Barakah Heritage Farm USA

Category: Annual Gardening

Annual Gardening

  • Barakah Heritage Farm version 6.0

    Barakah Heritage Farm version 6.0

    So here we are in Winnsboro, South Carolina, neck deep in the farm restart.

    This time around is a radically different farm model.

    We have moved to a VERY different climate in the deep south, after 50+ years of living in the northeast.  The plants are different, the growing season different, the soil is different.

     

    This is also our first time with a truly distributed farm model.  In the past we did have horses split between

    two nearby farms for a brief period, but that was the extent of spreading the work over multiple properties.  Version 6.0 has the rabbits, livestock dogs, gardens (and pets) at the farm office (also our home and undergoing a complete renovation) while the goats and horses occupy a nearby farm.  The farm has buildings but no fences, and the home office has fences but no farm buildings or established gardens.  What an interesting new challenge!

    I’m going to give a shout out to a software program.  If it weren’t for Blue, I don’t know that I could juggle all these projects.  I’m not getting any compensation, I just love the software that much.

    So here’s what is going on right now:

    Gardens are in various stages of being dug, edged, fertilized and planted.   We are again creating a biointensive permaculture system, but blending it in with general

    landscaping.  Plants are doing double duty at this property, looking nice AND feeding the family.  This season the focus is on producing our favorite heirloom

    varieties for personal use.  Any crop that we can buy relatively inexpensively in bulk at the grocery we skipped – onions, carrots, potatoes, garlic, winter squashes.  That means tomatoes, lots of greens like kale and chard and lettuces, and some basic herbs, all heirloom varieties for the unique flavors and colors.  I put in a pollinator garden with a water fountain the first season we were here, and fluffed it up this spring. It still needs a low water dish for the insects.

    Additionally we are planning out where key perennial food crops like hazlenuts and artichoke will go.

    The bunnies are not currently part of Bunnyville, so they moved to headquarters (such a fancy name for a modest beginning LOL) and are happily eating greens from our yard and producing wonderful fertilizer for the new gardens.

    We put poultry projects on hold, until we see if and how they might fit in with the new farm model.

    Over at the 250 acre farm, everything happened and is happening in stages.  The first step was basic shelter and containment, so wire mesh fencing beefed up with electric to hold goats and horses both.  Stalls were cleaned out, repaired and set up.  Once everyone had shelter and fencing that worked with or without power, then the bigger fencing projects and reopening the money-earning tours could start.  Horses looked like the quickest win, so a tour pen and then riding area came first, followed by the first of the rotation grazing areas and the runway, in a layout that meshes with the current land uses.  As I add each rotation, I’m also extending the perimeter to capture more land and eventually should have about 15 acres fenced for rotation and runways.  I’m reusing a lot of the fence equipment that traveled with us, and taking the best of what worked before.  T-posts and tape fencing for the perimeters, narrow tape and step ins for the rotations, and a very powerful DC energizer to keep the deer off the fences and the horses in.

     

    For the goats, it started with the 2 pens and shelters.  Next up was getting the tour area built.  Concurrently, I’m designing their rotation grazing areas, making decisions on what has the best browse, will hold them, and will be easy to move them to.  The goats must come back in at night because of predator pressure from local coyotes, black vultures and hawks.

    So, how does this all get done?  By setting aside a small block of time each day for each project – typically 1 to 2 hours, breaking the projects down into manageable steps, and keeping track of it all with due dates in the Blue software.  Many of the projects must happen concurrently so keep the farm financially on track, so small steps forward rather than big pushes on one project at a time makes the most sense.

    So that’s what’s happening these days at Barakah Heritage Farm.  We hope you will come see us if you are in the area, and stay tuned for the first goat kids of 2024!

    -Carrie and all the fur-kin

  • New location, new farm model

    New location, new farm model

    We have moved to Winnsboro, South Carolina!

    Home of the oldest working town clock, the South Carolina Railroad Museum, the Fairfield County Historical Museum and near Carolina Adventure World.

    As someone who has lived her entire life in the northeast USA, this is like moving to another planet.  There is almost no snow!  Winter feels like spring.  Plants have begun growing in February.  And summers are hot, as in HOT.   We are trying a new approach down here, spreading our farm components across multiple locations, and adapting everything for this new climate.

    For now, Bunnyville is on hold.  The bunnies are happily settled at headquarters.  We have stopped poultry, for the time being.

    We are setting up garden beds and figuring out how to apply biointensive and permaculture in this sandy clay soil of zone 8a.  Ants are a thing, big mounds of ants that bite hard.  The annual seed inventory is done, and we have selected the seeds we think make the most sense for the first planting.  We get 2 or 3 growing seasons here, which is amazing!

    The horses and goats are at a farm near headquarters (headquarters sounds like a mighty fancy label for our humble cottage and beginning gardens).  We have not published the farm location for the privacy of the farm owner and for animal security.  We provide it when folks come to purchase livestock or book an AirBnB Animal Experience with us.

    Let the adventures and learning begin!

     

    Farm is within 5 miles of the pinned map location (hidden for privacy & animal security)

  • Barakah Heritage Farm garden adventures 2020 – garden layout + early spring cold-loving plants

    Barakah Heritage Farm garden adventures 2020 – garden layout + early spring cold-loving plants

    We got the main veggie garden finished, except for one bed that will be double dug and composted this summer for fall crops.  Now that this garden is done, we can start planning and then planting.  (We will finish and plant the commercial garden and the potato/livestock feed garden in a week or so.

