Independent American News

By The Green Guy,

Hello everyone out there, I am the Green Guy.  If you are a gardener, or just plain want to feed yourself and family for pennies on the dollar, eat the healthiest best tasting food in the world, I hopefully can help.  Since I am new to this writing stuff ( as you can tell) please bear with me.  It has always been said “write what you know”, well I don’t know much!  So with many thanks to the editor of Independent American I will just start from the top, and tell everyone what I have done from breaking ground to harvesting.

The absolute most important thing that you need to do( I cannot stress this enough!) is soil preparation.  As I reside in Southern Nevada this is even more critical.  If you live in a zone that has rich soil, farm land,etc. you still have to add to the chemical make up of the soil.  And what do I add to the soil you ask???  Compost. Plain and simple.  If you do not know what composting is you should really really start reading this column on a regular basis.  Any green or brown waste matter ( with the exception of some animals-sorry Fido) can be used.  Instead of throwing your table scraps down the disposal, bagging your leaves and grass clippings and other organic matter, you simply create a pile in an area that you feel would be easy for you to maintain.  Now there are several compost cooking methods.  You can buy a tumbler, a tumbler is very efficient and relatively cheap. You also can build a bin for this purpose, but the good old fashioned, tried and true method is just layer your organic material on the ground and give it some water( not to much, you dont want soup yet!) then let the sun do its job.  Now the fun begins.  About once or twice a week (less during colder months) using a shovel or garden fork you will need to ‘turn’ the pile.  Continue doing this over a few weeks and what you will have is very nutrient rich soil additives that ANY plant can grow and thrive in.  The best part is there are NO CHEMICALS used .  Never ever use any chemicals on ANYTHING IN YOUR GARDEN!!!! This cannot be stressed enough. In the future I will talk about the many differt ways of speeding the process os composting and the different methods of controlling smell, critters, etc.

Now that you have had a whole bunch of fun playing in the compost lets start growing somthing!

Assuming that you have already plotted out an area for your garden, the ‘ black gold’ that you and the sun have created needs to be added to the soil.  A good rule of thumb is that your soil should be turned at least two feet below ground level.  If you have a tiller this will be a snap, if you do not get ready for the Ben-Gay!  Using a garden spade you will need to add at the very least, two inches of compost to the virgin soil.  Do this buy spreading out the compost and digging it in the soil.  At the same time removing any rocks or dirt clods bigger than a walnut.  My garden is 35 feet by 45 feet and I tilled adnd turned it with just myself and a shovel.  I advocate the use and maintenence of hand tools because there may come a time when you can’t use gas powered helpers.  Now folks,let me tell you, a garden of 25×25 feet can and will feed a family of four for a YEAR.  Have you seen the prices of produce???  I was in the local food collective( Smiths) yesterday, and they wanted $1.89 for one skinny, ugly zucchinni!  My yield of Zucch’s this year was through the roof. I only planted one row and got amazing production from just six plants.

Now it is getting to be late summer, but if you live in the southwest like I do,you will have enough time to get in a late crop of several veggies, and begin preperations for winter gardening(  Come on garlic!!!!!)  I hope to here from you for any questions you may have.  If I can help I will. If I cannot I can point you in the right direction.  I do know that I aint gonnahurt ya’!!  I have to go now and harvest some cantaloupe.

Feed Your Family, Feed Your Soul,

One Man and a Shovel,

The Green Guy