Hello, Feels like De Ja Vu

Ruler of the Roost

Ruler of the Roost

Member
Hardiness zone
11a
Hello...again... Seems like just yesterday I joined a gardening site to learn how to do more than just wing it... anyways, here's me;

My wife and I are embarking on quite a journey. We bought a 2 acre home this year and we are beginning down the road to creating a homestead. We got chickens and stuff, so now we are planning a large garden and a small orchard. We are currently experimenting with Celery, Romaine Lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and carrots. We are getting ready to expand into banana trees, Mango trees, and we looking forward to starting onions, bell peppers, and I managed to save some cantaloupe seeds. Currently I'm building a larger chicken coop from pallet wood and I'm going to be building a bunch of earth boxes and raised garden beds and trellises. I'm also drawing up plans for making my own green houses, and eventually hydroponic and aeroponic set ups for certain crops. Anyway, we're still in the novice stages of this endeavor, but wish us luck!!!

PS...is there a good way to grow stuff in sand....I have a ton of it out here!
 
Your journey sounds a lot like mine. We built a chicken coop from an old shed out back. I'll post pictures of it here sometime. We're looking at making the run bigger this upcoming spring. Also, I actually just started back into gardening again last year. Planning on putting in some peach and plum trees this year.

We did great, in our first year, with squash, cucumbers (more than great), potatoes, onions, broccoli, cabbage and okra. The broccoli, if you like broccoli, was the best thing we planted, as far as the difference between home grown and store bought. The onions were a close second.

As far as growing in sand, that's what we have here too. Don't tell @Meadowlark, but I just sprinkled some fertilizer last year and watered the bejeebus out of it and almost everything we planted was great! My plan is, eventually, to move to an NPK garden, like what Meadowlark does, but I don't foresee that happening this year.

Welcome to the site, and good luck with the garden! I'll look forward to seeing your progress. It's definitely a fun and rewarding experience, and you just can't beat the quality, or peace of mind knowing exactly where your food comes from.
 
Mike said:
Your journey sounds a lot like mine. We built a chicken coop from an old shed out back. I'll post pictures of it here sometime. We're looking at making the run bigger this upcoming spring. Also, I actually just started back into gardening again last year. Planning on putting in some peach and plum trees this year.

We did great, in our first year, with squash, cucumbers (more than great), potatoes, onions, broccoli, cabbage and okra. The broccoli, if you like broccoli, was the best thing we planted, as far as the difference between home grown and store bought. The onions were a close second.

As far as growing in sand, that's what we have here too. Don't tell @Meadowlark, but I just sprinkled some fertilizer last year and watered the bejeebus out of it and almost everything we planted was great! My plan is, eventually, to move to an NPK garden, like what Meadowlark does, but I don't foresee that happening this year.

Welcome to the site, and good luck with the garden! I'll look forward to seeing your progress. It's definitely a fun and rewarding experience, and you just can't beat the quality, or peace of mind knowing exactly where your food comes from.
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Nice. Almost everything I do is from recycled materials. Pallet, tires, what have you. Speaking of tires, I have an idea for an aquaponic set up for my celery... If I can get celery to grow outside in FL that is...
 
Ruler of the Roost said:
Nice. Almost everything I do is from recycled materials. Pallet, tires, what have you. Speaking of tires, I have an idea for an aquaponic set up for my celery... If I can get celery to grow outside in FL that is...
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I would have assumed you could grow almost anything in Florida, for most of the year. Interested in seeing anything you do with aquaponics. We've been talking about putting in a fish pond, so it'd be neat to know how to incorporate that, if that's what you mean. My son and I are building a hydroponic stand for strawberries this year, too. If we get a better yield than last year's ground patch, we'll have enough strawberry jam to feed the whole family for a year. 😂
 
Do cob nuts grow in America? When I first bought my land I wanted to grow those for a living. I was advised by DEFRA that my soil was far too chalky, and that they grow well in sandy soil.
Whether that applies only to cob nuts, I don't know, but I had to change my plans, and opened a camping site instead.
That, of course was well before t'internet :)
 
Tetters said:
Do cob nuts grow in America? When I first bought my land I wanted to grow those for a living. I was advised by DEFRA that my soil was far too chalky, and that they grow well in sandy soil.
Whether that applies only to cob nuts, I don't know, but I had to change my plans, and opened a camping site instead.
That, of course was well before t'internet :)
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I had to google cob nuts. It says they're in the same genis ( genus?) as hazel nuts, which I love !! and they grow here in my area and north of me for a ways.
 
Tetters said:
Do cob nuts grow in America? When I first bought my land I wanted to grow those for a living. I was advised by DEFRA that my soil was far too chalky, and that they grow well in sandy soil.
Whether that applies only to cob nuts, I don't know, but I had to change my plans, and opened a camping site instead.
That, of course was well before t'internet :)
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I've never even heard of a cob nut
 
Mike said:
I would have assumed you could grow almost anything in Florida, for most of the year. Interested in seeing anything you do with aquaponics. We've been talking about putting in a fish pond, so it'd be neat to know how to incorporate that, if that's what you mean. My son and I are building a hydroponic stand for strawberries this year, too. If we get a better yield than last year's ground patch, we'll have enough strawberry jam to feed the whole family for a year. 😂
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I though celery preferred colder climates... Please correct me if I am wrong!
 
Anniekay said:
Believe me, celery hates heat. Cool and very wet it enjoys. I can't grow it here, too too hot in summer, BUT, you can grow chinese celery in fall/ winter and it tastes like regular celery.
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Well that's good to know. I'll not add that to my list of things to grow any time soon, then. We're about as opposite of cool and wet as you can get around here.
 
Ruler of the Roost said:
Currently I'm growing mine indoors from supermarket cuttings. I'll but the larger plants outside for a few hours a day or when its cooler out.
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I think I can speak for Zigs as well as myself - he's having a laze (well deserved) at the moment.
Celery is indeed a crop for cool shady places, with a plentiful supply of water. Without the frequent watering it will be bitter and not worth bothering with. We haven't actually grown it here yet, but Zigs bought some seeds to sow in early spring next year to try out, because (I suspect) I keep nagging him to do it. I like plenty of celery, carrots and onions by me to make mirepoix, which is so useful as a base for stews, soups and curries etc.
I'm hoping though that next year will not be so bad for slugs! This year we have called it the year of the slug, and cursed the horrible slime bags for destroying a very large part of the veggie garden.
With a growing worry over food shortages in the UK, our garden crops have become more important than ever.
It would be very interesting to compare notes as the new growing season gets underway.
Ruler of the Roost said:
I've never even heard of a cob nut
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I think there are many things that you grow in the USA that we cannot here, which of course is just one reason our forum is so interesting. We can learn so much from each other.
As @Anniekay mentioned, it is a fruit of the Hazel. Kent cobs though are just peculiar to Kent, our little South eastern county. https://www.kentishcobnuts.com/cobnuts/ - here's a link to a cobnut grower's nursery, which is about 45 minutes from here by car. The soil there is perfect, but mine is not. We can grow lots of other stuff though.
Kent is known as ''England's garden county''
 
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