    We spend at least as much time planning the garden as we do actually planting, to make sure we get the best yields for our work, God willing.  Here are the steps that go into planning the garden for the year.  If this was a CSA or market garden, there would be even more planning involved to make sure enough was produced at all times to meet customer demand.  For us, because the garden is for our own use plus some impulse purchases by farm guests, we can be just a bit more relaxed this year.

    Our first step was to take a seed inventory, and go shopping to fill in any gaps.  We aren’t planting everything that we like to grow, just what the current bed space and our time will allow.  We keep a wish list of new plants to add each year.

    Make planning index cards, one per plant type.  Tomatoes get multiple cards because I like to space the tomatoes out, one per bed, around the edges of the garden to trellis them on the fence.  The cards include whether it is an early plant (E), normal, or late season (F for fall), whether it gets planted in succession (R for repeat), what other plants it likes, time to germination and harvest and notes about how it grew in previous years.  On the back of the card we mark what bed it is going in, at the end of the planning process.
    Draw out a master diagram of the garden beds.  If you don’t have a big whiteboard, you can tape paper together, or even draw with chalk on the driveway.
    Start laying cards out on the beds, moving them around to allow for preferred neighbors and also to avoid planting in the same spot as last year (this reduces disease and pests).  We also keep the tastiest plants away from the perimeter fence to (God willing) avoid tempting the goats.

    When all the cards are allocated to beds,  snap pics of each bed to save for planting and for next year’s planning.  Tip:  save the pics in your phone.  When you begin planting, you can pull up the pics for a handy planting diagram.

    This year’s early season crops include:

    • Lettuce
    • Radishes
    • Garlic
    • Onions
    • Carrots
    • Spinach
    • Turnip
    • Kale
    • Cilantro/Coriander
    • Cabbage

    For the actual planting, just follow the directions on each seed packet, or your notes on your handy cards if you are seed saving.  We actually cut the spacing roughly in half but no smaller than the expected size of the adult plant, and reduced the number of seeds, per the techniques of Square Foot Gardening, but without the expense and precise measurements of that technique.  Not sure if SFG is for you?  Here’s a balanced look at the pros and cons.

    So, the garden is planted and the rows labeled with a pink paint pen on small rocks.  Our next project, and next post, will be the commercial and potato/livestock gardens, God willing.

    Until then, happy planning and planting!  Stay warm!

  • Barakah Heritage Farm garden adventures 2020 – planning for seed saving

    Barakah Heritage Farm garden adventures 2020 – planning for seed saving

    Well, it’s garden planning time.

    For me (the wifey half of our farming duo) I find garden planning a mixture of fun and daunting details.

    This year, with the current world events, we decided to triple our main garden, in addition to the two additional gardens already under construction over the winter.  (More on beds and bed planning in another post.)  We sat down, made our seed list, checked our inventory and went seed shopping.  After seeing the prices per packet, and watching events unfolding, it is seeming wise to get more serious about seed saving this year.

    The beautiful chaos of garden construction

    I’ll back up a few steps and explain why we haven’t bothered with much seed saving in previous years.  To make any farm profitable, you have to include your labor (time x hourly rate) in the calculations.  Frankly, the cost of the labor to save seeds was not profitable, not when others are doing a more efficient and professional job of producing seeds that we can easily order or buy in the store.   This year, for the first time, the global uncertainties are making us take a second look at that labor – if you cannot find seeds at all then the labor cost becomes irrelevant.  We hope to at least save some core basics, God willing, and still support heirloom seed businesses for the rest of our seed needs.

    So, from my previous dabblings in seed saving, and I truly  mean dabbling, as most success was with lettuce and marigolds (I challenge you to fail at marigolds), I do remember that in order to save seeds in the fall, you need to plan before you ever plant.

    Here are my top tips for planning, and some great websites with more details:

    Tip 1:  Only plant open-pollinated varieties.  Seeds from hybrids (labeled F1) will not breed true.  Seeds from GMO seeds are illegal to save and most likely won’t sprout or breed true.

    Tip 2:  Plants will cross pollinate if they belong to the same family.  Squashes are notorious for this.  If you want to save seeds from more than one variety in a family, for example, summer squash and pitty pat squash, you can select varieties that bloom at different times, or you can space your garden beds out to separate the plants and minimize cross pollination.

    Tip 3:  Plant enough plants to meet your needs plus some extra to allow to mature for seed collection.

    Tip 4:  If this is your first time gardening, consider planning different types and locations of beds, and trying different plant varieties, to see what best suits your land.  You may need extra seed, to allow for experiments and for failed crops.

    Here are some great websites to get you started:

    https://extension.umn.edu/planting-and-growing-guides/saving-vegetable-seeds

    https://www.seedsavers.org/how-to-save-seeds

    https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/save-vegetable-seeds-backyard-zmaz77zsch

    https://www.almanac.com/content/start-saving-those-vegetable-seeds

    https://modernfarmer.com/2018/07/seed-saving-101-10-things-to-know-if-you-want-to-start-saving-seeds/

    Happy planning!

  • Adding an income garden at Barakah Heritage Farm

    No, we aren’t planting money trees, or even money plants.

    What we ARE doing is looking at ways to earn some side income from small gardens.

