Sun on my back; Dirt on my hands…

[ledo]

I’ve been encouraged a handful of times to start a thread here so will acquiesce, get ready for crickets & a whole lot of self deprecation…my humor is often lost on others, apologies in advance..

I’ve been growing organically on and off a long time but past 7-8 years intensely on an acre of land in a very large neighborhood surrounded by homes in upstate NY. I pull thousands of lbs of food for my family, friends & neighbors every year on this tiny space; I dream of a day & world where more did the same, vs mowing & fertilizing more lawn, in most cases paying someone else to do it for them, it kinda disgusts me if I’m being fully honest…I digress often, ha

We (wife & I, couple kids & two dogs too adding to the chaos) make plenty 5 star meals, our own cider, sauces, picklings etc, I grow some herbs too…it’s busy @ here…

This evening for instance I was harvesting some Russian Banana Fingerlings, the backdrop is a female on the left from 30 year old skunk beans and on the right a volunteer which is Laotian x Cambodian (F)

Pretty good haul from this tiny cedar herb garden I built - there’s 20 times this out back to dig up, much less enjoyable than pulling from this loose soil raised bed… I have a small tiller, everything else here is ledo power, exactly how I like it; I don’t need to hit up the gym, nor excercise much, it’s a lifestyle what we’re doing here, a difficult one but one we’d not have any other way

I love this pic, meeting of two lovely gals - like two converging rivers

Planted spinach - late in the season, we’ll see if some magic goes down and weather allows some to mature

 

[ledo]

I generally have a few different rooms going but delete pics in my phones after I post onto forums, thus I’ve got few old cannabis pics unless I pull off other forums (lots work) in my phone to share - so for now, just gotta be patient but in general there’s “activity”… probably too much

So for now you can see at your pleasure, if you’d like, some farming pics & some food pics of meals we’ve made here, often much of the meal is composed of products we farmed….

Again this is all done on an acre of land smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood; so many people have the resources just at their fingertips, everything here was crappy grasslands and the developer skimmed off most the top soil & sold it off, weasel - so I’ve been building up my land for a decade now… After living in one the largest concrete jungles in North America for a decade, I couldn’t wait to bust out the chains; I felt caged literally and figuratively…

Growing cannabis isn’t the only plants that are addicting, I encourage all to try additional species, you can’t! imagine how great simple things can taste, and how great that closed loop feels, mentally, physically & spiritually and how much better it makes LIFE…..

Bla bla bla

I’d love to see others pics & photos…please share!!

I also know a tiny bit about organic farming & have been told I have an uncanny ability to diagnose issues & deficiencies - I’m glad to help when @ and time allows

 

[ledo]

We Roast our own coffee too; after first year paid off the roaster & grinder… thousands saved every year since, taste can’t even be compared…. Decade + roasting now

 

[ledo]

Gotta get the R & R too of course, sometimes but I’m climbing walls by day 7 or 8 to get back to the gals normally !

 

[ledo]

When things go wrong we, well I fix it too, it used to be a matter of pride, self sufficiency, saving money… these days it’s about quality, $$$, quality, $$$$, quality quality…and nobody wants to work, nobody knows how, and the few ones whom do either command crazy $$$ or just don’t take calls - fun stuff, had a basement flood at height Covid too (well alls well that ends well they say !!) - digression, anyhow…. My point it’s nice to do things yourself, these days mandatory imo if you want anything done proper & timely…

nearly everything outside my home I built, alone… it begin with my work bench and then from there snowballed; I’m self taught, I have degrees in completely irrelevant shit like Finance, Accounting - ANYONE can these things.… I deeply believe most every human has the ability to farm, build, hunt etc wired in them, ingrained… we all just need to rediscover whatever our choosing..,and have the will

Most the deck by this picture I had already rebuilt here, redoing electrical here for larger 60a jacuzzi, 6 gauge lines I ran, all this summer work & pics here so far -

this project just finally culminated the other evening, turned out decent in my biased opinion, @ 1/3rd the deck area is pictured here ; I can’t get my dang kids out of it lol !



More food

My intent is to motivate, learn, share & maybe meet a friend or two… I’ve got more seeds than you (trust me, a bit sad & lame how many) and love being generous, especially when others grow things out and have a passion for plants… seeds, every species since the dawn of human agriculture have been spread & shared freely, that’s the deal, period

 

[ledo]

What the heck ..,?

I forget to delete some ha

 

[ledo]

Simple meals food & garden highlighted, very little salt & seasoning ever necessary, we use lots of garlic

That NLD below is the volunteer - what a beast it turned into so fast !

