Re: Anyone out there?

Hello!:
I'm Southern California zone 9-10 depending on the year, zone 23 western (upper
slope inland desert valley), and lost everything in my tiny garden to a
disasterous combination: kids playing soccer, the neighbor's dog, snow last
night at the higher elevations (that's right we are down right cold and is June
4th), and ate the lettuce.  I HATE! living in the city and really miss my big
garden!  I rented 2 acres outside of town but the owner lost it to the bank
along with his own home and we ended up moving into town to be nearer the other
job.  Being a 411 operator for a nationwide cellular company isn't all it is
cracked up to be.............I really miss the soil, the outdoors, even
fighting the bugs!!!!!!!  My aracuna hens use to be the best brood mothers,
ever.  I'm getting to be a sobsister!

I really would be interested to know if anyone out there knows anything about
something I heard of years ago:  Navajo sub-bed planting.  If I remember this
correctly you dig down and make trenches.  You use soil and rocks to build up
the sides so that when you water the water stays near the roots and so that the
desert winds have less leaf surface to hit and suck water out of.  I am in the
process of trying to find some other place I can rent even half as nice as the
other one and get back to what I love.  This area being so constantly unstable
weather-wise and with desert soils to deal with I need to have plans in
existance.  I found that the typical raised bed style of growing things out
here is very hard to afford with expensive water bills.
Nancy

purfleece wrote:

> Here in Arkansas (also zone 7) we are well into the early summer.
> Temperature today was 92 and humid.  We market garden and the local
> Farmer's Market opened last Saturday.  We missed the opening due to illness
> but made it on Tuesday.  We currently have multiple varieties of leaf
> lettuce (we sell as a mixture), radishes, green onions, zucchini and yellow
> squash, green and purple beans, sugar snap peas, and baby carrots.  Most of
> the tomato plants I first transplanted have at least one tomato.
> The English peas were gone before the market opened.  My broccoli didn't
> make it.
>
> Starting to see grasshoppers and this is a big worry as we lost four rows
> of beans last year overnight when we got hit.  We have our chickens
> free-ranging outside our fenced-in garden to keep the varmits down as much
> as possible (unfortunately, in the garden, a full grown heavy chicken can
> do a lot of damage chasing the bad bugs).
>
> Tomorrow, after the Market, I will probably pull the last of the lettuce
> and the onions that have bulbed and replace them with another variety of
> green beans and multiple varieties of tomatoes.
>
> Still looking for additional unusual varieties for the Market.  This is how
> we compete with our intensively farmed 1 acre vs the larger 10-20 acre
> Market Gardeners. We can't compete on the commodity market (just like
> anyone who raises their own chickens for meat is going to lose vs Purdue or
> Tyson pricing).
>
> We also raise sheep (the fleece in our name).  Any spinners out there
> looking for fleeces?  Our Jacob sheep have beautiful brown and white mixed
> fleeces.
>
> Rich
>
> Purrfleece Farms
> purflece@alltel.net
>
> ----------
> > From: Grem, Beth A <GremEA@navair.navy.mil>
> > To: 'veggie-list@eskimo.com'
> > Subject: RE: Anyone out there?
> > Date: Friday, June 04, 1999 9:17 AM
> >
> > Well, let me see if I can stir up a discussion.  So how's the garden
> doing?
>
>                         (snip)
>
> > Beth (MD zone 7)
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