If you read my article last week; “Herbicide Drift on my garden follow up-Totally destroyed!”,
you will know that my garden has been so saturated with toxic herbicibes that I can’t grow anything. I have been fighting this for several years and have finally totally given up on a garden in my present space. I am starting a garden on the southern side of my house which has some protection from the spraying done almost entirely on the north side of the property. As you can see, I am using fabric bags. These are the 3 gallon size. They cost around a dollar. I am filling them with organic compost that i buy in a 40 lb bag for 7 dollars. That bag will fill 5 fabric bags about 2/3 full. My cost including seed is below 7 dollars a bag. I will add a fresh layer each time I replant and gradually fill the bag. The bags will last several years, so my expense is manageable. If you want to try on a limited basis, you can easily start with 5 bags and expand every year. If I had been on a level prepared area, these bags could have been placed closer together forming a solid area. this will occur naturally as I add more soil .
I began planting during the first week in March. As you can see, I have a good start. All of these
plants went through a 24 degree cold spell uncovered. I did cover them with plastic when the temperature was predicted to be 22 degrees, definitely a hard freeze. All these plants ere up at that time. I willI need to thin many of these as they small seed is hard to plant. I have turnips, lettuce, radishes, onions, peas, and a total of over 20 different varieties. At the time of this picture, April 6, I have around 40 different bags planted.
Many gardeners are unaware that you can plant before the frost free date for your area, (mine is around April 15-22 in the KC area). The recommended planting dates for cool weather is when you can work the soil. I assume this means when the frozen soil has thawed. I began when the weather was warm enough for me to get out and work. As I am in my 80s, I don’ t get out when it is too cold or too hot to be uncomfortable.
On about the 20th of March, I added some 5 varieties of started lettuce plant to my garden. They also went through the 22 degree freeze.
I could have added cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower as well, but won’t have the space for those additional plants. I will fertilize with pelletized composted chicken manure. Normally I would have added Microbial Inoculants to my soil, but had received my order yet. In addition, I will add granulated sea minerals. I could have used this in a liquid form, but I had some left over from a demonstration plot for farmers. You would have to buy in bulk, but the liquid form is available in small quantities. Every two weeks,I will spray with liquid sea minerals.On the off weeks, I will spray with fish fertilizers. Other fertilizers I may introduce into the ground are fish fertilizer, worm casting and bat guano.
.I bought a large started Big Boy tomato plant
hoping I may get some early tomatoes. In addition I have several Mortgage Lifter plants for later production that I will freeze. I core my tomatoes and freeze with the skin still attached. When thawed, the skin will slide off. If I make juice, I just blend with the skin on. I have several yellow cherry tomatoes and four sweet pepper plants. Every year, I plant tomatoes too early and lose some to frost. I have these in my cart and if there is a frost, then I can just wheel them into the garage. These were planted April 6th and with the forecast for two days of 80 before the 15th, I think everything will be fine. I can just lift them out and plant them on the south of the house with the rest of my garden.
I knew an Amish farmer who raised tomatoes in a green house. The last year I was in contact with him, he had started growing his tomatoes in containers and then as he watered them each day, he added fertilizer in the water solution. His containers contained some type of material for the tomatoes to grow their roots around for stability. His tomato plants grew so tall they had to use a twelve foot ladder to pick the fruit. I am using fabric bags that will limit the
root development just as would happen with the Amish methods. The fabric bags cause air pruning of the roots as they try to grow through the sides. This prevents the roots from circling inside the container which would hinder the growth of the plant.
I keep thinking that if you laid cardboard down on the area you wanted to start a garden, the plants would eventually root through the bottom of the fabric bag and through the decaying cardboard. What you would have would be the start of a garden and if you utilized cover crops, you could start and gradually expand a garden with organic, regenerative methods.
I am the author of “How the Food Industry is Killing Us” available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and worldwide as print and digital. I have a web site called www.Edens-Acre.com where I have gardening hints and health articles.