GAMCOD 2025: 200 square feet; Zero degrees F or colder; calories cheap and easy

Craig Lewis wrote:Maybe I'm not getting something or thinking too much again.
I was thinking a raw forest/cutover plot, or unclean roadside plot.
Here in Newfoundland we can get up to 0.4 acres Home Garden lot, for $25.

Hello Craig!
Thanks for bringing all this up.    
Sounds like you have an opportunity for super cheap land.  That is really great.

Craig Lewis wrote:A shovel will cost more than what anyone spent, above.
So I'm drastic missing something. 4.65hr to 49 and $1 to $59.41.
Seems like numbers are way too low or off

This does not have to be a contest for how cheap you can garden.  Some people may have tools laying around or friends they can borrow from.   Maybe you will have to go buy a few things.  That is ok.  It will not disqualify you.  Just do your best and keep track of your time and how much you spend.

Craig Lewis wrote:Seems like a dirt plot is ready to go, with birds dropping seed right into the grown lol
If the goal is to make it seem like Gardening is cheap and simple, better to be more realistic and practical, about starting out.

The goal is to take away the blocks that keep people from getting started.  We want to teach people how to garden in ways that are fun and easy.   If we can create a movie showing a variety of gardening techniques, people will find a path that works for them.  They will give it a try and every year after, it will get easier.

Craig Lewis wrote:How long is this movie overall?

We will make the best movie we can with the video submitted.  How long exactly really depends on what we can get for content.  This will be a teaching video to show folks who are just getting started how to grow their own food, right where they are.  

Craig Lewis wrote:If 5 are chosen and get 10 mins each $4k. Maybe 5 seconds of all that submit a start. And 10 seconds of all that completed. ( not over 1min, gets nothing??)

We will include as many gardeners in different environments and demonstrating different techniques as we get good video for.   We want to show that anybody can do this, anywhere.  Not all people who submit raw footage will be included in the final video.  We will only use gardens that meet the criteria.

The time is pro-rated.  If only a tiny bit of the content you submit is usable, you will still get paid for it.  The payout is $400 per min, that comes out to about $6.50 per second.
I would not worry about that part too much.  Just do your best to produce great veggies and quality video.

Craig Lewis wrote:I understand the overall goal and outcome.

Yet by placing limitations it can make it more difficult.

Hello Craig!
You are right.  Following all this specific criteria is making it more difficult in many ways.   I think almost anytime you are trying to help someone else it will be more difficult than just taking care of yourself.  

Craig Lewis wrote:For example. Not using cardboard. We can do a lot of things with cardboard. Ground cover, composting, seedpots, ...

I used to compost cardboard.  The master gardeners at my farmers market assured me that all the inks used now are non toxic and the worms break the material down to be perfectly safe.   I thought I was so clever to create worm breeding areas out of stacks of corrugated cardboard.   The worms would come and breed and lay tons of eggs.  Then one year, I got organic straw from a guy growing organic wheat.   I put a few bales of the straw out next to my cardboard composting area.  

When I opened up the bales in the spring, there were ten times more worms and eggs in the straw than I had ever seen in the cardboard.  I thought that was pretty cool but what really creeped me out was that the cardboard completely stopped breaking down.  It just laid there for a couple of years not breaking down and I eventually took it to the landfill.  I was so disgusted that I had been feeding my family garbage when I thought I was growing organic food.  
The animals have the wisdom and we can learn from them if we cannot see for ourselves.  When they have the choice they will eat the organic food rather than the chemical laden trash.  

Craig Lewis wrote:Not starting seedling. In the North, depending on the crops, we need to start seeds inside. Dame winters are too long lol.

You can grow your own starts.   Just keep track of your time.  

Craig Lewis wrote:Recycling plastic bottles, be it for seedlings and or micro greenhouses, slow water release units, hanging gardens. Many using to make gardening cheaper.

Yes I understand the micro plastic issue and being more down to Earth, about it. Yet being realistic about where most people are at or living. They have these items around them. As to those that do not.

