[AT] Jobs/ Stores (now gardens)

[Indiana Robinson]

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Dunlap" <jsdunlap at roadkill.org>

>
>> To all.....this is my first year to do a large family garden, well
>> large to me. I am in North Texas and I need input from you experienced
>> farmers. I'm not looking for cash crops but stuff that'll freeze up
>> and hold their nutritional value for a while. It will be a version of
>> Victory gardens, for those of you who remember those. I am
>> conservative in my politics and this is a driving point also. This
>> isn't open for political discussions but for family garden and long
>> term survivability.
>
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Horse manure... No, that isn't a comment on your question. :-) Just my
fertilizer of choice.
Around here there a lot of little 5 acre places with a half dozen or
more horses on them. Those folks sometimes have a terrible time
getting rid of the stuff. We have a number of commercial stables here
and few of them have much land. They will sometimes load and haul it
to your place for free. Your area may be a different story, I have not
been in Texas in 50 years and I suspect that there has been a change
or two. :-) Beware of fresh chicken manure, too hot.
One of the best things you can do is what serious gardeners have done
about forever. Diversify... Some years some crops do better and on
another similar year a whole different set of plants do better. Just
don't put all of your eggs...
Fall carrots here keep very well still in the ground for much of the
winter especially with something like a good covering of leaves or
straw. Corn and peas both freeze very well but peas are so much work
and so cheap in the store I just don't bother with them any more. If
you don't mind a little canning I reeeeeealy love pickled beets and so
do a lot of people. If you have the jars they make a good trade item.
A BIL and his wife used to love canning potatoes.
-
You speak of barter. Sometimes you can barter some big garden labor. I
know of a lady in Vermont who keeps a few "Hippy shelters" and often
has college students living in them in the summer in exchange for
labor etc. I believe one was an old school bus, one an old travel
trailer and a third a shed of some kind. Not even something most folks
would want to use but she still had willing students ready to move in
for the summer mostly as an adventure.
-
The older I get the more I like gardening up above ground level. I am
fond of raised beds for a lot of stuff. Even 8 inches higher helps a
lot. I also use some old tires with the upper sidewall cut out
(Roto-Zip) and have a couple of old tractor rears that same way. We
grew some tomatoes last year in an old refrigerator with the doors off
and laying on its back. filled it with pretty common dirt part way up
then about 8" of really good stuff. It worked very well. This year I
will put a decorative wood wall around it just for looks. I also have
a batch of plastic RV antifreeze barrels that I will cut the top off
of and fill then with soil. There will be drain holes in the sides
about 2' up from the bottom so stuff will not drown but so that the
bottom will hold extra water.
Pumpkins and squash I grow on the flat on a small mound.
A fairly small green house can keep you in fresh green stuff about all winter.
-
You can go all sorts of directions with gardening, including overboard...
;-)




-- 
Have you hugged your horses today?

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com