permaculture

[dragonlady7]

I don't want to go through another year like this past one, when I had so little time to garden-- I planted a total of six snapdragons, in terms of flowers; for food, I planted a couple of bulk packs of tomatoes, for far too many plants, and a couple of packs of peppers, which yielded indifferently well.

I got tons of tomatoes, and some peppers. My cukes, on the other hand-- I got about four cukes all summer. And beans? I think I had one vine actually make it to maturity.

It was awful and depressing.

Reading urban_homestead's blog-- linked to by, I believe, jonquil recently-- has instilled in me a deep hankering to do more subsistence-style gardening. I have for a long time wanted to grow my own food; now I really really want to grow my own food, and lots of it.

What will I have to do in order to have time for this? I don't know. I'll have to start seeds soon. But a friend with a much larger backyard has shown interest in collaborating, so I may send her a list, and maybe loan her my second shop light to see if she's interested in trying seed starting as well. She's got a warmer and bigger basement than me.

I really want to do something with my yard. Last year was disgraceful. I want less lawn, too.

So first, I need to break down and get a plastic composter. The homemade chicken-wire one is just too hard to turn.

I want to make my sunporch act as a greenhouse, though. I wonder what I'd need to do to accomplish this?
And could I build a cold frame near the house in the back? I wonder if that would work? I must research this.

At any rate, it's something I want quite badly to do. I don't know how I'll find the time. But I want it.

Comments

[kkatowll.livejournal.com]

If you succeed, let me know. My mom had a garden, a serious gigantic garden for somebody living in the middle of the suburbs, and we always had tons of food growing back there, and now I want to do the same thing...but with perhaps one-eighth the amount of work. Um. Yeah. Anyways, if you come up with any clever ways to turn lawn into garden without, say, spending any money, lemme know.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

My mother subsistence-farmed for us too. It was *somewhat* labor-intensive when she did it.

This year I have a suburbanite friend who knows nothing but is mildly enthused. I'm hoping I can split a big seed order with her-- in the past I've been hampered by only being able to get 300 of any one thing, so only getting the one thing, because, well, I can only fit 10 things in my yard... but if I get a big packet and give her 298 of each thing, I can then have two each of five things...

I haven't spent a ton of money on my *vegetable* garden thusfar (flowers are expensive), but it's either money or backbreaking labor, usually. A rototiller (rentable by the hour or day) would make things exponentially easier, I'm sure, but thusfar I've used a shovel and a machete and spent about 45 minutes per square yard when clearing my yard. Oof. Backbreaking.

Your climate is slightly colder than mine, too. (I'm Zone 6a and you're Zone 4/5-- the date of my last frost is significantly later and my winter [and summer] temperatures are less extreme. Good old Lake Erie.) So certain seeds, you can just plunk into the ground, but things like tomatoes and peppers, you need to either start indoors two or three months early, or buy plants. That's what gets expensive.
I don't know if you've any room indoors to start seeds. That impacts what you can grow, a lot.

Lettuce, however-- lettuce is super-easy, super-cheap, and heck, you can grow it on the window sill. Only thing is, it doesn't tolerate heat, most of the time.
Lettuce and peas are direct-sow, early crops, very rewarding and productive... until late June, when it gets hot. Oh well. Lettuce, peas, beans, and cukes. Those are the things I just plant outside. Pretty much everything else, you have to do indoors.

And you really need a composter, I'm finding. Buying fertilizer and soil improvements is too expensive otherwise. Do you have 3 square feet for a composter?

[heebiejeebie.livejournal.com]

Like, omg, I want to help make you an amazing garden.

I've learned so much about high-yield small-space gardening it's not even funny. And I've had alot of success.

I don't have a yard anymore, so you MUST let me teach you everything and I'll have tons of seeds, worm poop, seaweed powder, and cottonseed meal for you to use. You can even borrow my raised rotating composter if you can manage to lift it.

I also had lots of success with seed starting. I'm in an all utilities included apartment so I could start a bunch for you.

You should call me at 566-7750 in the evening up to 10:30pm.

-Jessica

[heebiejeebie.livejournal.com]

PS - TIME tends not to be so much an issue if you do things right. My garden, once it was set up, generally needed about 20 minutes a day. When I made it HUGE it needed 30 or so.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

OMG! I know about your garden from years past-- but I didn't realize your new situation had no yard!!
Hm...
I will totally call you but I have no free time until next week.

[heebiejeebie.livejournal.com]

Immmmm freeee nooooowwwww

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I wasn't. LOL. I posted in a moment of waiting for other things to happen. I get those a lot lately. I'll be more able to give this coherent thought in a couple of days. :)
I may want to borrow that composter, though-- I've been thinking of getting one of those! Are they faster than the homemade ones made of chicken wire? I've got to buy one of the big heavy-duty plastic ones, the kind you can easily turn by taking stuff from the bottom and dumping it back in the top-- I'm just not making enough compost with my current, poorly-attended system. (Well... none at all, now that it's winter.)

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Seriously consider putting in raised beds - and keep them narrower than 4 feet. They are work to make - but once they're in, they are MUCH easier to keep neat and weed-free than a conventional garden, and because you never walk on the soil, it stays light, so adding soil ammendments is far easier. No more rototilling, ever! Just mulching and planting.

Assissotom

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