26565627 the lazy gardener and self reliance

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The Lazy Gardener and Self Reliance

All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day ofspring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, andmy spirits soar. - Helen Hayes

Ah gardening. That easy laid back relaxing past time NOT! Im a lazy gardener; I

want the quickest, easiest, least amount of work and costs garden to produce the

food I need. I have an advantage over most folks right now because it is just meand I. My children are grown and on their own and my daughter and grandson live

in another state.

Although I am not an expert gardener I have gardened most of my life from the east

coast to the west coast; arid lands to wet lands and I spent a good number of years

on my grandparents farm in upper state New York. I have learned from others and

made a ton of mistakes along the way and if I can help just one tentative gardener

be successful then I will be happy and content.

When you garden for self reliance you must be vigilant and you must work for the

harvest. There is nary a spare minute even if you are lazy like me. Lets face it, selfreliance is not a walk in the park, you have to want it enough to work for it and then

reap the rewards. However that doesnt mean you cant still enjoy and have fun

despite the work.

An advantage of self reliant gardening that quickly pops to mind is that you are not

locked into huge plantings that would require machinery to harvest the produce. So

that leaves you with the weeding and watering, along with the usual frost patrol

responsibilities until harvest. You have the advantage of knowing what has gone

into the soil of your plantings. You know the produce hasnt been washed in some

chemical bath or forced to ripen with some gas. I havent seen any scientific

studies on this but, homegrown produce to me just plain tastes better too.

"Gardening is a way of showing that you believe in tomorrow." - Unknown

I grew up back east and was always taught to do raised bed gardening. There was

so much moisture that plant roots often got bogged down, hence the raised beds.

When I moved to New Mexico I had to learn gardening all over again.

In the Southwest you need to protect the ground surface around your plants from

arid, hot desert winds that suck the moisture right out of the soil very quickly when

they blow by. Raised bed gardens are not the wisest things in the Southwest unless

you create an elaborate wind break around them.

There are several ways to avoid the hot and dry winds. You can use sunken bed

gardening or protected bed gardening. The Native Americans of the Southwest

used waffle dry desert companion gardening. These were 1-2 foot sunken

squares that were planted using the 3 Sisters method of companion planting. The

second method is to put a wind barrier around your garden, however if your garden

is large, more than 6 feet along any side, you may still experience dried central

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The Lazy Gardener and Self Reliance - continued

areas of the garden and will need to water those areas more often. I prefer the

waffle style of gardening. You plant in rows of waffles. Where each waffle is 1-2

feet square and these have raised sides of 6-8 inches.

I live at a rather high altitude in New Mexico so I had to also adapt to the

temperature differences even though the growing season is not shortened like it isup north (east or west). Soon I will be moving to a semi-arid far north area and will

have to adapt to a much shorter growing season.

I love the waffle companion method of gardening as it is the lazy persons way to

have a bountiful harvest without much work. I have a friend in Tennessee who uses

a raised bed version of the desert waffle garden and she loves it.

The common trait between eastern and southwestern waffle gardening is really in

the companion plantings per waffle. This type of gardening reduces the need to

fertilize the soil or spray with any type (organic or poisonous) pesticides and crowds

out most weeds, even the tenacious ones here in the desert. The companion plantsof each waffle help ward off the insects, molds and diseases for each other while

they draw and replace different nutrients from the soil. If the waffle is sunken or

raised sided, in accordance to where you are located, you can reduce your water

usage as well. In the Southwest the Native Americans rarely watered their waffle

gardens after the plants neared their flowering stage.

For cheap easy gardening try straw bale, this is a type of raised bed gardening. If

you live in the southwest place a straw bale in a large lawn and leaf bag; expose the

top, then cut the baling wire; add your seeds and put some mulch or dirt on top;

water and sit back and watch them grow. I have grown potato, corn, tomato, green

beans, chili, cucumber, squash, melon, pumpkin and bell pepper. Many flowersgrow in straw bale as well. If you live where it is humid, dont put the bale in a trash

bag and instead of cutting the bailing wire, just stab the top center a bit to loosen

things up a bit and then plant.

