Being interested in developing survival tactics in case the shit hits the fan has been a growing interest of my hubbie and I. My friend also married a man who is into survivalist and farming techniques. So food has become a bit of an obsession. Most specifically, ways that make us chemically independent through soil management, cooperative planting to get multiple crops from the same box, and pest control. Here's a bit of an overview on our successes and mistakes.
2008 We have no backyard here so we set up gardens at my father-in-law's house four years ago. He doesn't mind letting us use his dirt as long as he can eat all the tomatoes he wants. The first year we had raised boxes using wood borders about 12 inches up. We planted two 5 foot by 5 foot boxes and one large box about 5 feet by ten or twelve feet. We used wooden borders only this first year. We also got grandma to let us put four square boxes of five by five at her place.
We planted about 5 boxes of tomatoes with carrots and turnips in between rows. We also had two boxes of corn with squash between the rows. The squash didn't take. I think we weren't getting enough pollinators. It may have not been getting enough sun either.
We did get a ton of tomatoes. We ended up canning almost 60 quarts that year and didn't have to buy tomato sauce until the following March or April. At the end of the year we put the garden to bed with leaves piled up over the dirt.
2009 My husband got a copy of the Seed Savers Exchange catalog Fantastic source for organic and heirloom variety seeds. Really interesting and rare varieties.
http://www.seedsavers.org/
He decided the following year to do a garden of all purple veg. We got Cherokee purple tomatoes, German extra hardy garlic, purple beans, carrots. We stacked tires and planted Peruvian purple potatoes. We got about 40 lbs of potatoes out of those tires and wanted to do it again the following year but got cited by the city court for littering because of the tires. We had to take the garden down and so didn't get a second year of potatoes in 2010.
That second gardening year we also planted rhubarb. Made fantastic pies. We saved seeds at the end of the year as well to replant in the fall.
Corn is pretty easy; you let it dry then twist your hands around the cob to rub the seeds off.
Tomato seeds have to be spooned out of the choice tomatoes and put in a jar. Cover with wax paper with a couple of holes poked into it. Let ferment about 2 weeks or just until the sliminess is off the seeds. Then spread on a paper towel to dry out. Bottle and store.
Beans; let husks dry and crack out seeds. Don't keep any veg in plastic bags too long, it molds.
Garlic; just save the bulbs you want to re-use. Dry the bulbs well then store in a paper bag.
The beans didn't work out as well. The peas couldn't get enough water and so wilted after the first harvest. Cabbages and carrots failed. Carrots didn't grow very big and the cabbages and brussel sprouts didn't grow more than a few inches until they died. Poor year for tomatoes too. Good thing we didn't need to live off of it.
We stored the rhubarb roots in sand and planned to put them back in but didn't get around to it. After two years there's no point. The roots are dead. We had to take them out of the soil in the first place because of the citation. It was one of the things we were growing in tires as well. Hubbie and I joke that if we had painted the tires pretty colors maybe the city would have let us be.
We also might be under tighter scrutiny because we live so close to CanalFest. They want outsiders to think the city is a pretty and well-kept place. Crazy branches of above ground potato shrubs don't look pretty. They look like weeds.
2010 I was working in Elmira so the garden didn't get very well taken care of . Hubbie planted tomatoes and garlic and that was about it. Saved seeds again. Small harvest of tomatoes. Enough for sandwiches and that was about it.
Hubbie built a wire support system for a wild grape vine in his dad's backyard. No grapes this year. Cut it all back down to about 2-3 feet from the ground.
2011-2012 This was the year our daughter was born and her first year and a half with us. Way too exhausted and buisy. Hubbie did most of the gardening. We did not water like we should have. I did start planting garlic bulbs around my roses to keep the aphids off. Works great.
Again, sustaining our tomato and garlic harvests. Hubbie had started research on bee-keeping. In his gardening research he found many of the plants we were having trouble with were pollinated by bugs. That first year we had planted sunflowers and marigolds around the garden which attracted pollinators so a good harvest. The next few years we kept it weeded and no flowers so no pollinators.
He thinks that had a huge impact on productivity. The corn was hand pollinated the first year we planted it. We decided not to plant it again after 2008. To much labor and water involved. Good corn though.
First and second year vine branches. No grapes again. Might be linked to pollinators.
2013 This year has been off to a great start. We got 34 quarts on tomatoes in the first three weeks. We would have gotten more if we didn't get hit with early blight. I lost more than half of my roses and one box of tomatoes suffered badly losing almost all of their leaves. We sprayed with organic copper spray and they seem to be coming back.
A few other things to help counter blight is to cover the soil with wood chips or shredded wood to stop rain spattering spores up onto the plants. When you water, don't get the leaves wet. Keep the hose close to the ground or set up an irrigation pipe to direct the water over the roots or even feed water into the soil directly by placing the pipe perpendicular to the ground and a few inches deep. Drill holes before putting it in the ground. Saw a southern farmer do this. We plan to do this with our own garden when me move to a place with a yard,
Tons of pollinators this year as well. We left two boxes fallow and ended up with boxes of wild flowers. Wild mustard greens and flowers seemed to really do the trick. They grow about 6 feet high and the bees love them. I also left some milkweed in the garden for any monarch caterpillars that might be around.
The German garlic we have been using seems to not be doing as well. I told hubbie I want to get some new bulbs in. We had a bad year last year 2012 when we didn't manage to cover the beds with leaves like we should have and the bulbs were severely undernourished. This years crop has fewer cloves than previous. The cloves are huge but the bulbs are not 5-6 cloves like they used to be but more 4 or less cloves per bulb.
Garlic needs about 18 inches or more of leaves and greens piled onto it when it is planted in the fall. It's a heavy feeder and the composting greens and leaves help feed it through the winter and the spring. It also needs to be rotated to a different location every year on a three to four year cycle. Same with tomatoes. Garlic attracts nematodes and really drains nutrient from the soil.
I've made sauce twice using our tomatoes and garlic. It feels great to know where your food comes from.
There's this sense of pride and pleasure knowing we created this and nurtured and now are enjoying directly the food we grew. Getting a paycheck is not the same. Money is a symbol of value. Food is real value.
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