Questions about the economy and gardening

[punkin]

punkin
are you heating this greenhouse?
like with a wood fire
or big black barrels that heat up and release warmth thru the night or anything like that?
just wondering

Yep, it will be heated, but not figured out the most efficient way yet.

My smaller greenhouse is pretty easy to heat with propane. It will be used mainly as the germination house. Once the plants get so big, they will be moved to the larger greenhouse. That's why I ran out of room last year. I had over 100 1 gal. tomato plants setting everywhere. It was like a jungle. Once tomato plants get so big, they can tolerate cooler temps. Several nights the temp was down to below 40 degrees. As long as you keep the frost off, they will be OK.

 

[FarmerChick]

wow cool
now you have a germination building and a second greehouse to be a storage room to finish off plants.

that is a business lady!

you take flats of mater plants, etc. to the market and backyard farmers will scoff them up fast!

 

[the simple life]

I know that I will be getting a much earlier jump on the garden this year.
Last year we spent some time organzing and building the frames for the garden and hauling in loam and all that.
We don't have to do any of that this year so it will be easier to get going on it.
We have 4 more frames already built that we can add to the garden to expand by another 4 beds, so we will do that much anway.
That will only take one truckload of loam.
I already bought 60 packets of seeds so I will be able to start the seedlings indoors.
We are going to build a fence around the garden this year too but I expect to have that done by April so it won't hold up my early planting ambitions.
Honestly though, I really don't think too many people are going to start gardens because of the economy.
Either they are into gardening already or not, someone who has no interest in gardening isn't going to take it up to save money.
Besides, there is that whole intial investment to think about when you start a garden.
Its not usually a matter of buying seeds and tossing them in the ground.
You have to be able to purchase all the soil building materials, garden tools and if you are like us truck in 15 yards of loam, purchase the wood frames and then all the seedlings or seeds.
Then there is the water to bill to add into all of the mix.
Even from a minimalist point of view, its still going to take that initial investment which some people may not have the money to have in order to start up a new garden.

 

[Bebop]

I agree with you simple life, I have several friends back in El Paso that "garden." They have like Aerogardens but have no plan to use the plants they grow.
While in some places it's considered a trend, I think many people will still be relying on the supermarkets for food, but they may still buy landscaping plants and maybe some veggie and herb starts to try their hand at gardening.
>^.^<

 

[patandchickens]

I dunno... spending a buncha money (in the right ways) will enable you to have good soil *faster*, but you can get there perfectly fine the slow and cheap-or-free way, too. At least anywhere I've lived.

I sure haven't spent any money on soil improvement here, despite just a few inches of clayey loam over top of clay subsoil you could make bricks outta. But I have put lots and lots of free amendments in -- moldy hay, leaves, chicken poo, composted down horse poo, not-yet-seeding weeds, the product of the official compost piles, etc etc.

For those who are trying to garden on something that is not really soil at all, like the bare subsoil of some modern subdivisions, it may be necessary to buy *something*, but it needn't be a large amount just to get started. Many materials can be scrounged.

I believe the only garden tools I've ever bought were a wheelbarrow ($60 new, big splurge, but it gets used in the barn etc much more than in the garden), a used shovel and rake and hoe for $2 at an auction, a used spade and two spading forks for $4 at another auction, a couple trowels for something like $5 at a garage sale, and my trusty bread knife which I use for a bazillion purposes in the garden, about $10 (new) every couple years when it gets replaced. Oh, and mom gave me a trio of Wall O' Waters several years ago, and another three last week. That adds up to less than a hundred dollars, and would be less if I'd gotten the wheelbarrow used.

(oh, almost forgot, I buy a new pair of gloves most years, so that's another five bucks)

It really needn't be expensive at all, particularly if a person is starting on a small scale (which is smart, and if you choose the right things to grow can still produce a pretty impressive amount of food)

JMHO,

Pat