Turn lawn into food on a budget|Meredith Thomas|Central Texas Gardener
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มิ.ย. 2013
- When Meredith Thomas traded lawn for something her family could eat, she relied on scavenged materials to build her ever-producing vegetable beds. Putting discarded materials back into use, she builds trellises, beds, and even a hugelkultur with a keyhole concept addition. She doesn't buy fertilizer. To nourish her plants, she simply tucks in plant waste or fish heads free from a local seafood store. She adds art to the garden, too, with simple finds that in in her creative hands, take on a lovely new purpose.
Music provided by Freejay MacLoud. Find out more at www.klru.org/ctg. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
I love that she gets her own seaweed!!! Queen
What a wonderful story of building something wonderful for basically nothing. Reusing and repurposing is done beautifully here to make a productive garden. Thank you for sharing.
And thank you for watching and writing. I am still fascinated by what we consider waste products in the States and using those for good. Take care!
A realistic episode for CTG. Not an expansive/expensive project but very doable for households.
The notion that lawns are for community is counter to an edible garden.
We need more segments like this.
That has always been my hope. That anyone can garden without great start up resources.
Perfect example of how to grow old and stay gorgeous
That is so kind of you! Thank you for watching. Namaste.
She’s 41 though...
@@samuraifis ???
I'm 45 and now a grandma. I started something like this in 2016. Me and my family are now enjoying the fruits of love's labor that is to provide without having to spend a lot. To take and give even more by giving extra harvests and seedlings to neighbors and family far away to do the same with their lots.
Hey ! 41 is not old.Shes definitely a beautiful Woman.
Gorgeous woman, gorgeous garden. (I love your hair!) I love all the freebies you used and the creativity it takes to turn discarded “junk” into something beautiful. #goals
Thank you so much! I am esp grateful now with the Covid19 to be somewhat self sufficient. Thank you for your kind comments.
Meredith, You are amazing and your garden speaks that loud and clear.
Wow! I am so inspired, Meredith!! You show us how easy it really is!! Thank you!!
Thank you Petra! I hope it inspires others to do likewise. Cultivating happiness!
I absolutely LOVE the rustic look from the recycled wood materials! Fantastic and free is great because Gardening can get expensive even with recycled wood planting beds. That pea gravel alone can costs hundreds of dollars if not sourced from a river bed or neighbor somewhere.
Exactly! That's why I went this direction...and in the end, I love "saving" materials that can be used for good.
Love it I picked up 500 bags of leaves off the side of the road in the last week or so LOL
Nessesity is the mother of invention, your treating the earth well, and in the end she will be kind to you, your closer to heaven than the suburb home depot Gardners. Well done miss, if you were near a stream or ocean many rounded stone too, God bless
This lady is a gorgeous example of the feminine. Everything she does, so creative, so colorful, delicious, peaceful.
thank you Gonzo!
I love everything about this. Thank you for using what you have
Thank you Autumn! Please let me know if I can help you in your growing projects. Take care.
As I am watching this, I am in panel waiting on them to hand me some coffee grounds. my car is filled with leaves because I'm on my way to my community garden plot. Your garden looks beautiful.
panera not panel?
Sounds like heaven to me!
@Thunder Yes, my daughter used to grab it out of the bowl when I was cutting okra for breading and frying. She was only about 5-6 years old. She got me to eating it too. Just was mentally pre-conditioned it was awful, but it is not.
I eat raw okra ! Only the small ones that are tender.
I will have to try the leafs. Do you cook them or eat raw ?
Love this 100% do what you can with what you have!
Yes, this has become a way of living and looking at the world. It creates a sense of real abundance. All the best, Meredith
Now, this is the best gardening spirit i have seen, so inspiring; it would be my dream garden. admiring Meredith
Orb 1:23?
This was so beautiful to watch. So many of these videos are changing lives. I was introduced to an urban farmer who come over to give me advice since I'm fairly new at this. I just love it!
Let me know how you are doing! In the past 3 years, I have been growing in my knowledge. This is the wondrous part of growing food--the more you know, the less you know eg you get tapped into that great Living Force that continues to be mysterious and amazing.
