the reason to do gamcod

Most of the gardening we advocate is level 5 stuff.  Maybe even level 7.  Level 5 stuff looks cool to level 3 people, but looks crazy to level 2 people.  

We want to make a movie that solves some gardening issues for level 1 people.  

Most level 1 people consider the following misnomers to be absolute fact:

  - gardening costs more than just buying food at the store
  - gardening requires massive knowledge
  - gardening takes an enormous amount of time.  it would be wiser to work those hours to get the money to buy food
  - gardening requires an established garden
  - gardening provides a tiny spec of novelty nibble, not proper quantities of food

Our mission is to guide level 1 people to growing food.  Resolving the misnomers.  Then they will be at level 3 and all of our horticultural stuff seems cool.  

GAMCOD is a stepping stone to permaculture.

So this is an attempt to grow a lot of food, on dirt.  Demonstrating techniques that are cheap and easy.

The mission is NOT to show off awesome level 5 to level 10 stuff.  That will all just seem crazy to the people we are trying to reach with this project.  The mission is help a level 1 person to shift from a list of stupid excuses to an actual garden.


I want the submissions for this project to have a lot of focus on how simple/cheap/productive growing food can be with the worst soil.  Experts showing how easy it can be.

Of course, if an expert grows two or three plots, and the focus is on these goals, and there is 30 seconds about "and here is my other plot where I added my special brand of magic ..."   - I think that could be cool.   Maybe the second plot could be with soil.  Or with perennials, or all sorts of expansions.  But those interesting things will be just a wee bit of frosting on the cake - not the main show.

in another thread

I built two hugels this year that I didn't water and didn't grow anything before the snow flew. Could I use one of these? They are still  "dirt" not soil.

Another way to look at the audience I am trying to reach:  they currently have an excuse to not garden.  And in this movie, we will wipe away that excuse.  And then, it turns out, they have another.  So we wipe away that excuse.  Now are kinda starting to think about considering actually gardening, but a new excuse would also be mighty handy.   A little ways into the movie and ...  ooooooohhhhhhh, i can't garden because i didn't build a hugel last year.

So the core of the movie is to start with dirt.  Sometimes this means starting with a lawn, but usually a weed patch.  And some dirt will be worse than other dirt.

I hope that we get so many submissions that we end up focusing on the five projects that convey the most powerful messages to the viewer.  I suspect that there will be some very powerful stuff I have not yet thought of, but I think the core of this movie project is going to be something about the people that grew the most calories on the worst soil.

I think that the core of all this is "I started this garden in 2025.  Look how lame and boring it is at the start.  And this is what I ended up with!  And this is how I did it - super cheap and easy."

For me, thinking and laying in bed.
Maybe I can do something, more than just thinking.

Yet I know that I will not do or finish, so my own worst enemy, right from the start.

So first I have to get land, be it behind the house, on the side of a hill. Cleared (trees dropped) last year, so could look at clearing it up. And plant in the forest floor, amongst the rocks.

Then there's a flat piece of land, or lawn. Not sure if it 200ft or not. Yet them mom will have her hards into the plot. So be difficult to control hands on the lot.

Yet I'm sure she appreciate her own growing lot.

For a level 1 gardener. Going from thinking, reading, getting seeds, equipment tools, and being practical, about getting a start. We need to start from the Start.

Thinking and dreaming. The 1 -10 hours part ;) 😉

Can some of the plants in this 200sq ft plot be medicinal? They would be edible, just not a food crop…

Thanks

You can grow what you like
If the the plants are medicinal not edible, they wouldn't count as calories for your total, but have other benefits perhaps as part of a polyculture (like attracting pollinators or predatory insects) which would be interesting.