The garden spiral is like a snail shell, with stone spiraling upward to create multiple micro-climates and a cornucopia of flavors on a small footprint. Spirals can come in any size to fit any space, from an urban courtyard to an entire yard. You don’t even need a patch of ground, as they can be built on top of patios, pavement, and rooftops. You can spiral over an old stump or on top of poor soil. By building up vertically, you create more growing space, make watering easy, and lessen the need to bend over while harvesting. To boot, spirals add instant architecture and year-round beauty to your landscape: the perfect garden focal point.
One of the beauties of an herb spiral is that you are creating multiple microclimates in a small space. The combination of stones, shape, and vertical structure offers a variety of planting niches for a diversity of plants. The stones also serve as a thermal mass, minimizing temperature swings and extending the growing seasons. Whatever you grow in your spiral, it will pump out a great harvest for the small space it occupies. I’ve grown monstrous cucumbers in my large garden spiral, with one plant producing over 30 prize-size fruits. The spiral is a food-producing superstar!
Stacked stones create perennial habitat for beneficial critters, such as lizards and spiders that help balance pest populations in the garden. The stone network is a year-round safe haven for beneficial insects and other crawlies that work constantly to keep your garden in balance—and you in the hammock. A little design for them up-front pays big, tasty dividends later.
(I made enough to have it for dinner tonight too! Yay!)
This looks terrific! What’s Lazy broth?
I am a huge fan of those super proper, home-made ”all the veggies and left over chicken/bone bits” broths, but 1) I never have the spoons or the space to make and store it, and 2) I’m really bad at it anyway – so Lazy Broth is just me taking whatever little cubes of broth I happen to have at home, throw ’em in a pot with enough chili and garlic to repel any vampires and/or germs within a ten mile radius, add some other spices, and hope for the best.
This particular one is:
A lot of water
2 cubes chicken broth
1 cube veggie broth
2 giant cloves of garlic
Curry, because I love curry
More dried chili flakes than what was entirely okay
Apologies to genuine ramen and the people who know how to make it
And some paprika powder
…. I might have forgotten something, but those bits definitely went in there.
The rest of the stuff is salmon, crab sticks, corn, broccoli, egg, and udon noodles.
ok so it’s not authentic but it got hot food into you and it sounds like it’s tasty! and Broth’s a BITCH to make ahead of time, so no shame in using pre-made stuff.
The food bank gave me a hand-out about how long you can safely eat unopened foods past their expiration dates, and I thought other people might find it helpful.
DAIRY:
Milk, cream: within 10 days past expiration date
Soft cheese, yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese: consume within 14 days past expiration date
Butter, hard cheese: consume within 3 months past expiration date (personal note: if cheese gets mold you can cut off the moldy parts the rest is still fine)
Frozen butter: consume within 12 months past expiration date
Eggs (in shells): consume within 1 month past expiration date
Egg substitutes: consume within 10 days of expiration date.
MEAT:
Fresh: consume on or before expiration date
Frozen: defrost in fridge or microwave, and eat immediately after defrosting.
Not do eat: meat with severe freeze burn, discolored meat, and meat not frozen before expiration date
MEAT & DAIRY SUBSTITUTES:
Liquid products (rice milk, almond milk): consume withing 10 days past expiration date
Shelf stable liquid products: consume within 12 months past expiration date
Margarine: consume within 6 months past expiration date
Meat substitutes (tofu, etc): consume on or before expiration date
Frozen meat substitutes: consume within 12 months past expiration date if frozen before expiration date
DRIED & CANNED FOODS:
Dried beans, pasta: consume indefinitely
Dressings, mayo: consume within 12 months past expiration date
Cereal, crackers: consume within 12 months past expiration date
Canned foods: may be consumed indefinitely (except for pineapple and tomato)
Jarred foods, canned tomato and pineapple: consume within 18 months past expiration date
OTHER:
Fresh juice: consume within 3 months past expiration date
Fresh bread, pastries: consume on or before expiration date (personal note, I find that sandwich bread is good to eat so long as it’s not stale or growing mold)
Frozen bread: consume within 6 months past expiration date
Fresh produce: ripe, edible, and mold-free
Sliced melon: consume on or before expiration date
Deli items, packaged by store: consume within 48 hours of expiration date
Pre-packaged prepared foods packed by manufacturer, fresh: consume within 14 days past expiration date
Pre-packaged prepared foods packed by manufacturer, frozen: consume within 12 months past expiration date
DO NOT EAT:
Food that is stale, has insects, or mold
Food in open, punctured, bulging, or seriously damaged cans
Food in a jar that is leaking or has a broken seal
Food that is discolored or has an off-odor
Product has been thawed then re-frozen
Please use your best judgement and when in doubt, throw it out.
