Friday, December 5, 2008

Get Rich Slowly

Here are a couple of pieces from getrichslowly.org. The first is an autobiographical blog from 2008, the second a guy in boulder makes a mess in the front (what use to be) yard, not quite sure what he was thinking, what if it rained that would be mess, and the last link is on finances.

Gardening 101: Plan Today for Summer Success

The Rise of Suburban Farming




The Year-Long GRS Project: How Much Does a Garden Really Save?

I know what I get out of my garden. A few years ago I ‘did the math’ for a couple years and the garden was worth roughly $14.50 per square foot to me. I make extensive use of [TALL] trellises and trellising varieties (climbing beans, indeterminate tomatoes, vine-forming [as opposed to bush-forming] versions of cucurbits. Each is planted directly beneath the trellis with companion plants surrounding them. (PS, for a great slicer tomato, try “Mortgage Lifter” … but only if you have an outlet for the excess!)

There are, as others are noting, just a ton of things to consider. I’ve done enough math to convince myself that my time in the garden is actually worth more per hour than my time at my former job.

comment was submitted by BillinDetroit
Avantgardner

Human Transition

Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin, in their book Origins, explain the human transition from cooperative and sharing communities, to agricultural settlement:

"Why then, is recent human history characterised by conflict rather than compassion? We suggest that the answer to this question lies in the change in way of life from hunting and gathering to farming, a change which began about ten thousand years ago and which involved a dramatic alteration in the relationship people had both with the world around them and among themselves. The hunter-gatherer is part of the natural order: a farmer necessarily distorts that order. But more important, sedentary farming communities have the opportunity to accumulate possessions, and having done so they must protect them. This is the key to human conflict, and it is greatly exaggerated in the highly materialistic world we now live in."

What happens once the farmer stops farming?
Avantgardner