| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
If Life Gives You Tomatoes, Make Salsa! By S.M. in Arizona
Gardening in the Southwestern United States is a huge challenge! Growing a successful garden takes hard work and a commitment to never give up. My gardening quest began in earnest in October 2010. Prior to 2010 I had planted seeds in the ground with few, if any, results. I had one lemon tree and aloe vera plants (part of my first aid kit, used for burns, skin irritations, etc.) that grew without much help from me. A friend, who was a master gardener, gave a class one Saturday on how to start a garden. He taught basic desert gardening and helped us create small square foot gardening boxes (2 x 2). I brought home two of these (8 square feet total) and another shallow box in which to plant spinach and lettuces. October was the perfect time to plant a fall garden. I mostly planted greens, which are supposed to be easy to grow. I watered and waited and hoped for a small harvest since I now had a miniature “garden” (if you could call it that). It was a start. Since that time, I’ve graduated to larger garden boxes that are four feet by eight feet long. Planting in the ground here just doesn’t work due to poor soil and water loss. Garden boxes help control water usage/waste and soil quality.
A visitor from up North was looking over a friend’s first attempts at a garden in the ground and remarked, “I had no idea what you were up against.” People from other parts of the country can’t comprehend how difficult it is to grow a garden in the desert. This gardener’s next attempts included raised bed boxes, bird netting and improved soil. After a lot of hard work, he now has a garden to be proud of.
Building a garden box takes a few materials and a little bit of work. Cedar and Douglas fir are good choices for building materials. Four by four posts make the corners and then three two by six boards are screwed into the posts to make up the sides and ends. The outside of the boxes are sealed with water sealer to help them endure the weather. Once the rectangular shape is completed, an area is leveled and bricks are placed as a foundation for the box to sit on. Place the box on top of the bricks and add ground cover cloth inside the box on the ground. Cover the inner sides of the box with plastic sheeting to protect the boards from water damage, soil loss and water leakage. Attach the plastic sheeting to the tops of each side with staples or secure with two by twos on the top of each side. Fill the bottom half of the boxes with sandy loam – delivered from a local company. Next, finish filling the boxes with a mixture of vermiculite, peat moss, and two different types of compost. Fill the boxes really full, since the soil will compact down over time.
Source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/07/if-life-gives-you-tomatoes-make-salsa-by-sm-in-arizona.html
