Here to share a little

[Grey Deer Running]

Hello, all--

I just joined the other day, looking to find some background information about some of the seeds I grow--little-known heirlooms with stories untold. Blue-Jay has been helpful! I live off-grid on a homestead in the backwoods, and am working on growing some of my own landrace varieties. I was raised with middle-class mediocrity in mind, but jumped ship and decided to go back to the land, pinned my college degree to the chicken coop as a joke (best use it ever served), and have since been relearning how to live in a self-sufficient way. Been doing this for a while, now, and couldn't imagine going back to "normal." I'm a very private person and probably won't be here very much, but I'll dip in now and again. Y'all seem nice.

 

[Blueberry Acres]

Hello and welcome to TEG!

 

[ducks4you]

from Central Illinois. Please be sure to give a better description of your location...
backwoods where?!?!?
You Could be Backwoods Southern Illinois, or Backwoods Montana.
We Are growing plants and I can't answer your questions in the future without a zone and something like,
Backwoods Pacific Northwest.
Unless you are on witness protection, your secret will be safe with us.

 

[Branching Out]

So nice that you joined us-- welcome!

 

[flowerbug]

welcome from mid-Michigan. i completely understand. i'm more hermit than social. i enjoy plants and gardening and most people are not into beans (a reference to Blue Jay is likely to be noticed here ) to the degree i am.

 

[baymule]

Welcome to the forum from East Texas!

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Welcome from Southern WA.

 

[Grey Deer Running]

from Central Illinois. Please be sure to give a better description of your location...
backwoods where?!?!?
You Could be Backwoods Southern Illinois, or Backwoods Montana.
We Are growing plants and I can't answer your questions in the future without a zone and something like,
Backwoods Pacific Northwest.
Unless you are on witness protection, your secret will be safe with us.

Very true point. While I am extremely cautious online (my privacy is something I guard online jealously!) it does seem a little overcautious to not at least share my zone and region on a gardening forum. Updated! It's been a while since I've done forum-stuff. I'm a lil' rusty.

Anyway, being rusty at forums, I must ask--what's it like, here? What are some of the things you find yourself discussing most? Looking through the bazillions of comments here, it's a little intimidating to know where to begin.

Though I suppose I should expand a little bit on what I came here for, too. As I said in my first post, I'm a suburban transplant who has reinvented life on my off-grid homestead. I was raised by a family that totally spurned their rural background, and as such, I had absolutely no training or guidance on life (unless you count being taught how to get into ever deeper pits of debt like they did). I am jealous of those of you who had parents or grandparents who shared their wisdom with you. You are very blessed.

I had to turn to books and the Internet to get started. Now, that was almost a decade ago and I've learned a lot... A LOT since. But I've become absolutely sick at the way that AI-generated content (lots of gardening content, it seems) is invading the internet like a cancer. So many of the "articles" I come across online are so clearly written by AI, not people, and, as such, are riddled with non-information. Also, I hate AI to the depths of my soul (but that's a conversation for another day). So I've come here, to this place where there seems to still be human people who have conversations about plants, hoping to both share what I've learned and also learn from your experience. I wish I could turn to my rural neighbors, but most of them are druggies or folks who abandoned their rural roots and know less than I do. I always yearned for an elder to teach me things, but I've never found one. So, I'm endeavoring to someday become the elder that I never had, and help the next generation, if they'll listen.

In the meantime, some of my reluctance to interact too much on this board is due to the fact that I have easily divided attention, and knowing there's a conversation going on in the online world can sometimes distract me from what's happening in my Real world.

So...there's all that!

 

[Grey Deer Running]

welcome from mid-Michigan. i completely understand. i'm more hermit than social. i enjoy plants and gardening and most people are not into beans (a reference to Blue Jay is likely to be noticed here ) to the degree i am.

I do like beans. I like talking about beans. I know no one else who likes talking about beans. So...I don't see the problem. I grow Grandma Gina, Stephen's Pole, and Turkey Craw, as well as Pinacate Tepary Beans, Chinese Noodle Beans, Cowpeas (I'm working on a landrace) and Blue Lake Bush Beans. I save all my own seeds. I have drawn the line there for the time being, because I'll end up growing beans and nothing else.

 

[ducks4you]

OH, NO!!! Not aNOTHER BEAN PERSON!!!!
You are in good company here!'

2025 Little Easy Bean Network - Growers Of The Future Will Be Glad We Saved

i'm starting to get my gardening mojo going for this season. :) now that i'm getting some of my other projects off my list of things to do and clearing up some space in my room for the next round and such. making initial plans and rough ideas of how many seeds i'll have available and what...

www.theeasygarden.com