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Is it time to start a garden ?
Beloved:
Great post Kat......I love it. Everyone should try it. I bought 3 large shallow plastic pots (about the size of large wok) I bought a bag of potting soil. These were very cheap at dollar general $1.00 @ and 3.00. I bought my seeds at large garden depot store.
I plant lettuce in one pot and then a week later start the next one. When the little leaves come out and I want a salad I cut off what I need and then wash and eat. New leaves come up and by the time one is done I am starting on the next one. I add worm castings for fertilizer so the soil doesnt get depleted of nutirents. Sometimes I do different varieties, red leaf, purslane etc that is why extra pots may be needed. I water them before work and come home and look what is there.
You can do container gardens on a porch or small patio , I only have a small court yard right now and a Koi pond that is taking up a lot of my time so I do not plant much. When things are plentiful in the stores or from other gardners I make things like lemon summer squash soups and freeze them and eat them all winter. I am looking into canning I think this sounds like a good thing to learn.
I also have a small library on 'edible plants, that are out there to eat....it is what our ancestors ate :D . Puslane is a weed (very invasive) here where I live. It is high in omega 3, it has a peppery taste. These were the greens that grandma went out to get in spring to help her family get nutrition after eating mouldy salted and pickled foods over the winter. Gourmet shops sell it as mache, it is very expensive. There are other ways to cook this too.
Our culture eats such "santitized and nutrionally empty foods' now that have many chemicals added so they please your tongues and gullets. I watched a show where they made crackers totally out of chemicals and depended on how they molded them or 'named' them people who ate them thought they were eating a real cracker.
beloved
Patrick:
--- Quote from: Kat on June 14, 2008, 07:35:22 AM ---
Oh my Patrich, squirrels are a big problem. We have a lab and a basset hound in our back yard, that keep the squirrels away (there are many in near by trees). But then I have to cover my garden with fence wire to keep the dogs from digging in it ::)
And the heat... the sun is pretty intense here to in the summer too. Some plants just can't take that kind of heat. I have one garden spot close to the house, so that the sun goes behind the house in the afternoon and blocks it that late afternoon heat. Those plants are doing quite well.
What you have to do is learn how other people deal with the problems that you have in your area. People can get very innovative when they want to figure out something.
mercy, peace and love
Kat
--- End quote ---
I've learned what others (that have experienced problems) in my area are doing about the squirrels; traps, poisons, guns.
And then there are those (homes the squirrels have not caused structural damage to) that are not doing anything because they are so cute.
I would prefer tree squirrels to ground squirrels. My house, built in the early 70's, is a peer & beam (meaning it does not have a concrete foundation, it has a block footer and the builder did not leave a crawl space entrance, so I can't get under the house) and I've had to take extreme measures because those critters are tunneling under the house and chewing their way into the wall space where all the plumbing is and took up residence in the comforts of the area under my bathtub.
One decided to find it's way under my gas stove and have babies; won't go into details of that horrible experience.
Tore the wall apart, installed redwood at the base (critters won't chew on redwood is what I was told) and once I found their main entrance, which was under my front deck, I poured concrete in the hole.
Some of you may remember the movie Caddyshack. ;D
Thank God I'm not allowed to handle C4.
After getting the house taken care of, I started taking care of the other holes on the property. Got shut down on doing that because 4 Burrowing Owls decided to show themselves the first evening after my mission started. I don't think I covered up any owl holes, but it was bizarre that in 10 yrs I've never seen one, and in one evening I see 4.
I spoke to a Game Biologist the next day and she told me don't cover up any more holes.
Just need to do some more research. Regardless of how I plant anything outside, there must be a fortress built around it.
rjsurfs:
Great post Kat...
We have an approximate 500 sq. ft. garden we do each year but I've never tried to calculate the savings... it started as a hobby and something fun for the kids. This year we have three types of tomatoes, a couple of rows of green beans, a row of broccoli (this was the row the kid's picked something new to try), a couple of rows of sweet potatoes (we eat a lot of these and they are kind of expensive at the store), we have cucumber and acorn squash as well. When the cucumber is harvested we will plant some pumpkin seed for a late fall harvest. Across the front that faces the house we planted a row of sunflowers hoping to keep the birds distracted.
I believe my wife has some herbs out back somewhere but I am not really allowed in some of her landscape areas. ;) She does make all of our bread as well... always whole wheat (sometime I really miss some good ol' bleached white bread tho). :D
We have been wanting to learn to either can or the best ways to freeze.
I think it is good that people try to find ways to take care of themselves where they can like in Kat's post... and become less dependent on the marketplace.
Bobby
Kat:
Hi Patrick,
Those little critters have been a mess for you. What I have read is that you would need to sink a 1/2" mesh fence at least 6 inches in the ground, so they can't dig under. And then you would need a 24 inch wide piece of sheet metal to run around the top of your fence to keep them from climbing over. That would be a job, like you said "a fortress." Well maybe the owls are the answer to the ground squirrels ;)
Hi Beloved, container gardening can be as big or small as you like. I've read where people have a whole array of veg. in big pots on the roof.
Yes purslane is a common weed, but is great added to a salad. In my research I've found that there are many common 'weeds' that are quite nutritious and good tasting. We do need to get back some of the wisdom of healthy eating that our ancestors used.
Hi Bob, sounds like a great garden. I'm hoping to branch out next year in my planting to try other veggies. I ordered sweet pot. sets, but they came in late, so I'm not sure how much I'll get. But I did plant red potatoes, that I might dig up some soon.
I'm thinking that canning is a necessity if you get a good harvest, to tide you through the winter. So I will start studying how to do this too.
And baking bread is something I've done a little bit, but would like to start making fresh bread as our primary source. Even read how people buy the wheat and grind their own flour, but I'm probably not going to that extreme, yet :)
mercy, peace and love
Kat
steve:
It's just about always time to start a garden.
It's best to plant a garden that is too small that you can care for, than a larger one that you can't.
Start small and plant what you will eat. Around here people will plant rows of yellow squash and zucchini, and they won't be able to give them away. The same goes for tomatoes. If you don't plan on freezing or canning them a couple of plants will give you about all the fresh tomatoes you can eat. I know people who spend all weekend planting 160' of potatoes. What is the cheapest thing you can buy in the store?
I have 20 tomato plants, 4 rows of limas, 4 rows of pole beans, 6 hills each of watermelons and pumpkins.
I plan on canning a lot. I just like to look at the pumpkins. In fall I will plant kale, collards, leeks and garlic.
My garden is about 12 x 40.
Get your shovels out and plant something.
Steve
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