[SwedeSteve]

I was attacked by a 52 lb snowshoe hare one winter. Fortunately I had a carrot with me !! Probably saved my life.

[billy]

Quote:       Originally Posted by SwedeSteve

I was attacked by a 52 lb snowshoe hare one winter. Fortunately I had a carrot with me !! Probably saved my life.

that just goes to show.....
dont just take my observations at face value.

a carrot saved this mans life!

i have taken to carrying a carrot in one of the holsters on my double gun rig.

i may be getting snickers at the range, but those doubting thomas's will be laughing out of the other side of their faces when they are getting gutted by a monster rabbit!
while i can pacify the brute with my left hand.

[billy]

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE

[Cyrano]

Can we include herbs in the gardening thread/forum? I have lots of friends who raise herbs, and some of them have medicinal as well as spicing uses. Knowing the old herbal usages could come in very handy if there is a cultural collapse and all of a sudden there aren't handy pills available.

[SPOCAHP ANAR]

I have a method I use called Square foot or stampbook gardening. This is my first year trying it and it is working so far. The idea is to use a 4' x 4' square which you divide in to 16 equal 1' square plots. Each plant is planted based on the space space requirements neded for each plant. The Author is Mel Bartholomew. The Official Site of Square Foot Gardening and Mel Bartholomew, Originator and Author

Example: String beans require 1' spacing so each plot square will hold 16 string beans. Squash plants uses 9 individual squares or a 3'x3' area. Carrots and scallions can be planted 16 to a square. Etc. and so on.......
I have planted 5 plots with 3 foot between each plot so I can access each for maintenance and picking. I used 1"x4" boards to stake out the plots and placed potters mix in each.

[SPOCAHP ANAR]

Quote:       Originally Posted by billy

i dont have time to have a garden that needs care and i make enough money to buy any kind of vegetables you could name.

Billy, the garden method I use takes very little time to manage other than the initial setup and watering which I have to do often since we are somewhat in a drought. It has been fun so far.

[Deersniper]

Frugals Squirrels it's got just about everything. The Survival Monkey www.arkinstutute.com That ought to keep busy you for awhile.

[Dookiebutt]

Maybe just a general gardening section, then break it down into vegetables and other (like shrubs and flowers).

[HARDERTR]

I work with a bunch of goons that are as smart as a vegetable...does this count?

[LiveToShoot]

MH,
I'm looking forward to participating in the "gardening" posts/forum...

...and, please update me when you get the ground tilled.

[Seabeescotty]

I'm gonna try Spocahp's method, and hopefully the deer won't find it too appetizing!

[Oxford]

The picture below shows my ten "Jet Star" tomato plants as they looked two weeks ago. Now they're even taller. Next to the garden I've trapped one squirrel so far and caught two black birds. I expect to begin picking those red tomato's within another week or so. Naturally, we cannot eat that many tomato's so we give them to friends and relatives. With the recent announcement that tomato's have a "viagra" effect, I'll want to eat as many possible and can the rest for big occasions.

[LiveToShoot]

Oxford,
Great looking tomatoes...

...and, are those railroad ties around the boarder?

I've been told and read in gardening info that the creosote leaches out of the ties into the soil and nearby vegetables absorb it...which then gets passed on to us when we eat the veggies. Do you know anything about the potential dangers of being exposed to creosote or ingesting veggies grown near the ties?

[Seabeescotty]

Oh my, exciting times are ahead!! Love those vine ripened tomatos!

[GlennM]

+1 on the gardening forum.

Quote:      

It would be nice to have a forum for gardening. I am also interesting in canning. My mom cans but I dont know how too myself.

We always have a nice garden, and the wife & I do a lot of canning (when I'm in-between writing novels and not at the keyboard, or otherwise in a mental braindrain condition). Will take a pic of it next time I have the camera with me. For starters in canning, I highly recommend getting the Ball Canning manual... it's not very big and hits most all of the essential things you need to know. Startup hardware is minimal for easy things such as tomatoes. Beans and other "harder" stuff, be prepared to purchase a pressure cooker. Other than that, a big pot to hold hot water, a Wally-world tool to grip the hot jars when removing them from the boiling pot, some jars and lids, and you're on your way. Nothing better than your own home-grown canned tomatoes in your chili in the middle of January.

[LiveToShoot]

Here's some info on canning...
CanningUSA.COM - A great place to learn home canning! General Table of Contents

[MrsS]

I'm interested if this forum takes place.

[PONTIACDM]

I planted a small garden this year. Potatoes,beans,peas,cabbage and tomatoes. A few others but the groundhog got to them. He's about ready to meet my .17 HMR.

[LiveToShoot]

Oh, the taste of fresh raspberries...

[Oxford]

LiveToShoot...Here's what I think about worrying about cresote in railroad ties leaching into my tomato's...I'm 70 years old now and have been eating tomato's and other veggies from this same garden since 1968 with those ties in place about 30 years...I'm gonna die from something eventually, might as well be from cresote poisoning.

That garden plot has received most of my lawn cuttings, small limbs, and other kitchen vegies left overs during all that time, too. The compost pile behind the garden is dumped into the garden each fall and tilled at least four times after spreading two sacks of pelletized lime over the entire garden. This lies there all winter further decomposing, and the lime neutralizes the soil's Ph factor. Of course I want to get the Ph factor down to 7 if at all possible because this allows plants to absort the miscroscopical amounts of nutrients required for maximum growth.

From the results I usually get, such as is shown in picture earlier, I believe my process is working about as well as possible without actually taking soil samples to the local county agriculture extension agent to be tested.

My problem is not getting tomato's to grow...but to keep the squirrels from picking too many. Just today I found a huge green tomato which a squirrel had picked and only taken a few bites out of. Because of that I reloaded my live animal cage again with sunflower seeds mixed with corn. One was caught two weeks ago and "relocated."(ha) Also, I caught two blackbirds.