Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

Hi Jim,

I'm still here in India and my seedlings are past due for transplanting ...
My FDFF ... I wonder when that might be. It is winter here and was 90
yesterday and the record low for the last ten years is 53.

I have pretty much decided how to deal with our huge hole in the ground.
First a rebar reinforced concrete footing or a double layer of granite
chunks set in Mortar then a hollow concrete block walls on it with the holes
filled with concrete and a rebar in each block then fill the hollows with
concrete and plaster the inside and I have also been advised to plaster the
outside ... much more difficult. I calculate it will need 1260 blocks if
they are standard sized US building blocks ... not likely. How much rebar I
have yet to calculate. How much work ... a back breaking amount. How much
cement, gravel and sand? I have no idea. I once poured a concrete slap
60x80 for one half a pole barn 35 years ago ... my only concrete experience
and we had professionals there to do the finish work ... power trowel and
everything and still it was very hard work moving and leveling what the
cement trucks delivered load after load. When ever I think of hard work I
think of working concrete. Here it is all hand work - mixing, spreading (one
pan at a time- about a 2 gallon bucket load) and hand troweling. ... after
the sand is sifted. Of course I have to build ladders and a work stand too
as I can't reach 10 feet high. We shall see if it all works out. All this
because there is no water and we have to capture a year's worth of water in
the 2 month rainy season. The drought here has lasted 3 years now. Many
farmers have committed suicide - over 800 in this state alone last year.
They are unwilling to face hungry families and ruthless creditors. This
results in children being sold into prostitution and slavery. Children get
sold into service for a year, more money for two years or 3 years and are
most often shipped out of the country to become Muslim slaves. I have been
told most never return home. It is our hope to set up a model farm here.
Also there is a desire to take in Lepers. Anyone wanting to see leper
pictures write me. In a cast society as here in India the lighter the skin
the higher the caste but lepers of any color are at the bottom. Sometimes
giving things to them as we did after Christmas is a waste as those
appointed by the government took those things and sold them for personal
gain. That is what happened to the bandages and medicines we gave them.
Two days later when the administrators found out .. all was collected and
gone. Life in India can be challenging.

God is good. God is always very good.
Rejoicing in Jesus
Bobby Ray

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 10:53 AM, Jim Kennard & <
beprepared@ldsperspective.com> wrote:

>
>
> Hey thanks so much for putting this together. This is great!
>
> I have a request. Is there any chance that you could extend this to other
> season planting as well (i.e. summer, fall).
>
> Thanks-o-bunch.
>
> Be Prepared & Group:
>
> For later plantings just determine your First Day of Fall Frost (FDFF) - by
> calling your County Extension office or looking on the web. Then look at the
> planting schedule and back off from the FDFF as many days as you need to
> assure you get a crop.
>
> The hardy and semi-hardy plants can be expected to withstand some light
> frost, so often you can harvest them well past the first fall frost, but
> sensitive and frost-intolerant varieties can not be expected to survive that
> first frost.
>
> Plan accordingly, and when that day comes you need to be prepared and DO
> harvest the tender crops before the frost get them.
>
> One of the saddest days in a garden is the day after a frost when the
> gardener did not protect or harvest his crops.
>
> Jim Kennard
>
>

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