Raised Bed Gardening is Cheap and Productive

I grabbed this article from Almanac.com. HERE is the link to the original article.

by Doreen G. Howard

June 7, 2011

Every time I open a plant catalog or see a television commercial for sale-priced $99 raised bed gardening kits, I cringe! You don't need to spend that kind of money to build your own four-by-four-foot bed or even a 20-foot-long one.

My husband builds mine. He buys two 1 x 8-inch cedar boards, which don't rot with age. They come in 8-foot lengths, which is perfect for 4 x 4-foot beds. Cut each plank in half, so that it is 4-feet long. Or, you can have a home improvement/lumber store make the cuts. Many places will do it for free.

Husband also buys a 3-foot length of a 1 x 1-inch pine stake; he cuts it into four pieces and uses them to nail the cedar boards to at corners for bracing. That's all!

Grouping together several raised beds makes a substantial vegetable garden that is easy to maintain, with no weeding and crops that mature fast

I place the boxes on cleared ground. We cut and roll up our turf, but many gardeners do not think it is necessary. The added 6 inches of soil will bury most of the grass and weeds beneath. After I situate the boxes (four or five grouped together makes a good sized garden), I put down three layers of newspaper to suppress errant weed or grass seeds that might sprout. Paper degrades fully within weeks and feeds the soil.

Another fast, cheap method of building raised beds is to use concrete construction blocks. They have a big bonus. Their holes can be filled with soil mix and planted with herbs or strawberries.

The extra gathered heat from concrete is perfect for Mediterranean-type herbs such as rosemary and lavender. Strawberry plants grow huge and fruit fast in the holes. Each block is 16 inches long by 8 inches high; I purchase mine at big box stores as find the price most reasonable. Beds of 13 feet or longer by 4 feet wide are cheaper to build using blocks than with cedar boards.

Cement construction blocks are a cheap method of building raised beds.

You will be planting seeds and transplants close, because the beds are smaller and the soil is richer. But, plants grown close together in raised beds mature faster, because they compete for nutrients and sunlight. Each plant senses the distance of others and adjusts its metabolism to compete. Several university studies have proven this competition syndrome by identifying how plants perceive others nearby using the green light spectrum.

This 4 x 4-foot bed is crowded with productive peppers, cucumbers, a tomato plant and insect-repelling flowers that are edible.

Raised Bed Soil Mix
The more organic matter there is in soil, the better. Soil microbes are fed, oxygen and water
readily reach roots and plants thrive. Here’s the recipe I’ve developed in the last decade that
works best for my garden.

For one 4 x 4-foot raised bed. (Multiply amounts to fill larger beds.)
2 bags (2-cubic-feet each) top soil
1 pail (3-cubic-feet) peat moss
1 bag (2 to 3-cubic feet) compost or composted cow manure
2-inch layer of shredded leaves or grass clipping.

If you use grass, make sure the clippings are not from a lawn that has been sprayed with herbicides or been fertilized with a food that contains granular herbicides to kill weeds. Both persist and will kill plants beds up to three years after the initial application.

Mix all materials with a hoe or cultivator and water well. Be sure to mulch well with organic Matter such as more leaves or clippings or straw.

Related Articles

• Garden Raised Beds and Small Plots
• Raised Garden Beds: How to Build

Comment Form is loading comments...

When the TUMS and Prilosec are Gone: Dealing with heartburn after SHTF

I have been dealing with some serious heartburn for a few days so I thought that it is only appropriate for the first P.R.E.P. blog post to be about heartburn. I'm don't think I have ever read anything about post-SHTF heartburn.


Heartburn is easily one of the most annoying feelings we can experience as humans. The pain is just enough to hurt for most and chronic for some people. Heartburn can disrupt sleep and be rather distracting and there are plenty of SHTF scenarios that this can cause bigger problems. Sleep and awareness are vital to your survivability and anything that inhibits these must be nipped in the butt. Heartburn is caused by stomach acid backing up into the esophagus. My personal opinion is that heartburn rates will take a staggering drop post-SHTF simply because the highly acidic soda's that we, as Americans, have been drinking for so long will run in short supply in no time.

Antacids would be a great addition to anyone's preps. They are cheap, effective, and they don't take up much space. I'm not going to harp on antacids to much. There isn't much to say about them except, get some and add them to your supplies. I am going to focus more on natural remedies for heartburn in this post. We need to know what to do when the antacids, and medication in general, run out. This post is rather short. There hasn't been much research into natural remedies for heartburn.

