Thursday, July 28, 2022

Gardening in cold climates

I have a cyber-friend in Maine named Holly. She lives a very rugged lifestyle. This is her porch:

Through trial and error, she and her husband have figured out the intricacies of gardening in an extreme (Zone 3) northern climate.

Well, she put pen to paper (so to speak) and wrote a piece for SurvivalBlog – and they published it! Way to go, Holly! You can read her essay here.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! Her article is so impressive! It almost makes me jealous of a cold climate!
    One thing she doesn't mention much (besides the grasshoppers) are pest problems. Cold weather is very important to killing off the bug multitudes here in the South. Pine beetles can destroy many forests if it isn't cold enough. The same is true of veggie gardens with other pests.
    This year it has been millipedes . I went online to see what to do and some of the "experts" wrote that basicly millipedes just processed debris into dirt and not to be concerned with them. Wrong. They love the root systems and the base of the stem of tender seedlings.
    I've about decided winter gardening may be the safest time of year since I don't want to use pesticides in garden dirt.

    She mentioned raising rabbits for meat. Rabbits and quail are both good meat sources that can be managed on a small place . Meat is a complete protein and complete proteins are essential for building and maintaining muscle. Your heart is a muscle. So is the uterus. The main nutrient old people don't get enough of is protein. If incomplete proteins don't get paired with their missing amino acids, net protein for that food is zero. Most people don't know about limiting amino acids, and it's hit or miss. Animal proteins are not hit or miss. They are complete.
    So I think this lady really hit the mark by including small animal husbandry in her gardening (food production ) article.

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  2. I have just finished reading the book: Dark Winter: How the sun is causing a 30-year cold spell, by John L. Casey. Published in 2011. A very important exposition on the near future of our climate.
    All gardeners, commercial and personal, Would do well to read and believe. And to read and learn from Holly.'s well written essay.
    It appears that her cold weather problems will apply in the very near future to the more more southern portions of our country and the world.
    Thank you, Patrice for the good information you share with us.
    Duane, from Arizona

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  3. Absolutely great article. We live in Minnesota so we have similar growing seasons. Your trick of cutting the bottles in half is a good one. Look up “garden bell” you are making your own. We do use composted manure and coffee grounds in the garden but I didn’t know the egg shells would help with the tomato end rot.

    Thank you for taking the time to write this and god bless.

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