Show off your survival garden! (PICS)

Originally posted by jackieps1975
reply to post by whaaa

 

Well crappity! I hope it looks better now cuz that all looks.....well.....DEAD!

Yes J. those pictures were taken in the winter. Now it looks very different and my GF is growing asparagus commercially for the restaurants here in the village.

Later if I remember, I'll post some pictures of it in production.



[edit on 1-7-2009 by whaaa]

I love the baby bunnies too cute. Did you pick them up? I wouldn't have been able to control myself.
We have a garden as well. we have peppers, zuccini, tomato, cucumber, watamelon, cantelope, corn, eggplant, onion, carrots. Its all growing so well. I'll try to remember to sanp a photo of it.
We also just bought 5 baby hens from mypetchicken.com. Just got them today. You can order as little as 3 at a time and they sex them and vaccinate them if you like. Fresh eggs and fresh veggies are a plus and will be great money savers. Plus, I love pets and now I added 5 more to the household.

reply to post by JipStix


Wow I really like your ambition there, and my husband would love your garden. I wish i loved plants that much but I am not into gardens at all. My husband has tried several times to get me going with the plant thing but it bores me to tears, and i unfortunately end up killing them because I tend to forget about them. I do come from a long line of green thumbs and somehow it passed me up. My husband also comes from a long line of green thumbs and he loves to garden, veggies only. He feels it's important to grow stuff you can actually eat then flowers. I agree with him and I am trying to get into the spirit but I am still bored with it.

@Broadcaste

Haha yea, the post is pretty big I'm not gonna lie! I'm a very visual and detail-oriented person and can't stop doing something until I've over-done it. Maybe there were too many pictures .

Hopefully the bunnies won't be able to fit through the fence. If they can, I'll have to put a netting on the inside so they can't get through. I've seen them around though, so I know they're waiting for the right time to strike. Damn bunny ninjas!

@howardbeale

Thank you kindly sir! Trying to inspire other people to get their own gardens going and grow their own food!

@Oski

That is pretty darn awesome! The problem I had with trying to grow potatoes before (small scale operation) was that they depleted the soil where other stuff was planted and killed the plants. This method is fantastic! I can't believe the amount of potatoes you were able to grow in these boxes!! I'll have to try this next season.

I'm making a trip to the lumberyard to get more garden bed pieces soon, I'll pick up some lumber to build that as well. Great idea!

@lucentenigma

Yea it can be tough sometimes if you don't have a lot of room to work with, but you can still plant a lot of stuff if you manage space right. I've filled up most of my beds but have pots hanging everywhere and pots on the ground. I mean, the lawns got little 'pot circles,' kinda like crop circles, all over it.

If things get really bad, you can always turn the lawn into a garden . You'd be missing all that greenery but your stomach would be thanking you !

Oh, check out this website as well. A lot of good free stuff on small space gardening:

www.gardeninginsmallspaces.com...

@inspiration 1911

Yea it can be intimidating when gardening for the first time! The first year I tried to garden I grew 3 tomato plants and 2 eggplants in pots. They did alright, but if you want something to do exceptionally well you need to plant it in the ground.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what USDA Zone you are in.

Texas contains Zones 6,7,8, and 9, which is a pretty big spread. A lot of what you can grow depends on where you live. You can grow stuff that's meant for Zone 8 in Zone 6, but you need to cover it or bring it in for the winter if it's a perennial or an annual. Start off by taking a look at this map (below):


(Map from Univ. of Missouri)

Once you've figured out what zone you're in, it's time to figure out how much space you want to use for gardening.

Use a tape measure to measure out an area in your backyard that you want to plant in. Once you've measured it out you can even mark it off with stakes and twine (in a rectangular sort of fashion, or whatever shape you want).

Once you've figured out how much space you have, you have two choices to make;

1. Do I want to plant directly in the ground?

Basically, this is the most common way of gardening. Just plant whatever you have in the ground (of course after tilling/turning soil, or adding topsoil).

2. Do I want to build a raised bed?

Raised beds are GREAT for gardeners who have problems with poor soil conditions. It allows you absolute (almost, this is nature here) control over the soil make-up and texture. This is perfect for mixing for picky plants as well (desert succulents who need some sand in the beds). Raised beds also allow you to organize and separate your plants easily. You can plant tomatoes in one bed, squash in another, herbs in another bed, etc... the possibilities are unlimited, be creative!

