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Compost

Compost

Back to Nature: Planting Tomato Slices

Published by communitypublishingabq@gmail.com on August 22, 2016 Respond

Planting Tomato Slices by Dan Garduno

I recently came across a post online from another gardener and blogger on how he plants slices of tomatoes directly into a pot of soil, resulting in dozens of tomato plants.

I was pretty amazed and skeptical at first.  I’ve always been taught to collect the seeds and then rinse them and soak them to remove the coating on the outside of the seed to allow them to germinate and grow properly.  When I saw this blog post, I could not believe how much easier this method would be!  And I was skeptical, but also I thought to myself, “Why wouldn’t it work?  This is exactly how nature works!”

So I watched his video which showed him with several different pots all in different stages of growth.  First showing a pot with just soil, then the next pot with 4 slices of tomatoes and the next one with some seedlings growing (as seen to the right).  And then a few more pots where he shows how he thins them out until just keeping 1-3 plants per pot.

Being that he showed them in stages and not showing the original pot in each stages as a time lapse, I was still skeptical that it could actually work with such little effort and energy.  So I decided I had to try this experiment for myself!

I started out one night by setting aside 2 slices of an organic tomato that we acquired for free from a local food line, as I was preparing dinner.  I had some organic compost and some yogurt containers as well as this organic tomato, so I decided to give it a try.  I filled the yogurt containers about 3/4 full with compost and in 1 container I put an entire tomato slice on top of the compost.  Then loosely covered with more compost.  The 2nd slice, I decided to cut into 3 smaller pieces and put each into their own separate containers, so I ended up with 4 planted containers total.

I watered them every other day to keep them moist.  I placed them in a cool less lit area of our office and just kept an eye on them for a few days.  Within 8 days I have my first sprouts!  I was impressed!  It had worked!

Over the next few days, more and more sprouts come up.  I decided to replant the sprouts that I pulled out while thinning out the containers, unlike the guy in the video who just thinned them out by tossing the sprouts onto the ground.  I used up-cycled plastic water bottles that were converted into small self watering containers which are perfect for seed germination and keeping your seedlings watered constantly, especially in this hot dry climate we have here in the high desert of Albuquerque.

Tomato-8By the time I was done making this containers and transplanting the sprouts into them individually, I ended up with 50 separate tomato plants!  Being that we are in an office here and just growing some plants in our windowsill for passer byers to see, we didn’t have enough room to grow that many plants here.  In the past I’ve sold some plants before, so once they matured to a few inches tall, we decided to sell these for $3 each, or 2 for $5.Just 2 slices from 1 free organic tomato, resulted in a potential of $125-$150 in profit! Imagine if I planted the entire tomato!!! This is a perfect example of my last blog, Eat Organic Produce For Free!

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The Glassman“The Glassman” will be posting more blogs and ideas as well as hosting many workshops on Self-sustainability, urban farming/agriculture, windowsill gardening, composting, upcycling, self water planters and grow beds, solar passive heating, collecting and purifying rain water, mass heaters and rocket stoves, papercrete, hemp cement, and so much more on his blog!

CP Logo FinalCommunity Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as Multimedia Books while promoting literacy in our communities. We are proud to be a community partner and digital marketer at the Rail Yards Market and the Monte Vista Fire Station. Need help with your web presence and social media marketing? Click here to find out how we can help you! Community Publishing: From the Community For the Community

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Back to Nature: What is Composting and Why is it so Important

Published by communitypublishingabq@gmail.com on January 21, 2016 Respond

What is Composting and Why is it so Important to Us by Dan Garduno

Part 1 of a 2 part series

In this day and age so many of us have become programmed into staying focused on our mundane daily routines of waking up early in a hurry to rush off to a 9-5 job to help pay for the Back to Nature: Composthomes we inhabit for only a portion of the day, then rush back home to hurry ourselves into bed so we can rest up for this daily cycle over and over again.

We have become accustomed to having no time for anything else really. And this hustle and bustle way of life has programmed us to become unconscious throughout our daily activities as we rush to get ready by grabbing a quick prepacked bite to eat, or only having time for a single serve cup of coffee as we accumulate tons of cute little plastic cups into our landfills. We have trapped ourselves into not allowing ourselves the time or opportunities to stop and smell the flowers, and especially not have time to stop and tend to the flowers.

