I have hated gardening ever since I was a kid and my dad made me do it, but there are times that I'd like to take a small patch and grow sunflowers and learn how to harvest them right and make better-tasting seeds and sunflower oil than what I can buy in stores. I've gutted/cleaned fish before, but never a chicken. Best of luck on that!
Extracting oil can be challenging, but it sounds neat. Let me know how it works for you, if you try it. You can grow lots of stuff in containers. One project we did with my after school youth was a spaghetti sauce garden in a 5-gallon bucket. It had soil, tomato plant, bell pepper, basil and oregano plants. Seeds planted were: onion (3 bulbs), and zucchini. The kids took the buckets home for the summer. Some had more success than their parents had! We invited some of the kids back to the office over the summer for a food prep/nutrition lesson. We made spaghetti sauce from the stuff we planted in the buckets. The first week of school, we did the food prep again for those who didn't do it earlier. By "we" I mean that the kids did most of the chopping and cooking. Slap choppers came in really handy for this!
Never tried growing anything in a bucket/plastic container because I grew up living on 8 acres of land and a quarter-acre or so of it was plowed up and turned into a garden when we moved here in 1980. I would think it might actually make for an easier gardening experience, with the smaller scale and not as many weeds to worry about, not to mention erosion issues.
This year, I am going to try potatoes in Rubbermaid totes. Directions say you can just toss a little straw on top of the roots instead of hillng the plants. If needed, you can tip the tote on its side and keep covering with straw. To harvest you dump the bucket. Can't wait to try it!
Having used a mattock several times to dig up the potatoes, I like your proposed method a lot more!
Illusions fall like the husk of a fruit, one after another, and the fruit is experience. - Narrator, Sylvie
Je suis méchant.
Je suis méchant.
After the US election, I decided to take two months off from posting here
07/01/2013 05:56:18 PM
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Okay, how about this.....
07/01/2013 06:04:03 PM
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communists don't make as much noise, and they're really good at sharing their toys [/tim minchin] *NM*
07/01/2013 09:11:52 PM
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Fennec foxes are adorable.
07/01/2013 08:45:02 PM
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I half-jokingly claim to be like a half-tamed fennec, like from The Little Prince
07/01/2013 09:26:20 PM
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I obviously need to read that again because I don't remember. Though I remember pictures.
07/01/2013 09:44:27 PM
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It's in there and I read elsewhere that he befriended a fennec when stranded in the Sahara
15/01/2013 08:37:25 AM
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I like squirrels
07/01/2013 11:11:57 PM
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Uh, I'm in England now?
08/01/2013 11:34:30 AM
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Are you driving on the left side now? *NM*
08/01/2013 04:25:12 PM
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i took two weeks off from posting but not because of the election
08/01/2013 05:20:28 PM
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I am currently under siege by the wife and kids to get a dog. I'm holding firm. *NM*
09/01/2013 07:25:21 AM
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Narg not smart! *NM*
09/01/2013 05:58:48 PM
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Narg not clean up dog poo. Narg house not covered in dog hair. *NM*
11/01/2013 06:10:37 AM
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Maybe an outdoor dog? I like larger breeds and they need more space for movement *NM*
15/01/2013 08:48:50 AM
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I've started the job hunt.
09/01/2013 06:02:32 PM
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I've done that off-and-on for 13 months now. It sucks
15/01/2013 08:51:59 AM
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People on Facebook know this stuff already, but...
10/01/2013 05:03:55 PM
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There's something about working with your hands and close to the earth that's rewarding, no?
15/01/2013 08:54:00 AM
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Yes.
17/01/2013 12:57:08 AM
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Yeah, I don't know if I'll try it this year
17/01/2013 05:15:09 AM
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Cleaning chickens is even less fun than it sounds
16/01/2013 12:58:51 PM
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Gonna try...
16/01/2013 11:24:21 PM
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My new job has me starring at a computer screen about ten hours a day
16/01/2013 01:00:36 PM
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Yeah, I've noticed your absence
17/01/2013 05:18:35 AM
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He is playing in Dallas next month and I think we will go see him *NM*
18/01/2013 01:07:09 PM
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