facesandmoments

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Can't afford to buy things for your garden?

*Re-posting, with new information

A store-bought bag of topsoil, a roll of landscaping fabric, or a bag of cedar chips doesn’t go very far if you have a large garden or a very limited budget. Here are some ways to create the materials you need for a beautiful, organic, productive garden, by both re-directing household waste, and foraging in your local area. I use a lot of these tricks in my garden to make it almost completely free for me to continue growing new things, and expanding the workable area every year!

For soil

Save your food scraps to create a rich compost for growing veggies and amending your soil. There are numerous options for every size of dwelling and yard. Small space solutions such as Bokashi and vermicompost work indoors and don’t produce bad smells, so you can keep them underneath the sink.Worm towers, compost heaps, and outdoor compost bins are a great solution if you have more space. The more you add, the more rich, nutritious material you can make for your garden. I like composting because it means I don’t have gross smelly garbage bags to deal with, because food waste is diverted. It seems like a lot of work at first, but it actually saves time, money, and transportation.

Seaweed or kelp is one of the best things for your garden, with over 70 essential nutrients, and acting as a weed barrier and a moisture-retentive mulch. I collect seaweed nearby on the beach with my bike trailer, or, when I go for a walk I bring a little home with me each time. It’s an absolute miracle for your soil.

Worm tower

Fertiliser

There are three things that are essential for plant growth. These are nitrogen for leaves and vegetation (N), phosphorus for roots and shoots (P), and potassium for water movement, flowering, and fruiting (K). Commercial fertilisers will give the relative concentrations of each of these compounds with and “NPK” rating. Plants like tomatoes also need calcium to produce healthy fruit. You can create amendments for your garden and soil at home so that you do not have to purchase fertiliser.

For nitrogen

Grass clippings contain 4% nitrogen, 1% phosphorus, and 2% potassium (NPK = 4-1-2).

Human urine contains 12% nitrogen, and it’s sterile. Dilute before adding directly to plants.

Legumes such as beans, clover, peanuts, and alfalfa fix inorganic nitrogen into the soil with mycorrhizal organisms and nodules on their root systems. Plant these crops every few years in rotation with others to renew the soil organically.

For phosphorus

Human urine is also a great source of phosphorous and trace amounts of potassium.

Ground up bones or shells add a slow-release phosphorous to the soil

Had a baby recently? Bury the placenta in the garden.

For potassium

Hardwood ashes 

Composted banana peels

For calcium

Break down all of your eggshells, or seashells you have found, in a plastic bucket, using vinegar. This creates a soluble calcium solution you can add to a watering can. 

Soil Acidity/Alkalinity

Many plants are particular about what the soil pH should be.

To make soil more acidic: add oak leaves, pine needles, leaf mulch, urine, coffee grounds or sphagnum. 

To make soil more alkaline: add wood ash, shell, or bone.

Mulch

Mulch is decomposing organic matter that adds nutrition to the soil, while simultaneously keeping out weed growth and retaining moisture. It also attracts worms, fungi and other beneficial creatures to your soil. Free sources of mulch include:

Leaves

Garden waste

Grass clippings

Straw (often straw bales are given away after being used for decoration in the fall. You can also plant vegetables directly in straw bales using a technique called straw bale gardening).

Wood chips (if you can borrow a wood chipper after you’ve collected some wood you can have attractive wood mulch for free)

Straw bale garden

Landscaping fabric

When mulch isn’t enough to keep the weeds down, many people opt for landscaping fabric. It can be quite expensive and inorganic-looking. Free solutions that both attract worms and can be replaced in small segments as they break down include:

Newspaper*

Cardboard*

Egg cartons*

Printer paper, looseleaf, etc. in thick layers*

*try to make sure you are using paper that has vegetable-based dyes, so you aren’t leeching toxins into the soil.

Soil density/drainage

If your soil is compacted and you have plants that require low levels of water, or excellent drainage, add sand. I don’t recommend stealing it from the beach, but ask around and you’d be surprised at how easy it is to get for free. Sawdust also improves drainage. Adding organic matter and mulch encourages worms, who also till and aerate compacted soil.

If the area still needs drainage, dig a hole and fill it with bricks or rocks to create a “dry well”

For drainage in pots, add crushed bricks, terra cotta pot fragments, packing peanuts, small stones, marbles, orsand to the bottom under the soil layer. I find these in construction sites, on craigslist, or at flea markets.

Pots and growing containers

If you have space, raised beds are a great no-dig way to establish growing space. If you are pressed for space (like working on a balcony) there are many cheap or free options for container gardens.

Creating raised beds allows you to build up the soil without digging. Free ways to do this include using rocks or lumber (like my DIY “lasagna garden” made with the sheet composting technique), using the “wattle“ method with sticks and posts you have found, using discarded straw bales, old bricks,paving stones, cinder blocks or really anything else you have lying around.

Hugelkutur raised beds, which fix carbon and provide drainage, can be made by stacking sticks and untreated wood, and then piling soil or compost over it. (Thanks milos-garden)

Rubber tire gardens retain heat in the night and allow for great drainage. They can also be painted in fun ways.

