have most of my goals typed out finally. The only things left are figuring out numbers - what are our goals for layers/meat birds, rabbits, milk products, produce, honey, etc. I've enjoyed going back looking at photos of the previous years on this property and seeing the tremendous amount of growth. Though, there are quite a few things I wish I had taken photos of - therefore one of my goals that is not listed is to photograph more. A side effect of putting my phone down more last year was not having a camera in my hand all the time - so I'm reverse-inheriting a camera from one of my daughters to continue with keeping the goal of picking up the phone less.... in fact, I think an actual camera will help accomplish the goal even more.

2020 Goals
1) Keep up the greenhouse garden
2) Fill potato bins and raised beds (now MrBeans is adding to this by wanting to build even more raised beds)
3) Frame out mushroom house and get plugs started
4) Cut and staple bottles to potato bins for herbs and lettuces until completely covered, filled, and planted
5) Build onion towers
6) Get the full worm farm built
7) Have at least 2 of the hives modified, set up, and swarm baited by swarm season
8 ) Completely clear off and around concrete pad to lay electric and water properly
9) Keep azaleas cut back to tiny shrubs all year along the drive
10) Utilize 2 front yard beds – top with manure & hay in winter
11) Trench the flood zone to the back downslope
12) Tractors completed for rabbits & spring hatchlings
14) Raise & harvest 52 chickens and 52 ducks
15) Get fodder system up & running to supplement feed
16) Increase bread making from all of our loaf bread to include all of our pizza crusts
17) Modify the aquarium dresser into a new hatch brooder
18 ) Purchase new incubator - our 60-year-old one finally bit it last year - it was a good servant until then
19) Finish canning all the beef and venison
20) Set up the bat houses and butterfly garden
21) Continue building and filling bio-reactors (12 total)
22) Complete the feed and waterer systems to all the coops and pasture
23) Expand business with daughters
24) Sell my parents' house
25) Buy 20 acres - start building cabin, fence property – house cows, pigs, and start orchard prior to cabin complete
26) 7 knitting/crochet projects; 9 sewing projects; 1 quilt project
27) Buy/build (combo of both) new goat milking shed
28 ) Finish the permanent butchering station

Here are a few photos to get me started ... The beginnings of my potato bins (Goal #2), the shelving for the mushroom logs (Goal #3), and the beginning of one raised bed (Goal #2) with the first bio-reactor on the row of pallets (Goal #21).
« Last Edit: January 14, 2020, 10:57:34 AM by 8greenbeans »

USMC Veteran, LEO Mama
Navy MIL, USAF Vet Mama
Army Daughter
8 Beans
9 GrandBeans + 1 on the way
3 Beans-in-law, 3 Future-in-laws
1 MrBeans

Abigayle

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2020, 04:50:09 PM »
8 Greenbeans, you have my total respect!!!!  I took a nap after reading your list.  I read it again, and had a glass of wine...Seriously, this looks like a wonderful thought out plan to full self-sufficiency.  Do you grow your own grain?  Are your potatoes planted in the ground?  We are south of Atlanta, around forty-five minutes.  A neighbor said she did not have any luck growing potatoes in tires here.  I am guessing they would get way too hot, unless you did it in winter and covered the top.  Nothing tastes as good as homegrown potatoes.  They taste like they should.  We are a little "long in the tooth", and would like to grow them in a container or a mixture of hay, dirt and compost.  We used to dig a lot of potatoes, but now there would not be enough left of us to finish the rest of the gardening.Thanks for sharing, this is motivating and exciting!
Ariel

Starlady

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2020, 07:53:52 PM »
Abigayle, add a LOT of sand (construction sand is best for our soil) to your mix.  I grow them here near Rome and grew them in the spring in Florida - we planted 2/14 and harvested in June so heat shouldn't be an issue for you.
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Albert Einstein

RWS

  • Bugged Out
  • *****
  • Posts: 2800
  • Total likes: 1735
  • It's Weird being the same age as old people
Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2020, 06:22:37 AM »
Abigayle, add a LOT of sand (construction sand is best for our soil) to your mix.  I grow them here near Rome and grew them in the spring in Florida - we planted 2/14 and harvested in June so heat shouldn't be an issue for you.
Yes,  We plant potatoes on February 14th just South of you also. 
« Last Edit: January 16, 2020, 01:30:41 PM by RWS »

Abigayle

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2020, 11:32:32 AM »
Starlady, good to know, we will try it.  Do you use a contain or put them in the ground?  Are you using whole seed potatoes or cured cut, with eyes?
Ariel

