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The Grow Network DIY Hose Repair Challenge
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If you have a great technique for fixing hoses, we have a contest for you! $500 in prizes is up for grabs.
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COMMENTS(16)
I was required as a very young man to do a garden for scouting. I enlisted the help of my grandmother and we went and got some seeds, radishes, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. The garden produced very well and when I went to gather the first small harvest, I took a bucket of cold water from the faucet and threw the vegetables in it and was cleaning them and gave a taste and the fresh flavor was overwhelming. I had to stop as I had eaten almost half of my first gathering.. Since then I garden when and where I can, I like experimenting. I have had success with Artichokes in N. Texas and many other unusual growings. I try to do one experiment per year..
Building Our Family Ark
Kylene Jones
http://www.yourfamilyark.org
http://www.theprovidentprepper.org
Jonathan and I had always been good about keeping our pantry well-stocked and growing a token hobby garden every year. But as our family grew, so did our concern about being able to provide for our children in a world of growing concerns. It seemed that there were dangers threatening our security everywhere we looked. We needed to find a way to build an ark to protect us from the impending storms. That ark included producing as much of our food as possible.
We lived on a one-third acre urban lot where farm animals were prohibited. Not ideal, but we could definitely provide for some of our family’s needs. We got busy incorporating fruit trees, grape vines, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries and such into our landscape.
The berries were the favorite. In order to take advantage of every inch of available space, grapes and berries were planted inside the fence line. The little ones loved to go and pick berries while they played. It was difficult to pick enough berries to make jam or to freeze. My bowl was magically emptied as fast as I could fill it. Their red and purple stained faces attested to their guilt. I really can’t complain. Those berries were packed with nutrients that made the children healthy and resistant to disease. They preferred fresh berries to candy.
Grapes lined the entire back fence and thrived. Within three years, we had more grapes than we knew what to do with. We dried some into raisins but most of them were made into grape juice. We produced enough grape juice to last through the entire year. It was a fun for the teenagers to tell their friends it was “wine of our own make” and enjoy the delicious taste unavailable anywhere else.
Fruit trees graced the landscape in both the front and back yard. Providing us with an opportunity to battle the birds for the cherries, enjoy peaches so juicy that juice dripped everywhere, and Fuji apples that are wonderful dried, stored and eaten fresh. Raised garden beds spanned the length of the yard. We grew potatoes in tires, feasted on tomatoes, squash and peppers. Every afternoon we made a trip out to the raised beds and harvested to supplement the evening meal.
Eggs provided a little protein and fat. Chickens fell under the nuisance ordinance. If they didn’t bother the neighbors, we were allowed to keep them. One day our backdoor neighbor called and told me that the most beautiful exotic bird had landed in her back yard and I should come and see it. It turned out to be one of our hens. We remodeled the chicken coop to prevent any future escapes.
We fell in love with our chickens. They children played with them and they behaved much like dogs, thoroughly enjoying the attention they were given on a regular basis. Collecting the colored eggs was like having Easter morning every day. However, this relationship made eating the chickens nearly impossible. We rotated our flock by posting them online in the classified section of a local paper. They were gone within a day. Somehow it was easier knowing they were in someone else’s freezer.
Our children expressed that they loved living on a farm. It wasn’t really a farm, but we had created a wonderful little Eden in the midst of the city. There was so much more we wanted to do to build our little ark, but were trapped by local ordinances. Eventually, once our trees were full grown and producing like crazy, we moved to a little bit larger piece of land to build our dream ark. It has been a lot of work to start from scratch again. We now have opportunities that alluded us in our tract lot and are expanding our ability to produce a greater percentage of our own food.
Our decision to grow our own food was based on the desire to feed our family even during the hard times. However, the blessings went well beyond food security. If all of the dangers lurking in our society evaporated today, we would still grow our own food. Allow me to illustrate a few of the benefits we experienced:
• The overall health of our entire family increased due to exposure to sunshine, exercise, and increased intake of fresh fruits and vegetables.
• We don’t have to worry about what has been sprayed on our food. The soil is rich with nutrients so the produce is fresh, tasty and highly nutritious.
• We learned to work together as a family. Planting, harvesting, preserving, and caring for the garden provided us with unique opportunities to work together and enjoy the products of our labor.
• Growing your own food is a great teacher of important life lessons.
• Knowledge is power. Our children know where their food comes from and how to grow it.
• We saved significant money on our grocery bill. We are spoiled by the taste of fresh eggs, fruits and vegetables. Store bought eggs and produce just do not have the superior flavor of the foods we grow in our own backyard.
• Life is beautiful. We found beauty and peace as we were surrounded by nature … trees, vines, plants and chickens.
• Relationships with neighbors were enhanced by sharing fresh produce, with the possible exception of zucchini.
• A sense of security permeated our home. We produced everything we could and stored what we could not produce. We developed the ability to provide for our needs for an extended period of time if the stores closed or our income was interrupted.