Glass, ceramics and natural fibers will be nicer for GAMCOD.  They look a lot better and do not leach who knows what into your soil.

a bunch of us talking about 2025 gamcod

Hello my name is Ian and I’m a homesteader and content creator and I’d like to join the gamcod challenge 😁. I’ve been watching Paul’s videos for quite some time and this challenge seems like great fun and I can make some great content out of it. I recently watched the 3 hour video about hugelkultur so I’d like to try and make a BIG one for the challenge like was shown in the video. I have nearly a million followers between all social media platforms, so im not sure if you’d want to add me to the “big names” list but if you’d like to check out my videos here’s my Linktree. I’m glad to be joining you all on the Permies forum!

https://linktr.ee/JankLabsLinks

Ian Tucker wrote:Hello my name is Ian and I’m a homesteader and content creator and I’d like to join the gamcod challenge 😁. I’ve been watching Paul’s videos for quite some time and this challenge seems like great fun and I can make some great content out of it. I recently watched the 3 hour video about hugelkultur so I’d like to try and make a BIG one for the challenge like was shown in the video. I have nearly a million followers between all social media platforms, so im not sure if you’d want to add me to the “big names” list but if you’d like to check out my videos here’s my Linktree. I’m glad to be joining you all on the Permies forum!

Welcome to Permies, I love seeing more people participate!

I'd recommend checking out all sorts of threads in the GAMCOD forum to get up-to-snuff and maybe start a thread of your own to document your planning process?

Hi Ian, I checked out your youtube channel - it looks like you might have some interesting thoughts on tinyhouse living for us too? Check out the tiny house forum and welcome to permies!

Spring is getting closer and I'm going to have get starting some seeds in the next month or so.

My prior seed starting was using the standard plastic cell pots that a friend gave me. To try and stick to the "no plastic" and "cheap" aspects, I am planning on trying seed snails. ( fabric and growing medium jelly rolls)

I'm going to use salvaged cotton and linen fabric and have metal pans to keep them in. I was going to try some of the sandy dirt we have here and mix it with a bit of leaf mold for the growing medium.

I've started a thread, (Seed snail trial thread ) with the details of the process since I think it might be helpful for others to see if it works.

Just wanted to check that this is an acceptable option within the limits you want for the project.

Dian Green wrote:Just wanted to check that this is an acceptable option within the limits you want for the project.

Seems okay to me!

Is there a group or a list for potential GAMCOD gardeners?

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Is there a group or a list for potential GAMCOD gardeners?

Like a forum?

paul wheaton wrote:

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Is there a group or a list for potential GAMCOD gardeners?

Like a forum?

The video said you were looking for 10 more gardeners. Click the link! The link brought me to this forum, but I can't really tell how many people are participating from this thread. How do you know how many gardeners are committed? Or how would you like us to RSVP?

I'm still hoping to do this and am working on stuff but have a couple of questions.

Should I just start uploading video as I do them or do you prefer us to wait until we get through the whole thing?

Are there any issues with us sharing our videos, as we go, on other sites or do you want them kept exclusive? As part of that question, how do you want it referred to? Gamcod? Paul Wheaton project? Do you want any links to come here?  I'm on bluesky and tumblr and was thinking about sharing my attempt progress on both of those.
Thanks!

Dian Green wrote:I'm still hoping to do this and am working on stuff but have a couple of questions.

Should I just start uploading video as I do them or do you prefer us to wait until we get through the whole thing?

Are there any issues with us sharing our videos, as we go, on other sites or do you want them kept exclusive? As part of that question, how do you want it referred to? Gamcod? Paul Wheaton project? Do you want any links to come here?  I'm on bluesky and tumblr and was thinking about sharing my attempt progress on both of those.
Thanks!

Pls upload them as you go! No need to edit them but pls follow the naming instructions in the video submission thread.

You can use it wherever and can refer as you wish I like the idea that GAMCOD becomes a household word and concept.

Rebekah Harmon wrote:The video said you were looking for 10 more gardeners. Click the link! The link brought me to this forum, but I can't really tell how many people are participating from this thread. How do you know how many gardeners are committed? Or how would you like us to RSVP?

In 2024 I got the impression that more than a dozen people were gonna do it in the spring.  And maybe there were more than 20 that said something about thinking about it.  And in the end we had four people make complete submissions, and I think two of those didn't meet all of the criteria.

There is no RSVP.  There is only people doing it and submitting video ...   and then there is the finish line.

Well, I did up a mason jar to check the dirt in the area I'll be using.
Actually worse than I though. Sand and silt and nothing else.  
Im going to go ahead and start the serious prep and video recording and we'll see how it goes.

Hopefully marginally inspirational - an update to my hugelkultur build - we got the 18 square metre (slightly under 200 square feet) hugel basically completed yesterday and I've updated the thread with some short videos and photos.

Got my first harvest out of the plot. Using 25 calories per 55 grams, I have a grand total of 127 calories!

Not too impressive yet but at least I got some stuff planted as I weeded out some of the dandelions.

Looking great Dian, you are miles ahead of me but I am happy to be in the game.

