Hans Muster

Great that you have a plan!

If I may: when designing, following an order is important. One I like to follow is the scale of permanence by Yeomans:

Climate: it is as it is, cannot plant bananas in Norway

Landform: map slopes and drainage.

Water: place reservoirs, ponds, swales, irrigation infrastructure.

Access: locate roads and pathways where they won't interfere with water flow.

Trees: establish windbreaks and agroforestry belts, as well as shade

Structures: place house, sheds, animal facilities.

Subdivision: create paddocks and production zones.

Soils: improve with compost, manure, cover crops.

Economy: optimize crop and livestock enterprises.

As for you, the subdivision and house is already set, this order won't work for you. But mapping the slopes and the drainages appears quite important to me. Do you know in each square meter where the water flows when it rains? If you draw this on your map, it helps you design the water harvesting structures, and keep more water in the land. Maybe you can even benefit from water from somewhere else?

Regarding the broken machine: maybe you can open a new thread with a picture of what does not work, and someone could help fixing it? Or maybe a video showing the setting?

Otherwise regarding your plot: do you have bananas there?

Why not save your own seeds once you have a variety which you like? It is very easy:

Option 1: squeeze them onto cardboard, label, let the seeds dry. Use when needed.

Option 2: squeeze the seeds into a small jar, (add water and sugar if you only have few seeds), let ferment until the jelly disappears. Dry and label.

Option 2 is a bit more time consuming, but you get better results and it is easier to sow, especially with large quantities.

There are toxic squashes, the toxin in them is cucurbitacin, which is bitter. Therefore, if you get a squash, pumpkin, zucchini, ... which is bitter, don't eat it, you might die.

The toxin can be tasted even in the raw stage, I taste test them before even trying to cook them.

One caveat: some people do not have the taste receptors for bitterness. They are more at risk of cucurbitacin poisoning, as they do not notice the toxin.

Nancy: if you want a faster way to adapt your two varieties, you can cross them. Then you will be able to select the combination you want, and have your own variety (or varieties) within around 7 years.

It is a lot of fun, requires a bit of fine motor skills. I have crossed many, and given away hundreds or thousands of seeds. A few fellow gardeners have bred their own varieties based on my crosses, which is nice to see.

Here some guidelines
https://tgrc.ucdavis.edu/pollinating

Here a video showing the process

There are many other videos, long and short ones.

You might be interested in the Korean Natural Farming KNF system, as described here:

https://naturalfarminghawaii.net/learn-natural-farming/odorless-pig-technology/
The video is long and everything in the frame of the presentation


In the original system, biochar is used at the bottom layer.

An interesting video on how Bristol is installing wildlife corridors in the city, increasing habitat for wildlife. Besides cleaning up pollution, it also harbors food: fish for example seem to thrive

As far as I know, bush beans (Usually Phaseolus vulgaris) do not cross with yard long beans (Vigna unguiculata).
Yard long beans however can cross with black eyed peas, same species (different subspecies, depending on the classification.

I also got two-coloured black eyed peas this year. I was wondering if it was due to "jumping genes", here an explanation with maize: https://bio.libretexts.org/Under_Construction/Cell_and_Molecular_Biology_(Bergtrom)/14%3A_Repetitive_DNA_A_Eukaryotic_Genomic_Phenomenon/14.03%3A_The_'Jumping_Genes'_of_Maize

Anyway: I would keep them, and look what it does. Any cross might get you something new, and even better adapted to your conditions.

Christopher, do you mind sharing your hot sauce recipe? my chillies are ripening, and I rather not buy any hot sauce anymore.

There may be different issues:

Oxygen is lacking in a sand filter, therefore you have way less degradation of bacteria.
Other toxic compound, for example nitrates, are causing issues. Have you heard of the blue baby syndrome?