Backyard Vegetable Gardens & Michael Pollan's 20 Food Rules for more Healthy Eating

Growing up we had a vegetable garden, Mom speaks of the vegetable garden her family had growing up, Grandma tended it and took after the example of her Mom, Grandma May, who was a pioneer crossing the prairies in one of those red river carts.  Those folks knew how to avoid wasting food, probably because they also knew what real hunger felt like. They knew about picking high-bush cranberries, about making jam and preserves, and of course making home-made bread.  Many of the necessary ingredients came straight from the garden, whether it was cukes for pickling or raspberries growing on canes in the garden, or tomatoes, carrots and other veggies amply supplied by the ground.  How natural is that?  Somehow after my family moved to BC in the late 80s we never gave a vegetable garden a second thought.  (Despite more favourable growing conditions.)  For almost 20 years I have been falling under the delusion that vegetables come from the produce section and not from the dirt.  Recent documentaries like super-size me the "Meatrix" and others have raised some significant questions for me about where my food comes from and how healthy it is.

So...

Today I started digging my garden.  It is another in a series of small steps I'm taking to eat food that is more healthy and more socially responsible.  I'm tired of eating without thinking as if in a waking sleep.  I want to put good foods in my body, and foods that have been produced, prepared and transported in a responsible manner. Some of you have heard of the 100 mile diet (now a book The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating) in which people attempt to only eat food that has traveled less than 100 miles to their plate.  To me the backyard garden is about as close as you can get in transportation cost and processing. With my recent rain-barrel project, I have 200L of (non-chlorinated) rainwater available to water the garden.

For me I can't get it "perfect" it isn't about perfection, its about direction.  Am I moving towards health or away from it?  For this reason I really enjoyed reading Michael Polland's collection of "food rules" that his readers sent in. Michael Polland has authored books like; The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Botany of Desire, and Second Nature: A Gardener's Education.  The list reads like a "Cole's Notes" of collective food wisdom served in bite sized chunks.

I absolutely love this kind of reading, discovering what has worked for others outside of my experience, beyond my culture.  I was taught to "clean my plate" to not waste food.  I was more recently taught to eat until I was full.  The idea expressed above of stopping when 7/10ths full was full is brand new to me, but judging from my wasteline, this might be the best advice to date!  (We'll see how I do with the application of this rule).

Check out Food Rules: Your Dietary Dos and Don'ts (via Lifehacker)

Cheers,

Greg.

Rain Barrel Construction made easy.

Thanks guys for your inquiries and encouragement to write some more. I had a nice break this summer. I think I'm back.

In my city this summer we had to endure the most strict "water use" restrictions I have ever encountered. Part of my response to this is to set up a "rain-barrel" so that I have an increased ability to water plants without using "city water".

Here in the lower mainland of BC we have the privilege of some of the cleanest water in the world, and since we only have a potable water system, that means that this very clean water is used for;

• drinking
• washing
• flushing toilets
• watering plants and lawns
• washing cars
• water fights

If we did have a system of "non-potable" water, there are many uses that the alternate water supply could meat without consuming our supply of "potable water".

Where we live, it seems as if it rains for about 6 months out of the year, so water restrictions feel "wrong" and leave people wondering where all that rain went to. In our city water is metered, and we pay for our consumption on our taxes. The price is very reasonable, so the rain barrel is not intended to be a money saving device, just a tool to help with my responsible water use.

Our roof has an area of about 800sq ft, so it can catch a significant about of rain which drains down 4 downspouts. If drainage is even (not likely) then each could gather from about 200sq ft. The other day it rained quite hard and the rainbarrel was filled, so I think this will be effective.

I'm thankful to my neighbour Wayne for donating a discarded plastic barrel that has a capacity 100L. After rinsing out this barrel I was able to make some simple changes so it could catch water. I am really thankful for the post on www.iwilltry.org that showed instructions for how someone in a neighbouring community built a similar rainwater collection system.

Platform

First I cut an 8' 4x4 made of pressure treated wood into four 2' sections to make a platform to raise the rainwater barrel. I just place 2 pieces in one direction and 2 in the other (like a log cabin). The barrel balances on top, and the 100KG it weighs when full keeps everything in place.

"drain tap"

Next I got a boiler faucet (cheaper than a normal garden tap) for about $5 and some o-rings that would fit, and some of the "nuts" used to fasten threaded electrical conduit (add $3 for those). I wrapped the threads on the faucet with teflon tape, added the "nut" and the o-rings and that completed the assembly for the "drain tap"

I drilled out a hole in the barrel for the tap, making sure the tap would not extend below the bottom of the barrel (and twist if weight was put on it.) after some sloppy "widening" with my largest bit, the hole was just large enough for me to thread in the faucet. I was surprised by the thickness of the barrel and it seemed that threading in the faucet would be sufficient without needing additional "nuts" on the inside of the barrel (my arms aren't that skinny.)