Meredith Thomas start that TH-cam channel!!!
Thank you Jeremy!
This is an inspiring story, more should follow this example. :)
Thank you so much! I am so grateful for what these plants are teaching me. Namaste
Way to go!!!! From grass to treasure!!! Keep up the revolutionary work :D
Thank you! Getting ready to open up another quadrant of my property to encourage wild edibles like wild mustard and chickweed...a friend gathered those seeds for me last season. Excited about working to make this property even more thriving and productive.
My neighbor put a new lawn in and had 3 yards of mushroom compost left that he gave me to fill my raised beds. I spread my 1 year old cold compost pile over the mushroom compost and covered the whole thing with shredded leaves and straw. The following spring I had fungal dominate soil in my beds and it has remained fungal dominate for three years with only the addition of a cold compost pile spread on top each fall.
Pests and disease has been a non issue and my fruit/vegetables are showroom quality 100% organic. I wish I had known of this technique decades ago.
Edited to add: As an added bonus, I grow several crops of King Stropheria and button mushrooms in the beds along side the plants. I get mushies every time it rains!!!
Wow! Am I jealous!!! That sounds just wonderful. Happy growing, Meredith
, Beautiful video!!! Congratulations to you and well done for creating such a gorgeous, awe inspiring garden!
Thank you so much! I hope to make some more videos-coming up! Take care.
I bought a home in East Tennessee last August. My lot is 60x120 and it was all grass! I have been working all winter building raised beds. I used free wood chips on the paths. The garden area was really wet and the chips solved that problem.
AWESOME! Growing food is just such a daily pleasure. Happy for you and your efforts!
Another use for okra: as the lower leaves die off you can dry the leaf stems and use them as disposable straws. According to Chris Smith, author of The Whole Okra they have something in them that is antibacterial, so so long as you keep them debris-free you should be good to go! I love this idea, but haven’t tried it yet myself. It has not been hard to get into the habit of using metal straws, but sometimes the idea of tossing instead of scrubbing does sing its siren song, so this idea could be a good solution. Chris is also working on developing an okra variety with enough oil content to be pressed at home, so far even okra bread for oil have such a low content that they must be industrially pressed. Okra blossomed are also edible. Last tip is that if some of your okra gets too large and woody, you can scrape out the seeds and prepare almost like couscous. Happy to see another Okra lover! Beautiful garden!
I bought that book and I LOVE it! Disposable straws indeed! I also bought some okra oil from that producer Chris mentions in his book. I am so looking forward to okra season and to trying all of the above. Thanks for writing!
what a fabulous idea! I have that book too and love it :-)
Such a beautiful garden, I don't know how often I watched this video - I come again and again to watch it. 🤗
Thank you so much!
WOW!! This is so wonderful!
The whole thing is perfect ..love it!
What a joyful, beautiful video!!! Congratulations to you and well done for creating such a gorgeous, awe inspiring garden!
Thank you Grace! The plants never cease to amaze me. Now I am moving into medicinal plants. All the best.
Thank you Grace! You are welcome to come visit anytime if you are in Austin. I am now moving into WILD plants!
Beautiful! I love what she has done with the space.
Just found you love your garden and I’m doing the same in Southern Maryland. We do waste a lot thumb up!!!
This is wonderful! Let's keep growing, using "waste" products and saving seeds! Happy gardening!
Beautiful woman and garden!
Nice to tour your Eco friendly home garden it is fantastic.
I absolutely love this ! Thank you for the inspiration !
Thank you for watching! Look forward to checking out your site.
this is beautiful, thank you for sharing
Thank you Jaime! I am grateful on a daily basis for the beauty of these plants that nourish and heal us.
Beautiful garden! I’m growing weary of all the chemicals needed to apply to the lawn to keep the weeds from over taking and would very much love to add enough beds that the paths naturally develop and I can either mulch or gravel the paths like she did.
Do that! and make sure you put cardboard down first--really helps keeps weeds at bay. :-)
I love what she did with the walkways and pea gravel..minimal design with a big impact. Much better than a dirt path that later turns to mud when wet. Yuck. I would LOVE to see a couple beehives mixed in among the garden.
