Tuesday, November 3, 2009

How to Build Your Own Organic Garden



If you have your own home and you have a little bit of land; why not save some money and build your health?  Plant an Organic Garden.  Danny "Elf" Elfenbein, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Community Development for the Zoological Society of Florida, has become one of the newest Revolutionaries.  He successfully built and planted his first organic garden.  He was kind enough to give us some tips we can now share with you.  The picture above is the "Elf" himself standing victoriously over his new garden.  If you interested in getting involved with the zoo email Danny at dannye@zsf.org or visit www.zsf.org 

I ordered an 8' x 4' container bed made of recycled materials. It was like $120 on a website but you can also make it with wood to save money.

Assembly:

Since it's a raised bed garden, you dont need to do anything more than place cardboard and brown grocery bags over the area you are going to place it in. So that's what we did. The bed we have is made with two depths, so you can plant herbs and smaller root veggies as well as deeper root veggies (potatoes, tomatoes, carrots) in deeper soil.

Once built, all you need is:

- 13 bags (1.5 cubic feet each) of soil/ We used Miracle Gro Organic Choice Garden Soil
- A bag of white sand (regular size)
- two bags of Vermix or Peat moss (or one big bag that looks like a block)
- 12 bamboo or other sticks that are at least 4' long
- zip ties or twine
- (optional_ you can also build a frame/trellis for beans, tomatoes, peppers using PVC and twine. The kit we bought had extra pieces that we used for this.

All you need to do is mix all three elements to create a nutritious and aerated mixture of soil and spread evenly across garden bed.
Then, measure out a garden grid using bamboo or other sticks- making 1' x 1' boxes. Lay out the sticks and use zip ties or twine to string them together at the intersection.

Plant your plants! We did these straight from seed in a small "mini-greenhouse" and will transplant when they are a month old.

In a couple months, we will have veggies and herbs galore to use for daily meals...



Great job leading the way!

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