Welcome!

[Lee Borden]

We have created the Longleaf Breeze Social so users of the Longleaf Breeze blog - http://www.longleafbreeze.com/ - and listeners of the Longleaf Breeze podcast - http://www.longleafbreeze.com/?page_id=993 - will have a place to visit with Lee and Amanda and with each other about farming, living in a resilient and sustainable way, and preparing for the challenging days ahead. I hope you'll post soon to say hello.

[m_t]

COOOL! Welcome!

[Lee Borden]

Wow, you're fast, m_t! I'm still creating it and I have a wonderful post on it. You make me proud.

[m_t]

I just caught it between tricky treaters!

[livealittle]

looks really cool, Lee.

we started gardening about 3 years ago and have learned so much. I look forward to learning more from this site.

[m_t]

I do actually check in on your blog quite regularly and have greatly enjoyed reading about your adventure. I look forward to following along through your first winter!

[H0$$]

Nevertheless, under the graceful and gentle tutelage of my bride - gentle as in ?eat this basil and oregano or you?re not getting any tonight? - I have gradually come to appreciate herbs.

Nothing quite creates a palatable desire faster than the threat of "not getting any tonight"...and of course I'm sure she meant spaghetti. 

[slugbait]

Lee,
Loved reading about your project, sounds like you are really enjoying the process.  I look forward to following along with your progress. As a plumbing contractor, and a student of sustainable building practices, I am especially interested in the renewable energy solutions you come up with.  Good luck !

[Lee Borden]

Hi Sluggo,

You are way too kind. We're figuring this out one step at a time! I'll try to post something about our "energy philosophy." The gist of it is that right now we're focusing less on producing energy on site than on reducing our energy consumption as much as possible.

[livealittle]

These are some pictures of our garden this year. Those plants that I am standing next to are Pablano peppers which, according to the Burpee plant website, should mature at 24-36 inches tall. I'm 5' tall.

Lee, we mulch our garden and compost. Are you doing that?

[H0$$]

Liv, those are gorgeous. I love to cook with fresh peppers.

And Lee, don't forget, those deer are an excellent source of low cholesterol protein. And rabbit and gravy over rice is hard to beat.

[Lee Borden]

Hey Liv,

What a joy to see what you look like. Sorry, should have been paying more attention to the peppers. Yes, one of the things we've had drilled into us on the GardeningOrganically Yahoo Group is that we never, never, never, want bare soil. And we try to be faithful to that. It's makes for a "scruffy" looking garden, but we feel better about it.

[livealittle]

Hey Liv,

What a joy to see what you look like. Sorry, should have been paying more attention to the peppers. Yes, one of the things we've had drilled into us on the GardeningOrganically Yahoo Group is that we never, never, never, want bare soil. And we try to be faithful to that. It's makes for a "scruffy" looking garden, but we feel better about it.

we get the end rolls of newspaper before it's been printed on, lay that out, run our drip irrigation system, and then put the straw down. The newspaper really helps keep the weeks down along with the mulch. We then tear holes in the paper if planting plants and leave the rows bare if we are doing seeds.  See the pictures below.

We didn't do that the first year - BIG MISTAKE!!!!

We put the drip irrigation system in this year and it's way better - more efficient and cost effective than using a hose or sprinkler.

[H0$$]

Lee, you can tell Amanda that muscadines make an excellent homemade wine. Most people are surprised at just how good it is and with about 4 vines you can have all of the muscadine wine and jelly you want. Now is a good time to plant them. They're worth it just for the jelly.

[Lee Borden]

Hi Hoss,

I'm going to start a new topic about muscadines, because our soil seems made to order for them. Hope you'll check on it.