This is going to be my journal through the ups and I am sure downs of a outdoor grow in a swap/stream.
The first step is to find a good spot where nobody visits, if your like me a swamp in the middle of the woods fits that category nicely.
This is our trail down into the swamp, do you see it? No, thats the key. Keep everything as "natural" as possible. I usually walk not really picking my foot up, more sliding it along through the small bushes and grasses as to not break anything or press anything down.
One of the best parts about growing in this area is that to get down to the swamp (which you at least sink to your ankle in muck in) is that there is like a 100ft buffer on each side of the swamp that consists of small 4-5ft sticker bushes, the green bushes you see in the above picture which are very usefull for hiding boots and waders in, and these nasty rosh bush like vines that grows in all of the bushes and trees. Very nasty to get through, and not many game trails down into it all.
This is our main gathering point for supplies down in the swampy area. We found a nice large tree that had fallen over to store supplies under, you can see the begining of it on the bottom left of the pic.
This is inside the hole in the bottom of the fallen tree. As you can see it will hold anything we need. The shovel is just shoved into the ground amongst some other branches and bushes so it just looks like a branch.
Another view of grow area, lots of possibilites in just this section of swamp. It is approx. (according to google earth) 1800 ft. (from north to south) and 800 ft. (east to west) It is very grassy with lots of 5-6ft scrub bushes, small deciduous trees, and the occasional pine tree.
The view back to the trail up the hill out of the swamp. Everywhere is very soggy (at least anlkle deep unless you can break through the root top layer then you go at least to your knees). You can see some trees we fell to make into rafts.
A few of the burlap sacs filled with dirt and reay to be fertilized. We had to hike 4 miles back into the woods to this location so taking enough dirt with us and being stealthy was out of the question. There are small fields the forest service uses for fire breaks scattered throughout the forest in this area. The closest to this location being a little over a mile away. We had to hike all the sacs from that field down through the nasty forest to our grow spot.
So we are going out in the morning to make rafts in the little groves of bushes, maybe across the stream, and in some very sun exposed grassy locations. In this location they can get all but about 2 hours of light a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. We will also be adding the fertilizer. We are getting a couple light showers in 2 days so that will be nice to wash the ferts into the bags good. And I will be planting the next day, seeds, no clones as the transportation would be hard.
Wish me luck, and add any comments, hints etc.. you may have. This is my first outdoor grow so all input is appreciated.
The first step is to find a good spot where nobody visits, if your like me a swamp in the middle of the woods fits that category nicely.
This is our trail down into the swamp, do you see it? No, thats the key. Keep everything as "natural" as possible. I usually walk not really picking my foot up, more sliding it along through the small bushes and grasses as to not break anything or press anything down.
One of the best parts about growing in this area is that to get down to the swamp (which you at least sink to your ankle in muck in) is that there is like a 100ft buffer on each side of the swamp that consists of small 4-5ft sticker bushes, the green bushes you see in the above picture which are very usefull for hiding boots and waders in, and these nasty rosh bush like vines that grows in all of the bushes and trees. Very nasty to get through, and not many game trails down into it all.
This is our main gathering point for supplies down in the swampy area. We found a nice large tree that had fallen over to store supplies under, you can see the begining of it on the bottom left of the pic.
This is inside the hole in the bottom of the fallen tree. As you can see it will hold anything we need. The shovel is just shoved into the ground amongst some other branches and bushes so it just looks like a branch.
Another view of grow area, lots of possibilites in just this section of swamp. It is approx. (according to google earth) 1800 ft. (from north to south) and 800 ft. (east to west) It is very grassy with lots of 5-6ft scrub bushes, small deciduous trees, and the occasional pine tree.
The view back to the trail up the hill out of the swamp. Everywhere is very soggy (at least anlkle deep unless you can break through the root top layer then you go at least to your knees). You can see some trees we fell to make into rafts.
A few of the burlap sacs filled with dirt and reay to be fertilized. We had to hike 4 miles back into the woods to this location so taking enough dirt with us and being stealthy was out of the question. There are small fields the forest service uses for fire breaks scattered throughout the forest in this area. The closest to this location being a little over a mile away. We had to hike all the sacs from that field down through the nasty forest to our grow spot.
So we are going out in the morning to make rafts in the little groves of bushes, maybe across the stream, and in some very sun exposed grassy locations. In this location they can get all but about 2 hours of light a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. We will also be adding the fertilizer. We are getting a couple light showers in 2 days so that will be nice to wash the ferts into the bags good. And I will be planting the next day, seeds, no clones as the transportation would be hard.
Wish me luck, and add any comments, hints etc.. you may have. This is my first outdoor grow so all input is appreciated.
. The needles were more on the top of the soil, but I scraped as many off as I could before putting the soil into the bags because I thought I heard they were not good. 
Should be fine. 
And what is a nice smell for dirty soil?
Just a joke. Sounds like good earth.
And my own strain Shaman's Cross