Herb spirals (here is mine: 1, 2, 3) can be built with stones, bricks, and other found materials.

I often use old cooking pots, barbecues, teapots, or other found objects as planters.

Making wooden planters is easy, and scrap or salvaged wood is also easy to come by. I’m not a fan of using wooden pallets for DIY projects, but they are also a free source of lumber for things like planters.

If you can track down peat moss, cement, and vermiculite, you can make an easy Hypertufa planter in whatever shape you would like, provided you have a form in which it can dry.

I’ve made hanging gardens out of soda cans.

You can build a self-watering container with a 2L pop bottle.

Start seeds in eggshells

Make biodegradable pots out of newspapers.

Wattle raised beds

Rubber tire gardens

Hugelkultur

An herb spiral

Hanging gardens in cans (2)

Trellises and supports

Many plants need external support, such as stakes of trellises, to thrive.

Rebar can almost always be salvaged cheaply or free and makes a great trellis, arch, or purgola 

Build trellises and supports out of the pliable young stems of plants like willow

Rebar trellis/arch

Living willow arch/trellis

Paving

Paving often requires a foundation of sand or another stable and well-drained substrate, and a covering of stones, bricks, or other weatherproof elements. Slowly collect stones over time, or free paving stone fragments to create a mosaic-type walkway. Often people give these things away on craigslist. I made a patio and fireplace out of free salvaged bricks, for example.

Salvaged garden walkway

Greenhouses and cold frames

Here is a gallery of greenhouses made out of salvaged windows and doors

A cold frame is easy to make with salvaged lumber, and plastic sheeting.

Window greenhouse

Palet cold-frame

Seeds and plants

Swap seeds with other gardeners

If you see a plant you like at someone’s house, ask for seeds or cuttings

Save seeds every year and build a library of options. Here is a great guide to seed saving.

Save seeds from foods you like from the grocery store: consider growing peanuts, ginger, garlic, peppers, or a walnut tree: all of these and more can be planted from store-bought produce.

Learn to take cuttings. There is a tonne of info on the web about basic cutting propagation, layering, (like I do with rhododendrons) air layering, and numerous other techniques to take clones of plants you like. This saves going to a nursery and shelling out big bucks for all the variety you want.

For cuttings, willow tea and honey are great rooting hormones/antiseptics/anti-fungal agents, which can save you $40 if you were thinking of buying commercial rooting hormone.

You can root cuttings in a potato! (See my methods for rooting “borrowed” plants here)

Air layering

Rooting cuttings in potatoes

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I hope this helps you build your garden outside of the usual capitalist channels! It can be a cheap or free hobby if you are willing to think outside the box, and maybe put up with things that don’t look as clean or crisp as a hardware store catalogue. If you have any further ideas, please add them! The more information the better.

[facesandmoments]

datamatics, ryoji ikeda

[facesandmoments]

Never thought I’d see Kong: Skull Island fanart...

John C Reilly really saved this movie from Sam Jackson’s shitty performance.

“This is a good group of boys. We’re all gonna die together out here. You’re a good group of boys to die with, I’ll tell you that much.“

[facesandmoments]

Apr 22 1918 Imperial German Navy Type UB III sub SM UB-55 struck a mine and sank in the Strait of Dover (51°01′N 1°20′E) with the loss of 23 of her 29 crew https://t.co/6Ov69it6op https://t.co/bjqQv4A7tD http://twitter.com/ThisDayInWWI/status/987851457746501633

[facesandmoments]

My Local Gas Station

[facesandmoments]

Metallic memories

[facesandmoments]

The number 14233221 describes itself; it has one four, two threes, three twos, and two ones.

[facesandmoments]

[facesandmoments]

Scorpio

Llewellyn’s 2019 Astrological Calendar AD: Lynne Menturweck

Sara Winters

[facesandmoments]