8greenbeans

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2020, 08:16:06 AM »
Whoooo buddy, I've been taking advantage of the mild winter weather these past few days. Finally got wood chips delivered - 22 yards. Got about a yard of it spread last night before it got dark. Several bottles have been stripped, cut, and stapled to the potato bins. Got one large pot filled with layers of sticks, hay, rabbit manure, chicken manure, peat moss, compost, and dirt and planted with 3 lettuce varieties. Spread moldy, composting hay out on the garden plot as well as put some in the bins and raised beds. Plus cleaned up a lot more around the greenhouse (had emptied it completely to put wood chips down then rearrange the whole kit-n-kaboodle.... have been slowly throwing out stuff & organizing the rest. Pilfered thru the wood stash and got out pieces for the rabbit tractors and mushroom house. Moved about 1/2 the pieces for the mushroom house over to that area. Bought the remaining wood, wire, and tin needed to build the rabbit hutches. Got the water "tank" moved to where the permanent set up is going to be ... need to level the area a bit more before putting it up on its stand though. All in all, not too terribly bad.
Today is all about spreading the wood chips and starting on the rabbit tractors.

Abigayle, this is my first time doing white potatoes. I'll be using cut with eyes. I've always done sweet potatoes in the ground. I "grow" the slips off a few potatoes and plant those. This year I'm attempting in bins since I have limited garden space currently.... not to mention bad soil. So these I will layer up and add front boards as I layer (it'll make more sense when I post photos with the boards across the front). Currently I have a layer of sticks and wood chips on bottom, then hay, composting scraps, dirt, hay, dirt. I'll be adding a bit of sand if I feel it's getting too compacted as it breaks down more but I think the hay will leave enough space.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2020, 12:39:59 PM by 8greenbeans »

USMC Veteran, LEO Mama
Navy MIL, USAF Vet Mama
Army Daughter
8 Beans
9 GrandBeans + 1 on the way
3 Beans-in-law, 3 Future-in-laws
1 MrBeans

Starlady

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2020, 09:38:59 AM »
I usually use seed potatoes, buy a few as early as possible, leave out for a week or so to develop eyes then cut & dry for a day.  I plant in the ground, or rather ON, then build up around them since I only have about 6-8" of layers before adding the poultry manure.  Use only very well aged manure or you'll end up with lots of leaves and only a few potatoes, and only use it sparingly.  In a good year, 3 6' rows will keep me in potatoes thru the next spring.

I've used store bought potatoes, too - they DO sprout.  And I alternate the potato patch with something unrelated (no tomatoes or peppers).
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Albert Einstein

Abigayle

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2020, 04:39:46 PM »
Great advice from everyone, thanks.  This year, we put some plastic down on each side of the sweet potato slips.  I think it kept too much water out.  Thor had put in good irrigation systems in the gardens and raised beds, but I don't think we got enough water, with the drought, for the soil under the plastic to form potatoes of any size.  We got some, eating the rest up this month.  Those formed right under the slips.
Still have not found any horseradish!  Had to buy some at the store to make a tonic and back when I made my Bloody Mary Mix.  Which was excellent by the way....brag, brag, brag....

RWS

  • Bugged Out
  • *****
  • Posts: 2800
  • Total likes: 1735
  • It's Weird being the same age as old people
Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2020, 05:52:20 PM »
Great advice from everyone, thanks.  This year, we put some plastic down on each side of the sweet potato slips.  I think it kept too much water out.  Thor had put in good irrigation systems in the gardens and raised beds, but I don't think we got enough water, with the drought, for the soil under the plastic to form potatoes of any size.  We got some, eating the rest up this month.  Those formed right under the slips.
Still have not found any horseradish!  Had to buy some at the store to make a tonic and back when I made my Bloody Mary Mix.  Which was excellent by the way....brag, brag, brag....
The vines on my sweet potatoes tend to root t various places along their length.  It must help the plant put on more or better tubors.  The plastic would not let them root?

8greenbeans

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2020, 11:36:02 AM »
Not much to list but it has been hours of work lol
Got another round bale and had hoped to put it in my greenhouse. Well it was nearly 6-inches too big. So I got the bright idea to unroll it and stack it in the greenhouse. Yeah well, I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack lol Got about half of it in there before sundown. MrBeans thinks it's fine since we don't much have issues the first few weeks - we shall see lol Though we did decide that we shall attempt a different way next time to see if it it is a little narrower the other direction. Then it can just sit in the middle of the greenhouse, putting off all of that lovely heat.
Got more chips spread. This is gonna take awhile and I love it! I have waited sooooo long for these chips that it makes me happy to go out there to deal with them lol
Got the raised beds designed for maximum garden space. Also designed a manual worm farm - completely different than the one I originally planned on - and it can fit in the greenhouse so I can just move it to there in the winter months rather than rigging a hoop house over it.

