A REPLY TO 'JUST GAIL' ON RAISED BED GARDENING

You commented on my post about my plans for a spring container garden in Maine, that you wished you could have a raised bed garden.   

One of the YouTube videos I watched has an idea for a movable raised bed garden.   

I am posting the video here, and perhaps it can give you ideas.   

The video is rambling, but the basic idea is intriguing. 

A number of decades ago, here in Maine, sewer sludge was used as a fertilizer in gardens in one of the most productive areas of the state, and now they are finding that the soils and wells of the area are contaminated with heavy metals.   There are a lot of organic gardeners in this area, and of course, they are devastated.   

I do believe that food from home grown gardens is far superior to commercial vegetables we buy at the supermarket, and there is even more control on home grown vegetables than perhaps from organic growers. 

In this time and age of food shortages and rising food cost, going back to Victory Gardens makes sense to me.   Any small amount of our food consumption that I can home grow will make me feel productive, and I will know that the quality of the food is good. 

the Ol'Buzzard

THINKING OF SPRING IN A BLIZZARD

 

 

We received twelve inches of snow earlier in the week, and yesterday we had well over a foot with steady wind.   The snow blower could barely manage the depth and I had to shovel out our gas tanks that were buried. 

A year ago we moved from our cabin in the woods to a more manageable home.   

We loved our cabin, but heating with firewood, and the physical requirements of maintaining our place during the Maine winters, was getting a little much for an octogenarian.

 

The downside of living surrounded by woods was there was never enough sunlight to grow a garden.   I missed gardening. 

 

The place we now live in has a large open front yard with plenty of sunlight.   This spring I intend to plant a starter garden – something small, just a few plants.   Along with the prospect of fresh vegetables, a garden gives me something to plan during the dark days of winter.

 

For the first time in years, I am ordering seed catalogues and watching YouTube bits about gardening.   I am not planning to plant an extensive garden or build raised beds.   Just limited planting in containers and grow-bags.  Grow-bags are something new, and seem ideal for an urban gardener. 

 

 

Our yard is full of ants.   It is my belief that when man finally manages to bring total destruction of surface life on earth, it will be the ants, not the cockroaches that survive.  By using grow-bags, I can plant on our steps, in our parking area and avoid an ant problem.

 

I am thinking about planting one zucchini and one yellow squass (zucchini produce all summer), three tomato plants (one cherry, one determinant and one indeterminant), a cucumber plant, radishes and a large planter with herbs.   But in my mind, the garden keeps getting bigger.

 

Maine has a short growing season so I will buy tomato plants; but I am also thinking about purchasing a small greenhouse to start seeds and seedlings early.  When we lived subsistence, off-the-grid, while attending college, I started my plants in solar heated hot-boxes that I designed, and had plants producing weeks earlier that the locals.

$39.00 at Tractor Supply

 

Maybe I’ll grow some carrots.   Scallions are a necessity.   Then there are peppers - I like peppers; I understand potatoes grow well in grow-bags, and so does lettuce, eggplant, broccoli, beets, bush beans -  I have heard you can grow corn in grow bags -  broccoli and cauliflower…

 

the Ol’Buzzard

 

 

 

CONTAINER GARDENING

I miss gardening.    In a number of places we lived I grew large productive gardens.   Here in western Maine our home now is surrounded by trees and there is no place in the yard with enough sun to consider planting a garden. 

I have successfully planted flowers in containers before, so this year I decided I would try vegetables in a container.   I took a large empty cat litter container, drilled holes in the bottom and filled it with potting soil from Walmart.  I planted two cherry tomato plants and one cucumber plant – again from Walmart.    I water then daily and every four weeks water with Miracle Grow. 

Now I have two eight-foot tomato plants, and a cucumber plant that is fixing to climb my porch.   Today we harvested our first cucumber and we seem to be about a week away from harvesting tomatoes.  

Next year I plan to expand the garden – more containers.   Planting in containers requires more attention than an actual garden – regular daily watering and feeding

I have a pumpkin plant by the stone wall in front of the house that seems to be thriving, but the deer keep eating the buds off.  I have some mint growing by the wall and this evening I am going to harvest some of the mint plants and put them around the pumpkin buds – don’t know if this will keep the dear away, but it seems the deer are avoiding the mint.  

Locally grown tomatoes and cucumbers are expensive at the farmers market.  If I get the harvest I expect I will more than pay for the plants and materials invested – and we are eating our own.  

the Ol’Buzzard