Living Traditions Homestead is all about living a simple and sustainable way of life. We believe the world has gotten too “busy” and that people are missing out on many of the true blessings this world has to offer. We started as a small urban homestead in Gilbert, AZ and after the city grew up around us, decided it was time leave corporate America and take a big leap of faith by moving our family to the Missouri Ozarks.
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I am from Michigan. Its funny i have the exact same problems. I have first year beds made with untreated pine lumber. My green beans are yellow. My asparagus seeds came up about 4 inches and have stopped. My strawberries are small with hardly any leaves. Seems like it rains every two or three days. Getting frustrated but feeling a little better after seeing your video. Thank you
Hi Guys, Longtime follower! Kevin mentioned Sarah's favorite canning tomato. I use Amish paste and love them but heard another tomato type was Sarah's favorite for canning. Can you tell me more?? Thanks and God Bless! Tom
Heating the milk initially actually is to change the structure of proteins, one usually bound in the whey can attach to the casein and hence more protein available for microbes resulting in a thicker delicious matrix
I bought a lot of organic raised bed soil that I was told had lots of organic compost. Lots of money spent for absolutely nothing to grow. I got the soil tested and it had 0 nitrogen 0 potassium and 0 micronutrients in it. So frustrating and I lost an entire growing season. I used “my soil test” from Amazon. Super quick process and it costs about $30
Your asparagus looks good. Remember, they take at keast 5 years to mature - yours look about to be 2-years old. Give them time. I would also plant more, at least 1 more crown to go between the existing plant 3-5 seeds between each existing plant.
That plastic garden cover will soon break down into microplastics in no time , especially when being walked on. Looks manicured, but toxic long term and unnatural.
I just filled 9 raised beds with organic veggie mix. My plants started Turing yellow and purple-ish and shrunk in size. Had a soil test done at Redmond Agriculture. Need lots of nitrogen and phosphate. And it way high in potassium sulfate and calcium. Very bummed. I’ve amended the beds as they suggested so we will see what the next week holds. But all my beautiful seedlings are sad.
I made some terraces on a hillside and leveled them with a soil mix that contains compost. Although we’ve had lots of rain, the “imported” soil drains TOO fast. I started noticing that plants that were 99% in native soil were thriving but stuff in the deep imported soil were stunted, yellow and just not healthy looking. After some research, knowing it wasn’t too much or too little water, I narrowed it to nitrogen,magnesium and iron. Added fish emulsion and epsom salt and they are looking better.
For your aphids try praying mantis instead of ladybugs next time. They are way more efficient and can’t fly so they stick around. If you can get your hands on them give them a try 😊
I don't think it's the compost. What I do think it is, and I thought about it as you were setting up these raised beds, is the combination of white planters, and black weed fabric. I think the chlorophyll is being bleached by the sun, before it's able to use photosynthesis to help the plants to grow. My idea for a simple fix, would be to cover the week fabric with either mulch, or soil.
Wow! You two are amazing and you realize that family is so important. So glad that Kevin’s dad is doing well. Your faith is awesome and inspires us to keep God first in our plans and daily schedules. Gods bless you both!❤
We haven’t been watching as often because we are busy trying to catch up spring things. Sorry to hear your dad was in the hospital but so glad to hear he is better. Parents are special and we sometimes don’t know how special till we loose them. You two take care and will be watching you more often.
Since the plants in the greenhouse are doing so much better maybe it’s from the heat. Maybe you’ve been having chilly mornings or not hot days and that’s causing everything in the vegetable beds to be slower. I think everything will turn around soon enough.
Comes to a point in time where you have to add take down you can literally eat the food within three days after you applied it and it will get rid of everything! I know y’all wanna go organic but trust me, ladybugs, praying mantises, and Dino will fail you and you will lose an entire crop because of it and that’s when you’ll be kicking yourself for not applying a weak dose of take down
you need some nitrogen!!! go get some steer manure and make a tea out of it and pour it over the roots area for growth add some vitamin B for shock.. Compost generally, is not high in nitrogen! When the season is over, take a bunch of steer manure and just pack it on top so when it rains it’ll wash through and it’ll be fine when you re tiller your beds next year!! but you definitely have a nitrogen issue. You don’t have strong roots, poor growth, poor color, you need nitro.!!!
I bought some organic potting soil from Menards, it seemed more like wood chips than soil, to put in my GardenStalk. I even added some Plantone to it. My plants aren't growing. I'm going to start adding more fertilizer and see if there is improvement. If not, I'm going to mix the "soil" with other potting soil and start over. My other Gardenstalk vertical tower that I started last year with Promix potting soil, it did great and this year it's growing great.
I put in 7 raised beds. I had to buy extra compost for 2 of them and those beds looked similar to yours. Turns out I was sold compost with unfinished manure and it burned my plant roots.
I would love to see a video of you putting Waddlesville to to bed at night. Excited to see what your soil test shows and how you amend it. Soil has been our problem for years.
Hope the compost isn’t contaminated with pesticides from cows eating grass that has been sprayed. I have seen that happen to other homesteaders. I pray everything works out for you.
In my experience after years of having a garden and growing all sorts of plants, when plants don't die, but don't thrive, it has been a pH problem. When the pH is off, the plants cannot utilize the nutrients in the soil.
Bloomberg explained. “It's a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn. Not so much right. Once you get the plant growth figured out then it’s the battle of the predators!
Hi guys, if this has been mentioned already my apologies. Have you considered that your compost isn’t fully finished? I know you let it sit in those raised beds over winter but it still might be in its final stages of breaking down, which would explain everything: yellowing of plants and weak growth. Also you said you haven’t fertilized. Growing in pure compost always runs this risk. Essentially they lack nitrogen. Although the beans struggling is a bit of a mystery because they fix their own nitrogen. Hopefully it all gets figured out! Good luck.
OMG, I'm having exactly the same problem in my garden, have containers with same soil and using same seeds, some are doing OK but others don't, and overall all of the plants are growing slow. I hope you can solve the mystery.
