Gardening 101: Tips, Tricks and So Much More

Originally posted by MyMindIsMyOwn
reply to post by crimvelvet

 

Ya know, Crim.. I've read this posting several times today and have started I don't know how many replies to it during the course of the day. If you had been anywhere near my home at the time I finished reading it this afternoon you would have thought me mad. I let out a resounding "YAH BABY!!" arms waving in the air.....I could only imagine what I would have been like if I had already consumed my 2nd cup of coffee... thank heavens I had only finished my first.

I've long believed that the USDA and FDA have become to agriculture (large and small growers) what the DHS and TSA have become to the 'war on terror'. I feel that they have their boots firmly on the necks of honest growers/suppliers and in turn the consumer in the USA and abroad, when you consider the US Foreign policies on other countries agricultural policies through the government connections with companies like Monsanto. But my diatribe on Monstanto is for another thread entirely. One example of what I mean about the TSA type of operations is with the recently passed S510 bill and how conveniently it was timed in it's passing with the egg scare over the summer. To me it is/was nothing more than a false flag opperation to drum up support for it. All one has to do is follow the money. Consumer food safety my right rump cheek.

This is one reason why I wanted to start this thread to get people interested, I hope, in gardening and for the advanced gardener perhaps gleaning new insights on old subjects. We all need to be concerned about the food we have on our tables whether it is for prepping purposes or recreational or whatever brings a person to start a garden. If you no longer trust the government/corporations to provide what we all want... good, nurishing and safe food then we have to pick up that banner and run with it on our own. My fear, as I stated to you before, is that S510 will bring down the small producers because they will not longer be able to compete as the stranglehold is on them when it comes to new laws and protective measures in their practices. This would almost be laughable if I didn't believe we've seen the first wave of an all out attack on our local producers. Let's face it folks, lets get the smaller producers out of the way so the larger ones... the corporate producers... can come in buy them up and start producing the way the government wishes them to. Who was to blame for the outbreak of contaminated eggs? Was it your small producer that has respect for their animals and their animals well being? No, it was the corporate producers that have not one clue about proper animal husbandry..... oh sheesh..... here I go.......

I'll end my tirade now before I go off the deep end on this topic.... and just say.... let's get to growing!!!

edit on 9-3-2011 by MyMindIsMyOwn because: (no reason given)

Yes that bill that you mentioned above(S510 bill) is one creepy bit of legislation if I ever saw it.
Here in Canada they are on the verge of approving GM pigs for consumption by the public.
Quite a bit of noise in the newspapers about it but it is all in letters to the editor.
The glowing reports are in the news owned and operated here by one person.
Go figure, and I agree go plant what you can eat safely.
Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by crimvelvet


If your not at the top of the food chain then you are........DINNER! Thank you for this post. Its good to see the statistics. I would have never thought that 1% of the population was feeding everyone else. Makes absolute sense though. I grew up in a rural farming/logging community and it seems that none of it exists anymore here. We've turned into a much celebrated artsy twit community. My step daughters refuse to eat chicken if it is cooked on the bone because its like a dead animal that way.....

reply to post by MyMindIsMyOwn



For those whom live in places where the weather is inhospitable for fruit and veggies....

Try Hydroponics


I # you not - it is this easy to get a tomato plant that looks like it's on steroids and is producing more tomaties than you thought possible.


You need 7 things.

A Bucket. A slightly smaller, grated pot, which fits inside the bucket. A Fishpump and Airstone. Nutrient Solution. PH Tester. PH Up/Down solutions. Perlite/Vermiculite/Coconut peat - Soil without dirt?


Seup the bucket, putting the grated pot inside. Work out how much water you will need to just cover over maybe an inch fo the grated bucket. Setup the grated bucket so it will just sit inside the bucket unasisted.

Wash the soil substitute, fill the grated bucket with it LOOSELY. Chuck a seedling in the top of it.

Have the airstone in the bottom of the bucket - hook it up to the fishpump, turn it on low.

Add nutrient solution to the water. Check the PH, and adjust it untill its around 6.5

Put it near a window, or somethign inside where it can get as much sunlight as possible. You do not "Need" hydroponic lights to grow hydroponicly.



