Growing a Sustainable Vegetable Garden

Do you wish you could grow a sustainable vegetable garden? Now you CAN have a sustainable garden of your own in a very small space. And it can be fun as well as VERY productive!

Whether you use organic gardening, container gardening, hydroponic gardening, raised-bed gardening, or straight soil-bed gardening, the things we discuss here will work to give YOU a sustainable garden!

Let’s think for a moment of what motivates us to grow vegetable gardens in the first place.

Many of us want the taste of fresh picked-when-ripe tomatoes, corn, peas and etc. Some folks believe it’s the healthiest way to live. Others love the fresh air and exercise, digging in the dirt, and the joy of being a co-creator with God.

The idea of having our food grown by strangers on huge farms in far distant places, while perhaps using harmful pesticides and herbicides, makes others want the security and control of growing their own. And at times like 9/11 we all feel vulnerable to disruptions in the complex delivery system that brings food to our doors. Also when i work in the garden my husband order http://buycenforce.com Cenforce from India to the USA, Cenfroce work for him better.

Sustainable Gardening is really quite simple, and most of the work is already done for you by nature. All you need to do is learn and follow 10 basic rules. The following steps will assure you a great gardening experience. Learn and enjoy!

1) Choose a location A) away from shade of all kinds B) that’s reasonably level, C) has a good water supply, and D) has easy access

2) Remove everything from the soil: rocks, rubbish, and vegetation, including roots and runners of perennial weeds and shrubs. Then till or dig everything 8″ to 10″ deep.

3) Plan, stake, and build level ridged soil-beds in which to plant seeds or seedlings. An 18″-wide soil-bed or open-bottom box, with aisles of 3 1/2′ is ideal.

4) Assure balanced nutrition for your crops. Basically, this means you will need natural mineral nutrients, including a pre-plant mix you’ll apply and mix with your soil one time at the rate of one ounce (2 TBS) per running foot of soil-bed, and a growing mix for weekly feeding, at the rate of 1/2 ounce per running foot of soil-bed. These are mixes you can make yourself at very little cost. We’ll tell you exactly how to make these two mixes in another article.

5) Plant seedlings or seeds at the proper time, so they don’t freeze, and space them based on their size at maturity, to give them ample growing room.

6) Immediately after transplanting seedlings, give them a boost with 34-0-0 or other nitrogen fertilizer. Apply 4″ from plant stems along the row of plants, using 1/4 ounce per running foot of soil-bed. Water thoroughly.

7) Three days after transplanting, or immediately upon emergence of sprouted seedlings, begin applying the growing mix, using 1/2 ounce per running foot of soil-bed. Continue weekly until 3 weeks before crop maturity. Look for more about feeding your crops in another article.

8) At the first sign of tiny weeds, use a 2-way hoe to remove them. Never let weeds get even one inch high, but continue weeding until they give up. E and O weeding (early and often!) will assure you a weed-free garden, along with much more abundant and healthier crops.

9) Water down the center of your level, ridged soil-beds daily, or as needed to maintain moisture in your soil-beds. Never let the soil dry out, since wilting plants are already dying.

10) Harvest your crops at the peak of maturity for best appearance, taste, and health benefit. Never leave crops in the garden after maturity, or they will quickly lose their food value and attract bugs and diseases.

Just learn these few basic rules, follow them accurately, and watch nature’s miracle turn your bare ground into a cornucopia of tasty and healthy fruits and vegetables.

In coming articles we’ll cover these steps in more detail so you can feel comfortable about why and exactly how to do things the best way – for your plants, your own health, and the environment.

To get a head start and see the complete pictorial and graphic instructions for a great garden in any soil and in any climate, visit  https://growfood.com/shop/the-mittleider-gardening-course/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/26194

Protein From an Animal Or Vegetable Source – Which is Best & How Best to Do It!

For a vegetable gardening instructor to be talking about animals may seem inconsistent to some, but since both provide food they are closely related, so I will discuss the general topic a bit here.

From age 12 until I left home for college I had the full responsibility for a cow, to which were added chickens, rabbits, pigs, and even a goat at various times. These all contributed significantly to and were important to our family’s food supply.

