We love to dig potatoes – it’s like treasure hunting. Here’s a look at what we’re pulling out, and how we preserve them: Thus far, we have pulled 197lbs of potatoes. The post Preserving Your Potato Harvest appeared first on The Survival Gardener ..read more

We regularly get asked how to cure tobacco. We’ve grown tobacco off and on for years, and have experimented with various low-tech ways to cure it, or at least to make it taste better. If you dry green tobacco leaves quickly, the chlorophyll remains in them and the flavor is harsh and grassy, with undertones of burning oak leaves. It’s not a nice sweet smoke. However, there are some simple ways to make it taste better, and get it to a quality level that is worthy of some homemade cigars. You can dry and ferment them, like this fellow does: And I may try that, as I have an old freezer in the ba ..read more

I have been asked multiple times about using cotton “gin trash” as a garden amendment. This recent question from Bonnie here on the blog reminded me that I should share my thoughts on it publicly. David, I’ve been hearing about free compost (Gin Trash) from the West FL Cotton Gin in Walnut Hill, FL. You can get as much as you want and they load it for you. I know they defoliate cotton plants with herbicides before harvesting the cotton (or at least they used to years ago) so would this compost be safe to use in our home gardens? I understand farmers get it by the trailer loads to amend their f ..read more

As shared by Jason Powell, owner of Petals from the Past Nursery in Jemison, Alabama: Petals from the Past is an amazing nursery. I highly recommend taking your wife and family there. Grow with the climate, not against it. And support your local nursery! The post The Untold Secret to Gardening Success appeared first on The Survival Gardener ..read more

Long-term herbicides are poisoning the entire composting stream. Lyn Brookes writes: We have discovered the effects of aminopyralid in municipal compost in Ireland. These are the places where people take their garden waste to be composted and then you can buy the resultant compost, which is a great idea and a renewable resource. They depend on grass clippings for the process, which we now think are responsible for contaminating this compost. A friend spread it round her garden and potted plants with it and the results are terrible, fern like foliage on tomatoes and legumes, and it has even aff ..read more

Good Gardener friend Derek will have a plant booth of amazing and rare plants for sale at the Wewahitchka Tupelo Honey Festival tomorrow, May 20th, from 9-4 at Lake Alice Park. He’s offering anyone that says they watch or read David The Good a 15% off discount. I’ve gotten plants from him before – lots of cool rare edibles and other things. This pic only shows some of what he’s setting up. If you’re in that area of Florida, stop on by and say hi! Here is Derek’s card: The post Plant Sale – TOMORROW – Lake Alice Park, Florida appeared first on The Survival Gardener ..read more

Laura comments: Dave: I’m a relative newbie with a small suburban garden and am trying no till, but in my raised beds, I don’t think it is the same issue as for you. I have seen other sites claiming that they actually no till farm a number of acres with great success (I think this was in the north east) and I’m wondering if you have tried a small plot this way and it wasn’t successful, or you just think its a waste of time. Since you are working on a much much larger scale that I am, I’m just curious about that part. The rest, I agree. Keep posting. Though it is possible to plant a large no-ti ..read more

The first book which I wrote, Theophilus, was concerned with all that Jesus set out to do and teach, 2 until the day came when he was taken up into heaven. He then laid a charge, by the power of the Holy Spirit, on the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He had shewn them by many proofs that he was still alive, after his passion; throughout the course of forty days he had been appearing to them, and telling them about the kingdom of God; 4 and now he gave them orders, as he shared a meal with them, not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the fulfilment of the Fat ..read more

Growing potatoes at our previous property was quite disappointing. We had issues with rot, insects, blight, terrible yields and more. The dirt was atrociously bad, acid and worthless. Even with fertilization, cover crops and amendments, the potatoes failed to yield well at all. We might have done been better off eating the seed potatoes instead of planting them. Here on the new property, we are really starting to see the difference between dirt and soil. The initial yields are coming in for spring and it’s looking much better. We pulled 23lbs of Adirondack Blue potatoes yesterday. The scale ..read more

A commenter takes exception to my giant bread-filled compost pile: “@davidthegood, why would one want to introduce GMO wheat which has been sprayed with Glyphosate as an ingredient to compost and then add to that as a top dressing to foods which one will be consuming? This seems like total insanity and a huge contradiction to me if one is supposedly growing organically. You pay attention to the hay you are willing to accept into your garden, so I will ask why are you not applying the same ethics to your compost?” I responded: “First, hay with Grazon will literally destroy a garden. This bread ..read more