Well I guess we won’t be seeing you around these parts for awhile if you are going to war with Bermuda. lol
I have a friend who is a commercial grower and he had Bermuda. He sold the farm and bought another one. Of course he was in production and did not have the time to deal with it.
One thing I have done is go to the lumber yards and get as many lumber wrappers as I can haul. These are the tarps that bundles of lumber are wrapped with for shipping. The lumber yards are happy to get rid of them. I have been dumpster diving for them for decades. They have lots of uses around the “farm”. They are great for covering firewood,tarping down loads on a trailer but I use them for getting rid of weeds and of course Bermuda. They usually are white on one side and black on the other. I put is black side up and weight it down with mulch. (i used to use cardboard but I have a big area and getting that much cardboard and weighting it down is a pain.) The Bermuda rhizomes tend to stay pretty close to the surface under the wrappers which makes them pretty easy to pull up. 30% vinegar, dish soap and epsom salt spray works real well. Vinegar is my go to for weed control. I can’t believe anyone here would use glyphosate. I would rather have weeds than a screwed up gut biome.
I have a wonderful stand of bamboo. I know most people hate it but as Albert Bates says the best way to control it is eat it. It is free you don’t have to water it , fertilize it prune it or weed it. Just harvest it and cook it. It also gives you lots of poles to do millions of things with.
One thing I highly recommend for anyone anywhere is Shitakes. They are not just food but an excellent medicine. They are easy to grow even in an apartment. You can dry them for use at a later date. They keep really well.
Bermuda lol
One bite at a time.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
I thought of you all today when I went back outside to work on the garden. It IS a grind, particularly with people in my family who don’t think there will be food shortages, and see no particular reason to grow our own food, or prepare with a deep pantry. I am mocked as an alarmist and a hoarder, as I work every day to get the pantry done and the garden in.
It’s interesting though, as soon as I go outside, in the warm spring sunshine and start to work, almost everything else falls away. Of much more interest is a persistent (that word again) robin who follows me as I dig up the soil, to eat the fat grubs just underneath the surface. He had a good meal today! I’m grateful for the earth and robins and elephants/grubs.
Plant that garden! Everybody said I was alarmist, and who is da bitch giving out cloth face masks now? I’m dat bitch, lol.
And if you don’t need your pantry now, you have your stuff for the next storm/quake/alien invasion.
The next crisis will also include increased homelessness and people without money, or financial resources. I expect increased violence, burglary and theft.
People are going to be desperate and angry.
I can feed myself, somewhat, but not my neighbor and his kids. That won’t work so well.
Spot on Les!
We are trying to make our charitable giving happen in the form of food. I have delivered some boxes of greens…spinach…lettuce …and beet greens to local families who are in need and the response is heart warming. “Tithing” in the church context never made sense…giving some arbitrary percentage to a huge organization. But it the context of my garden harvest it is a Goal.
that violence and burglary will burn out quickly. but the homeless wandering will definately increase by a few orders of magnetude. that will bring many people who formerly preached and practiced paleo-diets, into actual paleo living conditions.
there after, be prepared to feed anyone who knocks, the most likely such will be women with children, and put them to work doing some of that grass pulling and watering.
https://farmersfriendllc.com/products/weed-management/silage-tarp
It’s our first year working with this, it was recommended by a friend, we have a ton of Bermuda grass as well. I’ve been very impressed, and it is reusable. And not expensive.
Beef, and livestock feed shortages talked about around the 3:30 minute mark
https://youtu.be/ydr9Jb-AY28
Stephanie, I just read James Howard Kunstler’s latest book, “Living in the Long Emergency”. Chapter 7 is a profile of Kempton Randolf who works a homestead in rural Vermont. He remarks on the soil, depicted by the author as, " . . . loamy glacial till, a gift of the retreating glaciers.": Kempton, [on the soil]: "It’s actually pretty good, he said. “It’s very well drained. There’s been so much work done here over hundreds of years, over generations, and one thing that people don’t realize: if you have a field in Vermont around here, and it doesn’t have any rocks in it, it’s because somebody spent so much time taking all the rocks out. There’s such an incredible investment from generations that are gone. I have fields that were cultivated that are rock free and that’s because somebody went through and picked out all the goddamn rocks over a long period of time. That’s a huge thing, and that’s something that people don’t think about, especially when we just let some fields grow back into forest and all that effort and the value that that cleared land had – you’re turning it back over to wood and letting it slip away. We have investments from all those generations that we just totally abandoned. So, I have some fields that are fairly clean.” are
When I read your post, I keyed off the word “homestead” so I’m wondering if, in fact, you may have some fields that are ‘fairly clean’ of stones. Does your property have a stone pile? If it does that might be a hint as to where your efforts might be rewarded.
