March 28, 2024

Consolidated List of Gardening Posts

It’s that time of year when many of us are gardening by traditional, raised bed, square foot, container or other method. I’ve written a few articles over the years that might be new to some of you. I thought I would write one condensed post and link to them all.

For those of you who aren’t gardeners, this is a skill you should really consider learning. Have you ever heard the phrase, “society is nine meals away from anarchy”? It’s true! It only takes three hunger filled days for things to begin to fall apart. The easiest way to control a people, is to control their food supply. Throughout history, tyrants have controlled their people by limiting the food supply.

Victory gardens were a common thing during WWII. People raised some of their own food to help reduce the burden on the food supply brought on because of the war.

I have been at this a few years and still consider myself a novice, but I am happy to share with you what I have learned.

“Principles of Gardening” is a great place to start. This article covers some of the basics, but I also cover some things that people who’ve had a traditional garden all their lives might not know. For instance, did you know that tilling your garden plot is counterproductive and actually harmful to the soil?

Over the years I have collected several books on gardening. I shared them in (-“Gardening Resources” and have updated the list with three new books.

Few of us have perfect soil for gardening. “Soil Amendments to Improve Garden Growth” has multiple ways to improve soil.

One way to make the most of limited space it to use a trellis for plants that grow on a vine. We’ve come up with a PVC Trellis for melons and beans.

In “Natural Ways to Kill Bugs and Weeds”, I list several ways to kill bugs and weeds without using pesticides or herbicides.

In “Introduction to Permaculture; Building a Food Forest”, I explain the basics of permaculture, which is a design system that uses principles found in nature. Instead of a traditional farm that may produce one or two items, a permaculture design might have a hundred different items. Permaculture design is often referred to as a “food forest”.

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Starting Seeds With a Soil Cubes and Building Rain Catchment

Here are a couple garden projects we’ve been working on this week. I know some of you are gardeners so I thought I would share them with you.

Soil Cubes

I know its past time to start seeds for many of you but we got a late start on it this year. Over the years I have used many things to start seeds, some worked better than others and some just plain didn’t work. This year I used something called a Soil Cube. While the seeds haven’t sprouted yet, I am pretty impressed. The soil cube is $19.99 +shipping, which gets you the soil cube maker and a tong to move the cubes with.

The problem I have had and seen with several seed starters is that the roots coil around the inside of a container, and are shocked when you transplant the seedling. The idea behind the Soil Cube is that your potting mix is the container. When the time is right you just put the cube in your garden. There is no root shock. Because the soil cube is the container, the roots stop at the edge of the soil, so there is no root coiling. We made fifty cubes in (maybe) thirty minutes and will transplant them to containers later this spring.

You can learn much more by visiting the Soil Cube Site I’ve also posted the intro video below.

 

Rain Catchment

Rain water is better for a garden than city water, so building a rain catchment system has been something on my to-do list for a while. I finally got to it this week. For every inch of rain that falls on a 1000 square foot roof, you can catch approximately 600 gallons of water. Believe it or not catching rain is actually illegal in some states, so check your local laws before building a rain catchment system.

We have two barrels that have holes on the left and right and screened tops. We also purchased a product called a Rain Reserve that you attach to a downspout. It diverts some of the rain water to your barrel. The Rain Reserves are pretty pricey now at $89. But you buy one and get one free. We paid half that at a farmers market a year or two ago.

As you can see from the pictures, we set one barrel up higher than the other. When that one is full, it will then transfer over to the second barrel through the hose. We put them on blocks to add some pressure if we decide to add drip irrigation later.

We’ll use the water for the garden but, if we needed to in a pinch, we could use it to flush the toilet, bathe or even drink. We would need to purify it first if we were going to drink it.

BeforeAfter

Rain Reserve

The top right picture shows that the Rain Reserve is pretty low. This is because that is where it was already cut, and I didn’t want to make another one if I could help it. It rained and it turns out I will need to make another cut and raise the rain reserve above the barrel.