I would love those beehives mixed in too! Working on that! Thank you for watching...
Meredith Thomas Oh Goodie!! 😊 Your personal oasis is diiivine.. I would be in Heaven to be in such a beautiful garden as yours. 😍
On earth as it is in heaven. Paradise is so easy to reach. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, wen u see beauty u know it's beauty. Love is the greatest thing. Wat a lovely person u are. Well done. Enjoy.
This is fantastic! Thank you.
Thank you Carmela. Namaste.
Thank you Carmela! The garden is an unending source of joy and peace!
Beautiful!
Great Video!
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much!!! Thank you for watching and commenting! -Meredith
"It's very easy to become philosophical when you becomea food gardener." Amen, Sister! Hear, hear! Well said!
It brings some sort of accomplishment to raise and grow something and more if it nourishes and enrich you and your family. It's empowering to be self-sufficient more and more in your life and not be dependent on what society tells you: ''that you need this and that'' or "you should have this and that, like we do". It's sad when we act for ourselves and there are like-minded people joining, it's seen as some sort of cult-ish or resistance. When we just want to be healthy and live in nature's order of things. Not what they instill as luxurious, pleasurable, comfortable; when it's all wasteful, promotes dependency, materialism, and indolence.
@@gfdsa2866 I'm sure there are a few folks who look at us that way, (as a cult,) however, those in charge know the truth about everyone and everything. Pretty sure the preppers in Paradise would agree. 🙏 Father rest and bless their souls.
Thank you! I could take in the miracle of one seed bursting forth and then providing food all my life as a sort of meditation and so...yes...I do get regularly blissfully blown away by these miracles. Namaste, Meredith
@@merediththomas9426 Father's miracles go unnoticed by most. I pray we all see Him in everything one day.
Love your video! Thank you for sharing your passion of gardening! ♥️
Thank you so much! I am increasingly passionate. There is no end to the goodness of growing and observing plants. All the best!
Inspiring stuff! Thanks Meredith.
Thank you for watching, Lola, and the comment. Come visit if you're ever in Austin!
Love it! I started hugelkultur for the first time this year. Gardening near Winnie.
How is your hugelkultur going? It is a wonderful method.
This woman insight made me emotional... She made me inspired and excited about developing my land and simplify my life... Thank you so much for sharing... Your a blessing!
Thank you for your nice comments-I feel emotional too about these plants and the land. You too are a blessing!
Watching this gives me the inspiration to get outside! I'm growing okra this year for sure.
Fantastic! Note that you can eat the okra leaves too!
Love that , Your a Good Person
Awww. That's so nice. Getting back to the earth after a 2 year absence. My spirit needs it and it is my way of doing service to this beautiful planet!
Love the ideas of growing foods of our own produces
It is such a joy, Thank you for watching.
Welcome
Wonderful video. Very much my approach to gardening and you inspired me even more. Thank you Meredith🌸
Thank you Luz! I feel so grateful for these plants around me. All the best, Meredith
Love your dog. Happy garden. Good job.
Thank you Rita! The garden does bring happiness as does our rescued pit bull. She and I are perfect garden partners. She loves eating sunflower and cucumber leaves. :-)
How wonderful this video is!! Great garden and gardener
Thank you! Happy gardening-happy to help in any way.
This is beautiful you are an inspiration
Thank you so much! I am grateful for all of the help I have gotten.
Hello I'm watching your very nice video I really love planting thank you for sharing
Thank you for watching and writing. It is wonderful to hear from people all over the world. Take care.
I love the garden!
Thank you Sam!
i love how this looks
Hi Wesley-next Spring there should be another video out-I've been working on other areas of my property. I am trying to have more "foraging" on this urban plot. Take care, Meredith
Love this video.
Thank you Jim! Take care.
Beautiful garden tfs 👍💪💜
I really do appreciate the garden...and now my entire property is garden or orchard!
Hey
I ‘m new to your channel.. wow what a beautiful relaxing place you have made for a garden..