    Barakah Heritage Farm hosts a fair number of visitors each year via our horse programs, the campsites and glamping loft and the goat experience.  As the area in front of the main barn is just a big plain yard, we were looking for something to add some curb appeal and possibly trigger some impulse buys to add to the farm income.  In previous seasons, guests have admired the vegetable garden, and we often gifted folks with some excess produce to take home.  So we thought perhaps some type of garden product could dress up the yard and generate some income.

     

    We looked at 3 main options:  vegetables, flowers, and herbs.  The first step was to do online research and find out which of these are most popular in farm markets and roadside stands and grocery stores.  Here are 3 favorite resources:

    Ten Most Profitable Herbs To Grow

    Ten Most Profitable Cut Flowers For Small Growers

    Our Farmer’s Market Best Sellers

    Generally, our criteria were:  inexpensive to plant,  annuals or easily-transplanted perennials (all our business models are designed to be portable), minimal care to thrive,  tolerate our climate, be visually appealing, and mesh with our mission of heirloom plants.  Beyond that, the plant had to be well-ranked for popularity with a good history of selling at farm markets.  Finally, they had to be plants that would be popular with our demographic (hikers/campers, horsewomen, animal lovers).

    Here is our list, by category:

    Herbs:  basil, chives, cilantro, parsley, catnip (many folks have pet cats), sage, dill.

    Edible flowers:  viola, nasturtium, calendula

    Cut flowers:  zinnia, astor, clary sage, sunflower, carnation, delphinium, heather, baby’s breath 

    Vegetables:  tomatoes, cucumber, possible swiss chard and/or kale

    We will  narrow this down further closer to planting time.  In general, we will choose heirloom varieties that are unusual and colorful, such as purple tomatoes and lemon cucumbers.

    We have started the garden beds, one pictured here and another around the side of the barn.

    Below are some additional links we found useful:

    https://www.hobbyfarms.com/how-to-harvest-and-pack-herbs-f…/ https://www.johnnyseeds.com/…/her…/library-herbs-profit.html https://www.sunset.com/garden/flowers-plants/bouquet-flowers

    https://www.gardeners.com/how-to/cutting-garden/5011.html

    https://www.thespruce.com/best-cut-flower-varieties-4152956

  • Companion Planting for the Kitchen Gardener: Tips, Advice, and Garden Plans for a Healthy Organic Garden

    Companion Planting for the Kitchen Gardener: Tips, Advice, and Garden Plans for a Healthy Organic Garden

    Companion planting techniques have been used for centuries to facilitate better, more nutritious, and more abundant crops. Did you know that carrots will grow better if surrounded by lettuce, onions and beets, but beans should not be planted near onions?  Your tomatoes will be happier if they’re far away from potatoes, but peppers and marigolds…;

    Skyhorse PublishingPrice: $14.95 $13.69 Free Shipping

    Companion planting techniques have been used for centuries to facilitate better, more nutritious, and more abundant crops. Did you know that carrots will grow better if surrounded by lettuce, onions and beets, but beans should not be planted near onions?  Your tomatoes will be happier if they’re far away from potatoes, but peppers and marigolds make a terrific garden pair. Aromatic herbs help protect some vegetables from pests, and many flowers – including calendula, zinnias and yarrow – will attract beneficial insects to your garden beds.  It’s a lot to think about, but there’s no reason to feel overwhelmed. With Companion Planting for the Kitchen Gardener, you’ll have all the information you need in clear, concise terms and with charts and garden plans you can copy or modify to suit your family’s needs.

    Starting with the basics of organic gardening, such as how to prepare quality soil and the importance of cover crops and organic fertilizer, author Allison Greer explain the principles of companion planting, how plants interact, and how you can use that information to your garden’s benefit. There is an entire chapter devoted to many of the most popular vegetables, with charts, diagrams, and descriptions of each–a treasure for gardeners with busy lives who want an easy reference guide for planning their ideal kitchen garden. Full of gorgeous, full-color photographs and easy-to-follow diagrams, this is a beautiful, useful guide for the home organic gardener.

    Full Customer Reviews:

  • The Unconventional Edible Garden: Growing Food in Texas and Other Hard and Difficult Places

    The Unconventional Edible Garden: Growing Food in Texas and Other Hard and Difficult Places

    This entry is in the series Best Niche Gardening Books

    The Unconventional Edible Garden is an 8×10″, softcover, 140-page month-by-month growing guide with concise monthly to-do lists, planting instructions, permaculture musings, and personal memoirs. There are no other books on the market for our climate like this and it will be a treasure for so many gardeners!;

    The Unconventional Edible Garden is an 8×10″, softcover, 140-page month-by-month growing guide with concise monthly to-do lists, planting instructions, permaculture musings, and personal memoirs. There are no other books on the market for our climate like this and it will be a treasure for so many gardeners!

    Full Customer Reviews:

  • Gardening in the Coastal South

    Gardening in the Coastal South

    This entry is in the series Best Climate Regional Specific Books

    Take a stroll through the garden of a self-confessed hortimaniac. Gardening is Marie Harrison’s avocation, passion…some might say, obsession. In her personal, witty style (she refers to her husband as Amiable Spouse, or A.S. for short), Marie divulges her own tried-and-true ways of gardening along the coasts of the southeast United States. Marie covers perennials,…;

    Take a stroll through the garden of a self-confessed hortimaniac. Gardening is Marie Harrison’s avocation, passion…some might say, obsession. In her personal, witty style (she refers to her husband as Amiable Spouse, or A.S. for short), Marie divulges her own tried-and-true ways of gardening along the coasts of the southeast United States. Marie covers perennials, flowers grown from bulbs, herbs, shrubs and small trees, vines, edible flowers, and herbs for flower borders. A section of full-color photos captures these beautiful plants and flowers in all their vibrant glory. Charming pen-and-ink illustrations are sprinkled throughout the text. Marie discusses the edible and medicinal properties of various plants (there’s even a quick or two!), as well as coastal considerations such as salt tolerance; environmental issues such as pesticide use, beneficial insects, and exotic invasives; and gardening for birds and butterflies. She also offers her musings on the seasons in Florida and how she spends her time in the garden during each phase of the year. Whether you’re seasoned gardener like Marie or a tentative beginner just starting out with a windowsill herb garden, this delightful book will make you appreciate the dirt under your fingernails.

