Poor
Man Survival
Self
Reliance tools for independent minded people…
ISSN
2161-5543
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
In the spring, at the end of the
day, you should smell like dirt! >> Margaret Atwood
A Grocery Garden is Like Having Money
in the Bank
Although I’ve never fully regained my
stamina and strength after my heart attack and bypass surgery, I still enjoy
having a garden, though it is much smaller and I now must hire someone to
operate my rototiller and I now resort to using vegetable plants which have
already been started [at least I barter for them with a local nursery].
Nonetheless,
nothing beats the taste of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and other vegetables
and it is pleasurable to enjoy being out in the sun. Since our city financially rapes us for the
cost of water we make extensive use of 55-gallon rain barrels in order to save
money on watering and I encourage others to recycle rainwater wherever
possible.
>>Personal Hint: If
you live in a muggy climate like I do, try this cooling energizer: Mix ½ cup of lemon juice, ½ cup lime juice, a
few drops of lemon extract in a bowl and add a ½ cup of baking soda or
magnesium flakes into a bath of tepid water and hop in for a soak for as long
as you like!
Here’s another money-saving hint…save bath water, the
water from floral arrangements, from when you change your fish tank, etc. and
use it to water your plants – it’s a great tonic for all your plants!
>>Marvelous
Container Booster Mix: When
planting vegetables in containers, add this to a half-n-half mixture of
commercial potting soil and compost:
½ cup of Epsom
salts, 14 cup of coffee grounds [rinsed], 1 tbsp. instant tea granules, 4
eggshells [dried & crushed] per gallon of soil
Combine the ingredients thoroughly with your potting
mix. Then plant your seeds or set in
your transplants.
For some
reason over the years we’ve had tremendous success with bush zucchinis and make
bread and vegetable dishes with it and they grow well alongside eggplants. We’ve experimented growing these and cucumbers
vertically along with peas and spinach using a small trellis or if space is
very limited you might consider using self-watering containers. They have a kind of false bottom that you
fill with water, which the soil wicks up.
You can go away for several days and your container
garden will still thrive. You can find
Bloem Living Lucca planters on Amazon for about $19 or check with your local
Home Depot.
There are
new tomato plants called Dwarf Sweet Sue and Blazing Beauty and Rosella Purple
that are bred for flavor and their compact size. I plant a variety of tomatoes as they are my
favorite for side dishes and BLTs. My
Dad used to line his driveway with tomato containers and place pots on his back
deck. Although he worked part time at a
local nursery, when he got older he ordered online from VictorySeeds.com and HeritageSeedMarket.com
We’ve been
lucky in that we have wild raspberries in our yard but I plan to try some of
the new BrazelBerries Rasperry Shortcake, the first ever dwarf raspberry this
year which supposedly grows well in compact spaces [so do blueberries] which
you can find at BrazelBerries.com
In the
previous two summers I’ve planted dwarf fruit trees at our little farm and each
year they fail…probably the deer eat them.
I think next year we’ll plant much larger versions and include fencing
around each tree and see what happens.
We do
maintain our soil by keeping a scrap heap of egg shells, vegetable peelings and
other compost materials which we add to our topsoil and fertilizer which always
give our plants a boost. The one thing
which never does well for us is corn. We
manage to get a few decent stalks and the rest are usually consumed by animals
or bugs so we’ve given up on corn.
The Veggie Garden Maker kit from Idaho-based Potted Shed
Creations includes all the tools necessary for starting a backyard vegetable
garden. The handy set would make a great gift for the individual with a green
thumb of all ages, while it would be an especially great introduction to the
cooking with real ingredients and to the joys of gardening for young children [food52]
Other DIY gardening
innovations range from at-home herb kits to mushroom-growing logs that are
ideal for eco-conscious, urban dwellers. The rising popularity of DIY gardening
and food cultivation kits is a result of consumers' lack of outdoor space.
Urban Oasis Pots Contain Everything You Need to Start Your Own Microfarm
Urban dwellers often lack a backyard or balcony space, making indoor green walls, at-home composters and DIY gardening kits all the more prevalent and convenient for this demographic. Millennials with an appreciation for locally sourced and sustainable food products have quickly embraced this DIY gardening products thanks to their convenient and cost-effective nature.
In addition to traditional DIY gardening innovations, other standouts in today's market include DIY hot sauce kits that are equipped with fresh herbs, spices and dried peppers along with kid-friendly planting sets that encourage young generations to replace screen time with quality outdoor play. [packagingoftheworld]
There is no
shortage of gardening books and websites out there and many suited to whatever
climate or part of the country you’re located in. You might try GardeningWithCharlie.com or
Sign up for
free newsletters from Mother Earth News, [founded by my late friend, John
Shuttleworth] at:
Small-Space Gardening
Growing food in small spaces can be fun
and productive — you just need a little sunshine and some imagination.
Additional Resources
Yours for
better living,
Bruce ‘the Poor
Man’
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