ddat... yep... grass clippings very good, high in nitrogen.
I don't bag mine, just let them fertilize the yard...
I have a brother in law... that has a farm and raises cattle and has some huge hay fields. He always has a bar full of hay... and late in the spring... like in April... just before he is getting ready to cut his first hay for the year... he has some of last years hay still in the barn (and he is ready to get rid of that) to make room for the new..
He sells it to me cheap.. or just plain old gives it to me.
Hay that is a little stale... (and cheap or free)... is ideal for mulching garden beds.
I used to worry that if I mulched with hay that a lot of seed would germinate from the hay (hay has seed in it).. but that does not happen.
Or happens very little anyway. My food forest bed has been mulched with hay all year, and it is rare for me to find anything sprouting up thru it...
It helps to retain the moisture... I have not watered my food forest plants all year... apple trees, peach tree, apricot tree, black berry bushes, raspberries, strawberries, goumi, jujube, even watermelons, and peppers... have grown all year and are doing great with no watering.
the past month or so, it has been quite HOT and DRY... and they are still looking good.
Hey Woodsrunner... the guys from HossTools posted this video yesterday... on how to keep your garden practically weed free.
He says the same thing I did.. shallow cultivating is key.
If you have a large garden, check out their wheel hoe tool - it sure makes cleaning up the between row space easy.
finished up putting up the corn yesterday,ended up with a hundred and eight quarts,thats enough to have corn a couple of times a week for the rest of the year,garden is pretty well done now ,maters got to wet rotted on the plant while still green,will get somemore green beans though.
How do you all put it up ? blanch and freeze in qt freezer bags ? (cut from cob) ?
Or do you actually water bath can it, or pressure can it ?
I have a bunch of stuff put up in the freezer, lots of pints of loganberries, blackberries, tomato soup, fish, some lamb and deer, beef and chicken...
We have a extra freezer in the garage, an upright and it is near full of stuff like that. I am going to put up some deer meat too when season opens.
But I want to put up quite a bit of stuff that does not require electricity (refrigeration, or freezing) to keep... by canning ,or pressure canning.
We did our first run in our 23 qt presto pressure canner last week.. 7 quarts of beef stew... and man it turned out good.
They say it is good for at least a couple years, just sitting on the pantry shelf.
I have okra, black eyed peas and green beans growing like crazy in the garden now... and I plan to pressure can as much of that as I can.
Pulling up my canteloup vines this weekend, and will plant beets, carrots, some spinach and collards... planning to can some beets and carrots too.
I have seen people on youtube canning green beans and potatoes together... sounds like a good combo to me. I may try some of that.
Just wondering what all else you might have put back for the winter, or the next years food supply.
I know you have a bunch of Crappie, and Corn.. for sure.
we used to pressure can a lot,now we blanch the corn for 5 min.s then cut it off the cob,then vacuum seal it,it takes up a lot less space in the freezer and it will last for years..
Yes Chief... I agree that is a good way to put up corn. We do some of that too.... but we also leave some on the cob... I just like corn on the cob... and we blanch it, and then freeze the hold corn on the cob in gal zip lock freezer bags... can get around a dozen ears in a gal bag. It does take up a lot of space in the freezer, compared to cutting it off the cob... but I really like eating it that way.
If some of these Preppers are right... and a SHTF situation is coming soon... the GRID is going down... no electricity... serious food shortages...
I think all this corona stuff has a lot of folks scared that something really bad is coming...
If something like that does happen... or if we just have a big ice storm and the electric is out for a week or two... all that stuff we have in the fridge, freezer is gone.
Having a good supply of pressure canned stuff which requires no electric to store for a few years... would be very welcome.
Ways you could store food, fairly long term without Elect... I am looking to diversify in to that some.
Pressure Canning or water bath canning (where applicable)..
Dehydrating
Would also be nice to have a GOOD root cellar, where you could store root crops, or even some fruit like apples, pears... and some fermented foods.
We are going to be building a new home here in the next year or so... and a root cellar will be in my plans this time around.
If you do a root cellar right... so it stays cool and dry... and no sunlight (dark).. I am sure that can make a big difference in how well root crops and other stuff store and stay for fresh eating for months...
I will have to research root cellars some and find out the best way to set those up.
if they develop a safe vaccine, this virus will be gone, and on the trash heap of history like Y2K.
then all the lawsuits will come, i am sure the lawyers are all ready preparing
I have considered a generator... but wonder if that would not just be a rather short term thing...
If the elect went out long term... not sure you could get fuel for your generator.... so after you burn up (what ever you have there)... that generator is no good without fuel.
I hear that you can get them that run on propane... gas or diesel... if you had a big propane tank (500 -1000 gal)... and you could run your generator on that... that should keep it going for a good while. If things are bad enough that there is no Electric... would there be people to bring you propane ?
I have also considered solar... I guess that would the only way to really be somewhat independent with a power source.
Me.. I am sure hoping that we don't see a time (in my lifetime) where it gets bad enough, that a lot of the USA is without Electric.
That would not be nice.
TN, I clicked on the video link and got an error message to restart my computer, I'll try again tomorrow. Actually, I probably mis-stated my real issue in that it's not so much weeds but this grass that's taking over everywhere here. I think it's the invasive Japanese stilt grass but haven't determined that for sure. It grows everywhere; along the creek, in the woods where ample sun filters through...and not just my property but also the trails I run. Everywhere!
Where the tree canopy is intact, it's not so prevalent.
The last honey-hole I discovered earlier this year, that damn grass is working it's way up the slope. I posted the photo of the 3-prong you commented on and that plant and others are going to be consumed soon I'm afraid. BTW, I harvested 12 very red berries off that plant and 8 more from plants nearby a few evenings ago. That's by far the most berries I've gotten from one plant so far.