    Full Customer Reviews:

  • Straw Bale Gardens Complete

    Straw Bale Gardens Complete

    This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Best Gardening Method Books

    “Are you ready to learn about a transformative garden technology that could change your life – for less than $100?” – New York TimesTake your straw bale gardening to the next level – in more places, with new products, and even, sometimes, skipping the straw!The reception and enthusiasm for straw bale gardening, introduced in 2013,…;

    Cool Springs Press

    Price: $24.99 $18.12 Free Shipping

     

    “Are you ready to learn about a transformative garden technology that could change your life – for less than $100?” – New York Times

    Take your straw bale gardening to the next level – in more places, with new products, and even, sometimes, skipping the straw!

    (more…)

  • September on a Permaculture Homestead in Ireland

    September on a Permaculture Homestead in Ireland


    “The homestead was built on a gentle rise that sloped gradually away on every side; in front to the wide plain, dotted with huge gum trees and great grey box groves, and at the back, after you had passed through the well-kept vegetable garden and orchard, to a long lagoon, bordered with trees and fringed with tall bulrushes and waving reeds.” ~ Mary Grant Bush
    If you would like to see over 15,000 photographs of Bealtaine Cottage, read over 1,000 blogs, or decide to support the work of Bealtaine Cottage, completely dependent on people who value what I do, here’s how…

    Purchase The Book: A Cottage and Three Acres… https://bealtainecottage.com/a-cottage-and-three-acres-the-bealtaine-story/

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    Take a look at The Magical Map… https://bealtainecottage.com/map-of-bealtaine-cottage-and-gardens-purchase-here/

    Here is the link to my new Patreon page
    https://www.patreon.com/BealtaineCottage

    Here is where you can send a donation via PayPal:
    https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BealtaineCottage

    Some links for you to use should you wish to comment on any of the videos on the Bealtaine Cottage YouTube channel…

    The Website… https://bealtainecottage.com/

    The Goddess Gardens…
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  • Hydroponics: The Definitive Beginner’s Guide to Quickly Start Growing Vegetables, Fruits, & Herbs for Self-Sufficiency! (Gardening, Organic Gardening, Homesteading, Horticulture, Aquaculture)

    Hydroponics: The Definitive Beginner’s Guide to Quickly Start Growing Vegetables, Fruits, & Herbs for Self-Sufficiency! (Gardening, Organic Gardening, Homesteading, Horticulture, Aquaculture)

    Stop relying on supermarkets! Learn how to grow your own vegetables, fruits & herbs today and become self-sufficient! Special Invitation To Get FREE Ebooks Inside!! Expanded & Updated 2nd Edition! 3/26/16 Are you tired of spending countless dollars going to the supermarket to buy produce? Have you ever thought how nice it would be if…;

    CreateSpace Independent Publishing PlatformPrice: $13.47 Free Shipping

    Stop relying on supermarkets! Learn how to grow your own vegetables, fruits & herbs today and become self-sufficient! Special Invitation To Get FREE Ebooks Inside!! Expanded & Updated 2nd Edition! 3/26/16 Are you tired of spending countless dollars going to the supermarket to buy produce? Have you ever thought how nice it would be if you could just walk a few steps and grab a couple FRESH JUICY tomatoes for your salad? Maybe you have even encountered the problem where you were at the supermarket and the only apples left were starting to rot? Or maybe you just have a genuine interest in gardening but don’t know where to start! Look no further and get your copy of “Hydroponics: The Definitive Beginner’s Guide to Quickly Start Growing Vegetables, Fruits, & Herbs for Self-Sufficiency!” This book will guide you step by step on how you can start living a self-sufficient life by growing your own produce! Perhaps you are tired of the common problems with traditional soil gardening. With today’s ever growing and evolving technology, growing fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs have never been easier! Not to mention, the cost is very affordable! Organically grown pesticide free produce is basically mandatory at this point and what better way to guarantee that other than by growing it yourself? Best of all, if you don’t think this book is helpful, it’s okay because there is a 7 day money back guarantee! Here are a few other things you will learn:

    • Hydroponics vs. Soil Gardening
    • The types of hydroponic systems
    • How to get started growing fruits, vegetables & herbs
    • How to maintain your garden and system
    • How to identify the different coatings on your produce
    • How to maintain the integrity of your plants
    • And so much more!

    Order Your Copy of Hydroponics: The Definitive Beginner’s Guide to Quickly Start Growing Vegetables, Fruits, & Herbs for Self-Sufficiency! right away! Just scroll up, hit the buy button, and get started now!