Learning how to take the time to create compost consciously is so simple and easy to do, and extremely beneficial for our ourselves and our souls to take the time away from such a mundane and restricted way of life. Slowing ourselves down enough to be able to stop and think about how we are living and how we have become so unconscious and wasteful and uncaring for our planet and it’s natural resources can give us a whole new perspective and better way of life.

So what is compost?

Back to Nature: CompostAlmost everything on this planet breaks down eventually and decomposes back into the Earth, back to it’s origins of dirt. Trees do this naturally by dropping it’s fruit and leaves to the Earth below. If no one were to rake up those leaves and fruit, they would eventually break down and decompose back to the earth and become dirt once again. This is a natural cycle and therefor, theoretically, should be just as simple for anyone to do as it was so simple for the tree.

Many gardeners and farmers consciously grow their own foods so they know specifically where their food comes from, what is in it, and how it was grown. Part of that is also knowing where their soil comes from and what is in their compost before adding it to their growing soil.

Some will focus on making sure what they put in their compost piles is 100% organic foods and materials. In turn, their compost will become 100% organic! Some do not eat 100% organic foods, so they use foods with pesticides and herbicides, and other non organic materials such as printed paper and cardboard. And then some like to add animal waste and feces into their compost to boost the nutrients in their finished compost or soil. So it’s extremely important to know what those animals are eating and where their food comes from as well. And then others will add just about anything to their compost, such as meat or dairy products which have a harder time of breaking down and a longer process in making compost for soil.

So it’s extremely important to understand the different ways of composting and the variety of ingredients one may use in their compost piles. 100% organic compost is best! Utilizing foods and other materials that don’t contain pesticides, herbicides, or other harmful chemicals will help you to create the best soil for your plants. I personally don’t eat 100% organically yet, so I tend to use other food sources and materials that aren’t 100% organic. But I do my best to make sure I’m not bombarding my entire compost pile with non organic materials or foods. A strive to add more organic materials into my compost than non organic materials.

Some will add almost anything into their composts including foods that take a very long time to break down such as meats and cheese. They may also use paper materials that contain a high content of dangerous chemicals, preservatives, and ink.

And then there are some that will add animal waste or feces, also known as manure, into their compost to add higher nutrient content to their compost. It’s extremely important to know what those animals eat and where their food sources come from. Bat guano, cow and Back to Nature: Composthorse manure, bird droppings, and even fish emulsion are some of the main choices for manure added to our compost and soil. Even human feces can be broken down into compost but takes several years and proper management. And the human diet is extremely important if choosing this option. Everything eventually will decompose!

It’s important to know and understand that foods and other materials decompose at different rates of time. For instance, a tomato will breakdown and turn into compost a lot faster than a pineapple would. Cardboard takes longer than paper. Twigs and branches take longer than leaves or grass clippings. It’s almost common sense but does take some knowledge and basic information. Join me next week where I will discuss the various compost methods and techniques!

**Dan Garduno will be giving a live demo/workshop at Tammy’s Edge, find the invite here.

Read more Back to Nature articles here.
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The Glassman

Dan Garduno

“The Glassman” will be posting more blogs and ideas as well as hosting many workshops on Self-sustainability, urban farming/agriculture, windowsill gardening, composting, upcycling, self water planters  and grow beds, solar passive heating, collecting and purifying rain water, mass heaters and rocket stoves, papercrete, hemp cement, and so much more throughout 2015!

Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as Multimedia Books while promoting literacy in our communities. We are proud to be a community partner and digital marketer at the Rail Yards Market and the Monte Vista Fire Station. Need help with your web presence and social media marketing? Click here to find out how we can help you!

Community Publishing: From the Community For the Community

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Back to Nature: Make a Self-Watering Grow System!

Published by communitypublishingabq@gmail.com on March 12, 2015 Respond

By Dan Garduno

In recent years I’ve learned quite a few different ways on how to garden. Some ways are very traditional with simple compost to soil and then planting seeds in the ground. And some ways are more modern with a twist of simplicity and ingenuity. Today I’d like to share with you a simple growing method known as self-watering containers or wicking beds/containers.
The idea of these systems is to make growing plants and starting seeds so simple just about anyone can do it. And keeping them alive in these systems is just as easy. These systems basically have a water reservoir underneath a grow bed and a wick to absorb the water up into the soil and directly into the roots.

