by Peter on October 27, 2020
Benefits Of Urban Gardening For Dummies:
1) You Can Grow Your Own Food And Water Without Contamination From Other People’s Waste.
2) You Will Be Able To Enjoy More Fresh Vegetables And Fruit On A Regular Basis.
3) You Will Have An Easier Time Growing Flowers And Plants In Your Yard Because They Are Not Expensive To Purchase Or Transport.
4) You Will Be Able To Enjoy More Beautiful Views When Attending Concerts, Events And Parties At Home.
How To Make A Homemade Garden:
The best thing about making your own backyard garden is that it does not require any special skills or tools. All you need are some basic materials like soil, seeds, pots and water. Soil is the most essential ingredient which will provide nutrients to plants so they thrive well in your backyard garden. Seeds are also very useful because they will germinate easily and produce healthy fruits and vegetables.
You can buy organic soil from garden centers or online stores. Organic soil is usually cheaper than non-organic soil. However, if you want to save money, then you can use a mixture of composted manure (which contains animal waste), chicken litter and/or sawdust mixed with water to create your own garden soil. If you find manure in bags at the garden center, you can also use that because it is already composted.
If you choose to go this route, you may want to mix it with some other organic materials to improve its texture.
Most vegetables need a lot of sunlight so they can grow properly. If you have chosen a shady area in your backyard, you will need to add more sunlight so that plants can grow better. If you want to save time and money, you should plant your vegetables near a sunny window where it will receive the most direct sunlight. Many gardeners make the mistake of planting their vegetables too close to each other.
This is a big no-no because they will not be able to grow properly if they do not have enough personal space. It is best to leave about four to five feet in between your plants and keep the rows about two to three feet apart. If you want to save money, you can always grow your own vegetables in pots rather than buying them from the supermarket or your local store.
Before planting anything, you need to draw a garden map first so you will have an idea on where to place everything. If you want to maximize your space, you can plan what you will plant accordingly. For example, you cannot place a pumpkin in the same row as carrots because they require a longer time to grow. If there are large gaps of space in between your rows and columns, you can fill them up with cheap yet easy-to-grow vegetables like lettuce or Swiss chard.
This way, you will be able to use every single square foot of land.
Overwatering is just as bad as underwatering your vegetables. Your plants will not thrive well if they do not have access to the right amount of water. If you will be busy for a certain day, you can ask a friend or relative to help you water your garden every now and then so they do not die from dehydration.
Once your garden starts to grow, you will find it fun and easy to take care of. Also, you will enjoy eating your delicious vegetables and fruits for many months to come.
Watering The Backyard Plants:
Watering the plants in your garden is not difficult if you have the right tools and equipment. The first thing you will need is a hose with a nozzle. You can choose which type you want to use but usually the adjustable types work best because you can change the width of the water flow from jet stream to mist according to where you want to water.
You should also have some sort of tool that will help you dig around your plants and shovel the soil. For watering, the best technique is to dig a hole around the base of the plant and hose the soil so that it is damp all the way through.
You should be careful not to over-water because this can be almost as bad as underwatering. Over time, the soil will become waterlogged and flood out the oxygen that the roots need to survive. You can test to see if the soil is damp by hitting it with your fist. If it makes a thudding sound, it still has enough moisture in it and does not need any more water.
Caring For Your Plants:
There are other factors that go into growing plants besides watering and sunlight. As we have mentioned before, different plants need different things so you will need to research the type of vegetable or flower you want to grow before you start planting.
One of the most important things for a plant is sunlight. Some plants need a lot of sunlight while others can survive in shadier areas. If you have planted your garden in a shady area, there are certain things you can do to help the plants get the sunlight they need. You can place a tarp over the garden so that the plants will be in direct sunlight for a few hours each day.
You can also build a simple frame with wood and draping it with a dark sheet. The sheet will absorb the sun’s rays and reflect them onto your plants. Also, by making a simple PVC frame and tying the sheet to it, you can easily adjust where the sheet falls so that you can move it as the sun moves through the sky.
Lastly, you can build a small greenhouse to cover your plants. This could be something as simple as covering it with plastic or vinyl sheets or you could build an actual wooden or PVC frame and stretch the sheet over it. The more sunlight the plants get, the quicker and better they will grow so this might be the best option if you have the time, tools and materials available.
Remember, most plants need more than just sunlight to survive so you will need to do your research before planning and planting your garden. Find out which plants grow best in your area and which need the most sunlight.
Also, do not forget to rotate your crops each growing season. If you always plant the same things in the same place, the soil will eventually become nutrient-deficient. It is best to move things around each year so that they get planted in different spots each season.
Keeping Livestock
When most people think of farming, they usually think of crops such as corn, wheat or soybeans. However, many farmers also keep animals on their farms as well. This has been a common practice for centuries because it is a great way to ensure that you always have food on your table no matter what the growing conditions are like that year.
Today, there are many people who keep animals such as cows, goats and chickens either for fun or to supplement their diets with fresh milk, cheese and eggs. There is also a black market for some animals such as rabbits or deer that can be hunted on private lands where the hunting is not usually allowed.
While fresh milk, cheese and meat can certainly be a healthy addition to your diet, it is important to be aware that livestock takes a lot of work. If you do not want to spend all of your free time taking care of them, you may want to reconsider having them.
Location is also an important factor when it comes to keeping animals on your property. If you live in the city, your choices will be much different than if you lived out in the country. For example, it would not be very practical to have a cow or a bunch of chickens in the city since you would not have enough space for them.
However, if you lived out in the country, you could have as many animals as you wanted since there is plenty of space. You would also have less neighbor disputes to worry about. Just be prepared to take your livestock to a slaughterhouse since you most likely will not be able to kill them yourself.
Of course, the types of animals you can keep legally will also vary from location to location. You cannot just keep any type of animal that you want. In some areas, you cannot keep certain animals such as pigs.
Now that you know the benefits and drawbacks of keeping livestock on your survival homestead, let us look at some of the animals you can choose from:
Livestock options:
Cows – One of the most popular animals to have on a farm is a cow. They are large, seemingly gentle creatures that can give you milk, other dairy products and can eventually be slaughtered for their meat.
Depending on the breed, a cow can live for up to 10 or even 15 years. Before you just start buying up all the cows you can find, there are a few things that you should keep in mind:
You cannot just put a cow on your property and assume it will be fine. You need to have a pasture for them to freely walk in. This requires a lot of land and if you do not have enough adjacent to your home, you may have to travel quite a distance to take care of them every day.
This may not seem like a big deal at first, but if you are doing this daily, it can really cut into your schedule. Also, cows need to be milked on a regular basis or they will get cranky (literally).
Sources & references used in this article:
Some Psycholog Ical Benefits of Gardening by R Kaplan – Environment and behavior, 1973 – journals.sagepub.com
Goodbye to the backyard?—the minimisation of private open space in the Australian outer-suburban estate by T Hall – Urban policy and research, 2010 – Taylor & Francis
Retrofitting the Suburban Garden: morphologies and some elements of sustainability potential of two Australian residential suburbs compared by S Ghosh, L Head – Australian Geographer, 2009 – Taylor & Francis
How green is your garden?: Urban form and socio-demographic factors influence yard vegetation, visitation, and ecosystem service benefits by BB Lin, KJ Gaston, RA Fuller, D Wu, R Bush… – Landscape and Urban …, 2017 – Elsevier
Watering the suburbs: distinction, conformity and the suburban garden by LE Askew, PM McGuirk – Australian Geographer, 2004 – Taylor & Francis
Human–nature relations in suburban gardens by ER Power – Australian geographer, 2005 – Taylor & Francis
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