[Homestead] Gardening...was In Defense of Food

EarthNSky erthnsky at bellsouth.net
Wed Jan 9 22:13:11 EST 2008



Marie McHarry wrote:

> A cold frame can get you lots. I had an uncle (actually he was my
> mother's uncle) who could grow anything.

That'd be your great uncle. :)


  He used horse manure in his
> cold frames and after he sold his horses, got donkey manure from us.

Jeavons talks about this in HTGMV.  Basically, you dig a shallow trench, 
shovel in the poop, and cover it with soil.  As horse poop is "hot" it 
composts in place, releasing its heat into the cold frame like an 
earth-friendly heater.


> I will never forget the despair in my 9-year-old heart when we started
> picking green beans at one end of a quarter mile row (and of course
> there was another row to pick on the way back).

Sounds like you have me beat on that one.  We always had 10 or 12 100 
foot rows of green beans (bush beans).  I never thought about it, but 
that would be 1200 feet, just shy of a quarter mile.  It was an every 
day or every other day chore in the summer, and of course, in the 
winter, we cut collards and spinach, etc.  I dreaded the Georgia summer 
heat-so much that I SWORE I would never ever garden again.  It's hard 
for me to believe that I actually enjoy it now, as long as I can take 
breaks and go topless every once in a while. ;)  Of course, I'm not 
canning beans anymore so I don't grow that much, but I could if I needed to.

Bev, who moved a bit further north in GA, but still struggles with the 
summer heat and humidity.

-- 
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm   NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N	85.076W	   Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky					


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