Self Improvement: The Lost Art Of Gardening

Reasons to Garden.

1) It's fun. Yeah it can take a while or not long at all, but it is active work that you are doing as you are cleaning, watering, harvesting, it is a varied process and it makes it fun.

2) It's a mentally rewarding process. You are creating life through your efforts, and creating something that you can either eat or give to other people as a reward or gift, or even sell. I've always found that it is a great mental activity that gives you energy, uplifts your spirits, and give you the drive to plan for more, it is a varied mental task that often takes time, but is infinitely rewarding.

3) Nature is abundant to those who take care. What I mean by this is you will be amazed at just how your attitude towards certain items changes when you see how abundant even just a handful of some plants can be. In terms of seeds and food produced from them. Then compare that to what you would spend on the item in the super market and it really does make a huge difference. It also tastes superior, and per plant cost is so much cheaper than you would spend on anything else so that is the added benefits. I often find that I have overproduction, in which case there is also the mental reward of altruism when you can share what you have with others. Try giving someone a plant that you raised from a seed, its a rewarding experience, they won't want to get rid of it, and will likely try to make sure it survives, and it can be a great experience spreading a little bit of the old green thumbs around to others.

4) It's a great way to actually do your part to help the environment. What I mean by this is if your growing your own food you are less likely buying store bought produce which has a lot of hidden cost in terms of emissions. But not just that, those who garden are often more compelled to compost and recycle garden wastes, improve local soils through gardening practices, and do so without resorting to a lot of the fertilizer methods that monoculture tends to need and which ultimately causes soil erosion.

5) It can be very communal. Looking to meet a variety of different people, then look no further than your local gardening society. It literally does attract all sorts of people, but most of them are usually good spirited and down to earth. Something about shoveling compost tends to disinterest most of the vain asshole types of people. You can meet people of all ages and perspectives and it can be a great experience of learning and gaining experience. It really is a lifelong process.

6) It can be simple or complex. If your more of the scientific bend of mind then gardening can be a fun hobby through the application of hydroponical or aquaponics systems. If your more of a let it do its own thing, then permaculture approaches tend to work well. If you want volume, you can have square footage gardening, or something as simple as a few containers on a window sill producing herbs, its really up to you and your level of interest or commitment, but it is a fun learning experience and always open to areas of experimentation.

7) It's cheap. Costs of seeds and equipment can practically cost you nothing at all, depending on how willing you are to scrounge for things. Most people are usually happy to share or give items away for free, so its a relatively low cost hobby that can have the added benefits of money saved or directly earned if you produce something you feel is worth selling to people. At the end of the day that is entirely up to you, but its useful to remember that money not spent on certain groceries is money spent on other aspects of life.

In some cases the cost to grow your own versus buying equates to daylight robbery, a good example of this is tobacco. Its super simple to grow though it takes a bit of work to process, but one plant is capable of producing finished 100gr to 150gr of tobacco, even the largest 50gr pouches in my neck of the woods cost £14.15, so a single plant is 2 of those already. The cost to start from seed to plant, if we take in costs time and energy? £1.15. And this is why I insist on growing my own.

Anyone else out there into gardening let me know with a reply, I'd love to see how many Fapstronauts are also green thumbs.

 

I'd recommend trying to get something even if you have a small room, like a house plant or something similar.

The first plant I'd ever owned, was basically given to a room mate of my brother and me, and literally abandoned to die in a corner, it was a spider plant and had severe cold damage, he'd left it in his car for a few days before actually remembering to take it out. I cut it back, watered it and started talking to it. (Plants can actually recognise the vibrations of your voice, they also like different types of music, because of this same effect.) Bob came back, and lived for another two years while I had him/her. Then I had to move out, it was technically the other room mates, so he decided to keep it, and killed it 2 months later through neglect.

Now I've got a cactus, three avacado trees I started from seed, two apple trees I started from seed, in terms of my house plants. I also container garden quite a bit, because my space is a bit limited, but you can practically set up anywhere. It helps a lot too, I love the fact that I have some greenery in the dead of winter in the house, and they really do make a difference to the life of the building.

