The Virgins

[Jolly]

I've talked about the run on seeds and plants. Gardening has exploded. Or maybe just seed hoarding.

Regardless, if you've never gardened before, Bloomberg is wrong. A lot more to raising food than just sticking some seeds in the ground.

Some things to consider:

1. What type of garden are you attempting to do? I probably garden a little different than some, since I use a 40hp tractor. Others might have a tiller. Some may not have anything but hand tools, and wish to consider containers or a raised bed garden.
2. Microclimates. On any place, some things do better in certain areas. Maybe one side of the house gets a lot more sun, or that depression on the North side of the house is always a little colder.
3. Plant varieties. Seed companies will be happy to sell you seeds that won't work in your area. You need varieties that work for your growing season or soil. For example, it's a waste of time to plant anything but a nantes type carrot in my soil, so I generally plant Danvers Half-Long.
4. Preservation. Assuming you've done most things right, what are you going with the surplus vegetables you pick? Freeze? Can? Dehydrate?
5. Lastly, taking care of gardens is like taking care of stock...If you've got much of anything, the garden runs you, not the other way around. Sweet corn or snap beans do not wait, you deal with them as they ripen.

[Mik]

And you have to plant with an eye toward harvest time. It doesn't do you any good to have all your crop ready at the same time.

[LuFins Dad]

We’re putting out a small garden with some tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini. Putting together a couple of containers for lettuce greens and a few herbs. Don’t have room for much more. May talk to the HOA about community gardening area again.

[Jolly]

@LuFins-Dad said in The Virgins:

We’re putting out a small garden with some tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini. Putting together a couple of containers for lettuce greens and a few herbs. Don’t have room for much more. May talk to the HOA about community gardening area again.

If you've got two zucchini plants, you probably can feed the neighborhood.

[Doctor Phibes]

I've always quite liked the idea of having an allotment. In Britain, it's a traditional place for blokes of a certain age to spend their weekends, avoid the wife, and take up pipe smoking.

[Rainman]

@Jolly said in The Virgins:

Microclimates. On any place, some things do better in certain areas. Maybe one side of the house gets a lot more sun, or that depression on the North side of the house is always a little colder.

Yes. We have a small corner that gets sun/warmth all winter. There is one azalea that blooms pretty much all the time.

[mark]

We have been threatening to start a garden for years.

We have a rather large flat area in front of the woods with good sun exposure pretty much from late morning to late early evening .

My daughter said she really wants to do it this year.

My buddy is an expert garden guy. Been doing it his entire life. I can borrow his rototiller and his guidance.

I figure, some tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, lettuce, zucchin, green beans, etc.

[Jolly]

@mark said in The Virgins:

We have been threatening to start a garden for years.

We have a rather large flat area in front of the woods with good sun exposure pretty much from late morning to late early evening .

My daughter said she really wants to do it this year.

My buddy is an expert garden guy. Been doing it his entire life. I can borrow his rototiller and his guidance.

I figure, some tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, lettuce, zucchin, green beans, etc.

Do it. It's therapeutic. And ain't nothing like fresh food.

Only problem may be getting seeds or plants. Might want to get varieties that you save seed for next year, but talk to your buddy. He'll know best.

[jon-nyc]

Problem here is you need a six foot fence around it or the deer eat it more or less immediately.

Also I can’t garden and Rachel doesn’t want to.

[mark]

We have deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, etc. It will be a challenge.

[Jolly]

@mark said in The Virgins:

We have deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, etc. It will be a challenge.

Gentlemen,

Meet my leetle fren'...

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/zareba-25-mile-ac-low-impedance-fence-charger?cm_vc=-10005

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in The Virgins:

Problem here is you need a six foot fence around it or the deer eat it more or less immediately.

Also I can’t garden and Rachel doesn’t want to.

You can't eat the deer more or less immediately?

Go through a deer like a dose of salts through a widow woman....

https://www.cabelas.com/category/Crossbows/103854780.uts

[jon-nyc]

Here you can only kill them with an SUV.

[Jolly]

@jon-nyc said in The Virgins:

Here you can only kill them with an SUV.

A man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do.

[Jolly]

True story...

Had a first cousin who lived in upstate New York for several years. Alan was a gung-ho deer hunter, hunting them with every legal means allowed by the fish & game department down here. Usually tagged out.

When he moved up there, he was warned by the locals about gun season. Seems like all the fools would come traipsing in from the NYC area...Many of them not very good hunters and worse shots. Around the small town in which he lived, they'd have at least one accidental shooting every year during the gun season.

So, for the entire time he lived up there, he put his guns up and used his compound, then his recurve and finally he did most of his hunting with a long bow. Still tagged out.

Apparently, New York deer were easy...

[George K]

@jon-nyc said in The Virgins:

Here you can only kill them with an SUV.

In Illinois, it takes a Mercedes, right @mark ?

[jon-nyc]

@Jolly said in The Virgins:

True story...

Had a first cousin who lived in upstate New York for several years. Alan was a gung-ho deer hunter, hunting them with every legal means allowed by the fish & game department down here. Usually tagged out.

When he moved up there, he was warned by the locals about gun season. Seems like all the fools would come traipsing in from the NYC area...Many of them not very good hunters and worse shots. Around the small town in which he lived, they'd have at least one accidental shooting every year during the gun season.

So, for the entire time he lived up there, he put his guns up and used his compound, then his recurve and finally he did most of his hunting with a long bow. Still tagged out.

Apparently, New York deer were easy...

Upstate they open bow season a good month before regular season, like late September, Oct 1st. Regular season might go 1 November to the second week of December, then there are another two weeks when only bows are allowed.

But Christmas to October is off season, so by the time 10/1 rolls around they are pretty complacent.

Believe it or not, Westchester has a bow season only, but in select areas, exclusively in the northern part of the county.

[jon-nyc]

One other story I might have told before, my Dad's great uncle walked with a limp when my father knew him. He got injured in a hunting accident in Central Park. He was (legally) hunting deer. I'm guessing it was around 1900.

[mark]

@George-K