Well, after all the work figuring out and trying the seed starting options, we got 3 rounds of frost in the last week of May with the last one on June 1. ( shockingly late for here)
The only survivors were a few of the perennial kales and the sweet potato slips, since they weren't put out yet.
I've gone ahead and reseeded the squashes. Not sure if they will produce much but still least a few are coming up.
At least this will give me a good idea of how going with direct seeding almost everything works here.

Dian Green wrote:Well, after all the work figuring out and trying the seed starting options, we got 3 rounds of frost in the last week of May with the last one on June 1. ( shockingly late for here)
The only survivors were a few of the perennial kales and the sweet potato slips, since they weren't put out yet.
I've gone ahead and reseeded the squashes. Not sure if they will produce much but still least a few are coming up.
At least this will give me a good idea of how going with direct seeding almost everything works here.

If you carefully cut the tip of your squash and pumpkin seeds, with a scissor your squash and pumpkins will sprout faster. For beans, soaking them for 24-48 hours before planting will also speed up how fast they germinate.

Yes! The presoak makes such a big improvement in the peas and beans.
I like around 24 hours for peas but beans often need more. The round I did for the gamcod plot bean trench got almost 3 days, since some stuff came up and delayed the planting. I was worried, but they are coming up well.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:If you carefully cut the tip of your squash and pumpkin seeds, with a scissor your squash and pumpkins will sprout faster. For beans, soaking them for 24-48 hours before planting will also speed up how fast they germinate.

Which tip?

So far, I've learned that very heavy seeding, if you have lots of cheap seeds, is the way to go with this super low effort style.
The bean trench is going great and the squash plants are getting bigger but I should give put in much more seeds of them.
Radish and kales are all we've gotten so far. Not much in the calories race, but they are making for lovely soups.

Well done Dian!

I haven't done much with my thread lately.  I do have some photo and video updates, but just have had enough other stuff to get them done.

So far, I've just harvested radishes (about 5.5 kCal worth).  Things are definitely not going as hoped, but there is life on the plot.  Some of the potatoes look like they are doing nicely, as are sunchokes.  The red cabbage is hanging in there.  Onions, carrots, and turnips continue to live.  The pumpkin has started to look robust, although the other cucurbits are alive, but disappointing.  The bean plants have suffered and I'm not sure why (perhaps got too hot without enough mulch during a warm spell while plants were young).

Since we had additional space on the plot, we went through the beans we had on hand.  We don't have enough time left in the season to definitely get dry beans, but a couple of the varieties are supposed to be decent as green beans, so some of them got soaked and planted recently.

Onion sets were the biggest expense thus far - I used most of a $5 bag on the plot.  Potato and beans came from last year's harvest.  Sunchokes were hanging around.  

Thinking about the concept a bit recently, I made a trade-off I'm not sure I wanted to nor should have.  In an effort to maximize calories, I planted more root crops like potatoes and sunchokes than I probably should have.  In building a new hugelkultur bed, in hindsight, it would probably have been better to provide more plant matter to shield the soil while letting it settle.  Planting things were I can leave the roots in the ground to add to the soil would have been better for the longer term future of the bed.  At least the minimum of 5 different food crops forces one to vary the planting.  While it defeats the aim of the GAMCOD project, if I were to build another hugel for production, I'd rather prep most of it in the fall to allow it to settle over winter, then plant a cover crop mix of sorts for the first year before getting into food production.

At any rate, I'd say my plot has disappointed me, but it is picking up and definitely looking greener all the time.  Things are looking up.

Derek Thille wrote: While it defeats the aim of the GAMCOD project, if I were to build another hugel for production, I'd rather prep most of it in the fall to allow it to settle over winter, then plant a cover crop mix of sorts for the first year before getting into food production.

I suppose the thing to try and do is sow cover crops one can eat...Sunflowers and sunroots both create a fair amount of biomass. beans and radish are both good for soil building, as are oats and mustard. Although you would need to leave the radishes in rather than eating them

In general, yes.

(But I'm cautious about using sunflower family plants - sunflower, sunchoke, and I think yacón? - as biomass apart from around trees, as apparently it's not just the growing roots which can suppress herbavious crops e.g. https://www.gardening-forums.com/threads/is-it-safe-to-compost-use-as-mulch-sunflowers.27005/ )

The kales are still the main harvest but the beans are racing along. I expect to start taking them as green beans very soon.
We've been making our fave kale salad. Chopped kale and apples, grated carrot and some preserved sour cherries. Our homemade tomato chutney mixed with some mayo and the cherry liquid as the dressing.