I ‘m from south Texas and I’m putting in raised beds .. from my old garden.. I’m already putting in my fall garden.. I have lettuce coming up .. but it in the bq area under roof .. too hot 🥵... haaaa
I enjoyed your video.. enjoyed your neat and beautiful garden ..
blessing
👩🌾
I'm so glad you are gardening! Yes, it is funny here in TX that we grow lettuce in the cooler months. I have some wonderful plants that can take the heat: chenopodium giganteum (lambsquarters or tree spinach-cook like spinach) and papalo Porophyllum ruderale-it is called summer cilantro and is delicious. Take care.
Awesome sattvic environment! Namaste
Namaste, Tony!
Excellent. I'll be starting something similar very soon.
Yay! Growing food and having a full(er) circle life has been an amazing positive change in my life. So many things that are currently considered waste products are in fact resources. Leaves & urine are my 2 favorite amazing & free resources. Learning and growing all of the time.
Love this!
Thank you! Love our connected internet world...
Love it, even the snakes! Eventually the gravel gets stuff blown in and weeds grow in gravel. That has been an issue for me with my garden paths, but I am in a place that gets wind. I have not figured out how to clean it.
Square Foot Gardening (1st edition in 1980s, and PBS Saturday TV show) by Mel Bartholomew was my first garden inspiration as well. Recently purchased the new 3rd edition to see what has changed - though I believe Mel has passed, the new edition is condensed and has much less text. Easier read with more example photos - excellent reference for beginners with good charts on plant spacing, plant requirements, etc.
Recently divorced and trying to convert my back yard (and some of front hopefully) to all garden as well to supplement budget when I retire. Mainly for healthy, organic food. Love what you have done, and how you expanded to no-dig methods, free resources. Thank you for additional ideas as well. The concept of allowing things to serve their useful lives (artwork, your chairs, etc.) then discarding is healthy and refreshing as well. We can spend a LOT of time preserving things that truly have no value.
How's it going with your back yard conversion? It is so exciting to do. I converted my front yard to a mini orchard and growing space...Now no grass at all on the property and some wild areas where I cultivate plants that grow naturally in Austin, TX. Take care, Meredith
So inspiring 🤗👍
Thank you so much!
So cool! I can't wait to try doing the same! :)
Thank you so much!
You garden so beautiful :I’m Montagnard indigenous live in North Carolina, I love to have land to plant vegetables not only food but enjoyable too .
Thank you! So nice to hear from you. -Meredith
Love this! I did and do something very similar in Colorado!
I'm so glad you did! Now I'm focusing on "tending the wild"...and the garden looks more feral-and it is all wonderful!!
I love this
Thank you so much! I feel lucky to have at least this amount of earth around me to put my hands in! All the best, Meredith
Love her! My husband and Iare currently doing the same to landscape our yard- anything we can find for free on the side of the road. Food trimmings are under used as a fertilizer! I do compost though, I usually get a few "volunteers" like squash plants, onions, etc.
Love this! Makes me smile thinking of you two "scavenging!" I am even more wild than I let on in the video, and applaud any and all efforts to use discarded items for good! Take care, Meredith
I keep an eye out for the bags of yard waste everyone has each week in my neighborhood. I grab them up after they have been sitting for a good few days before garbage pickup on the curb and compost them for a year. It is amazing the amount of soil you can make with just that!!
Way to grow girl good job!
Thank you so much! It's almost okra season again :-)
I am in love with your garden. We are making plans to do the same to our yard. We used to rake and bag up leaves but found that it is time consuming. So I have been putting them around my fruit trees and in my flower beds. Works great. I am making a shade garden and a sun garden. Our raised beds will go next to our back porch. I am jazzed. :)
All of this sounds so good! I have now mulched my front yard and planted lots of fruit trees. Thank you for your sweet comments.
Hi Meredith,
My wife and I are moving to the Austin from California mid May- God help us! We have a small garden and even through our more than an amature experience, we love what it has produced and would love to keep it going. We have read a few books on urban gardening and we are currently doing a lot of youtube research (because you know if it is on TH-cam... its true!) but we would love to pick your brain since you have been doing this longer than us.
