yagasjai,
Unfortunately, my first reply didn’t post, it disappeared into the ethers. So, I’m going to try and recreate it. (Second one wasn’t successful either, trying again, this time I copied and pasted from a Word document.)
This is a dicey hot potato, and I thought about including it in my first comment this morning but was working on my first cup of coffee…
Not a lot of good options, each has pros and cons. As far as using plastic, I would use food grade (begrudgingly am currently using four 5-gallon buckets for 2 Oregon grape and 2 peppermint plants, and have a few others I use for moving wood chips around & collecting stuff to put into my onsite compost pile), but, it’s still plastic. All of them are in various stages of breaking apart but they are approximately 10 years old. There are a few documentaries about plastic and the environment, and I have a DVD copy of one titled “A Plastic Ocean”. With plant and soil in them they aren’t too heavy for me to move around.
Another option is stainless steel buckets which aren’t supposed to rust. But, I have some stainless steel clamps I use for keeping the plastic film from blowing away and defeating the purpose of having hoops for my hoophouses (I practice season extension on both ends), since both tomatoes and squash are heat-loving plants it gives them a head start… I have had to replace the clamps twice now, and once they start getting rust on them the spring part seizes up so they get harder and harder to use.
https://theydiffer.com/difference-between-galvanized-and-stainless-steel/
Interesting information, and after reading the differences I’m pretty sure my clamps are galvanized steel.
https://www.reliance-foundry.com/blog/does-stainless-steel-rust
Since I haven’t tried using stainless steel buckets for potatoes or anything else, I don’t have any personal experience with using them. But, something that occurred to me is due to leaching of nutrients from normal watering and rain and using fertilizers (hopefully organic) to replace them in addition to helping the plant grow, I don’t know if that would speed up the process of rust/corrosion.
Another option would be to use quarter or half size oak or other wood barrels. But, they would be even heavier to move and would require either a dolly or additional people, or could they be tipped a bit and rolled to a new spot? If relocating to an entirely new property that could present a problem.
That’s all I can think of right now.
Since moving to Portland in 2011, I have had a 20’ by 20’ community garden plot for 6 going on 7 years now, use four 4’by 8’ raised beds with walkways between them, have an area in one corner for my medicinal plants and foraging plants for the bees, wasps, and flies to come, and 8 blueberry plants (I mulch them with pine needles and coffee grounds to help keep the PH lower).
Linda
Well I knew it would not belong before we hit the #1 spot and at 4:00 p.m. PT we did. For those of you that would like to confirm this please use the link in Linda T’s post.
Since I trust no one I doubled checked with John C Lincoln as well as the CDC. I’m wondering if anybody has any thoughts as to why the CDC is reporting such low numbers. Other then of course to give Pres. Trump time to form a response as to how he was totally expecting this so soon and why no one should be worried.
Http://www//coronavirus.jhu.edu
Http://www//cdc.gov
I’ve been using fabric pots for my garden. They are available on Amazon. They have handles for ease of moving. If taken care of and not ripped they will last usually 2-3 years. The 5,7, and 10 gallon are good sizes. Potatoes would do better in the 15 or 20 gallon. These pots work well. I’ve got 8 varieties of tomatoes, cukes, eggplant, jalapeno, green, and red pepper. Summer and zucchini squash, bush beans, lettuce, beets and a variety of herbs. Been working hard getting it done. Planted 50 onion sets today and two different varieties of watermelon. I used to grow a large garden but planted citrus trees which have taken over the space. Will be giving family, friends, and neighbors tomato, squash, green pepper and bush bean starts as I have way more than I can use. Glad I found PP it got me in the planning mode early on in the pandemic.
I know some of these numbers have to exist. I want to know the case hospitalization rate. This serious/critical is not what its supposed to be… its a group of people at current. its not useful. it doesnt tell you how many people where critical and how many required hospitalization… That is all I want to know
Behavioral change is a low cost, high liberty path to success at containing the honey badger at individual and community or nation level. Consider two things from Chris’s last video:
- wear masks wear masks wear masks wear masks. If every possible corona honey badger victim or possible victim wore a cheap/simple/stupid mask in public and stopped coughing on others, and washed their hands once in a while, the R0 or infectivity rate would go down dramatically. This is not rocket science but is the best advice from CM’s last video. The American government and medical institutions are horribly violating this simple requirement. The lack of this behavior in America (where are the masks on the daily news briefers who are leading the people on how to get over this, for example?) keeps infectivity high while simultaneously enhancing free money flow to connected businesses and bankers and increased power to politicians.