Plants grow by taking up water through their roots and taking up nutrients from the soil around the roots. Constantly watering the plants from above ground eventually washes the nutrients out or down into the earth deeper. By using a wick to absorb water from underneath, just like a root does already, it helps to keep all the nutrients in the soil around the root without ever flushing it out as well as it allows the right amount of water naturally absorbed up into the soil and into the roots. The roots will only absorb as much water as the plant needs. The wick will never puddle/pool or over water your soil or your plant. It regulates a perfect constant moisture control for the roots. Some plants such as chile peppers tend to flourish in drier soils so these systems won’t work for some drier soil plants. However, these are excellent for tomatoes, basil, lettuces, non edible house plants, and so many more!

Make a simple self watering seed starter out of a plastic water bottle

You will need:

  • Water bottle
  • Scissors, knife, or razor blade to cut bottle and make a hole in cap
  • Absorbent material for wick such as organic hemp string or twine, shami cloth material, yarn, or even strips of T-shirt. (Cotton T-shirt wicks tend to form mildew and will have to be replaced always)
  • Organi Soil
  • Organic Or Heirloom Seed
  • Water

Step 1: You simply take an empty water bottle and cut it horizontally in half. Somewhere between half way and about 2/3 up the neck. Any size bottle will do; 12oz, 16oz, 1ltr, 2ltr, 3ltr, half gallon, full gallon. We will eventually use the top part of the bottle to add soil and grow in upside down inside the lower part of the bottle after we attach a wick through the cap. The lower part of the bottle will hold water.

Step 2: We then cut a hole into the cap while its tightly screwed on the bottle still. Be extremely careful not to cut yourself! You van also try using a hammer and nail and remove cap and hammer through top of cap to make a small hole good for twine. Also try using a hot tent stake or phillps screw driver and melt a bigger hole through the cap by using a candle to heat tip and melt through cap when really hot. Ventilation is needed and should be done outside. But you then release fumes and probably shouldn’t be melting plastic at all.

Step 3: Once you have a hole in the cap for the wick you simply shove the wick into the cap and into the bottle neck. The idea is to have a long enough wick so it will reach all the way to the bottom of the water reservoir as well as into the neck a good inch or two to saturate the soil and pull water up into the seed and eventually the roots.

Step 4: Add soil into the upside top part of the bottle around the wick into the cap and neck of the bottle fill this to the top. The wick should be hanging down from the cap now. You then fill the bottom of bottle with water and put the wick side of bottle with cap down into the water. You only need to fill water until the cap is just barely submerged into the water. You don’t want the soil to be sitting in the water.

Step 5: Add the seed into the center of the soil about 1/2″-1″ deep by using your finger or a pencil to make a hole to drop the seed in. Then cover with soil and place your new self watering planter in a windowsill or somewhere it will receive a good amount of light.

You will only need to water it once a week and maybe even once every two weeks. Its so simple to take care of many seed starts like this without worrying about letting the soil dry out too quickly and kill the seedling. That is the main reason most people don’t try to grow their own plants. They forget to water them only once and the plants are lost. And its so frustrating.

That is why this is such a simple and easy way to starts seeds and grow plants as well as helping to keep our own waste/plastic bottles out of the landfills as well!

Try to make one today!
Thanks for getting BACK TO NATURE with “TheGlassman“!
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The Glassman

Dan Garduno

“The Glassman” will be posting more blogs and ideas as well as hosting many workshops on Self-sustainability, urban farming/agriculture, windowsill gardening, composting, upcycling, self water planters  and grow beds, solar passive heating, collecting and purifying rain water, mass heaters and rocket stoves, papercrete, hemp cement, and so much more throughout 2015!

Community Publishing brings local artists of all mediums together in creative collaborations for distribution as multimedia eBooks while promoting literacy in our communities.

We are proud to be a community partner and digital marketer at the Rail Yards Market.
#JoinOurCommunity at http://communitypublishing.org“

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