AMKuska's 2020 Garden

[AMKuska]

Today was a very good day in the garden. I got the ivy stripped out and now it's all ready for my bushes. I also found time to pot up my tomatoes, and even got some of the new sprouted seedlings done. I feel very accomplished. The milkweed @seedcorn sent me is sprouting up and is now about 4" tall. I can't wait to put them out and see if I get any takers from passing monarchs this year.

I'll have pictures from the day to post later.

 

[flowerbug]

Today was a very good day in the garden. I got the ivy stripped out and now it's all ready for my bushes. I also found time to pot up my tomatoes, and even got some of the new sprouted seedlings done. I feel very accomplished. The milkweed @seedcorn sent me is sprouting up and is now about 4" tall. I can't wait to put them out and see if I get any takers from passing monarchs this year.

I'll have pictures from the day to post later.

do you have butterfly weed? orange flowers. nice plant to have...

 

[AMKuska]

do you have butterfly weed? orange flowers. nice plant to have...

No, I have lavender and sage with the butterflies and bees just adore, and some forget-me-nots (I think? Purple?) That popped up next to my vegetable garden. I'll see if I can get butterfly weed too!

 

[AMKuska]

Pictures of the sprouts as they ponder the backyard and all the wondrous things in it. They've been quite busy learning and growing. <3 My son is doing exceptionally well at his studies. He completed his first AR test since school closed, and got 70% which is passing. What's impressive about it is that when he left he was testing on second grade books, and not always passing. The book he read this time was 4th grade, and he passed.

He can also write legibly now, has most of the multiplication table memorized, and is starting to grasp division. So much progress in so little time! He is very smart.

The plants are doing good too. I potted up some cabbage today and just dabbled about in the garden. It was a good day.

 

[TwinCitiesPanda]

I'm also taking writing work even on the weekends because I'm really worried about the economic future right now. The saying goes, "Make hay while the sunshines," and it seems inevitable that some day soon people won't be able to afford to have blogs and articles anymore. :-/

Same feeling here. I just stopped paying into retirement and my health savings account. We decided we'd prefer the cash on-hand, should I get laid off. We agreed to 6 months to help bolster savings and then re-evaluate and see if my job is secure and how the economy is going. I told my husband there are things we could sell if we had to for money. He pointed out if things are bad enough we're trying to sell things, likely few people would be in a place to buy them. Smart man, harsh reality.

 

[AMKuska]

Same feeling here. I just stopped paying into retirement and my health savings account. We decided we'd prefer the cash on-hand, should I get laid off. We agreed to 6 months to help bolster savings and then re-evaluate and see if my job is secure and how the economy is going. I told my husband there are things we could sell if we had to for money. He pointed out if things are bad enough we're trying to sell things, likely few people would be in a place to buy them. Smart man, harsh reality.

This is true. I actually looked at the Great Depression as a kind of worst case scenario. I'm hoping that everything blows over and I can laugh at how worried I was, but I'd rather be prepared and have money in the bank, chickens in the coop, and zucchini in the garden instead of wishing I had those things.

 

[seedcorn]

Its always good to look at worst case scenarios even in the good times-thinking financially. Commonly said 90% of what we worry about never happens. Life has taught me that is fairly accurate. Sometimes the 10% bad has actually been for my betterment-just didn’t recognize it till later.

 

[baymule]

People during the Depression that had land did not go hungry. Gardens and chickens saved the day. People with farms raised pigs, cattle and had a milk cow. They had horses to plow and plant corn to feed their livestock. My Daddy’s family were sharecroppers and poor, but they had a garden and chickens. They farmed with mules.

Fast forward to today. The Feed stores can’t keep enough chicks and seed packets are flying off the racks. All of a sudden everybody wants to be a farmer. I hope people keep up their gardens even after this crisis has passed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Fast forward to today. The Feed stores can’t keep enough chicks and seed packets are flying off the racks. All of a sudden everybody wants to be a farmer. I hope people keep up their gardens even after this crisis has passed.

I'm pretty cynical about how that is going to go, but maybe. I see a lot of new people showing up on the sister chicken forum, meat birds as well as regular chickens. I try to help them keep it realistic, especially compared to people that only think of chickens as pets. Some of the posters over there can scare new people off.

I do expect some sad stories over there when it comes to butchering them. It's bound to happen. But some people will realize where food comes from, chickens or growing it. All we can do is try to help.

 

[seedcorn]

My grandparents were very similar to @baymule . Today, you can buy dressed chickens cheaper than buying the chicks/feed. Not going to get into the quality. I have a friend that goes on this tangent every so often. Spend about 7 days talking him off of the ledge. I’ve shown Him the spread sheet on costs-that’s with me supplying the hardware.
My garden is a profitable proposition but I believe most people would be financially better off to buy their produce. Gardening is a life style, not a jump in and jump out-as we all know.