Putting up that video was worse than a hard day in the garden. And to be honest with you, I dont know how I did it

Here is some more clues as to how natural plant life regains a foothold after man has finished quarrying, in this case magnesium. limestone.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_Middleham_Quarry

Another aspect and waste of vital trace ellements our bodies can re-absorb is our own poo/humanure.

The Apprentice wrote:
Me food growing in poo.....

Why, you,ll be putting all the prudes off their supper , dontcha know.

Too true, a pure waste of a valuable nutritional, natural source of materials for the garden. But what with all the nasty chemicals thrown into septic tanks, and greay water systems, we are better off sending it for treatment..................and redistributing through our drinking taps

griswald

Griswald wrote:
Thanks for that, the vid worked for me. I immediately wonder what the effect of drinking fine rock dust in water would be? (If possible).

I used to piss on my dad's tomato plants when I was younger. I used to piss on the same one and I noticed that it grew to a far bigger size than the others. When I tell people that I gather nettles and wild food not, their immediate reaction is 'what about dog piss'. This is the least of my worries! I'm concerned about bird shit and lymes mainly. I know that the Chinese have been using their piss on plants for hundreds of years (probably faecal waste too).

Sorry that you had so much trouble putting that vid up, but it was worth it!

On our farm we also used lime, bassic slag, copper sulphate, spread our human poo on the land when the scess pit was emptied, sheep with their mower like teeth really do deplete the nutrients from the ground otherwise, but the clover mutton was so good.

I have told this story before but for those who missed it.

When I was a young man I once emptied a neighbours sceptic tank and spread it onto one of their high banks facing the main road there, and for a practical joke I spread the slurry in a huge format across the entire feild with the word shit, stopping and starting the tanker as I drote.

Knowing full well the grass would grow a deeper green from the watery goodness, sure enough it worked nicely, a huge deep green word in grass for every passing motorist to see on the hillside pasture.

I have never seen a dog pee on nettles before but I have seen our sheep dog pee on an elecric cow fence
icke_is_right wrote:

The Apprentice wrote:
No, nor have I come to think of it but it seems to be one of those group responses that just flies out of people's mouths like 'you cannot eat gold'.

I loved the story about the grass graffiti, very funny.

icke_is_right wrote:
Well you might have something there. Since my well was finished, I drink gallons of the well water, something I never did before. And the mrs says.........I,m defintely growing.....outwards

Tater plants starting to flower, I,ve never seen them flowering this early.

griswald

Hey apprentice,

Dont you dare where them booties in the garden now

Any chance of a larger pic of those hand made beauties, they look oh so nice

griswald

The Apprentice wrote:
And should you come back the app, cheers for posting this. That's an interesting site and coincidentally he's only over a couple of hills from where me mum lives Interesting that he mentions Blackmore Vale Media. The Blackmore Vale Magazine started in the 70s. It was a very local and very low tech (think gestetener) approach to media. Run by locals for locals it soon caught on. It went from a two sheet, inky blurred print source of info to a really valuable local resource in just a few short years. It went from strength to strength and is now an essential weekly (and free) read for pretty much everyone in the area of the Blackmore Vale. Whilst not exactly ground breaking journalistically, as a source of local news and info it's a spectacular success. Something that others could do well to look at. I've not come across anything like it anywhere else.

Now if you're reading this, get yourself back active so we can all carry on talking veg!

Welcome back dub

And where's the apprentice gone?

