My next project

[RealityBitesParticipant 2198]

is putting in a Garden….
My AC is being replaced…so while I recover from this financially…..I will be focusing on preparing the soil in the backyard for a garden….then down the road…go off on a long prospecting trip…
I have clay soil…I had it covered with 6 mil black plastic tarps that did a pretty good job and killing off a lot of weed seedlings…now I am using a digging fork to turn over the soil…then will get some soil amendments to till into it, then plant several cover crops to fix nitrogen in the soil and to add biomass to it, before I plant the actual garden.

[SwimcatParticipant 3597]

Learn how to can, then it’s unlimited the amount of vegetables you can grow. I’d be canning now if I hadn’t been gone all summer.

[MonkParticipant 17026]

I also have clay soil, and it’s a bitch. On a 1:10 slope, too.

I cleared it and terraced it (moved 15 tons by hand, thank you very much). I dig in all my vegetable waste and get 25kg bags of horse manure from a local stables.

It’s amazing just how much stuff you can get off a small plot.

I tend to favour the sort of veg and fruit that requires little more than occasional inspection and weeding. Rhubarb and squashes are particularly good like that as they provide a natural weed blanket and give a huge return for virtually no effort.

Tip: Don’t grow cherries unless you are prepared to go to a lot of trouble – the birds love them and are faster than you are.

[iMickey503Participant 12465]

I’d Rather grow LED’s.. You know, someone told me that soil is the real gold mine. Funny that DIRT can be sold for money. Weird, but there is a market for it.

Gardening may be one of the best things you can do for yourself. Sure it takes a ton of time. But the pay back is amazing.

12 tons of dirt? My hands still have blisters from just moving maybe a 1000 lbs in one day with a wheel barrow and a shovel. And that was just cleaning out the extra dirt that was on the side of the street and covering up some of the road and drainage to the main roadway.

One thing is for sure, the small cherry tomatoes my mom grows in her garden are AMAZING! They taste SOOOOO GOOOD! You just don’t get that often with store bought produce.

Enjoy the efforts! The pay off really is worth it.

You are all alone. If you have been falsely accused of RAPE, DV, PLEASE let all men know about the people who did this. http://register-her.net/web/guest/home

[RealityBitesParticipant 2198]

Just found out where I can get free Mulch and Free Woodchips in my city. All I need to do is bring my pickup with a Tarp and Rope and show proof that I live in that city…and they will load up my truck. Pretty cool, I can spade this stuff into the soil (Double Digging it down) to increase the biomass. My soil is mostly mineral and “dead”…and is mostly Clay so this should help it a great deal along with manure and peat moss.
From what I’ve read…its best to spend the first 3 years double spading, and then after that taking a No Till approach so as not to disturb the soil strata and earth worms, but use cover crops as a green manure, mulch and to suppress weeds. The soil can be loosened by using a broadfork from that point on.
For cover crops….its best to use a wide variety mixed together and to always have a cover crop growing in between seasons.

The best revenge is living well…and part of that is exercise, tranquility, and eating well. A garden gives that. Besides…I think it would drive the neighbor’s wife banana’s seeing how there is no grass in my backyard but a garden….I know the fact that I have a small motorcycle collection and am a co-owner of a microbrewery p~~~es her off…I think it gives her husband “ideas”…

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