One neighbor just got bags of planting soil, laid them in a nice boarder around his

fence; slit the tops and planted. When he trimmed his trees and hedge he put the

chipped trimmings over the plastic soil bags to hide them. Created a great garden

with those but had to dispose of the plastic later on.

Soil preparation will need to be accomplished no matter where you are

geographically, in a greenhouse, container style or out in a field and will vary fromlocation to location, even on your own farm or backyard. This is where good

information on composting will come in handy no matter if you are an experienced

gardener or not.

If you are just starting and have tons of weeds or usually get a lot of weeds; dig

down about 8-12 inches and then line that with a thick layer of newspaper,

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cardboard or paper bags and put the cleaned dirt back on top. These will

decompose but in the meantime any weed roots/seeds will be exterminated.

"What is a weed? I have heard it said that there are sixty definitions. For

me, a weed is a plant out of place." -- Donald Culross Peattie

Since Im lazy I try to avoid tilling or double turning the garden as tilling the soil

creates microscopic carnage. Things like earthworms, nematodes (yeah, they're

beneficial), bacteria, protozoa and fungi can all die when you till. Did you know that

every time you till you add oxygen to the soil. This creates a bloom of bacteria that

digest your organic matter. So the organic matter you added when you tilled is

consumed without being much use to your plants. To get around the destruction

and work I use compost, my valley friends manure and newspaper.

Lay cardboard or eight sheets of newspaper down and add organic matter or leaveson top. You can also sprinkle a little cheap fertilizer around (6-8-6 or 10-10-10).Thetotal depth should be at 6-8". Compost any remaining cardboard (the fertilizer will

help this process) that hasnt decomposed and sow the seeds or poke holes in thecardboard to plant. Make you organic matter from dirt, compost, aged manure,straw, shredded leaves or chipped tree trimmings. If you're short on dirt andcompost, pile up the shredded leaves, straw, and any other big bulky material, thenput the compost and topsoil in piles on the top. Use the little piles to plant in. Thiswill reduce the amount of expensive topsoil or precious compost you would need.During the summer, the bulky matter will break down and compress, but you canadd mulch on top to keep your plant roots covered.

Or you can dig a small hole, plant your plant and spread newspaper around the

plant, right up to the stem. Then dump mulch and compost on top of the

newspaper. The grass will die underneath and provide food for worms and other

friendly life forms.

Newspaper appears to work best with the fertilizer ON TOP because it slowly filters

down to the soil without harming the good bugs or the plants you want and it acts

like a poor mans timed release fertilizer or closer to the organic fertilizers, all while

it helps break the paper down to make the compost.

Plus the fertilizer will jump start the soil and with constant feeding of compost and

other fiber back into the soil it will continue to build it, not deplete it, as chemical

fertilizer do over time.

The only drawback to this type of no-till planting is that root crops dont seem to dovery well the first year. I had carrots that divided when they hit large pieces ofstuff, like shredded leaves and the potatoes grew sideways when they hit thenewspapers.

Companion planting is also good for pest control but you can also purchase

ladybugs and Praying Mantis at your local hardware store and they work wonders in

the garden. Or use Diatomaceous earth on and around each plant. Diatomaceous

earth is made of fossilized sea creatures and sharp - to bugs. Bird houses to attract

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wrens, pigeon doves, robins and the like that love to eat bugs are good to have

around your garden. Hummingbirds are good too, but the feeders are just too much

to me as they should be cleaned every other day or two, so I only keep the

humming bird feeder out until the plants start to flower. This way the humming

birds are already hooked on my yard by the time I stop filling the feeder and the

flowers appear on the plants.

