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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 8:34 AM
Default Thinking of gardening for self-sustainability
Thinking about gardening to feed myself and to give back to our neighbors who have such lovely fruit and veggie gardens because every year for the past two years, we would receive a bumper crop's spoils of either fruits or vegetables.

Besides, I find something primal about interaction with Mother Earth's soil.

Besides, I feel bad for coming up short 7 cents at the gas station when the card reader malfunctioned and the cashier covered the remaining cash.

So, partially, I am giving and I have the old "cute male farmhand guiding me" fantasy. I sometimes daydream when alone.

Personal Quote: "I like my men like my sodas: tall boys." (Zevia has both 12 and 16 oz options)

(P.S. I'm about 5' (150cm) in height and easily scared)
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Scholar
#2 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 9:40 AM
Make sure the soil is right for your plants,
And keep looking after them (something I fail at doing) to ensure they grow to harvestable age.

Ask your neighbours if they have any left over seeding plants they may not need.
Being Sustainable will be great for you (and the cashier)

We have destroyed God's green Earth long enough. It is time to figure out where food comes from before it reaches the supermarket

In other words, Go for it.
Inventor
#3 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 10:30 AM
This is something I plan to do over the summer. Starting with simple tomatos to begin with. My partner eats them like apples so it'll be a great money saver.
We just got into a flat and we have our own little bit of garden, so I'm going to get a couple of above ground planters and some proper growing soil and see what happens.

I would love, in the future, to have an allotment space and a little green house and grow veggies and some fruit properly.
It's kind of a life goal for me.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 11:28 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 2nd Jun 2015 at 4:54 PM.
Growing your own food is a great idea if you've got the time and the space, and manage to keep plants alive. Back when gran lived she used to be self-sustained with potatoes, several types of berries, rhubarb, cherries, and probably a few other things, including several flower beds. The first thing I always did when I came to visit was to check if there were any strawberries, and eat every single one that had turned red. They were so yummy!

We've got some rhubarb in our garden, a leftover project from a very long time ago. They seem to be self-sustained, so they grow up every year. We tried carrots, but despite the greens on top being long and looking healthy, the largest carrot we got out of it wasn't much longer than a couple of cm. We had some blueberries and strawberries too, but those were usually eaten up before they turned into anything useful. Thought we'd try strawberries in above-ground planters this year, but I'm not sure if that project is put on ice, since it's technically a bit late in the summer to plant.

To be honest, I hate all the work that comes with gardening and I don't have a scrap of green fingers. Even fake plants get layers of dust when I'm responsible for them. Mom isn't much better, though she manages to keep the house plants alive and somewhat healthy. The garden on the other hand is so overgrown and filled with weeds that it looks more like a patch of jungle. My dad is the one with green fingers in the family, but after he moved out, anything plant-related outside of the house is either dying or taking over.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#5 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 12:10 PM
Just to be clear, I am a giving person. I was going to leave a dime in the next gas station transaction.

I will ask this morning when our neighbor gets up to train his Labradoodle, Max, who Gemini is wary of. Gemini also visits our other neighbors, the Smiths, and teaches the Smith boys that not all cats are hissy-pissy.

Personal Quote: "I like my men like my sodas: tall boys." (Zevia has both 12 and 16 oz options)

(P.S. I'm about 5' (150cm) in height and easily scared)
Scholar
#6 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 12:32 PM
We grew onions once. I still don't know what happened to them. I remember in junior school they always made us plant beans. Like really? Beans? And then they made us put them around the school- to see how stuff affects them. Like I'm 7, I'm pretty sure I know what a bean needs to grow- water, some sun etc. They made us do that "experiment" so many times *shudders* Also sunflowers. Those were cool cos we actually got to take our home! Mine grew to 50cm, and then the summer rain came and it dies. Oh well.
Ooh onetime I was at the..town hall(?) and it was a sustainability fair. My friend and I went because we thought we might learn something from going there (sort of). We were each given a packet of carrot seeds that till this day are sill there in my kitchen on top of the radio.
I hope your planting and gardening works out for you :D
#7 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 2:45 PM
My sister did did aquaponics for a science project. I dunno where the fish is, but the plants seem to be growing pretty well.

Life is paradoxically coincidental to the ironical tyranny applicable to the unparalleled definition of reverse entropy.

"A thunderstorm breaks the wall of darkness." - Lyrics to Storm

"Meh." - me
Guest
#8 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 7:48 PM
Gardening is fun. I have a green thumb. It's a gift.

My wife, on the other hand, can kill a cactus. How the hell do you kill a cactus?! Just leave the thing alone and it's good for months.

So, our garden becomes a family thing. I plant it, grow it, sprout it, and then pull it up after it all goes brown.
Mad Poster
#9 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 9:24 PM
If you're working on just a quick seasonal garden, you don't need to do a whole lot of prep work beyond just having planters and soil and seeds or seedlings. If you're wanting to have a successful long-term garden plot though, it's actually best to start working on it the autumn before your first growing season- you'd want to prepare the first two or three feet of soil with mulch, drainage, fertilizer, etc, and actually plant some of your crops before winter (things like garlic, potatoes, onions, and other underground crops will grow better if they have a few extra months of growth). Depending on where you live, you'll have a different growing season than other people, and if you live in a particularly hilly or mountainous place like me, you can actually have a different growing season than even someone living a quarter-mile away- be sure you're planting things at the right time! When it comes to gardening, nothing's more infuriating than realizing your plants all died because you planted them way too early or way too late (I may or may not know that from experience... )

Welcome to the Dark Side...
We lied about having cookies.
#10 Old 2nd Jun 2015 at 11:53 PM
At the moment I'm not into it in a big way (for want of space) but I grow lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, salad onions, French beans, garlic, pumpkins and a wide variety of herbs, as well as the plants that Monarch butterfly babies need to grow into beautiful butterflies - a proper orientated site (when I bought the house I live in now, the previous owners thought it was a good idea to grow things facing away from the sun and in the shade and consequently had tomatoes the size of hens eggs and smaller) good soil is a must as well as regular and consistent watering.

As far as the soil maintenance goes, you can't get out of it what you don't put it; so this means fertilizers and other goodies (I use organic fertilizers and I have never had to spray against pests of any kind). I use a companion method of planting which means planting certain flowers among the vegetables to deceive and confuse bugs - French marigolds and nasturtiums. Not planting in a straight line is good too - I plant lettuce, for example in squares of 4 with a few marigolds dotted around and they don't get munched by lil' bugs or caterpillars.

It is so rewarding even just to throw together a salad you've grown completely yourself. I also believe that a vegetable patch doesn't have to look terrible, they can look incredibly beautiful!

nice picture of Companion planting

Guest
#11 Old 3rd Jun 2015 at 2:17 AM
Marigolds! They make hungry bugs find somewhere else for lunch, and are pretty.
Field Researcher
#13 Old 3rd Jun 2015 at 3:53 AM
Quote: Originally posted by stuart-grey
Gardening is fun. I have a green thumb. It's a gift.

My wife, on the other hand, can kill a cactus. How the hell do you kill a cactus?! Just leave the thing alone and it's good for months.

So, our garden becomes a family thing. I plant it, grow it, sprout it, and then pull it up after it all goes brown.


Regarding cactus, I had a very special one as a kid it was given to me as a one of a time gift.. thing because I did something really well in school when it was some kids gardening thing.

Anyhows.. the top popped off.. Yup the top popped off, my grandma, decided to water it while I was at school.. yup. and the top popped off. Yup off.

Cactus was no more
Mad Poster
#14 Old 3rd Jun 2015 at 4:29 AM
Quote: Originally posted by stuart-grey
Gardening is fun. I have a green thumb. It's a gift.

My wife, on the other hand, can kill a cactus. How the hell do you kill a cactus?! Just leave the thing alone and it's good for months.

So, our garden becomes a family thing. I plant it, grow it, sprout it, and then pull it up after it all goes brown.


I've done it - because if you give them too much water they can rot, but if you don't give them enough they shrivel up. It seems like it's more complicated than with other plants where you water when the soil is dry or almost dry.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#15 Old 3rd Jun 2015 at 11:21 PM
Quote: Originally posted by stuart-grey
Gardening is fun. I have a green thumb. It's a gift.

My wife, on the other hand, can kill a cactus. How the hell do you kill a cactus?! Just leave the thing alone and it's good for months.

So, our garden becomes a family thing. I plant it, grow it, sprout it, and then pull it up after it all goes brown.


My father somehow gave a cactus acclimated to Western Washington too much Sun and it had a fatal sunburn. So much for Eugene...his pot mate, Cathy survived from 2007 to 2013. Cathy was uprooted from the arid sandy soil loosening.

Although I suck at cactus preservation and dishwashing, I have, however, cared for Night Life variety tulips.

Personal Quote: "I like my men like my sodas: tall boys." (Zevia has both 12 and 16 oz options)

(P.S. I'm about 5' (150cm) in height and easily scared)
#16 Old 4th Jun 2015 at 1:23 AM
Oooh! Oooh! Speaking of tulips, this year I planted some so purple they are almost black! <3 Roll on Spring! Only ..... 4 months to go ...

*has tulip love* :lovestruc
Instructor
#17 Old 4th Jun 2015 at 6:47 AM
Quote: Originally posted by fairycake89
Oooh! Oooh! Speaking of tulips, this year I planted some so purple they are almost black! <3 Roll on Spring! Only ..... 4 months to go ...

*has tulip love* :lovestruc


I saw that variety of tulips in a park in Germany! They are so beautiful, congrats

Me, me, me against them, me against enemies, me against friends, somehow they all seem to become one, a sea full of sharks and they all smell blood.
 
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