So consequentially, the next question you need to ask is;

"Is my soil any good?"

If you have good soil, just add a little compost or manure to help the plants grow. If you don't have good soil you might want to buy topsoil from a local nursery, or mix in your own loam (sand, silt and dirt mixed together), or even your own compost!

Check out this link on soil

If you want to start your own compost (cheaply), get a trash can. Paint the trash can black so it absorbs heat. You also need to make sure you have a lid for the it. You start throwing all of your plant food debris (veggie skins, left over apple cores, etc...) into the composter. It will eventually turn into compost after a week or two, which is ideal for gardening.

Once you have taken care of the soil situation, you need to figure out what to plant!

This is the best part. What do you want to plant in your garden? Assuming you've figured out what zone you're in, you now know what would grow best in your garden. Of course you can grow stuff from lower zones in higher zones, but you need to keep them watered and cool for them to thrive (generally speaking). The same goes if you want to grow plants from higher zones in lower zones, give them ample water and keep them warm.

To buy seeds, I would suggest finding a local nursery in your area (use google to look for one), buying online (I'd recommend Johnnyseeds.com, but you might want to find one suited to your zone), or even getting seeds from organic fruit that you consume. I've grown an apple tree from store-bought fruit!

The hardest question to answer when gardening might be, "what do I want to grow?"

Once you've answered that, you're on your way!

@redoubt

That's awesome! I was thinking of building a shade bed sometime soon, almost have too much of it in my backyard. I love your veggie selection as well, you can't have a garden without cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash!

Excellent! Post more pics if you get a chance, I'd love to see them!

@troyb

Hey troy, yea you're right about the veggies, can't beat ones you grow yourself. I don't think I'll have much problem protecting my garden where I live though, pretty rural area of New England.

Here are some pictures from our garden.

Our windmill is the most recent hardware addition. It is a 1KW wind mill from Futurenergy and is supposed to help with the floor heating in our bathroom during the months when the solar panels don't produce enough. Still needs a lot of tweaking before we will consider it part of the family.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/374f673bd584.jpg[/atsimg]

And then we have our solar panels.
Two panels for solar heating of the hot water tank. On a sunny day it gives us about 70 degrees celcius (158 fahrenheit). Most of the summer all hot water is provided by those two panels.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8f70d3fb0f81.jpg[/atsimg]

The garden itself is now set up with raised beds.
We have ten of them - all the same size. 16 feet by 4 feet.
Apart from the raised beds we have assigned areas for fruit trees (of which we only have one at the moment.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e02b0f5f71be.jpg[/atsimg]

Of course the weather in Denmark almost demands a greenhouse to get things started until the soil temperature is high enough.
This greenhouse has a cellar which I plan to fill up with stones around a 5 inch pipe that can draw the hot air under the roof glass by ways of a solar powered fan.
In front of the greenhouse you see our three chamber compost container.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f783d1520372.jpg[/atsimg]

Fittings put in the same places on all beds allow me to cover the beds with netting or a fleece stretched on a frame of pvc electrical pipes.
This makes crop rotation and protection very easy.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6ec0aa591e84.jpg[/atsimg]

Our soil is very heavy and full of clay so I have mixed the soil in the beds half and half.
Half heavy soil and half compost soil.
My vegetables love it. My onions are very good this year - I've never had any luck with them before.

Anyway - that's our "survival garden".


EDIT for errors in measurements.

[edit on 4.7.2009 by HolgerTheDane]

reply to post by HolgerTheDane


@holgerthedane

Man that is just plain awesome!! You have your own windmill, that's so sweet! I was thinking about trying to build my own wind generator and buying some solar panels, haven't got around to it yet. How's the generator working, does it provide 1KW or something below that?

You must save a bit on heating with those panels, are they photovoltaic or pipe-heating panels? I was planning on building my own solar panels to provide electricity for the greenhouse I want to build.

I am sooo envious of your garden, you have tons of space!

What growing zone/climate are you in in Denmark?

I've gotta imagine the winters there an be pretty brutal like the New England ones here.

I love the PVC netting idea as well, keeps the veggies nice and protected. I'm having a big problem with squash beetles, so I might have to make some sort of protection for next years crop.