Worms are great for your garden too. Yep worms, the wonder bug. I currently live

in a city and mostly container garden and since I started my small coffee can sized

worm farm two years ago my plants havent been better. Not only that but when

the worm farm got too crowded, I turned the worms loose on my small grass

patch out back and the lawn is healthier than it has ever been. Yeah I do get a

worm with wanderlust now and then, but it sure beats having to keep treating the

soil in the containers every season!

Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the

forest and the outlaw. -Henry David Thoreau

If you live high in the mountains or up north, you will most likely want to have some

kind of greenhouse to either start plantings early or for year round harvesting. I

have one friend in Montana who has several small greenhouses. One is for tropical

type plants and that greenhouse is heavily heated via geo-thermal heating and

includes some citrus trees. He has another greenhouse for winter harvesting of

produce and another smaller one for sprouting and seedlings. The latter two do

have some heating but they are more temperate rather than an actual hot house

type greenhouse. However in all three, (except for the trees) he utilizes the waffle

garden method with raised sides. He also has the local bee keeper put a partial

hive in his greenhouses to facilitate the pollination of his winter crop.

Another other aspect to self reliance gardening is the saving of seeds for the next

season. Different plants require different methods for preserving their seeds and

you want to make sure you utilize open-pollinated or heirloom plants and seeds in

order to be able to save some seeds from your garden for the next season.

Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them

plant a garden. - Robert Brault

In short you do not want any hybrid or GM (genetically modified) seeds or plants, as

these types will only pass on the plant genetics of one of the parents of the hybridand not produce another hybrid. On top of that many GM plants are genetically

male sterile so the plants dont produce enough viable (fertilized) seeds for

sprouting a new plant for the next season.

As with any garden, flower or vegetable, east, west, north or south, you will need to

check what planting Zone you are in and adjust for altitude so the most likely first

and last frost dates are more accurate. These Zones will for the most part take into

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consideration the length of the growing season. The Zones will also help you

identify which plant varieties will do best in your location.

"Those who labour in the earth are the chosen people of God ." -- Thomas

Jefferson

All kinds of things can be used as containers for your garden from old handbags,

boots, cans, plastic tubs, to old kiddie pools and even an old chest of drawers. Let

your imagination flow. Only things you need to worry about are drainage, if the

item is deep enough for the plant you are going to grow or if it is too porous you will

need to add some holes for drainage.

Used, but clean plastic soda bottles, milk and juice jugs can be used as mini-

greenhouses to shield early plantings. Or you can make cheap hoop-houses or

teepees out of PVC pipe, coat hangers and sheet plastic for individual plants or a

whole row.

Got limited space? Grow vertical. Hang plants for strawberries, herbs, spices and

the like. Make staggered ladder shelves and use the coat hangers to make a

lattice for tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and other vine plants. A friend of mine

turned a chest of drawers into a progressive tiered container garden. His deep

rooted plants were to the back as that had the deepest sections of soil. I have

asked him to send me some pictures because it is one of those things that has to be

seen to be believed and he says it was really easy, because even I could make it!

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know

they shall never sit in." --Greek proverb

Now please understand that I am not some kind of expert gardener. Nope,shriveled tomatoes and exploding melons are proof of that. I also never expected

to get all the know-how I needed from the back of a seed packet, especially since

now days I would need a magnifying glass to read the thing. Instead I have

accumulated several books over the years that I consider my gardening bibles,

great teachers from family and friends to neighbors and a good dose of luck. All of

which will come in handy when I move north and rural.

"There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments." -- Janet KilburnPhillips

Of the tons of books and such out there on gardening, I have a few that I stronglyrecommend as they are good for just about any type of food gardening, be it

container, kitchen sized or a larger rural size. I have never attempted hobby farm

sized gardening so I dont have any recommendations for that large a scale. I also

have not had the opportunity to grow a good nut or fruit orchard on a small,

medium or large scale, so that kind of reference is missing. The references I do list

do have chapters on these trees and scrubs which so far have been perfect for me.

