This is the full video of the no dig garden construction workshop from 2009 that the previous quick video was made from. The video features Bob Jones and Myk Rushton
You do not have to follow the video specifically, you can use different materials – just follow the general pattern of construction
So you know of an open lot in your neighborhood that would be perfect for a community garden. You really, really want to build one, but you don’t quite know how to pull it off. Let’s be honest—the idea of pulling off a garden build can be pretty daunting. You need a lot of supplies, possibly some funds, and, ideally a bunch of people to help—unless you feel like devoting the next couple weekends to digging.
You’ve heard of barn raising, right? That old tradition of collective community action in which the whole community used to gather together to build a barn for their neighbor. At thrdPlace, a newly-launched local platform for social action, we’re bringing it back by tapping online community to drive on the ground action.
So, think barn raising and replace it with… community gardens, mural creation, or art pop-ups. We help get the word out and recruit people to get involved by sharing the story of your project through the social networks of each person who comes to your project page and clicks to support your project.
What does this look like in real time? This past weekend we helped the Social Justice Learning Institute, a local Los Angeles nonprofit “dedicated to improving the education, health, and well being of youth and communities of color by empowering them to enact social change through research, training, and community mobilization,” to organize and execute 10 backyard gardens at South L.A. homes as part of their 10 Homes–10 Seeds initiative.
“To attain knowledge, add things everyday. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” Lao Tzu
I use to look at all the preparedness blogs and books and turn green drooling over all the cool stuff these folks say I needed to survive an emergency, SHTF situation, or TEOTWAWKI. I still slap myself on my green face from time to time.
This is my eighth year as a full time Internet activist. The longer I’m fighting this “War on Evil”, the more I’m concerned with the effectiveness of resistance. No matter what our cause, liberty, false-flag terrorism, free Palestine, debt-free currency, New World Order, Illuminati, chemtrails, vaccination, cancer cures, drug prohibition, or historic revisionism, we must first and foremost make a conscience decision about what’s more important to us, being right or resisting effectively.
Milan is one of the most polluted cities in the world, and the Bosco Verticale project aims to mitigate some of the environmental damage that has been inflicted upon the city by urbanization. The design is made up of two high-density tower blocks with integrated photovoltaic energy systems and trees and vegetation planted on the facade. The plants help capture CO2 and dust in the air, reduce the need to mechanically heat and cool the tower’s apartments, and help mitigate the area’s…
There really are very few “perfect” locations for a prepper. A very common excuse that some people give as to why they cannot prep is their current location. People say, “Well, once we are able to get moved to our farm in two years I’ll start prepping hardcore.” Another favorite is “I’m saving the money for moving instead of using it for preps.” Or even worse, ”Oh, there is no point in prepping here, because if the SHTF I’ll be dead.”
Stop this kind of thinking RIGHT NOW!!!!!!
Sometimes, to borrow an old saying, you just have to bloom where you’re planted.
There are many things you can do to increase your preparedness wherever you happen to live. Apartment dwellers at the top of a city high rise, folks in the middle of the desert, and people in HOA-ruled suburban lots all have to examine their situations, figure out their pros and cons, and work towards resolving what they can. With some pre-planning, there is a lot you can overcome if you have the right mindset. I suspect there are just as many (and probably far more) preppers living in the ‘burbs than there are living in perfect rural locations, with a lake, 10 acres of cultivated farmland in an off-grid house.
Money is tight all over. It’s very easy for people to say, off-the-cuff, “Oh, you should move.”
But just picking up and moving isn’t that easy. It took me nearly 4 years to be able to do that. People have obligations and ties that some Joe-Blow on the internet shouting out advice can’t even begin to understand. Some in the prepping community have a complete disconnect with the realities of everyday people. There are reasons like:
Not enough money to leave
A good job (very hard to come by these days)
Family members in the area that you don’t want to abandon
No work opportunities where you want to go
Custody orders that require you to remain in a certain area
A spouse who is not on board
A house that won’t sell or with an upside-down mortgage
The list goes on and on. There are as many reasons to remain in one place as there are people living in cities. And yes, I could sit here and refute each and every reason a person has chosen to remain, but it wouldn’t do one bit of good. People are sometimes alienated by the prepping movement when it seems that everything is black and white or like their personal decisions are somehow less valid than the decisions of some random person on the internet.
That’s why it’s important to take your current situation, warts and all, and work with it. This doesn’t mean that you should abandon your plans for a better location some time in the future if such a move is warranted. But it means that you shouldn’t put off important preparedness steps until after that move is made.
Assess Your Situation
You don’t know where to go if you don’t know where you are. The first and most vital step is an honest assessment of your current situation. The situation that you have right now, this very minute, not the one you will have in a month or in a year. Assess your needs regarding the following in a SHTF scenario or disaster:
Water
Sanitation
Food/Cooking
Heating
Security
Light
Once you know exactly where you are with these things, you can begin to look for solutions that will work for you, today. Dig in and make a plan for the survival of your family.
And a little note to those who say, “It doesn’t matter, I’m in downtown Manhattan. I’ll die anyway.”
