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Time To Get Prepared

 

Time To Get Prepared.

"My GOAL is to tame and maintain my unruly garden and turn it into a edible work of art for everyone to enjoy at next to no cost!"

With all this Coronavirus stuff happening and the economic crisis I think now more than ever it's important to prepare ourselves for what may come. Already we're seeing the effects of lock down on households and their financial issues becoming more and more desperate. But never fear, we can all do something to help out our situations, being mentally, physically and financially or that of someone else's all by simply putting in a vegetable garden.

You don't have to have a lot of ground as there are many compact gardening solutions you can easily achieve all with a simple pot or bowl, bucket or cup. Tyres in particular are excellent for growing potatoes. You can buy cheap and effective glasshouses from places like Mitre10 or The Warehouse (New Zealand). And if you're anything like me and have chickens roaming everywhere then unfortunately you will have to invest in tunnel houses or netting to cover your gardens otherwise your plants will end up like mine!!! A good place to look for netting if you're on a budget is your local Recycling Center or Thrift Shops. Or ask a friend if they have any old netting lying around the place that they don't want anymore. Trade Me is a great online option if you live in New Zealand as is your local Buy, Sell and Exchange page on Facebook.


Before: Looking beautiful and growing nicely.


Wrecked!!! Totaled by my darling feathery friends.

However I really can't complain too much because they help break down my soil that hasn't seen a spade in over 5 years and eat all the grass grubs and bugs that could be harmful to my vegetables.


There is no limit to the size of your garden. You can utilize the windowsill in your kitchen and grown herbs like parsley or spring onions in cups of water. Click here for a list of edible plants to grown in water.

Along with growing our own vegetables we may also need to start keeping the seeds!! I bought a Sweet 100 Tomato plant the other day and it came with a warning label that due to the Coronavirus they were unable to source the seed they usually grow from and therefore had to make some other breed out of god knows what to resemble the plant we thought we were buying! At least it came with a warning, I guess. So that got me to thinking *lightbulb moment* that maybe we need to start being smart with our gardens and not only grow to eat but also keep to grow lol if that makes sense! So somewhere in this blog of mine i'll have a section dedicated to harvesting seed.

In fact, I've already started with the pumpkin I had for tea the other night. See here for how to harvest your pumpkin seeds and germinate them again ready for planting.


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