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Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte.

Four Season Harvest by Eliot ColemanTurner

Seed Sowing and Saving by Carole B.

Desert Gardening Fruits & Vegetables by George Brookbank

The Complete Guide to Herbal Medicines by Charles W. Fetrow and Juan R.

Avila Herbal Remedy Gardens by Dorie Byers

The Medicine Wheel Garden by E. Barrie Kavasch

For a quick reference and a downloadable spreadsheet see The Lazy Gardener's

Automatic Seed Starting Chart with notes at

http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seedstartingchart_lazy.php

Her Notes PDF is at http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seedstart_chart.pdf

For growing season, last and first frosts see any one of the following:

http://www.almanac.com/content/frost-chart-united-states#chart

http://www.jerrysplantsonline.com/frost_chart_for_usa.htm

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/freezefrost/frostfreemaps.html

http://www.humeseeds.com/frost1.htm

Hardiness and Zone Maps

http://www.backyardgardener.com/zone/index.html

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/hardiness.htm

http://www.garden.org/zipzone/

Enter Zip code at http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/planting-zones for details

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hrdzon4.html

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hrdzon5.html

Planting Schedules

http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/planting-schedules

http://www.moongrow.com/moon_phase_gardening/moon_phase_planting_zones.ht

ml

For some great downloadable PDFs:

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http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seedstartingchart_lazy.phphttp://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seedstart_chart.pdfhttp://www.jerrysplantsonline.com/frost_chart_for_usa.htmhttp://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/freezefrost/frostfreemaps.htmlhttp://www.humeseeds.com/frost1.htmhttp://www.backyardgardener.com/zone/index.htmlhttp://www.thegardenhelper.com/hardiness.htmhttp://www.garden.org/zipzone/http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/planting-zoneshttp://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.htmlhttp://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hrdzon4.htmlhttp://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hrdzon5.htmlhttp://www.thevegetablegarden.info/planting-scheduleshttp://www.moongrow.com/moon_phase_gardening/moon_phase_planting_zones.htmlhttp://www.moongrow.com/moon_phase_gardening/moon_phase_planting_zones.htmlhttp://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seedstart_chart.pdfhttp://www.jerrysplantsonline.com/frost_chart_for_usa.htmhttp://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/freezefrost/frostfreemaps.htmlhttp://www.humeseeds.com/frost1.htmhttp://www.backyardgardener.com/zone/index.htmlhttp://www.thegardenhelper.com/hardiness.htmhttp://www.garden.org/zipzone/http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/planting-zoneshttp://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.htmlhttp://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hrdzon4.htmlhttp://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/hrdzon5.htmlhttp://www.thevegetablegarden.info/planting-scheduleshttp://www.moongrow.com/moon_phase_gardening/moon_phase_planting_zones.htmlhttp://www.moongrow.com/moon_phase_gardening/moon_phase_planting_zones.htmlhttp://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/seedstartingchart_lazy.php


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Self Reliant Agriculture for Drylands- 3_02 at desertrestore.ORG

vegetable_gardening_containers_E-545 at aggi.horticulature.tamu.EDU

Straw Bale Method No Dig Garden-FS05 NDG at aboutTheGarden.COM.au

Growing In Straw Bale-is1678 at msucares.COM

Garden Fall Freeze 32F at ncdc.noaa.GOV

Garden Fall Freeze 28F at ncdc.noaa.GOV

Garden Spring Freeze 32F at ncdc.noaa.GOV

Garden Spring Freeze 28F at ncdc.noaa.GOV

Garden Freeze free 32F at ncdc.noaa.GOV

Garden Freeze free 28F at ncdc.noaa.GOV

General Seed and Garden Information:

http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2010/01/14/seeds-for-cold-climates/

http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2010/01/14/seeds-for-cold-