please listen to this poor man losing his shit as he reads an article blaming millenials for killing the mayonnaise industry that was written by a babyboomer upset people don’t want to eat her bland salads anymore
PLEASE TURN THE SOUND ON
OH MY GOD
Okay, I have to go to bed and can’t listen to the entire 23-minute linked full version tonight, but, uh… but the tab is definitely getting left open for tomorrow.
That poor, poor man.
Here’s the thing: Jar mayonnaise is mostly really disgusting (Duke’s at least has a little flavor), and I hate the stuff. But, like, homemade mayonnaise, where you can taste the things that go into it, and add a little of this or that to perk it up, that’s actually pretty good. I genuinely thought until culinary school that mayo was this disgusting flavorless substance that was mostly grease. And then I learned to make it, and suddenly there was flavor.
And it’s so simple.
Take 1 large or extra-large egg yolk. Add a half teaspoon of dry mustard or dijon mustard, and a teaspoon of lemon juice or, in a pinch, white vinegar. Pinch of salt, pinch of white pepper or even cayenne. Have one cup of a neutral oil handy. Whisk briskly until it starts to brighten in color. While continuing to whisk, pour the oil in in a thin stream. If the oil starts to pool, stop pouring and whisk until fully incorporated. If it starts looking a little greasy, there’s enough oil, stop pouring, that’s all it will take. Taste it occasionally to see if it’s too oily, too. You might not need the entire cup of oil, but you should use a good ¾ of it at minimum.
You can also do this using a blender, to make it even easier, but I like the control of hand-whisking, myself.
A store-bought bag of topsoil, a roll of landscaping fabric, or a bag of cedar chips doesn’t go very far if you have a large garden or a very limited budget. Here are some ways to create the materials you need for a beautiful, organic, productive garden, by both re-directing household waste, and foraging in your local area. I use a lot of these tricks in my garden to make it almost completely free for me to continue growing new things, and expanding the workable area every year!
For soil
Save your food scraps to create a rich compost for growing veggies and amending your soil. There are numerous options for every size of dwelling and yard. Small space solutions such as Bokashi and vermicompost work indoors and don’t produce bad smells, so you can keep them underneath the sink.Worm towers, compost heaps, and outdoor compost binsare a great solution if you have more space. The more you add, the more rich, nutritious material you can make for your garden. I like composting because it means I don’t have gross smelly garbage bags to deal with, because food waste is diverted. It seems like a lot of work at first, but it actually saves time, money, and transportation.
There are three things that are essential for plant growth. These are nitrogen for leaves and vegetation (N), phosphorus for roots and shoots (P), and potassium for water movement, flowering, and fruiting (K). Commercial fertilisers will give the relative concentrations of each of these compounds with and “NPK” rating. Plants like tomatoes also need calcium to produce healthy fruit. You can create amendments for your garden and soil at home so that you do not have to purchase fertiliser.
Human urine contains 12% nitrogen, and it’s sterile. Dilute before adding directly to plants.
Legumes such as beans, clover, peanuts, and alfalfa fix inorganic nitrogen into the soil with mycorrhizal organisms and nodules on their root systems. Plant these crops every few years in rotation with others to renew the soil organically.
For phosphorus
Human urine is also a great source of phosphorous and trace amounts of potassium.
Many plants are particular about what the soil pH should be.
To make soil more acidic: add oak leaves, pine needles, leaf mulch, urine, coffee grounds or sphagnum.
To make soil more alkaline: add wood ash, shell, or bone.
Mulch
Mulch is decomposing organic matter that adds nutrition to the soil, while simultaneously keeping out weed growth and retaining moisture. It also attracts worms, fungi and other beneficial creatures to your soil. Free sources of mulch include:
Leaves
Garden waste
Grass clippings
Straw (often straw bales are given away after being used for decoration in the fall. You can also plant vegetables directly in straw bales using a technique called straw bale gardening).
Wood chips (if you can borrow a wood chipper after you’ve collected some wood you can have attractive wood mulch for free)
When mulch isn’t enough to keep the weeds down, many people opt for landscaping fabric. It can be quite expensive and inorganic-looking. Free solutions that both attract worms and can be replaced in small segments as they break down include:
Newspaper*
Cardboard*
Egg cartons*
Printer paper, looseleaf, etc. in thick layers*
*try to make sure you are using paper that has vegetable-based dyes, so you aren’t leeching toxins into the soil.