Keep this going because it would really help us.
Hi Mario: Just seeing this now! Please come over and see the garden now--I've enlarged my growing areas. I would be happy to help you too. Email me at meredith.thomas@gmail.com
Hi! I'm sorry-I haven't checked out comments in awhile. Feel free to contact me at meredith.thomas@gmail.com. And welcome to Austin!
Inspiring !!!!!!
Thank you! I love cultivating beauty and delicious food using (mostly) free inputs. The abundance blows me away.
I wish she had a gardening channel! I am hoping to buy a house in the next few months & a backyard garden is at the top of my list when I move in.
Hi there-so many people tell me this and maybe I will move forward on this! Thank you for the nice comments. -Meredith
This woman is my hero. Please tell me she has a channel
That is so nice of you! I am getting ready to make some videos. Take care and happy food growing!
I don't have a channel, but thank you. Sorry for my late reply. Let me know if I can help you on your gardening journey!
She is so beautiful, that's probably for her surrounding!
Really enjoyed your edible garden and your natural laughing.
Thank you! I can be so critical of myself in the video-so serious! But okra got me laughing...that is my natural state. Thank you for watching and writing. So good to be connected to people from everywhere. All the best.
Thank you Ms. Thomas for nice natural and doable methods to grow vegetables in Austin TX. Getting the vegetable scraps from produce stores is a you great Idea! Please inform me know from where you got Kenaf (Hibiscus Rosella) seeds? When I mail ordered from national seed company only two feeble looking plants grew! I will much appreciate if you please let me know if and where they are available in Austin. Thanks in advance. K. Samineni.
Wow
Inspiring.
Thank you!
Thank you for your nice comment.
As an artist the thought of hanging paintings outside in the sun to fade is upsetting. The paintings should be cherished more.
I put alsorts outside. U miss the point, we all fade away. We use the picture now, we dont save it for later, that's living the now. Furniture in the garden makes it feel more at one with the house. All pictures fade. It's seeing the beauty in the picture whilst u see it. It's living and watching that picture fade along side u. Pictures in the garden is brilliant, very artistic. I saw them and was like well cool. Pictures in gardens are good. Loves.
Meredith bought cheap salvaged items from flea markets, garage sales, or dollar stores(?). She just used what other people don't need and thought it as visually interesting to place in her garden.
@@gfdsa2866 That's a good explanation.
Wouldn't it be a shame if one of them could have been featured on "Antiques Roadshow" as a long lost painting by X and was worth $250K Oh, well...
Hi Barbara! I get what you are saying AND my friend the artist made me promise that it would be an outdoor painting! While I love it, she didn't...and so...that is why it was outside. Please keep making art=so important for our world!
@@merediththomas9426 Thanks for the kind reply. I appreciate it.
Meredith you are precious. I absolutely love your garden
Thank you for teaching me so much I just be came a 71year old widow We had a magnificent marriage and he and I use to read Mother Earth News You need to be in it all the time But now I’m so blessed to find you on U tube
I’ll go on forever sorry sweetie
I will follow you on hear ,thanks again .
Hi there-thank you so much for your sweet words. I just love thinking about you and your husband reading Mother Earth news. That really makes me smile. Take care, Meredith
I wonder who this artist is that rejected those 2 paintings, they were beautiful, I'd gladly buy them and frame them.
I am too old to do this so we just do deep pot plants and raised garden. I wish I could plant the entire three acres but we are in Western Pa and have crappy weather.
Fantastic! Have you ever watched Ruth Stout? She continued gardening until she passed using the heavy mulch/no dig method. She's a hero of mine. Take care.
love it! I'm working my way into the same thing.
Yay! How is it going? I'm just now seeing the comments.
Gyönyörű! :)
All gardening is beautiful and beautifying. It not only beautifies ur surroundings which make life feel better, but it can also beautify u as a person. U have to learn to truly love as a gardener, cuz if it ain't true love ur garden will know and show it. Takes a lot of love and care to build a beautiful garden, a garden can prove Wat type of person u are. Gardens to me are a place to tune into God and his creativeness. Many times I sit in absolute paradise. And yet my gardens aren't so great. It's know where paradise is and how to sit in it I know. Some beauty still left in the world. In fact it's all around if u have an eye. Love is the greatest thing. Love creates beauty. All gardens can be paradise.