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Introduction to Permaculture; Building a Food Forest

Permaculture is something that I have mentioned a few times, but it’s not something I have discussed in any detail. I’m still a Permaculture novice, but thought I would share some of what I have learned as well as some resources. I think Permaculture can be useful for anyone designing food production systems, whether that is a small suburban yard or a multi-acre farm.

This is an immense topic, so in this article I am only going to introduce you to what Permaculture is and give you some resources to further explore the subject.

 

What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a design system that takes principles found in nature and works with them. For example, instead of planting an acre of corn (mono-culture) you might plant 100 different species, scattered throughout the acre. Instead of things being planted in rows, the only structure might be zones and layers, which are how they grow naturally. A Permaculture system would more resemble a forest than the traditional farm. In fact, a Permaculture design is often referred to as a “food forest”.

 

Why Use Permaculture?
Why use Permaculture instead of traditional farming or gardening? Bill Mollison answers this very well:

“The aim is to create systems that are ecologically-sound and economically viable, which provide for their own needs, do not exploit or pollute, and are therefore sustainable in the long term. Permaculture uses the inherent qualities of plants and animals combined with the natural characteristics of landscapes and structures to produce a life-supporting system for city and country, using the smallest practical area.”

 

Who Developed Permaculture?
Permaculture, as a design system, was developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970’s and introduced in their book “Permaculture One” in 1978. Permaculture is a term coined by Bill Mollison. It was originally derived from “Permanent Agriculture” and later “Permanent Culture”. Since these same practices are visible by watching nature, others have developed similar concepts, under different names.

 

Zones

Zones in Permaculture are used to organize things by their frequency of human intervention.

Zone 0
This is your home.

Zone 1
This is the area closest to your home. These would be the things that need the most attention; being watered and mulched the most. Things here would be your herb garden, raised beds and compost pile. This could also contain a greenhouse.

Zone 2
This is the area for perennials and any orchard trees. You might still mulch and irrigate, but less than in zone 1.

Zone 3
This is for conventional farming crops

Zone 4
This is a semi-wild area. You might forage here but there is minimal human intervention.

Zone 5
This is wilderness with no human intervention.

 

Layers

Planting in layers is how permaculture gets its structure and should be used when planning your landscaping; planting the tallest things the furthest away, so that all layers get as much sun as possible.

Layer 1
The canopy; the tallest trees.

Layer 2
Sub-canopy layer. This contains shorter trees, such as dwarf fruit trees.

Layer 3
Shrubs and bushes belong in layer three.

Layer 4
Herbaceous layer, plants such as Daylily’s and Hosta’s.

Layer 5
Rhizosphere layer, for roots and tubers.

Layer 6
Soil surface, consisting of cover crops like bush green beans, strawberries, any low growing plant that can add nutrients and limit erosion.

Layer 7
Vertical climbers, vines that climb like pole green beans.

 

Swales
A swale is a shallow ditch used to trap water that would normally run off the surface of land. It captures it and forces it to slowly go through and hydrate the soil.

 

Hugelkultur
The last thing I want to cover is something that isn’t necessarily a part of permaculture, but something that could be used in a permaculture design.

raised garden beds: hugelkultur instead of irrigation covers Hugelkultur in much greater detail, but I’ll give a quick and dirty explanation. Hugelkultur is simply burying wood with soil, compost, manure and planting on top of it. In the first year, you may have to water as you normally would, but here’s the reason people practice Hugelkultur; as that wood breaks down it acts as a sponge and holds moisture, releasing it to the vegetation that you have planted.

 

Permaculture Resources

I first learned of Permaculture from Jack Spirko on the Survival Podcast. Jack has done a huge amount of content dedicated to permaculture, some of it in hour long shows. Some of the information is also answering a listener’s question, so that show might only have 5-10 minutes on the topic. I searched his site using the word permaculture, here are all of the results.

Permies.com
This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, permaculture forums on the Internet. There is a huge amount of information here on all things permaculture.

The Permaculture research Institute of the USA
Here is a link that has a lot of information on permaculture, including classes, DVD’s and other information, including a forum, on permaculture.

