holy batman! I just bought a farm!!

[OakLeaf]

Yikes smilingcat! Sounds like it's coming together in spite of the bumps ...

There's definitely a satisfaction that comes from doing work with concrete results. Way to go getting it done.

[smilingcat]

Oh my... I'm on a steep learning curve with running a farm.

So I've learned to patch the broken water line. Water line that was cut when the electrical line was being laid down.

No leaks and have water back in the green house.

Day before yesterday, I noticed the explosion of aphids so I've searched high and low for organic approved (OMRI) insecticide at this time of the year. Home Depot of all places have thing called Organocide in stock so off I went. Followed the instruction... 2 to 4 TBS per gallon of water about 75ml of insecticide to 4 litre of water. Sprayed the stuff. Actually, drenched the pepper plants, and some cabbage plants. To be on safe side, sprayed the underside of Kale, chard, lettuce.

All is good except it smells like dead fish inside the green house. Label says contains sesamme oil, not too bad, FISH OIL yewww... No wonder.. I think I'll mix up my own conccoction of ghost pepper oil spray.

I just hope that my lettuce, kale and chards don't have the dead fish smell or taste...

So how can I kill the dead fish smell. This is almost as bad as opening a can of surströmming, fermented nearly rotten fish. blach...

[smilingcat]

dead fish smell is gone from my green house. I bought some Neem based pesticide OMRI approved to use next time. Now I've got ants in my kitchen. I wonder if I can use the Neem stuff in my kitchen?

Also spent last week morning till night figuring out what seeds to plant/buy and how many. Scary!! Maybe I'm making it far more difficult than it should be. Figuring on where to order to try minimizing the cost. I started to reach a point of diminishing return to save $$. So I've thrown in the towel. Just placed an order with one of the seed companies.

Size of my field, scheduling of sucession planting and how much I want to make $$ tells me how much to order and what. That in turn tells me how big of germination table I need and how many flats. OH BOY... What have I gotten my self into?? help

kale chard lettuce money maker. cabbage broccoli parsnip almost money loser.

[Eden]

kale chard lettuce money maker. cabbage broccoli parsnip almost money loser.

best of luck! In my tiny garden plot, my best stuff so far has been shiso (which I think retails around here for about 50 cents a leaf - expensive enough that our favorite sushi place stopped using them as decoration on the sashimi platters and loved me dearly for bringing a handful of leaves to them very week) and snow peas. I've got sad broccoli out there right now… 1 floret on each plant , but I am kind of bad with plants. My garden will never be more than an amusement.

[OakLeaf]

I'm in awe of your journey. Thanks for keeping us updated. Best of luck.

[ny biker]

Last October I did a bike ride that visited local farms, and at one of them I met a man who worked for a state agency that helps farmers figure out what to grow on their land. He was growing some herbs used in ethnic cuisines (amaranth was one, I think) along with cut flowers (well, flowers to be sold that way). Apparently it can be very profitable to grow cut flowers on small farms.

The bike ride was in an area that I know well, but it wasn't until after that conversation that I started to notice all the greenhouses there. I'd never thought before about the decisions that farmers have to make about what to grow.

Best of luck with the kale, chard and lettuce. I had kale once as a child, fresh from my great aunt's garden, and I hated it. I've avoided it since then, despite its popularity. What type of lettuce will you be growing?

[OakLeaf]

Eden, do you plant shiso every year? I tried once and found it incredibly difficult to start ... but it's happy to re-seed itself year after year. For the last ten years or so I just choose a few volunteers and let them grow where they choose!