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Summary
part 1 of a 2 part podcast
Grow our own food.
Paul says at least 99% of people are convinced that growing your own food is too expensive and too much work. In his experience though, it's possible to spend just a few dollars and to work only a few hours a week, and still grow hundreds of dollars worth of food.
Paul says much of the growing in Missoula is "gardening for someone else". He introduces Em who's from New England. She thinks they have 30+ inches of rain. Paul says that's about the same as Seattle, WA. It's significantly more than Missoula.
Now more people arrive: Alexandra is from BC, Canada, where the climate is similar to Missoula. Miranda is from Minnesota, zone 4B, again similar climate but probably a bit more rain.
Alexandra comments that it depends if you have costs for the land and for water, for example in her neighborhood, they put in water meters, but now everyone has cut down all the trees. Paul comments that if you build enough quality soil you don't need so much watering.
Miranda uses hoop houses (poly tunnels) which extend the growing season by 4-6 weeks per year. However that's another cost to factor in. Miranda says the plastic on hers is now 6 years old and is starting to get a few holes. Although the costs are high initially you can grow a lot of stuff in them. Mostly she grows for farmers markets so she's growing more than just food for herself.
Em mentions a video about using an RMH to extend the growing season. Paul says this is an experiment to try heating the soil without using a greenhouse or tunnel, so you still get full sunlight. It's called the rocket powered season extender but as yet it's not been fully tested. Em thinks it might be good for starting seedlings.
Paul talks about the automatic backyard food pump - he wants plants with a large harvesting window. Alexandra has a food forest approach which is quite similar in terms of what she grows. She says what Paul is doing is more like foraging - Paul agrees, he's setting up plots which he can forage. He's trying to push ideas which counter the "gardening is too expensive" problem.
Alexandra and Miranda comment that there are issues when people try to grow food in urban environments for example such ground as there is is probably not viable. Paul's point is that the advice from "experts" seems to end up costing a lot of money. Basically, he wants people to do Hügelkuturs.
Relevant Threads
Hugelkultur forum
Automatic Backyard Food Pump
Build a J-Tube Style Season Extender in a Hugelkultur - PEP BB rocket.wood.hugel
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Kyle Aster
Sasquatch
Bill Crim
G Cooper
Mehron Kugler
Bill Erickson
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Brent Lawson
Song Zheng
Dana Martin
David Lucey
Janelle
thomas adams
Clay McGowan
Shay Riggs
Dr. Jackie
Keith Kuhnsman
Cindi Duehmig
Banter Couch
Eric Tolbert
Paul Tipper
Paul F
Gerald Bernard