 
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Principles of Gardening

It’s that time of year (at least in Minnesota) to be ordering seeds for planning this year’s garden. I think that gardening is a skillset that more people should have, but there is a learning curve. It’s more than just throwing a seed in the dirt and picking the produce. If you’re looking to make the leap from just prepping to homesteading, gardening is the perfect transition. Plus, with the ever growing cost of groceries, a garden is one way to reduce the cost of food.

We tried for a few years, but there is just too much shade in our yard for a garden, so we won’t be planting one this year. I’m by no means a master gardener, but I thought I would share some of the things I have learned along the way.

This article is geared more toward the beginner gardener, but if you pros have anything to offer, please do so in the comment section.
 
 
Heirloom vs. Hybrid

Hybrid vegetables are the result of cross-pollination of two compatible plant types. This is done to take advantage of the features of both plants, to increase yield, disease resistance, cold tolerance etc. Hybrid seeds are sterile, so you would have to purchase new seeds each season. Hybrid seeds are not GMO (Genetically Modified Organism), which are seeds that have had DNA of plants, animals or microorganisms spliced into the DNA of the plant. Heirloom plants are grown from heirloom seeds which are harvested from the heirloom plant at the end of the growing season. For more information, here is another article on Heirloom and Hybrid seeds.
 
 
Zone Hardiness Map

Before you decide on what kind of vegetables to grow, take a look at the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.. Chances are that your local store will only have the seeds or plants that are hardy for your zone, but better safe than sorry.
 
 
Starting Seeds or Buying Plants

For beginner gardeners it is probably easier to purchase plants from a greenhouse that you trust. However, I think that starting seedlings is a skill set that every gardener should have. If you plan to start them from seed, the Soil Cube is something you might want to invest in. It is much better than the seedling pods that I have used in the past.
 
 
Traditional vs. Square Foot vs. Raised Bed

Traditional gardening is what most people think of; tilled soil and things planted in rows. This is the kind of gardening my parents did when I was a kid. Square Foot gardening plants things more densely and makes use of trellises to grow up, instead of spread out. Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening, Second Edition is a great book on the subject and I’ll be reviewing it on Thursday. Raised bed gardening uses the same style beds as square foot gardening, but there are no 1’x1′ sectioned off squares.

The benefit of using a raised bed is that if the soil in your yard isn’t the best for gardening, you can bring soil in as well as compost and other amendments. Also the use of a trellis lets you grow a lot more in a smaller area.
 
 
To Till or Not to Till

As I mentioned, when I was a kid, my parents had a traditional garden. Every spring we would get the tiller out and till the soil before we planted. In my research on gardening I have found that tilling destroys the eco-system below the surface, which is made up of organic matter, fungi, worms, water and microorganisms.
 
 
Mulch

Mulch does a lot for a garden. It helps keep the soil moist, protects against weeds and many other things. There are organic things like straw, leaves, grass clippings, compost and others, as well as inorganic such as black plastic. This article from HGTV gives you some Mulching No-Nos.
 
 
Composting

Composting is more than just throwing out kitchen scraps, but that is part of it. Making your own compost and adding it to your beds is a great way to amend the soil, get rid of kitchen scraps as well as leaves and grass clippings. Here is a site with a huge amount of Information on composting.. One of the mistakes I made was buying one large bin and continually adding to it. I have heard Jack Spirko from the Survival Podcast say, “That is like adding more cake mix, when the cake is already half baked in the oven.” He recommends using three small compost bins and cycling them, so you fill one, leave it alone and start filling the second and so on.

There are often community compost sites, many of which add chemicals to make the materials compost faster. If you want to avoid adding chemicals, you should be able to ask at the site.
 
 
Herbicides and Pesticides

I don’t care for either, because if it’s in the soil, it’s probably in the plant and then probably going to be eaten. There are organic ways of dealing with weeds and pests. One of the books I have on the subject is The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control: A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden and Yard Healthy Without Chemicals.

If you have any tips to shorten the learning curve, please share them in the comment section.

 
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