Pretty place, Squaw Valley, California.
Posted on 03/23/2008 11:36:40 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Americans finding soaring food prices hard to stomach can battle back by growing their own food. [Click image for a larger version] Dean Fosdick Dean Fosdick
Home vegetable gardens appear to be booming as a result of the twin movements to eat local and pinch pennies.
At the Southeastern Flower Show in Atlanta this winter, D. Landreth Seed Co. of New Freedom, Pa., sold three to four times more seed packets than last year, says Barb Melera, president. "This is the first time I've ever heard people say, 'I can grow this more cheaply than I can buy it in the supermarket.' That's a 180-degree turn from the norm."
Roger Doiron, a gardener and fresh-food advocate from Scarborough, Maine, said he turned $85 worth of seeds into more than six months of vegetables for his family of five.
A year later, he says, the family still had "several quarts of tomato sauce, bags of mixed vegetables and ice-cube trays of pesto in the freezer; 20 heads of garlic, a five-gallon crock of sauerkraut, more homegrown hot-pepper sauce than one family could comfortably eat in a year and three sorts of squash, which we make into soups, stews and bread."
[snipped]
She compares the current period of market uncertainty with that of the early- to mid-20th century when the concept of victory gardens became popular.
"A lot of companies during the world wars and the Great Depression era encouraged vegetable gardening as a way of addressing layoffs, reduced wages and such," she says. "Some companies, like U.S. Steel, made gardens available at the workplace. Railroads provided easements they'd rent to employees and others for gardening."
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Nope, not much gardening... a lot of complaining about the article/author and nay-saying about growing your own food. No one factored in the cost of tasteless vegetables that teaches your kids to hate them, over use of pesticides, non-nutritious produce grown on worn-out land, etc. Plus the satisfaction of being in control of your own destiny. Oh well.
likes the galvanized ones about shin-high.<<<
I know the wash tubs well, we used them first with rub boards, and later to rinse clothes in for the wringer washer.
But do not cook in them, you can’t use galvanized tubs/buckets for cooking, I forget all the details, but do remember it is not done.
I like the square Mason jars for drinking water, keep one on the desk at all times, the lid keeps bugs out.
LOL, I would not dream of drinking wine from anything except a crystal wine glass.
I like the sound of your husband, he knows which ‘tool’ will do the best job.
No, I missed the Phoenix address for the printables.
Your site is interesting:
I’d like to grow lettuce like his mom did, too. So now I have the brawn I needed to do the heavy work. I’m sooo excited!<<<
I am so glad for you, that is wonderful and you will be out there watching every fraction of an inch of growth.
I love it when the first seed breaks through the soil, LOL, even if it does turn out to be a weed.
There is nothing more dream producing, than setting by the wood stove, poking holes in the bottom of the coffee cups and filling with planter mix and seeds......
I always gather up all the styrofoam coffee cups to use for seeds and cuttings and they are cheaper than flower pots, use a pencil and poke 3 or 4 holes in the bottom, not too big, but enough that they will drain well.
As a general habit, I use them once for seeds, but will save them for plants and cuttings that I am rooting.
I try to be organic, but the budget does not go to full organic, so I cut corners and make do.
Walmart did sell a bag of potting mix called Pro-Mix, under their own Walmart label, it is the best seed growing medium that I have ever used.
Get it moist, add 3 or 4 seeds, cover as required and press down, then I water from the bottom, till the moist soil is showing on top.
Top watering kills more seedlings than any thing else.
I put clear plastic over the top, and take it off when I see beads of moisture forming on it, then when dry and at night put it back on.
I plant as many oriental greens and leaf lettuce as I can, so I can pinch off the outer leaves and still have more growing, I never cut or pull the entire plant, unless I want the space or they are just too crowded.
I have never managed to grow a “round head of lettuce”.
Get a bag of onion sets, plant in pots and you will have the tops for ‘green onions’, but if you keep harvesting the tops, the bulb will not grow as large, so don’t be surprised.
An old dish pan, with holes, a baby’s bath tub and LOL, anything else that does not have something growing in it is fair game.........Lettuce and greens do well in the bath tub and dish pans, tomatoes and peppers, will do well in 2 gallon pots, for one plant, larger if possible.
I just shake the tomato plant, grab the main stem and gently shake it every day, that will polanize the flowers, as they are self fertile, same with the peppers, I am not positive they are self fertile, but I shook them and got peppers, in doors.
