Thoughts on Guerrilla Food Gardening

One of the big problems with living in an apartment is not having anyplace to plant a garden. A few pots of herbs and other small plants is better then nothing but is not going to produce anywhere near enough to feed a family.

While I really like the idea of permaculture it really does take some actual ground to really pull off a self-sustaining food source. Actually, Oma in East Germany pulled off something that could be called permaculture.

I recently came across Guerrilla Gardening. And while mostly they seem to be about planting flowers and ornamental stuff but only a little bit on vegetables. This is a good strong idea that we can adapt for survival production.

While planting flowers in the median isn't going to keep you alive, even if it is something like an edible nasturtium. There are ways we can leverage this for something good.

We are not going to be plopping a full-on garden in the middle of some park or forest and hope nobody finds it. Where we can get to, someone else can get to, too. Some places, like federal lands, may have other illegal growers already doing stuff. We have to think different.

Seed balls are a great way to get started. Using a little fertilizer, some native edible plant seeds and some clay you can make lots of marble sized seed balls. Now where can we drop them?

Suburban Colorado has a lot of Open Space and Nature Areas. These are often irregular block areas between neighborhoods to provide some buffer space. Most are just empty lots with a sign on it, that are over grown, though the edge will be mown to keep the sidewalks clear and the chance of wildfire down.

Most are full of native prairie grass, which is fine, but even if we use native edible plants they would be out competed by the grass, especially since it is usually so dry here. What we need is some water and shade.

I have noticed a few open spaces that have some trees always are by a creek that runs through them. This is a very good thing. The creek may only be seasonal but with the shade and mulch from the trees it should be okay. The land around a creek is uneven so it is unlikely to be mown.

There is often plenty of trash around blown in by the wind, so people will be coming through cleaning up a few times a year. So expect it to be discovered, so hide it in plain sight and since seeds are cheap spread them out over a large area so there is something left somewhere.

This is not the kind of thing you'll want to visit often, it'll have to take care of itself. To not call attention to yourself you'll want to look like what people would expect, a hiker or birder. A daypack, binoculars and a camera would be expected. A bag for trash would be good too, leaving a place better then you found it is always a good thing.

Volcanos, Solar Minimum and Agriculture

Any volcano spewing lots ash into the atmosphere is going to cool the earth slightly. That is just the way it happens the ash is reflecting more sunlight back into space. The Icelandic volcano comes at a time that may make its effects more intense. It is probably not enough to cause a Year Without a Summer.

The sun is showing a minimum of sunspots and it has been for longer then expected. So we are not getting quick as much warmth from the sun as we had been a few years ago, which was also in effect during Year Without a Summer.

El Nino is changing more rapidly then expected as well. This is an unknown from 1816, but it doesn't matter so much.

The thing is, is that it won't be a huge deal this year outside of Europe. Europe will have some problems this year. Crop yields will be down.

But next year (2011) may be more interesting, by then the ash cloud will have been distributed across the global atmosphere and so we'll be cooler then normal. 

If you are looking at gardening it might be a good idea to look into some extra cool weather plants for next year and storing up some extra staples.  Frost may come a little later in the Spring and come a little earlier in the Fall, but it shouldn't be anything we can't handle with a little preparation.

The Power of Permaculture

I learned about permaculture a couple of months ago, but this video is amazing.



Not bad, but how does it hold up, what kind of work does this system need. I've done Square Foot Gardening and while it is very productive it is a lot of work.

Mapping Solar Energy Around Your Home

The Spring Equinox is happening tomorrow. That is one of four important days for mapping the shadows around your home and yard.

One of the biggest energy inputs into your property is the Sun, and if you want to maximize your utility of it you have to know where it goes and doesn't go.

Draw Your Property
To make it easy, here is a link to a grid paper creation site.
It is easy to see where shadows lie on you property so you draw a map of your property, including your house, trees and large  bushes.
Don't forget to include anything of your neighbors that casts a shadow on your property.

