Gardening

Gardening is the bread and butter of sustainability to me. Because we are actually planting & nurturing our food source which is really the most important physical need.

Organic Gardening is so important for so many reasons.

1. Most food that we eat is not local. This means that it is being transported via trucks that run on mass amounts of oil/fuel. It means that it is transported on roads which are made from machines using mass amounts of oil. It is most likely grown on huge plots of land worked with huge machines that run on mass amounts of oil.

By localizing our food ALL of that oil/fuel is negated. That is a HUGE environmental impact. Also by localizing our food we stop taking advantage of many countries who grow food for us at very small profit and death of surrounding land.
2. ~Health~ This is a huge factor. There is very little comparison to wild crafted produce grown on ones own property & produce bought in a store organic or otherwise. We grow the best tomatoes I have ever had, I & others often say if what I buy in the store is a tomato then this is NOT a tomato. It is like that with lots of what we grow. The quality is of such a higher degree for many reasons.
Even organic produce is allowed to have up to a certain amount of different chemicals present in the food. Even a lot of organic produce is picked early & selected for reasons beside optimal health/taste.
By growing ones own produce it is possible to grow completely chemical/pesticide/herbicide & even fertilizer free! This produces produce of such great quality that when paired with fresh daily picked ripe on the plant, we get OPTIMAL food. Also a factor overlooked by many is that when we grow our OWN food the food actually grows for US based on our particular make up & needs. Meaning a plant can specifically grow to benefit us individually based on who we are! This is powerful for full spectrum health.
3. Natural~ By growing food without any pesticides, herbicide, fertilizers etc there is much less impact on the environment. There is less run off into our surrounding environment & also the factor of BUYING these products saves all the shipping distance & all the factory space that is used to produce such products.
Its really important to take into account factors besides the present obvious ones. It is obvious that a pesticide run off will effect water supply close by but it is also true that this fertilizer was made in a factory put in a bag made in another factory & shipped across the country or state to get to you. There are many levels of UN-SUSTAINABILITY in play here. By growing our own food in this way ALL of these are negated. This is HUGE!
4. ~Cost~ This is a nice benefit of growing food. It is quite easy to grow enough food for ones self/family/community. We have many systems & awarenesses that make gardening easy, abundant, & self sustaining. It really comes down to planting, harvesting, & utilizing which are all fun aspects of the process!
By growing our own food we save money on costs of food but also we have a great way to make extra income without leaving the home, doing something we are doing any ways! It is almost as easy to grow 1 acre of food as it is 1/2 acre in our situations, but the profit is twice as much. Quality produce & products are in high demand while also fetching a premium price with individuals & businesses alike. There are so many ways to utilize a garden for sustainability and profit that it is my number 1 aspect to sustainability.

So down to the details. An efficient abundant healthy garden is very much about the soil. It has been found that with really healthy soil most diseases are of no issue & the plants produce prolifically , beautiful, rich produce.
So for that, composting is a huge factor of a true sustainable garden. Read the article on *composting* here.