My browser gets a lot of tabs too. We can’t conquer the web, there are billions of pages and only two of us, LOL! But we can try!<<<
LOL, I am back to 8 browsers of tabs open again, and now they will start to disappear on me, as if it is telling me “enough”, but they will all be there, if I shut off the computer and then restart it........
Oh and thank you for all the pings!!<<<
You are welcome.
I try to only ping to your main interests and not clog your ping file with all the others, that you will find on the thread....
But then I find that they add up.
Now that is an almost human goat, I have owned some that could talk, but their feet were hooves.
Laughing at your photo.
No one factored in the cost of tasteless vegetables that teaches your kids to hate them, over use of pesticides, non-nutritious produce grown on worn-out land, etc. Plus the satisfaction of being in control of your own destiny. Oh well.<<<
You are right.
Plant a dream, of tomorrow.
I tried a garden last year. It was a bust. I’m going to try a “green house” with pots this time. Any suggestions?
My goal this month is to learn to bake bread. I don’t want another “gadget” though and want to do it the hard way:’)
Gingerbread Friends How to Draw,
New this week is a How to Draw book talk for Gingerbread Baby and his
pal, Peppermint Puppy. I hope that you’ll enjoy my reading and book talk
notes as well as the demonstration. The link to the new Video is:
~ Peppermint Puppy How to Draw Book Talk
http://janbrett.com/video/peppermint_puppy.htm
Other great videos and pages:
~ How to Draw a Gingerbread Baby
http://janbrett.com/video/how_to_draw_a_gingerbread_baby.htm
~ Jan Brett Reads and Draws Gingerbread Baby
http://janbrett.com/video/gingerbread_baby.htm
~ Gingerbread Friends Mural
http://janbrett.com/mural_gf/gf_main_page.htm
~ Interactive Trim a Jan Brett Gingerbread House
http://janbrett.com/trim_a_jan_brett_gingerbread_baby_house.htm
~ Make a Gingerbread Baby House
http://janbrett.com/gingerbread_baby_house.htm
~ Gingerbread Baby Board Game
http://janbrett.com/games/gingerbread_baby_board_game.htm
It’s a pleasure to be in touch.
Sincerely,
Jan Brett
Download a Free Jan Brett How to Draw Video -
http://janbrett.com/video/video_main_page.htm
My goal this month is to learn to bake bread. <<<
Making bread is difficult to learn out of a book, do you know some one to at least go through the first batch with you?
It is something that you learn to do by touch.
Do you have a cookbook, with photos of the process?
I will watch for a good set of photos, there are several on the internet, but I don’t remember where I saw them.
I switched to a bread machine, several years ago and have lost the thought/feel of working the dough with out the machine.
There are posts on making bread from scratch on this thread, but I don’t know where to find them, maybe Vickie will have the number or an idea...
“green house” with pots this time. Any suggestions?<<<
Yes, make it a solar greenhouse and attach it to the house.
If it must be free standing then the minimum size is about 9x12 foot with a tall/peaked roof, or the greenhouse will heat and cool too quickly.
Sunlight and water and fun, it is easier to grow in a greenhouse, except for some plants, such as squash and cukes the will require your help to fertilize the flowers, so they will form fruit.
Many of the others will self pollinate themselves, if you give them a shake or two each day.
For solar they say a south exposure is best, but any will work, with west being the hotest.
I like my greenhouses full length of the mobile, open the door and walk in, open doors and windows into it and get the air to flowing, it makes the cooler work better and you will get a lot of heat from the greenhouse even with snow on the ground.
I used 55 gallon barrels for passive heat storage, fill them with water, it heats in the sun and gives off the heat at night, on top of the barrels is a good spot for small pots and starting seeds.
Put in beds if you can, you should make the roof strong enough for hanging pots and I use 2 loops of dog chains and hooks to hang a 12 inch board over the beds, to set more pots on.
Tomatoes [Cherry] will grow through the roof and bear for 2 or more years. Bell Peppers will grow for years, and look like a tree, if you prune it to do so and will then be able to grow in the middle of the bed and not shade the other plants.
Good compost and water and you are in business.
Look at leaf lettuce and oriental greens, yard long beans and onions, mustard family.
Corn will not do well, as it needs lots of breeze to pollinate itself.
All the herbs and you should see the roses, they will love it.
Where are you located? Snow?
What did you have in mind?
You can believe they are talking, the pink dress, looks like she is attempting to find a way to say “looks fat to me”, in a ladylike manner.
Thanks for sharing it with us....I love goats.
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