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Eh, you can do it the hard way, or the fantastically lazy way. We just grow tangles - basic trellis of offcut branches, and then seed with a variety of compleme
by madaxe_again 5y ago
Eh, you can do it the hard way, or the fantastically lazy way. We just grow tangles - basic trellis of offcut branches, and then seed with a variety of complementary species, a few sacrificial pest magnets, and a few pest repellers. Irrigation is all automated drip, no feed - river (lovely and clean - there’s very little upstream of us, no industry) floods our garden each winter, does the job nicely.
What grows, grows, what doesn’t, doesn’t - and this year, even through a bitter drought, we have enough that we’re giving it away. Harvesting involves rummaging, so it isn’t exactly scalable - but for feeding a household, it’s perfect.
We have deer and boar here - so we also plant hemlock around the border of the garden, which they stay well away from. Also helps to piss on their trails nearby - discourages them from visiting. The boar, we actually take advantage of - there’s a meadow they love to turn over every spring, digging for tubers - which we then throw potatoes in.
I mean, outside of that, off grid life is humblingly challenging - but I’ve never been in better shape, and growing food is easy enough if you just let nature do its thing.
- zhynn 5y agoI like your description of "pest magnets", I have been referring to them as plant tanks. My overgrown raspberries tank the japanese beetles for the blueberries. Plus the yield of the raspberries isn't significantly dented by the japanese beetles. My favorite piece of equipment is my wood chipper: I can turn all of the delivery boxes into mulch. And yard waste. And... basically any other biomass that will turn to dirt in 6-12 months. We are not off-grid (dude, that's so much work). But I build most of my projects out of found materials (raised beds out of old fencing, etc). I tried my hand at making a basket out of grape vine, but grape vines are really "shreddy" and the basket is no fun to use. I was going to try coppicing some willow next -- baskets are really useful. It's a fun hobby, but I am lazy. And I still end up with too much produce (though I have a lot of space, so that makes it easier).
- madaxe_again 5y agoAgreed on the wood chipper - we’ve fed vast volumes of organic waste through ours as we’ve 8ha of badly overdense and bramble/suspended dead wood choked woodland to manage, and the mulch is dead handy for paths and garden beds - our soil is very low in carbon, so everything helps. Re: weaving, vines are impossible, rett them first - soak ‘em, maybe in lye, and then pound them with a rock to get fibres. Baskets, willow works great - we’ve goat willow all over, here, and use it for smaller stuff. Bigger stuff we use olive, as green it’s supple and dry it’s like a rock, and very rot resistant - we’ve made half baskets on a steep hill slope to catch runoff and encourage tree growth - the oldest ones (two years) are hosting self-seeded oak saplings now, which is kinda cool.
- mikro2nd 5y agoWe just had a Porcupine break into the protective cages to dig up and eat our entire Potato crop last night. It can be challenging.
- giantg2 5y agoI hear they can be used as a substitute for beef in stews.
- mikro2nd 5y agoAnd the vegetarian option is.... ;)
- sprkwd 5y agoGet rid of the Porcu- and keep the -pine? :)
- harpersealtako 5y agoFinding an adventurous gardener friend who is willing to trade you fresh veggies for a dead porcupine
- madaxe_again 5y agoGrow chilli peppers amidst your spuds. That should do the job.