family farm -> sustainable and profitable

Discussion in 'Garden Design' started by tantric, Jun 15, 2015.

  1. tantric

    tantric New Seed

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2015
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    7
    Location:
    athens, ga - zone 8a
    i started this with my introduction in the forum

    here's an overhead of my farm:
    farmoverheadwlines.jpg

    north is up, the house is the building in the lower left. south of it is a grove of pine trees, ravaged by beetles, which i'd really like to go away. the building to the north was once a drying shed for pork and may one day be a drying shed for lavender. to the east is a more modern storage building with electricity and a shed, to the northeast is a very old and picturesque barn (my dad nailed fake brick siding over the old wood to 'improve the value' but i can take it down). east of the farm you see the subdivision that crept up on us - that was once a field where i stalked larks and beyond it was our pond. the road on the left is dirt and named after my family - it dead ends two houses down.

    outside the lines to the NE was my grandmother's home before it was sold - we called her 'mamaw' and i plan to call the farm 'mamaw's garden patch'. my father was born in her house, now torn down.

    my plans:

    a pick-your-own berries patch, where the pines are now (there's a row of blueberry bushes in the open space at the edge and some muscadines to the east of it)
    an experimental lavender garden just west of the house in a circular flower bed with a central dogwood.
    my 'color out of space' flowerbed, on the west side of the house, next to the lavender bed.
    on the east side of the house you can just see the two rose-cum-tomato beds, where i'm restoring the border (liriope, johnny jumpups and marigolds)
    the garden patch to the north of the old barn has our tomatoes and watermelons, including my heirlooms.
    the garden on the east side has my 5'x5' experimental cilantro bed.
    oh, yeah - i'm planning a dandelion patch, which will also be our pet cemetery
    a worm farm, not just compost but bait, including Mamaw's African Nightcrawlers
    bamboo cultivation, including a wall of bamboo to block the view of the subdivision.
    a room in the basement devoted to mushroom cultivation
    my aquaculture business, raising Badis badis and/or Dario dario. later on i'll include African Reed Frogs .

    the idea is that many of these plans won't work - but i want diversity. also, i'd like the farm to have mircoenvironments, so it's interesting to explore.

    okay, more later, but comments are welcome (thanks Frank)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 15, 2015
    Tooty2shoes likes this.
  2. Frank

    Frank GardenStew Founder Staff Member Administrator

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2005
    Messages:
    18,084
    Likes Received:
    2,170
    Location:
    Galway, Ireland
    // image displaying correctly now

    The image isn't showing Tantric. From the code it seems like you are trying to link it from your Google Drive account. Make sure you have your sharing permissions set correctly or the more recommended approach is to upload it to GardenStew from your computer.
     
    Last edited: Jun 15, 2015
  3. eileen

    eileen Resident Taxonomist Staff Member Moderator Plants Contributor

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2005
    Messages:
    29,088
    Likes Received:
    6,277
    Location:
    Scotland
    I can see your photograph and your farm looks like just the place to do all your experiments. I wish you luck with everything you undertake. What does your father use the farm land for at the moment?
     
  4. tantric

    tantric New Seed

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2015
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    7
    Location:
    athens, ga - zone 8a
    thank you - i mean that! my father is a hobby/small profit gardener. he was two rows of blueberries, a few rows of watermelons and tomatoes, some beans and peppers, etc. last year i had a few plants, this year i have a few rows, next year my own patch, though he swears that i simply cannot learn to plow with a tractor, that i'm too old and don't have enough time. then again, when i called to tell him my GRE score had won me two years of no tuition + $1200/mon stipend for grad school, he told me i was wasting my time and that i should have kept my job at kroger (because its union).

    plant tax!!! i took that in college, LOVED it. i still have my dichotomous key book (the vascular flora of the carolinas), dissecting flowers under a microscope - wow, so cool! except for the grasses, not so cool.
     
    Tooty2shoes likes this.



    Advertisement
  5. Tooty2shoes

    Tooty2shoes Hardy Maple

    Joined:
    Jun 15, 2011
    Messages:
    3,264
    Likes Received:
    1,510
    Location:
    Denmark, Wis.
    Wow, what a lovely place. You sure must be very busy with all that you have to take care of. I bet looking at flowers under a microscope is really interesting.
    Glad you joined the Stewbie family. We love seeing pic's of your little corner of the world.
     
  6. tantric

    tantric New Seed

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2015
    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    7
    Location:
    athens, ga - zone 8a
    plant taxonomy was SO MUCH FUN. you pick a flower, put in under the scope and pick it apart - with you is this monster: Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas a pure text tome that lets you ID plants with a dichotomous key (if it's red go to page A, if it's not red go to page B). mind you, i'm a database architect in real life, this is medieval, but it's also classic and pure and perfect and utterly neat. but grass flowers are from hell. yeeee. peace, thanks.
     

Share This Page