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I want to start growing food NOW.

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#41 ·
Go to a local, small, garden center and chat them up. Buy some packets of seed and vegetable starts they recommend. You have spent $20. Do you have access to a forested area ? Scrape the top layer of leafs away and use a flat shovel to skim an inch or two or three into a wheelbarrow or pickup. This is great soil/compost/duff. Use it 50-50 with local soil in your 1/2 barrels, big plastic pots or in your newly constructed box beds, 10' x 4' x 1' deep.



Drip irrigation and hand watering will be needed. Plants like morning sun and afternoon shade....as we all do. Go to it and you are going to lose 1/2 of your seeds and starts, but....you are on your way. Common sense and persistence are your bywords.
 
#42 ·
Discussion starter · #43 ·
No, I haven't really pursued this too much. This quarantining has gotten me to do some other project around the house that I have been putting off, and finally some of the bigger projects on my pickup. Food has mostly come back, I have compromised a little, and tried a few new things. I may have gotten a little excited at first, but I do still plan on doing this. I am planning on having something going within hopefully 2-3 months. Still have a bunch of other things that just stayed priority.

That designer hydro setup is more than I want to spend. That looks nice, but I am function over form, and I could build what that does, for half that.

I have tried the hydro setup before when I lived in CA too. It didn't get very high before I killed em. I know the lights are the big part of the budget, but there always seems to be somebody selling their entire setup with: cabinet, lights, chemicals, etc... If I find a good deal on C list, (and not to sound like a jerk taking advantage of the situation), but that seems like one of those toy type things, (like, guns, stereo equipment, boats, etc...) that are going to flood the for sales listings soon now that people aren't making money.

Its just me in a 3bd room house, so I have the room indoors too. I have 6 family members in town and they all eat healthier than I do. If I grew anything fresh, I could easily share the rest.

Tomatoes and strawberries would probably be where I would like to start. I don't cook much for myself, but growing herbs to cook with, and to help motivate me to cook more would be a huge bonus.
 
Discussion starter · #45 ·
Nik333 said:
I have some toilet paper plants I can sell you. :smile:
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Don't need em. My mom lives in town. She is one of THOSE Costco shoppers. She's had TWO of those 2ft x 2ft x 4ft , I think 60 roll packages in her garage for about a year now. We would always joke with her and ask her if she needed more. I grabbed one of those 6 roll packs out of their a few weeks ago, and she's been having a real good time asking us if we need TP, EVERY time we talk. :biggrin2:
 
#46 ·
wthdideyedo said:
Don't need em. My mom lives in town. She is one of THOSE Costco shoppers. She's had TWO of those 2ft x 2ft x 4ft , I think 60 roll packages in her garage for about a year now. We would always joke with her and ask her if she needed more. I grabbed one of those 6 roll packs out of their a few weeks ago, and she's been having a real good time asking us if we need TP, EVERY time we talk. :biggrin2:
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Shoot, the plants were only $49.99 each.:wink2:
 
Discussion starter · #50 ·
Jason707 said:
This is crazy. I've never experienced anything like this ever in my lifetime. Canned foods are nowhere to be found in my area. It's tough to even find any type of work nowadays too.
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To me I swear the shelves are coming back up, I think its everyone still stocking up on more and more.

At least here in south texas, we have HEB for groceries. Up until a couple days ago, you could schedule a pickup a week out, and a delivery two weeks out. The website seemed to only have half of what they would in store, but you can make it work. Now all of a sudden, all the pickups and delivery slots are reserved.

Target still has a pretty decent selection for delivery if you don't want to go inside anywhere. Most everything is being delivered in two days by UPS. Some of the heavier stuff is not an option though.

Walmart and Amazon (which last I remember was $11 or $13 a month) are only taking orders two days out. I've been getting all my stuff picked up at a grocery store, and getting from Amazon fresh for the rest. If you're in South Texas, you're not allowed to compete against me on this, :vs_smirk: But what I've been doing is get your grocery list ready from Amazon fresh. They are having a nice selection of fresh meat and produce (the strawberries I got were cheaper than my grocery store, the same Driscolls, and they lasted longer). Have your order ready, then at local midnight they add the new day (the day after tomorrow). Immediately it will show unavailable, but just keep refreshing the page where it asks you for a delivery date and time. I've had it show up at 12:01 and I've had it show up at 12:15. Then you can schedule your two hour window out of IIRC 7-7. When I look at Walmart they are scheduling two days out too, but I haven't been shopping their.

If that's not working, (and what I didn't know was an option until after this), is search your area for local farms. You should be able to find the places that were selling to the restaurants that are no longer getting their needed business. I found out that several a little ways outside of the city setup a little booth so they can sell their produce directly on certain days. Maybe someone has a better way to find em, for an app, or website.

If you are having trouble getting work, I keep hearing that amazon and all these grocery sellers are trying to hire a lot of people for delivery.
 
#51 · (Edited)
#52 · (Edited)
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#56 ·
If you have some land with good soil still plenty of time to put in some plants that have already been started, I like tomatoes but many others will have time to mature. By doing something you keep the enthusiasm going and it will get you started sooner next year. Growing your own food is a learning process and there is a lot to learn.

Best,
Bud
 
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DoomsDave
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