    Full Customer Reviews:

  • Permaculture Self Reliance Backyard Farming

    Permaculture Self Reliance Backyard Farming


    Featured on http://thepermaculturezone.com – Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne of Los Angeles, California are backyard farmers and radical home economics advocates. They give a tour of their property and offer the benefits of their more than 10 years of experience working the land in beautiful Southern California. http://thepermaculturezone.com

  • The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Northeast (Regional Vegetable Gardening Series)

    The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Northeast (Regional Vegetable Gardening Series)

    This entry is in the series Best Climate Regional Specific Books

    Growing vegetables requires regionally specific information—what to plant, when to plant it, and when to harvest are based on climate, weather, and first frost. The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Northeast tackles this need head on, with regionally specific growing information written by local gardening expert, Marie Iannotti. This region includes Connecticut,…;

    Growing vegetables requires regionally specific information—what to plant, when to plant it, and when to harvest are based on climate, weather, and first frost. The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Northeast tackles this need head on, with regionally specific growing information written by local gardening expert, Marie Iannotti. This region includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The southernmost parts of Ontario, New Brunswick, Novia Scotia, and Quebec are also included.

    Monthly planting guides show exactly what you can do in the garden from January through December. The skill sets go beyond the basics with tutorials on seed saving, worm bins, and more.

    Full Customer Reviews:

  • Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening: The Secret to Growing Piles of Food in the Sunshine State

    Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening: The Secret to Growing Piles of Food in the Sunshine State

    This entry is in the series Best Climate Regional Specific Books

    Are you tired of failing at your Florida gardening? Are stink bugs puncturing your tomatoes and nematodes gnawing your eggplants? Is the sand eating your compost like an RV swallows gas? Fear not! You CAN grow buckets upon buckets of food in Florida – and this book gives you the secrets to pulling it off…;

    CreateSpace Independent Publishing PlatformPrice: $11.99 Free Shipping

    Are you tired of failing at your Florida gardening? Are stink bugs puncturing your tomatoes and nematodes gnawing your eggplants? Is the sand eating your compost like an RV swallows gas? Fear not! You CAN grow buckets upon buckets of food in Florida – and this book gives you the secrets to pulling it off year after year. Lots more food – for a lot less work! Whether you want to save money, feed your family, start a survival garden, garden year-round, go paleo or build a huge prepper garden, this is the book for you. Learn the cheap simple techniques that will kickstart your Florida gardening. Discover the crops that will always come through for you. Quit hating the sand and the bugs and start reaping abundant harvests like you’ve never had before! This book provides the answers for both beginners and experts, delivered with humor. If you want yet another boring gardening book – this isn’t it. Through combining Back to Eden gardening, Square Foot Gardening, Biointensive gardening, container gardening and some of the most productive crops on the planet, you WILL succeed! This is easy Florida gardening like you’ve never seen before. Pick up a copy of Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening and turn your backyard patch of weeds and sand into a money-saving vegetable factory that will keep your family fed no matter what the economy does. Start gardening RIGHT NOW before it’s too late! Expert Florida gardener David The Good shares how in Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening.

    Full Customer Reviews:

  • How to Grow More Vegetables, Eighth Edition: (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You … (And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains,)

    How to Grow More Vegetables, Eighth Edition: (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You … (And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains,)

    This entry is in the series Best Alternative Agriculture Books

    Decades before the terms “eco-friendly” and “sustainable growing” entered the vernacular, How to Grow More Vegetables demonstrated that small-scale, high-yield, all-organic gardening methods could yield bountiful crops over multiple growing cycles using minimal resources in a suburban environment. The concept that John Jeavons and the team at Ecology Action launched more than 40 years ago…;

    Decades before the terms “eco-friendly” and “sustainable growing” entered the vernacular, How to Grow More Vegetables demonstrated that small-scale, high-yield, all-organic gardening methods could yield bountiful crops over multiple growing cycles using minimal resources in a suburban environment. The concept that John Jeavons and the team at Ecology Action launched more than 40 years ago has been embraced by the mainstream and continues to gather momentum. Today, How to Grow More Vegetables, now in its fully revised and updated 8th edition, is the go-to reference for food growers at every level: from home gardeners dedicated to nurturing their backyard edibles in maximum harmony with nature’s cycles, to small-scale commercial producers interested in optimizing soil fertility and increasing plant productivity. Whether you hope to harvest your first tomatoes next summer or are planning to grow enough to feed your whole family in years to come, How to Grow More Vegetables is your indispensable sustainable garden guide.How to Grow More Vegetables Eighth Edition and Fruits Nuts Berries Grains and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine

    Full Customer Reviews:

  • Tomato Gardening: Tomato Container Gardening Guide for Beginners – How to Grow Home Grown Tomatoes in Small Spaces & Containers (Vegetable garden, homesteading, … garden, urban farming, organic gardening)

    Tomato Gardening: Tomato Container Gardening Guide for Beginners – How to Grow Home Grown Tomatoes in Small Spaces & Containers (Vegetable garden, homesteading, … garden, urban farming, organic gardening)

    Learn More about Tomato Container Gardens And How to Make your Very Own!Set up a tomato container garden right in the comforts of your own home. Don’t have enough space in your garden, or even a garden at all? Then container gardens are the perfect solution. They don’t take much space and can be done…;

    Vegetable garden, homesteading, greenhouse gardening, container gardening, herb garden, urban farming, organic gardeningPrice: Free

    Learn More about Tomato Container Gardens And How to Make your Very Own!

    Set up a tomato container garden right in the comforts of your own home. Don’t have enough space in your garden, or even a garden at all? Then container gardens are the perfect solution. They don’t take much space and can be done even in households with no garden space.

