Quick way to amend poor soil

Re: Thank you LilWilli

Thank you, LilWilli for your very generous offer.

Maybe next spring my wife, daughter and I can come by to visit with you.

I always enjoy hearing of people growing large plots of produce, like you are doing.
With the down turn in our economy it’s not only vital, but I believe it is also a patriotic endeavor.

Isn’t it time for Americans to bring back the ‘Victory Gardens’ that saw the greatest generation through the big wars? We need to get the word out and promote the victory garden in today’s America.
The American People can no longer depend on a constant food supply. It’s projected for food prices to rise 7%. Food prices rose 4% in 07 and 08.
My wife has been a manager in a food store chain a few years and she knows food prices. She gets mad every time it’s mention that food prices have (only) gown up 4%. In reality over the last two years many food items have doubled in price! Milk and eggs are a prime example.

I’m having large trees removed to grow a food plot. It’s a huge sacrifice for someone who cherishes large trees, but “it’s better to be safe than sorry†I don’t want to see my family go without enough food at some point.
That’s part of the reason why I want to keep bees: for their rich food and wax and to preserve bees in general. With “Colony Collapse Disorder†threatening bee survival, I believe more people should try to preserve nature’s little wonders, around their homes and victory garden’s.

Thanks again LilWilli - It’s people like you that have made Texas the best place to live in the United States.


Howard Wilson [email protected] [/url]

Hey, another Texan who thinks like you two! Almost neighbors as Texas goes too!
I just put in a couple acres of bluberries. I have been thinking about perhaps blackberries too but I do not know anyone who has done it around here and was wondering if it would be a good thing. The blueberries have had a tough time getting started for me. Rick, I would love to see how you have started. I am in Canton all the time for work even though I live close to Shrevport. The thornless VS Thorny issue really perplexes me. I need to know someone like you.

Howard, you are so right on every point. One of the things that amazes me is the fact that most people have forgotten how to garden! It is becoming a lost art in a way. It stuns me that just one or two generations ago EVERYBODY grew a large share of the family food. It seems so...natural that people would grow their own food, at least some of it. I am 45 years old, my Mom tells me that when she was a girl, my Grandfather, every night after work, tended his garden, as did ALL the men in the town. It is a bit rare that I meet a guy even my age who gardens.
Yes, it is a win some lose some situation but that is what makes it interesting. This has been the worst year ever in my whole life as far as food production, my bees have failed, deer have ravaged my garden, to much rain, to little rain, dogs have killed my chickens...you name it. Does it stop me? Never. I keep at it. Why? Because it makes me feel like I contribute. I produce. I could, if something awfull happened in the world, might be able to feed a small town, ha ha.
I also love the fact that no matter how much I think I know, it is never enough. I have a degree in horticulture but this spring, I marched over to my 80 year old neighbor and asked him how to grow sweet potatos! Of course he knew how, I did as he told me, and sure enough, I have dug some (well, the ones that the deer did not keep mowed down all summer).
In addition to growing, preserving is getting so darn rare. I had to teach myself how to can because I could not find anyone that knew how! That is something that also was common and well known just a few decades ago. What a great skill. Even with my rotten growing season this year, I STILL have rows and rows of jars that put up this year. To bad my wife can't get to interested in it...she trys though, lol.

Each year your efforts will pay off bigger and bigger...you will see! You are right, we should never ASSUME a cheap and constant food supply. I feel that we, as Americans, might be a bit spoiled these days in regards to food. We just take it for granted that we walk into Walmart and it will be there...and cheap. Kinda' like we felt about gas a few years ago, right? You and your wife are on the right path.

Just as the University of Minnesota has excelled by developing the Minnesota Hygenic bees, the University of Arkansas has taken the science of blackberries a few notches up the ladder from where we were 10 years ago. The thornless blackberry has been around a while, but was seldom grown because of it's demand for trellising. These thornless berries can be done well witha single taut wire about 4 ft. off the ground. They are upright, with some stems as thick as your thumb, but their canes get to be 8 ft at least. They are bigger than Brazos berries, more productive, more disease resistant, and sweeter. The good thing is that by choosing 3 varieties, I have extended the picking time. Arapaho is 2 weeks earlier than any other blackberry grown....In short, I am very happy with them, having spent my younger years getting berry thorns out of my arms and hands.
I agree about people getting at least a small garden for hard times, and a concentration of plants in a relatively small area is a do-able project ,requiring a surprisingly small amount of effort. Besides, I feel close to the land when there is dirt under my fingernails. Kinda' "earthy" I guess you could say.

