A couple of good information sites I recently found are:
Building a Small Greenhouse
I have a greenhouse kit, but right now it stays packed up ready to be transported out to our Bug Out site during a controlled or planned bug out. But I would not hestiate to construct it if we needed to stay Bugged In and supplement our stored food using my large supply of stored seeds to grow some vegetables.
Fertilizer
Although I have not yet read this book, it will be on my order of next Amazon order.
Amazon's review:
In his insightful new book, Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind, contrary farmer Gene Logsdon provides the inside story of manure-our greatest, yet most misunderstood, natural resource. He begins by lamenting a modern society that not only throws away both animal and human manure-worth billions of dollars in fertilizer value-but that spends a staggering amount of money to do so. This wastefulness makes even less sense as the supply of mined or chemically synthesized fertilizers dwindles and their cost skyrockets. In fact, he argues, if we do not learn how to turn our manures into fertilizer to keep food production in line with increasing population, our civilization, like so many that went before it, will inevitably decline.
Making your own fertilizer and compost. Another is this video on organic gardening by making compost.
And yet one more site, in fact an excellent site, pertaining to feeding yourself in the coming collapse is FoodStorageAndSurvival, which posted this information on Dandelions. Dandelion is one of the most recognizable and widespread edible plants. You know that weed that pops up in your yard every spring with its sunny yellow flowers? That lovely yellow flower that then turns into a ball of fluff attached to seeds that get blown across the yard/town/nation by the wind and small children? Well, they are not just weeds, the entire dandelion plant is edible. Here is how to cook dandelion roots.
1. Gather dandelions. Be sure you are gathering from a source that has not been sprayed with herbicide. Younger dandelions are best as the older roots can become woody. The dandelion usually has one long tap root, so you may need to dig down a bit to get as much of the root out as possible.
2. Wash and trim. Trim off the plant tops and any small side roots.
3. Peel the roots. You can peel them with a sharp knife, or peel them like beets using the boiling water method. Put the roots in boiling water for about 2 minutes, then remove them and put them in cold water. Then the peels slip off easily.
4. Cut them into pieces if desired. You can slice them into button sized pieces or leave them long, whatever is more appetizing to you. If the roots are woody, I would suggest leaving them long and then you can strip the tender part of the root off the outside of the woody core as you eat them.
5. Boil the roots 7-10 minutes until they are soft.
6. Season and serve warm. I put salt, pepper, and butter on mine.
I am constantly reminded that I am in the electronic age, but I can't help but like hard copy books for references. While an iPAD or Kindle type device can store a lot of information, I tend to want books as my primary refernce library. In a perfect world, a person would have both. These are some of my favorite books for survival collapse based gardening and farming.
