Category Archives: Garden

Why I Chose Convenience Over Preparation in Life

I made my first Substack post and who knows if I will make another one. I barely remember (or don’t know what to share) to post here.

So, here’s the link if you want to read it there, or just scroll down and read the pasted text here.

https://open.substack.com/pub/brendanolen587563/p/it-isnt-prepping-its-laziness?r=cg71s&utm_medium=ios

I used to be a prepper. I used to have a full inventory of everything we would need to survive whatever catastrophe could befall us. I live in California, so my disaster plans included drought, earthquakes, and flooding but mostly civil unrest. Then, through a mind shift that changed my focus from lack to plenty, I reverted back to my original way of thinking: I’m lazy.

I could use terms with a more positive connotation: frugal, thrifty, organized, budget-friendly, etc. I could pretend it’s for health reasons but that would be a lie. My base feeling towards all-things-storage is laziness.

I can’t stand leaving my house every day to purchase food or supplies. I can’t stand planning every meal months ahead of time so I know what I need for the future. I know people who shop every day for that night’s meal and it drives me crazy! They actually love it and I just don’t understand how!


Do you know what I love? Knowing that I can just walk over there and grab whatever I need off of the shelf without getting dressed and driving through “shouldn’t all of you be at work or something?” traffic. That was the only good thing about the Covid lockdowns: everyone was so paranoid that virtually no one was out shopping!

That’s why I grow food, too. It isn’t to control what goes into my body or to save money (because anyone who has grown food knows it is cheaper to buy a crate of tomatoes from Mexico than grow tomatoes while dealing with the “what is wrong with this plant now?” issues. I grow food so I only have to walk 10 feet to get food and only have to wear enough clothing to not scare the neighbors.
Technically, we are healthier. Before we moved back into our house (we lived with my in-laws for 2 ½ years), we ate out a lot (there simply was no room for us there). Since moving back and building up our supplies, we have lost weight, become stronger, and are so much happier. Whoever said laziness was a bad thing obviously didn’t know us!

Tree Water Bags Updated

Amazon Disclaimer: I am no longer going to try to be an Amazon Affiliate. So, all links I share are just for you to see what products I purchased.

Update!!!

I do not know if there are any long-term implications for the trunk of the tree being shaded. As for root rot, if water remains on the roots long enough to rot the roots, you may not need these bags.

  1. I had issues with these bags not draining after a couple of weeks. So, I enlarged the holes with garden staples.
  2. I removed them to mow around my trees and noticed a burl formed on one of my mystery trees AND
  3. My beautiful peach tree, which I though was suffering from our drought conditions, now has peachtree borer. I am not sure she’ll survive. I have decided to just manually water for the rest of the season. I am highly disappointed.

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The first time I saw anything like this was a gentleman who designed bags like this for orchards. I was really excited then, so I’m sure you can imagine how happy I was when I saw these!

I received a 3-pack, set them up, and tried them for a week. This is how I setup the second package I bought. These are really easy to setup and use. These are designed to be used during the growing season and stored during the winter.

Each bag holds 20 gallons of water. For established trees, you fill once per week. For new trees, they recommend twice per week.

One bag is designed for a trunk between 1-inch and 4-inches. For trees larger than that, you need to zip bags together. These are fantastic and I can’t wait for my in-laws to move so I can buy some for their new trees!

https://tinyurl.com/2feea366

How to Grow Super Healthy Tomatoes in Containers: Using Organic Techniques

I have always used banana peels with my roses but never thought of using them for tomatoes! What she says about the egg shells, I have always done this. There have been times when it looks like it snowed around my tomato plants because of all the egg shells I’ve crushed up and worked into the soil.

PVC Pipe Soaker “Hose” Systems

This will save us tons of water while watering deep enough to keep the plants in the raised beds we’re going to build happy throughout our hot summers.

And this video lays out how to do this for raised beds!

This guy did this setup but for his containers:

Have a Small Space? Grow Vertical!

A friend mentioned that she has a tiny little area to grow any food, so I suggested she grow vertically. I don’t really do this now but may have to since I will be using raised beds this year. I’ve seen so many neat ideas over the past few months that I’m trying to find all the links to share with you (and her). Well, I was going to find a single picture to post here but when I did my Google search (“vertical gardening”) and clicked images I was in awe! There are so many creative ideas out there that I just can’t list them all (so check out the photos yourself here).

This is pretty much what I did when I was growing in containers (I posted pictures of my truck garden in 2011).

This one demonstrates how to build a growing “wall” (I love links with pictures or video) AND it’s Popular Mechanics!

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/how-to-start-a-vertical-garden#slide-1

Here are two ways to reuse soda bottles:

DIY Vertical Gardening

Here is one made with shoe hangers:

VERTICAL VEGETABLES: “Grow up” in a small garden and confound the cats!

