What do you tell a new gardener?

[Wishin']

I'm not sure there is any help for either of them if they think they can just fly into it half-cocked. It takes time and trial and error to learn how to do these things and do them right. Get impatient and refuse to study up, well, you're going to end up with a pretty high failure rate. A big garden is going to take a lot of time to maintain. They need to be willing to start out smaller, learn the ropes. I imagine a crash and burn scenario here, probably ending up aggravated and never coming back to it again.

A little veggie garden, a couple of chickens...that's all anyone needs just starting out.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[canesisters]

I'm with Lucky... See if you can track down a home for every animal they take on - they will be looking to get rid of them soon enough. And you might want to start making plans for what you want to do with all that tilled land, one season of weeding 5 acres is gonna be tough. I'm not saying it can't be done!! Just tough.
Or maybe I'm just lazy.... I started with 5 chicks, a 15' garden and ZERO knowledge. I think that I probably drove yall and the folks on BYC nuts that first year. The coop has grown and the garden had doubled.... I've still gots TONS of questions and I do lots of reading. If they aren't willing to learn but are looking for a magic button to push that will make it all work then they are in for some disappointment.

 

[Carol Dee]

Everything takes time. Fruit trees seldom produce much if any the 1st year. Same with berries. It is a lot of work and time. It may be years before he could be self sufficient. chickens don't come ready to lay. Start from little peeps and grow. Feed bills supplies.
Then canning and preserving... Losses. (Like the fabulous potato crop we stored and lost!) Hope he has patience.

 

[seedcorn]

Actually, I'm discouraging them from chicks. Pay for pullets ready to lay. Only chicks will be for friers.

Like idea of taking to green house and buy a few of different things first year.

I don't even mess with starting from seeds things as peppers, tomatoes, egg plants, etc. just peas, glans, corn.

Appreciate all the responses.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Had another thought. Scary, I know. One of the more useful things I did when I moved here was to go to the county extension office and look through the brochures they had outside in the hallway. I found a calendar that tells when you should start what, either from seeds or transplants. That not only tells you what grows here but when to start them. Extremely useful for someone with no experience in that area, let alone no experience.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Another thought. Chicken swaps are starting up around here. You probably have some up there as well, if not now, pretty soon. Just watch out for people selling spent hens as point of lay.

 

[Smart Red]

$$$ not an issue.

Key question is how large to let him till before I do sales job to get him to stop. Has more land than garden will be-5 acres. They are just going to till and plant.

Some will want to quit reading here......I told them to glysophate grass, let it die before tilling as they will never get the grass from taking over garden.

Ridge has it correct. Thinking growing a lot of things, won't happen. No he is not stupid enough to leave thriving business. I want it to be large enough to get a sampling of fresh vegetables but small enough that they can maintain with mulching-if they can get grass killed.

Okay, after reading this post I have the perfect solution for your gardening friend.

Money is not an issue. Voila! Have his hire a couple of gardeners to do the work as he supervises. My first thought was Mexicans because they do such a good job. High-schoolers are generally not experienced gardeners (SeedO excepted), and in some areas finding good experienced gardeners might be difficult -- they are gardening for themselves. Another thought would be college students over the summer, especially Ag or Horticulture students who might want the hands on experience and chance to put learning into practice.

Doing this for a few years would be good training for the friend and his son as well, the weed problem would be reduced, the soil tilth improved, and he might be ready to step in and do more himself.

I know that if $$$ wasn't an issue, my gardens would be bigger, better, and in the Parade of Gardens every year.

 

[seedcorn]

You know Red. Not a bad idea. His son works near an AG college. Trade labor for labor.

 

[the1honeycomb]

There are so many ways to get started. If he is so busy he can build himself some raised gardens. one or 2, plant only what he likes to eat. when you buy plants they have queasy instructions on how to get started. If he wants to go crazy with the acre garden and all the other stuff htat is need for the independent living off the land kind of guy then he will need to give his land time to be prepared. and a raised bed or 2 will help get him some experience. as for chickens, he need to get a few, then go to the butcher and watch the "processing" from start to finish. he'll decide if that is what he wants. Tell him if it isn't fun for him he won't continue to do it and he would have wasted a lot of valuable time.

 

[digitS']

AND they certainly don't WRITE important info down, and if they happened to they wouldn't file it so it would not be available when they need it.

Hey, that's what I use TEG for!

You must have figured that out by now. I hardly make a move out there that I don't torment you with all the particulars .

Steve