The best thing I have found for very shady spots is raspberries. I have been growing raspberries in deep shade of over 50 years, and they actually seem to prefer it. Peas will also tolerate it somewhat.
I know the risks of sprouting but have had pretty good luck with it so far, I am attentive to them and use very clean equipment. Given that I have an awful lot of beans here I may try out sprouting various beans to make lower carb versions of bean dishes and try making tortillas out of them as well. My planters can hold flowers (essential spiritually maybe not for food) and fresh herbs. Outdoor gardening won’t be possible without hired help and a new home, money for which recently went out the window this month to cover business overhead. Fortunately my stores will get me through the rest of the year and will allow time to plan relocation if needed. Options will be fewer, the flight out of New York this spring has already happened. In general though, relocation seems like the best plan since this may go on for a very long time.
Your comment about tenacity, persistance, patience etc, is exactly right. simply keep at it. You demonstrate that quality in all your work.
I guess I am about 25 years ahead of you on this road, we got our place - in dire condition, much as you are now engaged with - and today, exactly as you predict, you would not believe what it looked like back then. Getting old is the only real impediment to this program i’ve encountered.
oh - and that includes de-grass rooting all the garden beds thoroughly at the start of every single year - mitigating but never eliminating it.
reflective plastic mulch helps alot, though of course we rue the use of disposable plastic.
one last thing - Helen and Scott Nearing were our guiding lights decades ago, and still worth a read.
Sheet mulch really works. I use cardboard (several layers of the biggest sheets you can find-think refrigerator boxes), with leaves, straw, compost, or whatever other organic matter you can find piled on top. Just leave it for a while. Plant potatoes on top of the cardboard for a crop the first year, or cut little holes in it and plant tomatoes.
Well, that, and those chickens. Build yourself a movable pen and use them as a roving weed-killing horde.
I’m interested to know two things:
First, is anyone keeping rabbits? I understand their pellets can go directly onto the garden without seasoning or composting. As swift converters of crap food into available quality protein, rabbits seem like a smart choice.
Also, what books and resources have guided you experienced homesteaders? I found Charles Dowding’s no-dig video series on YT and took many notes. I often enjoy the research and inspiration more than the execution, so I need to post Chris’ reminder where I see it each day: Do the Next Thing!
Our early spring greens and herbs produce amazing cut-and-come-again salads, and we will harvest tender Swiss chard for frittatas and gratins this weekend. So satisfying!
It looks like we have quite a few folks who have been on the gardening path for quite a while. It is nice to hear, and daunting at the same time. My wife and I truly enjoy growing the garden together.
I believe that it is a really good thing for practically everyone to grow some of the things they eat. I believe that will all my heart… but I think for this to be truly be of use a couple of things have to be overcome. One of them is related to our mindsets. And I’m a victim of it myself.
Why are you growing a garden? If it is to help to feed yourself and your family that is a whole different game than growing for the pleasure of seeing things grow and reward your hard work. I lost touch with my hillbilly roots and have been growing a garden of “nice to haves” while the calories have been lacking. Do I need 35 tomato plants each year?
This is OK as long as you are growing things that can cheaply be turned into nutritious meals. It allows you to makes some really great meals cheaply. And in all likelihood I’ll never live to see the day that dried beans, pasta, and rice become unavailable for long periods. So maybe growing what you need to turn those staples into a nutritious and good tasting menu is the right game-plan after all? I don’t believe many people are in a position to grow even half of their caloric intake.
I’m probably just confusing everyone but I have given these things a good bit of thought over the last couple months. And I’m adding a row of potatoes and cutting out one row of sugar snap peas. I pruned some of the better legacy trees that came on the place. Hopefully we have a good season for fruit. I’m taking steps but man they seem like they are so tiny compared to what real food independence would take!
Will
Glad to hear you are getting your new garden going Chris. I’m sure it will be wonderful. Today I’m outside working on building a new hugelkulture bed, and clearing a bunch of dead, rotting, potential forest fire fuel out of a wooded section of my property at the same time.
