Monday, March 30, 2015

You Say; You Don't Have Time




Creating your own garden is one of the first steps of becoming self reliant.  Whether you reside in the city, a rural area, or in the country, “YOU” have the capability to create a garden on your patio, in your back yard, or on anywhere your property. 

One doesn’t have to depend on a grocery store for vegetables and fruits.
All it takes is “YOUR TIME” and a little bit of money.  Granted, they’re so many people who will say, “I don’t have time”.  If you have time to shop, watch TV, or play on the internet, then you have time to create a small garden for you and your family.  

Seeds are very inexpensive, and in some cases, free.  If you have a friend who gardens, visit them and tell them you’re interested in starting a garden.  In most cases, that friend will be more than willing to help you get started, and may even provide you with seeds she/he saved from their own garden.

Then grab yourself a shovel and start prepping your ground, removing the grass, and rocks.  If you’re using a bucket, or pots, to start your garden, you’ll need to create drainage holes, and have rocks or coffee filters to place in the bottom of the bucket or pots, for water drainage, before adding your soil.  

If you need fertilizer, some of your local farmers will be more than willing to help provide you with free material in most cases, if you offer to clean out a few stalls in their barn.  

Then you’ll need some water, because plants require water to grow, and again this will take a little bit of your “TIME”.

Creating a garden just takes “TIME”.  Trust me; your family will appreciate you for providing them with fresh organic home grown food. 

Take a look at this video.  The Dervaes family created a beautiful garden with 400 varieties of vegetables, fruit, and edible flowers. A total of 6,000 pounds of food a year are grown in the garden; this provides food for their family, and allows them to provide food for some of the local restaurants looking for locally grown, pesticide free food.  In the process, they make some money which is put back into their garden.

Folks, this family lives just feet from a highway in California in the middle of Los Angeles.  My point is: you can start a garden no matter where you live, to help your family, and become more self reliant.











Video Source:  This video was posted on Radio Free Redoubt. Also found on You Tube, provided by Food Abundance, Film by Social Connect, Produced by Val Savala, and Edited by Alberto Arce.
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20 comments

  1. jeesh Brat Angel - tell us how you really feel - bahahahahah! no seriously - this is an awesome post and hopefully will get people up off their butts, away from their phones and tv's and out in the yard! even if all you can plant is one tomatoe and a few lettuce on your balcony in the city - when you harvest your own tomatoes and that lettuce - it will make you feel so much closer to your food and it will make you feel much better about yourself than some game on facebook! Sandy Gurl - this is an awesome post! and i hope that those who read it will feel inspired, regardless of where they live, to get out there and get their hands dirty!

    much love to all of you, always! your friend,
    kymber

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    1. Sweet Kymber,

      I will!!!! Thank you, people need to start being self reliant. One doesn't have to have all kinds of acres to have a garden to feed their family.
      Hugs and love to you and Jambaloney.
      Your Friend,
      Sandy

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  2. Love the post! Create, Plant, Harvest, Eat

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    1. M.E.,

      Thank you! God put us on earth to thrive, create, plant, harvest, and eat.
      Be self reliant!!!
      Hugs,
      Sandy

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  3. Very good points and great information. Keep Preaching it Sandy!!!!

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    1. PP,

      I'll keep preaching to the choir!!!
      Thanks PP :-)

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  4. Well, it's a little more work for us than you make it sound ;~) because we have rocky land and we are past 65 years old. But for the most part I agree with you.

    We have lived on 1.67 acres now for five years (come July 1) and when we first moved here there was nothing growing except for a couple of maple trees and a couple of hackberry trees, TOTAL. That first summer, and the next one, was horrible drought and over 100 degrees for long periods of time, with wind that literally made us feel like we were living in a dehydrator. A lot of the plants I brought from out previous home, where I grew a garden in raised beds in the back yard, died. The first thing we did was plant fruit trees, which required we dig out rock, and we really wore ourselves out that year and the next, digging holes, and trying to keep everything alive. They are all in bloom now and for some, if Mother Nature doesn't come along with a late freeze, it will be their first harvest.

    We struggle against the deer, and the rabbits, and the field rats. That has not been cheap. They have eaten pecan trees down to the ground, decimated the sweet potato crop underground, unknown to me till I started to dig them, and eaten seedlings placed out on the driveway for hardening. I spend probably $50 for seed each year, but it is because I'm building a herb garden and I do have certain varieties of vegetables I prefer to plant over all the others. I do save my own seed as much as I can.