I know whereof you speak. In the 1960’s my father had a patch of land in Southern Quebec, about 25 miles North of Derby Line, VT. Our family didn’t go to the cottage in the Summertime. We worked the garden, growing Strawberries, Raspberries and even a few grapes, but also picking lots and lots of stones. Of stones, they are the ground’s most reliable and precious harvest. Each one is different from its peers. Absolutely unique, one of a kind, and they can only be harvested once! Persevere! Don’t give up! There’s victory in every barrowfull!
Thanks to Chris and Adam, I was much more prepared than others around me. I was able to get face masksnd other PPE and stack up my freezer with meat and pantry with canned and dried goods,. Before, I only grew succulents in mymgarden, but now I have thrown all my efforts into growing food.
For newbies like me, I recommend Hollis and Nancy’s Homestead on Youtube for easy to understand and clever organic gardening advice (like throwing in a fish head in the hole before planting or sprinkling cinnamon on top os soil before planting seedlings) and their delicious Korean recipes for vegetables. Hollis is also very funny. Also Robbie and Gary’s channel has been helpful for an ingenious composting method done inside vegetable planting containers. Roots and Refuge, Rusted Garden, Calikim, MIgarden, Growing Your Greens, and Epic Garden are also Youtube channels that give great practical advice.
I have only about 250 square feet of growing space in my small Bay Area backyard, but have made do with self-watering containers City Pickers), nursery pots, plastic storage tubs, and food grade pails, two newly built 4x8 feet planters and one newly built 20x2 feet planter as well as two 6x8 feet greenhouses I got used from Craigslist and a new one from Harbor Freight.
I do this gardening because I love to eat fresh fruit and vegetables, so I want to make sure I have them to supplement our emergency pantry. I am also pre-diabetic, so I have been trying to cut back on candy and processed snacks. Right now, I am on Spring Break and have been trying to teach fourth grade via distance learning. This has given me time to plant my garden and for my 80 year old mother’s patio containers. My mom has been self-isolating in an apartment for three months now. Gardening cheers her up and supplies her with fresh “cut as you grow” food. I have been doing this gardening at a frantic pace, knowing how little time we have to prepare for shortages. I also plan on supplying fresh produce to people in need like my friend who has terminal cancer and food banks.
My efforts to garden, however, have been met with fierce resistance from my husband and son who both think I am over-reacting. To get gardening supplies, I have been standing in long lines at Home Depot or get up at the crack of dawn to go there to beat the lines. I have hauled over 60 huge bags of soil, manure, and peat moss by myself. I have bought seeds from Amazon, Walmart, and the Lucky grocery store, but some orders have a long delivery date or were cancelled due to shortages.
In my greenhouse, I started seedlings for spinach, Napa cabbage, orange peppers, baby bok choy, Chinese broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets and radishes. In the greenhouse, I am also regrowing from kitchen scraps the following: shallots, celery, beet and carrot greens, ginger, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, scallions, baby bok choy, taro roots, and Romaine and leafy lettuce. This is a quick and cheap way to get plants. I am trying to sprout soy beans and mung beans, but learned that it is best to get soybeans made for sprouting. I just planted raspberry and goji bushes. I also have the following growing in containers: a Meyer and regular lemon tree, two guava trees, cherry and Roma tomatoes, Japanese cucumbers, strawberries, red and orange peppers, sugar and sweet peas, bush and pole beans, and kale. I have had a kumkuat tree growing in the ground for a year now. I plan to grow the following in my planter beds along my wall against a trellis: Korean and Kajari melons (both are small melons), butternut squash, regular cucumbers, and Malabar spinach. In my 4x8 beds, I plan on sowing melon radish and carrot seeds, and transplanting my regular spinach, Napa cabbage, and Chinese broccoli starts. I also grow the following herbs in containers outside: parsley, oregano, basil, mint, lemon balm, thyme, lavender, rosemary as well as scallion, ginger, and garlic.
So far, there has been success. All this has given me great joy in nurturing the plants, eating fresh food (now I disdain the veggies I buy at the grocery store because they wilt so quickly and taste bland. There is nothing so sweet as lemon blossoms or the rich earth. Feeling soil between your fingers is soothing as kneading bread. I love cooking with fresh ingredients and knowing I am providing my family with immunity-boosting food. I stir fry most of the vegetables and plan colors of the rainbow menus.
