Sustainability - A serous conversation

[Lurker66]

If i can get my tiller running i think im only planting watermelons and cantalopes. Gonna sell what i dont eat.

My wife wants a raised flower bed type garden for spices n herbs. Litterally raised on cinder blocks. This oughta be fun to build.

And she wants store bought dirt.

 

[BadgeBunny]

If i can get my tiller running i think im only planting watermelons and cantalopes. Gonna sell what i dont eat.

My wife wants a raised flower bed type garden for spices n herbs. Litterally raised on cinder blocks. This oughta be fun to build.

And she wants store bought dirt.

My raised bed is built out of dry-stacked cinder block. It's not that hard. I just did it a little bit at a time though. It's 2 courses high with pavers on top so you can sit on it. Pretty nifty extra seating over on that patio and I'm gonna plant roses, lavender and mint over there next spring so it will smell good too. What a girl thing to do, huh ... Next thing you know I'll be wearing high heels ...

Now that I'm feeling better I'm fixing to build a couple more this spring. One for the chickens' melons and some peas for them to peck at on the fence and one for me -- tomatos and green beans, I think. May throw in some eggplant, too, just for fun.

 

[been]

My plan covers sustainability. I plan on scavenging, stealing, and doing anything I can to survive. Packing light, going alone, and nobody will get in my way. Why should I grow some stupid garden when I can just steal from yours?

 

[jakerz]

If i can get my tiller running i think im only planting watermelons and cantalopes. Gonna sell what i dont eat.

My wife wants a raised flower bed type garden for spices n herbs. Litterally raised on cinder blocks. This oughta be fun to build.

And she wants store bought dirt.

We did the raised bed this last spring and it worked out great. And store bought dirt is easier then trying to make your dirt better. We used 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss and this made a very fluffy easy to manage dirt mix. Now that we have that in our boxes, we only have to add compost from now on. We took this mix from the "square foot gardening" book. Our box was 7" deep (I would recommend going deeper) and 4'x4'. In one box we grew the following:

4 corn stalks
3 cucumber plants
4 heads of lettuce
2 zucchini plants
6 tomato plants
16 carrots
4 broccoli
4 okra
16 onions

Quite a bit in a small space. The other box mainly had herbs and peppers. I installed bottoms on the box and drilled drainage holes and installed chains on the sides so I could move it around if I needed to. This was dumb. Once the dirt was in the box it was WAY too heavy to move by myself. I can hook up the lawn mower to it and move it if I need to though. Good luck.

 

[BadgeBunny]

My plan covers sustainability. I plan on scavenging, stealing, and doing anything I can to survive. Packing light, going alone, and nobody will get in my way. Why should I grow some stupid garden when I can just steal from yours?

I'll be real surprised if you ever find your way outta my closet, young man ...

 

[dennishoddy]

Was gonna edit my post but it won't let me ...

Another thing to try ... Google "seed exchange" and you can find all kinds of places where you can get seeds for little or no cost, just as long as you are willing to let a plant or two go to seed and return those seeds to the exchange ... They are pretty nifty ways to get some really unusual or hard to find seeds.

I do that every year on about 300 acres. Got a grain bin full of #1 red winter wheat.
Somebody could make a few loaves of bread from it.
I need to start trading bushels of wheat seed for guns/ammo.

 

[Mike_60]

...Got a grain bin full of #1 red winter wheat....
I need to start trading bushels of wheat seed for guns/ammo.

If this drought keeps up you might find that easy to do.