Hey LtlWilli

I really appreciate your willingness to help others and there is probably no better time since the ‘Depression’ to establish food crops on our land.
I believe that, very soon America will have some tuff times, it’s not a matter of [if] but [when] and food supplies will surely get thin or maybe stop for a while.
We should encourage our family, friends and even people that we meet; to at least start a victory garden.

Its going to freeze here in Pittsburg tonight, (Pittsburg is just South of I-30.) I have already seen some signs of a cold winter this year.
I hadn’t counted on a freeze quite this early but I harvested everything that will freeze.

I grew some Stevia plants for the first time this summer. Stevia is a South American plant that is 10 times sweeter than sugar, but its sweetness doesn’t raise blood sugar levels. I’m not diabetic, but I have been off sugar for two years now, because sugar feeds cancer and I have been loosing weight too.
The Stevia flourished and I had mature plants that were head tall and of course I saved plenty of seeds. Well guess what? I have found out that the big Pharmaceutical companies have conspired with the FDA to rule that Stevia is a drug (because it aids people in better health,) it’s true! They are trying to make it hard for anyone to sell Stevia to the American public! People better rise up cause if our supplements are outlawed, people will get sicker and doctors will get richer.
When I come down to visit you in late winter or spring, I’ll bring you some Stevia seeds.
I really like Stevia It has made it so very easy to give up sugar. Stevia has been used as a sweetener for hundreds of years and it has no toxicity levels at all, it a food. Stevia has now been in the U.S. for over one hundred years, but most people still don't know about it.


We all need to start saving seeds because one day you just may not be able to purchase them.
If you save seeds from several of the best plants of veggies (grown in your soil) they will get better each year. Some of my seeds have been grown on my place three years in a row and they germinate just like weeds and are adapted to my place.

Let’s get the word out: Grow food and save the seeds!

Hey LilWilli & Bee catcher

If y'all will send a self addressed envlope to:
Howard Wilson
P.O. box 962
Pittsburg TX 75686

I'll send you all the seeds that you will need to get started and then some.

These seed are super tiny and they may be hard to germenate. Last spring my wife bought me a Stevia plant at Lowes in longview, I divided it into three plants that grew big and heavy.

I think that to germenate these seeds right may require some pearlite a small tray with a heat pad for seeds. I believe that these seeds will need around 70 to 80 degrees to sprout.

I have thousands of seeds so if we get skunked we can keep trying!

I found out this year the plants get sweeter as the weather gets cooler in the fall. Also next year I plan to make cuttings and winter them over and set them out as soon as the ground temp reaches 65 degrees. Probably around the end of April.??

I had said in my last post that Stevia is 10 times sweeter than sugar, Well it had been too long since I had review my information on the subject! Stevia is 300 to 400 times sweeter than sugar.
One pound of condenced powder is equal to at least 300 lbs. of sugar! I love this stuff and I have lost a lot of weght to prove it.

I wonder if the sugar industry isn't also pushing the FDA to make it a lot hard for Americans to get this wonderful herb. We as Americans need to jack up the FDA and replace the crooks with some honest people. well I going now before I get in trouble.

Thank you Rick

You are right and that’s a great Idea! Spread the wealth around. We can do that too!

During the great depression, seeds were wealth. And if we don’t save them ourselves the supply could run out. I have avoided hybrid plants for years, (except for 3 or 4 tomatoes plants, that I grow to eat while my heirlooms are growing.

I will have many different types of food crop seeds to share between now and this spring.
Most of my seeds are second to fourth generations that I have selected from the best plants and they are acclimated to our good ole East Texas climate.
Some of my food crops pop out of the ground like weeds (volunteers) and I have started to collect the seeds in a way to keep them from self planting, because I do crop rotation.
I learned the lesson the hard way this spring when I had hundreds of dill plants coming up over a large corner of my little food patch.

I have grown some of the stoutest Spineless Okra plants that I have ever seen this year and I will have a lot of seeds to share.

Howard