However, I didn’t understand at that time that it requires between 20 and 30 times as much land to produce a pound of protein from an animal source as from a plant source, and looking back I realize that our vegetable garden produced much more with less inputs than did the animals.

Dr. Jacob Mittleider, who taught me almost everything I know about gardening, had a special perspective on this issue, because as a Seventh Day Adventist he was a strict vegetarian. While I am not a vegetarian I also am convinced that we are healthier when we limit meat in our diets, and our personal family diet is usually less than 10% meat.

And both Dr. Mittleider’s and my own experience around the world confirm that most people have very limited space in which to produce their own food, thus making vegetable gardening the best choice for the greatest return on investment.

I submit that a Mittleider-Method garden, when cared for properly and consistently, is the best use of your time, efforts, space and money, and that excess food grown in your garden can usually be sold or traded for milk, eggs, and meat much more efficiently than raising your own animals.  www;growfood.com/shop is the place to get information on the best and most efficient way to produce healthy food for your family, in my opinion.

Nevertheless, there are other issues to be considered. Vegetables can’t begin to compete for the special feeling you may get from caring for animals, and those of you who DO have space may still want some animals.

If animals are in your plans, I encourage you to keep their living spaces clean, separate them from your garden so they don’t destroy it, and whenever possible feed them your excess plant residue as soon as the crop is harvested.

Chicken tractors (Google it), can be used for both chickens and rabbits, but must have a wire floor on them if you raise rabbits, because they will dig their way out quickly.  Also, unless you have very strong wire on ALL sides the raccoons or foxes may feast on your defenseless vegetarian hens or rabbits.  If used efficiently chicken tractors can help you keep your yard clean and organized. Each time the tractor is moved remember to till the chicken or rabbit droppings (both of which are excellent fertilizers), etc. into the soil for natural composting without making a mess. And the same goes for all other animal manure. Get it into the soil and let it compost naturally, rather than having it smell bad and attract pests.

For those who have more space – and are willing to accept the responsibility for at least twice daily care (milking, feeding, etc.) – larger animals may also be an option.

Goats are one possible choice, as they are fairly small, don’t take a lot of space to house or graze, and will eat a wide variety of plants, but they don’t give a lot of milk, are not easy to milk, and many people don’t care for their smell or the taste of their milk.

My personal preference for a milk-producing animal is one or two Miniature Jersey cows. They are about 1/3 the size of full-size cows; they are very friendly and docile – even the bulls; they produce from 2 to 4 gallons of milk daily when fresh; and they only require a fraction of an acre for grazing.

Many websites have details about the miniature Jerseys. They are a rare breed so far, and will be expensive to buy, but after the initial investment, if you use the best breeding stock, you may be able to recover your initial capital outlays by selling excess calves.

Meanwhile, I will continue to focus on VEGETABLE GARDENING, but encourage those of you who have the interest, the commitment, and the required space for animals to consider the most efficient ways to benefit from them.

Can I Grow Successfully in Hard Clay Or in Worn-Out Soils?

What Can I do to Grow In My Heavy Clay Soil?

You do NOT have to replace your heavy clay soil with something better, nor do you need to add tons and tons of sand and/or compost.

To start off you simply eliminate all weeds, dig or till the soil, measure and stake your garden area into 18″-wide beds with at least 3′-wide aisles, and make raised, level, ridged beds, as described in the FREE ebook, at https://growfood.com/freebies/ and in all the vegetable gardening books by Dr. Jacob R. Mittleider.

That and just a little bit more. Just add three simple steps beyond the above procedures that apply to ANY soil, and you can have excellent success with your clay soil – without amending it!

1) When you plant seed, use the handle of your hoe or rake to make a straight shallow furrow along the inside edge of the ridges. For small seeds the furrow should be only 1/4″ deep, and for large seeds it should be 1/2″ to 1″ deep.

Mix the seed you’re planting with 100 parts sand and apply evenly and sparingly in the furrow. This greatly minimizes the inevitable thinning that is otherwise necessary.

2) Then, instead of covering the seed with clay soil, cover it with a shallow layer (1/8″ for small seed and ¼” for large seed) of clean sand. You will have much better germination and emergence of your seeds if they don’t have to fight their way through that heavy clay.

