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Re: solar gardening / worm compost



At 04:48 PM 2/3/97 -0600, you wrote:
>
>While reading Kathy Ging's "Liberated Salad - Biodiversity at the Table" 
>I thought of this book. "Solar Gardening" Has any body read this, or use 
>any of the techniques (small coverings for year round growing) if so 
>please share your results.  It seemed legitimate.  Thanks to Kathy Ging 
>for sharing such a great article.

Hi Andrew,
Heres a few ideas on catching the sun,
1. Pick up lots of old windows, especially large matched sets from
remodleing jobs.  Screw them together  to form form a right angle, set on
the ground and lay end to end to form a row cover. Pull apart slightly or
prop up on sunny days to prevent cooking.  Leave these shelters over
tempature sensitive or heat loving plants (peppers, eggplants etc.) in late
spring for an added boost.  Their biggest drawback is the shedding of paint
(possible lead) and glazing putty.  Also often available are glass door
pannels which can be layed end to end with a little weather stripping
between pieces and propped up with straw bales on one side.   This arrange
ment  kept brasicas, spinich and lettuce alive all winter in Wisconsin last
year.
2.  I also used slate roofing tiles for soil warming/micro climate creation.
They worked great, but were fragile and heavy.  
3. Glass jugs with the bottoms cracked out work well too.  Take the bottle,
tie a string on where you want it broken, wet string with kerosen (alcohol
from the still?), light on fire and plunge into ice water; blunting with
sand paper or other abrasive optional.    Remove caps during the day for
ventalation.  They are better than plastic as they won't blow away.  

 > I hope to incorporate this into a 
>nutrition / health promotion program for low income persons in the near 
>future.  The saftey nets are being pulled out from under people so it's 
>time to teach self reliance!   


Sounds good, test your urban soils and have fun!  Check in with The Heifer
Project in Chicago, they are doing this kind of stuff now.
Mark