Food Shortage Here!

[flamingfingers]

Precisely!

And I plan to set up a mini-green house over one of the garden beds to see if I can force more earlier.

That is lovely and fine; however, calculate the cost of your building material, your labor and also your ongoing interest in the project. If it is a 'hobby' it is pretty well a waste.. If it will be dedication, perhaps in the long run you will realize a cost-benefit ratio. I am still of the opinion that I can do quite well with what is available at appropriate times of the year.
BTW - rhubarb is starting to poke its shoots out. Rhubarb sauce packed with vitamin C is good. Only fresh thing we got when I was a kid on the prairies from Nov to April.

[Queen K]

Calculations made and oooohh, no American E-Coli recalls. Of course if you are only calculating costs as in entire property tax and water usage and seeds and topping up soil, I'd still say that lifestyle choice being what it is, I like puttering outside and creating and my gardens are my artwork. Priceless.

I could say a few things of yours is a waste too, but won't, we all live our own lifestyles with hobbies and interests. Mine is knowing the only grubby hands that have handled my lettuce (butter, red and romaine) , zuchinni, garlic, parsely (curly and flat leafed), sage, oregano, mint, strawberries, potatoes, peas, carrots, beans, kale, cherry tomatoes (sweet millions, black pearl), tomatoes (Early Girl, etc. ) swiss chard, spinach, raspberries, tayberries, loganberries, and whatever else grabs my fancy this year are mine and Mr. QKs. We give a lot away too.

To you a waste.
To me, delicious. No sprays either.

[WeatherWoman]

calculate the cost of your building material, your labor and also your ongoing interest in the project.

The cost could be pretty minimal. We are currently building a chicken coop and the cost so far is nothing. Hubby got a free pallets from word and we had an old fence panel etc

Used Victoria (our source) has tons of free stuff that could be used to make a green house or coop.

[Queen K]

I don't pay for labour either. Labour=us. We are free. Our raised bed board feet had the potential to be expensive, they are 2 by 10s, but meh, the ad said "free" so we went with that. The hardware wasn't but it's going into year four, so let's say $75.

75 divided by 4 growing seasons = 18.75/year. The potatoes and carrots alone have been worth that.

Soil? Yes, we paid for some, same math.

Seeds and plants? Yes, same math.

I figure whereas it's not FREE, it's worth it knowing my Spinach didn't get trucked in, I didn't use gas to drive to the store to get it and fridge to store it. Fresh picked and eaten same day is mostly what we do.

[ILBT uh-huh]

What are tayberries? Was it a spelling mistake or something I've just never heard of? A person will never die of stress puttering in their garden and eating fresh food. The bill at the grocery store, however...

[oneh2obabe]

What are tayberries?

The Tayberry is a cultivated shrub patented in 1979 as a cross between a loganberry and the black raspberry. It was developed at the Scottish Crops Research Institute, Invergowrie, Scotland, by Derek Jennings and David Mason. Named after the river Tay in Scotland, the tayberry is grown for its edible fruits which can be eaten raw or cooked to make jam or other dishes, with a cropping period from early July to mid-August. Unfortunately, tayberries do not pick easily by hand and cannot be machine harvested, so they have not become a commercially grown berry crop.

The tayberry fruit are cone shaped and are a reddish-purple color when ripe. Tayberries can be up to 1-1/2 inches long. Similar to the blackberry, the core remains in the berry when it is picked. The tayberry is less acidic than the loganberry, with a strong, tart flavor.

The tayberry has a growth habit similar to that of the blackberry. Fruit grow on short laterals on prickly canes 6-7 feet long.

The tayberry will grow reasonably well in many soils. Tayberries produce the most berries when in full sun and in well drained soil with a high amount of organic materials. Supporting the canes is not crucial, but it will help prevent diseases by improving the air flow between branches. Tayberries should be ready to harvest in early July, depending on the type. Frost is rarely a problem, as tayberries flower late in the season; plants need protection below -15 degrees Fahrenheit. Like many plant hybrids, tayberries show good disease resistance, and it has been shown to be resistant to late yellow rust.

Tayberries are propagated by planting canes; the recommended time is mid-October, though any time up to mid-March may work if soil is not frozen or waterlogged. Scientists have also demonstrated the successful cold storage of tayberry tissue cultures for maintenance of in vitro collections of plant tissues.

