Dave Bross

Never could get greensand here in FL so I went different ways early on. Kelp in the beginning until it got so expensive, then Azomite ever since.

This is from a truly excellent source of soil amendments.
Everything I've bought from them has been high quality, and they are organic farmers, so whatever they talk about is from hands on experience.

https://www.7springsfarm.com/blogs/news/greensand-why-dont-we-have-it-why-dont-you-need-it

Many mulberries will definitely take root and grow by just sticking a long cutting in the ground and being sure the soil is moist until it leafs out.  

I've used this little trick as a "gateway drug" to gardening.  Once someone sticks a stick in the ground and it grows they gain the confidence that they can do this.

This may be somewhat dependent on my soil (sand) and climate ( N. FL).  Many pro nurseries start their cuttings in sand with intermittent mist.

I get pretty good results via the old farmer and his 5 gallon bucket full of dirt method.
I use potting soil that's 50/50 pine bark fines and awesome local compost instead of dirt.
As mentioned above, quality compost is good as a medium to start almost anything and for potting up from there.
The compost has to have the texture of peat moss, which helped wean me off of peat moss and that's a good thing if for no other reason than a bale of peat moss here is $30...not so long ago it was $7.

Weird trivia - there used to be a peat mine near me here in Florida. When the owner died the family didn't want the biz so it went away.  I was surprised to find peat in FL when I first found out.

Now, with a tip of the hat to Rick Perez from the Facebook mulberry growing page, is a very nearly bulletproof way.

lay them on damp sand in a small tupperware or fast food container, put the lid on the container and put the container(s) in a cardboard box to keep them dark.
Put the box on a heat mat, or, in my case, putting the box up over the grow lights for the indoor lettuce to keep the box warm.

Look for the ends of the cuttings to start callousing in about a week to 10 days. I usually just leave them for 10 days then check.

Quite often there will be callouses and roots by the 10 day point.

No callous, no roots . A few will fail this way.

This will start some very tiny cuttings that would never go via the bucket method and has rooted dormant stuff as well as green/hard wood cuttings.

Some growers have  used coco coir instead of sand.

This one requires a welder, or pulling the hydrant and taking it to a welder.

Find a thick flat washer where the hole is same diameter as what's left of the bolt.
Weld it to the remains of the bolt through the center hole in the washer
Weld a nut to the washer and use it to turn the whole assembly out.

For inside growing, going from the pic, you need to get the lights right down close, then run the lights 12 hrs minimum.

Use a potting soil with better drainage if you can, and if nothing else, and go easy on the watering until established. Damp but not soaked.

How about the old 1960s housewife quick and delicious beef stew/soup trick?

1 - 2 packets of Good Seasons Italian salad dressing mix does wonders for the flavor of a beef soup/stew.

That mix is fairly "clean" of food additives but if your particular about that you could probably simulate the spice mix by looking up the dressing mix on Amazon and finding a seller who has posted the ingredients.

Probably because it's baked in genetically?

My granddad and his brothers had a large nursery, where my mom grew up in the business.

He also taught ghetto kids how to garden/truck farm for one of the social improvement societies of the time.

https://www.russellsage.org/sites/default/files/Livermore_School%20Gardens.pdf

The photos in that were his also.


My mom and dad grew a huge victory garden WW 2 era, and off and on again gardens through the years.
Good basic how to here too:

https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/ww2/Documents/services-ag2.pdf


Due to the nature of my dads employment we moved every 4 - 5 years. Long before house flipping was a thing, my parents would buy a fixer upper house and redo it,  selling it at a profit. This include my mom bringing her landscaping skills from the nursery to bear for big time "curb appeal" when selling.

When I was frequently thrown out of school for being a recalcitrant teenager I was put to work on the landscaping of the current house. I didn't mind that a bit.

I was big into the back to the land movement in the 1970s. Much gardening and raising of meat animals.

Looking back, I realized how important gardens were to my well being...physically, spiritually  and mentally.

guess that's why I always managed to have a garden all through the years.

The Japanese turnips like Tokinashi are my favorites for flavor.

Baker Creek has a few varieties on offer.

Trying snowball and white egg cultivars this year to see if they're similar, so we'll see how that goes.

A few thoughts to make gardening easier.

Only grow things you would want to eat.
Not to say don't experiment to see if you might like something.

Know what grows which season.

Beware of some of the advice on google ( AI slop with incorrect info) and some Youtube "influencers."

