[Homestead] Preparation for WTSHTF questions
Karen L. Black
karen at plamondon.com
Sun Dec 14 21:40:24 EST 2008
I'm still catching up with the digests (I'm up to Friday so far), but wanted
to touch on a couple points in this thread.
Steve Solomon, who wrote "Gardening West of the Cascades" and started
Territorial Seeds (not coincidently, west of the Cascades) has a book out
called "Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times"
(http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X/re
f=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229308109&sr=8-2) which I think is worth
reading. He has illustrations of how vegetables' roots extend underground to
demonstrate why he recommends that most plants should be spaced farther
apart than is customary, and even more if you are relying on groundwater or
intermittant rain during growth. What he talks about, he has done.
Raised beds have one disadvantage in a desert; they need more water than a
flat or sunken bed. This is no problem here in Oregon, where my clayey soil
pretty much demands well-drained beds, and it's not much of a problem where
rainfall is regular. As I recall, the Hopi grew their plants in basins to
catch any water to get the best out of their gardens.
Karen Black
Norton Creek Farm
Blodgett, OR
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