[edit on 8-7-2009 by JipStix]

my garden was flattened by seventy mile winds, and hail stones.

corn and tomatos came back from explosion.

My Survival Crop.

Originally posted by JipStix
***snip***
Man that is just plain awesome!! You have your own windmill, that's so sweet! I was thinking about trying to build my own wind generator and buying some solar panels, haven't got around to it yet. How's the generator working, does it provide 1KW or something below that?

Thank you.

To be honest I'm not too happy about how it turned out with the windmill. Yes it does give me 1KW, but only when the wind hits 24 mph. At 18 mph I get around 400 Watts and at 10 mph I get 74 Watts.
I was hoping (and was almost promissed) that the windmill would supply enough power to my 200 liter secondary water tank to supply the floor heating for my bathroom.
That is not going to happen.
I was naiive and trusted the promisses given by the vendor. I'll never trust him again.
Even if the windmill should be giving 1KW at 50 Volts I think that I'll end up capping it at 24 Volts and charge a batteri bank.

If you plan on heating water you probably shouldn't go further down than 2KW at a wind speed of 20 mph.

You must save a bit on heating with those panels, are they photovoltaic or pipe-heating panels?

The solar panels are pipe heating panels and give me 70 Celcius on good days and since 55 Celcius is the optimum for a heat storage tank I'm happy.
They supply the hot water for most of the summer and part of spring/autum.
Even in winter they can give me 30-40 Celcius and since they are heating the bottom of the storage tank they heat the cold water intake. Raising the temperature from 12 to 40 also saves on the electric immersion heater.

I used to have oil heating for hot water and central heating. Now I have the electric immersion heater in a 200 liter main tank for hot water and combine this with the solar panels.
The house is now heated by a heat pump ( IVT Nordic Inverter air to air ) and that heats the house much better than the central heating ever could.
The heat pump is mounted under the ceiling and circulates the hot air under the ceiling as well as heating the air if needed. This is also good when I use my small stove which can provide heat when/if there is a power cut.
I have but one regret with the heat pump...
Why didn't I do this a long time ago? The first winter we had the heat pump was the first winter we could sit in our house with only t-shirts and shorts even if it was freezing cold outside.

My combined expense on oil and electricity before the change has been cut by one third after the change (except that now I don't use oil anymore). We pay an extra tax for our electricity because we buy "green electricity" - in other words - the electric company guaranties that they match what we use - bought from windmills and hydroelectric plants. What is funny is that we still pay a CO2 tax even if we get "green electricity".

I was planning on building my own solar panels to provide electricity for the greenhouse I want to build.

Good idea.
I'm going to funnel the hot air under the roof to a heat trap under the floor.
The watering system is going to be a drip fed from a storage tank 6 feet in the air (to provide a head) and the water pumped up from water gathering barrels by means of a solar powered pump.

***snip***
What growing zone/climate are you in in Denmark?
***snip***

I guess we have a temperate costal climate. Our luck is that the warm Gulf stream helps our climate.

Our winters are an average 10F / -12 C and seem to get warmer. But once in a while we get a proper cold spell. But our winters are typically more wet than snowy.



[edit on 9.7.2009 by HolgerTheDane]

Originally posted by JipStix
***snip***
I was planning on building my own solar panels to provide electricity for the greenhouse I want to build.
***snip***

I'd love to hear more about this plan of yours.

Particularly I'd be interested in hearing what the electricity is for. Light? Heat?

Originally posted by JipStix
@inspiration 1911

Yea it can be intimidating when gardening for the first time! The first year I tried to garden I grew 3 tomato plants and 2 eggplants in pots. They did alright, but if you want something to do exceptionally well you need to plant it in the ground.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what USDA Zone you are in.

Texas contains Zones 6,7,8, and 9, which is a pretty big spread. A lot of what you can grow depends on where you live. You can grow stuff that's meant for Zone 8 in Zone 6, but you need to cover it or bring it in for the winter if it's a perennial or an annual. Start off by taking a look at this map (below):


(Map from Univ. of Missouri)

Once you've figured out what zone you're in, it's time to figure out how much space you want to use for gardening.