In my research I couldn't find any herbal remedies to help with heartburn that seemed promising. Calcium, B vitamins, and folic acid are helpful. Calcium can help with instant relief and has some preventative qualities. B vitamins and folic acid help on the the preventative side of things. Ginger also helps by giving instant relief. One of the easiest ways to relieve heartburn is to make your mouth produce excess saliva. Saliva works to neutralize stomach acid. Chewing gum, mustard and mustard seed, celery, and almonds all cause the body to produce more saliva. They make your drool. Vinegar also helps create lots of saliva.

I truly believe that a more natural post-SHTF diet will greatly help with heartburn but go ahead and stock up on antacids. Also, if we have to live through a dreaded SHTF scenario humankind will have to be tougher. If your heartburn isn't disrupting your survivability save your antacids and remedies. You may need them more later.

Comment Form is loading comments...

Zombie Splatter is re-branding...

Over the last year and a half Zombie Splatter posts have been scarce. I have been writing new content and holding onto it. Our pages have been buried in the bowels of the internet by the current zombie fad so now seems like the perfect time to re-brand into a more serious disaster preparedness blog and website. The new site will be called Papa Romeo Echo Papa or P.R.E.P. and social media pages will be converted. I am currently working on the graphic design assets and formatting of the new page. The Zombie Splatter Corps will be disbanded but Corps site admins are free to keep the pages live if they choose to do so.

Not only will P.R.E.P have plenty of disaster preparedness information I will also start posting more about other things I enjoy such as homebrewing, winemaking, craft beer, blade crafting, marketing, and more. I would also like to add more guest content.

After the re-branding is complete I plan to resurrect to #Skills2Live Twitter conversations.

Mermorial Day in around the corner; this is a pre- THANKS.

This is a short and simple post. Memorial Day is just around the corner and the support of our US troops will skyrocket. I just want to tell them THANK YOU in advance. Everyday should be a memorial day for our fallen soldiers. Again, THANK YOU!

Secure Your Home: Baby Gates and Kill-Zones

     An interesting conversation arose at work yesterday. A co-worker and myself were talking about how home invasions seem to be on the rise in our area. That led to us talking about home security and various ways to make a home more secure. This conversation gave me the idea to start a series of blog posts about home security. Home security is just as important now as it will be after the SHTF.

     Before I start writing the content of the post I am going to give you a portion of Wikipedia's definition of a kill-zone:

"In military tactics, the kill zone, also known as killing zone, is an area entirely covered by defensive fire, an element of ambush within which an approaching enemy force is trapped and destroyed. The objective of the defensive force is to quickly kill or capture all enemy soldiers inside the kill zone."

    While the name, kill-zone, sounds romanticized it is nothing more that a funnel for the bad guys. A properly designed kill zone a slow down or funnel the bad guys to a point in which you can react to their bad actions. 

     Any survival retreat, bug out or bug in location needs kill-zones. I have found that baby gates make great kill-zones inside of your home. For instance, while you are sleeping your dog growls or barks just enough to get your attention and you hear some shuffling from inside your house. Instinctively you grab your home defense weapon and go to investigate. When you look down the hall an armed bad guy is gingerly climbing the baby gate at the end of your hall. Since he was focused on quietly clearing the obstacle you catch him off guard and potentially save your family. Say the bad guy decided to run in for a quick grab and run burglary. The baby gate may trip him up. The baby gate helped to create a kill-zone inside of your home.

I like these types of gates.

     I have a preferred type of baby gate. The ones with the built in door and latch seem to be the most convenient and hardest to knock down. They are truly semi-permanent. The door is handy because the ones that you take down or step over get real annoying real fast.

     If you have a stair well a gate place at the top and bottom of a stair case can slow a bad guy down exponentially and buy your precious time to react in a bad and potentially violent situation. On top of the stated uses these gates are just handy for controlling pets and they do a good job at their intended use as well.

     I will be posting more of these short home security posts from time to time so be sure to subscribe for free if your haven't already. Just click the 'Subscribe via RSS' button on the top right of the page. If your don't use an RSS reader you can subscribe by email at the bottom of this page.