    And we soldier on. Each year, the garden gets better from the leaves and other plant material we incorporate into the soil. We had the garden fenced. The rabbits were able to get through the fence so we fortified the bottom with chicken wire and filled up spaces at the gates. We trap the rats with a Have-A-Heart trap and drown them. To try to save young trees, we make small barriers out of wire squares, that keeps the rabbits back, and then top it with hinged triangular cages we've made out of concrete reinforcement wire, to keep the trees safe from the deer. Sometimes we look out there and see the whole thing toppled over. It's two steps forward, one back, sometimes.

    We'll keep it up till we have to go to The Nursing Home, though, we do manage to get enough to put up for the winter sometimes and it's great exercise. An occasional bountiful crop gives us something to pass around to our good neighbors.

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    1. Ilene,

      Like you we moved from another state to Oklahoma. Over the first couple of years we learned what would grow in this part of Oklahoma.
      Oklahoma is known for drought, and wild fires created from mother nature, and human beings.

      You've really done a lot of work to prepare your property with tree's, flowers, fruit, and vegetable gardens. It's a beautiful homestead :-) (I've visited your blog). Moles love potatoes. I would suggest placing thin mesh of fencing between the ground and potato before planting or possibly make a raised bed. Back home (I'm from Michigan) we would place a fence around each tree to prevent rabbits and deer from eating the bark off the trees.
      Wild critters can be a real nuisance when trying to garden or raise your own animals.

      I wish you much success and a bountiful harvest from your garden this year.

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  5. I can't say enough about the importance of having a garden and growing as much of our own food as possible. What do we have if we don't have our health? Where does our good health come from? From what we put in our bodies to enable it to sustain good health. I know many folks believe food is food but that isn't so. We've polluted our air, soil and water so it's up to each of us individually to change those conditions to the best of our ability. Yep, self-responsibility, self-sustainability and self-reliance. Our survival depends on finding "the time." Great post, Sandy!

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    1. Mama Pea,

      It's very important to grow your own food and learn to be self reliant, and healthy. Good health comes from organically grown food which is pesticide free. Food isn't food, most of the food you find in the grocery store is processed and has been genetically modified. It is up to us to make the difference and if each of us dedicated time to make a difference we would be self responsible, self sustainable, and self reliant.

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  6. Amazing video! I do dream of the day we can get back to gardening.

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    1. Kimberly,

      I thought so too! One day you and your husband will.

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  7. The Dervaes are amazing. And you are so right - it does take time and, as Ilene pointed out, sometimes it takes a LOT of time and much sweat equity. However, it is so defintely worth it. We get smarter as we go along (we hope). A terrific post!

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    1. Susan,

      Yes, the Dervaes are a great family. It does take time, and sometimes it takes a while. In the end, it's well worth having a garden to provide abundant, organically grown food to your family. This garden will also help with the families health and well being. Thank you my friend!

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  8. The Dervaes have been an inspiration for many, myself included. Great post Sandy, this needs to be said and heeded!

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    1. Leigh,

      The Dervaes family is an inspiration to many. They have provided food and health for their family, local restaurants, and education to families aspiring to learn how to become self reliant.

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  9. Gardening makes you 'grounded' .... :) It's part of humankind that is forsaken today for instant everything. Get back to your roots!

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    1. Mrs. Mac,

      Gardening grounds everyone involved mentally, emotionally, and physically. We just need to slow down in life, give ourselves time to learn how to plant a garden, and the rest will come. I agree, we need to get back to our roots, and stop looking for that instant gratification.

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  10. My wife and I are giving gardening a serious shot this spring, but on a much smaller scale than most people because it's more in the way of an experiment. I am particularly concerned about my chickens destroying the garden, and if not them, the wild animals like hogs and deer.

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    1. Harry,

      There is nothing wrong with starting small. I would suggest possibly fencing in your garden to prevent the hogs and chickens from eating what's growing in your garden. I also use bird netting to keep the birds away from my grow vegetables and fruit. Do some research to figure out what grows well in the area where you live, then decide what it is you and your wife would like to grow. I started small several years ago, and every year after I expanded.

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