I live in the CBD here. I tried growing Tomatoes on my Balcony. I had Tomato Beefsteak seeds - these things are meant to be the size so that a slice covers you're entire sammich. I only ever had 2 tomatoes grow from them, and they were the size of cherry tomatoes.

I then turned to hydroponics. I have tomatoes, Cuecumber, Beans and Pea's growing at my parents place ina a gravity feed hydroponic system that gets its sunlight from outisde.

At home in the city im going to be maximising my windowsill space. I've allready got Basil, Arminrath, Rosemary and Dill seedlings growing and ready to go. Once i get to organze the place a bit more i'll go for an enclosed area outside so i can grow tomatoes again - but hydroponicly on my balcony - in a SEALED AREA - as it was the wind which was doing most of the plant killing.


Even if you have no interest in gardening - i highly recommend you start up a herb garden or something simple. When SHTF gardening is NOT as easy as just planting a seed and watering it now and then.... trust me





P.S - For some reason i origionaly thought that Hydroponic = not organic or good. Untill i looked into it further myself. Was skeptical about hte "nutrient" solution - but when you have the bottle in you're hand - you realise the only stuff that's in it is exactly what's listed on the side. Minerals and stuff that plants love - nothing more.

"Technicaly" its not organic, as its not grown from the ground and in the soil traditionaly...

But Technically it's not - as it's not using GMO seeds, or sprays, or anything.

Dunno why just thought i'd add that

reply to post by MyMindIsMyOwn


thanks for the info.

You must be reading my mind

I"m getting ready to start a garden. I figure about 12x16 ft. I'm lucky as I have black dirt and EVERYTHING grows in this stuff!

I'm planning on using cattle panels and T posts to make a barrier so my hairy children don't "nasty" up the thing. Considering mounting some corrugated green plastic on the sides so that my boy dog doesnt "water" the crops as well.

Seed was my big question and youve given some good tips.

Thanks so much for your time on this. sandf!

Nice links! Made order already. Also, there is another alternative to gardening in rows, its called square foot gardening and works very well! Dont forget your companion plants!

reply to post by Christarella



I use the Weed Dragon for my weeds. It's satisfying to go around singing crabgrass and other pesky weeds.

Nice thread, I'll definitely have to read through it for all the good tips, I have my heirloom seed bank but not a lot of knowledge yet, there really is a lot to know.

I started last year with some tomato plants and I was pretty happy with the results, although I started them too late in the season for them to be as successful as they could have been. I learned a lot though and it was a good trial run, this year I want to get a good start on them and add a few more plant varieties, I think I can handle it, wish me luck.

reply to post by kalamatas


Thank you kalamatas, I just went to Amazon and bought me one!!

reply to post by Wetpaint72


diatomaceous earth, and supposedly it adds trace minerals as well as pest control

Awesome thread!!! I have a few tip's for novice gardeners to in terms of compost.

For my compost each year starting on April first. I rake up all the leaves I allowed to stay in the garden from the prior year. Allowing a cover a leaves from fall the prior year helps warm up the ground after a snowy season. Even when it's cold out! Where you find leaves you will find warmth. Aside from this small step I have a few thing's I do throughout the winter.

1. I save all coffee filters and coffee grinds and put them on the compost pile at the end of each week.
2. Egg shells and fruit scraps go with coffee grounds the best! Most vegetables don't allow for a healthy growth of worms.
3. Coffee grounds, Coffee filters, Paper Towels, Egg Shell and fruit scraps are on the Earthworms top food chart.
4. Buy 4 pan's of Earthworms from wal-mart, or hunt for them at night after a nice rainfall and transport them to your garden. If you had a successful compost year, your prior year's heap would be fully digested by worm's and you can get the worms right there.

