Starting a garden - rookie advice and resources

[Guest guest]

Warnng: Very long post:

 

I recommend raised beds because they lengthen your growing season (you can start

sooner and will be harvesting later than other growers in your zone). They also

have some

other benefits that I like - you put the soil into them, so you don't have to

break up

sodded, packed or weedy ground, or deal with rocks and roots, and the growing

level is

elevated, which means less bending and kneeling for you. That last point grows

in

importance as you get older.

 

Alternative, get your shovel and dig in, turn over and move on down the row. If

there are

trees nearby, go ahead and get a heavy mattock to cut them out as well. Once

you're done

with the area, shovel on composted manure and clippings and go through the

process

again. For a long time. Get some kind of good liniment beforehand (I make my

own out

of diluted white birch, grapefruit and ginger oil), because you will hurt.

 

You can rent a rototiller, but it doesn't sound to me like your area is big

enough to invest

in something like that.

 

Here are some links with good instructions and that inform you about other

raised bed

options you may have.

 

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/raisedbed.htm

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/raisedbed/index.html

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/bed~const.html

 

In your situation weeds and grass aren't going to be a problem because there's

been a

building over the area for some time. However packed earth probably will be an

issue,

and since nothing's grown on it in awhile, the ground is probably not going to

have much

nutrition left in it. You're going to have to fertilize and loosen the soil. A

good mulch of

organic composted manure (I have bought bags at the local big box home and

garden

supply when there wasn't somebody around with a horse or cattle barn)-combined

with

other organic matter (leaves, grass clippings, kitchen scraps) will both feed

and loosen

soil.

 

Insects can wreck your garden. I don't use chemicals. Tomato hornworms (look

them up

for a photo - they are insect chamelions - very hard to detect), can strip all

the leaves off

a full grown tomato vine overnight. Best thing to do about them is watch your

leaves, and

if you see them looking nibbled on, just look over your plants VERY carefully,

find it, pick

it off (doesn't bite), throw it on the ground and crush it.

 

For flying insects, there are sticky yellow traps you can hang around the garden

that will

help you determine whether you have white flies (the bane of my garden; they

love tomato

leaves), aphids or something else. Check Charley's Greenhouse Supply and

Gardener's

Supply. Don't know who else has the, but those are the two places where I

bought mine.

They catch and kill insects, even mosquitoes, but won't stop a major

infestation-these

insects multiply very rapidlly. Note: the glue on them is very strong, I had

to disattach a

couple of young mockingbirds that had flown into them and didn't have the

strength to

get away. Fortunately I was able to do so without injuring them, but after the

first one, I

looked out at those traps a lot more frequently and hung aluminum pie plates

around the

garden to ward off the birds (later found out that children's pinwheels...we got

a bunch

from a dollar store...are even better).

 

I tried all the organic solutions and finally settled upon a spray bottle filled

with water,

garlic oil and Dawn dishwashing detergent. It worked better than just about

anything else,

but you DO have to go out and respray every few days and after every rain

shower. The

commercial insecticidal soaps also work and are available everywhere--even

WalMart.

They use a formula similar to what I described, except they use pyrethrins (a

plant extract

acceptable under organic gardening principals) instead of garlic. I'm not sure

it works one

bit better.

 

Suggest cedar shaving mulch around your vine plants (melons, cucumbers, squash)

along

with garlic spray to repel moths. A couple of species larvae burrow into the

vine at the

ground level and kill the entire plant).

 

You will want to mulch to combat weeds that will come up over time (birds eat

weed seeds

and then expel them later wherever they may be flying over, so you may start

without

them and acquire more over the years. I just do not like herbicides. Plastic

sheet mulches

work well to prevent weeds, and I tried them, but didn't find them as easy to

work with as

wood chips (the most cosmetically appealing solution), leaves or straw. If you

have access

to discarded cardboard boxes and don't mind breaking them down and aren't

really

concerned with a " pretty " walkway, those work GREAT, and break down to become a

good

part of your garden soil over years. While they get soggy, they keep mud out of

your

shoes after a rain, too.

