The Subsistence Farming Project: Planting Methods
I've been having a great time with my friends in Ohio making plans for our subsistence garden. Even though I am still in Las Vegas we've been working together to turn this dream in to a reality. My friend borrowed s
ome gardening books from the library, and has already started finding materials as well. We are not interested in spending a boatload of money, so recycling helps. My friend was told that these biodegradable water bottle holders would be good for starting seedlings in the house, so she has set some aside.
In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of online research and have found some awesome websites. I've met a wonderful woman, Liz, who publishes hyperlocavore.com, a site that touts yard-sharing as a way of getting more food gardens into neighborhoods, thus supporting the "eat local" movement. Yard-sharing involves setting aside some square footage in one's yard for a neighbor who has no garden space. I love this concept; it has firm supporters in Portland. Liz has been of immense help in giving me ideas for how to set up my garden, and even sent me some seeds to get me started! She operates in the true sense of community. I look forward to sharing my harvest and seeds in the future.
We will probably set up our 250-square-foot plot using the technique of square-foot-gardening and the no-till method. I have seen several versions of square foot gardening, but this example (by serenejournal) strikes me as the most aesthetically pleasing. It looks like it will require a little carpentry, unless you can buy these things already made. I'm no stranger to hammers and nails so I can do this (besides, it somehow seems counterintuitive to buy already-made plots for my organic garden). The benefit of square foot gardening is that you are supposed to use only 20% of the garden space you would have used with traditional "row" methods, while getting the same yield.
"No-till" or "zero tillage" is a method based on the idea that soil should be disturbed as little as possible. I was surprised that tilling has a negative effect on soil, as I'd always thought you had to till in order to pull out weeds and mix in your fertilizers or compost. However, tilling also disturbs earthworms and microbes, and changes the density of soil, among other negatives. At this moment I have no idea what a no-till method is, but I'm looking forward to learning.
Every day I get more excited about this project. I'm sick of grocery store tomatoes with their travel-bred skins and innards that are pale and tasteless. I have never seen a cucumber without wax on its skin. Gardening will be an education for me in a variety of ways.
ome gardening books from the library, and has already started finding materials as well. We are not interested in spending a boatload of money, so recycling helps. My friend was told that these biodegradable water bottle holders would be good for starting seedlings in the house, so she has set some aside. In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of online research and have found some awesome websites. I've met a wonderful woman, Liz, who publishes hyperlocavore.com, a site that touts yard-sharing as a way of getting more food gardens into neighborhoods, thus supporting the "eat local" movement. Yard-sharing involves setting aside some square footage in one's yard for a neighbor who has no garden space. I love this concept; it has firm supporters in Portland. Liz has been of immense help in giving me ideas for how to set up my garden, and even sent me some seeds to get me started! She operates in the true sense of community. I look forward to sharing my harvest and seeds in the future.
We will probably set up our 250-square-foot plot using the technique of square-foot-gardening and the no-till method. I have seen several versions of square foot gardening, but this example (by serenejournal) strikes me as the most aesthetically pleasing. It looks like it will require a little carpentry, unless you can buy these things already made. I'm no stranger to hammers and nails so I can do this (besides, it somehow seems counterintuitive to buy already-made plots for my organic garden). The benefit of square foot gardening is that you are supposed to use only 20% of the garden space you would have used with traditional "row" methods, while getting the same yield. "No-till" or "zero tillage" is a method based on the idea that soil should be disturbed as little as possible. I was surprised that tilling has a negative effect on soil, as I'd always thought you had to till in order to pull out weeds and mix in your fertilizers or compost. However, tilling also disturbs earthworms and microbes, and changes the density of soil, among other negatives. At this moment I have no idea what a no-till method is, but I'm looking forward to learning.
Every day I get more excited about this project. I'm sick of grocery store tomatoes with their travel-bred skins and innards that are pale and tasteless. I have never seen a cucumber without wax on its skin. Gardening will be an education for me in a variety of ways.
Posted by Allison at 3/6/2009 9:12 AM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: subsistencefarming notill sfg squarefootgardening
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: subsistencefarming notill sfg squarefootgardening
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