- Japan started off with a bang but is not even on the charts. With exception of no school, we have barely changed our lifestyles here, going out to restaurants and stores etc. There is a reason for this. Nobody shakes hands and hugs/kisses each other when greeting (even before birth of the badger). Also as been practiced for many years, anyone who thought they might be infected with a cold bought a cheap mask at the drug store and wore it when in public. And if you sneeze without using your clothing or going into a corner, you are kind of shunned. Blowing your nose in public has always been very bad manners, almost as bad as taking a crap on a San Francisco street.
About 10% of the people on subways during normal flu season always wore a mask for this reason. And, hand sanitizers were available in front of many stores and restaurants. Normally. In response to flu season. Before the Honey Badger was just a twinkling in a molecular biologist’s eye. Now, hand sanitizers and masks are even more prominent. Department stores and supermarket workers have been wearing them as a sign of respect and welcome to customers.
Transmission is a two step process. Step 1: Spittle has to leave one person’s pie hole and enter public territory. Step 2: spittle (or what’s left of it) has to leave public territory and enter another person’s pie hole, eye, hand surface, food or whatever. Step 1 is much much much much easier and much cheaper to eliminate. This is the behavior change I refer to and the basic point I get from Chris’s last video.
Dont get me wrong, the honey badger is a serious problem here and the cases are growing, particularly in Tokyo. Cases are under-tested and people are trying to work from home, and Tokyo likely will start a lockdown. But public transport and most things have been barely affected despite an early invasion of the badger due to extreme incompetence of shi*head national politicians over-ruling health officials with the cruise ship. Our local conspiracy expert James Corbett of Corbett report argues that the low cases in Japan is just PR from the government that wanted to keep the olympic dream alive for Tokyo this Summer. But the total winter flu infections this year are also at a historic low, due to behavior changes.
A lot of media coverage speaks about how generous the unemployment compensation is in the new stimulus package. 4 months of $600 extra onto your state compensation.
Something keeps bothering me though.
If you push, like some politicians and corporate leaders have been lately that the virus isn’t so bad and we should all go back to work, then when they reopen their companies and call you back to work IF you don’t come back, then they can make the case that you are choosing to quit. Therefore you aren’t unemployed due to the virus, you are unemployed by your own decision.
In that case you aren’t eligible for unemployment payments. That generous component of the stimulus package doesn’t get spent then.
The cynic in me is saying that this push to get the companies open again has a big component of “why should we pay you wage slaves for being too scared to work in our factories, even if you might get the virus”.
Of course business should still get THEIR stimulus. Just not us.
ao,
I completely agree, I’ve already have had it happen to me (2 years ago), and that was even before this black swan event. Another reason I no longer put veggies or easily recognized sought after plants in any of my plastic buckets. They can grow legs and walk away… I was especially pissed since they were ready to harvest! And they used one of my empty buckets to steal and carry away all of my corn cobs (were also ready) and some zucchini too.
Linda
I’m watching a live stream of musician Dave Matthews he shared a great analogy to get people to pay attention to the seriousness of Covid-19.
It goes like this. You go to a party and there’s a bowl of 100 M&Ms. Eighty of the M&Ms in the bowl taste great, 16 of the M& Ms in the bowl will make you really, really sick and 4 of the M&Ms in the bowl will kill you. How many of the M&Ms will you eat?
