How do you sustain an impressive garden w/o spending money?

[Strat]

Everyone that has seen my garden is impressed. They ask me advice and help on how to achieve the same success with their gardens.

The thing is I don't have any grand secrets: I spend a lot of money on high quality compost and I water the plants every day. I have as much money in my garden patch's soil as I do in my computer (no I do not and never ever ever will use Round Up and or Miracle Grow).

I know a good deal about composting but I simply doubt I'll achieve the same results.

So what do you folks think? Thanks in advance!

[seko]

Hi Strat would you like to share some photos of your garden??? I am working on my garden but I have a lot of work to do, can't show any photos yet, but I will when it's presentable. :o

[TigaHawk]

Do you utalise Companion Planting?

Why do you feel you'll never achieve the same results as normal Composting?

What if you had say a fishtank the size of a chest freezer, full of freshwater gold/cat/sucker fish that provide a steady ammount of fish-poop which you could add either to the compost pile or directly onto the garden - since fishpoo is a key component in aquaponics, it contains alot of stuff that the plants take out of the soil - would this help things significantly at all or no?


With the $$ Soil to PC ratio - can i take it that it's every 3 or so years you replenish the soil or is it every year? (i normaly put 1-1.5k into a PC every 3 or so years when i get my tax back, trying to get an idea how much you put into your soil)

[soleil]

yes i am very interested in this. come spring (or before) i'm going to start sprouting some seeds to start a wild garden. my little family has a green thumb, so we're definitely interested in any advice you have. :) :hippie:

[genevieve]

Strat--

Worm castings might be the least expensive way to feed your garden.
Check out "vermiculture."

I've also read that paramagnetic rock powder is a great fertilizer, and I believe it's
not very expensive.

As a side note: Yesterday I read that spraying white vinegar on garden pests is a
good way to go.

Happy gardening!

Peace Love Joy & Harmony,
Genevieve

[Selene]

Well, Strat, there's an old saying among us yoginis: "In the garden of a Siddha (saint) everything grows well..."

You, my friend, are the "secret sauce"....!

And I am not joking.

Cheers and all best,

Selene

[Debra]

Love a good gardening yarn Strat ;) I just came across this project which might be of interest to home, locally grown gardeners.. It is about an initiative to bring together a world food atlas, identifying soils and climate, best produce etc. A guerilla cartography community. Also a neat way to root out the big food giants and their footprints.

You can read about it here: http://grist.org/food/these-guerrilla-cartographers-are-mapping-the-edible-world/

They also have a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/food.atlas

Where in the world is you and your garden Strat? What are you growing?

[Arrowwind]

My garden hardly costs me any money. Aside from the framing for my 4 raised beds I've not spent much but for seeds.
After next year the cost of the framing for with beds will be paid for from the money that I have made selling my produce at farmer's market. Then Im about home free.

I tried a worm farm when I first started but the wormes got invaded by mites and that freaked me out... so they are out. Anyway, just put the worms in your garden and give them lots of table scraps. I bury my scraps and I dont compost them. They will feed a good batch of worms in your beds. I bury them right inbetween the rows of plants. You can get restuarants to save scraps for you If you dont make enough of your own. You can also raid trash bins behind supermarkets for veggies to recycle into your soil.

I also bury meat bones and fish guts into the garden. My neighbors fish pretty frequently and when they are done cleaning them Im right over to pickup the guts and heads for the garden.

I do lasagna method gardening. I scavange for plant matter to fill my beds with. I do little composting but what compost I make is from garden waste, whats left over after the harvest.

Since I started my beds three seasons ago Ive greatly increased my garden size by doing the lasagna method directly on the ground without frames.