3) After planting and after you water your soil-beds, when the soil begins to crack as it loses moisture, apply just a few pounds of sand per 30′-long bed to the cracks in the planting area of each grow-bed and water the sand into the cracks. The sand will fill the cracks and eliminate the cracking. You may need to do it a second time, but this will stop the drying and breaking of your plant roots that cracking clay soil usually causes.

What type or condition of soil must I have to produce the best results?

All types of soil will produce the same healthy, high quality and heavy yield in food crops except land with standing water on it or toxic substances in it.

How is it done? Simply by restoring the essential plant nutrients to the soil.

The water-soluble minerals in soils, which plants use for food, have been leached out of the soil by rainfall and irrigation for thousands of years into creeks, rivers and oceans. This has greatly reduced the water-soluble minerals available in the soil, and thus soils everywhere are less fertile. The floor of every ocean and sea in the world contains these solidified minerals, which were once on dry land.

These same minerals, from rocks mined from the earth, are packaged, inexpensive, and available worldwide for use in your gardens. Their nutrient content is high and accurately determined – almost always far greater than comparably priced “organic” nutrients.

The quality of your soil (or lack of!) will not keep you from having an excellent garden if you follow the procedures outlined on the website and in Dr. Mittleider’s books and videos, and if you feed your plants properly.

A little natural mineral nutrient fertilizer goes a long way toward solving the worst soil problems. And here’s the simplest way to do it.

Get two packets of pre-mixed micro-nutrients from the Food For Everyone Foundation, so that you don’t have to search for the nutrients individually. We ship two 10 ounce packets, each of which is mixed with 25# of 16-16-16, or whatever similar mix is available at your nursery or farm supply store, plus 4# of Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate) that you can get at any drug store. The Micro Mix is $13.95 for two packets plus shipping. It is the surest and easiest way to assure you have the nutrients you need.

Hard-Pan Clay Soil That Doesn’t Drain – Usable for Garden?

Are you like this person? “We are living in a very bad hard-pan soil area. When I dig a hole and add water, the water will stay for days.”

Many families only have heavy, clay soil in which to grow gardens, and some have asked how to drain the soil so it isn’t too wet to grow in. Following is a little history of commercial clay soil gardening in the USA and Russia, along with some suggestions.

The Imperial valley of California grows some of the most prolific and healthy vegetable crops anywhere in the world. The soil is hard, heavy clay, and before it was drained it was so saturated with salt the crops were very poor.

This condition existed because the Colorado River had for centuries deposited salty water on the land, which evaporated leaving the salt residue. At first the farmers tried applying large amounts of water in attempts to drive the salt down, but the benefits were short-lived.

Finally in the 40’s, the farmers put underground tile drainage systems in, consisting of 4″ drainage pipes buried more than 4′ in the ground at intervals of about 100′, which all led to larger drainage ditches and etc. Today they produce over $1 billion in vegetables per year.

You can also grow great gardens in your clay soil, but if it’s wet or saline you may need to drain it.

In Russia Dr. Mittleider’s students dug drainage ditches 10-12″ wide and 2′ deep to drain a small parcel of “waste” ground loaned to them by the Soviet authorities. It quickly became so prolific and beautiful the authorities gave them 23 acres!

That ground is now the site for the most famous and productive family-based gardening agriculture school in all of the Russian Commonwealth Countries. And millions of Russian families, themselves growing in clay soil, credit the Mittleider Method for giving them self-sufficiency in their food production.

The Mittleider Grow-Beds consisting of level, raised, ridged soil-beds themselves assist in the drainage process on clay soil. But if you have very high rain-fall, you may need to leave the ends open during the rainy season. Beyond that, either open drainage ditches, or buried drain pipes, as described above, will solve your wet-soil problems.

So long as you have plenty of sunshine and access to water, the soil is no problem!

We promise “a great garden in any soil, and in almost any climate.” And we mean it!

If you feel the clay soil is just too hard to work with, and you’d rather not fight it, then build Grow-Boxes and grow your food above-ground. Several Mittleider gardening books show you how, including Gardening By the Foot and Lets Grow Tomatoes. And The Mittleider Gardening Course has a section devoted just to Grow-Box gardening as well.