Free Garden Catalogs - Growing your own veggies... ?

Growing your own veggies... ?

I have grown my own veggies for many years, but now that we are in the worse recorded drought and with water restrictions as they are, I have cut back on what I grow severely...Now to the question...If I was still growing all my seasonal veggies, would I be using more or less water than commercial growers, considering I use mulch heavily to retain water in the soil...I also don't have to transport them anywhere and I don't have to keep them in a false enviroment to keep them fit for sale... The most important thing is I use no chemicals other than what is certified organic, and my produce are all grown from seed and are either certified organic or heirloom, so no hybrids in my garden... My tucker tastes the way my grandparents enjoyed theirs, not like the insipid, tough, supermarket bred produce... What are your thoughts on this regardless of country, but please mention where you live as many people are not in my situation... Cheers... Just let you know, I am not allowed by Law to use any drip system, only watering cans (anytime) and a hand held hose fitted with water reducing head for 1 1/2 hours twice a week... I cannot recycle my grey water to my garden as yet...

Public Comments

we got the biggest drought ever second year running. if you irrigate each plant individually, or by drip irrigation using some of the used water from your shower/washing mashine/kitchen sink that went through a limestone filtering system, and cover them with plastic, yo'll be using less energy/water/resources. but you will have to dedicate a lot of your time to those plants.
you are using less than Commercial growers. they don't have the time to conserve on large crops. the fact your are here asking.shows you pay more attn. to it. you can use a plastic 55 gallon barrel [plastic] install a spigot fitting on the side at bottom.attach attach land scaping [perforated] irrigation line to it.lenth to your needs.bury line about 6 inches deep along row.fill and let gravity do the rest. nice slow seepage.into soil.try [farm and home supply]for barrels,or industrial parks around towm for disgarded food grade barrels. you can use metal if you dont mind a little rust or replaceing them every couple years. can also premix a little fertalizer into the solution if desired. if you got the time, sure wouldnt mind 10 or 20 seeds from your home grown tomatos[P.O.Box 416/Cedar Hill,MO. 63016.
Why not just install a rain water tank? I'm an Aussie too and I know most councils will subsidies it and with that water you can set up a drip system.
I can't really help with any answers as I don't live where you do but I just want you to know that here in north america it is a struggle as well. We who grow much of what we consume face a battle with lack of water as well. Take care friend. The struggle is worth it.
I live in CA and we are suffering another drought. I put in several garden beds this past year to grow tastier, healthier veggies as well. It depends on the type of gardening you do. Many home gardeners use a bio intensive approach, which means growing things close together so you likely use less water than conventional farming. You are out in your garden and can tell when it needs more or less water, big farms either use large sprinklers or a flood system and don't fine tune the amount of water each plant gets. So I'm sure you are using far less water than conventional farming.
Mother Earth News magazine has really good tips for water and growing crops. my mom has used their articles for improving her garden. she's in MO...rocks for topsoil we're in AR by the river and we've never found a rock in 15 yrs.
I agree that your water and energy usage for your square-foot gardening is probably a lot less than commercial growers, and the quality and life force of your produce is no doubt a lot higher. For one thing, you are able to use methods like "companion planting" to help protect your plants. Monoculture crops are typically expensive and vulnerable to diseases and pests. I think home gardening is going to be a necessity pretty quick... think about the old wartime "victory gardens" that greatly supplemented families' food supply when everything else was rationed. While oil prices are down for now... they won't stay down, and trucking all that half-dead produce all over will get too expensive. You might want to see about perhaps coming up with a hydroponic scheme that recycles and freshens water over and over... check the library. If you get cold winters, that could really help stretch your food budget. You can use the water you bathe with in your bathtub for watering plants if you are using a natural mineral based soap like Miracle II soaps by Tedco... that soap actually helps plants to grow and keeps the bugs off of them. The stuff is super concentrated, so don't be put off by the price.
We in Texas understand droughts. You should grow your own, sounds like your methods are much more efficient than a mass producer. Besides your vegetables are going to be more nourishing and tastier.I like to see people being as self sufficient as they can. keep up the good work.
oh get that rainwater tank in! and i really hope the greywater problem is a temporary practical one, rather than some stupid bureaucratic one... im not sure what permaculture solutions are right for your climate. the mulching, obviously, but also probably to go for more perennials, in stories, simulating woodland edge to get a bit of shade on the veg at midday. have you got trees? permaculture was born in oz, i'm sure youll have a local ish group. good luck from sunny england! http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=permaculture+australia&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=FlockInc.:en-US:official&client=firefox
In terms of over-all resource use and carbon foot print, your home garden is undoubtely a tremendous reasource savings over store purchased produce. Dont' forget transportation costs, the use of machines from soil prep through harvest, and the cost of warehousing and refridgeration. On the other hand, it sounds like the labor expenditures relating to watering you back yard garden are starting to sky rocket! I haven't been to cityfarmer.org for a while. But, they are run out of the Vancouver, BC area for the promotion of world-wide, urban agriculture; what they have works pretty darn well in the suburbs too depending upon your home owner's association. In one segment of thier site, they welcome papers discussing urban farming. And, they had a paper from a guy who sucessfully tried and taught some farming in some inner-city in Africa. The materials and design had to be minimal. The water requirements had to be minimal both because it was scarce and, because it had to be carted quite a distance by bucket under human power. The design was complete with drawings, materials specifications and potential alternatives, proportions and measurements, and discussion. It used a downward slanting raised bed and a couple of sluces. The discussion included the crop types they tried, the crop types this bed would work for, and those it would not. Sluce and bed flooding it is, but the water itself is done by bucket and hand. You might also see what you can find within historical editions of a periodical called Sunset Magazine; now and/or for a period it was called Sunset Magazine West. They have had a number of articles on growing vegetables in sunny, arid portions of California. Often, it includes companion planting with one plant providing shade for another and/or some type of a screening device. They have a web presence but, I'm not sure how much of you can get to without a paid subscription of some sort. I also remember seeing a "This Old House" series that re-built a house in either Bermuda or was it the Bahamas. They do some serious water conservation and reclaimation stuff there. The parents of a friend ended up living on a limited budget in an area that has what we consider very expensive water service. They always had a garden and did some serious eating out of that garden. In the early years, they bailed buckets of water from the tub out the bathroom window because they had to. Then they bailed buckets out the bathroom window because they were darned if they were going to give the city any more money for water than they had to. Somewhere around age 70, my friend's mother told their father, make the garden smaller if you have to, I'm no longer bailing water out of the bathroom window.
I sure wish I could send you some of the rain we have been getting here lately (near Houston, TX). My little yard is a mud hole! I envy you with all the fresh veggies, being a full-time RVer I don't have any place to have a little garden, but I carry a couple plants with me, an old miniature rose, a night blooming Jasmine and a large pot of Aloe Vera. BB )O(
Try hydroponics! There are organic supplements available and uses much less water!