climates/#ixzz0eQgNhnxn

http://www.gardening-tips-idea.com/coldclimategardening.html

http://www.vegetable-gardening-and-greenhouses.com/cold-climate-gardening.html

http://www.self-reliance-exchange.com/?p=4315 Article on gardening

http://www.seedstrust.com/ Open Pollinated Heirloom Seeds

http://www.self-reliance-exchange.com/?p=2147 Saving Seeds

http://www.self-reliance-exchange.com/?p=294 Homemade Greenhouse

http://www.arkinstitute.com/ Open Pollinated Heirloom Seeds

http://www.territorialseed.com/ Open Pollinated Heirloom Seeds

http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=aboutus.htm Open PollinatedHeirloom Seeds

http://www.slowfood.com/ & http://www.slowfoodusa.org/ Open Pollinated

Heirloom Seeds

http://www.heirloomseeds.com/ Open Pollinated Heirloom Seeds

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http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2010/01/14/seeds-for-cold-climates/http://www.gardening-tips-idea.com/coldclimategardening.htmlhttp://www.vegetable-gardening-and-greenhouses.com/cold-climate-gardening.htmlhttp://www.self-reliance-exchange.com/?p=4315http://www.seedstrust.com/http://www.self-reliance-exchange.com/?p=2147http://www.self-reliance-exchange.com/?p=294http://www.arkinstitute.com/http://www.territorialseed.com/http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=aboutus.htmhttp://www.slowfood.com/http://www.slowfoodusa.org/http://www.heirloomseeds.com/http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2010/01/14/seeds-for-cold-climates/http://www.gardening-tips-idea.com/coldclimategardening.htmlhttp://www.vegetable-gardening-and-greenhouses.com/cold-climate-gardening.htmlhttp://www.self-reliance-exchange.com/?p=4315http://www.seedstrust.com/http://www.self-reliance-exchange.com/?p=2147http://www.self-reliance-exchange.com/?p=294http://www.arkinstitute.com/http://www.territorialseed.com/http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=aboutus.htmhttp://www.slowfood.com/http://www.slowfoodusa.org/http://www.heirloomseeds.com/


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http://www.seedsofchange.com/ Open Pollinated Heirloom Seeds

http://www.victoryseeds.com/ Open Pollinated Heirloom Seeds

http://orchardhouseheirlooms.com/ Open Pollinated Heirloom Seeds

http://readynutrition.com/resources/survival-seeds-to-sow-heirloom-gmo-or-non-gmo_17012010/ Survival Seeds to Sow - Heirloom, GMO or Non-GMO

http://www.survivalistseeds.com Seeds packed for long term storage

http://survivalseedbank.com/ Seeds packed for long term storage

http://www.non-hybrid-seeds.com/sp/seed-packs.html Seeds packed for long term

storage

"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice

because thorn bushes have roses."-- Abraham Lincoln

From a 50 Something, soon to be rural

homesteading, Prepper.

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http://www.seedsofchange.com/http://www.victoryseeds.com/http://orchardhouseheirlooms.com/product_info.php/products_id/199http://readynutrition.com/resources/survival-seeds-to-sow-heirloom-gmo-or-non-gmo_17012010/http://readynutrition.com/resources/survival-seeds-to-sow-heirloom-gmo-or-non-gmo_17012010/http://www.survivalistseeds.com/http://survivalseedbank.com/http://www.non-hybrid-seeds.com/sp/seed-packs.htmlhttp://www.seedsofchange.com/http://www.victoryseeds.com/http://orchardhouseheirlooms.com/product_info.php/products_id/199http://readynutrition.com/resources/survival-seeds-to-sow-heirloom-gmo-or-non-gmo_17012010/http://readynutrition.com/resources/survival-seeds-to-sow-heirloom-gmo-or-non-gmo_17012010/http://www.survivalistseeds.com/http://survivalseedbank.com/http://www.non-hybrid-seeds.com/sp/seed-packs.html

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