 

If you want to start planting before the last frost date in your area (the

Victory Seed web

site has a database with this info by state, and also has other good information

AND is one

of our better sources for open-pollinated/heirloom seeds), you need to put up

some kind

of shelter. Cold frames are the fancy way to go. I put up a low tunnel over

my 4 x 30 foot

raised herb bed until after we moved this year. I have a high tunnel

greenhouse, so my

herbs are happily growing there. High tunnels work, too. These are fairly easy

to erect.

Here's how my husband and I did the low tunnel. We went to the Big Box store

(I'm trying

not to get into brands here) and picked up 7 6' lengths of 1 " diameter PVC pipe,

14 pieces

of 2' rebar,6 ml polyurethane sheet, and clamps. Husband drove four pieces of

rebar at

least 8-10 inches into the ground at the four corners of the bed, then drove in

the rest of

them down the long sides in pairs. That left a little over a foot of the rebar

sticking up out

of the ground. We inserted one end of the rebar into a PVC pipe end, then

arched it over

the bed and inserted the opposite rebar end into the other end of the pipe. And

so on

down the row for all the PVC pipe lengths.

 

We had a 6 mil plastic sheet about 6 x 31' that we stretched over the pipe and

down to the

ground, attaching to the pipes with clamps at each end and at bottom, forming a

tunnel.

Even open at the ends, with deep mulch, the tunnel will protect plants a few

degrees

below freezing. With plastic sheets cut out to cover the ends clamped on,

inside

temperatures would get quite warm even on very cold sunny days, and retain much

of the

warmth during evenings. My comfrey and lemon balm continued to grow all the way

through my winter (in metro Atlanta we didn't have extreme cold, but the low

tunnels

worked just fine down into the low 20s). When you need to get into it, you

unfasten the

clamps on one side and pull the plastic fabric up enough to reach into the bed.

Very easy,

very stable, and very inexpensive. You DO have to irrigate the bed, thoough, as

it's closed

off from rain watering.

 

High tunnels are essentially the same, except you can walk into them, and they

are more

complicated and expensive to construct, because they require stabilizing pipe

and

connectors, but the principles are similar.

 

Good basic info: http://www.thegardenhelper.com/ (also mentioned above for

raised

garden info).

 

There's much, much more out there online. Search on " organic gardening basics, "

" raised

bed gardening, " and " heirloom seeds " and just explore the web sites. Many of

them have

good information and links to other informative sites.

 

 

 

herbal remedies , dppromo wrote:

>

> Thank you for writing this!  I was actually going to write about getting tips

on starting

a garden. I have the back section of my yard I want to turn into a veggie

garden.  When

should I break ground and what are the best on line resources on how to do this?

 I

currently have a shed in the area I want to use so after I move it I need to

know how to

break ground?  

>

>

>

> Janet Smith <owlstar9181

> herbal remedies

> Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:56 am

> {Herbal Remedies} GMO food and your alternatives

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

Bryan's right. GMO foods and commercial fertilizers, pesticides and

herbicides used to

>

> intensify production, are threats to our health, and threats to wildlife and

the health of

>

> earth's skin, the soil. I don't want to get too political here, but it is

also a threat to our

>

> freedom. When the corporations have tweaked our food sources so that they are

our

only

>

> source of food - they can control us all by simply withholding access to food

or even the

>

> means to feed ourselves.

>

>

>

> You CAN help deter this process and maintain the health of your family and

your little

>

> patch of the earth in a simple way. Planting a kitchen garden is a little

work, but it is

>

> healthy and joyful work. You don't need acres of land (unless you do plan to

find non-

>

> GMO heirloom corn or suga

> r cane to grow). A family of four can be fed in a 20' x 20'

>

> space using raised bed (or French Garden) techniques. If rows are covered with

low

tunnels

>

> with plants deeply mulched, many foods can be grown year round in more

temperate

>

> zones.

>

>

>

> What you must NOT do is run down to a big box home and garden store and buy up

their

>

> seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and a big jug of RoundUp to clear your garden

space of

>

> weeds. Their seeds are usually GMO products from Monsanto or one of their

subsidiaries,

>

> and they are hybrids, which traps you into purchasing new seeds every year.

