How to Generate Massive Amounts of Free Compost

If you have difficulty finding horse manure to use for composting try Craigslist. Where I live, a quick search yields all the free horse manure you could ever desire. :-)

As an alternative, you could also use rabbit manure. I have personally used rabbit manure for vermicomposting for several years. I like it as a alternative to horses and cattle. Rabbits are not generally given the same types of medications that larger domestic livestock receive.

Armed with this new knowledge and strategy for generating an unlimited supply of free compost for gardening, you now have no excuse not to start your own backyard garden.

To speed up the process you could inoculate the compost pile with some red wiggler worms, but in my experience that's not really necessary. A big pile of the "stuff" will attract red wigglers on its' own. But if you already have some red wigglers, or can find a source of them from a family, friend, or neighbor by all means use them to turbo charge your composting efforts.

Urban Aquaponics

Aquaponics has been popular in Australia for quite a few years, but in the last couple of years the interest has been increasing in the United States.

There are many examples of commercial aquaponics businesses on the internet, but for the purposes of urban survival something along the lines of the video below might be a nice starting point.



After our holiday travels to visit family out of state, we're going to start our own basement aquaponics system.

Last winter I successfully operated a very prolific homemade hydroponic system. I've posted some example pictures below:

Kale, Spinach, Collards

Kale

Spinach for supper





The downside to hydroponics is the cost of nutrients. With aquaponics, the fish generate the nutrients and the media and plants help filter the water for the fish.

Growing Garlic in Winter

Several months ago we visited the Plymouth Farmer's Market and purchased some garlic scapes from Michigan Garlic Farm. My wife loves garlic and we cook with it a lot (although she did not particularly like the scapes). After talking with Les and Donna for 15 - 20 minutes at the farmer's market, my excitement for growing garlic was ignited. The Abel Family talks about garlic with so much energy and vitality that it's contagious. We purchased a few varieties from them for planting, although I forgot to ask specifics, and I also purchased another 1 lb from another source a little later on.

With some of the Earthboxes moved out of the normal "flower" beds that the previous homeowner installed, we now have room to plant some garlic! I planted most of our beds with the Music garlic variety and the remainder with the garlic we purchased from Michigan Garlic Farm.

Here are a few pictures (please excuse the picture quality from my cell phone):

It's my first attempt at garlic, so I am not really expecting spectacular results. If we have a few small successes, I'll be happy. The soil is supposed to be worked 18", but for my backyard I couldn't achieve that without some type of mechanical tiller (I don't own one), so I had to settle for a 7-8" base of worked soil, and another 4 inches of mulch on top. I planted the garlic about 5" inches deep.

We also have a second bed on the opposite side of the deck that was planted and mulched also.

For any of the garlic pro's that might read this post later, I apologize if I have violated any written or unwritten laws of growing garlic successfully. Sometimes when conditions are less than perfect, I employ the Nike strategy and go into Larry Cable Guy's mode of just getting it done. Most of the time, I achieve some level of success in spite of myself. I've got my fingers crossed! :-)

Is anyone else growing garlic this fall?

Growing Food

During World War II, backyard gardens provided a food source for millions of Americans.

From LivingHistoryFarm.org:

They planted gardens in backyards, empty lots and even city rooftops. Neighbors pooled their resources, planted different kinds of foods and formed cooperatives, all in the name of patriotism.

Many Americans are using similar concepts to supplement and, in some cases, replace the local supermarket as the primary source of food to feed their families.

While living in Florida several years ago we decided to start a backyard garden. We planted an above ground square foot garden spot that measured 8' x 4' in a corner of our postage stamp sized yard. We were able to grow an abundance of carrots, lettuce, radishes, and collard greens.  Eventually we added a couple of self-watering Earthbox containers planted with cucumbers.

Above ground garden

After our move to Michigan we expanded our efforts much further. We added 10 additional Earthboxes to accompany an 4' x 4' above ground garden area and 20' x 4' in ground spot. We grew 100's of Cubanelle peppers, green bell peppers, red bell peppers, jalapenos, pole beans, canteloupe, baby watermelon, squash, Malabar spinach, onions, carrots, tomatoes, strawberries, Swiss chard, and zucchini. We also planted rhubarb, blackberry bushes, and a lot of garlic this fall. During the height of the season we grew enough food to eat entire meals grown completely in our backyard. We harvested enough food from the backyard to eat regularly from it for several weeks in late summer and throughout the fall. We even canned 15 to 20 jars of pickles and pepper relish for winter enjoyment.

Above ground bed with 4 Earthboxes

In ground gardening spot just outside our back door

Pole beans and peas in some backyard Earthboxes

We've improved the in ground spot with additional compost this fall and with better planning and crop rotation methods next year, we anticipate doubling the in ground production. We were also able to harvest two different rounds of vegetables from our Earthboxes.

Our strategy for growing food encompasses vegetables that "keep on giving" throughout the season. To maximize yield for the space, we avoid 1 time items like cabbage and iceberg lettuce. The Malabar spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce, squash, and collards started producing in June and were still harvesting edible food the dinner table well into the fall months. The addition of more Earthboxes and proper management techniques could easily double or even triple our production from teh self-watering containers.

I hope this gives you some ideas for just easy and practical it is to grow your own food no matter where you live and no matter how small your yard is. You can even garden from a balcony or roof top. I'll be expounding on specific gardening techniques in later posts.