As you can see, we have been greatly blessed in remarkable ways as we worked to master our home production skills. The decision to grow our own food has enriched our lives. It has enabled us to build our family ark, along with precious memories and relationships.
Kylene, that is a beautifully written post. When you put it up we were having technical difficulties with the usual form, but I’ll have this made into a post and let everyone know about it.
You write really well and I liked your site. Lots of great info there and very well presented.
I got interested in prepping like many, Y2K. I always stored food but never truly tried gardening until I started listening to Jack Spirko’s show (also how I learned of this site). I started with tomatoes and after watching my wife swoon over homegrown I was hooked.
The gardens of Germany, loving grandmothers teaching toddlers to plant the precious crops
in the Spring, singing, laughing, talking to each other and the plants. Ducks and geese chattering
nearby…paradise…memories that sustain the desire for gardening forever
As a medical practitioner and also an Energy Medicine practitioner I have added these skills to
“perfect” gardening by using the energy exercises for people’s health on plants as well. We know that plants communicate. They thrive with the extra energy balancing. I believe the people
who garden with love are using Energy Medicine naturally and I am just beginning to study
this aspect of gardening and would love to hear from others about their experiences with talking
to their plants and extending their love to their gardens. Somehow in honoring our grandparents and following in their footsteps we have come full circle.
Marjory, if you like my contest article, “Gardening Saved US!”, if you ever come to California, can I meet you? You inspire me.
Hi Jan,
I would love to come meet you. I am hoping to do a workshop with John Jeavons sometime – he is in Willits.
You never know! I’ve found my schedule quite a crazy unpredictable thing.
If you ever come to Texas… let me know.
You want the easiest, most innovative (and crazy) tip, trick, and insider secret about growing tomatoes!?? Are you Ready? It’s an eletronic vibrating toothbrush! It’s true!
Tomatoes are self pollinating. That means both the male and female reproductive parts are contained in the same flower head. When your tomato plant starts to bloom with flowers, turn on your vibrating toothbrush, touch the back (non bristles side) of the toothbrush head to the base of the flower head and you will have just effectively hand pollinated that flower!
Soon you will see a tiny tomato forming where the flower once was!
I live in northern Canada (NWT) so our growing season is just under 100 days, but we can grow almost everything we want with creative ways! A new thing we have tried this year which seems to be working out very well so far with Tomatoes. We started them inside a special insulated solar greenhouse and then transplanted them into large recycled black 5gal buckets with the bottoms cut out so when we moved them outside the main root ball is in a very nice warm bucket heated well from the sun yet the roots can go down as far as they want. In addition we’ve set the buckets on top of a long compost pile next to the wall on a building. I will send an update later to share the successes!
Tomato tip I learned from a nurseryman: Go out mid-day and give your tomatoes a little shake. The day is dry and the pollen can move freely for self-pollinating. It is very helpful on no wind days like today for me. More tomatoes! I want to can more tomato sauce and have a first try at home canned ketchup. I have 6 plants in my small suburban garden and need to maximize production.
Hi! My best trick so far is to grow great tomatoes within the adverse conditions of a high vole population and a severe drought. It is simple, yet has yielded an early and abundant crop. I planted in large black 5 gallon pots, with well-worked compost. I then sunk all the pots into the ground where I would have put them anyway. The lip of the pot is above ground, so the voles go around them instead of into them, thus protecting the roots. I put my stakes outside the pots, so they could be nice and deep, and used rain water from my water barrels to water directly into them. No water was wasted on unproductive earth and I mulched heavily around each pot so there have been no weeds to deal with. We have had softball sizes tomatoes by mid June, fully red and juicy!
HI, Just a shot note on some thing I found on the internet , its suggested that trim
the lower branches on the tomato plants when they start getting flowers to help control
mold when it rains in the last part of the summer and it helps to increase the plats yield.
This is the first year I have used this method an teams to be working so far it is only July so
far.
For gardening in general, I add Epson salt to my soil while planting. It doesn’t change the ph any, but adds minerals to soil and plants that I lack here at home.
HiSwede,
Yes, epsom slats are rich in magnesium which is a necessary mineral.
Accidental tomato tip –
When my daughter and her partner “put the garden to bed” last year he put all the dying plants in a pile in the middle of the garden. What did he know – not a lot, I guess. Over the winter’s rain and snow the pile decomposed. Last month (June) hundreds of heirloom tomato plants started sprouting in the middle of the garden – a virtual forest! My daughter started potting them in drink cups, then in small pots and finally in 7″ pots which she took to the healthy deli next door to our business and placed on the counter – free for their customers. She was busy all month with hundreds of plants and got lots of kudos from the recipients. Spreading love and nutrition one tomato plant at a time!
Anita,
I love that story. So wonderful to give like that. And so easy too.