The other

>

> products are exactly the same poisons the corporate farms use. You'd just be

>

> perpetuating the very problems corporate farms are creating. You can ask for

advice

from

>

> your county farm extension agent - but CAUTION: many of these will encourage

corporate

>

> farm techniques.

>

>

>

> Instead do some research. There are many organic gardening resources and

forums

online

>

> to help you get started and to help advise you when you run into problems (and

you

will).

>

> Subscribe to a few and read. Search on terms like " vertical gardening " ,

" raised bed

garden "

>

> or " french garden. " Then get started. If you would like to add organic fish

(tilapia or

>

> catfish are commonly used) to your diet, research a technique called

aquaponics that

>

> involves setting up a small pond partnered with a gravel bed for plant growing

and

water

>

> filtration. You'll be amaz

> ed how small a system provides a lot of food--this can even be

>

> done on a 10 x 10 patio). There are lots of resources online, including videos

on

YouTube

>

> describing how to set up a system - I set up a 150 gallon system that takes up

about a

>

> quarter of my 15 x 15 sun room and required very modest expense and no

particular

>

> expertise beyond online advice to set up, and it works and looks great.

>

>

>

> Avoid hybrid seeds. There are many heirloom seed savers (start with SeedSavers

Exchange)

>

> who will be happy to provide you with old heirloom varieties of vegetables and

herbs at

no

>

> greater, and sometimes less cost than commercial seeds, and that taste better

and

often

>

> grow better than the hybrids. You can find them by searching on " seedsavers "

or

>

> " heirloom seeds " on your online search engine like Google or . If you're

not sure

you

>

> can plant from seeds, you can grow heirlooms by purchasing seedling plants

from

growers

>

> at local farmers markets or online (by the way, TheLovelyJanet is such a

source for

>

> bedding plants like heirloom tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and herbs (and a few

plants

>

> that just smell nice) and yes, it's my business.

>

>

>

> By purchasing seed or seedlings from " mom and pop " heirloom growers, and

finding

>

> natural fertilizers and pest repellants, you are supporting small family

businesses, a very

>

> good thing in this economy. You're supporting an economy and community of

equals,

>

> rather than dependency on giant, w

> ealthy, bureaucratic corporations. And you're

>

> extending your family's healthy and productive life.

>

>

>

> Janet Smith

>

> janet

>

>

>

> herbal remedies , Bryan Shillington <bryanshillington@>

>

> wrote:

>

> >

>

> > Dear Marcy,

>

> >

>

> > Welcome to our group!!!!

>

> >

>

> > My advice would be to not touch Genetically Modified foods as these

>

> > franken foods were made by man and not God.

>

> > More than 90% of the Corn, Soy & Wheat in wealthy countries today is

>

> > GMO. Getting Corn and Soy out of your diet is the first step to changing

>

> > your eating habits for the better.

>

> > GMO is horrible for the body and the growing process for GMO foods is

>

> > destroying our planet. Sugar is now being massed produced from GMO Sugar

>

> > beets.

>

> > Any non- organic corn chip or slice of tofu in the USA is probably GMO

>

> > so stop eating normal or junk food and eat only God's food.

>

> >

>

> > Organic = food without poison.

>

> >

>

> > This is how I suggest you handle your daughter's Diabetes.

>

> > Give her nothing but Organic foods and lots of fresh vegetables.

>

> >

>

> > I'm sure others on the list will have organic solutions for you on

>

> > Diabetes and you should definitely ask Doc's advice.

>

> >

>

> > Best of health

>

> >

>

> > ~Bryan

>

> > Journeyman Herbalist

>

> > Academy of Natural Healing

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> > My name is Marcy my oldest daughter is 8 and she has Type 1 Diabetes.

>

> > A friend of mine told me about this20group and said i would get good

>

> > advice from the group.We are slowly trying to change our eating habbits

>

> > and turning back to the way God made our food in the first place.

>

> > Looking foward to learning from everyone.

>

> > Thanks Marcy

>

> >

>

> >

>

> > Why are so many of us sick and plagued with disease?

>

> >

>

> > Let's say you have a beautiful plant but one day you decide to mix a

>

> > tablespoon of motor oil in with the daily dose of water. The plant still

>

> > looks great but as time goes by it starts getting some blemishes on its

>

> > bark. It still looks healthy but what you don't see is that its roots

>

> > are rotting and by the time the leaves are turning yellow it's too late.

