From The Beginning

Hello again!

My wife does hats she sells, this is one I photographed for her to use for showcasing her work.  beyond just the nice and silly way to start off a post, the idea is that Deb and I are basically the kind of folks who believe in looking out for ourselves even though I am now disabled.  We just do what we can.  So when I was challenged to start a vegetable garden I decided it was time to do just that.

The First Step

The great military strategist and tactician, Sun Tsu, explains that the first thing to do is to take stock of what one has to work with before going to war.  War is an expensive undertaking as we ourselves can well testify considering the 6 trillion dollars I understand our country has spent on our wars since 2000.  At first glance, gardening is an expensive undertaking as well.  What we are taught is that we have to buy soil amendments and fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, tools, and a whole host of things, some of them quite heavy as well as invest tons of our time in the enterprise to successfully grow the vegetables one seeks.  The payoff is that even with all of that one can still grow food for less than buying it at the grocery story, which can put it within the reach of those of lesser means who have the determination.  So one has to take stock of what they have to work with in terms of money, available space, and physical ability.  

The point, though, is to take stock not with the question "can I do this at all," rather, one really needs to take stock in order to decide how they will.  I hope you have already decided to start a garden and simply want to know where to begin.  As you will find out as we move along in the journey the cost factor can be brought down.  Consider this, if one has land available for a garden all one really has to do is to clear out some grass or weeds, buy some seeds, plant them, keep the ground moist, and weed around the plant as it grows, stake the plant if needed and keep it watered, and one will harvest vegetables.  In the foregoing simple scenario, the only cost if one already has some basic yard tools is for the seed and the water.  That's it!

However, things often aren't quite so simple.  If one rents their home one may have a limited amount of space like I did, perhaps even to the point of a patio or balcony space.  Naturally one may have to buy containers and do things in conformance with restrictions placed on one by their landlord.  Most of the time one will be able to get permission.  I've even seen small gardens in government housing projects!

Available Space

 This is the front yard of the duplex I rent.  I have a housemate who likes to grow flowers and we've kind of divided up the available space which was largely existing flower beds.  In the front at the center of the picture is a 3x5' raised bed which was created for my wife to use for vegetables which mostly failed on her.  My experience is that the concrete pavement for the driveway heats up the area increasing the brutality of the afternoon sun and that is probably why.                                Next is the side of the unit, which is easy to tell from the next one over because I have my garden planted.  Again, my housemate (the wife of a couple who lives with Deb and I) and I divided up the available space there, though, I also garden in the area at the back fence and all the way across with the permission of the owner of the property next door.  I pretty much have the permission of my landlord to do what I want.  However, my housemates have restricted me from planting in the ground I haven't already planted in.

Basic Method

So I am forced to rely heavily on containers.  But that's an area I'll get into on down the road.  So that's what I have available and we'll concentrate this blog on my use of it, though, the principles involved apply across the board.  I am fortunate that I do have the space available to try out three different ways of gardening at the same time.  Since there was already a raised bed of 3x5 feet in the front, I decided to use that bed for square-foot gardening along the lines of that popularized by Mel Bartholemew.  I don't have the grid in place over the bed as he advocates, it's a matter of money at the moment but I can measure it out and run it along those lines.  That bed is roughly 15 square feet, just one square foot shy of his base unit of 16.

I made a decision on the front side to plant a bed along the lines of those advocated by both Paul Gautschi of Back To Eden fame and permaculturists to a degree.  Like Paul, I am a Christian and look to God to give me the feedback I need for a successful garden.  However,I'm not at all averse to science as a guiding light in the physical world and actually have several scientists I look to for advice as well when needed.  They advocate something along the lines Mr. Gautschi does because studies back his core method up.  But they are able to fill in the gaps left by his intuitive method.

The rest of my garden is a container garden.  That, of course, increased my outlay monetarily, however, I was able to get around some of that with a low-cost alternative to the traditional containers and the mix of soil I used to fill them.  I chose to plant heirloom or open pollinated varieties of vegetables so that I could lower my long term cost for seeds by harvesting the seeds and using them to plant new generations.  That's another thing I'll do a topic on a little later.  I was also able to spread the cost over some months instead of all at once.

 This is last year's peppers in my front bed.  There were three varieties in that bed, Jalapeño, Yellow Hungarian, and Habanero, all of them hot, hot, hot!  ;-)  They went on to make many a delicious meal.  The container at the lower right-hand corner has a Tiny Tim Tomato plant in it and it went on to produce a surprisingly copious number of little salad tomatoes.

Money

 That is always the big factor in any decision these days because everything has a cost somewhere along the line.  I am disabled and live on a form of disability payments.  That is what got me into this in the first place.  That lack of funds governed every choice I made.  My wife was working part-time and was able to chip in some.  A Youtube friend also sent me a little out of the blue at a time I needed it.  But I had to do things as cheaply as I could get away with.

We do have the internet, so researching the options online was just a matter of time on my computer.  I was able to look at different providers for containers, soil, seeds and fertilizer.  As we go along you are gong to get the benefit of that research as I hit specific subjects.  Obviously, there are some specifics I cannot give because it would be tantamount to free advertising for some folks.  However, there is still much I'll be able to pass on where it come to money saving tips.

That being said there will be some companies and individuals I will provide links to because they are resources I think everybody should find out about for good reasons.  One is a fellow in Michigan who started out as a Youtuber to show his love for gardening.  As he reached the age to think in terms of starting a family of his own he launched his own business, MIGardener, selling seeds and an organic fertilizer mix he created.  He founded the company on the principle that everyone, no matter the income level, should be able to get heirloom seeds at an affordable cost.  I was already a subscriber to his channel when he started that venture and I've spread the word on him since the beginning.  He now has a wife and a baby daughter.  There are also others dedicated to making heirloom and open pollinated seeds of all kinds of varieties available to keep them from going extinct who are worthy of mention and will get mentioned in their turn.

Physical Limitations

As I mentioned in the very first post, I am physically disabled by a degenerative disease.  First and most obvious, it causes the body to gain copious amounts of fat, no matter how much or little eaten.  Add to that weakening of and loss of mass of the muscles.  Since cortisols are a regulator of blood sugar it causes type II diabetes., Victims also tend to have osteoporosis and the back goes first with the thigh joints and knees, the joints bearing the most weight, to fail next.  It also causes lung problems, heart problems and many other problems the victim has to deal with.  And it also has profound social consequences as well because of the massive weight its victims carry.  Research has shown that even doctors will discriminate against Cushing's victims by refusing to consider it and test and test, or to do half-assed testing because the patients are overweight and considered more along the lines of morally weak than victims of some rare disease.  I've been there and done that.

By the time I started my garden pressure on my sciatic nerve at the spinal joint because of degeneration made walking so hard due to both pain and weakness that I was seriously considering ending that fight and going into a wheelchair.  I'll show it to you in a video on youtube when I get that going.  So obviously I am very limited in my ability to hoe, shovel, till, prune, and most anything else.  I have a video I shot one day as I walked out to the garden. sat down, and did a little rant.  I'll include part of it in a video on my youtube channel because it will give you a good idea of just how difficult it is for me to get about even now.  I've gotten around some of that by having two seats in the garden I sit and rest on frequently.  I also take my time and don't push it.  However long it takes, that's how long it takes.  So it takes me longer than if I didn't have the limitations.  This isn't about competition.  It also means I do some things differently and I'm going to take some pleasure in telling you how.

So, now, I will leave you with a little smile.

 That was fresh from the garden Jalapeño cornbread from scratch!