Growing your own food

[lady stoneheart]

any other kiwifrens grow (or raise, if you have animals) their own food? i’m sitting in my yard right now eating dinner made with vegetables that i grew, feels good man. i had an incredible year for gardening with a frankly overwhelming yield so i want to hear how others’ went!

i have 5 raised beds. this year i grew cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, eggplants, jalapeños, habaneros, banana peppers, bell peppers, radishes, garlic, asparagus, arugula, butter lettuce, basil, cucumbers, rhubarb, and green beans. i also branched out from just food and started lavender, mint, bergamot, catnip, and rosemary plants, which i will bring inside once it gets cold. unfortunately neither my carrots nor my raspberry bushes produced anything at all, but that’s ok because i have more veggies than myself and my friends/family can eat currently and i still have bags of frozen raspberries from last year.

next year i want to try growing zucchini, something onion-related, and maybe potatoes. also if i can put in a 6th bed i might try to grow some watermelons or something

you should also comment in this thread and tell me how your year went if you have livestock which you eat, or are into even cooler niche stuff like having a beehive/tapping trees/growing fancy mushrooms etc.

 

[MrTroll]

My chicken tendies tree has failed to bear fruit, year after year. Maybe it's the soil.

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

i tired a garden this year for the first time in a while. most of my crops ended up dead. it was pretty quick too. they growing fine then they all turned brown and died. sucks.

 

[lady stoneheart]

i tired a garden this year for the first time in a while. most of my crops ended up dead. it was pretty quick too. they growing fine then they all turned brown and died. sucks.

that is really tragic, any idea what might have happened? over-fertilizing maybe or was it just too hot and dry?

 

[DeadwastePrime]

i wouldnt mind raising chickens for eggs and meat tbh but there are too many stray cats walking around that i dont think it'd work out

 

[Ultrapenguin]

I do to the minimal extent that's feasible for my area, but that winds up being more just herbs, tomatoes, jalapenos, etc, not the kind of thing you could make a meal out of.
In more populated regions it never feels like your area is your area. The second you walk out your back door you're in public, there are fucking people around just eyeing up your plants and shit, spraying lord knows what...I don't like it. It makes you feel uncomfortable using your own property.

 

[Neo-Nazi Rich Evans]

that is really tragic, any idea what might have happened? over-fertilizing maybe or was it just too hot and dry?

the deaths did hapen with the heat wave we had here, so that would be my best guess.

 

[retard strength]

i tired a garden this year for the first time in a while. most of my crops ended up dead. it was pretty quick too. they growing fine then they all turned brown and died. sucks.

Same, it hurts. All that effort... like, fuck it all.

except some of the peppers. they never get very big but at least they have held out.

 

[Mittens]

I do to the minimal extent that's feasible for my area, but that winds up being more just herbs, tomatoes, jalapenos, etc, not the kind of thing you could make a meal out of.

Ditto, I have limited space and limited light. I like growing useful plants but I could never grow enough to feed myself where I am.

Still, fresh basil and such is bussin.

 

[lady stoneheart]

i wouldnt mind raising chickens for eggs and meat tbh but there are too many stray cats walking around that i dont think it'd work out

my neighbors have chickens and there is a stray cat that sometimes hangs out on the roof of their garage watching them. it hasn’t breached the yard yet afaik but if it gets bold enough there could possibly be a disaster lmao


i feel sympathy for all you city folks trying to grow plants. i was a city dweller in my teens and early twenties so i get the appeal and need, but i couldn’t live there again, now i commute an hour to work and back each day basically so i can have a yard. my suggestion for if you don’t have a lot of space but still want to feel like you are getting a meal out of your plant, is to grow a cherry tomato plant instead of regular size ones. you can just go grab 20 at a time off your plant and eat them fresh as a side with anything else, very satisfying to do imo and makes you feel like you have returned to monke

 

[The Feline Solution]

What a coincidence that this thread pops up now, i decided yesterday to set up a small grow space in my kitchen at the end of the month. LED grow lamps don't cost that much nor do they eat electricity like a motherfucker, that and the steep decline in vegetable quality in stores are what finally motivated me to go through with it, had it on my mind for quite some time.