    This book contains information on tomato container gardens and the ways to set one up, take care of it, and other tips.

    Having container gardens is a growing trend; millions of households are beginning to plant their own container gardens. It saves a lot of space, helps control pest problems, overcome soil issues, and most importantly, lets you enjoy homegrown produce fresh from your own container garden. Growing tomatoes in containers can be incredibly rewarding and satisfying.

    Here Is A Preview Of What You’ll Learn…

  • Choosing a Container
  • Choosing a Tomato Variety
  • Setting-up the Container Garden
  • Advantages and Disadvantages of Container Gardening
  • Common Mistakes When Growing Tomatoes in Container
  • Final Thoughts and Tips

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  • Secret Garden of Survival: How to grow a camouflaged food- forest.

    Secret Garden of Survival: How to grow a camouflaged food- forest.

    This entry is in the series Best Preparedness Books

    Imagine a food garden that you only have to plant once in your life-time, that takes up very little space, that will provide food for you and your family for the next 30 years; that can grow five times more food per square foot than traditional or commercial gardening; and where you never have to…;

    CreateSpace Independent Publishing PlatformPrice: $29.95 Free Shipping

    Imagine a food garden that you only have to plant once in your life-time, that takes up very little space, that will provide food for you and your family for the next 30 years; that can grow five times more food per square foot than traditional or commercial gardening; and where you never have to weed, never have to use fertilizers and never have to use pesticide– ever. All diguised as overgrown underbrush, so nobody knows you have food growing there! This book will show you how to do it in one growing season!

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  • Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening: A Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Healthy Garden

    Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening: A Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Healthy Garden

    When the inspiration hits to start an organic garden, many novices could benefit from a guidebook that speaks directly to their enthusiasm, their goals, and, of course, their need for solid information that speaks a newbie’s language―from the most trusted source for organic gardening methods.

    In Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening by Deborah L. Martin, general garden-building skills (from “Do I need to dig?” to “Where do I dig?”) and specific techniques (from “How do I plant a seed?” to “How much should I water?”) are presented in growing-season order―from garden planning and planting to growing and harvesting. Many other need-to-know topics like soil, compost, seeds, pest control, and weeds are explained in simple language to ensure success, even on a small scale, on the first try. More than 100 common garden terms are defined, and Smart Starts sidebars offer doable projects to build confidence and enthusiasm for expanding a garden when a gardener is ready. A flower, vegetable, and herb finder highlights easycare plants with good track records. Plus, there are no-dig garden methods, simple garden layouts, and tips and hints inspired by the most popular page views on OrganicGardening.com.

    With a “no question is unwelcome” approach, a troubleshooting section lessens frustrations and encourages experimentation. Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening is everything a beginning gardener (or one who’s new to gardening organically) needs to get growing and keep a garden going strong all season.

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  • 9 Reasons That Make Straw Bale Gardening Fit For Survival | Survivopedia

    9 Reasons That Make Straw Bale Gardening Fit For Survival | Survivopedia

    Straw bale gardening is becoming a pretty big deal in some circles for several reasons. It’s essentially a form of container gardening, except the “container” is the bale of straw.

    For those of you who don’t know, bales of straw are held together with two pieces of twine wrapped around it endways.

    The gist of it is that you condition the bales, that is, you ready it for planting, then you put the plants in it. The straw does a couple of things.

    First, it acts as an organic fertilizer, and it also gives the roots of the plant something to anchor to as they grow.

    These Are The Ingenious Recipes That Helped Our Ancestors Stay Alive!

    9 Reasons to Keep in Mind

    Now, why is this such a good idea for survival and homesteading? Great question. Let’s take a closer look.

    You Can Do Straw Bale Gardening Anywhere

    Just like most container gardening, you can make a straw bale garden anywhere. Even if you live somewhere that has extremes in temperature or poor soil, (or rocks!) this method makes things easier.

    Also, because it’s breaking down and decomposing inside of the bale, there’s going to be a certain amount of heat so even if you have a little bit of cold weather, your roots aren’t going to freeze as quickly as they would if they were in dirt. It’s probably not much of a difference but it’s something.

    Great Growing Medium

    If you listen to fans of straw gardening, they’ll tell you the little hollow tubes of straw are designed by nature to wick up and hold moisture and the decomposing straw inside creates a rich environment to nourish the vegetable plants.

    You can set it up anywhere that gets 6-8 hours of sun and since the bales heat up quicker than soil, it’s great for growing in colder climates with short growing seasons because the warmth stimulates early root growth.

    Portability

    This is an area where straw bale gardening falls a bit short compared to other types of container gardening such as 5-gallon buckets.

    If you plant it on the ground, that’s pretty much where you’re going to have to leave it because once the bale starts to decompose, it will fall apart when you pick it up. If you put it on a pallet or plant it in a decorative wheelbarrow, you’ll be able to move it, but not if you just plant it as-is.

    Space

    Compared to other types of container gardening, straw bale gardening is efficient because it maximized the use of space. Whereas you may only be able to put one or two plants in a pot, you can easily do three or four, depending on what you’re planting and the size of the bale, in a bale of straw. Plus, you can set it up anywhere that gets 6-8 hours of sun.

    Versatility

    Another advantage of straw bale gardening is that you can configure it as a small, single-bale mini-garden or you can put bales together and make it similar to a raised bed. Since you have that option, you can stack it a couple of bales high if you have problems bending over so that you won’t have to risk falling or getting stuck.