I wanted to mention a plant that can be an abundant source of food even with utter neglect after it is planted. That is Jerusalem artichokes, sometimes also called sunchokes. It’s basically something you can plant once and keep harvesting year after year, best kept in their own section since it would actually be hard to not get them back each year. They form an underground tuber late in the fall which is what is harvested. One never seems to get all the tubers which is why they keep coming back.
Many lucky people can eat them raw with no issues. In that form they are more like water chestnuts. They are also often called fartichokes because for others of us there is a starch, inulin, in them our guts have difficulty breaking down which can result in some of the most painful bloating and monumentally explosive gas! Yes, I’m one of these unlucky people. However, I seem to have discovered the trick to preparing them so even I can eat them, opening up this easy, hugely abundant food crop to me. First I don’t harvest them until early spring, around now in my region near the Great Lakes. This lets more of the inulin naturally break down over the winter. However, the real key seems to be then cooking them in a pressure cooker like an Instapot for a significant amount of time (I’ve been doing an hour) until they basically break down to mush. Now I need to develop dishes to use this in, but I’m so pleased to have found a way I can eat these without exploding because they are an easy abundant calorie source I can grow at home. It’s something others might want to consider.
Really good tips on the Sun-chokes. I am experimenting to see if they will grow in Alaska. So glad to have the info on - - side effects. Lol
AKGrannyWGrit
Count me in with all of you working your gardens. We moved to a semi-rural location about 9 years ago and with great enthusiasm started a raised bed garden, fruit trees, and layers. But we lost steam over time as jobs, aging parents, and complacency got in the way.
Thanks to the pandemic and Chris’s consistent prompting, we are back on the train! Baby chicks are under the heat lamp, fruit trees are pruned and we’ve planted carrots, radishes and broccoli so far. However, we have a ton of work left to do. Of our six 4x8 beds only two are currently usable. But we’ll get there. I loved the line in the article about turning 25 shovels per day instead of trying to do 175 on Saturday. The latter has been my m.o. which undoubtedly contributed to getting away from gardening for a while. From here on, I’m on the 25 shovels a day plan!
T.
You are welcome AKGranny. I hope the sun-chokes do grow for you in Alaska. I’ve never heard one way or the other about that. I know they are native to Michigan where I am, but don’t know if their potential range extends that far north. Note, wild Jerusalem artichokes have very small tubers. For food the cultivated types are much preferred.
While out shoveling a bit more dirt onto my new hugelkulture bed I realized I have an older blog post that might be of interest to some regarding other easy to grow, heavy food producing crops most people don’t know or think about. These being daylilies and common milkweed. They produce edible parts over a long period of the growing season, if they grow in your region. ( I don’t know if they grow in Alaska.) Anyway, if anyone is interested here is a link to that blog post titled “Excellent Perennial Vegetables You Can’t Buy in Stores”. In it I also cover some of the dishes I’ve made with them. Like the sun-chokes beyond the initial planting, and I didn’t even plant the milkweed, I can completely ignore these and just harvest tons of food each year. They compete just fine with my weeds and seem to get enough water from natural rains.
Chris,
I can think of three means to deal with the Bermuda grass. One has been mentioned: silage tarp (or landscaping fabric which is woven plastic that lets water in. I use it over and over for years to prepare areas for seeding cover crops or row crops. Just be sure the soil is moist before laying the plastic. You will need to weigh it down with sand bags, rocks, whatever to keep it from blowing away.) Second, you can use clear plastic known as “solarizing” where the high heat from the mini greenhouse effect kills not just the growing weeds but also weed seeds. Apply compost after this to bring the soil back to life. Third, you can use the “stale bed” method, which involves tilling on a regular basis while the soil is dry and the sun hot. I have used this to eliminate Quack Grass. You keep the soil loose and bring the rhizomes to the surface with the tiller, where they dry out. Again, apply compost after this process, which is hard on soil microbes.
I am a big fan of cover crops: oats in the spring or fall, buckwheat in the summer, and winter rye in the fall. Once you move to cover crops, begin minimum tillage: shallow disk harrow or power harrow. Two years of cover crops before row crops work best. The second year incorporate the legumes. I like oats and Crimson Clove together sowed in late August to early September (I am in Maine). Both will winter kill most years and be easy to incorporate ahead of row crops using minimum tillage. Remember that crop rotation is vital. Separate you garden areas according to plant families and move them around, returning to the same area only after at least four years.
