how my garden grows

GWN 1/18/2012, 11:43 am

Many of my gardening influences over the past few years have been Barbara Kingsolvers book animal vegetable miracle, in her efforts to live off of her land for a year, I was inspired.
From there John Jeavons book on how to grow enough to feed a family on a certain square footage of land. From there I read the Colemans books and instead of hoop houses and floating row covers I used cattle panels to build everything for my garden.
I thought I would share some of the photos of how my garden grows.
I have still not attained full self sustainability, BUT I am getting there, and have a root cellar full of food AND a freezer, from last summers crop. I look forward to reading SFG as I feel it will complement the other books I have read. how my garden grows Dsc_0210

This is what you can do with cattle panels for grapes how my garden grows Dsc_0111

floating row covers for peppers

how my garden grows Dsc_0211

NOTE: This thread is located in the "Non-SFG Gardening discussion" forum.

Lavender Debs 1/18/2012, 11:49 am

That looks very nice.....just showed it to my hardscape guy (my husband)

boffer 1/18/2012, 11:55 am

Looks great.

What five composts have you found to be available in your area? We've had several new members in B.C. have trouble finding their composts. Hopefully you can help them out.

GWN 1/18/2012, 11:59 am

a picture on a cold day last april
how my garden grows Dsc_0112

composts I use.... I live rather remote, but I got my sons girlfriend to bring a load of aged horse manure and I use my own kitchen waste compost

GWN 1/18/2012, 12:38 pm

some of the crops. I am obviously not much of a photographer

CarolynPhillips 1/18/2012, 9:15 pm

Bravo. Looks great. I love mini hoop houses too.

plantoid 1/19/2012, 6:46 am

Gwn ,
What are the stones in the beds used for ... to stop animals rooting , to make night time heaters for a wee while & /or to reduce evaporation from the soil ?

GWN 1/19/2012, 8:15 pm

yes they were night time heaters, along with the brown wine bottles which I found absorbed MORE heat than green or white wine bottles.
So they were there for the nights that were just a teensy bit too cold.

LittleGardener 1/19/2012, 9:04 pm

GWN wrote:yes they were night time heaters, along with the brown wine bottles which I found absorbed MORE heat than green or white wine bottles.
So they were there for the nights that were just a teensy bit too cold.

Thanks for sharing! how (independent of outside sources) well you are doing Smile

feeding your family, currently. - We don't do alcoholic drinks, so any dark brown glass bottles would work, right?

GWN 1/19/2012, 9:17 pm

Yes any dark coloured bottles will work, especially in your zone. I even used those large black plastic containers that olives come in.
What I did find when I moved to a colder climate was that the bottles broke when the temp dropped suddenly
So now I have my gallon milk jugs filled with water as my solar heat source and I add a new one every 2-3 days Smile

FamilyGardening 1/30/2012, 9:34 pm

:scratch: im not seeing any pics??

hugs

rose

GWN 1/30/2012, 9:54 pm

I can see all the pictures. Are you wearing your rose coloured glasses? Smile

**Furbalsmom** 1/30/2012, 10:05 pm

FamilyGardening,

I also am seeing her pictures. Are you able to see pictures on other posts??

Sorry, wish I knew enough to make suggestions for your settings.

FamilyGardening 1/31/2012, 4:17 am

i can see them now....... Very Happy

rose colored glasses.....bah...haaaaa Laughing

not sure why i couldnt before.....might be my stupid puter..... Razz

love the pics!

hugs

rose

plantoid 1/31/2012, 3:55 pm

LittleGardener wrote:
GWN wrote:yes they were night time heaters, along with the brown wine bottles which I found absorbed MORE heat than green or white wine bottles.
So they were there for the nights that were just a teensy bit too cold.
Thanks for sharing! how (independent of outside sources) well you are doing feeding your family, currently. - We don't do alcoholic drinks, so any dark brown glass bottles would work, right?

Perhaps you could be using clear two or three pint soft drink bottles filled with pickling brine solution strength of salt water and wrapped in black trash bag plastic then taped up will make good storeage heaters .. the salt will freeze at well below 32 F .
Might be a good idea to experiment though

Sponsored content

how my garden grows

how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows

Re: how my garden grows


	Hello Guest! Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum. There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.