Building a Hobby Farm- from woods to eggs

[jonbravado]

i am with you, toro -

i am going to start my garden well before the house is complete, but i am tired of giving so much for my groceries (corn and oil have really ramped up the price of living) Tony - you're on the right track, and you will probably save a good bit of money if you do canning, freeze, etc.

i am going to go as far as to try and produce my own seeds each year. anyone try that? any tips?

Tony - LOVE the thread, and keep up the good work.

J

[scgargoyle]

If even half of what you read is true, food that you raise yourself is MUCH healthier for you, which is why a lot of people raise their own. At least Tony's boys will grow up knowing what decent food tastes like, and know in detail where it comes from. This thread is an inspiration to me, since Tony and I will eventually be 'neighbors', and I'll be dealing with nearly identical circumstances (except my little guy is 20 years old). Keep up the good work!

[cwilson]

Your land look beautiful

[tony123]

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone. This thread holds me accountable to make progress.

I thought I'd include a pretty photo from the storms that came through the other day. It was actually two rainbows, but that didn't show up in the photos.



And here's a photo of my fence posts (a small part of what I need total). They're just waiting for me to dig that auger bit out. I'm using 5" round for corners and gates and the 3.5" rounds for line posts. Maybe could have gone larger for gates, but darn the prices climb fast.

[tony123]

Since I have done all the grading work, I called the utility locator service to come out again and remark the underground power. Remember, my intent was to get it to run inbetween my two garden spots. Well, you can see the red paint. It clips the edge of the right garden by just a bit. He said that the tool was telling him that it was 22" down at that point. I suppose that next year I will move the garden over about 2' to the right. I don't want to though, as it will cramp our future "fire ring" and sitting area.



Also, look at this! The locator guy stepped right on my spinach in 3 spots. I'm old enough now to no longer be surprised by stupidity.

[Tororider]

Seriously, pretty obvious that there was a garden right there. What was that guy thinking?

You could always build up the garden beds on both sides, making them just widen enough to get your tractor through. Leave the ends open so you can drive right up, or make a ramp up the side. Its a thought anyways. 22" down is a pretty good ways down, and if you build it up a foot you should be golden. Just hope they never need to get at the wire, hehe.

[AD18]

Tony, can you cut the bank to left in the photo? If you can then you can shift over and still have both garden and firepit without worrying about the wire. I'm using my fel on a much smaller mitsubishi to excavate my hillside garden.




I haven't taken any photos of my projects, might be fun to document, post and then get the feed back from some truely ingenius folks.

[tony123]

toro, those are some ideas, I'll give some thought to them. I like the idea of bringing in more soil and raising the bed another foot. At that point, the only thing that could possibly hit the line might be a subsoiler, certainly not my tiller.

ad18, that cut bank on the left is about 3' shy of the property line. My intention was to leave room for some screening shrubs and a fence on the top of the bank. Your suggestion may be an option, but I hope it doesn't come to that.

Rain again this weekend....arrgghh makes it hard to get anything done. And don't you know as soon as I put grass seed out this spring it will stop raining.

[charlz]

Originally Posted by scgargoyle

At least Tony's boys will grow up knowing what decent food tastes like

Ain't that the truth! I don't care what anybody says, store bought strawberries taste like *&^# compared to ones you just picked out of the garden. Some of my favorite memories as a kid are standing in the garden 'grazing'. Strawberries, peas by the ton, carrots (just wipe it on your pants ) we even used to eat corn raw One blade on the pocket knife was the 'clean' one for cutting up potatoes and the like.

[ToadHill]

jonbravado: If you are going to save your own seeds make sure you buy varieties that are "open pollinated" and not any hybred seeds. In general any heirloom verities will be "open".