How to Grow All Your Own Produce in 2.5 Years

Saturday, May 3: Slideshow: How to Grow All Your Own Produce in 2½ Years: An
(r)Evolution Disguised as Organic Gardening by Marisha Auerbach
  * 7 pm - 9 pm
  * Vashon Co-housing, 10421 SW Bank Rd., Vashon Island, WA
  * $10 - $7, sliding scale suggested donation
  * Call 360-943-5262 for more information or email queenbee@herbnwisdom.com

In the Maritime Northwest, it is possible to grow all our own food year-round
with limited time to establish a system and limited effort. As petroleum
becomes more expensive, this sort of system can provide an example to support
our evolution to a more sustainable society. Marisha Auerbach specializes in
how to convert properties from grass to to a perennial forage system. A
perennial forage system functions much like a natural ecological system, and
yields year round produce with minimal work. These systems are developed to
meet the needs of the inhabitants on site. Marisha provides most of her diet
and income from her garden and has surplus produce and crafts to give away and
trade for other supplies.

This presentation is an invitation for you to visit Marisha's garden through
slides and philosophy. She will be discussing how you can work towards
self-reliance in produce if you have property to work with as well as
guerrilla tactics to grow more food and flowers in the greater Olympia area.
As petroleum becomes more expensive, fruits, vegetables, and other goods will
become increasingly more expensive to transport into residential areas. This
workshop offers an opportunity to create cultural change through gardening.

Please park on Bank Rd.

Well, I have to say that this is my new goal; sadly I live nowhere near the location of the seminar.

But here's what I've got going.  I've ordered a black recycled plastic raised bed 3 x 6 and 10" deep.  We're building a cage around it to protect from an overgrowth of bunnies.  (Our former cat/neighbor succumbed to a speeding local car last year and the bunnies now find our neighborhood much less dangerous.)

In the meanwhile as I wait for my raised bed to arrive, I've put my infant seedlings in containers inside a wire dog crate.  It works wonders.  I'm thinking about possibly bailing on the whole building a frame thing and buying from Craigslist a bigger metal dog run.

Anyone's thoughts?  I do have some green and rotting sticks I could put under the soil per Paul's earlier post about a completely unspellable technique which uses this methodology.

So.  Since my precious raised bed is on backorder on gardeners.com, does anyone have better ideas?  better sources? 

Happily learning self-sustenance!

Stacey

First, I have to say that I think that I may have seen an early predecessor to this presentation in 2005 when Marisha was my permaculture instructor.  It was really fantastic.  I was planning to attend, but I didn't get back to town in time.

Stacey, you can start your garden any time you are ready.  You don't have to wait for the border.  If you mound the dirt up, it will hold itself like that for months. 

Rabbits ....

The dog crate sounds like a really smart short term solution.

I've been to neighborhoods that had dozens of easy going rabbits hanging around.  I always thought it was kinda neat.  But, of course, the devastation to a garden would be a bit much.  I suppose you aren't considering Hossenfeffer?