Homestead mailing list

[Leslie <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>]

My error was not enough water and poor soil.
But no germination problems.  Although the ground squirrels and/or birds did 
eat the new green shoots in some areas.
Germination is a problem that concerns me with the reports of Monsanto 
dinking around with the genetics to make sterile "fruit" forcing us to buy 
from them again.
 
 
School, I wouldn't have retained much from books, however, hands on in the 
garden I would have retained at a minimum the basics of putting seeds in the 
ground, watering, and what the product looked like at picking time, and the 
thrill of a successful harvest.   That's what I remember from helping 
plant/harvest on grandpa's farm as a kid. 
 
It concerns me that there are kids today who don't know that "hamburgers" 
come from cows.... etc. and that there is a delayed reward between planting 
time and eating time.  I have a "city" friend who I talk to often, and he is 
just shocked at some of the things I tell him about the garden or food 
storage, etc.  To him, food comes from the grocery store 1 block away, which 
he walks to daily to get fresh food....
 


--- On Wed, 7/8/09, Gil White <gil.white AT xplornet.com> wrote:





Don't feel bad. This is the 2nd year in a row that not one of my corn seeds 
germinated. 

Hopefully you'll have better luck moving the runners then I have in the past. 
Whether it's trying to move tomato branches or trying to train bean vines I 
always end up breaking them off.

As for teaching in school, would you have retained anything they taught you? 
Speaking for myself I don't think I cared enough about where my food came 
from until we bought our first home when I was 30. Outside of grade 9 typing 
and my love for history and a couple of very close friends, I can't think of 
too many things I've retained from my school days.

Gil


On Jul 8, 2009, cayadopi AT yahoo.com wrote:  
I sure wish my corn was doing as well as yours !!   
  
I didn't think I was even going to get any ears the corn is so short.  But I 
do have ears on most plants.....  I going to guess that some ears are too 
close to the ground and won't develop right,,,, but then a few weeks ago I 
didn't think I'd have any ears after I saw your post on how tall your corn 
is/was. 
  
I was just out checking the pumpkins.  I can't believe how fast that stuff 
grows.  I have to pick up runners and train them to grow in certain 
directions since I seriously misjudged how far they will spread out. 
  
They really need to make veggie gardening classes a requirement in all public 
and private schools...........  
  

_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/cayadopi%40yahoo.com
View the archives at:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead






>From gil.white AT xplornet.com  Wed Jul  8 22:49:02 2009
Return-Path: <gil.white AT xplornet.com>
X-Original-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix, from userid 3002)
        id DB23B4C017; Wed,  8 Jul 2009 22:49:01 -0400 (EDT)
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.3 (2007-08-08) on malecky
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=HTML_MESSAGE
        autolearn=disabled version=3.2.3
Received: from smtprelay.hostedemail.com (smtprelay0155.hostedemail.com
        [216.40.44.155])
        by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1F6274C016
        for <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Wed,  8 Jul 2009 22:48:57 -0400 
(EDT)
Received: from filter.hostedemail.com (ff-bigip1 [10.5.19.254])
        by smtprelay02.hostedemail.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 7A0B81D2C183;
        Thu,  9 Jul 2009 02:48:56 +0000 (UTC)
X-Session-Marker: 67696C2E77686974654078706C6F726E65742E636F6D
X-Filterd-Recvd-Size: 17238
Received: from FASTER (XPLR-TS-11-TOR-72-45-120-185.barrettxplore.com
        [72.45.120.185]) (Authenticated sender: gil.white AT xplornet.com)
        by omf04.hostedemail.com (Postfix) with ESMTP;
        Thu,  9 Jul 2009 02:48:48 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Gil" <gil.white AT xplornet.com>
To: "'Leslie'" <cayadopi AT yahoo.com>, <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
References: <869198.22004.qm AT web63801.mail.re1.yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2009 22:48:42 -0400
Message-ID: <E03F005880544EE39D85CC7F96562D39@FASTER>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11
In-Reply-To: <869198.22004.qm AT web63801.mail.re1.yahoo.com>
Thread-Index: AcoAOGQJAoBXnSmETwG6xEywdAffWwABMPBQ
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5579
Content-Type: text/plain;
        charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.9
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Summer happenings
X-BeenThere: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
Reply-To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
List-Id: <homestead.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead>
List-Post: <mailto:homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead>,
        <mailto:homestead-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:49:02 -0000

I'm used to not enough water and poor soil - I'm basically sitting on top of
glacial till and soon to be surrounded by a gravel pit - but I've had a lot
of trouble the last few years with germination and transplanting. Usually no
problem transplanting peppers or tomatoes, and potatoes come up fine. I get
a few - like one or two - carrots or lettuce coming up. I've tried shade
cloth and even burlap - I'm away all day in the big city and just can't seem
to keep them moist enough.



I've had trouble with beans before - just as the first true leaves are
starting to come up something comes along and nips them off. I used hardware
cloth to create a fence so I know it's not a critter. And whatever insect it
might be thinks that Insecticidal soap is ketchup. So last year I built 1x2
frames and stretched aluminum window screen over them and I was finally able
to get a decent crop, but that wouldn't work for anyone growing rows and
rows like most of the members of this list.



This year I started indoors melon, cucumber, pumpkin, several kinds of
squash and some ( whatever they make gumbo with, my mind is drawing a
blank.) and then transplanted them outside at the end of May. The squash and
pumpkin are doing so well and I only lost a few which is why I had to
transplant them but the rest just disappeared and we had a cool and average
moisture spring so they didn't fry out there.



Corn I can usually sprout by pre-soaking, but this batch didn't come up last
year or covered this year.



I didn't even try onions this year. The last few years I've tried to start
them from seed but only a few survived the transplant.



I have the room so I should probably try a small green house, though money
has been tight the last few years and that's one project that keeps getting
put off.



The only hands on courses I had back in public school ( grade 7 & 8 ) was
woodworking and even though I've become somewhat of a handyman since then,
it had nothing to do with the classes. I remember spending time on a lathe
making a lamp base and on a grinder cutting acrylic into a key fob, neither
of which I've ever made use of since.



I work with a number of 1st and 2nd generation Canadians who certainly
remember not only where hamburger comes from, but who's family probably
raised pigs and chickens, but without exception their idea of a garden is
buying a 6 pack of beef steak tomatoes in May from their local exotic
seasonal garden center.



I also know some folks who work in the shelters and drop in centers around
Toronto and a large number of their clients wouldn't know how to make rice
or cook rolled oats.





  _____

From: Leslie [mailto:cayadopi AT yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 9:56 PM
To: gil.white AT xplornet.com; homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Summer happenings




My error was not enough water and poor soil.

But no germination problems.  Although the ground squirrels and/or birds did
eat the new green shoots in some areas.

Germination is a problem that concerns me with the reports of Monsanto
dinking around with the genetics to make sterile "fruit" forcing us to buy
from them again.





School, I wouldn't have retained much from books, however, hands on in the
garden I would have retained at a minimum the basics of putting seeds in the
ground, watering, and what the product looked like at picking time, and the
thrill of a successful harvest.   That's what I remember from helping
plant/harvest on grandpa's farm as a kid.



It concerns me that there are kids today who don't know that "hamburgers"
come from cows.... etc. and that there is a delayed reward between planting
time and eating time.  I have a "city" friend who I talk to often, and he is
just shocked at some of the things I tell him about the garden or food
storage, etc.  To him, food comes from the grocery store 1 block away, which
he walks to daily to get fresh food....