I got limited space so only gonna go for stuff i use on a almost daily basis, so starting with tomatoes, green onions, herbs and chilis. The only worry i have is that shitskins might mistake it for a cannabis grow-op and try to give me shit for it. Not even joking, i live hood, ground-level and streetfacing and dealing is extremly regulated here, one of my neighbours got raided (not by the police) for selling without being connected.

 

[Government Cheese]

Growing some nasty hot peppers this year: Carolina reaper, ghost, Trinidad scorpions.

Along with some normal peppers, tomatoes, kale, squash, beans.

Summer was very hot/dry this year - stressed out a bunch of plants (and me)

 

[dilettante]

Farmers are having serious issues with growing crops right now because of wild weather, which is why vegetable prices in my area have skyrocketed.
I live in a suburb so I've got space, but my soil is all clay, no good for growing produce. Pots/planter beds filled with well-cultivated soil are best. I have a nice herb garden (shits too easy not to plant - mint and dill are literal weeds so they're perfect for a lazy fuck like me. Currently using the dill to pickle cucumbers), spring onions, chillies, habanero, a tiny tangerine tree. I'm trying to plant broad beans right now. Last year I grew squash. Its not much but its nice to watch everything grow, then go out and harvest. Food you grow yourself tastes so much cleaner.
There are some people who grow produce (not weed) with hydroponics, which could be interesting if you have the time/energy/money.

 

[Darkholme's Dungeon]

Farmers are having serious issues with growing crops right now because of wild weather, which is why vegetable prices in my area have skyrocketed.
I live in a suburb so I've got space, but my soil is all clay, no good for growing produce. Pots/planter beds filled with well-cultivated soil are best. I have a nice herb garden (shits too easy not to plant - mint and dill are literal weeds so they're perfect for a lazy fuck like me. Currently using the dill to pickle cucumbers), spring onions, chillies, habanero, a tiny tangerine tree. I'm trying to plant broad beans right now. Last year I grew squash. Its not much but its nice to watch everything grow, then go out and harvest. Food you grow yourself tastes so much cleaner.
There are some people who grow produce (not weed) with hydroponics, which could be interesting if you have the time/energy/money.

Try a raised bed cultivation. Helps with drainage issues if you live in a wet area.
Hydroponics is unfortunately only viable for some things, other plants don't root well in it or for other reasons fail (like trees being way to large usually).
I'm experimenting with some hydroponic grow stuff and dwarf trees, I might be able to get properly grown lemons, pomegranates, and maybe figs.
Lots of messing around with apical dominance however since I'm using an inverted V wire trellis for growing the limbs and was dumb.

 

[FatalTater]

One place I used to live in had hard packed clay soil.
I didn't want to deal with pots and raised beds, so I dug holes that were about the size of the pot I would need and filled them with potting soil. It was the only way I got anything to grow there, and it worked wonderfully.
The loose potting soil let the roots spread out but the plants could get nutrients from the clay.

 

[Blobby's Murder Knife]

i wouldnt mind raising chickens for eggs and meat tbh but there are too many stray cats walking around that i dont think it'd work out

All you have to do is have a good coop and run system set up. There are lots of guides on the internet about predator proofing them. Main thing is always make sure your coop is locked up at night with all your birds in it (they will get in the coop themselves, don't have to chase them or anything) and there is no way a predator can get in. It is a completely closed system off the ground and preferably the door padlocked. Make sure there is no way to dig under the run with a good swath of hardware cloth and some large rocks or bricks on the top as an additional deterrent. The run and coop area should also be top netted so that hawks, eagles, and owls don't eat your future chicken tendies. Everything loves chicken, including chicken. They are happy cannibals if the opportunity arises. But they are fun to keep, they all develop their own weird little chicken personalities, and you don't have to worry about egg shortages if you get the correct breed for what you want and your climate. If you are just raising something like cornish crosses for meat, that is 8 weeks of hell because they are eating and shitting machines. But at 8 weeks they are slaughter weight and you can fill your freezer for the rest of the year on it. If you are so enterprising, you can also compost or sell the manure. It is a very good and popular fertilizer.