Only problem are the racccoons who have been eating my beets and lettuce I grow in containers at night. It is heartbreaking to see the plants strewn about or stolen. Any suggestions?
I keep rabbits. Only moderately successful but it’s a great way to store protein on the “hoof” and I can feed them most weeds and tree cuttings. Yes, the manure can go right around plants without composting. 
YOu cant keep domstic rabbits in my neighborhood due to mixamatosis. But, my garden is being overrun with wild cottontails, worst year ever. SO, I decided to try and kill them.
So far, it has been easy to catch them with a live trap. Right now I have 2 live, in seperate cages, waiting to do a group processing day. The first one was dispatched a few days ago as a test, easier to butcher than chicken.
Still looking for peoples ideas on this to refine the best way
I bought the hopper popper which works great. Followed this and it was easy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC-bLMQXpns&t=1s
Chris, et-al,
How about some tips on how to “plant a garden” if you live in an apartment? I recently relocated cross country and am in the property search but live in a hi rise rise for now. I plan on 5 gallon bucket plants but could use additional advice that’s out there-Thanks!
George, and others, try this thread. It has some suggestions for smaller size and container gardens.
https://peakprosperity.com/how-to-install-raised-garden-beds/
Rosanna,
I have a 20’ by 20’ community garden plot, and for 2-3 years I used to have a lot of problems with the raccoons too. One day I was there and had an ah-ha moment. I had a large roll of chicken hardware wire I had picked up for free, someone had put it at the curb… So, I enclosed my plot with it, cutting sections for each of the four sides which stay put. Then, I cut 2-3’ pieces for “gates” I could open to go through when I was there working on it. Two sides have 2 gates, and the other 2 sides have one gate. Since then, I have had no issues, although I have seen small holes in the ground surrounding my plot, and each year fewer and fewer of the holes.
Now my issue is the frickin’ gophers. They love the carrots and all of the earthworms too. I constantly find their tunnels. Last year I was planning on digging vertical trenches and putting in chicken wiring with small holes to block the destructive creatures. But, last June I got injured at work, had whiplash and a concussion to deal with, so that got put on the back burner. This year, I wanted to plant carrots, but the time and effort to do the trenches seemed overwhelming, so I decided to just do it in the raised bed for my roots (beets and carrots). I apologized to the earthworms as I dug down with the shovel… I discovered clay one shovel down, so after laying down the cloth, I added some wood chips for worm food, then put back the soil, and then planted the carrots. I have hope now I won’t loose all my carrots this year…
Linda
George,
Does your town or city have community gardens? Is there any homes (or businesses? or schools?) nearby that you could possibly trade space for veggies? Any abandoned lots that you could approach the city about getting a community garden started? Do you have a deck for some container gardening while you conduct your search?
Linda
George -
In addition to the resources others have suggested, I’ll also mention the following:
1) Wall Planters
Use your vertical space as your garden, not the ground. Great for limited space areas.
If you have a balcony or patio off your apartment, put these on the walls. If not, screw it to your window sill and hang it outside.
My sister-in-law gets an amazing amount of calories out of hers.
Here’s what they look like:
They come in all shapes and sizes and can be quite affordable. This one is 36"x27" with 12 pockets and costs $24.
2) Grow microgreens
You can grow a wide variety of nutrient-rich microgreens indoors in your apartment (arugula, chard, cress, kale, beets - to name just a few). Here’s a good introductory article.
3) Participate in urban/suburban farming
I recorded an interview with Michael Abelman, the founder of the non-profit Center For Urban Agriculture, and author of the book Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier — which focuses on his efforts to transform acres of vacant and contaminated land in one of North America’s worst urban slums and grow artisan-quality fruits and vegetables.
His efforts now produce 25 tons of food annually. It’s a remarkable movement I wish more people were aware of and replicated in their own urban/suburban neighborhoods.
You can listen to the podcast here.
Best way I found for bunnies was a self cocking 80lb draw weight pistol crossbow. Sit them down in Front of their favourite food and wait for them to settle. Then, point blank right at the back of the head; do not try other areas of the head! It is humane and instant. You can even use the bolt over and over. Just touch the eyeball to check there is no blink reflex before processing.
Sorry to those of the vegan persuasion; maybe too much detail…!