Worm castings is the best food for plant's aside from water.

square foot gardening.
nitrogen balancing plants
randomly place native varieties to keep the natural ecosystem
pests are only pests if that's how you view them, expect to lose some of your crop to pests, by next year that organisms natural predator will have taken notice and moved in.
let everything come to balance naturally.
check your soil, ph especially
greywater reclaimation
Earthship style housing

Aquaponics- growing plants and fish harmoniously. Vegetative plants grow extremely well in AP, Fruiting and Flowering plants take a little more. Look into this, it's surprisingly easy, and it will definitely turn you into a greenthumb(if not already) When some of the water needs to be removed I give it to the garden and the plants love it.

A few good tips for aquaponics woulb be, stick to a flood and drain growbed with a bell siphon, a good way to jumpstart the system is by using a seaweed or kelp fertilizer. Crushed coral adds extra minerals, eggshells do the same thing and also balance the ph, water that has sat in a bucket with rusty nails is a good way to add iron.


I would like to know of a natural source of phosphorous to add to the set up with out killing the fish.

Originally posted by Slipdig1
reply to post by crimvelvet

 

Thats not nice. not to get up you I hate cats and love birds. Birds are an important part of your garden alot of birds catch and eat pests. If bees disappear which seems to be happening at the moment, birds will be one of the only pollinators left.

Now what do you do if bird song is the most wonderful gift, and you love birds, and cats too, plus all those squirrels playing games together out in the back yard? LOL!

Here's some Organic Farming Materials that I've been using for a few years.

Earthworm Soil Factory
The Best Soil on the West Coast, 100% Organic Family owned and operated.

GMO's were first made so you can spray extremely toxic pesticides.
But to stay Organic I don't think you'll want to use round-up.

Try Safer-Soap and Neem-Oil. Both Organic

Nutrients:
Try Canna from the Netherlands

And Humbolt Honey for carbohydrates.

All these are Organic and produces high quality foods

My 2 Cents.


To save the hassle of sprouting seeds every season, you can clone your plants and always have the same plant.
Cloning is very easy and it practically bypasses having to buy seeds every year.

reply to post by Wetpaint72

I am looking into using diatomatious earth as an insect repelent. It was brought to my attention that it could harm bees. I was hoping there would be a way around causing them harm, while ridding my yard and garden from harmful pests....

diatomatious earth is a rock powder. If you keep it on the ground and off your plants it should work for the ground crawling insects. Slugs, aphids...

You could also use it early in the season when nothing near by is blooming. Wash it iff your plans before they bloom.

I would suggest using my inverted funnel idea to make sure the power goes on the plants you want and does not drift.

Always wait for a no wind day to apply anything to your garden. Dawn and dusk usually have the least wind.

reply to post by Iwinder

Wow great idea, I wish we had milk jugs here but all they sell are milk bags. I suppose a juice jug would work just as well?

Any large jug with a relatively narrow top should do. Just make sure you clean it well. After cleaning throughly I normally fill a jug to the top with hot water and add baking soda. This gets rid of the smell.

Speaking of jugs.

I use my cleaned and sanitized (hot water and chlorine bleach) jugs as water bottles. I fill them 1/3 full of water and lay them at an angle on their side in the freezer. These go all over the farm with me. The will keep the water cold for a couple of hours min. with out lugging a cooler all over the place.

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables

I dont know is anyone has brought up the subject of cold storage/root cellaring yet but here is a book that I bought last year , if your in to being self-sufficient then you need to read this book.

Very Solid little book. If you desire to learn about natural cold storage this is the book for you. Good info. Good illustrations and good stories about many different peoples personal root cellars. The book covers everything from what varieties of fruits and vegetables store best to the many different styles of cellars people have built. The simple pictures in this book are worth a thousand words. If you are planning on building a root cellar you should own and read this book.

www.amazon.com...

reply to post by crimvelvet


Another great use for jugs of any size is filling them as you say about 1/3 of the way and freezing them and using them to help rabbits stay cool in the heat of the summer. My daughter used to raise rabbits as her 4-H project and the summers here get so hot; we would put one of those in each hutch and it would last the day. The bunnies would sit right next to it; we never lost one to the heat. Chickens like them as well. We also put them in the horses water trough.

Instead of buying the expensive landscape/weed cloth I use several layers of newspaper as mulch to keep my gardens weed free; they also have the added benefit of rotting away and adding to your soil.

