Friday, November 6, 2009

This Year's Fall/Winter Gardening Experiment.


[Image courtesy Kristin Hurlin, Mother Earth News. Oct/Nov 2009 issue online.]

Winter Hoops.  Here's what I'm going to do. --> Low Winter Hoops to Grow Veggies All Winter. I have two gardens.  One rectangular.  One triangular.  Each is the same size.  175 sf.  The rectangle is a convenient 15x50.  perfect for this particular project.

Lettuce is just too darned expensive.  I also have a lot of root veggies that won't survive the winter.  I just don't want to have to dig a bazillion carrots and turnips and store them or watch them rot, so I've decided that if I just build hoops over them, I'll have fresh veggies all winter long.  Check out this project from Mother Earth News.  It's a fantastic magazine if you can get past all the CO2 emissions stuff.

My official position on global warming:  I do not believe that it is manmade.  I believe that the earth goes through natural cycles of warming and cooling.  My evidence: just go to any natural history museum and read about fossilized palm trees in Wyoming and glaciers that used to cover the majority of the Earth in the past few ice ages for a few examples of how Earth cycles through this.  That being said, I believe that Man *may* be able to contribute perhaps a degree F to the global temperature.  However, I also find it amazing that over the past year and a half when we have had ZERO sunspot activity that we have experienced the 4th coldest year on record since the 1800s.  Prior years when there was a lot of sunspot activity, the other planets in our solar system also had melting ice caps.  This being said, all the hype on CO2 emissions and cap n trade is all BS if you ask me.  Since this post is intended to be organic and not political, I'm not going to go into the downstream rhetoric from that whole topic.      

That being said, I do believe that earth-friendly policies are best for our planet and population.  I believe that green technology should be pursued.  We in this house have been on an austerity and sustainability experiment for the last year and it's been fantastic.  While I have not been able to produce as much in my own gardens as I would like, I'm working up to it.  Given unlimited funds (which really IS the barrier, isn't it?) I would have solar panels, a geothermic heating/cooling system, a well, a wind turbine, and a big ol' clothesline.

The clothesline, while cheap, is against the stupid neighborhood rules.  That is a topic all to itself -->  A little off topic but a funny read here all about how people want to hang their clothes out to dry and aren't allowed to do so.

So, tough beans to any prissy neighbors in the back of the development who don't like the 'look' of my hoop houses.  My immediate neighbors enjoy the veggies I provide and like when their kids come help me pick produce.  If I get gripes on the hoops, there will be a flock of pink flamingoes on my front lawn.  There's no restriction on them either.   :-)

Image courtesy Amazon. 

 

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