I can't talk about inactivation though, been there myself on occasion



Anyway, as you were, gentleman

Dub, that must have been some gardening you were doing, you,ve been gone for weeks. What have you done with apprentice, how long has he been awol for, its news to me. We wont get far off the radar without the likes of him. He needs to be found, and brought back here, even if it means a black bag job. He has information vital to our survival...................he knows stuff, and skills. And unless we all get skills, we will be pissing away our energy in chatrooms . And talking shite...oops , about shite oops, is going to do no one any use, in surviving whats to come

I bet he,s off in the garden working on one of them new fangdangled contraptions, that allow him to grow and transplant carrots.........and that ladies and gents, is a major achievement. So spread out and find him.

griswald

Griswald wrote: Haha you're bang on there. With the place being put up for sale, we'd got rather disillusioned with putting lots of work into our plot. My little holiday from here gave me a chance to look at that objectively. As a result, I have indeed been spending quite a lot of time out there!I don't know what's up with the app, like an idiot I've not got around to getting his email from him
I'd hazard a guess that he may be slightly frustrated with this place though. You are 100% correct that his skillbase is of vital import to anyone wishing to take steps towards looking after themselves. Personally, I am in total respect of him offering his experience/advice here to anyone who desires it. Perhaps he is disappointed at the apparent lack of interest
I am sure you're right! I've no doubt he is in the man cave fettling with diabolical Shumacher tech as we type! That carrot contraption was jaw dropping. As you hit upon, transplanting the old tappy root veg is just destined to fail for most mortals. The application of simple ideas like the one he showed us is genius. Although if you're reading this app, I'm still a little confused as to why you're not content to sow and thin direct to the bed?

Best you get back here and answer my q before I start thinking you are one of them that enter their veg in village fete competitions hahahahahaha

dubmeup wrote:
To me, sowing lots of seedlings , and then dumping the big end of them in the thinning process is wasteful, thats why I dont do sow, thin, and dump. Transplanting carrot seedlings has always been a non runner, as most gardeneing books I,ve read say for carrots its not productive.
Apprentices carrotator is a godsendin the garden for all seeds, let alone the tricky carrots.. And I can see it has great potential for the novice too. You cant help but be more succesful in the garden with this. For me in the garden, its like the invention of the wheel it has no equal, and as apprentice is so forthcoming with his knowledge when asked, I can see why he might be a bit pissed at the lack of people identifying with his perception of the current paradigm, and what skills we need to change that, and benefit the whole in the process. I personally will take any opportunity to learn from him, or people that resonate with his ideas, as I do. Its a rare opportunity to learn fro those that can teach us the skills he has, and we should do everything to pick their brains clean for ourselves and the whole.. I hope he is only on a temporary sabbatical, and will come back, as we will be at a loss without his type of insight..
I dont enter local garden fetes. the only judge I have to convince is my cook

griswald

I do totally agree that thinning is wasteful. I think of it a bit like abortion. As a result I tend to sow on the thin side. This does add to the time it takes though. My finger skills aren't perfect so I do thin out By sowing rather thinly I do try to minimise that though. I can see the genius in the app's 'carrotator', though he really does need to get back here to stem the tide of me getting all snidey on his arse about being a closet prize veg grower

I see our friend is back WB the app, now should I go back and edit the last couple of posts I made?

Hahaha I was very busy but glad to be back quite honestly.

Two lines of thought on the carrotator are, if the weather turns crappy and you sew the seeds they can lay dormant in the cold wet soil and simply rot away, by doing them in the tubes earlier on indoors you have warm under heat and a better chance at germination, they really need 80F to get started.

Once they shoot through that part is done and you know they are there and then you can take them off the heat after a couple of days and keep them in the window which acts as a greenhouse with direct UV's and heating the tubes through the clear sides.

The other way to make planting seeds is to get some dry sharp sand and put half a packet of seeds in a bag and give it a shake then scatter a thin line out, the dry sand retains heat if its warm and the ready watered soil will be absorbed by the dryness of the sand and allow for drainage if it turns very wet
dubmeup wrote:

The Apprentice wrote:
I'm getting the sand idea with regard to warmth and water. Good thinking and advice. I must say though that I wouldn't be premixing the seed with it personally. I get a fairly good and even spread of seed by dropping them in the bed individually. This is something that I'd have thought would be much harder to achieve with a sand premix or wallpaper paste mix like you see recommended for sowing seed.