Marigolds in addition to their medicinal/food value are also a natural insect repellent; I plant them around any plant that is susceptible to aphids and never have a problem with them. Calendulas also known as pot marigold have culinary and medicinal value as well. Dry the petals and use as the poor person's substitute for saffron; the dried petals added to a salve made with bees wax and comfy helps to heal skin irritations.

For those who keep getting their roses munched on by deer; try planting lavender around the roses; the scent of the lavender muddies the roses and helps keep the deer away.

reply to post by Lovelyful


Nice to have you stop by Lovelyful! Thanks for posting. One of the best things in the world is to be able to reach down and pick something out of your garden, give it a good wipe down and start munching. As a young child I watched my grandmother garden as my family is from the southern US and I would spend my summers down there with her on the farm. I would often get scolded for not bringing back ALL of what I picked for her, especially the peas... LOL.

One of my other chores was to gather the eggs from the henhouse every morning and honestly there was nothing better than her biscuits and homemade jam with fresh eggs and a glass of milk straight from the source!

Happy gardening!

reply to post by mutantgenius


Good morning mutantgenius! Thanks for the posting on the insecticides and espeically the bees. Love that tree mallow, almost reminds me of rose of sharon which I love too and I noticed here (I'm not too far away from you in NY, I am in Western NY) last year was just heavy with honey bee traffic! Also glad to see Lupine is another attracter of bees since it is one of my all time favorite plants.

reply to post by MyMindIsMyOwn

....I've long believed that the USDA and FDA have become to agriculture (large and small growers) what the DHS and TSA have become to the 'war on terror'. I feel that they have their boots firmly on the necks of honest growers/suppliers and in turn the consumer in the USA and abroad, when you consider the US Foreign policies on other countries agricultural policies through the government connections with companies like Monsanto...

This is one reason why I wanted to start this thread to get people interested,....

This would almost be laughable if I didn't believe we've seen the first wave of an all out attack on our local producers. Let's face it folks, lets get the smaller producers out of the way so the larger ones... the corporate producers... can come in buy them up and start producing the way the government wishes them to....

This post and yours are not exactly off topic since once the independent farmers are out of the way the home gardener is the next on the list to be exterminated.

Kissinger made the plan very plain when he said in 1970, "Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world." This means home gardens have to go.

As concerned citizens read at least these four articles. They will have a major effect on your near future I guarrantee it.

General article with a few bits of miss-information: Food Safety Modernazation Act

Correction#1 Tesser Amendment does NOT exempt small farms.

Correction #2 Gardens may be targeted

This change in the tax code will effect every sales clerk, every salesman and anyone who fills out an expense report. It means you will stand in line at Home Depot, Lowes Home Improvement, the garden shop, Office MAX, Walmart, Sam's Club and at restaurants and gas stations while heated arguments are conducted by the small businessman ahead of you. 2012 business NIGHTMARE


The plan is very much divide and conquer. Cheap subsidized grain (see Freedom to Fail Act of 1996) from the USA was used to force small third world farmers out of business. Then the big corporations moved in and snapped up the land. Remember how the pig flu was traced back to a SMITHFIELD corporate farm in Mexico??? Well Mexico's lost 75% of her farmers. Clinton even admitted it was done intentionally! (Don't forget that faux "food Safety" was a big point on Hilary's agenda when she was campaigning.)

Today's global food crisis shows "we all blew it, including me when I was president," by treating food crops as commodities instead of as a vital right of the world's poor, Bill Clinton told a U.N. gathering on Thursday. UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 23, 2008

President Bill Clinton... publicly apologized last month for forcing Haiti to drop tariffs on imported, subsidized US rice during his time in office. The policy wiped out Haitian rice farming and seriously damaged Haiti’s ability to be self-sufficient. www.democracynow.org...

To give you an idea of what farmers are facing in 2012 AND what home Gardeners may face later, this is from HR 875 and is cut and paste directly from HR 875 with nothing added.