Collection

Now I had a tap, but no collection. One challenge was that the openings for the barrel had threaded openings that were above the surface of the barrel allowing for 3/4 inches of water to accumulate before any would enter the barrel. I didn't want standing water to allow mosquitos to breed, so noticing a lip on the top of the barrel I drilled 2 3/4 inch holes to force water to drain from the top (towards the faucet which would be slightly downhill).

To get the rainwater to collect over the threaded opening, I found a small round plastic "grate" ($1.5) fit the hole on the top of the barrel perfectly, and a child's plastic "sand-pail" with the bottom cut out served as a good "funnel" for holding the rain water over the "grate". 5 wraps of electrical tape to secure the "sand-pail" stopped leaks from getting past the grate/bucket. Some more 3/4 inch holes on the back of the "sand-pail" near the top assured any overflow would be directed onto the top of the barrel where it could be drained out the holes I had previously drilled. I added some rocks on top of the grate to keep it in place and to prevent leaves from completely blocking the grate.

At the hardware store I spotted a flexible plastic pipe (3 ft long, that was designed to fit a downspout, and which would keep its shape. After measuring the height required to allow this flexible pipe to drain downhill into the "sand-pail", I cut the downspout with a hacksaw, re-fastened the bottom of the downspout to the wall with plumber's tape and 2-1/4" screws, and attached the flexible pipe to the downspout using sheet metal screws. A few bends later and the barrel was ready to recieve rain.

A couple days later, all-day rain rewarded me with 100L of rainwater ready for the garden.

It happilly ran a soaker hose for about 4 hours, so presumably we could water a garden for most of a week with 1 barrel of water. Hmm now I'm getting tempted to add another...

I'll post some pictures shortly.

Next year when we grow our vegetable garden we'll have soft rainwater (free from chlorine) to give to our tomatoes and zuchinis and other leafy friends.

Cheers,

Greg.

Saving water 2 - water conservation tips

It has been a long time since I shared some tips for conserving water, so I'll add some more that I think are quite effective. The first one is really the most amazing one, because in no way does it reduce the way we enjoy and use water, but it makes a huge difference to our "water bill". In fact one of our neighbours wanted to compare their bill with ours and we found that with 4 people in our house, we were using almost half the water they used with 3 people in their house.

Install "low flow" aerators on all your taps.

What this does is mix air in with the water so that you still feel the "pressure" you would normally, but with less water being used. At our house the following flow rates work quite well for us:

• Bathroom sinks (hand washing and tooth brushing) 1.5 GPM (Gallons per minute)
• Kitchen sink (filling pots and washing things) 2.5 GPM
• Shower head 2.5 GPM

Installation only requires a pair of plyers.

1. Look for and read any small writing on the spout of your tap, look right where the water falls out (this is in case you already have one). You are looking for a number and GPM (or LPM if you are metric)
2. Purchase an aerator for your tap
3. Cover your tap's spout with a piece of cloth to prevent the plyers from scratching, and remove the round piece on the end of your tap's spout.
4. Screw your aerator back on there to replace that piece.
5. Save water

Buy a timer for your garden hose

For $6-$14 you can purchase a mechanical hose timer (no batteries required) that will let you water your lawn for increments of 15 minutes up to 2 hours. Very handy in places where there are watering restrictions. This way you can start your watering and not need to fear wasting water, while at the same time, not needing to come back at a specific time. Most models come with an option to "bypass" the timer allowing for on/off operation like normal.

Water your yard more effectively

Water your garden and lawn in the early morning or in the evening when the sun and the day's heat is not likely to evaporate your water.

Use pinholes in bottles of water to target irrigation right to the stalks of the plants you want to water. (2Litre pop bottles and 2Litre waxed cardboard milk containers work effectively.) Fill them up and leave them unattended to supply your plants with a slow and steady amount of water that won't flood them.

Turn off your water supply to your toilets before you vacation

If you have a slow leak in your toilet, while you are on vacation, your toilet will faithfully continue filling itself which wastes lots of water. If your toilet tank cracks for some reason and starts to leak onto your floor... your toilet will faithfully continue filling itself which wastes lots of water and destroys the floor, walls and anything else that gets in the way. Do yourself a favour, if you are going away for a couple nights camping or traveling, turn off the water supply and flush your toilet (you can usually time the flush so you don't waste any water ;-) ) This small step can not only save you from wasted water, but it can protect your house against the unlikely but nasty situation where a toilet decides to convert your house into a giant aquarium.

Use a rain barrel for watering your garden.

My relatives have a giant plastic rain barrel at the side of their house which catches water from the downspouts that drain from their roof. If the barrel is full, the water diverts like normal to the downspout and out onto the lawn, otherwise, a mesh cover on top keeps the barrel clean from debris and that soft rainwater that plants love so much is available for watering on weeks when there isn't a lot of rain falling. By positioning the barrel on the side of the house that is a little higher and elevating the barrel with a platform, a hose at the bottom provides adequate pressure for flowing into drip irrigation hoses and the like.

OK, I'm all out of ideas. I'd love to hear yours. Check out the previous post linked above and if you've got something new, or comments about these methods. Let everybody know down below in the comments section.

Cheers,

Greg.