I love the spring with cool weather and the promise of great, bountiful garden produce to come.
What I do not like are the blisters and back aches from prepping the raised beds. There has to be a better way to prevent weeds between seasons. My plastic solar cooking really didn’t work well and made a big mess. So… back to the drawing board and gardening forums while I painstakingly try to eradicate this grassy weed from Hades.
I’m also trying to plan how best to keep the feelings from using the beds as a litter box. I need something effective and inexpensive with bonus points for sustainability and able to reuse year after year.
I did mix in rabbit manure last fall so I’m hoping the plants that will go in are well fed. I’ve also decided to try a different support for trellising the cantaloupes. Pantyhose had too much stretch and not enough support.
As I pause in my efforts this evening, I question why I subject myself to this. I don’t have a green thumb and a natural gift at this. I just have a desire to be able to provide at least some of our groceries for ourselves.
I saw an interesting article earlier this week about fertilizer or fertilizer components increasing in price. For ranchers and farmers, that will increase the cost of raising their crops and animals. That increase will in turn be passed along to the butchering and processing plants which will get result in higher prices to the stores and ultimately to you and I, the consumers. One price increase impacting the beginning of the current food chain style has a long, lasting ripple effect to the consumer at the end of the line.
Have you ever thought to work directly with a producer? Negotiating with a rancher to buy a quarter of a core with 3 other families for beef at a lower cost? The rancher benefits from a direct sale and the consumer knows where their food came from. Or perhaps it could be a gardening co-op where an empty lot could be turned into raised beds for the residents of that particular street and everyone who wants fresh produce pitches in on the work and cost. We have chickens (currently assisting me with de-bugging the raised beds) that lay eggs that I sell the excess of to friends. People ask us through word of mouth. The money we make of the eggs isn’t much but it helps defray their feed costs.
There’s something to be said for self sufficiency. It’s like that phrase, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he will eat every day.” It’s something along those lines. Even in the smallest of spaces, we can do something to help ourselves and maybe a few other people too.
Going Green In Texas 