USMC Veteran, LEO Mama
Navy MIL, USAF Vet Mama
Army Daughter
8 Beans
9 GrandBeans + 1 on the way
3 Beans-in-law, 3 Future-in-laws
1 MrBeans

Abigayle

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2020, 08:13:18 PM »
This information and the pictures are both helpful and motivating!!!!  Thanks so much! I will give it a try.

8greenbeans

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2020, 11:43:28 PM »
Thanks, Abigayle  ;D
I've had a lot going on with trying to spread these here chips but by golly it's getting done, slowly but surely! The duck pen is done. The run is done. The first chicken pen is done. Nothing in the 2nd pen yet. The turkey pen is partially done.

The ducks have an area for swampiness to drill in plus their wading pool was brought in the pen and that horrible blue "bucket" is gone. I mean it served its purpose but soooooooo glad that monstrosity is out of there.
The chickens like to take dust bathes in the second half of the pen when it's dry, so no chips going down there.
The turkeys will also only get half their pen in chips. They wound up with a new feeder and their nesting box got spruced up.

Got a few lettuces popping up so sowing more lettuce. Got onion seeds started. I've not had great luck with onion from seed but I'm willing to give 'er another go lol Also got some parsley seeds sown. Had planned on more but it just got too dark to continue.

Got 30 bottles stripped, cut, drilled, and stapled to the potato bins. Got another dozen or so cut to be green houses.... many more to go!

Designed the raised bed garden and showed MrBeans. He says "That's a lot of dirt.... and lumber." lol Next thing I know, he's done located the four lumber yards around us! I'm in the middle of laying out said beds now.

I did discover that some of those "Plants Per Person to Grow for a Year's Worth of Food" charts are a joke. 24 leaf lettuce plants for 6 people for a year? We eat an entire plant per day! I mean I guess some families might take longer to eat one....
,Same for spinach. 42 radishes for 6 people ... 7 per person ---- for an entire year? I'll eat all 42 in 2 months, though I'm aware most folks do not eat as many veggies as I do so perhaps 7 would last a year. Any way you put it, I've got to make adjustments based on how/what we eat. Then put in a detailed layout rather than the generalized one I have now.

USMC Veteran, LEO Mama
Navy MIL, USAF Vet Mama
Army Daughter
8 Beans
9 GrandBeans + 1 on the way
3 Beans-in-law, 3 Future-in-laws
1 MrBeans

8greenbeans

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2020, 11:48:58 PM »
One bin completely filled with bottle pots.... 3 more bins to complete plus the outside wall will be covered from top to bottom, not just the top row.

And my generalized garden plan. The beds will be what they are but what goes where may change.
« Last Edit: January 26, 2020, 12:00:57 AM by 8greenbeans »

USMC Veteran, LEO Mama
Navy MIL, USAF Vet Mama
Army Daughter
8 Beans
9 GrandBeans + 1 on the way
3 Beans-in-law, 3 Future-in-laws
1 MrBeans

Abigayle

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #13 on: January 26, 2020, 03:28:18 PM »
Beans.... Great Idea on the wood chips.  We have been using wheat straw.  The chickens pick the wheat of of it and enjoy the fun and food.  Wood chips could be free from the guy down the road that trims trees and sells firewood. I like your idea of leaving a place for dust bathes.  We added a bag of carpenter sand to an area in the pen and they loved working it into the soil.  I also grow a few extra rosemary plants and set them in the pen.  They don't last long.  After that, I just cut some fresh herbs and mint, tossing it in.  Today, they will get some of our extra kale for dinner.

8greenbeans

Re: 2020 Greenbean's Goals & Garden
« Reply #14 on: January 26, 2020, 10:27:51 PM »
Abigayle, I was surprised to see the chickens not just scratching through the wood chips but finding quite a few tidbits to snack on also!

Today we nearly completed the rabbit tractor! We simply ran out of daylight. We worked by flashlight and spotlight for awhile but it simply wasn't enough. MrBeans was supposed to get off work at 2 but instead was stuck there til 2:45. Those 45 minutes made a big difference. Oh well, just one tiny step to completion!

It was too dark to take a decent photo so I'll grab one tomorrow morning!

USMC Veteran, LEO Mama
Navy MIL, USAF Vet Mama
Army Daughter
8 Beans
9 GrandBeans + 1 on the way
3 Beans-in-law, 3 Future-in-laws
1 MrBeans

 

SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal