There is something that people can do before the situation gets nutty over the next few months due to the economy.
And that is return to our southern traditions of keeping a thriving vegetable garden going in everyone's back yard.
Not only is it good for all the right green reasons, (local produce, organic eating, etc) but there is the very real possibility that shipping concerns and slowdowns in the economy could create food shortages or spikes in food prices over the next year or so.
Obviously you need to get a head start if you plan on having fresh vegetables available within a few months, and seeds are fairly inexpensive.
Tomato plants like fences (as do all beans), and this is the winter growing season, so its time to plant squash zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower.
Encouraging everyone you know to begin plantings (even if they are modest) could be the smartest and kindest thing you do over the next few weeks. If nothing serious results, then the worst outcome is that you have nice organic homegrown vegetables.
If the economy gets rough, then you have fresh food in an environment where people will be going hungry.
This would be an excellent time to encourage neighborhood associations to create group and community gardens in as many nooks and crannies as plants will grow and there are people to work them.
Jennifer McCharen from RADO and the springfield community garden should be congratulated for her New Green Pioneering on projects like this.
It might be the most important as well as the easiest preparation that we can make as a community.
We have peppers, eggplants, and a few other veggies growing in our backyard. Theres nothing like eating the fruits of your labor.
Where I live, they don't let you plant anything in the ground. So my wife has taken to growing stuff in pots and trays and such. The corners of our back deck are lined with tomato vines and green bean stalks. Pretty fun to take care of too - definitely a labor of love.
Can't wait to sample the fruits (and veggies!) of our labor.
Whoever thought that Victory Gardens would ever be en vogue again?
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 03:01:56 PM
My grandfather was from a farming family in North Carolina.
We grew EVERYTHING in our back yard.
It was part of growing up. Cucumbers grow nicely here as well.
Hooray North Carolina!! I went to school up above Asheville. Most popular thing to grow up in the hills was tobacco. Fields and fields of the stuff. Was fascinating. That'd be great to plant too... keep the smokers in tobacco and make a nice little profit. I could become the next Big Tobacco, but without all the crap rolled into each cigarette.
But I digress...
Thanks for the cucumbers idea.
You know, it's funny. You stockpile batteries, people think you're smart. You stockpile liquor, people think you're cool. But as soon as you even mention stockpiling food, people look at you like you're some kind of nutjob survivalist. There's certainly a very real chance that the United States economy might completely collapse. There's certainly historical precedent for such a thing. Who knows if it will actually happen, but throughout history, when such collapses do happen, the ones who suffer and even die are usually the ones who took no precautionary steps to prepare for a collapse. At least when the Soviet Union collapsed, they had the advantage of their food still being grown at a neighborhood level. Who among us has even the vaguest idea where their food comes from? I know I sure don't. We're in this unfortunate situation as a country where the majority of us just kind of wait around like the family dog waiting to be fed, whether it be by supermarkets, or restaurants, or vending machines, etc. Supermarkets keep something like three days worth of food on shelves. If it's a bad collapse, what happens after that?
The way I look at it is as follows: If I'm willing to spend thousands of dollars a year insuring myself against car accidents, and disease, and flooding, and fire, and theft -- why then wouldn't it be logical to also insure myself against a food shortage? Nothing major, just a few extra cans of vegetables, boxes of pasta, bags of rice, mega-packs of Ramen, each week when I go to the grocery store. Before long, you've got enough to last you a very long time in the event of an emergency.
I just fatten up the squirrels in my backyard... ;D
Quote from: BridgeTroll on October 08, 2008, 04:32:49 PM
I just fatten up the squirrels in my backyard... ;D
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Mmmmm...
I agree with you guys. Growing some veggies in your back yard makes you no more a "doomsdayer" than storing can goods and betteries in the cellar. It should be encouraged, not because of fear of food shortaged but because its good for your health, very educational, inexpensive, and fun!
Quote from: BridgeTroll on October 08, 2008, 04:32:49 PM
I just fatten up the squirrels in my backyard... ;D
And fish in the creek behind the house!
Brilliant! :D
someone here who has a yard, get a coconut palm and see how well it grows. despite the frost the areas along the river even received last winter, it had been 2 or 3 years for a frost before then. many tropical palms are still growing quite well along the river and the Beaches.
QuoteIt should be encouraged, not because of fear of food shortaged but because its good for your health, very educational, inexpensive, and fun!
Agreed. I don't think we're forming the breadlines anytime soon.
We have a small herb garden on one of the windowsills.. and not THAT kind of herbs.
Parsley, basil etc.
I'd love to have a full garden outside too but have no yard.. :-[
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 06:45:23 PM
some of the best food ive ever eaten in my life was straight from the garden and from my grandfathers daily bout of surf fishing.
(plus a little friendly rice or home style grits of course)
Need to get a pressure cooker and start canning again. Does the city still operate the canning facility downtown. Also for you urbanites, it doesn't actually involve cans, it pints and quart jars with Kerr lids and rings, right Stephan.
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 10:27:08 PM
Quote from: civil42806 on October 08, 2008, 10:08:47 PM
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 06:45:23 PM
some of the best food ive ever eaten in my life was straight from the garden and from my grandfathers daily bout of surf fishing.
(plus a little friendly rice or home style grits of course)
Need to get a pressure cooker and start canning again. Does the city still operate the canning facility downtown. Also for you urbanites, it doesn't actually involve cans, it pints and quart jars with Kerr lids and rings, right Stephan.
Lol. Yup. Mason or Ball Jars, pints and quarts. Sterilized lids and some of the best variety of wholly organic foods available anywhere. While I was in Muncie Indiana (home of Ball Jars in fact) I was always amazed that the best damned food available wasnt available in the stores.
Plus the pickling.
ever done any of that Civil?
My mother use to make the best baby dill pickles you'd ever taste, fresh dill, cayan pepper out of the garden, mmmmmmm, they weren't kosher but they were excellent, nice lingering burn. Used to make what we called Butter bread pickles, which is the normal sweet pickles that you buy today. Still have the pickling vat in my house to day.
Quote from: civil42806 on October 08, 2008, 10:32:34 PM
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 10:27:08 PM
Quote from: civil42806 on October 08, 2008, 10:08:47 PM
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 06:45:23 PM
some of the best food ive ever eaten in my life was straight from the garden and from my grandfathers daily bout of surf fishing.
(plus a little friendly rice or home style grits of course)
Need to get a pressure cooker and start canning again. Does the city still operate the canning facility downtown. Also for you urbanites, it doesn't actually involve cans, it pints and quart jars with Kerr lids and rings, right Stephan.
Lol. Yup. Mason or Ball Jars, pints and quarts. Sterilized lids and some of the best variety of wholly organic foods available anywhere. While I was in Muncie Indiana (home of Ball Jars in fact) I was always amazed that the best damned food available wasnt available in the stores.
Plus the pickling.
ever done any of that Civil?
My mother use to make the best baby dill pickles you'd ever taste, fresh dill, cayan pepper out of the garden, mmmmmmm, they weren't kosher but they were excellent, nice lingering burn. Used to make what we called Butter bread pickles, which is the normal sweet pickles that you buy today. Still have the pickling vat in my house to day.
And I have been dissapointed to realize that NO ONE, I mean NO ONE knows what the vat is for.
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 10:41:22 PM
pickling isnt really done here, I dont know why.
I learned more about it in the midwest than the south.
You need to get into the more rural areas of the south. Where I grew up, the community of Mt. Hebron in north alabama pickiling was very common. My mothers family was from Jax, always came down here and visited and after we lost the farm in the late 70's moved down here permanently.
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 10:41:22 PM
pickling isnt really done here, I dont know why.
I learned more about it in the midwest than the south.
Pickling is quite common here actually and really it depends on the area from which you are from, I think. As ive said in previous threads....i am, pretty much from here (cocoa beach actually) and have had the pleasure of tasting many a pickled treat in Jacksonville.
Also who your neighbors are, there are alot of asians in my mom's neighbor and they pickle things like peppers and papaya all the time and are willing to share. They always brings us new dishes to sample. I grow alot of my own veggies already I enjoy doing it. The growing season is also longer here in Florida.
Quote from: civil42806 on October 08, 2008, 10:43:44 PM
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 10:41:22 PM
pickling isnt really done here, I dont know why.
I learned more about it in the midwest than the south.
You need to get into the more rural areas of the south. Where I grew up, the community of Mt. Hebron in north alabama pickiling was very common. My mothers family was from Jax, always came down here and visited and after we lost the farm in the late 70's moved down here permanently.
My parents always had a garden while I was growing up. It was about a 1/4 acre on their acre of land in Nassau County. They pickled okra, peppers and made homemade dills. My neighbors had a few dozen Chickens, so they made pickled eggs a lot. I don't think many people here in town do it because of the lack of space. But it is very common in rural areas surrounding Jacksonville.
Quote from: civil42806 on October 08, 2008, 10:08:47 PM
Quote from: stephendare on October 08, 2008, 06:45:23 PM
some of the best food ive ever eaten in my life was straight from the garden and from my grandfathers daily bout of surf fishing.
(plus a little friendly rice or home style grits of course)
Need to get a pressure cooker and start canning again. Does the city still operate the canning facility downtown. Also for you urbanites, it doesn't actually involve cans, it pints and quart jars with Kerr lids and rings, right Stephan.
Yes, the city does. A lady down the street goes there and has invited me to come along I just haven't yet but plan on joining her sometime
I'm almost entirely sure the canning facility is still open, although I remember hearing complaints that it was barely open from the neglect - http://duval.ifas.ufl.edu/canning_center.shtml (http://duval.ifas.ufl.edu/canning_center.shtml)
Agricultural Canning Center
Today's modern Canning Center serves a different function than the original facility built in the early 1930s to feed inmates at a nearby prison. Changed during World War II, it continues today to serve the community by teaching food preservation and storage techniques.
The facility on Commonwealth Avenue was built in 1978 to better serve Jacksonville's growing population. Air conditioned and recently updated, the Canning Center provides an institutional kitchen environment. All equipment necessary for canning is provided onsite. Users provide their own ingredients.
Collaboration between the City of Jacksonville and the University of Florida, School of Agriculture Extension Service provides funding for the Canning Center's services. The client list includes Duval County residents, boaters, various churches, people on restricted diets, non-profit organizations within the city, the 4-H School Enrichment Program and other governmental agencies. It is also used within the Agriculture Department to train its many master food and master gardener volunteers who subsequently assist in educational programming throughout the city.
The Canning Center has established a partnership with Duval County Schools, providing educational tours and teaching the value of agriculture to school age children throughout Jacksonville. Students arrive at the center after touring a nearby farmer's market. The Canning Center supervisor leads students through an educational program that teaches the difference between high-acid and low-acid foods and gives basic principles of food and kitchen safety, including a practical exercise in proper hand washing. Students are taken step by step through the preparation process. Finally, the students can their own snack, and watch the supervisor seal it mechanically and the students take it with them when they leave. This is a favorite tour for both students and teachers.
Year-round hours: 8 a.m. â€" 4 p.m. Monday â€" Thursday
Who Can Use The Canning Center?
All Duval County residents who are canning for themselves, their families, churches, or any non-profit organization (not for businesses) may use the facility. For safety reasons no children under 8 years of age are allowed. Walk in clients are not accepted. You must call and make an appointment two or three days in advance, if possible.
What Is The Cost?Canned vegetables
$7.50 per hour, per group, including processing time, plus .65 cents per quart can, .45 cents per pint can (all low acid foods, vegetables, meats, soups and stews) must go in cans. All high-acid foods (fruits, jellies, jams, and pickles) will go in jars. Clients must provide their own jars. There is a .15 cents per jar processing fee. To qualify for tax-exempt status, a nonprofit agency must have a valid Tax Exempt Certificate on file and pay for the canning with a check from the nonprofit agency or organization.
What Can We Can?
Tested and tried recipes must be used at the canning center. The canning of fruits and vegetables are the most popular, but many other items can be canned: meat, soup, jelly, jam. Etc. The center has some recipes that have proven over the years to be just great. Also the Family and Consumer Sciences Program area next door at the Duval County Extension Service/Agriculture Department, has many more recipes.
How Long Will It Take?
That depends on you and the help you bring with you. Most people who are in by 8:30 a.m. will be out by 2 p.m., depending on recipe.
What Do We Bring?
Only your product and ingredients needed for recipe. If using jars you must bring your own. Bring boxes to use carrying the product home.
Excellent info! Thanks for sharing.
My question is this:
If any part of that hypothesis becomes true, Stephan, what about the Farmers Markets? I'd imagine those would thrive, no?
On another note, we've already bought more seeds and ceramic pots. The people that work in our Target's Garden Center practically know us by name.
Obviously, if you can grow food efficiently, that's a net economic gain regardless of what type of market we are in. Vegetable gardens are more useful than lawns, no doubt.
However, you could certainly end up with an economic loss if you are not careful. Fertilizer, bug & weed control, (and your time) can end up being much more costly than store bought produce. Depends on what you grow and how well you do it.
So, can anyone recommend any good reference materials for beginners?
Quote from: ac on October 10, 2008, 03:01:28 PM
So, can anyone recommend any good reference materials for beginners?
Yes. I got my wife a book called 'The Bountiful Container,' specifically for growing things out of pots since we can't dig up the back yard.
Bountiful Container: http://www.amazon.com/McGee-Stuckeys-Bountiful-Container-Vegetables/dp/0761116230/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223669834&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.com/McGee-Stuckeys-Bountiful-Container-Vegetables/dp/0761116230/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223669834&sr=8-1)
And tons of others in a similar vein to that: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_17?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bountiful+container&sprefix=Bountiful+Contain (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_17?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bountiful+container&sprefix=Bountiful+Contain)
Of course, most people are able to plant directly into the ground, so those might not do you a lick of good. Just throwing that out there though - it's been great for our situation.
Quote from: Doctor_K on October 10, 2008, 04:19:19 PM
Quote from: ac on October 10, 2008, 03:01:28 PM
So, can anyone recommend any good reference materials for beginners?
Yes. I got my wife a book called 'The Bountiful Container,' specifically for growing things out of pots since we can't dig up the back yard.
Bountiful Container: http://www.amazon.com/McGee-Stuckeys-Bountiful-Container-Vegetables/dp/0761116230/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223669834&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.com/McGee-Stuckeys-Bountiful-Container-Vegetables/dp/0761116230/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223669834&sr=8-1)
And tons of others in a similar vein to that: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_17?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bountiful+container&sprefix=Bountiful+Contain (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_17?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=bountiful+container&sprefix=Bountiful+Contain)
Of course, most people are able to plant directly into the ground, so those might not do you a lick of good. Just throwing that out there though - it's been great for our situation.
Awesome, thanks!
We do have the ability to plant in the back yard, so I think that's the way we're going. I guess I should have mentioned that up front. But the help is definitely appreciated, and I'm sure others in your situation will find it useful also!
Encyclopedia of Country Living
http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Country-Living-Fashioned-Recipe/dp/0912365951
Best book ever on how to do darn near anything yourself regarding growing and preserving food, but I learned most of it growing up in rural Georgia. On the topic of pickles, I still pickle okra, peppers, peaches, pears and chowchow (a kind of relish) besides the cukes. We can and freeze peas, beans, tomatoes, squash, figs, whatever we grow between our home here and the home place in Georgia.
And if you do pickled okra right, it will be crunchy, not slimy.
Quote from: Scarlettjax on October 10, 2008, 05:10:10 PM
Encyclopedia of Country Living
http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Country-Living-Fashioned-Recipe/dp/0912365951
Best book ever on how to do darn near anything yourself regarding growing and preserving food, but I learned most of it growing up in rural Georgia. On the topic of pickles, I still pickle okra, peppers, peaches, pears and chowchow (a kind of relish) besides the cukes. We can and freeze peas, beans, tomatoes, squash, figs, whatever we grow between our home here and the home place in Georgia.
And if you do pickled okra right, it will be crunchy, not slimy.
That is an excellent one, so are:
Stocking Up: The Third Edition of America's Classic Preserving Guide
or
Putting Food By and Storey's Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance
The good news is you can check these out at our local library and see if you want to buy. Don't forget the compost pile, if you don't have one start one. For apartment or condo dwellers you can make an easy one out of a trash can and put it on the deck. Save the coffee grounds too...veggies, flowers, and fruit trees love coffee grounds and they smell good too!
What a delightful thread, a shame we don't have more of these
I highly recommend Standard Feed (1282 Kings Rd.). If you're new to gardening, especially organic gardening, the staff will help you plan, answer any questions, and is a great resource when problems arise.
The no dig garden is a good way to get into veggie gardens and composting: http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/ (http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/).
If you're free from HOA restrictions and already digging up the backyard for veggies, try digging up the front lawn and replacing it with a mix of native, same-climate, and edible plants. It's thrifty, water-wise, mowing-free, and lovely.
There are some great organic bulk seed sites...juts do a search. Seeds can keep up to five years if stored correctly, much much cheaper to buy them in bulk without the fancy Burpee packaging.
Quote from: civil42806 on October 11, 2008, 01:43:43 AM
What a delightful thread, a shame we don't have more of these
i agree. Kudos to stephen for starting it!
we stock seeds in bulk and they are much cheaper than the prepackaged deals..
Right now I have Rutabage, Collards, Turnips, Cucumbers and beets and I am out of (but stock) Mustard Greens, Broccoli, Squash, Raddish and Cabbage....we sell them by the 1/4oz 1/2oz 3/4oz or 1oz.
Some seeds have been harder to get this year, like FL Broadleaf Mustard.
Quote from: adamh0903 on October 14, 2008, 11:38:57 AM
we stock seeds in bulk and they are much cheaper than the prepackaged deals..
Right now I have Rutabage, Collards, Turnips, Cucumbers and beets and I am out of (but stock) Mustard Greens, Broccoli, Squash, Raddish and Cabbage....we sell them by the 1/4oz 1/2oz 3/4oz or 1oz.
Some seeds have been harder to get this year, like FL Broadleaf Mustard.
Where are you?
<------------ Out in Callahan
Quote from: stephendare on October 14, 2008, 10:28:07 AM
DO they have heritage seeds in their inventory?
Standard Feed does have some heritage seeds, but they have a better selection of conventional seeds in bulk bins. Also, they have a good and inexpensive selection of starter plants for those who are wary of seed-starts.
Internet ordering, co-ops, seed-saving from produce are probably the best ways to get a good supply of heritage seeds.
Here's how good the owner of Standard Feed is: Spouse's great-grandmother used to grow the world's best green beans. She and her family had grown them for generations, saving their seeds from crop to crop. Thus, they had produced their own heirtage cultivar. Great-grandmother died (at age 101+) in the winter so there were no living plants in the garden and seeds were nowhere to be found.
Three years later...I took a jar of green beans that spouse's great-grandmother canned before she died into Standard Feed. The owner was able to identify a related species and make suggestions for planting, seed saving, and cross-breeding that could come close to the lost family green beans.
If you are planning to go organic, then stay away from the big box stores for care products. Corn Gluten (a weed preventer) was $6 a pound at Lowes, $19 for 20lbs at the ag store. Seeds and plants may be more money at an agricultural store, but neem oil, Dr. Bronners, fish emulsion, and composted manure are far less.
The Springfield Community Garden may have plots left for this season. They also have meet-ups to teach newbies organic gardening skills.
QuoteMost popular thing to grow up in the hills was tobacco. Fields and fields of the stuff. Was fascinating. That'd be great to plant too... keep the smokers in tobacco and make a nice little profit. I could become the next Big Tobacco, but without all the crap rolled into each cigarette.
If you really want to go chemical free, tobacco makes a fantastic pesticide. You can also create your own feed and bug killer by taking a large jar - filled with water. Add in a pouch of cheap chewing tobacco and make a dark tea. Strain the tea and mix it about 50/50 with stale beer. Two drops of dish soap breaks the surface tension of the water and the insects flee in terror. (they're smarter then humans). Just pour it into your sprayer and mist the plants as needed.
If you really want to smoke your "tobacco" pull your plants up by the root and hang upside down in a warm dry room. This moves all of the plant resins to the leaf. Then mist the nearly dry leaf with a cheap sweet wine, such as strawberry, or concord grape. Your smoke will be mellow, sweet and have enough chemical to satisfy any craving. But then, home grown is almost a lost art.OCKLAWAHA
I have my little Victory Garden in my yard and I love eating fresh veggies.
I have been reading a lot about tobacco as a pesticide, and it is very controversial.
There is a good group called Beyond Pesticides
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/ (http://www.beyondpesticides.org/)
They have a nice data bank about problems and how to resolve them.
Quote from: stephendare on November 04, 2008, 01:54:27 AM
How many people on these forums have started a garden?
Ummmmm its November, unless your planting cabbage and other cold weather plants your options are rather limited
Our garden goes year round, although other than figs and herbs, I won't have another crop of anything until citrus season. There's not really a winter here. When it does get below freezing, it's only for a couple of hours. With thick mulch, most of my plants have done just fine in the winter. This is a climate where you can plant a tomato in early February!
Quote from: stephendare on November 04, 2008, 01:54:27 AM
How many people on these forums have started a garden?
Carrots, green beans, regular and sweet basil, green garlic are still going strong. Going to be planting tomatoes late January/early February. Even have a handful of decorative flowers growing along side the basil just for something a little different.
My back deck is its own burgeoning arboretum. :D
tomato, basil, cabbage, lettuce (several varities), beans (several varieties including black beans for the first time), onions, carrots, radish, oregano, chives, lemon grass, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, figs, avacado, and some corn for Feb!
We grow year round too, have a big compost pile, and just load the garden up with Straw when it gets colder...
I'm holding out for Feb/March to get something going.
Twice in two seperate places I have attempted a garden here in Jax... both utter failures. I am familiar with a variety of climates and have been very successful in other parts of the country. The climate, bugs, microbes, and soil of north florida have condemned me to supermarket produce and the generosity of others...
Brotha can ya spare a tomato...?? :D
Quote from: BridgeTroll on November 07, 2008, 08:06:10 AM
Twice in two seperate places I have attempted a garden here in Jax... both utter failures. I am familiar with a variety of climates and have been very successful in other parts of the country. The climate, bugs, microbes, and soil of north florida have condemned me to supermarket produce and the generosity of others...
Brotha can ya spare a tomato...?? :D
I can not stress cow manure enough, with a little peat moss and good top soil. I have found the dirt here to be very.very sandy so I have been forced to "replace" all of the above almost every other year.
Bugs are horrible (and being downtown I think a few rats have been nibbling too) I have tried some of the "natural stuff" like soapy water, beer, etc but slugs and other bugs keep eating my veggies! I have finally broken down and purchased some commercial pesticides, but if anyone has some good natural options I would love to try them before actually giving in to the commercial stuff.
For the nasties that soap will not get rid of, try neem oil. It works as both a pesticide and a fungicide, so it kills those annoying little black beetle looking things that eat EVERYTHING and the spotted rust that often follows. It comes concentrated, so you just mix with some water and spray. (Found at Standard Feed, and for a whole lot more money for more dilute product at the big box stores.) The only thing I have found it not to work on is wasp moth/oleander caterpillars.
As for soap, I made a large mistake for years thinking all soap was equal. I used a green dishwashing liquid for years, only able to kill white flies and aphids, until I discovered that pure castille soap has far superior killing power. I recommend Dr. Bronners, especially the peppermint oil variety. (Found at Grassroots, Native Son, and Target in the beauty section). Again, just mix with water.
I do have small patch of front flower garden that the snails and slugs love. Beer with salt works on the slugs, but the snails have wisened to evil beer traps. I dig them out when I find them, but have largely given up and gone with two plants that don't mind the slimy critters.
I haven't had to replace a lot of soil, but I do use a good amount of fish emulsion before and after the two major growing seasons. As Uptowngirl mentioned, you cannot beat composted cow manure.
Neem is an essential oil from a sub-species of mahogany tree.
We have put hundreds of pounds of Black Cow down...Veggies have to be carefully watched especially during the summer. When there is an abundance, Give it away or cook it away! Honestly there is a lot of waste per pound or whatever.I love growing, but you sometimes have too much.Fresh now or Rot.It can happen when you are busy and cant watch the garden....Yea 2 days can be too much and disaster.But Damn its FUN!! I suppose having a neighbor involved would even the price and work out...we should have Neighborhood Co-op Gardens!! If 4 neighbors constantly watched a garden the yield could be awesome.honestly folks in the summer stuff grows faster than the 9-5 person can handle.If we watched in shifts ....
Can your excess before it goes bad.
At my house there's two tangerine trees, four blueberry shrubs, some pitiful tomato and pepper plants (I bought my mother epsom salt before I left and told her to feed it to them a little each week until they looked better), a lemon tree. Plenty of rosemary, basil, parsley. Dandelions and wood sorrel are edible (and quite tasty). My mom is trying to get my brother and I to help her build a vertical garden, and I want her to grow strawberries on the roof. Over the summer I sowed a lot of seeds (mostly butterfly/hummingbird/bee-attracting plants like Mexican milkweed and candlestick cassia. Hopefully the sunflowers that the birds planted will survive the freezes.
Is there a local resource for heirloom seeds? I'd really like to grow heirloom-only, especially local heirloom.
And here might be a solution if there's dedicated folks: Kids have summers off--give them an opportunity to be of use for the community and they just might jump. If I could rewind the clock and was told to stay in or around the garden all day as a child, I totally would.
Word on the street is that someone is starting a new community garden in Springfield over the next couple of weeks.
Contact Amanda 710-5702
Moving the Springfield Community Garden
http://www.urbanjacksonville.info/2009/03/11/moving-the-springfield-community-garden/
http://www.intownjacksonville.blogspot.com/
Not locally for me, but I order from top tropicals, and seedman.com
I'm glad the garden is moving. Even though it was a significant improvement on the barren landscape that is Main St. and I enjoy looking at the mural as I return home everyday, it was bad placement. A community garden should be mixed in with the residential component of the neighborhood not occupying a prime space on Main st. I think this move will be for the better. I may even get a plot of my own! Time to start a fund raising effort to create some equally cool signage.
The garden on Main is staying. The one on Laura will be in addition to that one.
The urb JAX article is misleading as it states moving, implying that the Main is going away.
I don't live urban (work only) but because I can finally start my own backyard garden in the suburbs, I'd be happy to share some seeds or seedlings!
Right now I got a few tomato varieties started and some peas and spaghetti squash, but have a lot of other seeds to sow.
Anybody on here ever use those Earthboxes?
Quote from: Sigma on March 12, 2009, 04:29:19 PM
Anybody on here ever use those Earthboxes?
Yes, They are pretty awesome.
This whole thread reminding me of the Pat Frank book, "Alas, Babylon" :)
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=133686&catid=3
Quote from: Doctor_K on October 08, 2008, 02:24:42 PM
Where I live, they don't let you plant anything in the ground. So my wife has taken to growing stuff in pots and trays and such. The corners of our back deck are lined with tomato vines and green bean stalks. Pretty fun to take care of too - definitely a labor of love.
Can't wait to sample the fruits (and veggies!) of our labor.
Whoever thought that Victory Gardens would ever be en vogue again?
There is a site called www.renesgarden.com (I think that's the right spelling) that specializes in seeds for container gardening..I can tell you from experience, their cucumbers are awesome, we're on our third season of the same plants and they are still producing massive cucumbers.
Is anyone growing watermelons ?
http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=164
Anyone can plant a seed .ORG
During the late forties and through the fifties, we had about a 1.5 acre garden on which we grew just about every kind of vegetable one can think of. We sold the excess to a general store called Kissinger’s on the corner of Firestone and 103rd Road.
We canned or preserved most of the produce, and used it over the remainder of the year. We had chickens, rabbits, guinea hens, pigs, goats, hogs, ducks, geese, turkey.. all kinds of animals, including a couple of white slaves we captured from further west, past Old Middleburg road. In the distant westside in those days were some real isolated country folk. We let the slaves loose back on that same road about 1955, as they were beginning to learn to read and stuff.
The preparation of the soil, the making of rows, the planting, and the weeding, which was done by me and the white slaves, and the picking of the fruit of our work, form good memories. This kind of work engages nature in a special way, and makes one love the earth, allows one to sense how beautiful dirt can be, and how simple life can be.
And as Stephen says in the beginning of this thread, we, who are entering into an era of even further declines in jobs, and a probable further worsening of the economy, might tender the idea of growing a garden, as it will not only remind us of a more humble way of living, but will prepare us for possible shortages, either because we cannot afford to buy the produce, or because, if things get really bad, the produce cannot be produced and distributed in quantity sufficient to supply the growing population.
I recall specifically how wonderful it was to see the first fragile and tender sprouts emerging from the seed which was placed only days earlier just an inch or two below the surface. And the growth was more rapid that one would think, as you could see the changes in two days growing.
In the coming spring, I think I will start a half-acre garden in a space I have at my home south or Orange Park. Thanks for the reminder Stephen and Spence.
Speaking of canning, do you all have pics or any info on the old canning kitchen - I've been told it was on Superior Street in the Woodstock section of town and had dirt floors, no screens on the doors or windows (!?) and of course no air conditioning. They used to can food for the jail, in addition to the community using it to can their food. Would love to see pictures and whereabouts sometime if you can dig up any. Thx.
This year I planted a variety of lettuce, and greens. This warm weather has all of the plants confused. Should I grow, or bolt (stop growing, and produce a flower spike)? I have some very funny looking red sails lettuce. I have stared 3 times, only to have warm weather. It's nice to not be 40 degrees, but hard to grow winter crops.
Thanks so much, Stephen...there was an original one long before this one was built in 1978. Am just hoping for some more great info and pix of Jax history.
Quote from: mbwright on January 15, 2013, 02:07:56 PM
This year I planted a variety of lettuce, and greens. This warm weather has all of the plants confused. Should I grow, or bolt (stop growing, and produce a flower spike)? I have some very funny looking red sails lettuce. I have stared 3 times, only to have warm weather. It's nice to not be 40 degrees, but hard to grow winter crops.
I left a late season tomato plant in... last week I ate 3 very nice tomatoes... and have 5 more the size of baseballs nearly ready to pick...
Where I live there are trees and available partial sun is at a premium. The added threat of squirrels makes the garden a tough "row to hoe". However squirrel does taste good with tomatoes, ocra, and other vegetables.
Quote from: Overstreet on January 16, 2013, 08:24:43 AM
Where I live there are trees and available partial sun is at a premium. The added threat of squirrels makes the garden a tough "row to hoe". However squirrel does taste good with tomatoes, ocra, and other vegetables.
A simple snare will help you out with that... 8)
The three "b"s:
Beans, Bullion, Bullets, Booze, Bicycles, Brothers (Sisters too) and Belligerence.
All a body needs to get through an economic collapse.
Anyone like me who has difficulty counting higher than two, would also benefit from having a solar powered calculator.