a nuclear detonation Tom from Tom & Jerry accidentally shooting himself with the rifle trying to shoot Jerry an image from a postapocalyptic manga that I think I might be familiar with but I can’t be quite sure then there’s heavy pollution, then there’s John C. Lilly-esque visionary art… Seven of Swords a camel in a swimsuit(?) another odd guitar a blond male face dissected to reveal machine components an SF magazine cover a King Kong suit/replica a memento mori photograph comparing the skulls of three different great apes including a human’s a fetish that uses a skull and hair the box art for MOTHER 1+2 a chiaroscuro skeleton a Blockbuster store dismantled and closed photo of an odd Expressionist-looking stage performance Clippy what appears to be a very old icon of St. Michael the Archangel(?) a fork dripping with either blood or ketchup what appears to be a photograph of a deep-sea animal a hijab-wearing woman feeding storks in the field an SF illustration(?) in what appears to be an ancient or replica frame a BBC studio with everything blanked out - surprised I recognised it network of computer terminals a huge wasps’ or bees’ hive attached to what appears to be a safety chair a mountain a cave that reminds me of Qumran a maze of stairs leading across a pond up a wooding(?) to a house a skull with rings in space a man in business attire crossing a floppy disk bridge through space from a mediaeval castle to a futuristic palace a huge hurricane (Katrina possibly(?)) being created with a huge electric egg beater a skeleton plucking a lute - mediaeval picture a tree identification book - Tree: The Ultimate Tree [unseen] a demon blowing a trumpet (a shofar?) an album cover or poster: FINAL WORLD TOUR over an image of a nuclear detonation the Log Lady(?????) standing in front of an owl I guess????????????? more heavy pollution - a dump I think a face on a Sun-disk above a Mayan-style pyramid a skeleton waiting to die (old engraving) a muscled skeleton standing among sheep a knightly figure - i cannot make out the engraved name beneath a masc figure showing an uncanny-valley doll of a child’s face attached to a completely smooth body (a body without organs?) Christ crucified on a T-shaped cross in a field before a pillar of clouds a bunch of canisters of radioactive waste …followed immediately by a mediaeval engraving of a deformed feminine figure pouring a bunch of (presumably gold) coins from a canister into a sack (these flick back and forth together so you get the association he’s making) another mountain a surrealist painting or rendering of the Moon behind a house - before the house are tilted platforms of land suspended in void, above the house is a window behind which is an apparent reflection of the Moon a very red-lit cave a humanoid caterpillar - engraving a flying saucer made of human faces a melted one-armed human with a jester’s hat fused to a drum - engraving several nude women climbing atop one another trying to reach the ceiling(?) as another two nude women look on disapprovingly, one with a paddle - engraving (seeing more of the image there appears to be quite a bit more of a homoerotic dimension than I had expected) a small thing of bone chimes flowers on a clear day (roses it appears) …I can’t tell what that is plants in front of the sky - the sky is a gradient from deep blue to purple a skeleton making a flirty bored pose the demon blowing its shofar from earlier a caged pig an ‘80s poster of a lizard creature grabbing a man through the computer a disorderly evolution skeleton sequence flaming dice, both all sixes three bug-monsters sit at a table with a man, a woman, and a child, each with an ice-cream cone (was unclear) - none seem to be bothered by the others an oddly-dancing bloodied skeleton with only a grinning sharp-toothed mouth that looks more like it’s emerging from skin than bone a man banging a drum - engraving a beautiful landscape, within which floats a cube - on the bottom side of the cube, a hand reaches out of lava or flames; on the back, a desolate wasteland; on the top, a galaxy more barrels of radioactive waste a volcanic site a '50s ad-style image of a housewife with an octopus in the oven a robot - looks like the kind in I, Robot (the movie) - swaddling a baby bulldozer before a clear sky a hand with an American flag shaking a reptilian hand with a star flag (is this an Icke illustration??) a man holding a plate on which woods with a moose, a bull, and a fox grow on a blue-lavender gradient - a human outline rotated until it’s a simple line a Suprematist painting with a light pink rectangle on the left and a light blue rectangle on the right (plus of course much more detail) a wooded area with moss-covered rocks Memorex/Memory Excellence cover but with a Microsoft SoftCard 16-Sector Disk pop art image of a woman dreaming of two cockroaches copulating hazy landscape featuring a large tree dancing skeleton, yellow sun, red sky, black land (in card shape) a computer board upon which is engraved 'look at you, hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bone. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?’ I can’t really describe this painting but landscape with coloured lines and two moons with an egg containing the top of trees a library in which dancing skeletons disturb the readers and hosts - engraving a tree frog(??) an advert with an old microcomputer leaping out from the Earth in space a thin photo of the Earth from space a memento mori chiaroscuro painting that i knOW WHAT IT IS I CAN’T FIND IT HHHHHH a Sony VAIO computer complete with tablet monitor, pen, and headset a manga illustration with a cyborg man standing before a series of graphs(?) a robotic dog prototype an odd painting - inflated too large to describe precisely a Brutalist crucifix sculpture a fat Venus sculpture illustration of the Earth with a bullet ripping through it comparison of body part structures from salmon, lungfish, axolou, hellbender, snake, chicken, possum, cat, bat, human, and bitbean (i looked up bitbean and it’s a cryptocurrency) photo of a rose photo of a huge bridge structure (???????) pink flamingos in a bathroom apes in human attire a cover reading BLACK DUKE; right beneath is a skull with fangs, the word 'Diskettennummer’, and the pencilled-in number 87/88(?) a skeleton strangling a woman through a computer screen the same skull-hair fetish as earlier (noted: it’s on a tau cross as well) a hand creeping out of a casket now he’s pairing images choice ones: a town with a sign reading HELL a dog confronting a robot dog a computer in the parted Red Sea something that looks like the cover art for Behold a Pale Horse the Internet Archive building(?) a glissando note (at this point the images are starting to become too chaotic and discombobulated to make out) the Yucca Mountain message again the four engravings flashing between one another

[facesandmoments]

[facesandmoments]

[facesandmoments]

Mood: jamm

Inspired by @portentsofwoe & @megapope & @alienpapacy & @official-sans-undertale (for the BPM)

[facesandmoments]

[facesandmoments]

1998 nickelodeon trade ad

[facesandmoments]

“i am a monument to all your sins” is such a fucking raw line for a villain it’s amazing that it came from halo, a modernish video game, and not some classical text or mythos