Still Working on Self Sufficiency
27 Mar 2021 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ursulas_alcoveYesterday, I worked with the Austrian Crescent Potatoes. They are a Fingerling variety, not much different than banana fingerling potatoes. I am really short of soil. Really, really short. I had enough to mix up a blend for 6 bags. I discovered two things this year. First, coconut coir as a substitute to Peat moss. Peat moss is not a sustainable practice. Second, play sand. Mixing these two into my soil helps prevent compaction and really improves the overall soil health. Happy about that. Can I afford what I need? That's a whole different discussion.
Last year I had to make the call as to which potatoes to continue to grow. The drought reduced the amount of seed potatoes I harvested. I remember someone saying, if you have a choice, grow what you cannot get at the local grocery store. I dropped my strains of Red Norlands and German Butterballs. I have French Fingerlings, Blue Vikings, and Austrian Crescents. I ordered a red potato, with a red center for this year from The Urban Farmer in Indiana. I wanted to grow it last year but there was no supply available at the same time I actually had cash. I'd still like to have three fire rings of potatoes, red, blue and yellow. Yellow has a better starch content for frying. The fingerlings can still be grown in the grow bags. It doesn't look like much, but I'm happy with it.
I started with the French Fingerlings today. Just plain ran out of dirt. Plus what I have is poor quality. I already used the worm casting yesterday. I used two blocks of coconut coir. I used up the Black Gold potting mix for my celery transplants. I have one bag of seed starter mix to start the rest of my flowers in two weeks. I need to get a better handle on the numbers, how many cubic feet of compost do I need each spring? How much can I generate in the compost? How can I maximize my worm output? How much sand, perlite, and potting mix must I buy afterwards? I'm thinking I need 10 big bags 4 times a growing season. Plants need to be fed every 4 to 8 weeks, depending on their nutrition needs. Mostly I'm still hurting from no coffee grounds for over a year nor do I have manure to use. My mind keeps coming back to rabbits. I need rabbits. I don't have time to make a hutch this year.
I did order valves for the rain barrels. I measured one barrel that will fit on the front porch. I need a level surface that can hold weight. Once I buy a diverter, I can snag water off the porch roof. After I get the potatoes planted, I'll start setting up barrels. We have three days of freeze coming up anyway. Temperatures will be in the mid twenties. The cold weather plants will be fine. I have row covers. Ice will trash your rain barrel valves in a hurry therefore no water collection until the weather settles. Setup, however, can get started. Then it's a matter of saving up for the diverter and finding more cinderblocks. Each barrel needs four cinderblocks minimum. The blocks, ideally, raise the spigot up high enough to get a watering can underneath. I suppose a hose would not need as much height, but you still need space under the spigot to attach the hose.
Today's project, create a new bed for tomatoes. It needs to be 4' by 4 '. I bought one bag of compost just for this bed. I added my leftover perlite from last year and some tube sand I bought years ago for weighing down a pop-up tent. I'm giving it a cover to kill any weed seeds. The neighbor kids came over to the fence to show me they caught a roly-poly. I told them they could keep it and no, it doesn't bite people. I told them it likes to eat carrots.
Last year I had to make the call as to which potatoes to continue to grow. The drought reduced the amount of seed potatoes I harvested. I remember someone saying, if you have a choice, grow what you cannot get at the local grocery store. I dropped my strains of Red Norlands and German Butterballs. I have French Fingerlings, Blue Vikings, and Austrian Crescents. I ordered a red potato, with a red center for this year from The Urban Farmer in Indiana. I wanted to grow it last year but there was no supply available at the same time I actually had cash. I'd still like to have three fire rings of potatoes, red, blue and yellow. Yellow has a better starch content for frying. The fingerlings can still be grown in the grow bags. It doesn't look like much, but I'm happy with it.
I started with the French Fingerlings today. Just plain ran out of dirt. Plus what I have is poor quality. I already used the worm casting yesterday. I used two blocks of coconut coir. I used up the Black Gold potting mix for my celery transplants. I have one bag of seed starter mix to start the rest of my flowers in two weeks. I need to get a better handle on the numbers, how many cubic feet of compost do I need each spring? How much can I generate in the compost? How can I maximize my worm output? How much sand, perlite, and potting mix must I buy afterwards? I'm thinking I need 10 big bags 4 times a growing season. Plants need to be fed every 4 to 8 weeks, depending on their nutrition needs. Mostly I'm still hurting from no coffee grounds for over a year nor do I have manure to use. My mind keeps coming back to rabbits. I need rabbits. I don't have time to make a hutch this year.
I did order valves for the rain barrels. I measured one barrel that will fit on the front porch. I need a level surface that can hold weight. Once I buy a diverter, I can snag water off the porch roof. After I get the potatoes planted, I'll start setting up barrels. We have three days of freeze coming up anyway. Temperatures will be in the mid twenties. The cold weather plants will be fine. I have row covers. Ice will trash your rain barrel valves in a hurry therefore no water collection until the weather settles. Setup, however, can get started. Then it's a matter of saving up for the diverter and finding more cinderblocks. Each barrel needs four cinderblocks minimum. The blocks, ideally, raise the spigot up high enough to get a watering can underneath. I suppose a hose would not need as much height, but you still need space under the spigot to attach the hose.
Today's project, create a new bed for tomatoes. It needs to be 4' by 4 '. I bought one bag of compost just for this bed. I added my leftover perlite from last year and some tube sand I bought years ago for weighing down a pop-up tent. I'm giving it a cover to kill any weed seeds. The neighbor kids came over to the fence to show me they caught a roly-poly. I told them they could keep it and no, it doesn't bite people. I told them it likes to eat carrots.