Unfortunately, it’s also wonderful for not-so-neighborly neighbors or “visitors” who may come along, in the bucket gardener’s absence, and “transplant” your garden into their garden. I can foresee a scenario where this occurs.Yeap, what the gardener giveth, the dishonest neighbor takeith away, lol. I live in an area of transent population. Its duplexes and apartments, mixed into the single family homes. There is a vacant home behind my duplex, which the kids have kicked down the fence separating their yard from mine. We're in the middle of the block so tearing the fence down allows people to make a shortcut and save time. I'm actually down a bit from the house, but people still make the cut and go thru my yard. When they do they walk right past my small garden. I've had ripe fruit and veggies taken as well as minor vandalism. So yes, growing stuff in container presents a risk. This past year, someone bought the home and put up a cedar fence closing off traffic but given the possibility of hungry people in the neighborhood, there is a chance that my garden may get hit. I'm a big fan of guerrilla gardening and using plants which don't look eatable. I need to identify more of them but one staple I grow alot of is Purslane. Its an ornamental for Americans but is a staple stir fry ingredient in Asia and added to foods in many other regions. I happened to pick up one plant as a flower for the local pollinators a few years back. They love it. It wasn't until I looked it up and found what a great food it was that I really started growing it. Its full of vitamins and supplementary minerals. You can even eat the flowers, lol. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3934766/ It now one of my staple hanging basket plants and gets clipped to add to most of my meals. Its a succulent which means its moist and tasty, with a slight mustard tart taste. We would all be better off to identify plants which thieves don't recognize as food and plant those too.
Barb has 89 patients who just got their test results, 49 positive, 22 pending and the rest negative and sent home. 4 positives went straight to ICU, the rest are being processes. All positive patients are getting Plaquenil (Hydroxy-Chloroquine) and Zithromax. First line of defense is working well. You know, I haven’t noticed any bad societal behavior. Just the oposie where couples are walking, runners everywhere, us long walkers at great distance walking our dogs, kids playing that are just family members. Frankly, it’s a beautiful site that I hope continues forever. I went for a five mile walk and I feel terrific, so does the Pooch. I did it all in our apartment complex. Be well Folks…Peace… Hey Chris, ExpoNencial. Great work Brother.
I have a problem with the Stanford assumption that many people have already been exposed to this virus. In my local community many people thought they had been infected, and got tested weeks ago. If so many people had already been exposed the number of positive tests would have been much higher around St. Patrick’s day in my small western Washington college town. But the number of positive results were 6/166 tests by that date according to the Whatcom county health department. https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241232246.html Wouldn’t there be many more positive results if a lot more people had been exposed in the four weeks prior to St. Patrick’s day? Even if they were still asymptomatic? This disease seems to be spreading much more rapidly now (9 days later). The assertion that “Scenario B” is accurate doesn’t pass the sniff test, at least locally.
I appreciate all of the tips!!. I teach and usually don’t have the time to create the best garden I can. I am on spring break now and using this time to get a great garden going!! I am going to put the peppers in beds and use the the existing buckets for experiments. Thankfully I know things that are easy to grow here and I am going to try other vegetables I haven’t tried before. Need tips on potatoes. Thanks guys!!!
Used to be I’d see “no internet” 1-2 times a week, now I’m getting it 3-4 times a day.
Not sure if my router is going out (its several years old) or we’re seeing problems with the Internet. What is everyone seeing?
I’ve been telling anyone whom I think will listen that they need to plant a garden this year. Container gardens were my suggestion to my brother, since the soil in his yard is kind of crummy.
We have our plants started inside with grow lights (nothing on the scale of @dtrammel) and a series of 3’ x 6’ beds. They’ll be outside soon enough. Unfortunately, they are within view of the whole street, but there’s nothing to be done about that now.
Here’s to a productive growing season.
A good way to use these veggies is to turn them into powder. Add some to soups, sauces, smoothies. Store them in their own jars or mix them up. Tasty and nutritious.
Hello Chris and Adam, I could not find your 3/26/20 daily report to post this on, so here it is: (pulled from a zerohedge article)
"Additionally, Dr. Birx played down some of the more dire predictions, including an Imperial College study that has circulated widely over the last week or so which called for 500k deaths in the UK. Dr. Birx noted that this number has “already been revised down to 20k”.
There’s that magic number “20,000” again, referring to how many deaths they are expecting in the UK. I guess when that number is exceeded by orders of magnitude, they’ll say “No one could have anticipated this!”
Remember Operation Mockingbird? It’s mission accomplished.
On the gardening scene, 240 feet of purple hull snap beans went in the ground today. Tomorrow it’s dragon tongues.