Use a tape measure to measure out an area in your backyard that you want to plant in. Once you've measured it out you can even mark it off with stakes and twine (in a rectangular sort of fashion, or whatever shape you want).

Once you've figured out how much space you have, you have two choices to make;

1. Do I want to plant directly in the ground?

Basically, this is the most common way of gardening. Just plant whatever you have in the ground (of course after tilling/turning soil, or adding topsoil).

2. Do I want to build a raised bed?

Raised beds are GREAT for gardeners who have problems with poor soil conditions. It allows you absolute (almost, this is nature here) control over the soil make-up and texture. This is perfect for mixing for picky plants as well (desert succulents who need some sand in the beds). Raised beds also allow you to organize and separate your plants easily. You can plant tomatoes in one bed, squash in another, herbs in another bed, etc... the possibilities are unlimited, be creative!

So consequentially, the next question you need to ask is;

"Is my soil any good?"


If you have good soil, just add a little compost or manure to help the plants grow. If you don't have good soil you might want to buy topsoil from a local nursery

Thank you for your insights & suggestions...From what we decided on is using Raised Bed, & topsoil. We are in zone 8. This might sound like a 'dumb' question, but what is the point of the Zones? Is it just to let you know what kinds of food you can grow? and If so, then where is that list?

I also wanted to ask you, what are the Dimensions of your gardern? It looks pretty large, but I didnt want to assume without asking first. I want to use your Garden as a guide because like I said it is very inspirational

My husband wanted to ask you, how do you grow the tomatoes on the ground without crushing them while your digging them up? He was thinking of using the upside down tomatoes, but I believe that beats the purpose of having a 'real' garden.
I hope your still on here to review my post, but either way....thank you again.

Inspiratinal1911

[edit on 13-7-2009 by Inspiration1911]

[edit on 13-7-2009 by Inspiration1911]

@inspiration1911

Basically the zones are just a helpful tool to explain average temperatures / climate and rainfall in a given area so it's easier to decide what to plant. You can grow plants from lower and higher zones, you just have to make sure they get something close to what they need.

Now the zones aren't exact (as in Tucson, AZ and Seattle, WA are in the same zone) but they are still a useful tool for deciding what to grow. I would note that the eastern half of the US is much more accurate than the western half.

Here are a few links to help you decide on what to plant:

1.www.growit.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow"> www.growit.com...

This can help you decide on herbs and fruit, but isn't great in deciding which veggies to plant.

2. growingtaste.com...

A great link on growing veggies in zone 6.

3. www.naturehills.com...

I wouldn't even buy any seeds here, but they have useful feature that lets you select veggies by zone (on the right side of page). Make sure you check the 'out of stock items' box so you can see which veggies grow in each zone.

4. www.veggieharvest.com...

Great site for zones 3-10! Has a cool chart showing you when to plant various veggies in all of these zones. Excellent resource for getting started.

5. www.pallensmith.com...

Another good resource for figuring out what to plant. Has some veggie ideas.


Our garden is 30 feet by 20 feet, with 1 larger bed and 2 symmetrical smaller beds. We've got the two smaller outside beds as well for auxiliary planting. Looking back, I see that we could have planted much more in the space we have, and wish we did. That's for next season though, I'll have to do better planting.

I just pluck the tomatoes from the plants when they grow. Tomatoes grow above ground naturally with the plant being upright. In those up-side down tomato holders they are being turned over and the tomatoes grow down. They are really cool though, I was thinking of buying a few to hang around the garden (to maximize output).

Let me know if you have any other questions!



[edit on 14-7-2009 by JipStix]

[edit on 14-7-2009 by JipStix]

Finally got my pics sorted somewhat, hope I can post these ok. I have raised beds all over. I have a few pictures of right after I planted to remind me later the progress I made, this being my first year doing a larger garden.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/082a7aa23594.jpg[/atsimg]
Tomato Starts with multiplanted onions (early spring)

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5fea9b3fe0fa.jpg[/atsimg]
Various Squash, Cukes, Pumpkins, etc.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7d7c8cf2ea9b.jpg[/atsimg]
Today's Haul=)

Sure hope this works! It's definitely a learning experience, both gardening and posting pics at ATS! =)
gb,
~pre

Originally posted by preparanoid
Finally got my pics sorted somewhat, hope I can post these ok. I have raised beds all over. ***snip***

