John McDonald

Blogging about politics, life, and the web

Can this McDonald Grow a Backyard Farm?

March 13th, 2009

Don’t let the song fool you – I am not particularly good at keeping any sort of plants alive.  I’m not old either, I just act like it sometimes.

Anyway, the economy is terrible and that means sales have been slooow.  (Do you know anyone who needs a coupon for website hosting?)  I’ve got some free time and sunshine, so I’m going to try to turn this into a reduction in the grocery bill.  Fresh vegetables have been getting pretty expensive lately, and the quality of the produce available at the nearby supermarkets hasn’t been that great. It looks like a lot of things are force ripened and generally beaten up & bruised during transportation and storage.

So, why not put some of these seeds and cores back into the dirt and give them a second chance at feeding me?  Heck, someone in the neighborhood has chickens – I’m just trying to grow a couple of veggies.

The first problem is the soil.  Its pretty sandy and it doesn’t drain well.  If it recently rained, its like swamp.  If it hasn’t rained in a day, it gets pretty dry pretty quick.  Also, the weeds around here are used to the extreme variation from swampiness to arid – so they don’t have the problems that most of the more expensive veggies suffer from.

While it the soil works great for sweet onions, it isn’t very good for peppers or anything that drowns easily.  Luckily, Aisling has a pottery wheel and that means access to custom built pots!  Currently, I’ve got a pepper core & seeds in a small pot – we’ll see if it manages to sprout.  The pots should also help keep the weeds down to a managable level, so the last thing to worry about is the swarm of birds and squirrels that ate our grass seed last spring.

Unfortunately, I’ve never had much luck in the past growing anything green. I don’t hold high hopes for a big crop from this McDonald’s farm.

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