Anyone planning a big food garden in case this pandemic lasts?

Jade Dragon said:
This won't be over until we have a vaccine. Some fear this may become seasonal and will be back next year if it settles.
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I tend to agree. Near-instant tests and a safe, effective cure would have the same effect.

Here's something else to consider: everyone gets it. The survivors are immune.
 
When I lived in upstate NY I has a 30'x80' plot, a rear tine roto-tiller and grew all my vegetables. Canned 80 quarts of tomatoes and sauce. Big freezer stocked for the off seasons. My 2 acres had 15" deep topsoil; beautiful Honoye silt loam. Even started some walnut trees.

Moved to the Piedmont, NC and its all "red dirt", drains poorly. My 1/3 acre lot is great for growing grass, trees and ornamentals but I can't grow food here to save my life. I tried raised beds with rotted leaf mulch, micro-dip watering, trellis systems... What I have managed to grow gets eaten up by the deer.

Up in the mountains we have a lot of trees and therefore shade. My lawn is literally ten feet wide and around only two sides of the house. Soil drains well and is all virgin deciduous forest. I do have a small area that I will garden when I retire but not being there most of the time makes serious gardening nearly impossible.
 
Jade Dragon said:
Northern Michigan, a bit south of Thatowlwoman.
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Cool, I thought it was somewhere in that area..

I usually pass on greens now/last few years as I had a horrible infestation of stink bugs~was my own fault though.. I grew blue curly kale & after the usual run it kept growing & I wanted to see what would happen.:palm:

The curly leaves turned leathery collard like (flat) & plant shot up to about 6ft before flowering.. A bug magnet...

Lettuce here is a slug magnet as well as we can only grow it when it's cooler~which is wet here also..

Good luck on your garden this year & the peace & solace it provides..
 
Dutch Uncle said:
I tend to agree. Near-instant tests and a safe, effective cure would have the same effect.

Here's something else to consider: everyone gets it. The survivors are immune.
Click to expand...

Many are saying/wondering if they actually are immune or still susceptible to a second + wave in the fall, like the Camp Funston flu..
 
Dark Soul said:
When I lived in upstate NY I has a 30'x80' plot, a rear tine roto-tiller and grew all my vegetables. Canned 80 quarts of tomatoes and sauce. Big freezer stocked for the off seasons. My 2 acres had 15" deep topsoil; beautiful Honoye silt loam. Even started some walnut trees.

Moved to the Piedmont, NC and its all "red dirt", drains poorly. My 1/3 acre lot is great for growing grass, trees and ornamentals but I can't grow food here to save my life. I tried raised beds with rotted leaf mulch, micro-dip watering, trellis systems... What I have managed to grow gets eaten up by the deer.

Up in the mountains we have a lot of trees and therefore shade. My lawn is literally ten feet wide and around only two sides of the house. Soil drains well and is all virgin deciduous forest. I do have a small area that I will garden when I retire but not being there most of the time makes serious gardening nearly impossible.
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Will you be needing a 10ft fence topped w/ barbed wire to keep the deer out of it??? lol
 
Bill said:
Will you be needing a 10ft fence topped w/ barbed wire to keep the deer out of it??? lol
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No kidding. I figured on putting an electric fence about deer nose high but last time I looked int that the units were made for a fence about a mile long, not 100 feet or so.
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
First I have to rebuild the greenhouse! But yes, this year's garden was already scheduled to be bigger, badder, and better than ever. I bought several of these last year:

https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-HG...nting+bag&qid=1585824396&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-7

Seeds were ordered in January. I'll be starting them indoors this month. We can't really put stuff out (other than inside the greenhouse) until after the first of June. So plenty of time for starts. We're growing the usual annual herbs, Roma tomatoes, jalapenos, peas, potatoes, onions, garlic, summer & winter squash, wax and scarlet runner beans, sunflowers, nasturiums, maybe some container sweet corn too.

What are you growing, Jade?
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Not sure yet but will start with lettuces in the aerogrow.
 
Jade Dragon said:
From my experience, the best stock is when doors open early when they have senior and those with underlying condition days. Found a bottle of sanitizer and 8 pack double roll of Charmin. You could only buy 1 or two of high demand items. What pissed me off is the hoarding of the Kleenex brand wet wipes. They won't do shit against a virus but they suit some of my daily OCD uses fine. You can't find them much at all even online.
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Yeah, Costco doors will have just opened, and apparently it will have been the time to be there.
 
Bill said:
Cool, I thought it was somewhere in that area..

I usually pass on greens now/last few years as I had a horrible infestation of stink bugs~was my own fault though.. I grew blue curly kale & after the usual run it kept growing & I wanted to see what would happen.:palm:

The curly leaves turned leathery collard like (flat) & plant shot up to about 6ft before flowering.. A bug magnet...

Lettuce here is a slug magnet as well as we can only grow it when it's cooler~which is wet here also..

Good luck on your garden this year & the peace & solace it provides..
Click to expand...

Thanks, will do. Growing lettuce is so much better in those Aerogrows since being indoors stops bug and deer munchers.
 
Hello Jade Dragon,

Jade Dragon said:
We were originally going to get ready to move this summer but now things have drastically changed. Now I'm glad I bought all those seeds last year and got too sidetracked with health issues to use them. Also, I got 3 Aerogrows I'm about to get running for salad greens.
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Oh yeah.

We were gonna travel, plans changed. Time to plant. Already got some tomatoes goin.
 
Bill said:
Many are saying/wondering if they actually are immune or still susceptible to a second + wave in the fall, like the Camp Funston flu..
Click to expand...

Once you have actually had it and recovered, you are immune. The antibodies produced against the COVID pathogen will stay with you even long after it's gone.
 
Dark Soul said:
No kidding. I figured on putting an electric fence about deer nose high but last time I looked int that the units were made for a fence about a mile long, not 100 feet or so.
Click to expand...

We have a six-foot high fence that keeps them out. The secret is situating the garden where they can't get a running start, because they *can* leap over that high.
 
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