Hope this helps. I have been homesteading in Maine for 47 years.
Richo27…Are you concerned about the toxins in treated lumber? If I remember right some treatments use arsenic and some use borate. I prefer lining beds with cinderblocks that are pretty much forever and non-toxic.
Stream ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ by Andrew Lloyd Webber for free this weekend only
“Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera,” staged at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2011, is now available to stream free [here] on YouTube for this weekend only. So grab some snacks, dim the lighting, and get ready to bring Broadway into your living room.”
“The free musical is available on Webber’s “The Shows Must Go On” YouTube channel. Viewers are invited to donate to The Actors Fund, which is raising money for Covid-19 Emergency Relief.”
“During these unprecedented times, charitable organizations continue to make heroic efforts to help those affected byCOVID-19,” the video begins."
“The Actors Fund provides emergency financial aid to help cover essential medication costs and basic living expenses to those affected.”
“The organization, which supports performers and behind-the-scenes workers in performing arts and entertainment, has so far raised over $250,000.”
“The musical, starring Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess and Hadley Fraser, will be available on YouTube everywhere until Sunday at 2 p.m. EST. "
“Universal have come up with the idea of a whole series now called ‘The Shows Must Go On,’ which is about musicals going from stage to screen and they’re going to show one of mine every Friday for the next few weeks,” Webber said in his official video announcement of the series.”
“The free musicals began on April 3 with Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” on April 10. The channel also features behind-the-scenes footage and scenes from other musical performances.”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/18/us/phantom-of-the-opera-andrew-lloyd-webber-trnd/index.html
running soaker hose under the sheet mulch saves alot of water.
water is plentiful in New England, but the electricity to pump it is somewhat dear.
Steve61, Thanks for the recommendation. We were planning to clear an area in our yard and plant blueberry bushes this Spring. Living in Northern NH, and on the side of a small mountain, I knew we needed to plant hardy bushes. Learning about the haskap, (never heard of this before), I decided to order some plants from Saskatchewan. The fact that deer don’t like them is a major plus as well. If we are really lucky the rabbits, groundhogs, birds and other wild creatures here will also avoid the . Thank you for a great recommendation. Do you know where I can buy a green thumb? 
Gardens are great, but get to know your local farmers and ranchers. We’re raising grass fed Black Angus steers and pasture pigs out here on the high plains of northern Colorado. Feel free to follow us on fb, https://www.facebook.com/Rusty-Truck-Ranch-110088190556089/?view_public_for=110088190556089.
I would never use cinderblocks. There is no way you can absolutely seal the space between one cinderblock and another. If there is even a microscopic space, creeping grass roots will find it. If you have made this work over time in an area with creeping rizominous grass roots, then please let us know your secrets.
I would never worry about modern treated lumber. The arsenic was phased out some years ago and modern treated lumber uses a copper compound as a preservative, and most articles you can google will come down on the side of it being OK to use.
From Gardens Alive:
”The copper is still there, but the other C, chromium (a worrisome metal) and the big A, arsenic are gone; replaced by {quote} “Quaternary ammonium compounds,” which an hour or so of research informs me is a form of ammonium chloride (as in ammonia and chlorine). I’m not wild about either of those elements, especially chlorine, which helped kill millions when used as a component of trench gas in World War I. And although this compound seems to be close to ubiquitous in household products, there appears to no data on its potential carcinogenicity, tera to genicity or mutagencity (translation: Potential to cause cancer, birth defects and mutations).
It’s probably a big improvement over arsenic treated wood, whose health effects were clearly dire. But it’s highly corrosive to certain metals, leading me to worry about its effects on soil life.”
www.sciencedirect.com
Quats (quaternary ammonium compounds) are potent disinfectant chemicals commonly found in disinfectant wipes, sprays and other household cleaners that are designed to kill germs. It is often the stuff that allows a product to claim to be antibacterial, as they are certified by the EPA as pesticides.