The basic reason I believe you should try out these 2 excellent projects for off-the-grid gardening is that self-reliance is deliberately built, not bought. When I veered into homesteading, I didn’t have enough to simply draw a check for a turnkey homestead, so I had to take things one at a time, and I’m glad I did!
Now, with the several projects I’ve tried out, here are two great ones to implement in your garden to achieve better results.
Keep in mind that traditional farming practices are becoming obsolete & inadequate these days. That’s by the way.
For people who prefer to buy their way to self-reliance, I hope we understand that some things cannot be bought in times of disasters. Money never makes you reliant. Take off your suit this weekend & get down in your off-grid garden.
Highlighting the 2 Excellent Projects for Off-the-grid Gardening
Here we go.
Vertical Outdoor Farm
As it stands, there are expectations for the world’s population to grow by 2 billion (again) within the coming 30–35 years. Indirectly, this is likely to lead to more urbanization & industrial development. As you may already suspect, arable land, which we’ve already lost over a third of over the last four decades. This may explain why meeting food demands has become a great challenge these days. Arable land is continuously decreasing, so what do we do?
An option is to implement vertical growing.
Vertical farming refers to the practice of growing foods & producing medicine on vertically inclined surfaces, vertically orientated layers, and integrated into specific structures like a shipping container, skyscraper, or used warehouse. The chief objective of vertical farming is to produce more foods per square meter.
Also, vertical farming works with just 30% of the water used for conventional cultivation methods. You can even tend faster to your garden if you install an automated watering system. Lastly, it is scalable, which means that you can make the size just as you wish.
Wicking Bed
A wicking bed (wicker) is a low-tech agricultural irrigation system started by Colin Austin. This bed is often ideal in countries that experience water scarcity, and it can also be used in arid fields & containers, also known as container gardening. Like the name implies, Container gardening is the act of cultivating plants, including edibles, only in containers rather than the bare ground.
A wicking bed can be used in greenhouses too, asides from these two places (fields & containers). This farming system aims to increase food production while reducing water used in conventional irrigation by 50%. This is possible by employing evaporation to get water out of underground water reservoirs containing decomposed or decomposing organic matter. This process can be much easier by fitting in an automated refill system using float valves & rainwater tanks.
Your wicking bed can be on any size as long as you adhere to a few general rules. To begin, the ratio between gravel & soil must be & remain the same. The soil should bed between 10–15” (25–49 cm). Also, the gravel stones have to be smaller than 0.3” (7mm).
Concluding The 2 Excellent Projects for Off-the-grid Gardening
The two excellent projects for off-the-grid gardening highlighted above are chiefly to increase food production while reducing resources used in the process. You use less land & still produce more. Isn’t that excellent?