    Cost

    If you live near a farm, chances are good that you’ll be able to get straw for less than $10/bale even if you live in an area where prices are crazy high. Here in Florida, a bale goes for $8 or so. I have friends in WV that pay $5/bale for it.

    Hint: If the place has a few bales that are loose or started to break open, you may even get it for free, or next to nothing. If you handle them with kid gloves on your way home until you get them into position, they’ll be just fine. Even if you pay full price, that’s cheaper than the same amount of planting soil.

     

    Effort

    Have you ever built a raised bed? I have, and trust me: although I consider it well worth the effort because it’s beautiful, it was also a back-breaking, PITA project that cost quite a bit of money to get started, even doing things one the cheap.

    There was the initial building, then we had to tote the bags of soil and mix it one bag at a time with the sand, which we had to dig and transfer, then of course there was the planting.

    In comparison to bags of soil and digging sand, carrying a few bales of straw was nothing. Even a compact, heavy bale of straw is only going to weigh around 50 pounds, and most of them are half that.

    Plus, you can roll it most of the way so that you don’t have to do much, if any, lifting after you get it out of the truck. And there is no framework to build. Oh, and it’s cheap.

    Easy Preparation and Planting

    You can’t just use a bale of straw as-is. You have to condition the bales for a couple of weeks in order to get the decomposition process started. To do this, it’s easiest to buy your straw when it’s most readily available – in the fall. Then let it sit all winter and come spring, it will be conditioned.

    If you don’t have that kind of time and you just bought it so that you can grow something this season, you still need to let it condition for at least a couple of weeks. That’s okay though, because you need to start your plants and get them to seedlings anyway so just get your straw when you get your seeds.

    Or, if you’re buying the plants, well, make two trips – one for the straw and another a couple of weeks later for the plants!

    Conditioning

    This is a critical step. You can’t skip it. Put your bales where you want them because after day 1, they’re going to be too heavy to move. Once they’re situated, soak them with water and do this once a day for the first three days.

    On days 4, 5, and 6, you’ll still water, but you’ll also add one cup of ammonium sulfate (12-0-0) or half a cup of urea (46-0-0). These are nitrogen-rich fertilizers that will help the bales start to decompose and will also make a rich growing medium.

    On days 7, 8, and 9, cut the fertilizer back to half of what you were using and continue to water the bale after adding the fertilizer.

    On day 10, stop adding fertilizer, but keep watering so that it stays moist. On the 11th day, check the bale and if it feels warm to the touch – about the same temperature as your hand – then it’s ready to use. If it feels hotter than that, give it another day, and keep checking it until the temperature has dropped to where it should be. Then it’s ready to plant.

    Hay vs. Straw

    Though they’re both in bales and look extremely similar to an untrained eye, hay and straw are not the same.

    Hay is cut grasses and grains made to feed horses, cows, and other livestock. It has seeds in it and will gladly start growing new grass and grain wherever you plant it. It may also have briars in it. Obviously, that’s a bad thing.

    Straw, on the other hand, is a by-product of the wheat industry and doesn’t have seeds or briars. It’s made for mulching.

    As you can see, straw-bale gardening is a great alternative to planting in the ground or even to using raised beds or containers. If you’re looking for a great growing medium that costs very little money, is convenient, and won’t take up much space, then this method is for you!

    It’s an easy way to become self-sufficient and give up relying on bought foods that harm you and your family!

     

     

    Have you planted in straw bales or have any advice to offer? If so, please share with us in the comments section below!

    This article has been written by Theresa Crouse for Survivopedia.

    http://www.survivopedia.com/9-reasons-for-straw-bale-gardening/

    On – 03 Sep, 2017 By Theresa Crouse

  • ‘A garden in your front yard?’ More Mainers turning lawns to gardens — Homestead — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine

    ‘A garden in your front yard?’ More Mainers turning lawns to gardens — Homestead — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine

    By Abigail Curtis, BDN Staff •
    Updated:
    • Stephenie MacLagan and Dave Oliver have been turning their yard on Veazie Street in Old Town into a large, productive garden that keeps several families in produce.
    • Tomatoes and peppers are ready to be harvested at the Veazie Street residence of Stephenie MacLagan and Dave Oliver. On their house lot, which is less than a quarter acre in total, they grow more than 1,000 square feet of fruits and vegetables.

    OLD TOWN, Maine — When Stephenie MacLagan and Dave Oliver say they don’t like to mow their lawn, they really mean it.

    So the couple has dug up the grass on most of their small property on Veazie Street in Old Town and switched it out for an extensive garden, where they grow enough produce to feed several families. Moving from grass to garden has been a great fit for the couple, whose jokes about disliking the lawn mower are belied by the time and effort they put into growing vegetables. With more than 1,000 square feet of garden on a lot that is smaller than a quarter acre in total, they are seriously committed.

    “It started out very small,” MacLagan, who works at the Island Institute, said. “Just a teeny footprint with some tomato plants and bush beans. Every year the garden expanded a little bit more and a little bit more. And it’s continuing to grow.”

    In late August, when other people’s gardens may look more like tired, weedy, wilted patches of land where blights and pests have had their way on the vegetables, MacLagan and Oliver’s yard garden looks healthy and vibrant and still is producing bushels of produce. Located amid the small lawns and lots belonging to the other houses on the street, their garden is bursting with plump red tomatoes; tender zucchinis and summer squash; sweet cantaloupes and raspberries; delicate purple string beans, bright red-and-green chard; fat, glossy poblano peppers; and so much more. The land feeds a lot more people now than it did when it was a lawn, they said.

