j souther

I just want to elaborate on something Pearl mentioned--the flammability of tents. All synthetic fabrics are much more flammable than cotton, linen, wool, etc. We learned this from when our friends' cabin was badly damaged in a forest fire. We found the curtains--polyester--thrown outside away from the house. It was one of the first things the firefighters did when they arrived.  We also had this fact pointed out when we attended a fire prevention talk.

We recently sold our Toyota Highlander hybrid to our daughter; still in the family but not close enough for me to use, boo hoo. I know some folks would not put straw, buckets of compost, lumber, boulders etc in their car, but in the absence of a truck, we did. Even buckets of manure went in the back, on a rubber floor protector. It fits 7 people if they like each other, and we occasionally put the back seat down and slept in it on a road trip. Not great, but safe, dry and cheap. We called it our "truck" and we hauled all kinds of things in it. But I'm not one to consider a vehicle something that needs to be pristine. A car, like a hammer, is just a tool. And a tool that gets used is going to show wear and tear. It's going to get dirty, and it can be vacuumed out.

My wire whisk is definitely older that 10 years, maybe 20. Can't remember where I bought it. It has no brand but at the base of the solid, heavy handle it says  "Stainless Steel  Made in India"

I would have to agree with some comments that we try to eat as diversely as we can for the sake of both nutrition and enjoyment. However, we have simplified our diet in that I barely use cookbooks or make complicated dishes with strictly required ingredients. Eggs from our ducks, veggies and berries from the garden, homemade sourdough, some peanuts we buy raw and roast ourselves, etc.  For meal prep I start by looking in the fridge and freezer: what needs to be eaten? What would go well together? Does the dish have an official name? Nah, but I can make one up.

We also tend to eat seasonally. In the summer we eat a lot of salads although that word is used loosely and might not contain lettuce. Stuff mixed and dressed, eaten cold or room temp, that's a salad. In the winter I make more soup but again, whatever veg fresh or frozen is available, some lentils, plenty of herbs. Cuddle with the bowl and listen to the wind outside. Delicious.

I do buy chocolate, cheese, hemp milk, raw cow's milk when our daughter's cow is giving it. Also olive oil and coconut oil, tea and coffee. And my husband would say "Don't forget the tortilla chips." A food group in itself for him.

For several years I have been experimenting with growing beans for drying and some kind of grain. Successes have been black beans and grain sorghum: for hot cereal, not syrup.

I filled a raised bed cheap and in a hurry 2 years ago. The first thing I threw in was old half-rotted wood branches I had laying around, plus any nonseedy weeds and stalks of whatever. Then the soil that I purchased, mixed with homemade compost. We didn't have a lot of rain that year; at least 2 long dry spells when the rain barrels and the skies were empty. But that bed showed the least stress and wilting compared to others. I think the old wood acted like a sponge and held water for the roots.

However, this year I was desperate for space and planted sweet potatoes in this bed. I suspect that the potatoes are going to be difficult to extract from the wood in a few places. I might be tearing the soil all to heck come harvest time.

Someone mentioned filling with 100% compost; is this a good idea or not? I have been asking myself if there needs to be more clay mixed in, or at least native soil. Seems to me I read somewhere that clay has more minerals, while compost has plenty of nitrogen.

I have 4 forsythia that I brought home from a friend's yard and planted, but I didn't want them spreading the way they tend to. So I trained them as a single trunk. They were quite small when I got them, but 10 years later, they have decided to obey and almost never put out ground-level suckers. I don't top trim them much;  I only trim off branches that are bending toward the ground and likely to touch.

Yes, it was troublesome for a few years, but it was worth it as I truly love the look of small trees.

Bronze fennel, like other flowering plants in my garden, began to reseed once the soil was healthier, after a few years of mulching. Because of the taproot, it doesn't transplant well unless I choose very small ones. In my area it attracts all kinds of pollinators, but not so much regular honey bees. I can't be sure, but I believe it is a biennial. Currently it is growing in close quarters alongside echinacea, spiderwort, purple sage, lamb's ear, and Siberian iris. No evidence of allelopathy.

Sweet potato, onion, carrots, celery if I have it, sauteed. Homemade veggie broth and coconut milk, plenty of yellow curry powder. Big handful of chopped greens for last few minutes.

I have strawberries under the high bush blueberries. Now that the strawberries are starting to ripen, we went ahead and put up the bird net which protects both of the berries. I have been letting my ducks through that area of the garden for most of the winter and spring, and I can see a definite impact on slug and roly poly populations. The ladies often go there first, and seem very busy eating whatever they are finding. They don't seem interested in the fruit at all, not sure why. And the plants are now well-established enough to withstand a bit of flat-footed tromping.

My biggest problem this year has been too much rain. The berries are rotting before they ripen. They're everbearing, so maybe the next round of blossoms will have a better chance of ripening. Right now, though, it's not looking good, and we have more rain forecasted today and most of next week.

I started my garden with 2 or 3 raised beds because it was in a section of badly degraded soil and my neighbor had some 2x10 planks she was getting rid of. A trailer full of mushroom compost and a little topsoil and I was ready to go the first season living on the property.

However, the wood was old to begin with and in a few years I had to make a decision. New raised beds? Or in-ground? I chose beds that are corrugated tin or some kind of metal, with  braces that go across the short way, for stability. I have been able to expand with more beds, some with scrap lumber and some with black locust logs. As they degrade, I have replaced with more of the metal beds. And my soil, after 10 years and countless barrows of compost and leaf mold, is now as valuable as my house. Well....I mean...you know what I mean.

Anyway, the latest garden expansion is on a slight slope and I decided to create berms and swales, not really deep or high because the slope isn't steep. I have started planting more perennials in the berms; maybe some annual veggies will be tucked in here and there. As the soil gets better, I will put in more berries and flowers and not sure what all.

So, it does depend on what you are planting, what your climate is, what you have to begin with. If you don't know, do a bit of dumpster diving/scavenging and get some free or cheap lumber and just get started with 1 or 2. Then you can decide from there how they work and  if you want to make changes.