No, you won’t. You won’t be that lucky. You will be absolutely thoroughly miserable, breathing foul unhealthy air. You’ll be thirsty enough to drink unsanitary water, which will cause bowel issues to worsen problem #1. You’ll be hungry, but not hungry enough that you die of starvation. You will be at the mercy of thugs better armed than you. And you won’t die, not right away. You will live like I just described, and it will be horrible. Look at the residents of Manhattan during Hurricane Sandy. They didn’t die but they were absolutely miserable, they were terrified, they were eating from dumpsters, and much of it could have been avoided with some basic preparedness.
Survival in a Population Dense Area
Before I relocated to my little cabin in the woods I lived in a very metropolitan area. I was lucky in that I had 1/10th of an acre. I did everything I could come up with to make my little house as sustainable as possible should the poop hit the oscillating device before I could get out. A disaster in the city IS survivable.
I planted every inch of the back yard and grew enough food that the home-canned and frozen produce lasted until Christmas. I stockpiled groceries. I had plywood cut and pre-drilled to cover each window of the house. I had printed official looking quarantine signs to hang on the door of my house as a deterrent. I put together a little outdoor fireplace in the backyard behind my fence. I got a big dog. I collected rainwater from downspouts at each corner of the house. I purchased an antique oil heater in good working order, and stockpiled heating oil. I had enough seeds to plant for the next 4 years. I located nearby sources of water, wood, and nuts. I got a wagon for hauling stuff if the transportation system was down.
In short, I did everything possible to make the best of a potentially terrible location. It wasn’t perfect, but we would have outlasted most of the other people in our residential neighborhood and done so under the radar.
The Priorities
Let’s take a look at each of the major challenges that we face in a SHTF situation. Obviously different disasters offer different challenges. These lists aren’t meant to be comprehensive. They are meant to be a starting point to get your wheels turning on how you and your family can best survive, exactly where you’re planted right now.
Water
You can only survive for 3 days without water (and you’ll be weak and suffering way before that) so that should put water preparedness at the very top of your list. Some ideas: 1 month supply of drinking water stored (plan on a gallon per day, per person and pet), non-electric water filtration system (with spare filters), buckets along with a sled or wheel barrow depending on the season for transporting water, a water catchment system, water purification supplies (bleach, pool shock, tablets), system for catching gray water to be reused for flushing, washing, etc.
Sanitation
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in New York, it was reported that people were defecating and urinating in the hallways of apartment buildings once the sewer system stopped working. Lack of sanitation is not only unpleasant, but it spreads disease. Some ideas: portapotty, buckets lined with heavy duty trash bags, kitty litter, water for flushing if you have septic, learn how to shut off the main valve so that city sewage cannot back up into your house or apartment, supplies to build an outhouse, lime, baby wipes,antibacterial wipes, white vinegar, bleach, hand sanitizer, extra toilet paper.
Food/Cooking
Most preppers have a food supply, but have you considered how you’re going to prepare all those beans if your stove doesn’t work? Some ideas: Minimum of 1 month of food for each family member and pet; alternative cooking methods indoors like a fondue pot, a woodstove, propane stove, or fireplace; outdoor cooking methods like a barbecue (beware of tantalizing smells and hungry neighbors), outdoor fireplace or firepit, rocket stove, or sun oven; and foods that don’t require cooking or heating.
This is a video response to all the people asking me how to make a vertical garden that is based on the phytopod. I go through all the steps and supplies that you will need in order to build your own vertical garden.
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Growing Vertically in Small Spaces – Examples of Vertical Gardening Trellis Methods
John from http://www.growingyourgreens.com visits a local community garden and shares with you some examples of vertical trellis methods. Watch this video to get ideas on how to grow vertically when using Square Foot Gardening SFG or not.
Library members can then ‘check out’ the seeds to plant in their gardens on the promise to then save seeds from the best plants and return them to the library.
It’s an innovative way to build a public seed bank of heirloom seeds for plants that have proven their veracity in local climates and soil. It’s also a way for public libraries to stay relevant in an age when ebooks and Amazon are denting their necessity.
The Urban Farmers guild of Sustainable NE Seattle descended on Joann’s front lawn (with her cooperation) one November morning, to prepare it for growing food in the Spring. One half was prepared with a sod-cutter, and other half was sheet-mulched.
Uploaded on Jun 6, 2009
Now it’s late March, and the Urban Farmers of Sustainable NE Seattle continue their project to convert Joann’s front lawn into a food garden.
The Guerrilla Grafters are a group of San Franciscans who believe urban trees are a precious thing to waste on simple flowers. Their goal is to graft- albeit illegally- fruit bearing branches onto non-fruit bearing fruit trees, in hopes that over time the cities ornamental trees can provide food for residents free of charge.
In this video, we follow Guerrilla Grafters Tara Hui and Booka Alon as they check up on their surreptitious grafts, perform a bit of pruning and search for their trees’ first fruit.
Original story here: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/…
You don’t know where to go if you don’t know where you are. The first and most vital step is an honest assessment of your current situation. The situation that you have right now, this very minute, not the one you will have in a month or in a year. Assess your needs regarding the following in a SHTF scenario or disaster:
