What can I say? This week was a success in some aspects and a failure in others. Most, if not all the transplants I put out last week has been eaten up by slugs or the birds pulled it out of the ground. The failed transplants were squash, zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkin and beans. The radishes and turnips have turned pithy when I cooked them for dinner. Luckily, I was able to use the green leaves in soup. Fortunately, I have learned there are plants that had to be direct sow or a few weeks after the last frost and it includes all the plants that were destroyed by the slugs or birds. I will have to plan a better spacing method for radishes and turnips. It seems that planting them in 10 gallon pots did not fare well.
These are the factors that influenced our decisions with the planning and strategy for the homestead. Did we succeed in regards to those factors?
- Age: We must be able to work on our homestead well into old age. That means we have to look at methods and practices outside of the traditional norms. We have implemented measures to ensure that our age will not be too much of a hindrance in our quest for low maintenance homestead. We’ve used planters, grow trays, and mostly no-dig concept to ensure that we do not have to till soil annually or spend all of our time fighting the weeds.
- Sustainable: We want to have a closed loop method of giving nutrients to our plants without chemical fertilizers. We have three 300 gallon trough that we will be using to raise trout. We will use the fish waste and the filters during cleaning to water and fertilize our vegetables. The end of the summer will indicate how successful we are with this idea.
- Physical limitations: This might be in the same category as “age” but it cannot be stressed enough that we both have physical limitations and anything we plan will have to be factored in. The answer will be the same as the “age” factor in number one. I do believe that age and physical limitations are one and the same…as one ages one will develop physical limitations.
- Pacific Northwest: Any plants or veggies or plans we have will have to factor the weather of the Pacific Northwest. So, I think I’ve made decent choices with regards to vegetables and perennials that are appropriate for the PNW.
Learning objectives:
- I want to learn about myogas (Japanese Ginger) growth requirements. According to my discovery, myogas likes damp, shady, humid, cool growing conditions.
- I want to learn the theory and process of tending a myoga garden plot residing within a home garden space. Still in observation status since it has only been about 2 weeks since the myogas in the greenhouse has started to grow.
- I want to learn the origins and health benefits of myoga. Myogas are from the Japan, Korea and China. Japan is the only country that treats myoga as a crop. It’s noted for its’ health benefits such as: combating malaria and intestinal parasites...amongst other things.
- I want to learn how to start self sufficient farm with an emphasis on myoga. My quest for a self sufficient farm has been an ongoing process with a lot of trials and error. I have learned to adjust and adapt to new knowledge and growing requirements.