As suggested in this post we will try out to establish a weekly observations thread. Share whats happening in your hometown, region or country that might not be in the focus of international media!
Please provide a general location. For Example:
Location: Southern Ireland
Picture: Friendship Decline among US men and women
Location: Offline
I have finally acquired a little land at this point in my life.
I used to grow things in a garden when I was a kid (and I’ve often kept potted plants). I was excited to start gardening again; it seems like it may be a very valuable skill in a few years.
This year hasn’t had the most cooperative weather. That’s okay, it happens, and it’s good to iron out issues like the need for irrigation, runoff, all of that fun stuff. I’ve tried contouring the garden to make the most of rainfall, while also preventing unwanted pooling. I’ve been getting some good workouts in, too, as you might imagine.
However I’m not only hitting weather issues. I’ve had vines that our flowering too early, corn that is showing tassels too soon and while too short, and similar issues. These could certainly be weather related, at least in part. However it does seem a bit extreme for just some poor weather, which I am no stranger to.
What I think is actually the biggest challenge for me is the soil. The texture is destroyed, it is dense and compressed. It’s also lacking in all of the essential nutrients. I’m sure its microbiome is simply a void. But the grass grows well enough, and any layperson might think it’s just a good a plot for growing on as any other.
And they’re probably right. It might even be better than average. But if I had to survive on what I can grow after just 6-12 months on this land, I would be extremely lucky to make it out alive even if I maximized my usage of it. I’m supplementing bacteria, working a compost pile, growing things with penetrating roots, building shady spots, fertilizing, mulching, the whole nine yards. Hopefully by next spring I will have more fertile and productive soil. I’m still proud of what I’ve managed this year, and even though I expected this, it really put things into perspective.
Which brings me to the point that motivated me to write this. I suspect that people overestimate 1. how easy it is to grow things, and 2. how much life is left in the ground beneath them.
In the sub I would recently see many people talking about how their areas will be food secure. These people point to the efficiencies of modern agriculture, but of course modern agriculture relies on complex and fragile supply chains for everything from fertilizer to tractor parts. Some of these people admit that their communities may have to resort to older farming methods, which would not provide such a bountiful production surplus for export but which would sustain them locally. What I’m here to say is that those techniques will no longer work in most areas where people live, at least not from day 1 and year 1.
This is a disaster that is right in front of our eyes and right under our feet. Right now, on this very day. And while a fair number of people even acknowledge it, they don’t think it will affect them personally and they don’t have enough empathy to care for others who would be affected. All it will take is a little regression of supply chains and millions will starve - including those who are supposed to be working the bread baskets.
I’ve realized that my garden will probably never sustain me, because I won’t survive everyone all around me starving. Out of selfishness and a desire to see the end of the world more than anything, I will have to teach my neighbors to be able to sustain themselves. And get them to teach their neighbors, and so on.
If you think you can grow your own diet but haven’t put in any practice in recent years, now is the time to get back into it. You might be starting from further behind than you think.
Thank you for your post. Have you tried making biochar onsite from surplus biomass and infuse it with compost tea? Your plot is also probably going to need any external biomass you could bring in. Would starting hugelkultur be suitable for your location?
Working on biochar now, and already started with hugelkultur. I’m also slowly importing more biomass but good stuff is expensive (and I’m not using manure for various reasons). I think I forgot to mention that I’m also growing beneficial bacteria (including oleophilics because pollution is an additional concern) and periodically adding it to the soil and compost.
I had been wanting to get started on this for years so I had a big backlog and took it on at full throttle. It will be some time still before it all really pulls together, like the hugelkultur, but that’s just the way it goes.
I’m not an expert or professional in any of these areas (I just read a lot of papers), by the way, so I welcome advice and discussion from everyone here. I find something new I never knew I needed to learn just about every day.
I have no practical experience with growing things, other than running a jungle of a grass roof, with hardwood ash (with some carbon there) and crushed basalt, random organics from biowaste and an adjacent compost heap. Insects, birds and mice seem to love it.
Your rebuilding project sounds very interesting, do you think you can post periodic updates?
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Did you ever read John Seymour’s books (e.g. New Complete Book of Self Sufficiency)? He has various scenarios for different lot sizes, and how to divide the lot to smaller plots, what plants to have in each plot, and what to plant next year, etc.
If grass grows well, that is good. Let it grow and let sheep eat it, so they poop while they consume it (or fertilize the earth yourself otherwise). After some years of this grass cycle and loading the earth with nutrients, you would plant potatoes. Then pea/beans next year, etc.
After the sequence of plants you go back to grass for many years for that plot.
I don’t have my own garden but I read up as much as I can and plant indoors and on the balcony. I also learn to conserve. This way when I do have a chance of getting a garden, I roughly know what to do. Of course, like you say, it is not fast, and won’t be a cakewalk.
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