Freedom Gardens and other tools for the Aspiring Gardener

There is a cool website called FreedomGardens.org that has a ton of resources for people looking at getting into gardening. Aside from regular potlucks at the Path to Freedom homestead in Pasadena, they have forums where you can get lots of questions about gardening answered by your peers.

There are lots of other great resources out there for gardeners. One of the best is the Master Gardener system. This nationwide network of volunteer gardening experts can answer just about any question you have, as its members are required to provide their knowledge free of charge. Not only do they usually have a hotline you can call for free, but they'll have locals who have been gardening longer than you can imagine in your climate and hardiness zone, so you're not getting a generic answer.

Another great resource is the California Integrated Pest Management Program. Created at UC Davis, they have a complete rundown of EVERY pest you could possibly run into, and how to control it without resorting to pesticides. Consider it like a triage for your garden. Hopefully you won't have to go there, but its nice to know the UC system has your back.

There are other great resources too, like the Helpful Gardener. They focus on articles around organic and heirloom plants, as well as projects like container gardens. If you're more focused on vegetables, then Veggie Gardening Tips may be your cup of tea. There are dozens more resources if you do a quick web search.

So where do you start?

PLANT SOMETHING! Grab a pot, or a storage bin, find a guide that appeals to you, and toss some potting soil in there. Buy some seeds that are in season, or if you lack patience, seedlings from a nursery. You could even buy or make a selfwatering pot if you're really worried your green thumb is black. The best thing you can do is start, even if its just some herbs, a tomato, or a mesclun salad mix.

What are you waiting for?

Gardening in America

Back in the 1940s, during WWII and the homefront effort to support the troops, Americans did a really amazing thing.

They grew their own food. They killed their lawns. They pulled together, sacrificed, and made themselves sustainable.

They called this effort the Victory Gardens. Over a third of all wartime vegetables grown in America came from small scale victory gardens. Can you imagine a third of Americans growing their own food? Tilling their lawn, composting, sowing seed and harvesting the fruits and vegetables of their labor, the 1940s citizens were much more connected to their food than contemporary gringos.

Could we ever get back to a point where so many of us took responsibility for our own nourishment? In a nation with more people in prison than there are farming the land, it seems an unattainable goal. But with rising food costs, gas prices threatening to make long distance distribution unfeasible, and more and more Americans out of work in a service economy that isn't manufacturing or growing anything worth buying (weapons and genetically modified monoculture notwithstanding), its conceivable that in my lifetime more than 1% of Americans will be growing something useful or edible.

Unfortunately, the falling number of farmers threatens the loss of the age-old growing techniques of our grandparents. The last 50 years has shown an enormous population shift from the rural heartland of America to cities on the coast. Many of these farms and homesteads have gone been sold from their citizen owners to new corporate industrial farms. But can we trust corporations to manage the future of our food?

I'd say no. Try to grow it yourself. Check out the Freedom Gardeners for a community of modern Victory Gardeners dedicated to doing just that. And we'll keep you posted at growcology on ways to live more sustainably, now.

Tabletop Gardens

Check out this video on tabletop gardens. Bianca Chavez of WordsfortheMany.com made it with Nick Heyming and his parents Lucy and Frank, to show people how to grow their own vegetables at home.

You don't have to spend hours weeding it.
You don't have to spend more than a few seconds watering it.
You don't have to bend over.
You don't have to buy vegetables grown hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Sarah and Bianca in the Orchard

Sara and Spencer in the Orchard, originally uploaded by Mr. Nicolás.

Under the instruction of master gardener Lucy Heyming of Riverside, CA, Sarah and Bianca prune up dozens of different fruit trees before the spring buds come in. The culled wood will be mulched under the same trees that it was cut from, and the living branches are sprayed with a fortifying anti-pest oil. They'll be much stronger next year.

Chicken Tractor Trailer

Chicken Tractor Trailer, originally uploaded by Mr. Nicolás.

Who wants to reach far into a dark, poop-filled, dank cubby for their eggs? With the sloped grating Spencer installed in our chicken tractor, the eggs will just roll down to a rubber bumper in front of a locked door, so we can scoop out enough eggs each morning to feed my parents, myself, and anyone who cares to visit and grab some. On top of that, the mobile chicken coop will eradicate grubs and larvae for fruit eating pests, till the soil, fertilize it, and keep our birds from escaping and damaging fragile veggies.

Tabletop Garden

Tabletop Garden, originally uploaded by Mr. Nicolás.

With just a few bucks in bins and soil, you can grow all your own vegetables. Better yet, because its on a table, you don't have to bend over, and there's no weeding or maintenance. All you have to do is water it for 30 seconds a day (we fill a bucket in our shower with the cold water that we used to waste while it heated up and use that), thin out greens for salads and dishes, and the sun and soil do the rest.

Joe and the Compost

Joe and the Compost, originally uploaded by Mr. Nicolás.

Worms eat my garbage.

Turning Compost

Turning Compost, originally uploaded by Mr. Nicolás.

One of the main reasons we at Growcology have gotten into permaculture was to find out how to restore soil. Aside from conventional aerobic composting, we're investigating the effectiveness of chop and drop mulching, biodynamic preparations, compost tea, barrel compost, sheet mulching, and store bought alternatives to DIY soil. We're going to share our findings with anyone interested in growing their own useful and edible plants.