Papers from universities are usually a safe bet for how to.

Find out what is fairly bulletproof to grow in your area. If you're in the gulf coast/southeast this may help:

https://permies.com/t/273727/starter-seeds-pack-gardeners#2863960

It's a lot of work to get the ground ready. Perhaps consider starting out with a very basic Kratky hydroponic setup.
This can even be done in the city under grow lights or out on a balcony.
There are LED grow lights now which run quite economically.
Best I've found are Barrina brand on Amazon. I like the full spectrum white ones.

Hydroponic is usually not organic (could be but difficult) but much easier to do with positive beginner results more likely.

Lettuce and micro dwarf tomatoes are easily grown indoors.

Buy seed from quality suppliers. A few suggestions:

Johnny's
True Leaf Market
Baker Creek
Tomato Growers Supply
Southern Exposure
Burrell
Harris
Seeds and Such
Individual sellers on Ebay and Etsy with just a few things offered. Avoid the big sellers.
Avoid the seed racks in stores, poor quality seed.
That's the short list, there are other good ones out there.

Seed definitely acclimates to local geography so the closer your source is to you the better.

Read Steve Solomon's Gardening When it Counts. If I had to pick one book for a beginner this would be it.
This also covers less than optimal conditions, drought, etc.  and what to do then.
Also soil prep.

My usual routine on soil prep is to broadfork the bed then a few inches of compost and whatever fertilizer on top. If you dig the compost in here (sand) it disappears too quickly.

I'm experimenting with using transplants into beds that were covered in wood chips and that looks good so far.
I plant into a post hole digger hole with a couple shovel fulls of compost mixed in with the soil and ferts on top and the soil around the hole loosened up with a fork after digging the hole but before planting.  

The idea is to cut down on labor required and being able to prep and plant in increments instead of having to prep an entire bed first. I think in the end I'll plant and lay down wood chips at the same time, gradually moving through the bed.
Keep the wood chips on top of the soil or they'll rob nitrogen decomposing and disappear more quickly.

Microorganisms are a big help.  Compost tea or some of the JADAM simpler liquid ferts like the one with forest mold and a potato ferment are good for this.

Be thinking about ways to make it easier on yourself.

If you're considering fruit trees/shrubs Tree Crops by J. Russel Smith is a good place to start.

https://archive.org/details/TreeCrops-J.RussellSmith

Always check how many chill hours will be required. This was one of my early big mistakes.

Try to find a good nursery close by and take note of what they don't carry or ask for advice.

My classic mistake along these lines was planting a row of pomegranates not knowing they will never bring fruit to ripe here due to a local virus taking them out, no exceptions so far.  A highly skilled nurseryman was kind enough to point this out to me. This saved me years of wondering why no fruit ever making it to being ripe.

I might suggest starting with figs and mulberries. They grow easily and are easy to propagate more from cuttings. There are even midget varieties of both. Look up Mojo Mulberry and Fignominal Fig.

Like the seeds, buy the trees as close to home as possible. Same reason as the seeds, local stuff will grow faster/better. When you're looking at 3 - 5 years until fruit this makes a big difference.

Ask the old timers if you can find them.

Classic examples of that nearly forgotten here are that you're not safe from freeze until after Easter.

And....

Watch the hickory or pecan trees for leafing out if you're trying to beat the clock on putting in frost sensitive stuff. If those trees are beginning to leaf it will be a very rare event that you get frost after that.

Cut and paste from another post:

The only multiplier I've had great success with is one LSU supposedly came up with in the 1930s. They almost got lost and that would have been a shame because they're almost bulletproof here, whereas other onions can be a little tricky. They will grow in the shade or sun, just scratch a trench in the ground, throw them in, bury them and they'll go. One bulb will give 5 - 8 bulbs at harvest. They'll struggle through the summer but better planted any time from Sept. on and harvested in the spring.
Hoss sometimes or Lazy Dog have them and they pop up on Ebay now and again.

https://lazydogfarm.com/products/louisiana-evergreen-shallots

Best guess would be these are short day. I'm in N. FL, zone 9

I have tried all the walking and potato onions with zero success.

I'm trying elephant garlic as a perennial and it's looking like that's going to work. Planted the corms last winter and have large plants looking good this winter. Elephant garlic is actually a leek, which explains why you get one bulb and  no multiple cloves if you pull it in its first year.