Most land before it gets planted is not ideal for an abundant garden. The first belief that I want to dispose of is the idea that tilling or anything like that is necessary or even beneficial. This is actually quite harmful to the harmony & balance of the earth & is detrimental to a magical healthy prolific garden. Any time the soil dries out or is exposed to the sun many beneficial nutrients are lost. There are many aspects to soil that die when dried out or exposed to the heat of sun. Tilling stimulates both of these processes. Tilling is only actually needed because of hard soil and the inhabitation of unwanted plants in the growing area. There are much more harmonized, efficient & abundant ways to achieve this.
So lets start here. You have a plot of land & you want to start a garden. What now? Most likely this land will have grass, weeds or some plant life growing that you will want to replace with produce. You want to cover the entire area to be planted with cardboard, black plastic, carpet or some other water trapping , heat trapping and dark creating substance. What this does is, kills all the grass from lack of sun & exposure to hot moist climates. This grass then decomposes into perfect nutrients for the plants to come while also getting rid of all the plants that you don't want & also keeping the soil moist and soft! I prefer cardboard for this purpose because you can just leave the cardboard & it will decompose into the soil also! This is the single most magical awareness I have come to in gardening. By negating tilling completely one saves much energy in the tilling process itself, while much energy in the process of nutrients that are SAVED & also CREATED. After this is done in the case of plastic it is wise to remove before planting, in the case of cardboard just cover it with some rich compost & then plant.
Each kind of plant will want to be planted in a different time of year & want different conditions to grow. This is a bit to detailed to get into here however almost all seeds will have planting info on them as for when to plant, what kind of area to plant, how much water & what kind of soil they prefer. These general instructions are normally quite dependable. It is also quite different for someone in Wisconsin vs someone in Texas. In places like Wisconsin that has a very short growing season it is wise to have a green house to pre start plants & although it is a great head start in a place like Texas because of the long growing season it is not necessary.
As you start to plant, space the seeds so that they have the proper space for their type of existence. Radishes can grow very close together while watermelons need quite a bit of space to grow. The packages of seeds usually say how far apart to plant etc.
Also companion planting is a very useful and highly advised practice. The way it works is that there are certain plants that help each other grow or keep away pests that bother other plants. THAT IS PERFECTION! For instance a problem for squash or melons is the squash beetle. However squash beetles dont like marigolds so planting marigolds around the squash keeps many of the beetles away. There are many plants that serve this purpose. Check out the many gardening books & even web sites have lists of companion planting combination's. Check this out before you buy seeds for the season so as you know what it is you are wanting based on what you are wanting ;-)> Then plan out the garden so that the companion plants are next to each other & the ones that don't benefit each other are away from each other.
I also recommend making a chart of plantings so as you have documentation of what grew where with what and how it did so that on next planting the chart can be consulted & enhancements made. Every year that I garden I become more efficient & proficient at utilizing the space for what is planted.
After these seeds are planted the soil needs to be moist as the roots are very small to non existent. This is why the spring is the rainy season so that the new seeds can grow with their very small ability to absorb & retain water! THAT IS PERFECTION!
Most of the time we don't want soggy or soaking soil but damp moist soil. As soon as the sprouts are above ground it is wise to ad mulch around the plants. Add at least a couple inches or mulch to the entire garden where a sprout is not coming up. This serves many purposes!
1. It keeps moisture in the soil which is important to reduce water use and time spent watering. 2. Protects the soil from the sun! This is huge as the sun is one of the leading causes for soil depletion. 3. As the wood chips sit there all year they decompose creating their own small amount of compost, there by enriching the soil!
As you integrate these aspects you can see how the need for tilling disappears. With the cardboard composting all the plant matter not wanted is gotten ride of while being utilized in a sustainable fashion and also providing a clean slate. Then the wood chips protecting the soil while also adding to it, there is very little depletion which is easily substituted in the form of compost made on site.
During the winter months one can either just cover all the land with mulch or plant an over crop. Both are good options. A couple months before planting season cardboard, carpet, plastic or some such material may be needed again to prep the ground for the fresh little seeds to have no competition or interference from unwanted plants. It is also possible to cover the land with cardboard in the winter then wood chips & the next coming spring the cardboard will be decomposed enough to grow through & there will be no plants growing in the garden space.
This is the cycle for maintaining healthy soil and plants. It is so beautiful because it is quite clear how the techniques utilized save time and energy in one way while also contributing energy in another. This is the cycle of life and the abundance of nature being utilized. As one uses cardboard to prep the ground one is saving time on tilling and also CONTRIBUTING to the soil. This process is also utilizing cardboard that is being thrown away and not utilized at all. Its also free! That is 4 levels of sustainability and abundance being utilized in 1 step. That is the efficiency of Freedom Living at work. That is how our projects play out and the kind of techniques we implement.
Watering is a big factor in many areas. I feel its important in sustainability to provide the water from an off the grid source. We have wells, which are easy & abundant forms of on demand water. I highly recommend one for any moderate to large size garden or farm.
With on demand water like a well, setting up irrigation on specialty drip hoses with a timer is the ultimate in efficiency & ease. We use an amazing drip hose material called T-Tape. There are many variations of it for different purposes, it is very cheap & although made in a factory is such a time saver, I choose it. By setting up this drip hose system to a well with a timer one can actually leave as I have done for a month & come back to a perfectly healthy garden full of produce to harvest.
An ideal garden set up is one that sustains it self. If its not easy its not being done right.
Rain water collecting is a very possible watering method especially for the smaller sized family gardens. Most places get way more then enough rain when collected to water a garden. The main factor ( in some places much more than others) is the storage space. In a place like Texas it is common to get inches of rain in 1 day & not get rain for a month after. This means that to completely rely on rain water one must have enough storage to supply water for at least a month without rain. The question then really is not about rain but how much storage is needed for the garden size for the time there might be with no rain.
For a smaller garden it would be quite easy to fill 55 gallon tanks with water & just have hoses on them that when opened drained into the garden. For a large garden this would not be the most efficient set up.
For a larger garden an underground tank storage with a pump or an above ground tower is better. The nice thing about a tower is that it can use gravity. The nice thing about underground tanks is that they are much cheaper & because they are underground don't take up land space. Also if building cob dwellings it could be possible to use the dirt dug up for earthen building. One would defiantly need a pump for underground tanks however the money saved on underground tanks would easily pay for a pump. The worst part of an underground tank is that its underground so getting to it is a pain. This in most cases if planned right is not much of an issue.
I have quite a few other rain water collecting and distributing ideas that are not tested. Will share as experienced and worthwhile.
Another option is a pond or a river. Ponds or rivers could be pumped, channeled, or harvested to substitute water to a garden that isn't getting enough rain. Springs are also present in many mountainous areas of the country which make great garden as well as house water.
In low rain areas utilizing raised beds is a wise option. By making raised beds one gets a more optimal water usage. Combine this with lots of mulch & you can get by with far far less water.
With that lets get to raised bed construction!
I love raised beds & have utilized them many times from many different sources in many different forms. The factor that I use for all my beds is that the material is a free source being reused. This makes for a wide variety, keeps it creative & above all keeps from supporting the creation of more materials instead of using the over abundance of material we already have & throw away.
The beds can be long or wide as long as every area of the bed can be reached to harvest. So long skinny ones work well.
I have made raised beds out of doors nailed, screwed or fastened together to make large rectangles. They work great & if the doors are free then yippee =D
I have made raised beds out of cabinet doors tied together with strings that are made from that industrial shrink wrap they use on pallets of boxes & such. This was a cool model because I could make them any shape, triangles, squares, rectangles or even octagons. In this particular model I needed nothing that cost anything or that did not come from a trash source. WIN.
I have made lots of raised beds out of tires large and small. A car sized tire is only good for about 1 melon plant. I have also used huge 4 hundred lb tires that are 4 feet in diameter, as large raised beds that work very very well.
I have made raised beds out of bundled stick piles and my favorite ones are out of cardboard and bamboo! They are super beautiful, very easy, very abundant, free & sustainable resource. Can make any shape or size and they decompose quite quickly adding to the richness of the soil!