Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Some great points to ponder here
but of course I have serious reservations about the not saving money part
this is from a local weekly in Abq

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

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Recession Gardens: Spreading Like Weeds
By Ari LeVaux
http://www.alibi.com/index.php?scn=food&di=



The media has been having a field day with the idea that gardening can be a
hedge against the weak economy. “As American families try to stretch
their food budgets during the recession, some are turning to the backyard,
rather than the grocery store ...” says CNN. Or “Step one in the battle
against soaring food prices,” Salon agrees. “Start your own recession
garden.”

I’m a big supporter of backyard gardens for many reasons, but saving
money isn’t one of them.

This isn’t to say you can’t save money with a garden. But the reality
is, a lot of people don’t have the follow-through required to leverage
the initial effort of building their garden into a long-term harvest.
It’s not easy to justify the investment in pure financial terms. Plus,
most folks eat so few vegetables they simply don’t have a big enough
veggie budget in which to make a dent.


In addition to the cost of seeds and seedlings, there’s the cost of
water, irrigation supplies, gardening tools and perhaps fencing materials
as well as any necessary soil amendments, like compost, manure or peat
moss.

So if saving money is your only goal in growing a garden, don’t
bother—buy a share in a local community supported agriculture (CSA) farm
instead and support your local farms. If, however, money is only one
motivator among several—including a desire to participate in the creation
story of your food, belief that the world’s freshest vegetables are
priceless, and joy at playing in the dirt, breathing fresh air, using your
body and watching an edible sculpture evolve all summer long—then you
should go for it.

And here’s a rarely discussed bonus: In addition to the minor financial
offset gardening can apply to your food bill, the entertainment savings can
be significant. By spending your free time in the garden instead of at the
movies, the bar, the racetrack, etc., your garden can help you save big.

In many ways gardening is like fishing—you might bring home something to
eat, but beyond food-procurement, it’s a meditative, stimulating and
active way of connecting to your environment. If the grocery money you save
by eating a few fish comes close to paying for your gas, you win. If not,
you hardly lose.

Now that I’ve crushed any expectation that you’ll garden your way to
riches, let me tell you how to prove me wrong.
Now that I’ve crushed any expectation that you’ll garden your way to
riches, let me tell you how to prove me wrong.

The most financially savvy way to garden is to grow the foods you normally
spend the most money on. Garlic, in my case, makes sense. I eat tons of it
and can grow a year’s worth in a 400 square-foot garden patch. Garlic is
planted in fall and comes up in spring, making you feel like a rockstar
when everyone else’s gardens are mere dirt patches.

Tomatoes are another money-saving potential. Good tomatoes can cost $2 to
$4 a pound, while a $2 baby tomato plant can yield 20 pounds over the
course of a summer. Zucchinis are probably the biggest producer in terms of
yield per investment, while corn, which yields only three ears per plant,
doesn’t pay.

Another strategy: Plant what you’d run out to the garden and grab on a
whim. It’s nice to have some greens close at hand for a quick salad. And
who doesn’t love the taste of a fresh-picked tomato?

Many urbanites feel a profound joy at replacing their lawn with a garden,
while others do so with a heavy heart. Either way, if space is limited,
you’ve got to send your lawn packing. Here are three ways:

1) Dig out the grass, being careful to remove all the roots and shake off
as much dirt as you can back onto the ground.

2) My preferred method of lawn-killing, which recycles the grass back into
the soil, is to tarp it—i.e., cover it with a sheet of black plastic
weighted along the perimeter with heavy objects. After 6 to 8 weeks in the
sun, the lawn underneath will be dried, dead, decomposed and aerated by a
bunch of happy worms. Much less labor-intensive than digging out the grass,
tarping is an elegant way to do an otherwise tough job. The resulting
ground is rich, fluffy and turns over like an eager lover in bed.

3) Build raised beds atop your lawn. Raised beds tend to be more orderly
and neat, and they prevent grass from spreading into your garden. But they
use more water and require that you haul in topsoil, manure and/or compost.
Don’t build raised beds with pressure-treated wood or railroad ties, both
of which are toxic.

If the landlord won’t let you lose the lawn, you can grow food in pots.
Tomatoes and peppers are especially good candidates for container gardens,
which can come inside for the winter, greatly extending your season.

Carrot, spinach and radish seeds can all be planted as soon as the ground
thaws, while corn, peas, beans and potatoes are planted later in the
spring. Onions, Brussels sprouts, kale, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers,
squash and most herbs are best started inside and transplanted outdoors as
seedlings.

I recommend buying seedlings, ideally at your local farmers’ market,
rather than raising your own from seed. Raising healthy starts is tricky,
and if you plant lame seedlings you’re guaranteed a lame garden.

Water is a precious and expensive commodity that should be respected and
conserved. But since water is essential to a healthy garden, strategic
irrigation is a must. Soaker hoses are much more efficient than sprinklers;
and irrigate at night to reduce evaporation.

Weeding is easiest when the weeds are young and the ground is moist. An
effective way to fight weeds is to lay mulch, such as straw, between your
garden plants to keep the invaders down. Just don’t use hay, which
contains seeds.

Call it laziness or the intoxication of summer; even in a recession, a
garden that’s started in spring doesn’t always make it to the fall.
Don’t forget to pounce on those weeds, water those plants and, most
importantly, eat those veggies!