>

> > What went wrong here? You fed the plant harmful motor oil instead of

>

> > pure water and good compost. Let's look at the teeth of a cow. A cow is

>

> > an herbivore, their teeth are not sharp like a cats but are flat for the

>

> > chewing of fresh grass. But man has taken these animals and fed them

>

> > corn ( to fatten them up ), dead grass and it is not surprising that

>

> > more than 90% of cows are diseased as this is not their proper diet. Now

>

> > man has created brutal drugs to keep most of these cows alive and they

>

> > have hormones that make the cow grow bigger and faster than it should.

>

> > These drugs and hormones ruin the animal’s Liver and since many men

care

>

> > only for money, they do not care that the meat is=2

> 0of very poor quality

>

> > for carnivores who eat it. Now carnivores are going through puberty at

>

> > young ages and are fatter than ever. What went wrong with this one? We

>

> > turned the cow into a carbovore* , poisoned its Liver, screwed up its

>

> > hormones and did not feed him what he needs to survive. Let's look at a

>

> > cat. Cats live on meat and their teeth are meant for breaking down the

>

> > small rodents that they eat. If you feed a carnivore nothing but

>

> > vegetables and grains, the carnivore dies. I'm not telling you anything

>

> > you don't already know right? Let's look at a human’s teeth. This is

>

> > strange. It looks as though they were herbivores but developed two sharp

>

> > teeth for eating a little meat so we will call them omnivores. We were

>

> > meant to eat mostly vegetables and an occasional mouse or egg here and

>

> > there. A hundred years ago, mostly everybody had a garden but now

>

> > everybody has a grocery store. Look at it this way. The Pharmaceutical

>

> > companies and large corporations who supply the grocery store are the

>

> > cattle rancher and we are the cows. Our main survival food " Vegetables "

>

> > are full of pesticides, our meats are full of steroids, drugs and our

>

> > unsprouted grains are genetically modified by 'Monsanto.' Our milk is

>

> > dead as they pasteurize it (heat it to hundreds of degrees in

>

> > temperature or irradiate it so as to kill it completely) and homogenize

>

> > it. Wait a second..... Humans are the=2

> 0only species on the planet who

>

> > consume milk after being weaned from their mama. Raw milk is good for

>

> > you but it is illegal in most " " civilized " " countries. So we could point

>

> > our finger at The Man for passing laws that made raw milk and medicinal

>

> > plants illegal but we were the ones who stopped planting gardens and

>

> > contributed money to their drugs, poisons, governments and GMO food. We

>

> > are dying so young and the " ranchers " are achieving great wealth. We are

>

> > the cows that eat nothing but grain and poison. We are the rabbits that

>

> > eat meat. We get very little exercise as we watch TV so much.

>

> >

>

> > This is why so many of us are sick and plagued with disease.

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> > Solution:

>

> >

>

> > We eat the way we should.

>

> >

>

> > Humans have been found to live more then a hundred and twenty when they

>

> > eat raw fruits, vegetables, sprouted grains, nuts and seeds without

>

> > pesticides. These healthy 120 year olds get lots of exercise, drink

>

> > fresh water (no fluoride) and raw goats milk and eat small amounts of

>

> > organic meat. Exercise is very important (use it or lose it). If they

>

> > didn't work 10 hours a day they would die. Your TV is in actuality

>

> > killing you so throw it out and start exercising. Eat right, get

>

> > exercise and plant a backyard garden......or else.

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> > *coined word meaning one who eats nothing but carbohydrates.

>

> >

>

> > P.S

> .. Feel free to save this letter or resend it to whoever you think

>

> > could use the education.

>

> >

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you so very much!  Just what I needed!

 

 

 

Janet Smith <owlstar9181

herbal remedies

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:20 am

{Herbal Remedies} Starting a garden - rookie advice and resources

 

 

 

 

 

Warnng: Very long post:

 

I recommend raised beds because they lengthen your growing season (you can start

sooner and will be harvesting later than other growers in your zone). They also have some

other benefits that I like - you put the soil into them, so you don't have to break up

sodded, packed or weedy ground, or deal with rocks and roots, and the growing level is

elevated, which means less bending and kneeling for you. That last point grows in

importance as you get older.