 

REVIEW: KaBar ZK Kharon folding knife

     For about eight weeks now I have been carrying the folding pocket knife from KaBar's Zombie Killer line. I carry this knife everyday and would argue that I use a knife far more than you average Joe on a daily basis. What I am getting at is that my knives a put through a rough tests just from my day to day use.
     So far I find this little knife to be fairly nice. It certainly isn't as high quality as the KaBar combat knives but it is much better than it's $25-$30 price point suggests. The ZK Kharon just may be the most comfortable slim knife I have ever carried. The bright green color is nice if it gets misplaced too. The little bumps all over the handle are hardly noticed while holding the knife but they seem to help with gripping the handle. The clip can be attached to either side with a T7 torx driver. This was important to me because I carry my knives in my left pocket with the blade up. Knives are usually setup for right pocket carry. The blade tension is adjustable but when I get it set where I like it the blade has an ever so slight wobble. It is not too much of a concern right now; the wobble is very faint. Only time will tell how the hinge wears.
     The blade is just ok on the ZK Kharon. I love the Tanto style blade but these Taiwanese KaBars are not made with very good steel from what I have seen. I have to hone my edge about every two days. KaBar could have sold these for a few more bucks and slapped on a higher quality blade. These ZK knives are nothing more than a smart company capitalizing on the current zombie fad though. When the blade is shot and the knife is ready for the junk drawer I may try to recreate and replace its blade with some good high quality steel.
    Should you buy one of these knives? I say it depends on how much money you are looking to spend. If you can buy a SOG, an AMERICAN MADE KaBar, SureFire, Benchmade, or something along those lines then, by all means, skip over KaBar's Taiwan made folder. All in all I like the ZK Kharon, but it's quality level doesn't even come close to stacking us to my USMC edition fixed blade.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter (@ZSsurvival) by clicking HERE!

The .22 And The End Of The World As We Know It

Hello Preppers! I haven't had time to post in a while so I am seizing this opportunity while the baby is with his grandmother.

     It seems that all survivalist, preppers, zombie, and general SHTF forums always have a guy asking about using the 10/22 as a primary firearm. My belief is that a .22 is a terrible choice to be our primary post-apocalyptic weapon. Any rim-fire would be a terrible idea. There just not reliable enough. Ag odd quality rifle chambered in .223/5.56 such as an AR-15, a Sig 556, AK-74, or a Steyr Aug what I like try to persuade people towards.  I use an AR-15. The AR-15 and .223/5.56 is a topic of past posts and I'm sure it will come up in future posts. Back to the .22. Many will argue that a .22 is the one and only option for a SHTF rifle. When asked why the answers are generally the same. The guys and gals will go on about how cheaply they can stockpile .22 ammo. The also like the fact that you can carry more rounds before your load gets heavy. They are correct on both points. For me, these advantages do not out weigh the risk of a definite ammo malfunction. If I'm bugging out and come across a pack of filthy looters I want to know that I can reach of and touch someone and not get the familiar "click" that screams "my primer didn't detonate." I certainly don't want that if I'm staring down a herd of zombies.

     All preppers should have a .22 rifle in their stash; it does not need to be a primary defensive weapon. 10/22's are great for general firearms training, small game hunting, and target practice. If you shoot a rabbit that was intended to be dinner with an AK-47 half of your dinner is going to mixed into the dirt right behind the exit wound that is about the size of the rabbit itself. A .22 could have left that meat intact. The next consideration is which .22 should one buy.

     I am a Ruger 10/22 man myself but my dad swears by the Marlin 10/22. The are both great little pieces but I like detachable mags on the Ruger over the tube mags on the Marlin. The Ruger a certainly yhe most su Savage makes a nice affordable .22 too. A few companies are making drop-in .22 conversions for the AR-15. I'm havent uses any of these conversions yet but I hear that they are reliable and fairly accurate. The .223 and 5.56 barrel is only .003" larger inside that the .22. Without shooting with one I cannot know for sure but I imagine that a converted AR shoots about as accurately as a  worn out .22 rifle. What that means is that it is good for general shooting purposes but it not a geed idea to go match shooting with.

      This is off topic (kinda) but I beleive that everyone should listen to Lee Greenwoods's 'God Bless the USA.' at least on a weekly basis. It makes me want to run out and make sure my flag isn't wrapped around the pole.

-MOAAN ABE