Such nice thoughts, John . Thank you for sharing.
I'd love a list of the plants she has had success with. I just moved to Austin and made my first raised bed last month; experimenting away.
Hi Luke! I have some amazing plants that do really well in Austin...and I have seeds! If you want some, I would be happy to give them to you. Just let me know and we can arrange. Take care.
Inspired in Waco!
I'm so glad! I have been helped and inspired by so many people along the way. Happy to help--reach out if you have any questions.
Everyone should grow their own.
Huge believer of home grown fruits and vegetables.
Please watch our videos.
My son and I are just getting started.
Thank you for posting those videos! I love the name Family Roots Gardening! You all are inspiring. Peace!
Beautiful garden. I would however not have a gravel path. It does look nice but gets dirty. In place of gravel I would have wood chips. As they decompose hey feed the life in the soil and build the soil. They are nice to walk on and prevent mud from forming.
Is that a real snake????
❤️❤️❤️
And right back at you... thank you for the love. -Meredith
If you want to learn more about the ideas and strategies that Meredith is doing, search permaculture (my channel has more ideas)
Meredith - you da man ! I mean you are the woman. Thank you for this great video; all the way from the husband's prayer flags, to that fat pup of yours, to the intrinsic profound goodness of your vision.
Right now, I am looking at gravel for the walkways between my own version of repurposed raised beds.
Did I misunderstand, or did you place a layer of cardboard under the pea gravel? I am right now considering whether to use black plastic or cardboard, and before undertaking all the back-breaking labor of distributing the gravel, want to make sure that the cardboard will hold up.
Thanks again, for posting that video, from a kindred spirit.
@Meredith Thomas - Appreciate your getting back to me on this little issue. Oh, and also I forgot to mention how wonderful it is that you surrounded your gardening with those paintings, which otherwise might not have seen the light of day.
"A beautiful spiritual path of infinite goodness"- Indeed !!!
Beautiful garden. I’m wondering what people like this do for a living, since I would imagine this is very time consuming, and such a large piece of property can’t be cheap.
Hi JQ-this is an urban lot-not so big. I was lucky in that i had my own business and worked nights and weekends. It was time consuming up front but then VERY easy and not time consuming. Recently I had a full time job away the house and was able to continue gardening because I had done this up front work. Note that even a few raised beds can yield so much! But I now also focus on foraging greens in the city-eating the invasives! That is an easy no effort no cost way to get your greens! Take care.
Hi JQ-this is an urban lot-not so big. I was lucky in that i had my own business and worked nights and weekends. It was time consuming up front but then VERY easy and not time consuming. Recently I had a full time job away the house and was able to continue gardening because I had done this up front work. Note that even a few raised beds can yield so much! But I now also focus on foraging greens in the city-eating the invasives! That is an easy no effort no cost way to get your greens! Take care.
Thanks for the reply. The lot definitely looks bigger than the urban lots in my area.
I raised children, held a job and did this...but it has been a passion and I couldn't NOT do it...my hope, especially with the foraged plants is to create an environment that isn't highly cultivated eg wild that takes less time energy water. Happy gardening!
Your garden is beautiful. You have inspired me. Since you are sheet layering, how long did you have to wait before you could plant in the beds.
Sorry, I re-watched the video. I found my answer.
How are your beds going? It is such a wonderful way to build soil.
Your dog wants grass. Dogs love laying on grass. Otherwise, pretty awesome. Cool digs!
Evolving intelligently
That is what I focus on as time goes on...observing...evolving...the garden and my approach keeps shifting according to what I observe and what I hope to cultivate in my spirit. Thank you for watching and writing.
You're amazing 😊❤🌷
Did you put anything under your pea gravel to keep weeds at bay?