 

Alternative, get your shovel and dig in, turn over and move on down the row.. If there are

trees nearby, go ahead and get a heavy mattock to cut them out as well. Once you're done

with the area, shovel on composted manure and clippings and go through the process

again. 20For a long time. Get some kind of good liniment beforehand (I make my own out

of diluted white birch, grapefruit and ginger oil), because you will hurt.

 

You can rent a rototiller, but it doesn't sound to me like your area is big enough to invest

in something like that.

 

Here are some links with good instructions and that inform you about other raised bed

options you may have.

 

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/raisedbed.htm

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/raisedbed/index.html

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/bed~const.html

 

In your situation weeds and grass aren't going to be a problem because there's been a

building over the area for some time. However packed earth probably will be an issue,

and since nothing's grown on it in awhile, the ground is probably not going to have much

nutrition left in it. You're going to have to fertilize and loosen the soil. A good mulch of

organic composted manure (I have bought bags at the local big box home and garden

supply when there wasn't somebody around with a horse or cattle barn)-combined with

other organic matter (leaves, grass clippings, k

itchen scraps) will both feed and loosen

soil.

 

Insects can wreck your garden. I don't use chemicals. Tomato hornworms (look them up

for a photo - they are insect chamelions - very hard to detect), can strip all the leaves off

a full grown tomato vine overnight. Best thing to do about them is watch your leaves, and

if you see them looking nibbled on, just look over your plants VERY carefully, find it, pick

it off (doesn't bite), throw it on the ground and crush it.

 

For flying insects, there are sticky yellow traps you can hang around the garden that will

help you determine whether you have white flies (the bane of my garden; they love tomato

leaves), aphids or something else. Check Charley's Greenhouse Supply and Gardener's

Supply. Don't know who else has the, but those are the two places where I bought mine.

They catch and kill insects, even mosquitoes, but won't stop a major infestation-these

insects multiply very rapidlly. Note: the glue on them is very strong, I had to disattach a

couple of young mockingbirds that had flown into them and didn't have the strength to

get away. Fortunately I was able to do so without injuring them, but after the first one, I

looked out at those traps a lot more frequently and hung aluminum pie plates around the

garden to ward off the birds (later found out that children's pinwheels...we got a bunch

from a dollar store...are even better).

 

I tried all the organic solutions and finally settled upon a spray bottle filled with water,

garlic oil and Dawn dishwashing detergent. It worked better than just about anything else,

but you DO have to go out and respray every few days and after every rain shower. The

commercial insecticidal soaps also work and are available everywhere--even WalMart.

They use a formula similar to what I described, except they use pyrethrins (a plant extract

acceptable under organic gardening principals) instead of garlic. I'm not sure it works one

bit better.

 

Suggest cedar shaving mulch around your vine plants (melons, cucumbers, squash) along

with garlic spray to repel moths. A couple of species larvae burrow into the vine at the

ground level and kill the entire plant).

 

You will want to mulch to combat weeds that will come up over time (birds eat weed seeds

and then expel them later wherever they may be flying over, so you may start without

them and acquire more over the years. I just do not like herbicides. Plastic sheet mulches

work well to prevent weeds, and I tried them, but didn't find them as easy to work with as

wood chips (the most cosmetically appealing solution), leaves or straw. If you have access

to discarded cardboard boxes and don't mind breaking them down and aren't20really

concerned with a "pretty" walkway, those work GREAT, and break down to become a good

part of your garden soil over years. While they get soggy, they keep mud out of your

shoes after a rain, too.

 

If you want to start planting before the last frost date in your area (the Victory Seed web

site has a database with this info by state, and also has other good information AND is one

of our better sources for open-pollinated/heirloom seeds), you need to put up some kind

of shelter. Cold frames are the fancy way to go. I put up a low tunnel over my 4 x 30 foot

raised herb bed until after we moved this year. I have a high tunnel greenhouse, so my

herbs are happily growing there. High tunnels work, too. These are fairly easy to erect.