Nice beds. What type of timber have you used? And what are the dimensions of timber as well as beds?

reply to post by HolgerTheDane


LOL,
It's been long enough I'll have to go measure to be sure on those in the pictures. The cuke bed timber is 6"x12"x14foot, if I remember correctly. Bed measurement is 10'x4'. I'm short so I need very narrow beds to reach across. The third/last bed in those pictures, the bed without a blue pot in front of it, was a queen size waterbed frame. Another bed further back is a king sized water bed frame, but I don't have pics up of it yet. What can I say? I'm a scrounger.=)
My trellis for the tomatoes was made from pruning scraps from our land here. I say "was" because we have been hit by three major fronts that produced tornadoes within a mile of here this spring/summer. I'm kinda proud that it barely budged through the first two. (One of those storms ripped up half the pine wind break 200 yards from that area in the pictures. Another pulled up 100 year old Oaks a mile away. Rough spring..) The third sent everything leaning and when my Mortage Lifters got big a lot of repair work was necessary. I'm already considering different ways of supporting tomatoes next year but haven't decided on one way yet. What type of supports do you use?
This is my first year doing a major set up with raised beds and supports and stuff. I have to admit. I absolutely drool over yours. It's amazing!=) I especially like your PVC constructions. They look almost exactly like what I'd been visualizing trying to make in my head!
I'll try to get out tomorrow with a tape measure and be sure about those measurements. I know the beds are 10'x4' cause the boards were 14' to start but I'm not 100% on the width and height. Oh, they were also scrounged but they are untreated landscaping timbers, beyond that I don't know what wood type...etc..
god bless,
~pre
What size pvc did you use for the covers?

Originally posted by preparanoid

***snip***
I'm already considering different ways of supporting tomatoes next year but haven't decided on one way yet. What type of supports do you use?
**snip***
What size pvc did you use for the covers?

I cannot even begin to imagine how a tornado or hurricane would be like. Thankfully we very rarely have extreme weather in Denmark.
I don't envy you for living where you live. Perhaps except we can't grow tomatoes, peppers or the like on freeland.

Sorry it took so long to answer your questions.

The piping is 16 millimeters and are used by electricians to build into walls for the wiring of a house.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1943d5970c74.jpg[/atsimg]

As for the tomato supports I have bought some spiral supports and they seem to work fine.
No need for ties or string.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a732fdf94521.jpg[/atsimg]

I have just harvested our potato crop and we got 187 pounds of potatoes from 2 and a half beds - 150 square feet.

We spent 70 DKR on the seed potatoes and have now got the equivilant of 8.000 DKR of organicly grown potatoes.

Our crop this year is better than last year because the soil is looser and this seems to suit the potatoes.

I mixed the heavy clay soil in the beds with half of pure compost soil and this has turned out to be simply perfect. Lovely loose soil. Our plants love it.

Here is my garden. I did everything you see here single handedly with just about no equipment of any kind other than a wheelbarrow, a rake, a hoe, a drill, and a hammer. The image files are big because there are so many of them there were about twenty more really good ones but i had to be choosy) and I did not have time to edit them all down to a smaller size.

I started with a plan I made myself on some garden planner web site. I will have to wrack my brain to think of the URL:



For reference, this is what my garden looked like in the beginning of 2008:



... To be continued ...

(Continued)

Of course, a HUGE amount of work (about six month's worth) was needed just to get to the preliminary state you see in the image below, where I have cleared the land, laid weed screening, built raised beds, begun laying out flagstones, and started planting:



Here you can see the corner where my grape arbor was already established two years ago. I am laying in-ground flagstones and starting corn in the raised bed on the left. I have a single rose bush for rose hips, which it produces in abundance:



A view of the side yard in progress:



Next, I added landscape bark, more flagstones, and drip irrigation. The plants in the bark are strawberries and herbs. Even my ornamental plants, for the most part, are edible or medicinal: (looking east)



And a view looking west, toward the herb garden:




... To be continued ...

(Continued)

Here are a couple more views of this stage of the progress.

Closer view of the herb garden:



The grape arbor, with corn starting on the left:



The side yard, with a deeper raised bed for root vegetables:



And an even closer view of the herb garden:



... To be continued ...


[edit on 1-9-2009 by OuttaHere]