International edible gardening

Discussion in 'Edible Gardening' started by colne, Mar 30, 2014.

  1. colne

    colne Super Gardener

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    I would love to hear from anyone, in Britain or not, who are planting now.

    I am planting more banana plants today. This winter had a very hard freeze (three solid days of my bird bath staying frozen, getting down to -8 C, 18 F) and killed them down to the ground but they will come back from the roots. An acquaintance wanted a dozen of his removed so yesterday we dug those, with some gingers, a buckeye tree, 4 Oclocks, and paper bush from his garden. I got most of those planted in a new banana grove I am beginning and am thinking of beginning a third banana grove back in the woods with the three I kept to put somewhere else.

    My fruit trees are beginning to leaf out - every day there is more growing. My earliest plums have flowered before any others and will not have been pollinated. They are 'satsuma' plums and need a different variety for pollination. Now my damson has just opened a couple buds and my Methley has its first leaves sprouting. All out of synch, but all just planted from dry root stock in the last 12 months.

    The blackberries, planted last year, are exploding with leaves and buds, soon will be flowering - and the veg going in.

    I am making the guy who gave us the bananas a lemon meringue pie now with fruit from his tree as a thank you and the crust has just finished browning - so off to bake and then plant. (I keep 12 chickens so everyone gets some eggs as a thankyou - I use 6 in each pie.)
     
  2. colne

    colne Super Gardener

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    Does anyone grow multiplying onions? They were a standard thing here in the USA South - like a cross of a shallot and a green onion. You plant a single, very small, onion bulb in September and then eat the green part till late spring when they make more bulbs to keep to plant later, and to eat. (a bag of sets cost $2 from the farm store)

    Or so I have read. Mine reproduced excellently but never made bulbs, just fat white ends, and now are all making seeds. So I am drying about half of the crop. This dryer holds about 5 pounds which is about what is shown here (I am trying to put in a photo) The cleaning of them is easy, snip off root, peel outer layer which removes the sand, dip in the big pot of water, and slice. The photo is on my truck tail gate where I clean my fish, butcher chickens, and process veg because it makes an excellent table under my house and outside where everything can be cleaned up later with the garden hose.

    Oops, the post will not accept a photo of onion drying. I do not have the time registered and stuff to allow ne to post a link - if anyone has advice on posting from flickr I would appriceate it.

    I plan to dry 10 lbs of onions which dries down to about 1 pound - maybe less, but a fair bulk of them. Many years ago we made our living in the Far North collecting wild gourmet foods commercially, and often drying them. I dry some stuff here and plan to expand that to all kinds of edibles.
     
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    • Marley Farley

      Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

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      Hi Colne, well Bananas don't overwinter well outside here I am afraid.. I grow most of my veg now in a poly tunnel, here is a link.. http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/marleys-tunnel.51721/ I have strawberries in flower in there now..

      Around here... Plums and Gages are in blossom here as are Cherries.. Pears are just opening the first few leaves for me and the apple buds are just starting to move a little now.. Raspberries are coming into leaf as well.. Blackberries shooting away..

      Yes we grow Shallots, onions from sets, I am wondering if the green onions you are talking about are perpetual onions.. I used to have some but they got wiped out sadly..

      Do post some pictures, but you need to use a different host as Flickr doesn't seem to work on here.. Photobucket is free & popular with members, or you can attach them from your PC..
       
    • colne

      colne Super Gardener

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      trying an image ----------

      Failed with this:

      The following error occurred:
      Sorry, you were not able to save since the content contained a link

      For this Forum, before you can create content with links, you must first meet the minimum requirements

      Minimum Requirements
      The number of posts you have created must exceed: 2 (Yours: 26)
      The number of Likes you've received must exceed: 1 (Yours: 12)
      The Like:Post Ratio must exceed: 0% (Yours: 46%)
      The number of days you have been registered must exceed: 1 (Yours: 1)


      they may be perpetual onions - so many kinds - potato onions, traveling onions, Egyptian onions, all together in google, and apparently all different too.

