Q. I have some compost manure and peat moss ready. It looks like I may have to grow everything in containers and grow bags. I already bought 500 5 gallon grow bags. Does anyone have a better idea that is not expensive? I have a $400 monthly budget that can be applied to growing veggies.
A. Be very careful about using manure – that you don’t introduce disease, weed seeds, or bugs into your garden area. We don’t recommend the use of manure for those reasons, unless it has been composted with high heat, such as I did with the Zoo Garden (see Zoo-Doo Man article in FAQ section). In container gardening we recommend the use of Grow-Boxes, using sawdust – which you should be able to obtain quite inexpensively from a sawmill – and sand as the primary ingredients, with peat moss, perlite, and other inert ingredients as back-ups. Sand is 30-35% of the mix by volume.
When you get ready to fill your Grow-Boxes, or bags (read the Learn section of the website on building inexpensive Grow-Boxes), let us coach you on putting in Pre-Plant and Weekly Feed natural mineral nutrients. The Mittleider Method is called the Poor Man’s Hydroponic Method for good reason, and you can grow terrific yields of healthy, delicious vegetables for very low cost.