And one with pallets:

diy project: recycled pallet vertical garden

This one has a lot of different ideas (and if you look at the bottom of the second link, she has a few more articles about vertical gardening:

How to Design Creative Vertical Gardens Part 1

How to Design Creative Vertical Gardens Part 2

There are several projects on the DIY Network’s website but this one I particularly like, since you can change it around easier:

How to Grow a Vertical Vegetable Garden

Water Storage

I can’t believe I never made a post about water storage (unless I did and just can’t find it).  I will include several links from various sources describing the various methods of water storage and how to ensure the safety of the water.   Of everything we think we “need” to survive in the event of some sort of event, too many do not include water as their number 1 priority.  It’s always food, shelter, clothing, etc. but with all of that, if we do not have access to water (either already clean or have the ability to clean it) we will not survive long enough to enjoy that food and the other supplies we have stored.

The first link I will share is to a water filter that looks like it is by far the best one out there.  It’s to a forum (disclosure here) that I am a moderator/administrator for (you can view this post without being a member) and my dear friend has researched the heck out of this filter. It’s for the water filters made by www.justwater.me.

And here’s how to make a *Home Made Berkey Water Filter* which is helpful for those people like me (if there are any others out there because California is so whacky) who are unable to purchase the Big Berkeys due to state regulations. I don’t see why, if you account for flow rate, this setup can’t be used for other brands of large water filters.

Here’s an article from the CDC:

How to Create an Emergency Water Supply

And here’s an even more basic article from the LDS church:

Drinking Water Guidelines

Now, for cisterns, which I think is ultimately be best way to go, if you have the space for them:

This first article is from the University of Florida extension (there’s a link to a .pdf of this article on the upper left side of their web page):

Cisterns To Collect Non-Potable Water For Domestic Use

And this one, by far, is my favorite, since I truly love Mother Earth News:

The Homestead Cistern

So, if you haven’t already begun you water storage project, you have some reading to do. It’s never too late to get started, even if the positive results may not be seen this year (since I do not expect California to get anywhere near the rain that is needed this year).

How Anyone Can Be More Self Sufficient

I have always felt this way. As much as I dream about it, you don’t have to live completely off-grid and make all of your own items, to be self sufficient (or live a sustainable life). Just do whatever you can to not HAVE to rely so much on the outside world.

http://www.littlehouseliving.com/how-anyone-can-be-more-self-sufficient.html

Growing the eternal tomato

Now, how sweet would it be to never run out of tomatoes? I know my favorite snack has always been tomatoes warmed from the sun, right off the vine. Check out this article to learn how to extend your tomato season!

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/trebor57.html

10 raised bed garden ideas

We’ve decided this is what we are doing this year. The dirt is awful here and there is so much debris that has been buried by previous tenants that it will just be easier to level that area out and build raised beds.

http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/ultimate-raised-bed-how-to-00400000011938/

Unusual and Everyday Plants for Food Hedges (Fedges) – Survival Podcast

http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/plants-for-food-hedges-fedges

Hedge laying is an ancient practice and at one time many “productive plants” were part of the plant.  Sometimes this was done with fruit tree grafted together, hazelnuts or even old cottage roses that provided thorns and huge hips as a crop.  Other times the “productivity” took on a different bent like using willow and gaining material for weaving or making charcoal (specifically artist charcoal).

Hedges were seen as a permanent fence that required only a little maintenance and largely took care of themselves.  In the 1600s one didn’t run down to Home Depot and order delivery of say 25 6 foot tall, 8 food wide cedar fence panels and some posts if they needed two hundred feet of fencing.  They established a hedge.  This hedge would serve their great grandchildren and feed both the family and animals during all those generations.

In this modern era a hedge has become a bunch of unproductive “Red Tips”, the grow fast and hide the busy street or block out your neighbors but they tend to just die one day (usually at 6-12 years of age) and then you  have to cut them down and start over.  They provide nothing but a requirement that you trim them and clean up after them.  There has to be a better way!  Today we discuss that.

Join me today as we discuss…

  • What is a hedge vs. a fedge
  • Can you put layers into a hedge system
  • Do hedges have to be continuous to be effective
  • Why is a hedge a good idea even if you have a fence
  • How to select plants for your hedge system
  • 14 Forgotten or Unusual Plants for Fedge Systems
    • Chilean and Pineapple Guava
    • Filberts
    • Nanking Cherry
    • Goumi
    • Medlar
    • Mulberry
    • Pomegranate
    • Roses
    • Sea Berries
    • Aronia
    • Currants
    • Elderberries
    • Goji Berry
    • Gooseberries
  • Old standbys that make great fedges
    • Blueberry
    • Blackberry
    • Raspberry
    • Semi Dwarf Fruit Trees
    • Chinese Chestnut
  • Thoughts on some unique ideas
    • Food forests with a fedge as the herbaceous layer
    • A food forest system of multitiered fedges
    • Hugulkulture based fedge systems
    • Managing animals in hedge/fedge systems
    • The fedge based paddock system (padfeging?)