In the nearly three years since I started keeping chickens, I have only had one loss to a raccoon because I forgot the close up the coop like a retard one night and then I was very lucky it was just the one! Otherwise, never had real problems with predation.

If you don't want to have to worry about all this shit, I might suggest quail instead. They don't need a coop, just a covered and secure enclosure, indoors or outdoors. They start laying eggs at 8 weeks and also ready for slaughter then. Their space requirements are far more minimal, they won't try to rip up your garden because you will never let them out for any reason (they have no roosting instinct and are absolutely retarded outside of their enclosure), and you literally just harvest them with a good pair of poultry shears in your kitchen sink. You can also have the option to sell them to hunters to train their bird dogs with.

 

[lady stoneheart]

Growing some nasty hot peppers this year: Carolina reaper, ghost, Trinidad scorpions.

very cool, i was disappointed this year as either something went wrong or i fucked up, and neither my jalapeños nor habaneros came out with any spice. they are still tasty but zero heat. idk what could cause such a thing but i may try spicier peppers next year, would be very fun to make my own hot sauce to my specific flavor preferences

all you people growing fruit trees are awesome, i used to have an apple tree but sadly killed it as it took up too much space and i couldn’t use all the apples so they just rotted on the ground attracting wasps and alcoholic raccoons. a dream of mine would be to acquire more space so that i can have a hothouse and grow fruit trees and some cool exotic flowers.

my suggestion to anyone dealing with tightly packed clay soil has already been mentioned in this thread, make raised beds of course. if you are cheap like me and not particularly bothered by aesthetics, you can use literally any kind of free trash lumber to build them. and your local dump may have dirt which you can take for free or cheap which comes from people dropping off lawn clippings/leaves. that’s what i did, and then bought some gross fish fertilizer and manure and enriched the soil myself.

 

[Darkholme's Dungeon]

One place I used to live in had hard packed clay soil.
I didn't want to deal with pots and raised beds, so I dug holes that were about the size of the pot I would need and filled them with potting soil. It was the only way I got anything to grow there, and it worked wonderfully.
The loose potting soil let the roots spread out but the plants could get nutrients from the clay.

You lucky bastard. I used to live somewhere where the claypan was so hard we broke an auger trying to dig about 3 inches in.

f you don't want to have to worry about all this shit, I might suggest quail instead. They don't need a coop, just a covered and secure enclosure, indoors or outdoors. They start laying eggs at 8 weeks and also ready for slaughter then. Their space requirements are far more minimal, they won't try to rip up your garden because you will never let them out for any reason (they have no roosting instinct and are absolutely retarded outside of their enclosure),

There's one "upside" to that and it's to see how they get killed if you're a sadist.

One of my old bosses had some guinea fowl at our location near a busy road since we had tick issues.
One died from getting head stuck in the tractor engine while it was idling as we tried to fix the engine.
Another ran off into the road and got hit by a semi
One that died to getting stuck in the pump enclosure(it should've been checked more but I was out sick for a month) and starving to death even though there was a hole for it to fly out of.
One died because it chased too many a customer around and one decided to put it down with a 1911.

very cool, i was disappointed this year as either something went wrong or i fucked up, and neither my jalapeños nor habaneros came out with any spice

Too much water, high nitrogen fertilizer, not full sun, no cross pollination is/are usually the issue.
Check soil pH and soil minerals content with a soil test at your local state extention (specifically check Sulfur and Magnesium iirc).
Capsaicin (and nicotine) is a defense compound produced under stress so it may be worthwhile to stress out the plants just a little to induce higher concentrations. I am not aware of any studies on this.

 

[Sammich]

Here is a great resource I use for canning/pickling.






https://nchfp.uga.edu/

 

[Col]

Things I have grown in the past: Melon, Strawberries, Potatoes, Peaches, Mangoes
Things I am currently growing: Olives, Plums, Green Onions, Tomatoes

The thing is there is a difference between having food producing plants and creating a self-sustaining system including keeping you well nutritioned enough to maintain it. (Hint you need a family)
Have my infographics.


How to make a fish farm: