gardening

Growing your own food = one part of personal economic security. Heck, national economic security, but that's another topic for another day.

I was late on building cold frames this year, so really early seeding did not happen, but have now gotten most everything planted in flats and 1oz plastic bathroom cups for a good size garden. I drilled a hole in bottom of stacks of the cups for drainage; they are cheap, reusable and recyclable. Optimally, these should be under lights, but when it warms up a bit they will go outside. This is about a quarter of what I have started.


Here's an improvised cold frame I just made from an old underbed storage box. Spinach and salad greens will be going in it. It has a lid, and I'll bank up the sides with leaves for insulation. Overall size is 18 x 34 x 8 inches. I've downsized a lot of stuff out of my life, and don't have the need for storage of this type. I had several of these laying around and inspiration hit!

Great resources for those without a lot of cash for seeds —

The Dinner Garden is an organization that distributes seeds to those in need.

SNAP (food stamps) allows purchasing of vegetable seeds. Generally only available at your local grocery store, as most seed companies are not set up to accept food stamps at this time. But it's worth asking!

Dollar stores. Who would have thought? I'm not a huge patron of these places, but in the spring they carry very inexpensive seed packets (3 for a dollar), and they will take SNAP. As a bonus, most of the seeds I got from this supplier are open pollinated, not "designer" hybrids.

I prefer to use open pollinated, heirloom seeds if possible, as you can save them every year.

Other great resources —
• Johnny's Selected Seeds for an amazing selection and wonderful customer service
• Permies.com for permaculture information
• Cherrygal for inexpensive seeds in smaller quantities (I have not ordered from them myself, but plan on getting some of the herb seeds they carry
• The Survival Podcast is a great, common-sense podcast with lots of info about sustainability. I'm not a extreme prepper, but I've learned a lot about permaculture and storing food from this one. His approach is not the fearmongering, world coming-to-an-end thing many expect from the survival and prep community.