Friday, May 2, 2008

Some Resources for Gardens...


My future garden will look like this...

After some real toil my son and I finally got the garden planted this week! It was like our house was built on a rock quarry! We had to wait for the rains, then shovel, remove rocks and shovel again. My wise friend came over and helped even it all out. Thanks WISE FRIEND!!! A few weeks ago I put an ad on craigslist looking for free top soil and the nicest woman answered from a horse farm with compost. She just gives it away - well, the horses make it all day! We slapped some of that on top the dirt and got a couple of bags of soil from Home D and we were ready.

Now, I remember last year there many varieties of seeds and seedlings. This year is sparse. I did find enough for my little space but I am resourcful. Ever heard the expression, "I make a dollar out of fifteen cents!"...I know somewhere in maybe Santa Cruz, CA there is sweet hippie couple that gives away organic seeds...I know there are people out there who want to see the earth heal and gardens of delight everywhere - so I looked online and I found several addresses for FREE SEEDS:
Winter Sowing
American the Beautiful

TomatoBob
Ed Hume Seed Gardens

Also, I found an interesting article that was titled, "How to get "Free" Seeds From Your Grocery Store. The basic premise is that you can sprout some of your dry beans and seeded veggies. You can also take a sprouted potato and bury it for a potato plant. I would check your growing zone to see what would work. I assuming some of our food is not GMO - that might be a big assumption...Here is the article.

It is critical to start growing some food. Get into the practice. Again, if you only live in an apartment try growing in pots or on the rooftop. I remember there was a small space next to my apartment building in Oakland and one day my elderly neighbor turned over the soil and planted us all a garden. He show us a few things and even left us fresh veggies hanging on our doorknobs.

Tip: I remember back in the day would we give my friend's mother our dying plants and the next time we would visit her the plant was growing like it was part of wild rain forest. I finally asked her what she did and she said that she would add egg shells to water and let them soak then use the water on the plants. She also would add the blood from raw meat to water for the plants. It works...Contraindicated for vegans:)

Hope this helps...
Peace,
Sistah C

2 comments:

Amenta said...

Sistah C, I went looking for seedlings this year especially Bell Pepper, tomato, and I was shocked to find that only the expensive seedlings that come one to a cup for $2.98 or something like that. I was blown away!!! Talking about conspiracy, this was running through my head all day yesterday. How can food prices be going up and no seedlings? But, wait. I then said I will get some seeds. That was a serious chore, noting but pumpkin, gords, some yellow squash, but now onion, tomato, bell pepper, beans, it was like ZERO!!! I was pretty upset. Fortunately, I saved some seeds from last year and praying that they come up. I have put in a lot of work. And I pray good fortune on you garden. We have to impress upon our people how important it is to grow your own food. Besides it tastes soooo much better than the store bought stuff!!

Camara Meri Rajabari said...

Word! I was thinking the same thing about the seedlings - $2.98!!! I got some seeds but the variety was neal...Home D had more than Lowes but still. I am finding a larger variety online and you can start your own from seeds in your food -ie. bell pepper, cucumber. I know there is something up! I did get a good email today on keeping a pantry - which is the second part - storage of food. Here is the link
http://bornfamous. com/pantry- storage/
Peace,
C