lessons for the season

is it to early to post what I have learned this year ?
likely not, but I am tired of waiting for the frost, so I will go ahead and just plant the cover crops right before the likely rain on wed.


there is just not enough space to start the garden seed company here, not inside space to package the seeds, or the garden space to grow them. I just need another location to do it.


I should have planted the white mohave flour corn (a tested known good version here) and mixed a few kernels of some other corn to fix the narrow DNA and to get higher harvest out of it,
but I tried an entire new kind of corn and it failed this year.
the corn breeding project seemed to have worked just fine so far, but I will know in 2 to 3 years.
next year I will be growing sorghum and not corn much as it needs less nitrogen and is better at bad weather.

I now know how to get way more squash in this location for the same water use (like 5 to 10 times)


don't plant potatoes in wood chips (knew it was a bad idea going into it, but thought I could get away with it)

it takes about 4 months to catch enough gophers to get most of them gone, don't give up early.

I have to get the soil ready in fall and have a cover crop to add nitrogen (but that was not possible here last fall, so it is not like I could have changed it)

and I have linked to this before,
so if you had not read it and ever plan on dealing with farming at all...

I should have read this book first
"THE FARM THAT WON'T WEAR OUT"
it is only 37 pages and worth printing.
read it for free here
http://www.soilandhealth.org/01aglib...010134toc.html
down load it for free here
http://archive.org/details/cu31924003695636
get it on amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Farm-That-Wont.../dp/1406568430

the foods that grow well in horrible soil are yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, sorghum, radishes, turmeric, and some weeds.

and last, if I tell others my plans here, they seem to actively block the plans,
so just like in a real survival garden, I need to be quiet about any plans.