      Big poly tunnel Marley, now you need some chickens. I am thinking of getting an incubator - the cheapest one is a still air that I could add a used computer fan to, and a manual group egg turner. Cost $39. The reason would be to raise meat birds as well as my egg hens. Actually I would probably get a thermostat and use a light bulb and an $2 Styrofoam cooler. (I am a builder so make things.)
       
    • shiney

      shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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      Welcome to GC. You should be able to put up pictures now :blue thumb:. The software doesn't allow you to do so in the first day or two.

      I put mine up by adding them through the 'Upload a File' link at the bottom of my post. To do this the size of the file mustn't be too big. I find that as my photos are less than 1.5MB the software on here will reduce them automatically. If their too big you will have to reduce them first. Most computers will have software for reducing them. :)

      http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/uploading-a-picture-in-a-post.89/
       
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      • Marley Farley

        Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

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        Hi Colne,
        I used to keep chickens, but now my S in L has lots of chickens up at the farm so I thankfully don't need to any more.. Great birds but a huge tie so happy with them at the farm..

        As for your photos either do what shiney suggests or sign up with a free host.. Photobucket.com Tinypics.com and Postimage.org are all free & very good.. I use Photobucket or Postimage both are secure & easy to use..
         
      • Marley Farley

        Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

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        You know I was just thinking Colne, if the herb mix you had in an omelette in France I reckon it would have been "Fines Herbs" The ingredients of which are usually...
        In equal quantities..
        Tarragon
        Chervil
        Chives
        Parsley
        Thyme

        I have also used this combination which is a bit different...
        Parsley, Oregano, Shallots, Tarragon, Basil, Thyme, Marjoram, Chives.

        Fresh or dried..
         
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        • colne

          colne Super Gardener

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          The herb mixture said specifically for omelets but it would have been based around fines herbs. I have never successfully grown chervil - tried many times but never had luck; old seeds though.

          I am finishing off my onions right now. I have found that if one lets the dried things sit the ones not quite finished will spread the moisture to the dried ones (they will suck it out) and then you finish the lot - and that is what I am doing before cutting another five pounds.

          As far as downloading from ones own computer - does it then carry tags and such leading back to you personally? Does going through an intermediary like photobucket help make pictures anonymous?

          Shiney,
          I put mine up by adding them through the 'Upload a File' link at the bottom of my post.

          If you right click a photo in a post it is amazing how much data is there.
           
        • Marley Farley

          Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

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          You can be anonymous to a point on Photobucket if you want.. Decide on a username & make it one no one else would link to you & set up an account.. Make it private in your set up preferences..

          If you are talking about the excif data in photos then yes it is there unless you have it turned off on your camera..
          From a bucket album this is what it gives away.. The album.. Photo name or number if your own photo so pretty anonymous.. So for this pic of the trug its data is this..
          http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n158/marfarsalbum/IMG_1866_zps3d7f5019.jpg
          The photo....
          [​IMG]

          If you are using a photo from somewhere else other than your own it could say where it came from.. As with the next one...
          http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/...cken_by_flipflopninja-d33xot9_zps275f34fd.jpg
          [​IMG]
           
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          • Scrungee

            Scrungee Well known for it

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            Yes, if posting pics of a shed full of gardening equipment (mowers, rotavators, chainsaws, generators, brushcutters, etc), cabinet full of firearms, room full of antiques, etc., it's always a good idea to remove the GPS co-ordinates from the EXIF data.
             
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            • shiney

              shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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              There's an enormous amount of data but none of it is relevant. It's about what is already showing on the page or technical details about the photo. I don't think there's anything that I would wish to remain private.