Soil density/drainage
If your soil is compacted and you have plants that require low levels of water, or excellent drainage, add sand. I don’t recommend stealing it from the beach, but ask around and you’d be surprised at how easy it is to get for free. Sawdust also improves drainage. Adding organic matter and mulch encourages worms, who also till and aerate compacted soil.
If the area still needs drainage, dig a hole and fill it with bricks or rocks to create a “dry well”
For drainage in pots, add crushed bricks,terra cotta pot fragments, packing peanuts, small stones, marbles, orsand to the bottom under the soil layer. I find these in construction sites, on craigslist, or at flea markets.
Pots and growing containers
If you have space, raised beds are a great no-dig way to establish growing space. If you are pressed for space (like working on a balcony) there are many cheap or free options for container gardens.
Creating raised beds allows you to build up the soil without digging. Free ways to do this include using rocks or lumber (like my DIY “lasagna garden” made with the sheet composting technique), using the “wattle“ method with sticks and posts you have found, using discarded straw bales, old bricks,paving stones,cinder blocks or really anything else you have lying around.
Hugelkutur raised beds, which fix carbon and provide drainage, can be made by stacking sticks and untreated wood, and then piling soil or compost over it. (Thanks milos-garden)
Rubber tire gardens retain heat in the night and allow for great drainage. They can also be painted in fun ways.
Herb spirals (here is mine: 1, 2, 3) can be built with stones, bricks, and other found materials.
I often use old cooking pots, barbecues, teapots, or other found objects as planters.
If you can track down peat moss, cement, and vermiculite, you can make an easy Hypertufa planter in whatever shape you would like, provided you have a form in which it can dry.
Paving often requires a foundation of sand or another stable and well-drained substrate, and a covering of stones, bricks, or other weatherproof elements. Slowly collect stones over time, or free paving stone fragments to create a mosaic-type walkway. Often people give these things away on craigslist. I made a patio and fireplace out of free salvaged bricks, for example.
Save seeds from foods you like from the grocery store: consider growing peanuts, ginger, garlic, peppers, or a walnut tree: all of these and more can be planted from store-bought produce.
Learn to take cuttings. There is a tonne of info on the web about basic cutting propagation, layering, (like I do with rhododendrons) air layering, and numerous other techniques to take clones of plants you like. This saves going to a nursery and shelling out big bucks for all the variety you want.
For cuttings, willow tea and honey are great rooting hormones/antiseptics/anti-fungal agents, which can save you $40 if you were thinking of buying commercial rooting hormone.
I hope this helps you build your garden outside of the usual capitalist channels! It can be a cheap or free hobby if you are willing to think outside the box, and maybe put up with things that don’t look as clean or crisp as a hardware store catalogue.
If you have any further ideas, please add them! The more information the better.
Drainage for pots can also be achieved with styrofoam, pine cones, bark, twigs and branches, etc. We’ve used mostly sweetgum fruit in our last few pots and had good results with it!
P I S S O N Y O U R P L A N T S
but actually a lot of this is super sound advice and I want to try a lot of it
Secondly, we grow it very inefficiently. We could very easily increase the food yield of a given area of land by building a greenhouse on it (which also reduces water loss) and using poly-cultures instead of mono-cultures; the reason our preferred method is open-air mono-culture farms, which are susceptible to erosion and blight and requires a god-awful amount of water to stay hydrated, is that labor is expensive and land is cheap.
In fact, if we took it even further–growing our food in carbon dioxide-rich environments lit with artificial lighting 24 hours a day (or at least at night)–you only need 1-2000 square feet of farmland per person. Admittedly, you pretty much have to have fusion power for this to be an environmentally and economically viable option, but still; the point is, we could easily condense our environmental footprint by a shit-ton (and even more options will be available in the future) without decreasing our population one iota.
“There is still a maximum carrying capacity the planet has.”
Indeed there is. And do you know what that carrying capacity is? It’s ten trillion. And the cut off isn’t space or resources–it’s waste heat. The things we’d have to do to get there aren’t exactly the sort of things we could do overnight–hell, we don’t actually know how to fusion yet–but they’re all well within the realm of the physically possible.
We’re all going to die because the rich are selfish and their cronies are too.
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