Comments for Humble Garden

Comment on Early Blight on my Tomatoes by Nika

Nika — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:28:33 +0000

Kathy: I grew these huge turnips one year then found them eaten through by worms :-(. I have not had the heart to grow them again.

Yeah climate change is especially hard on us small growers because we can afford moderating green houses to help with the huge amount of rain and long cold springs.

Its going to be hard for a long time to come. Recognizing this now and adopting an experimentalist attitude will help. I think farmers in the NE will have to plant for several zones each year and then hope that there will be some happy medium somewhere in there. We need to observe whats working year to year so that we are realistic about what we can grow.

For me, I think its possible that growing tomatoes without some sort of covering overhead to cut out some of this torrential rainfall will make tomatoes impractical.

make any sense?

Comment on Early Blight on my Tomatoes by kathy harrison

kathy harrison — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:14:33 +0000

I am so sorry!!! My tomatoes look good so far but near neighbors have blight and apparently it is going after the potaoes as well. I just pulled my early turnips and got less tha 3 cups of mashed turnips from the whole plot. I am going to replant but I have no idea what the virus that got them is. They were also hit by some type of boring beetle. How ironic that climate change would hit the smale scale gardener. I always assumed it would be the big guys to go down first.

Comment on Making chevre cheese from our home-milked goat milk by Nika

Nika — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:06:20 +0000

Kristi: Will you be able to do any nursing at all? Your baby will need to have colostrum in his/her first days for a properly functioning immune system. What do your docs say?

We did not give our little guy goat milk (not formula) until he was past 1 years old - when he had stopped drinking formula and had transitioned onto cows milk (thats when we realized his intolerance to pasturized cows milk).

I didnt have to solve the problem of finding goats milk formula so I do not know if there even is a source of it and if there is, whether it is actually a good one!

Let me request one thing tho! Do NOT feed your child any soy formula and then when older, no soy milks or other products.

Sorry I could not help you more re: goats milk formula!

Comment on Making chevre cheese from our home-milked goat milk by kristi

kristi — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:58:38 +0000

hi, i am interested to know if you fed baby o goats milk formula? i am due with our 4th in 3 weeks and would love to be able to give her our own fresh goats milk. i am unable to nurse due to a surgery i had several years ago. ANY information or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
thank you so much..
kristi c

thanks again

Comment on The Backyard Homestead - A Review by Nika

Nika — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:32:07 +0000

Yikes, yeah, that will do it! I totally know about the homebody business, am exactly the same way!

Comment on The Backyard Homestead - A Review by kathy harrison

kathy harrison — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:16:18 +0000

We are a lot cooler-just not in a good way. We live in a river valley and get frost when no one else does. I would love to visit. I just know that every time I plan something there is some big thing that needs doing. I am turning into a dreadful homebody. We have been invited to a family reunion for the first of July and I hate to leave the peas.

Comment on The Backyard Homestead - A Review by Nika

Nika — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:07:25 +0000

Kathy: Do you mean that you think you all are cooler than we are? We live up at 1100 feet and get snow and ice when the bottom of the hill (Brimfield) is still dry and unfrozen. They also get leaves before we do! We are constantly fighting the cold!

I definitely recommend this book, thumbs up from me! Storey puts out great stuff all around.

Your welcome to visit the garden if you wanna see how it looks in person. Just dont mind the chaos - have young kids!

Comment on The Backyard Homestead - A Review by kathy harrison

kathy harrison — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:00:35 +0000

Carleen Madigan is one of my favorite people. I am so glad to see the positive review. Your garden photos are such an inspiration to me. I am definately doing more season extenders nest year. We are close ijn terms of geography but miles apart in zone. My beans are 3 inches and my tomatoes are maybe 10 inches tall.

Comment on Cold New England gardening - an update by Nika

Nika — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:00:29 +0000

Judith:

Nice to meet you! We live in Wales, next to Brimfield (not sure how far Holden is). You are welcome to come and check out the garden beds (and chickens and goats). I trained for Transition back in November (Cambridge) so it would be double fantastic to meet you and perhaps we can get some juice going here in this region!

We do indeed have loads of greens! Am pulling a patch of mesclun (fed to pastured chickens today) to make room for something else that fixes nitrogen, that spot was looking sort of anemic

Comment on Cold New England gardening - an update by Judith Haran

Judith Haran — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:46:51 +0000

I am so inspired by what you’re doing, I just have to ask, might you be located somewhere in Central Massachusetts? I live in Holden, near Worcester, and would really, really like to meet a like minded soul who lives within a 10-20 mile radius of here. (Just joined Transition MA and convinced my neighbor to join also - he’s not ready to become active yet.) I would love to see your raised beds in action. We just created some that are surrounded by one layer of concrete blocks, and I’m thinking we’re going to have to redo them after this season because we didn’t protect the bottoms from all those tunnelling creatures. I’d love to find out more about your design. Yours look so productive, you must have more greens than you know what to do with by now!