When to Draw
Now that Daylight Savings Time is in effect solar noon (the sun is at its highest point) as actually at 1:00 PM, it will rise at about 7 AM and set about 7 PM. You'll want to take about 3 readings: about an hour after sunrise, at solar noon and about an hour before sunset.
Other days to do this would be the Summer Solstice (June 21) where the shadows will be shorter and the Winter Solstice (Dec 21) where the shadows will be longer; the Fall Equinox is the same as the Spring so if you do it now that is not necessary to do it again.

What the Shadows Mean
Areas that are shaded all the time, like the North side of the house and dense bushes, are full shade areas.
Areas that shaded only part of the day, like the East or West side of your house, get part or half sun.
Areas that get sun all day, like the South side of your house, are obviously full sun.

Plants are all rated as to what level of sun they can handle so now you know where they can go.
Full sun areas are also good for the placement of solar panels and greenhouses.

Other Things to Map
While your at it adding major wind directions to your map would be helpful. That is an energy source as well. You can use this to plan wind breaks or even a windmill.

Where your downspouts are and how the water flows on your property is useful. Most landscaping tries to get water away from the house as fast as possible but water is a very useful resource and you'll want to find ways to keep it on your property, this would be a very good year to create a few rain gardens to capture water.

Utility hookups and where they run under your property would be a good if you happen to know where they are. Most cities will map them for you for free. You really don't want to plant a tree right on top of a water or sewer line. We once had a tree grow into a sewer line and it took six guys in three trucks from the rooter company to clear it.

Fear and Hungry: The Freedom Garden

If Glenn beck is right that people are willing to give up fundamental liberties if they are living in Fear and Hunger, then there are two things you need to do to prevent that.

Fear
To prevent fear you need to be prepared. A disaster downgrades to an emergency or even an annoyance if you are ready for it. There is a reason the Boy Scout motto is Be Prepared, if you know what to do before something happens you have no reason to panic, just because something bad happened.

It's panic that kills not the incident itself. When you panic you make stupid even detrimental decisions. Most people will go with whatever pops first into their mind and that is usually whatever they normally do which is called normalcy bias and will often get you killed because you may need to make a different decision.

Hunger
The simplest solution to the problem of hunger is to store food now for the future. Having 3 days is just not enough no matter what the government says, that is just long enough for the criminals to figure out that they outgun the police, that is not a good time to start wandering around looking for food. 2 weeks to a month is good, 1-3 months is better and up to 1 year is best.

But if you want to be really free you need to be able to produce most of your own food. Lots of people talk about financial freedom but few ever talk about food freedom. Once you can produce most of your own food you are a much more free family.

The Freedom Garden
The power of compound interest is immense and it applies to more then money. When most people think of a garden they think of a annual garden that they have to plant every year. But there are perennial plants, trees and shrubs that will pay you back year after year.

One of the big downsides of a typical garden is that it is a lot of work to keep it free of weeds and pests. That best part about the permaculture garden style is that after the initial setup it takes a lot of care of itself.

You should look permaculture up yourself on Google there is even a college course available in iTunesU.

Getting Ready for Gardening

The last average frost date for Denver is May 3, that is 12 weeks from now. Now is a good time to start seeds so they'll be ready for planting then.

Dave's Garden

While I am pretty sure that there won't a Holodomor here in the US, I am pretty sure there will be a spike in food prices later this year. So having a garden would be a good idea and not just for this year either.

Producing food in your own garden is a major skill to have. But there are a huge number of factors to worry about. What plants grow best in your area, sunny or shady, wet or dry beds and so on.

Dave's Garden does a lot of that work for you. Their PlantFiles will help you find what plants are best for your city. Here's an example for Idaho Falls. Generally, we have been using the Western Gardening book which is a great resource, but you still have to do all the cross referencing for your area. You have to figure out what zone your city is in and then you have to cross reference that to all the plants you think want to plant this year. This is a huge timesaver.

They even have a tool to help you find out how long your growing season is and when the frost dates are for your area.

Right now we don't have a garden since we are in an apartment though we are growing some herbs to make the foods we do have taste better.

I noticed that we could even create certain micro-climates within our garden just by putting large flat rocks near plants. The rocks would absorb heat during the day and so keep the plants warm overnight.

You probably won't have to grow all your own food, but picking and eating your own foods sure does something good for the body and soul.