Here's how my husband and I did the low tunnel. We went to the Big Box store (I'm trying

not to get into brands here) and picked up 7 6' lengths of 1" diameter PVC pipe, 14 pieces

of 2' rebar,6 ml polyurethane sheet, and clamps. Husband drove four pieces of rebar at

least 8-10 inches into the ground at the four corners of the bed, then drove in the rest of

them down the long sides in pairs. That left a little over a foot of the rebar sticking up out

of the ground. We inserted one end of the rebar into a PVC pipe end, then arched it over

the bed and inserted the opp

osite rebar end into the other end of the pipe. And so on

down the row for all the PVC pipe lengths.

 

We had a 6 mil plastic sheet about 6 x 31' that we stretched over the pipe and down to the

ground, attaching to the pipes with clamps at each end and at bottom, forming a tunnel.

Even open at the ends, with deep mulch, the tunnel will protect plants a few degrees

below freezing. With plastic sheets cut out to cover the ends clamped on, inside

temperatures would get quite warm even on very cold sunny days, and retain much of the

warmth during evenings. My comfrey and lemon balm continued to grow all the way

through my winter (in metro Atlanta we didn't have extreme cold, but the low tunnels

worked just fine down into the low 20s). When you need to get into it, you unfasten the

clamps on one side and pull the plastic fabric up enough to reach into the bed. Very easy,

very stable, and very inexpensive. You DO have to irrigate the bed, thoough, as it's closed

off from rain watering.

 

High tunnels are essentially the same, except you can walk into them, and they are more

complicated and expensive to construct, because they require stabilizing pipe and

connectors, but the principles are similar.

 

Good basic info: http://www.thegardenhelper.com/ (also mentioned above for ra

ised

garden info).

 

There's much, much more out there online. Search on "organic gardening basics,raised

bed gardening," and "heirloom seeds" and just explore the web sites. Many of them have

good information and links to other informative sites.

 

herbal remedies , dppromo wrote:

>

> Thank you for writing this!  I was actually going to write about getting tips on starting

a garden. I have the back section of my yard I want to turn into a veggie garden.  When

should I break ground and what are the best on line resources on how to do this?  I

currently have a shed in the area I want to use so after I move it I need to know how to

break ground?  

>

>

>

> Janet Smith <owlstar9181

> herbal remedies

> Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:56 am

> {Herbal Remedies} GMO food and your alternatives

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> Bryan's right. G

MO foods and commercial fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides used to

>

> intensify production, are threats to our health, and threats to wildlife and the health of

>

> earth's skin, the soil. I don't want to get too political here, but it is also a threat to our

>

> freedom. When the corporations have tweaked our food sources so that they are our

only

>

> source of food - they can control us all by simply withholding access to food or even the

>

> means to feed ourselves.

>

>

>

> You CAN help deter this process and maintain the health of your family and your little

>

> patch of the earth in a simple way. Planting a kitchen garden is a little work, but it is

>

> healthy and joyful work. You don't need acres of land (unless you do plan to find non-

>

> GMO heirloom corn or suga

> r cane to grow). A family of four can be fed in a 20' x 20'

>

> space using raised bed (or French Garden) techniques. If rows are covered with low

tunnels

>

> with plants deeply mulched, many foods can be grown year round in more temperate

>

> zones.

>

>

>

> What you must NOT do is run down to a big box home and garden store and buy up

their

>

> seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and a big jug

of RoundUp to clear your garden space of

>

> weeds. Their seeds are usually GMO products from Monsanto or one of their

subsidiaries,

>

> and they are hybrids, which traps you into purchasing new seeds every year. The other

>

> products are exactly the same poisons the corporate farms use. You'd just be

>

> perpetuating the very problems corporate farms are creating. You can ask for advice

from

>

> your county farm extension agent - but CAUTION: many of these will encourage

corporate

>

> farm techniques.

>

>

>

> Instead do some research. There are many organic gardening resources and forums

online

>

> to help you get started and to help advise you when you run into problems (and you

will).

