The salad table
Thursday May 10, 2007
I am exhorted by She Who Must Be Obeyed to post a link to this NYTimes story about a way to grow lettuce and other greens in your backyard without a garden. Excerpt:If you love fresh greens, there is no...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Now I've got to build one of the *&%$ things..Rod Dreher Better yet, get together a group and we'll build a bunch of them as a group project. I've got the space and tools and some people think I'm handy at stuff like this. You'd be surprised at how much fun something like this can be. Common goal, good homemade food, sense of community ready made.
You've inspired me to purchase _Container Gardening for Dummies_. Maybe I can do my part to redeem this wasteland called suburbia by making the small deck attached to our crappy townhome a mini-greenhouse, without the house part. We'll see what the homeowner's association says...
What harvey said. Have a block party or something, and while you're at it, teach them how to compost, Mr. Crunchy! By the way - if y'all like the salad table thing, many state universities who have an agricultural extension will give you a free seminar/education/supplies for composting. If not, your local solid waste authority will.
"Now I've got to build one of the *&%$ things..." That kind of attitude isn't going to help you in your intentional community, where digging latrines and chopping wood is more prized than sitting in front of a computer with the latest French Cabernet. :)
Rod, if you ever get *&%$ thing built, and if you grow leaf lettuce varieties in it, there is something else you should obey. When you go to harvest leaf varieties (as opposed to head types), snip, cut or trim the leaves you are collecting nearly down to or just above the crown of the plant. IOW, don't uproot the plant to harvest it. The leaves will grow back fresh and tender, and you will be able to have multiple harvests from one lettuce plant. It'll be worth building the *&%$ thing.
"Now I've got to build one of the *&%$ things..." That's how I feel about wood and nails. I'd much rather purchase one and ask my husband to read the stinkin directions and put it together. Maybe I'll suggest that the scouts make one next year. Boys seem to like those types of projects, and I wouldn't have to do it. I like this idea. I'm really sick of tasteless produce from California. I'm so sick of sour strawberries and rock hard tomatoes. Thank God it's almost summer. I have plenty of land to make a garden, but the deer eat everything that I like to eat. I don't like fences-too ugly. I can't spray produce with the same stinky stuff that I put on my flowers, so I don't have a vegetable garden. I'm thinking that something on wheels would be ideal because I could put it into the garage at night. Has anyone ever used one of those bags to plant strawberries that you can hang from a post? I like that idea. Does anyone have one of those compost containers, and does it work well?
Watsy, I vermipost. You can do it in anything. Red worms, they will breakdown much waste into beautiful humus. If you're serious about it let me know. I've done it for years.
I'm serious, tovart. I haven't wanted to spend the money on one of those containers, but I don't like the idea of throwing trash that attracts animals into the yard, and I don't want my place smelling like a garbage dump.
Well, Watsy, you should start with a container. You can have it enclosed and slightly above ground if you like. My husband brings me home large wooden boxes from where he works or you can use wooden pallets; large plastic bins work. You start out with a layer of some peatmoss, coffee grounds, leaves (better if chopped to start out) shredded newspaper, grass clippings, hay (I use a lot of horse, goat and chicken manure, but that's cause I'm a Jibarita and have it available)
What kind of junk do you have lying about the back 40 if I may inquire? ....
When we were in college, we grew organic, hydroponic lettuce in containers on a table next to the window. In our current abode--an urban condominium with no yard--we grow fresh herbs year round in windowboxes set on the interior sills. Suffice it say--container gardening is great, partially because it can be moved inside when the weather shifts.
Salad greens are just about the easiest thing to grow and they amazingly good! My kids like to go out and nibble on them in the garden -- they seem to think they are getting away with something. Another reason to garden organically!
Hi, Tovart, What do you mean by junk? What's the "back 40?"
There's a new deer product out that you spray on a strand of what appears to be electric fence tape and you string it around your garden. It's not gorgeous, but it's pretty cheap and it's only a segment of your yard. Works like a charm.
I'm trying to figure out what would be best to utilize for a compost pile, if you have something to construct one or if you have to purchase one. Maybe Rod will post directions on his Salad Table and a compost bin for us all here -- something instructive. Watsy, the smell of good compost is in now way similar to garbage. I'm a hick, but even the fussiest amongst us will agree that compost done right, "it don't stink."
That's "no way," not "now way."
Tovart, I don't mind buying a container. The container that I didn't want to buy is the one that's found in plant catalogs and costs about $200-$400. Can't remember the exact cost, but they aren't inexpensive. They look easy to use because they are sealed and you can turn the contents with a crank. Compost is made quickly and easily. I have a little compost at the end of my property. The neighbors throw grass clippings into it. I throw weeds & pruning clippings. We both throw leaves into it in the fall. We never put table scraps into it. It never looks like something that you'd put back into the garden because we're always piling stuff on top of it. How do you get the compost looking like something that you'd put back into the garden? Can you throw all vegetarian table scraps into it without it stinking and should you?
Watsy wrote: I like this idea. I'm really sick of tasteless produce from California. I'm so sick of sour strawberries and rock hard tomatoes. Thank God it's almost summer.
You realize, ma'am, that they strip mine those things in Costa Rica. :) k.
Watsy, do NOT put weeds in your compost! The seeds don't always die. But table scraps other than meat are good: eggshells, peelings, newspaper, grass clippings, etc. Color print, weeds, meat, metal, etc. are a no-no. They sell cheap "tubs" made of recycled palstic with holes and a lid for around $30-40. They work well, and you just have to turn the pile once a week-ish with a pitchfork. They're maybe 4' in diameter, 3' tall.
Watsy, you're off to a good start. The good stuff is at the bottom. The creme de le creme de compost sinks to the bottom. You need to turn it. I bought one of those crank things, but I got ripped off -- be careful. Somebody else will have to advise you about those types of composters. I had no luck. The best thing for me has been wooden boxes. Table scraps are great -- just not meat leftovers or grease and fat. That is what will produce the bad smell. If you are so inclined, order some red wriggler worms to throw in there. They break the stuff down tout suit. We do use a shredder to break up branches, pine needles, and leaves. Worms and shredding do speed up the process. But any type of compost once established and functioning breaks it down. Remember you need some dead brown stuff too (carbon) and your green stuff (grass, table scraps) for nitrogen. I don't remember the proportions. I'll find them and post again.
Tovart, Starrs, & Anonymous, Thanks for the tips. I'm going to try this. I would have never thought to put newspaper into it. I'll keep the weeds out of it, and put some worms into it. It sounds like a wooden box would work best, but it would have to have holes or openings for the air to circulate. Or, if it doesn't have a lid, it might not need to have any holes.
Please note, Texans. Hidden in the article is the information that the "soil" is so shallow it may need watering 2x/day during the hottest times. I would never keep up with that without some kind of rigged-up automatic watering.
I posted here about a fabric "tape" you can put up around your garden to keep out deer. The name of the spray is, I believe, "Deer Stop".
May father in law swears by it. Good luck.
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