I scavange leaves and grass clippings. I have purchased old mildewed hay and straw at 2 dollars a bale for the garden, so a total of $6 there. Now we grow our own hay so I wont have to do that anymore. I also scavage for manure. I have been able to get abundant goat manure from local ranchers, as well as chicken manure. Many farmers are glad to give chichen manure away or you can always offer to clean the hen house for the manure. I've gotten it both ways. If you have a pick up truck a picnic in the country is in order. Bring your shovels with you. Go out there and meet some farmers and ask to clean their horse barn or coup. Focus on small local farmers, not the big corporate ones. Small local farmers use way way less drugs and weird stuff. You might ask at your local farmer's market for manure connections.

So in my lasagna beds I make a layer of staw, grass one inch thick (no more than one inch) clippings, green alfalfa hay, leaves and then a one inch thick layer of manure. I repeat this twice in the beds every spring about 6 weeks before planting. I make a topspoil to plant the seeds in with a mix of old manure and top soil., one to two inches think to plant seeds in directly. Most plants I put in are started in a green house and they pop in real well to the beds also.

To make this all work its really helpful to to have a pickup truck to haul stuff around in, as well as a wheel barrow and a wagon. I love the wagon I got at Lowe's, and use it much more than a wheel barrow.

We dont pay for water so I have no ideas for you on that one. We have a well and irrigation rights, but surely keeping your garden well mulched will reduce the amount of water you need as well as putting in an bed irrigation system. I tried that this year, all parts from homedepot. Not a necessary feature but it might help to save money in the long run. you would have to pencil it out to see.

I have also invested in a bag of Azmonite and paramagetic rock. The rock you dont need to add very often as it takes many years to get used up. I purchased 10# for $10 3 years ago and dont plan to add more anytime soon. The azomonite sticks around a long time too and you dont need to use much.

I also scavange for pine mulch when we go out to cut wood in the national forests. I bring home 2, 10 gallon buckets each time we go out. This may not be a good idea where you live, all depends on the types of forest you have, but I am surrounded by hundreds of thousands acres of pine forests where we harvest firewood. Where the trees have died and fallen, and needles have fallen for years there can be found a good 2 to 3 foot thick pine mulch. I never take from the same place more than once. It provides a nice acid medium for growing in for certain plants. I always put a think layer in my lasagna beds, less than one inch thick.

Permaculture practices are something to look into. Placing larger logs under your garden bed helps to retain moisture and feed the soil as well. I might try it in an area this spring... this is called hulgerkulur http://www.permies.com/forums

Aother thing you can do is to make your own biochar. Just get a wood pile and of about 15 sticks like you might put in a wood stove and burn them in the yard. When they are looking chared but not yet crumbled throw dirt on the pile to sufficate it. You end up with biochar... you will still see the shape of your logs but when you take a shove to them to smash them up that break up to chunks of char. Shovel this into your garden and turn it under. It will stay in the garden forever.. and it is where fungi and other lifeforms will set up housekeeping. I placed this not in my raided beds but in my ground level gardens. Do a search.. theres lots of info on it out there.

Also making compost tea and manure tea can help to ferilize the garden with no extra cost.

[astrid]

I have just started gardening via the straw bale method.. you need much less soil.
I also do no dig, raised beds, and i make my own compost.
My chickens are a big part of my gardening process.

Look up and join your local Permaculture group, for food swaps, seed swaps, and loads of
great advice specific to your area and conditions. A polytunnel also helps to extend your growing season.

Here is a vid on the bale method.
I'm using straw for my first try , but according to this clip, hay does actually work better..

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this one is more how i'm doing it.

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more info here..

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/584625/

[Alien Ramone]

If you have a pickup truck or access to one, you could check Craigslist for free sand if you need it and free or inexpensive compost that you can pile up for when you need it in the future.