 

It's so true too, everyone no matter who they are is usually receptive to being given fresh garden produce or plants. I've never had anyone flat out refuse, and most people are usually more than happy to be given stuff as a gift. I think in that way it harkens back to our more communal backgrounds, when people would share or pitch in to help each other. I can think back to when I was a little kid, my parents had fruit trees, and we'd preserve a lot of stuff, rather than let it go to waste, it would be farmed off to our neighbors and in return we'd be given things like cheese, butter, other pickled preserves. Little things like that.
Also I think with the SO it creates an appreciation, because it is tied directly to the work that was done for the provision of the plants, people appreciate food in that respect, its something that is hard wired into our biology.

 

It does feed into a side of your humanity that modern humans don't get a chance to experience much.

What region do you live in? If there isn't snow on the ground, you might be able to hotbed to get an early start.

 

Ha ha, got a good chuckle from this.
Fair enough, I read a really good quote from Bill Mollison on plants once. "All plants are carnivorous, they eat you in the end. They just have to be patient."

 

Most of it's been around since Victorian times, its not overly complex, but it does work.
What sort of garden space do you think your going to have available?

 

That's great man, I don't think its hokey at all. It just makes you realize the stuff people often ignore. People think I'm crazy because I will harvest blackberries in autumn, and nobody believes it when I make enough jam for me for a year from my 48 hours of picking every year. You begin to appreciate things like trees, and plants more, the more involved you become in gardening.

I recommend looking into permaculture. You might be able to introduce edible drought resistant plants, and make a double benefit.



I live in a rental at the moment, but if I ever get my own property regardless of where I am I am going to set up the yard around with permaculture principals, and then also install an aquaponic system as well for food all year round.

 

It was luck for me really, I cut into an apple that had seed sprouting, so I planted them and they took off. It doesn't take much to care for it, if you start from seed its going to be a tiny sapling for a long time, and chances are it will be a crab apple tree when it matures. You probably better off buying one from a garden centre, you can buy a full tree, or if you want fruit fairly soon you can get a dwarf variety. You just need to make sure it has adequate access to sunlight, not shadowed out by the bigger trees.
If you plant it somewhere, where it has regular access to rainwater, you will likely not ever have to water it all that much, my little trees are still in pots at this point, but I will need to plant them out eventually.

I recommend trying any sort of fruit bearing tree, lemons, oranges, you can grow inside, my avacados have been super successful.

Starting the seeds, you need to similate the process of winter for the seeds in order to cause the cues for germination.

Huws is funny, but he is in my climate, and he knows his stuff.

 

So since there is a fair bit of interest in this I figured I'd try and give you guys some resources.

John Seymour - Guide to Self Sufficiency (This is a granddaddy of a book, but everyone should own a copy, and a digital copy. It's super informative on all aspects of living off of your land, no matter how small.

Murray Hallam - This guy has been great at developing aquaponics systems - hydroflooding aspect of hydroponics, but utilizing fish to create an eco system. (My preferred system when you see the results, and you get fish to eat out of it too so great for homesteading.)

Bill Mollison - He wrote the main book on permacultural design, and basically started the movement. Permaculture is designing the land around you, to be as productive as possible. And then planting food plants, to capitalize on this food production.

Youtube - Lots of super information on Youtube, try and pick and follow a few people who update regularly. Huws Nursery is really good, because he does a lot of germination. Migardener is great too. I recommend looking for gardeners in your geographical areas, as the varieties will likely survive in your zone or climate.

I also recommend making a worm bin for your veggie based table scraps, a composting system for compost, and sanctuary for local wild bee varieties. The more animal life you can encourage in your gardens, the better it is for keeping away unwanted pests.

My recommendation if you have the space, is planting a food forest, so that it utilises the full fertility of an eco system, and you have the abundance it produces to look forward to. (Cider, wine, etc.)

Any questions just ask.

 

If it's a dwarf variety then not really, you can have it inside, it just needs a variety of light, a coolish temperature and it should be fine.
It really depends on where you are. Putting it outside though in winter temperatures, will likely kill it due to it not being able to acclimatize quickly. (Especially if you dealing with Alberta style winter weather.)
Once it starts to warm up, take it outside on warmish days for a few hours at a time, and then transition to the deck over the summer, and it will be fine. You always want it to be able to track the suns movements, I prefer capitalizing on early morning light with my veggies and everything south facing, as they get the majority of the best light, but depending on your situation, you will need to just go with what you can do.