    “We have extra yield we share with families that are food insecure,” MacLagan said. “In any given week we can feed up to five families.”

    For decades, the visual representation of the American dream has included a house surrounded by a soft emerald green swath of weedless, perfect lawn. But this is changing, as more people have become interested in growing food or pollinator habitat for economic, health or environmental reasons and are swapping out their yards for gardens. The national trend caught some municipalities by surprise in other states a few years ago, when would-be front yard gardeners found that not everyone was a fan of their activities. Between 2010 and 2012, home gardeners across the country were ordered to dig up their vegetables and medicinal herbs or else. One mother in Oak Park, Michigan, even faced three months in jail for refusing to take out the raised beds in front of her home and planting what her city considered suitable ground cover instead, according to a 2012 article in the New York Times headlined “The Battlefront in the Front Yard.” (Ultimately, Oak Park dropped the charge against the gardener).

    Those skirmishes seem to have fallen by the wayside, according to Scarborough garden activist Roger Doiron, who runs a nonprofit organization now called SeedMoney, which helps public food gardens to start and thrive. But for years, Doiron’s organization was known as Kitchen Gardeners International, and because of it the Mainer found himself on the front lines of the fight and helping to support home gardeners against what he considered to be municipal overreach.

    “It seems like we have so many more important problems to be dealing with than someone trying to grow better food for themselves,” Doiron said this week. “A lot of this has to do with a particular culture being carried over from a different time. The 1960s and 1970s were a time when people had a vision of what the perfect yard should be. It involved bright green grass and flowers and some ornamentals. The idea of having a vegetable garden in the front yard was not part of the suburban aesthetic.”

    But since 2012, he said, he hasn’t been seeing much information about new cases of people being prevented from growing food in their front lawns.

    “Ever the optimist, I’m going to draw the conclusion that that’s a good sign,” he said. “I think it means the culture is changing … we need to help individuals and communities redefine what a healthy yard looks like.”

    In Maine, a state that is not famous for pristine green lawns, there haven’t been as many rules set down by municipalities that govern whether people can plant gardens on their front and side yards. But home gardeners might still need to cope with neighborhood covenants or even just the judgement of neighbors who aren’t used to seeing lettuces where the lawn used to be.

    “I think that in a place like Maine, which has the cultural heritage of doing things for oneself — being able to hunt and fish and grow food if you want to — the feeling that you should be allowed to grow food in your front lawn resonates here,” Lisa Fernandes, the founder of the Portland-based Resilience Hub, said. “But the idea of converting your front lawn to gardens seems a little strange in some neighborhoods.”

    When she started her own lawn-to-garden conversion in 2005, some people were confused by it.

    “I would say at that point it was still kind of a fringe practice,” she said.

    But she would not call it that anymore. People all over Maine are digging up their lawns and replacing them with gardens, including Allen Smallwood, a police dispatcher from Bradley. This summer, Smallwood planted his front yard with peas, lettuce, cucumbers, dill, string beans and broccoli. Generally, he grows his potatoes there, but this year decided to give the ground a rest.

    “I have a good amount of room in the backyard but I have a lot of trees. There’s not a lot of sunny spots, and I have my leach field back there,” he said, explaining why he has chosen to situate his garden in the sunnier front yard. “Other than the aesthetics, I can’t see a reason why someone would object to having a garden in someone’s front lawn. It’s not hurting anyone, other than the landowner not having a yard.”

    In fact, he finds that his garden gets positive feedback from the neighborhood.

    “People honk and wave as I’m out there digging potatoes in the fall,” Smallwood said.

    In Belfast, teacher Chris Goosman initially chose to put her garden in the front yard because her daughter used the back yard for playing. This summer, she has harvested onions, broccoli, lettuce, snap peas, beets, garlic, cucumbers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and more from her garden, which is right in front of her house. At first, the placement of the garden struck the family’s midwestern relatives as strange, she recalled.
    “They were just like ‘What? You’re putting a garden in your front yard?’ These are midwestern folks who have immaculate lawns, with no weeds in the front,” Goosman said. “But the neighbors like it. They like to see all the stuff that’s coming out of it these days.”

    That’s true in Old Town, too, MacLagan and Oliver said. Their lawn-to-garden conversion requires a lot of time and labor, but it’s been well worth it, they said. They start their seeds indoors under grow lights, and in the summers, Oliver, an educational technician in Hermon, often spends five hours a day working in the garden. There, they risk stinging themselves on the electrified fence they put up as a deterrent to the population of hungry deer, raccoons and skunks that live on Marsh Island, where Old Town is located. And recently, they went on a field trip to harvest seaweed, which they were drying on their short driveway. They planned to use the seaweed to add more nitrogen to their garden.

    “Right now the neighborhood smells like low tide. But our neighbors are very appreciative when we bring over bags of jalapenos and cherry tomatoes,” MacLagan said. “Our mission is if you’re in a position where you can start a garden, it’s worth it to know where your food comes from.”

     

    Did we get something wrong? Please, Let us know, submit a correction.

    http://bangordailynews.com/2017/08/26/homestead/a-garden-in-your-front-yard-more-mainers-turning-lawns-to-gardens/

    On – 26 Aug, 2017 By Abigail Curtis

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