Thank you Deborah! I am indeed passionate about all of this. I did lay cardboard over the entire area, including where the pea gravel is. I was able to dumpster dive and find all of it. Please reach out anytime. All the best, Meredith
Good way to get free cardboard is at walmart when they are doing their restocking.. or any other store that is near you. They would gladly give you the boxes. You could even say your moving and need boxes so they dont look at you weird.. :) depending on how many you need.
Hi, I'm curious if using cardboard attracts roaches to the bed once it gets very hot. Thanks
I haven't noticed that, but then I never see the cardboard again once it is covered! Thanks for watching, Meredith
Love this but how do you deal with critters like rats racoons squirels etc with the easy access the veggiescraps in the garden?
Oddly, they don't go after it! Even when I buried these enormous fish heads, neither my dog nor other animals went after them! I think the trick is to bury deeply...or in the case of scraps...they just haven't seemed interested.
@@merediththomas9426 ok you are lucky
I should do this. If I ever have a property of my own, I should scavenge for my biomass. I should ask for food scraps from suburban neighbors and put them into a digester for fuel or feed them to animals. Yard debris would be straight-up composted and would be mixed with the digested food scraps. I could do this all on the drive home from work.
That way, I will make the investment of time, and then I will have free food. Hopefully enough to feed myself, my little brother, our future spouses, and his future kids. And maybe enough to repay the folks who give me biomass with a little bit of my food.
Perhaps it could be an exchange. For every pound of biomass they give me, they can pick up 1/4 pound of food. More if they pick it themselves.
I understand. I am immensely grateful for my suburban lot to grow food on and also that I had my own business where I could set my hours and they were largely evenings and weekends. In the past 5 years, I have had a full time job & I had to shift the growing significantly. I focused on plants that were hardy and self sowed. I also got into foraging for food, esp greens. I don't know where you live but everywhere on this planet there are so many plants to eat-most of them considered weeds-and that perhaps you could do on weekends or on the drive home from work. Or could you find a friend that has land and wants to garden? Perhaps you could do that together? Or how about a school garden? I grew food at our elementary school garden for years during the summer months-I got expanded growing space and the school got well tended beds when they returned to school in the fall. Just some ideas. Namaste.
Do you have trouble with fire ants in your raised beds? I live near Waxahachie and have a lot of trouble in my raised beds and don't want to use poisons to get rid of them. Any suggestions?
Hi there! Sorry for the late reply. I do get fire ants every now and then...this is Texas! I put food grade diatomaceous earth on the beds and that seems to work. Another one that works is...grits! Either one of these works pretty well when you sprinkle that on the fire ant piles. One thing I noticed is that I used to have so many fire ants climbing up the okra stalks. I tried everything to try and stop them. Then, one year I left them alone and realized that they weren't hurting the okra at all and that I could maneuver around them. Hope one of these solutions works for you. Happy food growing! -Meredith
thanks for the solution. fire ant is a problem in my garden too.
dustable sulfur is organic and good for plants but will damage other bugs and the microbes on the surface, and will bring down pH so you may want to mix with lime or correct after. the main kind of ant killer people buy is actually organic, boric acid, that may affect pH too much to use directly below plants i am not sure.
Diatomaceous earth seems to work for me. I don't worry about them in the okra as it seems not to affect them.
O live next.to a park.that will throw out chemicals like.crazy...which sends all these buggers to my house...normally i work around them...dont mess.with em...and they move back..in about a month. But i did break down and used chemicals.one year....i was wrecked with guilt...especially when i then had a huge
And i mean HUGE bounce back of bad bugs...and as a long time organic u know it takes at least three years to calm bsck down....but now it's taking much longer..its been 5 years and im not.seeing any preying mantis..much fewer bees..much fewer lady bugs ect...
What was the name of the book she mentioned? I couldn't understand her. Thanks!
Square Foot Gardener. But really my sources are Ruth Stout's No Work Gardening and Fukuoka's The One Straw Revolution.
Square Foot Gardener is the book, but I found it too limiting and formulaic. The book that really got me going on sheet composting was "Lasagna Gardening." But I got more inspired by Ruth Stout and Masanobu Fukuoka plus wild foraging--I have been foraging seeds of wild plants-edible and medicinal-and bringing those to my garden and other areas. Thank you!