norad45,

If you are interested in experimenting with gardening for subsistence or for any other reason, I would like to suggest a very good book entitled Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, ISBN numbers 0-87857-340-2 for hardcover and -0 for paperback. I have used this book as a reference for twenty five years. It has helped me build gardens for myself as well as for older and or disabled individuals that I have built gardens for to meet their needs of diminished mobility or sight.

My main thought process is that of an engineer and the fact that I am basically lazy. I worked on the family truck farm as a youth and I can tell you it can be a lot of long hot back breaking work. The methods and techniques detailed in this book eliminates much of this toil. It also allows you to get a large yield from very small plot of land while at the same time greatly reducing the need for weeding. This plot of land can be built on just a few square feet of paved patio or a balcony for apartment dwellers.

This year, after my wife had gone through a serious three year cancer fight, I put a garden at our present location. She had seen me do this at other homes and for other people, but she thought that I had gone off the deep end with this one. Instead of the normal vertical support frames made out of light weight fencing post or conduit, I put in eight foot cyclone fencing post every eight feet tied together with cyclone top rail, aircraft cable, and turnbuckles. Each row is two feet apart. The little garden is about sixteen feet by twenty feet including two rows of two foot wide by two foot high raised beds. I also installed a drip irrigation system controlled by a battery powered computerized time valve. These run about $25 to $30 dollars from Home Depot. One set of AA batteries last all season. A drip irrigation system can be very cheap to install if you do a little research and buy in bulk when on sale or at the end of the gardening season. The cyclone fencing can be expensive if bought new.

Out of this garden we have been continually harvesting peas, beans, broccoli, cabbage, onions, radishes, tomatoes, dill, chives, parsley, basil, peppers, leaf lettuce, cauliflower, carrots, green and yellow zucchini, cucumbers, watermelons, and soon three different types of muskmelons. I also had garlic but one of my German Shepherd Dogs ate them and then started on the carrots. I had to fence off the garden. The biggest harvest will be from three spaghetti squash plants. Currently I estimate that fruits from these three plants weight more than one hundred pounds. Their not done blossoming yet or are they ready for harvest. Spaghetti squash keeps a long time once harvested.

Most plants are grown vertically on string woven nets support from the top rail. The spaghetti squash can support itself due to its strong stem but the melons must have a net bag support because their stems are not strong enough. As plants are harvested, I immediately replace them with new ones. Each plant is crowded with other faster ripening plants that will be harvested before the other plant gets to big. Consequently, what weeding you do is actually harvesting.

All the plants made it to the top of the rail, seven foot height, and now are branching over to the next row. The spaghetti squash have reached over the six foot fence and is trying to take over the neighbors yard. Many melons are at eye level and my wife enjoys lightly carving faces and poems in some of them to surprise me. With the automatic watering system, we can still travel and not have to worry it.



These results will encourage you to try growing different vegetable and extending your growing season.