 

[ledo]

 

[ledo]

Morale of that ^^ - Don’t go poking your nose where it don’t belong - LOL, that’s how the deck project began

Ewwweeey ! 10g each or so pure NLD bubble

 

[ledo]

We live in a snow belt, avg 200+” a year, I believe it’s huge for growing and just overall awesome

Definitely should’ve been deleted - oops

I enjoy a little woodworking but really don’t have much time for it, some beautiful pieces of wood I recently used in rebuilding parts of our flooded basement

Sapele

Black Walnut

Garlic I saved for plantings

Sweet potatoes

 

[laszlokovacs]

Epic hauls! You got a great garden! Just started gardening in the past year but havent been snapping too many photos haha none of my friends and family care about it but theyre happy to eat it. Im in your state and my soils kinda crappy but working on building and improving for the years to come. Just around 1000sq ft but unfortunately im only there 2 days a week to tend to it. Lots of tomatoes peppers, zucchini, beans, peas, carrots, asparagus, strawberries, watermelon, Tzimbalo melon, Garden Huckleberry, blueberries, spinach, lettuce, mustard greens and probably some stuff im forgetting. Also put in a couple new fruit trees this year mostly apple and one nectarine and one pear. I just harvested some stuff yesterday and hauled in 31lbs of zucchini, 7 pounds of padron peppers, 15 pounds of tomatoes, a dozen eggplants, half dozen green peppers, and 4 lbs of green beans. Messed up a lot this year and neglected the garden too much for my liking but I'm still happy with the results for the most part. Your garden is an inspiration though! Is that an espaliered apple tree in your yard?

Some crappy pics in my recent camera roll- Maybe if I get a nice harvest next weekend I'll snap a good pic of the whole haul.

 

[DARKSIDER]

led05 much appreciated you did start the thread and a good one at that

 

[shiva82]

the good life . beautiful pictures. some detail and arranging with those tomatos . like a tomato beauty contest waiting to be judged. great stuff

 

[GoatCheese]

Wonderful colors on the veggie pics! Enjoy.

 

[ledo]

Epic hauls! You got a great garden! Just started gardening in the past year but havent been snapping too many photos haha none of my friends and family care about it but theyre happy to eat it. Im in your state and my soils kinda crappy but working on building and improving for the years to come. Just around 1000sq ft but unfortunately im only there 2 days a week to tend to it. Lots of tomatoes peppers, zucchini, beans, peas, carrots, asparagus, strawberries, watermelon, Tzimbalo melon, Garden Huckleberry, blueberries, spinach, lettuce, mustard greens and probably some stuff im forgetting. Also put in a couple new fruit trees this year mostly apple and one nectarine and one pear. I just harvested some stuff yesterday and hauled in 31lbs of zucchini, 7 pounds of padron peppers, 15 pounds of tomatoes, a dozen eggplants, half dozen green peppers, and 4 lbs of green beans. Messed up a lot this year and neglected the garden too much for my liking but I'm still happy with the results for the most part. Your garden is an inspiration though! Is that an espaliered apple tree in your yard?

Some crappy pics in my recent camera roll- Maybe if I get a nice harvest next weekend I'll snap a good pic of the whole haul.
View attachment 18749858 View attachment 18749861 View attachment 18749859 View attachment 18749860 View attachment 18749862

This is exactly How it all begins my friend ! You’re doomed for sure - I originally planted 22 apple trees, I’m down to 14 and 11 varietals IIRC, however none are espaliered - not sure pic you’re referencing, we’ve also got raspberry, serviceberry, blueberry, peach, pear and Asian pears growing here…

led05 much appreciated you did start the thread and a good one at that

Thank you for kind words & swinging by

the good life . beautiful pictures. some detail and arranging with those tomatos . like a tomato beauty contest waiting to be judged. great stuff

Hard work = the good stuff indeed and lol - many more pics to come, most those are just past few weeks but for a few - they’re selling them types tomatoes for $6.89/lb locally and I’m in low cost living region, I stuck 4 on scale other day - 6.5lbs and was like $42 and change if buying them….. there’s literally “thousands” in tomatoes there, it’s silly but a few days later most have been sauced, turned to salsa or given away…. Our neighbors have it good

Wonderful colors on the veggie pics! Enjoy.

Thank you and thanks for visiting

 

[shiva82]

reminded me of amish growers , then i seen the jacuzzi . respect , hard work pays off

 

[ledo]

When it rains….

Prep work

Wasabi

I love this so true !

 

[ledo]

reminded me of amish growers , then i seen the jacuzzi . respect , hard work pays off

- I live @ a few Amish pockets; don’t get me started….

PS: I wouldn’t buy anything but furniture from them, that’s my one warning… I’m not judging them but they do us and trust me, they have their fun at our expense !!

 

[shiva82]

what did you use for the polytunnel hoops? i bought 3 cheap setups that all failed after 12 months, and i can't afford industrial hoops and set up . Did you use water pipe? i'm going to maybe build a wooden structure and use carport clear plastic , or i was thinking hoops made from watermains pipe. What tomato do you like best for sauce? i love growing tomatoes myself

 

[ledo]

Black garlic roasted down slow many weeks - I did like 25 heads iirc

Heavy load - lol

White peaches