[Pam]

First of all the freebie that you can add to your compost..I see you live in Florida so you should have access to seaweed. It will really spike your compost with added minerals..Also, not free but it can certainly be alot cheaper than buying fertilizer productsl:

Organic fertilizer-

4 parts seed meal
1/2 part agricultural lime
1/2 part dolomite lime

and for the best results add-
1 part bone meal
1/2-1 part kelp meal

you can buy this stuff in large sacks at grain and feed stores for much cheaper than a gardening store. You can mix your own in a garbage type container. It is so much cheaper to do it this way and it is really a complete way to maintain your precious soil...you might also check out prices on the internet...hoping you have the best garden ever..there really is nothing like growing your own food -going from being a kind of victim to what food is out there to taking charge of your destiny.
Cheers to magnificent healthy soil....pammy

[Arrowwind]

4 parts seed meal
1/2 part agricultural lime
1/2 part dolomite lime

and for the best results add-
1 part bone meal
1/2-1 part kelp meal



In Florida I would be concerned about all that trash BP dumped into the Gulf showing up in seaweed. .. what was it called? Core exit or something like that.

Seed meal is a great idea. Do you mean something like chicken scratch? I saw a huge bag of it for sale at a health food store the other day for about $12. It had flax, sunflower and something else. Hope the flax would not sprout. It sounded good enough for me to eat.

and how much of your formula would go onto a square foot?

Could wood ash be a subsitute for lime? We have tons of wood ash but I have been reluctant to add it to the garden as I dont understand it very well.

Folks should remember to bury bones in their garden too. Being vegetarian should not sway you. All things return to the earth and the
mother feeds upon us all.


I have just started gardening via the straw bale method.. you need much less soil.

I've been growing my potatoes in mostly staw with a few shovels of goat manure, a layer of leaves mixed in and on top and a few shovels of top soil. Last year I added alfalfa hay instead of staw... I didn't really see any difference in production. When I dig into the pile (third year) now it is absolutley rich rich rich.

[Pam]

Arrowind, You can certainly use the chicken scratch but for the same price you can get it ground up a little more as seed meal. I left out a huge detail in my previous reply. You can actually substitute grass clippings as long as they are not in the seeding stage..This will not give you as good of results but you can get them for free. Also you wanted to know how much of the blend to use...Use between 4-6 quarts on per 100 square feet..Apply this in the early springtime. You can also sprinkle some around the base of your more demanding veggies like cukes, zuchs, cabbage, asparagus, onions, turnips and spinach.. If you have priced a nice full spectrum organic fertilizer you will find that this will be a much cheaper .way to go...

[eva08]

My secret is 6 - 12" of straw, keeps the moisture and the earthworms do the cultivating for you. The other secret is chickens - your own manure factory besides the bestest eggs. And yes, absolutely no chemical fertilizers and pesticides or insecticides or fungicides, or round up etc.

[Strat]

Hi Strat would you like to share some photos of your garden??? I am working on my garden but I have a lot of work to do, can't show any photos yet, but I will when it's presentable. :o

I've a few. My 'bragging right' shot looks like one of those shoddy UFO pics though: can't really see it (that's supposed to be a joke). Here it is anyway:
(Links given and not pics due to size)
http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/jamesphotobucket3/random/tomatoes_smallsize.jpg

http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/jamesphotobucket3/random/IMG_20120419_162807.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78265658@N03/7242233088/

That last pic shows the tomato climbing up the magnolia tree. I didn't have to do anything, it worked out perfectly on it's own. The leaves of a tomato plant interlock if they are grown too closely together, they also locked onto various parts of the tree. It worked so well; it gets windy in FL and it never phased the plant. Only the smaller cherry tomatoes grew that tall, the bigger ones stay at about 6'. Fruits of the labor shot:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78265658@N03/7242266170/

Cucumbers:
http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/jamesphotobucket3/random/IMG_20120419_162919.jpg

the cucumber flowers were vibrant:
http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/jamesphotobucket3/random/IMG_20120316_115419.jpg

That might be a squash flower, I don't remember.

I also have pics of broccoli's and collards. And I have an apple tree in my front yard, funny story behind that. It looks like hell though, more of a shrub than a tree. I don't mean to brag but I'm quite proud of myself for all this because I have no prior experience. But again, I spent a lot of money on the soil hence the creation of this thread.

I'll address the other posts later. Thanks for the replies everybody.