Andy's rapid gardening techniques part one.

Like most of the members of my family, we like to grow things. not everyone has the knack for this but for those who do it can pay off in the long run of things. but without the proper components of  a garden you will most likely fail at it.

 To start at this you will need a good quality soil. This is important as your plants will do poorly in poor soil. this years garden(the first at my home) was started in miracle grow potting soil, this was a mistake as our local hardware store had improperly cared for the bags and they rapidly developed a powdery mildew  and most of the plants died off. the second crop was more successful and was potted in a locally sourced mixture of composted wood chips. the problem with the second crop was they grew too aggressively and my wife and I couldn't up plant them fast enough. the remainder of that crop was only 3 tomato plants that the roots became diseased because of poor drainage. they survived using a technique I will cover later on in this string of posts


The next important step is to have somewhere to start seeds and to finally plant them. Our . initial garden was started in small paper cups this worked out for the most part up until the mold took hold of them and they dropped dead(Ill cover the solution for the mold problem later). the second crop was planted in the black plastic containers you would buy seedlings in that we acquired. they proved to be the best as they had pre determined drainage.

the second phase was the solo cup phase after the plants reached the approximate height of the plastic containers they were planted in. the height of the plant shouldn't exceed the depth of the container they are planted in, otherwise bad things happen with the roots (root bound plants is the keyword here) and they will essentially choke themselves to death.

the third stage had we made it here was going to be some food grade plastic buckets we acquired(acquired meaning free on the side of the road or sourced from a location that would throw them out) where the plant should be able to live for the extent of their life


there are many options available for final planting, most of which can be constructed of discarded materials. this is where we will pick up on the next post as cats have happened  and I am losing the use of my hands to their needs