Garden Journal Weekly, 6th July 2022

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(Edited)

Hello and welcome back for this week's newsletter. Don't forget there are a couple days left to get your garden journals in for the challenge with @riverflows. What's been happening with your garden this past month?


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Here in Australia the soaring prices of iceberg lettuce due to flooding on the east coast has caused much chatter and jokes on social media. Yet as these floods continue, the chatter is turning more towards potential food shortages it could cause. Then this week @justinparke wrote about the realities of the rapidly rising river on his property in Cambodia, that he's been expecting and trying to prepare for. While floods only happen every few years in Australia, in many countries they are a yearly prospect that people have had to learn to manage and work with. I wonder if Australian growers can learn something from this countries, especially if it's going to become a yearly prospect here too.

Food crisis is something that's been discussed by some for quite a few years now and I like to see the different ideas people have of extending our growing options as cities cover more and more of the land and climates change. Which is why I guess I'm always attracted to seeing how people grow in pots when they can't grow directly in the ground. This week not only did @baboz share how their pot garden is growing and their hopes for the plant children they are tending, but @mers also showed us how her plants are giving her a bounty to harvest. I'm sure you'll see more on that from @riverflows in her wrap up later, though.

A soil sifter can come in handy in the garden, but mine is plastic and I have to hide it from the sun whenever it's not in use so that it doesn't break down. After seeing this wood and metal DIY soil sifter from @artonmysleeve, I think I might start hunting around for some scrap wood and mesh now.

What better way to round things up than with a virtual walk around a flower garden with @creativetruth. I'll leave you with this taster from a lovely selection and thoroughly recommended paying a visit yourself:

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Thank you for joining me this week. Beneficiaries will go to @justinparke, @baboz and @creativetruth.

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31 comments
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Hi guys. Thank you so much

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As our climate continues to change, I'm afraid we are all in for weather that is unusual for our area. Many people here in the states are also talking about an impending food shortage as farmers see the prices of seed and fertilizer skyrocket during these trying times for us all.
Having a garden of our own is becoming a necessity in order to stave off the constant rise in the price of all food.

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That's why I keep telling people homesteading may be the better hedge against the coming recession/depression... and if nothing really goes bad, at least we would have learned to grow some good food for ourselves!

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Any time one can become more self-sufficient the better off they will be.
As ridiculous as this may sound, survival may come down to just how well one has planned for a complete meltdown of life the way we know it.

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Yep agreed!!! And if nothing drastic ever happens, we'll have an easier life to live, with healthier more natural ways... in general.

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Seed too? A return to seed saving farming methods looks like a good plan.

My biggest concern for growing food in our state is water. If we ever lost mains water then I think we'd have to plan for growing just in winter and preserving as much as possible for the dry season.

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I just found out our local libraries have a seed library.

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Oh that's really cool! Does it mean they're bioregional too?

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Water is becoming such a huge issue here in the states. Rivers that provide irrigation for the farmers, reservoirs at an all time low, the lack of snow pack and the overall quality of our water as we continue to contaminate it with all kinds of waste, has almost reached a point where potable water will be hard to come by.

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So far... in the north east of the US seems like we're getting our usual amount of rain. We are lucky on the "water" side of things, and still have clean spring to drink from where we are. It's going to be tough though for a lot of people I fear!

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One of the things we so appreciate here in Upstate NY is the water. We have a well and for precautionary measures we had it tested two years ago. It cost us about $500.00 to have a detailed analysis done and we couldn't be more pleased with the outcome. At the end of the report, the very last line used the word pristine when referring to the quality of the well water. We also have a pond on our property and the deepest section is around 10 feet. You can literally see to the bottom, spotting the fish swimming around.
Everything is so lush here because of the amount of rainfall we get every year.

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Ah that's just awesome!!! We may have to make an artificial pond on our property one day and keep it clean with some sort of natural filters if possible.

It's a good thing to spend money on for your well... it's nice to have peace of mind there. Ours needs to be drilled yet, they said it would be approximately 400 feet, so a little pricy! Being at the jottom of the Esopus Creek, we'll need to get it tested too!

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400 ft that's deep. When we had our well drilled the drilling company hit water at about 220 feet. Every time they put on another drilling rod, I was Like, there goes another pocket full of money.

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Yeah... I'm looking at bags of money here. I'm really thinking about doing rainwater systems only. We could, like you said, New York gets quite a lot of rain. They do it in New Mexico, why couldn't we do it here?

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So important to keep it going and hopefully connect with neighbours who might be able to swap or help. Local gardening networks are going to be so important to help us weather this, so to speak

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I nice collection! It's great to see people's gardens in flower. I hope @justinparke and his family and property all survive those floods.

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The mountains here seem to snatch the clouds and not let them pass before shedding copious amounts of rain. It's an extreme climate, but we the challenges don't outweigh the benefits of living here.

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Later, as the world heats, that could be a huge advantage. i loved the time I spent in that part of the world and am looking forward to returning to do a series of videos and interviews about small scale agricultural projects

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The most harrowing thing about my garden is the chicken poo I stepped in but other than that it's not that bad 😜😜

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I scrape that off my shoes into the raised beds daily. I should rename them the harrow beds. 🤔

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Hahaha good one. Yes when I let them out into the bigger garden they come straight to the back door to leave a mess and see if I'll give them food. I have a love hate relationship with the bastards!

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With all these extreme weather conditions I'm happy I set up to have some more controlled environments in my garden.
Thanks for doing this rundown for what people are doing in their gardens!

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We're preparing for the journey to Netherlands via Cyprus - and I'm looking forward to some garden posts for Hive about the very different gardens I expect to encounter. Meanwhile, planning for a month away from my Thai garden is quite the job too... taking pics and preparing a post.

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Sounds exciting. Will your business go on your for a bit as well or do you have someone to keep it ticking over for a bit?

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I will be managing things remotely and have staff here to produce and send out orders... yes, it is exciting.

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