Building a Hobby Farm- from woods to eggs

[ToadHill]

Eventually the mud will work its way thru the chips and the chips will break down to form more dirt, but if you can get them for free, just pile on some mew chips every few years. If you ever ride the tractor in the woods, consider the condition of the soil you are running it on, thats what your drive will eventually be, except a bit dryer because it gets more sun.

[scgargoyle]

Wood chips float- which means in a heavy rain, they float away. Here in FL, we avoid anything but cypress, because they encourage termites, although that wouldn't be an issue on a farm path. What do you mean by using them for a pad for the barn? In lieu of concrete? You wouldn't want to use them under concrete. I know it costs money, but gravel's hard to beat. Gravel packs hard; wood chips seem to stay soft- depends on what you're after, I guess.

[tony123]

Thanks for the input guys.

I'm comfortable with using them on the road, and understand they will wash in a rain.

For the barn area, it would only be temporary until construction started. At that point I'd pull them out and put gravel.

Still COLD around here..... nothing going on outside.

[tony123]

Like I said, I've been wrestling with the layout on our garden for this spring. I've been waiting for a final draft before posting it here, but realize that there may be no such thing. So...here's the layout of the two beds we'll have. I'm completely amatuer to this, so I am soliciting input and suggestions. Too much of something? not enough of another? organize so different things are next to each other?

I tried to lay it out so that the spring bed is finished and ready for fall crops to replace them. The larger bed for this year will be summer crops only.

Does it look like I'm biting off way too much? not enough?

Please...give me some input! Let's throw darts at this one. I'd like to order seeds before the end of the month.



Thanks,
Tony

[Tororider]

I am no farmer, but I am hoping to do pumpkins this year. From what I have heard they take over everything, so you may want to alocate more space, re-locate on property, or just do one or two hills. I may be totally wrong but from all my reading/talking to people, that is what I have gleaned.

[ToadHill]

I hope your cantalope and squash don't flower at the same time or you'll have some strange tasting stuff.

[tony123]

That's the kind of info I'm looking for! So don't put the squash and cantalope together?

[EddieWalker]

Originally Posted by tony123

...and covering the pad of the eventual barn.

How does this work out? will it help keep the mud down? or will it just make a mud a woodchip gumbo?

What type of barn do you plan to build and what type of flooring will it eventually have? This is important if you plan on using concrete. If you use concrete, you don't want anything under it that will decompose over time. Wood chips will slowly break down over the years and cause you nothing but trouble.

If you plan on a dirt or rock floor in the barn, then wood chips won't make any difference.

Eddie

[scgargoyle]

Spinach and beets like cool weather- they are winter crops here. In the warmer months, Swiss Chard is a good substitute. It's actually my favorite of the three. And that's too narrow for corn- it should be grown in squares, to promote pollenization. You can grow pumpkins under the corn, as they like a little shade in the summer.

[tony123]

SC, all the dates on the layout are taken from the Clemson Extension website that I linked earlier. And I'm pretty sure you're right about the corn. I just don't have an area that works well for a square shape. What sort of dimensions are a minimum for corn?

Eddie, glad to have you on board! I respect your opinion based on all the various posts I've read. I will never have the budget I'd like for the barn. What's new? I'm thinking the barn may live its first many years as a pole barn with roof only. Walls will be added as budget allows, and the floor may remain dirt, or gravel. I feel pretty certain it will never be concrete. In any event, I will pull out everything down to hard packed subgrade before gravel and definetely before concrete.