              Maybe one of our techies will correct me if I'm wrong. :)
               
            • colne

              colne Super Gardener

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              So if I just link straight from my computer it will not give my computer name? My old camera has no GPS. I worked for years in the remote far North forests going way back without trails every day and no GPS, how we dreamed of such a thing; but then I can go back into the woods, wander 15 miles without trails, and come back out at my vehicle or camp - or could, too old now. (we actively dead reckoned off compass, solar and celestial navigation - and topography and landmarks - it is not just having a good 'sense of direction)

              But am still not allowed to link anyway. Just in to look something up - I am buying a super aggressive mowing machine and had some e-mails to answer. I will be starting a small, specialized, yard care service - brush whacking, excessively deep grass mowing, and some tree removal.

              And wile having a cup of tea want to say: My guava is alive! I had uprooted it as the bark had even died and was cracking off the trunk, the branches tinder dry. But still I stuffed it into a large pot with some wet compost a month ago, knowing how some roots have a life of their own. And the trunk, right at the root line has shoots coming up! I was very pleased - I had bought that plant last May as virtually dead in its pot, dried to the bone, for a couple dollars and nursed it back to health and a nice bush sized - and thought of a couple guavas this year. Then the freeze killed it... Now it is replanted in its old spot which I had put a tiny raised bed over for this season, and a tomato plant.
               
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              • colne

                colne Super Gardener

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                [​IMG]

                My main terraces going down to the pond - just a picture to experiment on with posting from flickr, very annoying the way they changed the format. Those are bare blackberry beds, much more green now. The cloth covered thing on the right is a covered banana.

                [​IMG]

                Some of the dogs.
                 
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                • colne

                  colne Super Gardener

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                  The above pictures looked so gray and washed out, winter is very present in those - the strawberries still dead roots, the 15 blackberry bushes in those pictures invisible without their leaves. The top picture, front rt corner, of the pond is canna lilies in the water, all dead above the water - now up and green. There is a bald cypress growing from water in that corner too - but being a deciduous conifer the needles gone and so invisible too.

                  but this is the best winter picture, the side banana grove with the really hard freeze - This picture is exactly reminiscent of Afghani women in their blue and black burquas from my distant past. I have added another dozen bananas, gingers, paper trees, Chickasaw plum, palms, and something round and root like I dug up that I had no idea what it was but it was large - to this grove just recently. Spring is already transforming it.

                  Hi fern4. I had a very big day and all kinds of gardening things are afoot. I am starting a very small, one man, brush cutting business and arranged the money for it today - and I bought a $39 egg incubator and am going to raise meat chickens as well as my hens. I am giving up the carpentry - and begining landscaping in a small way. Or brush clearing really, possibly tree removal too because I do that a bit - I took out two fair sized trees last week.

                  [​IMG]
                   
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                  • colne

                    colne Super Gardener

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                    trucks and trucks of leaves - there are bags of them out in piles all over in the town. I bring home 3000+ pounds of them a year to compost, this year I will collect 5-6 thousand pounds.

                    [​IMG] My truck with leaves people put out at the street for the garbage collection. Now is when our main tree, the live oak - a truly massive tree, and a spectacularly beautiful tree, sheds its leaves. The leaves are oval and stack densely like playing cards in the bags. A good bag weighs up to 30 lbs. I get up to 20 bags a load. I used all last years compost months ago so am really going amuck this year.

                    Compost is a bit of work though. The leaves have to be wet. One bag is dumped out and a person uses a rake and pushes them back and forth as the other sprays them with water - it takes a couple hours for a truck and you get very wet. Dry leaves shed water like shingles so just mummify and never rot. I have a well I put in cheaply ($60 and plenty of work) because the water aquifer is at 45 foot so in the limit of jetting in a well casing.

                    [​IMG]

                    Composting using my two stage process: kept wet in a stack 4 foot deep for months, then worked and turned for the rest of the year by the chickens to keep it biologically active. This is three stages - bagged leaves, the corral that has been filled, and then collapsed several times as the water and gravity causes it to settle - till one can stand on the pile without sinking (2-3 thousand pounds of leaves) then the side opened and the chickens began digging into it and spread it all over the ground and keep turning it. They are tiny digging robots and could move the Sahara given the time.
                     
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