Help With Gardening/Farming Techniques
Hello Transition friends!
Correct me if I am wrong, but I did not see any forums or topics for actual procedures and recommendations with gardening. I think the transition really needs a forum focused on this issue. As our future will undoubtedly be filled with people moving back to the land and having much more hands on involvement in food production, I think it would be very useful to have a place where we can share our experiences and questions.
Thanks,
Tim
To start out, I would like to share my ideas regarding how to grow enough food to make it to the next growing season. I think that as a base, a staple, all energy should be immediately invested into propagating various fruit and nut trees as well as berries. Fruits and nuts can be dried with direct solar energy and stored for long periods of time.
Once a transition project has created a stable and dependable supply of fruit and nuts (from trees), then the garden can begin.
The reason I emphasize the Fruit and Nut trees is because they require the least maintenance and produce a large volume of fruit. They are fairly dependable to produce each year a similar amount of crop.
Once the Fruit and Nut trees have been planted and drying and storage issues have been worked out, then vegetables can be considered. Although there are not that many, I suggest perennial vegetables planted in guilds around the fruit trees. Again, the benefits of perennials are obvious. Once these guilds are established they will pretty much maintain themselves.
Ok, so the fruit/nut tree guilds are set up. We have our supply of dried fruit/nuts to survive a winter. Now let’s get into the veggies.
Planting techniques
Harvesting techniques
Seed collection
Pollination/Crossing etc.
You can view my project at the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSp48tXLdKk