>

> Subscribe to a few and read. Search on terms like "vertical gardening", "raised bed

garden"

>

> or "french garden." Then get started. If you would like to add organic fish (tilapia or

>

> catfish are commonly used) to your diet, research a technique called aquaponics that

>

> involves setting up a small pond partnered with a gravel bed for plant growing and

water

>

> filtration. You'll be amaz

> ed how small a system provides a lot of food--this can even be

>

> done on a 10 x 10 patio). The

re are lots of resources online, including videos on

YouTube

>

> describing how to set up a system - I set up a 150 gallon system that takes up about a

>

> quarter of my 15 x 15 sun room and required very modest expense and no particular

>

> expertise beyond online advice to set up, and it works and looks great..

>

>

>

> Avoid hybrid seeds. There are many heirloom seed savers (start with SeedSavers

Exchange)

>

> who will be happy to provide you with old heirloom varieties of vegetables and herbs at

no

>

> greater, and sometimes less cost than commercial seeds, and that taste better and

often

>

> grow better than the hybrids. You can find them by searching on "seedsavers" or

>

> "heirloom seeds" on your online search engine like Google or . If you're not sure

you

>

> can plant from seeds, you can grow heirlooms by purchasing seedling plants from

growers

>

> at local farmers markets or online (by the way, TheLovelyJanet is such a source for

>

> bedding plants like heirloom tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and herbs (and a few plants

>

> that just smell nice) and yes, it's my business.

>

>

>

> By purchasing seed or seedlings from "mom and pop" heirloom growers, and finding

>

> natural fertilizers and pest repellants, you are supporting small family businesses, a very

>

> good thing in this economy. You're supporting an economy and community of equals,

>

> rather than dependency on giant, w

> ealthy, bureaucratic corporations. And you're

>

> extending your family's healthy and productive life.

>

>

>

> Janet Smith

>

> janet

>

>

>

> herbal remedies , Bryan Shillington <bryanshillington@>

>

> wrote:

>

> >

>

> > Dear Marcy,

>

> >

>

> > Welcome to our group!!!!

>

> >

>

> > My advice would be to not touch Genetically Modified foods as these

>

> > franken foods were made by man and not God.

>

> > More than 90% of the Corn, Soy & Wheat in wealthy countries today is

>

> > GMO. Getting Corn and Soy out of your diet is the first step to changing

>

> > your eating habits for the better.

>

> > GMO is horrible for the body and the growing process for GMO foods is

>

> > destroying our planet. Sugar is now being massed produced from GMO Sugar

>

> > beets.

>

> > Any non- organic corn chip or slice of tofu in the USA is probably GMO

>

> >

so stop eating normal or junk food and eat only God's food.

>

> >

>

> > Organic = food without poison.

>

> >

>

> > This is how I suggest you handle your daughter's Diabetes.

>

> > Give her nothing but Organic foods and lots of fresh vegetables.

>

> >

>

> > I'm sure others on the list will have organic solutions for you on

>

> > Diabetes and you should definitely ask Doc's advice.

>

> >

>

> > Best of health

>

> >

>

> > ~Bryan

>

> > Journeyman Herbalist

>

> > Academy of Natural Healing

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> > My name is Marcy my oldest daughter is 8 and she has Type 1 Diabetes.

>

> > A friend of mine told me about this20group and said i would get good

>

> > advice from the group.We are slowly trying to change our eating habbits

>

> > and turning back to the way God made our food in the first place.

>

> > Looking foward to learning from everyone.

>

> > Thanks Marcy

>

> >

>

> >

>

> > Why are so many of us sick and plagued with disease?

>

> >

>

> > Let's say you have a beautiful plant but one day=2

0you decide to mix a

>

> > tablespoon of motor oil in with the daily dose of water. The plant still

>

> > looks great but as time goes by it starts getting some blemishes on its

>

> > bark. It still looks healthy but what you don't see is that its roots

>

> > are rotting and by the time the leaves are turning yellow it's too late.

>

> > What went wrong here? You fed the plant harmful motor oil instead of

>

> > pure water and good compost. Let's look at the teeth of a cow. A cow is

>

> > an herbivore, their teeth are not sharp like a cats but are flat for the

>

> > chewing of fresh grass. But man has taken these animals and fed them

>

> > corn ( to fatten them up ), dead grass and it is not surprising that

>

> > more than 90% of cows are diseased as this is not their proper diet. Now

>

> > man has created brutal drugs to keep most of these cows alive and they

>

> > have hormones that make the cow grow bigger and faster than it should.