[Queen K]

Yes to all of the above and most of all Tay berries are delicious and BECAUSE they are not commercially available, I decided to grow my own. Why wait for the big guys when it ain't coming? They are growing well in soil amended heavily when we first planted them 4 years ago. The clay here is killer but I am battling it.

http://www.scotplantsdirect.co.uk/tips- ... d_312.html

[grammafreddy]

Two years ago when I was working retail, I found it interesting that younger people (including males) were taking a renewed interest in gardening and also in canning and preserving their harvest.

I have always been a gardener, even under some mighty tough conditions when I had to haul my water in buckets for the plants. I learned to grow food in different non-traditional ways and how to water using a wicking system. To me, growing your own food is one of life's basic survival skills, along with knowing what wild plants are edible/medicial and where and when to find them. In some ways, I miss those days - there was something very satisfying about using my brains to overcome adversity and I also found gardening to be very therapeutic. If life stressed me too much, I'd go yank on weeds. I still do that.

It is good that younger people are once again showing an interest in growing food for themselves and their families.

[Corneliousrooster]

My spouse and I moved from Victoria to the okanagan 11 years ago where we paid less rent here for a 1/2 acre and house than we did for a 1 bedroom basement suite on the island. Just happened to be an unused plot that had been neglected as a veg garden on the property.

Lived there 5 years and learned EVERYTHING we could about gardening,mulching,composting, seed saving, soil, you name it - even expanded the garden space to be double the original size. Found out the owner a couple of owners back was a botanist and the bounty of perennials and bulbs that would just happen by themselves amazed us.

6 years ago bought our own place - about 1/3 of an acre - all grass. The majority of the sunlight hit the front yard so we decided to freak out the neighbours lol. After living here 1 month we pretty much ripped out about 3/4 of the lawn and our once lush expanse of grass became a mud pit. Over the course of the next month we designed 3 large raised beds in the front yard (the majority sun) and a large plot in the side yard. now our neighbours call us "little buschart" and ask to take family pics in our front yard (the veggie plots are intermingled with perennial flower beds). We use WAAAAAAY less water than we did with lawn - once everything was built and established and properly mulched, weeding has become a minor chore - most of the work is turning the soil in the spring and harvesting throughout the year. Zero pesticides or weed killers have ever been used.

I found nothing in life more relaxing than tinkering in the garden - and nothing more delicious than a meal made strictly of items from my yard. A little more work in the yard equates to a little less time sittin on my rump in my life, so I don't mind at all.


i look at peoples large expanses of lawn and i think what a waste (especially in the semi desert conditions of the okanagan)


We are currently looking to move and this time we are goin big! Acreage! Chickens! Goats! big Greenhouse! Root Cellar!
Our goal is to only enter a grocery store once or twice a year (for things like rice and sugar etc.)

now if only we could sell this darn house!

[Queen K]

CR, I like your style. You don't happen to be the people who live near Nesters? I've admired that front garden last year. I too converted a run down property into something amazing to the neighbourhood. We are removing Forsythia I as I type and warm up for renewing more growing area.

See the raised garden bed thread to see my raised beds to see what I mean.

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=28190

I like raised beds for a variety of reasons.

[Corneliousrooster]

Nope - i don't live right by Nester's (but i am going to stroll the dog that way today to see what you are talking about )

i was looking at the raised garden thread a few days back - LOTS of great ideas - i am excited to get started on some new projects when we move!!!! Love the internet for having so much info/pictures/feedback for garden projects.

( I just got wind of lasagna gardening and think that sounds like a great way for people with lawn who would like to easily establish a garden plot - WITHOUT THE DIGGING!)

[grammafreddy]

Lasagna gardening is one of the things I did at the farm. It makes a lot of sense. The book is excellent and one that every beginner gardener would do well to read.

http://www.amazon.ca/Lasagna-Gardening- ... 0875969623

This is a good read:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic- ... ening.aspx

[WeatherWoman]

What is lasagna gardening?

[ILBT uh-huh]

WW wants to eat your lawn!

[grammafreddy]

What is lasagna gardening?

I gave you links ^^^^. It's cool.