Now you’ll don’t shoot the messenger I just want to share a really great explanation of why quarantines will need to end. The article is by someone way smarter than me.
https://ourfiniteworld.com/2020/03/11/it-is-easy-to-overdo-covid-19-quarantines/
“I sometimes write about the economy being a self-organizing networked system that is powered by energy. In physics terms, the name for such a system is a dissipative structure. Human beings are dissipative structures, as are hurricanes and stars, such as the sun. Human beings cannot stop eating and breathing for a month. They cannot have sleep apnea for an hour at a time, and function afterward. Economies cannot stop functioning for a month and afterward resume operations at their previous level. Too many people will have lost their jobs; too many businesses will have failed in the meantime. If the closures continue for two or three months, the problem becomes very serious. We are probably kidding ourselves if we think that China can come back to the same level that it was at before the new coronavirus hit. In a way, keeping an economy operating is as important as preventing deaths from COVID-19. Without food, water and wage-producing jobs (which allow people to buy necessary goods and services), the deaths from the loss of the economy would be far greater than the direct deaths from the coronavirus.”Gail Tverberg, OurFiniteWorld.com, discusses in detail the ramifications of quarantines. Hope people listen to Chris, post quarantine mask wearing would help a lot. Hope you read Gails article. AKGrannyWGrit
Looks like there will be lots of gardens this summer. What will you do with all that produce? What tools will you need?
A pressure canner is necessary for all vegetables. Period. No matter if your great Aunt Gertrude water-bathed her green beans for four hours her whole life and no one died from them. She also boiled them for half an hour after opening the jar. Nutritionless mush!
If you have access to fruit, a steamer-juicer is very nice. Beautiful clear juice which can be diluted one-to-one…a quart then makes a half gallon. The pulp which is left can be strained and made into fruit roll ups in your dehydrator.
A dehydrator is fantastic for drying fruit, veg, meat, sour cream, etc. There are lots of plans on the internet for building solar dryers if you are worried about summer brown-outs.
A stand mixer is useful for so much more than making cakes and cookies. My 21 yr. old kitchen aid has ground meat, make tomato sauce, juiced citrus, etc. It has been a workhorse.
Blenders and food processors have their place. A handheld blender is very handy.
But how to use all of there things, especially if food preservation is new to you? There are many books, some pretty pricey. Your state’s Co-operative Extension Service has loads of free booklets on canning, freezing, drying, pickling, salsa making–plus recipes. They also have knowledgeable people to answer any questions you might have.
Most canner gauges are not accurate, which is why it is recommended that they be tested every year. My advice is to buy a weighted gauge to place on the air vent. They are always accurate.
My main point is that food production may well be a major part of your life from now forward. The tools you acquire will make this process easier and safer. All of the things I have listed may be spendy, but should last for years.
I nearly forgot–a very large stock pot the same diameter as your pressure canner. The lid can be put on the pressure canner, turning it into a waterbath canner.
There is a definite satisfaction that comes from taking a jar or two from your pantry and feeding a cold, hungry family–without having to ‘slave’ over the stove to cook dinner while everyone else was outside having fun.
I was skeptical of the validity of the report that coronavirus was much less lethal than the annual flu when Stanford produced the article in the wall street journal recently about covid-19. Then I remembered that Stanford has a very aggressive investment portfolio (endowment valued at around $27.7 billion). After the last financial crisis (2008/2009) Stanford took much higher losses than the index for endowments (Cambridge associates US colleges and University median). The fund is leveraged heavily on the long side of the trade (because hedge funds have basically thrown in the towel on fighting the federal reserve, very few hedge funds actually hedge aka: “go short”. They are commonly around 10x “long”) Stanford has to be hemorrhaging cash out of its’ fund from its’ overexposure to higher risk assets. This has led to significantly higher returns when the bull market was running, but losses have surely mounted once again for the fund with the recent crash. I strongly suspect the WSJ opinion piece was actually written by the endowment managers to manipulate the markets higher. I strongly suspect from their results from the last financial crisis that the endowment may be down to as little as half of its previous value. If the “doctors” involved wanted to publish real science the WSJ opinion page would be the last place any real “doctors” would choose. See: https://smc.stanford.edu/assets/Stanford-University-Investment-Report-2019.pdf (especially pages 16, 17)