Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
There are people from all around the world getting very creative about how they grow their food and so I invite you to share what you have discovered that is simple, as natural as possible, organic...and with a view to using as little technology as possible, in the ways of growing food.
The benefits of vetiver grass
Before we planted vetiver, I didn't really understand it.
Soil erosion and landslides have always been a problem for the East Balinese because of their mountainous terrain and heavy rainfall. We learn in this great little "how to video", how vetiver changed the way this community have been able to grow food on previously unworkable land, and how they were able to use this remarkable grass in many other different ways throughout the community.
The Vetiver System and Indonesia's East Bali Poverty Project
Meanwhile in Western Ethiopia...
Ano Farm (Western Ethiopia) has used the Vetiver System to reduce erosion and improve groundwater recharge. The results are higher crop yields and increased groundwater and regenerated water flow from springs.
Vetiver System (Vetiver Grass): Ground Water Recharge
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
Making more out of less. Entire local towns could be fed with this ingenious design by Russ Finch.
Youtube introduction by Kirsten Dirksen.
Winter temperatures in Alliance, Nebraska can drop to -20°F (the record low is -40°F/C), but retired mailman Russ Finch grows oranges in his backyard greenhouse without paying for heat. Instead, he draws on the earth's stable temperature (around 52 degrees in his region) to grow warm weather produce- citrus, figs, pomegranates - in the snow.
Finch first discovered geothermal heating in 1979 when he and his wife built it into their 4400-square-foot dream home to cut energy costs. Eighteen years later they decided to add a 16'x80' greenhouse in the backyard. The greenhouse resembles a pit greenhouse (walipini) in that the floor is dug down 4 feet below the surface and the roof is slanted to catch the southern sun.
To avoid using heaters for the cold Nebraska winter nights, Finch relies on the warm underground air fed into the greenhouse via plastic tubing under the yard and one fan.
Finch sells a "Citrus in the Snow" report detailing his work with his "geo-air" greenhouses and says anyone can build a market-producing greenhouse for about $25,000 or "less than the cost of a heat system on a traditional greenhouse".
Nebraska retiree uses earths's heat to grow oranges in snow
Greenhouseinthesnow.com
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
I first shared about Geoff Lawtons remarkable work with greening the desert here
In this video, Geoff shows what can happen in just one year using permaculture to grow food.
Geoff Leads a Teaching Tour of the Greening the Desert Site
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
From poverty to permaculture in India.
Bill Mollison, the father of permaculture works with Aranya farm to turn a rocky barren wasteland into a lush food forest. As the passionate farmer of Aranya farm proclaimed, Any land can be transformed within 2-3 years
India's Water Revolution #4: Permaculture for Wastelands at Aranya Farm
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
Gardens build community. period
plants change people
This is how Ron Finlay, guerilla gardener feels about growing food. He lives in a place that has been zoned as a food desert. A food desert has been defined by the USDA as an area where there is not access to fresh, readily available, healthy food.
He has taken his inspirations and actioned them into reality by taking asphalt and dead grass in empty lots and sidewalks throughout his community in Los Angeles and transforming them into productive edible gardens. He constructed his own garden so that he could feed people in his community. I love the spirit of this guy.
Ron Finley: Food Forest
Ron Finley: An unlikely farm feeds a community
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
This couple grow much of their food on their man-made island, ten miles north of Tofino, British Columbia, off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Starting @ 2.12 - 2.54 [13 min video]
Nature has been my guide
27 YEARS Living Off-Grid on a Self-Built Island Homestead
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
This no-till garden method using cardboard has been bountiful for Ricky Baruc, who farms in Orange, Massachusetts. He has used this method for 20 years. Whilst he didn't invent this method of no-till gardening (as the title suggests), he has lots of valuable insights to share regarding the art of cardboard no-till gardening.
Cardboard Method Inventor Tells All: No-Till Gardening Guide to Worm Sex and Good Food
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
JADAM or Korean natural farming, offers a completely different perspective on how to farm organically, cheaply and effectively. Master Cho shows farmers and gardening enthusiasts how to make bulk natural pesticides, root promoting fertilisers and soil bacteria for just dollars. Everything for the english speaker is in subtitles.
JADAM Lecture Part 1. Agriculture Revolution! Ultra-Low-Cost Organic Farming (30 videos)
Part 2
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Part 18
The instructional e-book for quantities and ingredients
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
Permaculture for Vegans
Permaculture News in Australia provides a great lengthy article on all the ins and outs...
In Phoenix Arizona...Jake, a vegan athlete grows an edible food forest in a desert climate using woodchips! (no manure). For those who are wondering what he is referring to regarding the New Zealand spinach, it is also called Warrigal greens. Warning, they grow like weeds!
INCREDIBLE 200+ FRUIT TREE & URBAN GARDEN IN PHOENIX ARIZONA
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
Jim is a gardener in Florida who makes a living from the produce he grows in his front yard. He makes $1000 a week, selling to a tight circle. He says that people often make the mistake of expanding. Instead, he sells to his local markets novel things like vegetable bouquets. The secret to prolific growing according to Jim is to thin out the plants, to make sure that the ground is never empty, to make sure that there is diversity in what is grown, to plant what he enjoys eating, to mulch and compost well and to use the well water (even if it is salty).
