Easy Raised Bed Kits, Indoor Gardening, and lots of other stuff

I usually toss out catalogs when they arrive unsolicited in my mailbox. But today I received
Gardener's Supply Company catalog and could not put it down. Lots of cool stuff!
Here's their online site: http://www.gardeners.com/

And their raised bed kits: http://www.gardeners.com/Raised-Beds/VegetableGardening_RaisedBeds,default,sc.html

Any other good suppliers online or catalogs I should know about?

My area is facing drought conditions again this year and I'm determined to prepare better for the
grasshopper inundation, and get my drip system/rainwater collection in place and perhaps go a little heavier on water retentive soil enhancers in my raised bed. It's already getting close to 80 degrees
here though not in any consistent way. But it feels like it's gonna be an early and short Spring.

http://www.groworganic.com/default.html?welcome=T&theses=4202022 --lots of drip supplies, row covers, etc plus seeds and the like.

I realize that gardening is a hobby for most people and most are concerned primarily with the health and taste benefits of homegrown veggies, but I've always been also concerned that the garden production be in some way efficient. I guess it's because long before I had a place with a real garden, I read this book from the 1940s called "Five Acres and Independence" that really was a kind of bible for very small farmers. The author was really obsessed with making each crop pay. So part of my hobby is looking at what makes sense to grow, and whether the costs are reasonable, profitable or extravagant, and I think a number of other Garden Group participants also think about this aspect as in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x10085

So the problem I see with the products in that catalog is the cost. Some of these raised bed kits are about 100 times the cost of a packet of seeds. So the question is, do you spend $1.29 on a seed packed and condition your soil with throw-away manure from some horse stables, use a spade to make a non-permanent raised bed and get 5 pounds of tomatoes for a few dollars, beating the grocery store's price?

Or do you buy the cedar raised bed kit ($110), the cold frame cover ($42), and the pest control net ($25), for a total of $175, or 5 pounds of tomatoes at $35 per pound? I realize of course that the kits last several years, but it's going to take a while for that kind of expenditure to be recovered.

It's always a trade off. You can get cheap knotty pine boards and a few nails from the home improvement center or lumber yard to make raised beds for about $20, and you can use home improvement "vapor barrier" plastic and cheap pine ferring strips to make a cold frame cover for probably $5.

Or, as I said, you can forgo the wood altogether and make one season raised beds with the dirt itself.

It all depends on what you want out of your garden, whether cost efficiency is important and so on.

I just started this year, & instead of buying or making containers, I took a look at what the previous owner had left behind, cleaned those areas out, & filled 'em up with dirt & compost.

dg

I checked the date of its original publication -- 1935. It has never been revised, but it has become a classic.

The problem is that it is very, very dated, and very little of what's in it is applicable. It's almost more of historical interest. The author was one of the first "back to the land" types and wrote this at the start of the growth of the suburbs, thinking that people would farm on the edges of cities, so it is aimed a bit at city dwellers going back to the land.

But it was written before there was rural electricity, before there were many cars, before there was running water (iirc there's a lot about the importance of finding a place with a spring uphill and leading the water downhill to your house), before there was even insecticide. The varieties of plants are different. It's also very much aimed at the person trying to make money, so the focus on cost and cost accounting was, iirc, pretty relentless, including how to choose a farm that will pay. There were a lot of pretty intense projects that probably aren't applicable today.

I read it a long time ago and the effect was more to change the way I thought about what farmers did, than to actually guide anything I do. Another value of the book is that it helps us understand the difference between "agriculture" (field crops) and "horticulture" (commercial gardening of many different fruits, crops and animals, which the author was an expert (professor?) on) -- the book is really about the latter -- and if you think horticulture is the future of farming, it provides a vision of how future farms might function.

But if you like, give it a try. It's available on Amazon and from the publisher, Dover, which publishes lots of old public domain books.

http://www.amazon.com/Five-Acres-Independence-Handbook-Management/dp/0486209741

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486209741.html

http://www.livingoffgrid.org/five-acres-and-independence-book-review/

"The problem is that it is very, very dated, and very little of what's in it is applicable."

I read this book years ago and I don't call a lot of it but it seemed not really relevant in our modern age. But I remember it reordered my thinking a bit. Before I read it I really didn't think you could grow a lot of food in suburbia or on a small amount of land. I've learned otherwise since then. Actually, I think I'll reread this book. Maybe after a few years experience I'll get something new out of it lol. :)

http://books.google.com/books?q=%22Five+Acres+and+Independence%22&um=1&as_brr=3

You two just got me interested enough to look it up. :)

or if I can get it through interlibrary loan. :)

dg

in order to insure an alternate food supply option. We also planted a third peach tree and a blueberry bush!
There's a native pecan already established.

Oh, and the (adult) son and his dad are on for a pumpkin growing contest!

at least the lime has sprouted. :rofl: I would kill for a tangerine or orange tree, though.

dg

There are lime trees in Austin. The further south you are, the better, I would think.

Re We're planting in order to insure an alternate food supply option.

Aside from the fact that I enjoy it, of course.

They have a great selection.

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/index.aspx?c=2

My area is facing drought conditions again this year

Can you get chopped leaf mulch? One year when we were facing a drought, I went around and picked up every bag of leaves I could find. I chopped them with my leafchopper and put them over my raised beds (all 11 of them) and it cut down on my water consumption so dramatically that I hardly knew there was a drought in that section of the garden.



Cher

I'm putting it all on a drip system and should probably use a light mulch too. So the leaves might
work well.

for a couple of years. I've had my eye out for a composter that I could turn w/ one good arm/hand for some time. I ordered one from them and am pleased w/ it. I have ordered other things; had questions about stuff because of my restrictions. They have always answered my emails right away and stayed on point even offering suggestions.

I have ordered one of the smaller raised bed frames for a border off the patio. If it works out, I will consider adding to it over the next few seasons.


Because of my disabilities, I know raised beds loom large in my future.