Very well...now. It did not start that way. Strangely I have Survivalist Podcast to thank for the improvement.
Nothing in life is simple, and this is not either. I came off Active Duty in May of 2008. (I was called up out of the IRR for support of operations - a state side assignment, I'm no war hero or ever claim to be) I had lost my job when I got called up (yeah, I know Sailors and Soldiers Act, there are loop holes my old employer used) so we went where the spouse had found a job.
I had no civilian employment, had transferred to the Reserves, was depressed, and short of funds. So I did what my mom and her family always did when they knew money would be tight, they planted a garden. My father, a Vietnam vet, encouraged it also more a therapy to deal with being unemployed.
Eventually I found two part time jobs to go with the "part time Army". But kept the garden going. We had fresh greens, fresh beans, fresh potatoes, onions, garlic that summer and fall.
But the second year, well we did get some very pretty weeds.
More after the fold.
When I was job hunting I would come home stressed, upset and generally angry. Here I was, a Military Vet, had years of civilian experience in the Network Administration field (no degree though), yet could not find employment. (this was mid 2008) By working in the garden I would quickly become calm, happy and soon was someone my kids wanted to be around.
This let me stay married and to find two jobs to help make ends meet. In 2009 I put the garden back in, while working so not as much time was put in it. I would still come home and be stressed, not as bad, but a few minutes in the garden and all was better. But nothing was growing very well. This frustrated me. The year before everything grew great. It made me feel like I was smart, that I had not forgotten my childhood on the family farm. But now I was feeling like a failure. What had I done wrong?
I called mom and dad, grandpa, my uncles. They all said to do what I was doing and to consider spraying for weeds and adding chemical fertilizer. Which, while working, I could not afford.
Now, how does a Survivalist come into this? My hobby is collecting conspiracy theories.
Yeah, i'm weird. This means I tune into some weird radio shows, web pages, podcasts. I was visiting an Info-War's forum and read about this Survivalist who did a podcast in his car while he drove 50 miles to work each day. How he was so right wing that he hated Bush. I figure this is the kind of tin-foil hat truther illuminate show that might have something new I had not heard before about Obama or some other conspiracy.
So I tuned in to a show. It was about gardening! What? The host explained as he dogged traffic that gardening is a survival skill, after all how many gun fights have you been in through out your life? Zero or one. Mostly Zero. But how many times have you fed yourself? About 3 to 4 times a day.
This was rational, and not what I expected. Then the guy went on about how we are destroying our soil with chemical fertilizer and herbicides. That soil is what makes the plants grow and should be rich, loamy and dark. Not hard, pale and lumpy.
I stopped the show right there and walked out to my garden. It was hard, pale and lumpy, but last year it was soft, loamy and dark. I went over to an area a few feet away and dug up a shovel full of dirt, soft, dark, loamy.
Ok, I was sold. This guy may be a nut, but on this he is right. So back to the show to hear what he suggested. This was my introduction to permaculture.
Here I learned about a system of gardening, really a way of life, that treated the soil and plants like valuable things. You did not soak the ground or plants with chemical, you added nutrients from natural sources. Compost, sheet mulch, and planting sustainable plants.
I ordered some bulk mulch, spent several days in the inter web learning about Permaculture design for the small garden, and made some plans. The mulch arrived the next day and after putting it out, a week or so later my plants stared doing much better. I then looked at what I had planted and gave thought to what we liked to eat that would grow in our area with little effort.
One of the things I like about permaculture is it aims to develop a sustainable system that renews itself year after year. Or at least needs limited additional inputs. We planted strawberries, blackberries, ordered heirloom and open pollinated seeds.
With the mulch, the amount of weeding went down to almost nothing. The seeds we save when we harvest and re-use. By keeping the seeds from the best plants after three years we have some very hardy and productive plants that don't need much care. Our annual crops are doing great.
Today my 7 year old harvested three quarts of strawberries. I went out and got three more. (one design flaw: don't let your strawberries spread more than 18 inches across if you can't get to the other side of the patch. the area we put them in is 3 foot by 11 foot and you can't reach across to get the ones next to the house. Had to put in foot stones) I expect to keep harvesting for the next three weeks, should end up with 12 to 18 quarts.
The blackberries are coming in too. Last year we added some blue berry bushes, should see limited production this year, but next year...who ever lives here will be set. (yeah, we are moving, the spouses job has ended, and my two part time jobs won't cover expenses, and we have no family here.)
But we have been getting lettuce, beens, broccoli, chives, and will get some young onions before we leave. I have felt very good, not only because I have been working in the garden, getting my hands dirty while around living things, but because i've healed the soil, made the place a little better than when I arrived. Done something to heal the world. It is better than therapy.
I have all this thanks to a survivalist. (his next day's show was about how Obama was going to ram single payer on us, set up execution squads with the IRS and ban christians from having health care or some nonsense. He was spot on with the gardening though.)