I heard that there was a place where ATSer's could rant about gardening, seeds and such?
Growing stuff is one of those things that I always felt destined to do.
Not sure if it was the exposure to some wonderful gardens at an early age or the toy set of plastic garden tools that I received for my 6th birthday
yet the desire to dig, plant and watch grow... always seems to have been there.
After many books, lotsa of other reading (organic gardening, mother jones) and plenty of how-to FYI videos et al and some years of growing experience,
here is what I have learned:
People are uneducated about Heirloom, GMO and Hybrids and I believe it has as much to do with their inability to think critically as it does with a
concerted effort to make information hard to understand and hard to find.
The main cause of much of todays "problems" (wether they are engineered problems or real problems, I believe mainly the former) comes primarily from
Totalitarian Agriculture which basically means growing huge fields of one type of plant with efficiency as the primary motivating factor i:e profit
per acre.
Companion planting, a somewhat less of a totalitarian planting scheme and the knowledge of helpful insects would reduce if not eventually eliminate
the need for pesticides and GMO's.
Growing cover crops, maintaining a good compost pile, raising chickens and rabbits etc to enrich compost piles and growing crops that are more suited
to the climate, crops that require less and give more such as Amaranth versus Super sweet corn for the southern midwest areas for instance would
greatly reduce if not ultimately elimanate the need for fertilizers which many are commonly produced using fossil fuels let alone the transport of
fertilizers, the spreading of fertilizers etc etc which also requires fossil fuels.
These ideas are not the most profitable...
These ideas are not "how things are done around here, boy"...
Oh well, maybe next time they will learn..... you hero farmers you....
I am a huge fan of raised beds and vertical growing. My pole beans grow over 12 feet long and you can forget the "poles" as they grow on a domed
trellis that goes from one bed to another and my cucumbers around the same length. I designed my own slanted cuke trellis that overflows and nearly
collapses yet it is made of steel fence posts with steel fencing = massive amounts of cukes.
Oh Btw, have you folks heard about the miles and miles of ancient native american raised beds found in southern Michigan?
Michigan's prehistoric garden beds
Just one of many links that can be found on the subject.
So many benefits with raised beds, the almanac doesnt really even apply to us anymore...
Other then the occasional late freeze or heavy frost and the need to cover everything maybe once maybe twice, we are out earlier and out later by a
month or two usually thus taking our growing season from a zone 6 to a zone 7 or 8.
I will probably end up installing a cheap hoop house system so I can cover everything for most of the early season when frost mainly occurs yet
covering a 12' x 120' garden complex is no small task.
This would increase my season from a zone 7 to a solid zone 8 for another month in both directions.
I feel sorry for all of the flat landers with lots of conventional farming going on as you have little defense against cross contamination yet we live
back in the hills you see, the woman, the kids, the dog and me
and our garden has little if any competition as most people around here have no flat
land and no desire to terrace garden their hillsides!
The little conventional farming in this area is 15-20 miles away where the flat land starts
which was also the edge of the last ice age where ice was reportedly a mile thick!
I hope this will provide us with at least alittle defense against cross contamination and disease.
Hmmm... did I mention the taste!!!
My kids disliked most vegetables before they tasted real food and now they actually look forward to fresh beans, tomato, cukes, sweet and banana
pepper, carrot, onion, zuchini especially zuchini bread, melons and cantaloupe not to mention the flavors that come from using fresh herbs when
cooking.
Man, have you ever tried growing the giant pumpkins? I dont care if you get a huge pumpkin or not as the Jurassic park-esqe foliage is well worth the
effort. Truly amazing huge leafs 2-3 feet wide sometimes and it grows super fast when planted correctly in a mound/hill.
Also, Do you know any children who are "allergic" to the nightshade family mainly tomato???
Let them eat them as they will likely grow out of it and you can take it from a kid who would break out all over his face, thighs and chest yet they
couldnt keep me from them and after 4-5 years of this I simply grew out of it and still to this day tomato is my favorite fruit!
Imagine how many parents buy into the allergy crap and cease from feeding their kids the things that might raise a few hives and worse yet.....they
give their kids MEDS to prevent alittle breakout here or there... insanity.
Any ole ways, thank you for provoking this lil rant
I hate Monsanto, franken foods, GMO's et al yet I cannot spend all my energy on only the negative aspects or I might have hurt someone and we dont
want that now do we?
All these "little things" that I have learned all tell me that my government is trying to kill me/us.
That Big Business including BIG AGRA is trying to poison us.
That BIG PHARMA is also trying to poison us if not simply keep us poisoned and sick.
That Science, "Fluoride in the water is good for us" is easily bought and paid for and thus is at least complicit in the crime.
That the day they try to prevent me from raising my own food will be the day they pry my gun from my cold dead hands that is if they catch me at all
and I will not spare the deputy!!!
Thank you.