Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

Items with known NPK values to be used as fertilizers can include alfalfa pellets, coffee grounds, cotton seed meal, leather dust, ground feathers or feather meal, seaweed, dried blood, bone meal, & ground egg shells.
Http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1064/

Coffee is acidic so in large amounts it will change your soil pH so is best used with acid tolerant plants. Coffee grounds have a pH reading from 3.0 to 5.0
Coffee Grounds N/P/K is 2/0.3/0.2 (This is for dry weight of grounds)
Minor source of calcium, magnesium & and carbohydrates. The phosphorus, should be added separately, however, such as rock phosphate (0/4/0)
http://newcrop.hort.purdue.edu/ext/groundsforgardening.html
http://cmg.colostate.edu/gardennotes/234.pdf
Mineral-based fertilizers
http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-2497.html
Alfalfa tea for plants is made with about 1/3 to 1/2 cup alfalfa meal per gallon.
Http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/recipes/alfalfa.htm

GardenersCardiff answers:

Sure, speed is about explosiveness. There are a bunch of exercises you can do to become more explosive. It’s also about technique (yes, there is a technique to running and sprinting effectively). Several, off the top of my head, that I have done in the past to increase explosiveness and speed in running:
1) 40 yard burn outs. This run is the most prevelant to measure speed in football camps, from high school to the pros. It’s as much about form and technique as it is actual speed. (I wasn’t the fastest guy in the world, but I ran a 4.7 40 in college, mainly because I had good form out of the start). Use the proper start technique on this (search yahoo for 40 yard sprint stance, you’ll find it), it’s a little different than the track and field stance.
2) “I” test: This is a good one for agility. Start at a point, walk ten yards in one direction and place a mark (cone, etc) and an object (dryboard eraser, spoon, etc.). Go 10 yards in the opposite direction from where you started and do the same thing, you basically have made a straight line with an object on each end. You start in the middle, sprint to the first point, pick up the object, sprint to the second point, pick up that object, sprint back to the middle and you’re done. Do this a ton and STAY LOW TO THE GROUND!!
3) Box jumps: get three boxes of varying height (20″, 30″, 40″, etc.) You start flat footed standing in front of each box….you’re doing vertical jumps here. From your standing position, jump on top of each box…moving down the line quickly and then starting over. This will kill you quickly, but it’s a great exercise.
4) Squats: this is a good lift for explosiveness. Use proper technique (go horizontal on the squat, don’t fake it and only go halfway down). I highly highly highly encourage lifting with a partner or spotter and using proper equipment to do this (squat rack).
5) Interval sprints: this is best to do on a track, but you can do it anywhere. You start by sprinting 100 meters (or whatever distance you pre-choose), then walk 50 meters, sprint 200 meters, walk 100 meters, sprint 50 meters, walk 25 meters, sprint 400 meters, walk 100 meters, sprint 100, walk 100, etc. Like I said, distance is pre-set before you begin. The walking interval isn’t a rest period, it’s just to get your breath back quickly before you sprint again. This will wear you out quickly as well, but it’s a good exercise.
6) Don’t cheat the distance and endurance: If you don’t have a track nearby, hit the road. Start out running 3-4 miles (if you can), gradually increase the distance as time goes. You’ll be up to 10 miles before you know it.
7) Hills: hills, hills, hills, hills. Unbelievable exercise, great for explosiveness. Don’t know where you’re at, but it you have some hills by you (parks, around rivers, etc.), RUN THEM!! You start at the bottom and sprint to the top….go back to the bottom, sprint to the top, etc. If the hill has more of a slope, I recommend wearing spikes.
8) 400 meter burn outs: name says it all. Set a time to run all under, say 1:30, maybe 1:50. You might start out running a couple around 1:20, thinking it’s easy..but after you get up to around 3-5 completed, you’ll be struggling to get them under your pre-set time. Only rest for about 25-30 seconds between.

Those are a few exercises, I did ALOT of those while I was playing ball in college.

GardenersCardiff answers:

For 8 acres, keep away from those ‘compacts’ Ok for a bit of garden work but not man enough for most farm jobs.
Do you mean new or second hand? If you mean a good used one then an MF 135 diesel was the finest 40-45 (engine) hp tractor ever made , even Ford IH and John Deere buffs usually admit to that. Of course for that reason they do tend to hold their resale value well ( good news for the seller bad news for the buyer, I have seen beautifully restored ones go for 3 grand ) They are a tough as nails,simple to operate, turn on a sixpence ,use hardly any diesel (that little Perkins 3 cylinder is a quart in a pint pot ) and parts are readily available. You say you want to carry wood around? Well maybe look for one with a loader too.they are a topping little loader tractor. Unhook the loader and it will pull a 2 furrow 14″ plough on most soils, or a 5 foot disc mower, hay baler or a 4 ton tipping trailer. ( I have pulled 5 tons of wheat up a hill but it made her cough a bit! )
As you may have gathered,I have spent many a happy hour on 135.
“Crispy” …. There is nothing wrong with a plough, but you need something to pull it ( stupid remark)