Life As I See It

Tonight my dinner was a huge tomato sandwich (tomato from my garden naturally.) I topped the sandwich with nasturtium leaves and a bit of minced basil (both from my garden.) A little canola mayonnaise and a healthy sprinkling of Costco's salt-free seasoning and I had a feast fit for a king. I finished the meal with a fruit salad of blueberries, banana, strawberries and pineapple. The pineapple and banana unfortunately do not grow in my area so they are imported fruits. Yesterday I had a salad with dandelion leaves (well washed of course.)

I got to thinking, how many people do not know that many of nature's bounties that we consider wild and inedible, are actually great food and a healthy addition to your diet. I did some research and found a great site for the edible plants that many of us grow for their contribution to our landscaping. The website is:

http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

I live in the Mid-Atlantic area and I usually have my first tomatoes around July 1st. My method of getting an early harvest is adaptable to other areas though. Using my method will increase your growing season and increase your yield.

I use tomato cages made from heavy wire rebar that I bend into a 20" diameter circle. You must drive a stake to keep the cages from blowing over in a wind. The wide mesh of the cages allows you to support your tomatoes and allows easy access to the fruit. This also allows you to spread diatomaceous earth around the base of your tomato plants to deter slugs and other soft bodied insects.

Around April 15th I put down a black trash bag where I intend to plant the tomatoes and weight them down with rocks or bricks. This warms up the soil for the tomato transplants. I found clear trash bags at Wegman's grocery store and I use these as a temporary greenhouse. After the tomato transplants are in the ground and mulched well I cover the tomato cage with the clear plastic trash bag and cover the entire plant to keep the cool night air away from the tender plant. Occasionally you have to weight down the bottom of the bag to keep air from reaching the plant. In cooler climes you might want to put a 2 liter sealed bottle of water that you have dyed dark green with food color under the plastic. This will temper the air under the plastic greenhouse and allow the warmth of the water to keep the air under the plastic greenhouse a few degrees warmer at night. On days when the temperature is going above 65 degrees raise the plastic a few inches before you go to work to keep the plant from burning.

This method works well with peppers, squash, bush cucumbers and melons.

A tip for those with less than great luck growing vegetables:

Many people do not have full sun but do have 5 or 6 hours of sun. With only this small amount of sun your harvest will be much smaller and your plants will be stunted. You can remedy this by putting mirrors that you can pick up at yard sales behind your plants. Keep the mirrors from touching the plants but keep them close. You can also put aluminum foil (shiny side up) under your plants and weight them down. The aluminum foil will mulch your plants and keep insects from attacking your plants.

You can really make a difference with just a few simple steps:

1. Save gas by making fewer trips. I get my mail at a P.O. Box because of business reasons. I used to pick up my mail every day. I now pick up my mail twice a week. I figure that I save about a 1/2 gallon of gas a week. I know that's not much but if all 200,000 vehicles in the US did that it would add up.

2. Buy local food. The cost of getting that cantaloupe to you in January is huge. Eat foods that are out of season that you have canned, dried or frozen. Support your local farmer.

3. Plant your own garden. I plant five tomato plants (among other crops and these five plants keep me in tomatoes all winter. I just put the tomatoes in a blender and then freeze; no cooking or other processing needed. I freeze peppers and onions the same way, no other processing needed. I use the "Square-Foot Gardening" technique. There is an excellent website www.sqaurefootgardening.com that will get you started. Mel Bartholomew has done excellent research and there is no reason for you not to start gardening. Even wheelchair bound people can use this method.

4. Compost for your fertilizer needs. Commercial fertilizer is very energy intensive. Composting is ridiculously simple. There are many sites that will help you if you are not familiar with composting.

5. Help your livestock grower. Anyone who keeps livestock will tell you that it is a problem getting rid of the manure. Most of the time you can get it for free. Manure will amend your soil and feed your crops. Usually the farmer will help load your pickup.

6. Buy your milk in glass containers. You will have to leave a deposit but the milk tastes better and the container can be reused many times. If glass containers are not available at your grocery store buy your milk in plastic containers which are very easy to recycle. I built a multi-million dollar home for a friend that had roof shingles made from old tires and plastic milk bottles. The shingles were guaranteed for 75 years.

7. Consider wormiculture. Worm castings are superior fertilizer. It's simple. Get a large plastic container with a lid. Drill a few holes near the top for air and put several inches of top soil in the bottom of the container. Make sure that you do not use a commercial product with fertilizer or chemicals. Dampen the soil so that it is medium moist (you should be able to squeeze a couple of drops of water out if you squeeze the soil.) Put your kitchen scraps UNDER the soil for a couple of days before you add the worms. Although some of the websites on wormiculture advocate using certain types of worms, any worms will do the job. I keep mine in the house out of sight in a warm spot and it never smells.

8. Consider solar. Don't be put off by the high cost of solar. Solar collectors for space heating are simple to make and cheap and the payback is usually in one or two years. Check out the website www.builditsolar.com. A huge site with everything you will need to get you started.

9. Keep the heat in your house. Consider insulating shades for your window. Make interior storm windows out of twin-walled polycarbonate for your east, west and north windows. www,builditsolar.com has a huge section on this.

10. Check the insulation levels in your house. Many homes in the US do not have even the minimum recommended levels of insulation. The big box home centers will instruct you on how to do it and rent you any special tools needed.

11. Do you really need all of that lawn? Consider planting a much larger garden; you will get produce out of your old lawn instead of having to feed the grass and mow the lawn. Plant shrubs instead of grass. Gas powered lawn equipment is a major polluter.

12. Stuff. Do you really need it? Is it just sitting around and taking up space? Get rid of it or sell it. Remember that latest tech gadget that you had to have? Is it collecting dust? Think long term before making any purchase.

13. Cook! That factory food has tons of ingredients that you can't even pronounce. It is fattening and takes control of your body out of your hands. It has to be shipped to you by truck and that in itself is energy inefficient. Isn't it much better to cook with vegetables that you have grown or with vegetables that you know are safe? Wouldn't it be great to know that you have total control over what goes into your body? When I cook I often makes large batches and make my own "TV Dinners."

14. Recycle, reuse, make do. We cannot afford to keep polluting the earth with the new stuff that we think we need. Almost everything can be recycled. If you are using something that can't be recycled stop using it. Think of how much stuff that you bought that didn't perform as advertised or wasn't what you really wanted. Wouldn't you like to have the money that you spent on that stuff?

15. Your home. The real estate shows on TV tell us that kitchens become dated after a couple of years and have to be updated at a cost of tens of thousands. If your kitchen is doing the job does it make sense to go into debt to keep up with the Jones? Who wants to put up with your home being constantly torn up? The only person that most remodeling is going to benefit will be the contractor.

16. Appliances. It is not cost effective to replace a appliance that is in good condition and is doing the job for you. When it comes time to send the appliance to the appliance cemetary buy an Energy Star appliance. I recommend checking out Consumer Reports. An Energy Star appliance that won't last or needs constant repair is no savings to you