>

> > These drugs and hormones ruin the animal’s Liver and since many men care

>

> > only for money, they do not care that the meat is=2

> 0of very poor quality

>

> > for carnivores who eat it. Now carnivores are going through puberty at

>

>

> young ages and are fatter than ever. What went wrong with this one? We

>

> > turned the cow into a carbovore* , poisoned its Liver, screwed up its

>

> > hormones and did not feed him what he needs to survive. Let's look at a

>

> > cat. Cats live on meat and their teeth are meant for breaking down the

>

> > small rodents that they eat. If you feed a carnivore nothing but

>

> > vegetables and grains, the carnivore dies. I'm not telling you anything

>

> > you don't already know right? Let's look at a human’s teeth. This is

>

> > strange. It looks as though they were herbivores but developed two sharp

>

> > teeth for eating a little meat so we will call them omnivores. We were

>

> > meant to eat mostly vegetables and an occasional mouse or egg here and

>

> > there. A hundred years ago, mostly everybody had a garden but now

>

> > everybody has a grocery store. Look at it this way. The Pharmaceutical

>

> > companies and large corporations who supply the grocery store are the

>

> > cattle rancher and we are the cows. Our main survival food "Vegetables"

>

> > are full of pesticides, our meats are full of steroids, drugs and our

>

> > unsprouted grains are genetically modified by 'Monsanto.' Our milk is

>

> >

dead as they pasteurize it (heat it to hundreds of degrees in

>

> > temperature or irradiate it so as to kill it completely) and homogenize

>

> > it. Wait a second..... Humans are the=2

> 0only species on the planet who

>

> > consume milk after being weaned from their mama. Raw milk is good for

>

> > you but it is illegal in most ""civilized"" countries. So we could point

>

> > our finger at The Man for passing laws that made raw milk and medicinal

>

> > plants illegal but we were the ones who stopped planting gardens and

>

> > contributed money to their drugs, poisons, governments and GMO food. We

>

> > are dying so young and the "ranchers" are achieving great wealth. We are

>

> > the cows that eat nothing but grain and poison. We are the rabbits that

>

> > eat meat. We get very little exercise as we watch TV so much.

>

> >

>

> > This is why so many of us are sick and plagued with disease.

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> > Solution:

>

> >

>

> > We eat the way we should.

>

> >

>

> > Humans have been found to live more then a hundred and twenty when they

>

 

> > eat raw fruits, vegetables, sprouted grains, nuts and seeds without

>

> > pesticides. These healthy 120 year olds get lots of exercise, drink

>

> > fresh water (no fluoride) and raw goats milk and eat small amounts of

>

> > organic meat. Exercise is very important (use it or lose it). If they

>

> > didn't work 10 hours a day they would die. Your TV is in actuality

>

> > killing you so throw it out and start exercising. Eat right, get

>

> > exercise and plant a backyard garden......or else.

>

> >

>

> >

>

> >

>

> > *coined word meaning one who eats nothing but carbohydrates.

>

> >

>

> > P.S

> .. Feel free to save this letter or resend it to whoever you think

>

> > could use the education.

>

> >

>

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

I recommend reading up on companion planting for control of insects and

having a good robust crop.

 

A tincture of cayenne works well with some plants for insect control also.

 

I also like raised beds. I turn everything by hand and then use a good 'rear' tine rototiller.

Vetch is good to plant to winter over and turn under for breaking soil down and also putting

in needed fertilizer. Plant closer together rather than farther apart to keep soil moister

and weeds down. Some weeds are also beneficial for insect repelling.

S

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If You Don't Take Care of Your Body, Where Are You Going To Live? Jane Pentz

 

> Warnng: Very long post:

>

> I recommend raised beds because they lengthen your growing season

 

[Guest guest]

I was wondering if anyone knows how treating plants with cayenne or

garlic oil solution will affect pollinators. I don't want to hurt my

garden friends while trying to control pests

Have a great day !!!

Nina