$1000 A Week: Front-Yard Market Farming + Bicycle Delivery (w/ Jim Kovaleski)
Here he is again in Maine. Jim has not watered his garden in Maine for 7 years. The secret he says is to not break the ground and use grass to heavily mulch. He says, there is room for 10 more Jims.
NO WATER NEEDED to Grow Veggies? Just Add Grass.
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
Quote:
Posted by
Constance
Jim is gardener in Florida
Must...resist...obvious...jokes...
Joking aside I think he offers courses online, teaching his method. I've seriously considered taking them. I looked into this about a year ago, I think it was pricey but I'm not sure. I believe he advocates using hey to wick water from the soil. I want to learn more of his methods because the FL sun wilts damn near everything, I have to put a shade up for the sun post 4PM or everything just gets beaten up. I do well but I want to improve my skills every season and I use a good amount of water.
I may plant more FL friendly plants that are more drought/heat tolerant but at the same time I kinda think screw that I want my tomatoes... and maybe cucumbers. They have pretty leaves.
I want to get sea salt from the ocean. I know some people do this but I don't know how. Kinda silly buying it when the damn ocean is right there and I'm always at the beach.
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
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Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
Maybe not so much an ingenious way, but certainly a cheap way:
What happens when you regrow vegetables from kitchen scraps in the garden:
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
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Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
If you have ever had the frustrating experience of weeds growing up in between your brick pavers or your concrete, maybe there is an opportunity to work with mother nature, rather than against her. :happythumbsup:
This woman in North East China, uses the cracks in between her brick pavement to grow all kinds of vegetables.
Woman grows vegetables in gaps between bricks in NE China
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
Rooftop gardening is nothing new to many Europeans where there is a lack of land but the challenge with urban growing is to grow enough food in a way that it gets enough sun, or knowing what to grow where the rooftop gets too much sun.
Robert Strauss lives in Spain. He grows his food on five levels. He makes his own compost by getting scraps from the local green grocer, as well as collecting leaves from his neighbors during the fall and winter.
He also likes to make good use of the area he has got. For example, he uses his TV antenna to support the kinds of vegetables that like to climb! :bigsmile:
5 Story Rooftop Gardening in Spain (Full Tour)
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
It's all very well and good to grow a bumper crop of vegetables but how do you preserve them in a way that keeps them fresh throughout the winter?
In the middle of Washington State, the Elliott homestead have discovered a way to keep all the root vegetables they grow like carrots, potatoes, parsnips, beetroot etc throughout the winter months without any cold storage using crates and potting mix. It is an ingenious way of storing vegetables without having to pickle them.
How I Store ROOT VEGETABLES (that last through the winter!) | Market Garden | Grow GREAT carrots!
https://theelliotthomestead.com/2018...ore-carrots-2/
Tony O'Neill from the United Kingdom has developed a great way of storing tubers all the way through winter, into the late spring. He stores his potatoes in various ways but the most optimal way he says to store potatoes, is to layer it like a potato lasagne in hay. If you cannot obtain commercially grown hay, you can always use your own dried out long grass clippings, after all, hay is just long grass or a herbaceous plant.
One of the issues that gardeners face is how to store the potatoes they require for seeding. Tony shares how we can store potatoes until we require them for seeding.
He also shows us how to harvest potatoes in the most efficient way possible.
Storing Potatoes Long Term - Save Your Potato Harvest
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
In the middle of Manhattan, on the rooftop of a parking space, Jonathan Sumner of Riverpark farm is growing food in 3200 milk crates. The restaurant in Manhattan he works for is right outside his door. He works in collaboration with the chef so that the food is farm-to-table.
There are many unique challenges to growing in this urban environment but he shows us how he overcomes them to grow the kinds of high quality food that is not seen fresh in many markets.
Farming in 3,200 Milk Crates For a High-End Restaurant in Manhattan
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
Joe Karsten has been the inspiration for strawbale gardening all around the world.
Jill, who lives in one of the Southern states of America, decided to experiment with growing organic tomatoes in strawbales. She shares here the results of her experiment, some of the benefits and pitfalls around growing in strawbales and how she prepares the strawbales for the tomato seedlings.
Straw Bale Gardening: results from my first year
Re: Ingenious ways to grow food - all around the world
Thanks Constance. beautiful. Everywhere I look I see places to grow food for every sentient being on earth and a place to stay. We can grow foods on walls vertical garden, on air. There is vast shallows at sea where people can build a dome structure under safely. at 20 meters deep the pressure is only 28psi. High pressure blowers blowing air in will supply the oxygen. wave powers can be harness to power and light the place. with lights plants can grow. I'd like to take some time to chill out in such a place:). In our country with 350 people per Km2 I still see vast forest. we can replace this none food producing trees with producing ones. Its beyond me why some people says earth is overpopulated and we need to depopulate.