HR875 was the first bill and shows what the ultimate goal is. As Paul Warburg, author of the 1913 Federal Reserve Act said "Our goal is to get the bill passed guys, we can change it later" There are over 100 amendments to that law can you name any?

Civil Penalty
(A) IN GENERAL- Any person that commits an act that violates the food safety law (including a regulation promulgated or order issued under the food safety law) may be assessed a civil penalty by the Administrator of not more than $1,000,000 for each such
B) SEPARATE OFFENSE- Each act described in subparagraph (A) and each day during which that act continues shall be considered a separate offense.

Criminal Sanctions-
(1) OFFENSE RESULTING IN SERIOUS ILLNESS- Notwithstanding section 303(a) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 333(a)), if a violation of any provision of section 301 of such Act (21 U.S.C. 301) with respect to an adulterated or misbranded food results in serious illness, the person committing the violation shall be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, fined in accordance with title 18, United States Code, or both.
(2) OFFENSE RESULTING IN DEATH- Notwithstanding section 303(a) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 333(a)), if a violation of any provision of section 301 of such Act (21 U.S.C. 331) with respect to an adulterated or misbranded food results in death, the person committing the violation shall be imprisoned for not more than 10 years, fined in accordance with title 18, United States Code, or both.
... each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;

include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water

include, with respect to animals raised for food, minimum standards related to the animal's health, feed, and environment which bear on the safety of food for human consumption

THE THREAT TO HOME GARDENS!

HR 875 also included this.

...in any action to enforce the requirements of the food safety law, the connection with interstate commerce required for jurisdiction SHALL BE PRESUMED TO EXIST.

The Commerce Clause:
A farmer was growing wheat for his own use “The government claimed that if Mr. Filburn grew wheat for his own use, he would not be buying it — and that affected interstate commerce” The Supreme court found against the farmer!!!

...the central government told Mr. Filburn that for the next year he would be limited to planting 11 acres of wheat .... He harvested 12 acres over his allotment for consumption on his own property. When the government fined him, Mr. Filburn refused to pay.

Wickard v. Filburn got to the Supreme Court, and in 1942, the justices unanimously ruled against the farmer. The government claimed that if Mr. Filburn grew wheat for his own use, he would not be buying it — and that affected interstate commerce. It also argued that if the price of wheat rose, which is what the government wanted, Mr. Filburn might be tempted to sell his surplus wheat in the interstate market, thwarting the government's objective. The Supreme Court bought it


The Court's opinion must be quoted to be believed:

[The wheat] supplies a need of the man who grew it which would otherwise be reflected by purchases in the open market. Home-grown wheat in this sense competes with wheat in commerce.

As Epstein commented, "Could anyone say with a straight face that the consumption of home-grown wheat is 'commerce among the several states?'" For good measure, the Court justified the obvious sacrifice of Mr. Filburn's freedom and interests to the unnamed farmers being protected:

It is of the essence of regulation that it lays a restraining hand on the self-interest of the regulated and that advantages from the regulation commonly fall to others....

www.fff.org...

I suggest googling Dan Amstutz, VP of Cargill start with Portrait of Cargill He is a key player. He also worked for Goldman Sachs who had a hand in the food riots of 2008 (Monsanto and Cargill posted record earnings too)

If you want to know some of the technical stuff, like with locally owned farms money stays in the community because farmers "tend to buy their supplies and services locally, thus supporting a variety of local businesses. This phenomenon is known as the economic “multiplier” effect, estimated at approximately seven dollars per dollar earned by the locally owned farm." SEE: PEW REPORT

Other good articles are:
Why the new food safety system (1996 HACCP) did not work www.agpolicy.org...

Food and Drug Administration plan to close seven of 13 field laboratories business.highbeam.com...

SHIELDING THE GIANTS: www.whistleblower.org...


History of the plans to wipe out US farming starting in 1942: www.opednews.com...

World Trade Organization and the destruction of Farming: Review of F. William Engdahl's "Seeds of Destruction" Parts I, II, III

smirkingchimp.com...
www.smirkingchimp.com...
www.smirkingchimp.com...

I have over 14 pages of references so I really am keeping this short.