Well Patrick, I've always done things in the gardens with the word 'free' in mind so I think things will continue to be the same in the year to come except for one slight change.

With the tropical storms/hurricanes which have blown through here in the last year or so, my neighbours had to cut down a lot of trees. I always thought they would use them for firewood, but in the last while I've seen those same logs just sitting there. The change I've made is in approaching people to see if they need those nice logs which are in general 1.5 feet in diameter and 4 feet long. I've discovered that most have no intention of using them and would actually appreciate me removing them to create more raised beds on the property.

Other than happily lugging away those nice logs, I will continue to gather seaweed, leaves, leftover veggies from the farmer's market, and UCGs (all FREE) to make my compost, trade with other gardeners for seeds and plants, readily accept gardening gifts from friends and family, and reuse whatever I have to the point of no return. :O)

I'm definately planting more edibles next spring. Potato's, beans, cuke's, 'mater's, etc. The missus will have to learn to can and freeze.

The stable out back has 28 horses, so I think I've got a never ending supply of stuff for composting.

This question has been so prevalent in my mind lately. I feel composting and other sustainable/permaculture type practices will become more mainstream in the future, either through convenience or necessity.

I began composting last year when commodities shot through the roof. I always figured, there is only one thing that money always leads back to, and that's food. Once partial or total self reliance on that resource is realized, then surviving becomes that much easier

The only thing I've had to do differently lately is put off going to pick up loads of manure because I don't have a source right here in town and the gas stations around here were out of gas or charging $5 a gallon for what they did have.

I'm like Tiffy, I consider gardening, especially composting, a mostly free thing, so the economy isn't a worry. I figure the more compost I can get incorporated into the soil the more money I'll be saving on my water bill anyway, so I'm helping myself and the environment out by composting. I'm hoping to grow more veggies next year to cut the food bill, but I'll have to work things out with a groundhog in order to be successful with that.

We're a family of 3 and with recycling and composting we've been able to reduce the waste that goes to the curb down to 1/2 of 1 trash can each week.. and I feel bad that we even have that much. Still finding ways to cut back.

I've always found the best way to settle my differences with Groundhogs is with a rifle.....

Our water is incredibly expensive. We have had no officially measurable precipitation since April.

We will definitely cut back on any activity that uses water this winter and probably next year.

Bigger veggie garden, bigger orchard.

I have a 2 acre lawn, and previously each fall I'd buy 150 lbs (68 Canadian thingies) of commercial fertilizer and spread it around. No more. Planted clover, and about half germinated, so now I have a steady crop of mulch / compost greens. I'll reseed the non-clovery parts next spring.

And previously, I'd throw out glossy mags and advertising, but now they go into mulch out in the borders, covered by grass / clover clippings.

compost is a good thing but all you really need is leaves and grass clippings sure manure is best and kitchen scraps is always available but the truth is I started growing my own food 2008 strictly because of the cost of it low and behold I love growing my own food so yes I will be using the same amount of space but growing much more .

Compost is a bit of a turn off to me but I realize how valuable it is so I have a pile of left over plants sawdust leaves grass clippings kitchen scraps and coffee grounds and I am warming up to it .Fertilizer and bug sprays and disease control etc are costly so I don't plan on using any next year . I believe this whole thing can occur naturally like compost .

Definitely continuing the push to plant edibles this year, eventually I dream of replacing the lawn hopefully. Keep working on perennials and fruit trees/vines.

Keep working on the wildlife gardening, too. I like the critters and I do think they keep things in balance.

Wish and pray for the neighbors with the dogs to move back in, because they kept the evil marmalade tomcat from stalking my wild pets!

I don't foresee many changes here either because I spend little money on gardening and composting. The only investment in composting has been 2 bins, one manure fork, and lots of sweat equity. My compost is made of stuff that would otherwise go down the disposal or to the landfill.

For gardening, I wintersow most of my plants. I harvest my own seeds and trade with other gardeners, and the seed starting containers are used milk jugs. Occasionally I splurge for a pack of seeds but then end up with many plants for a couple of dollars.

Karen

cali1023, in checking to see your state, I noticed we share a birthday. reason I checked state was I have a friend in N.Mex. that has a cat named marmalade. Keep composting, leaves 'a fallin.

No, I don't see myself making any changes in response to economic conditions. However, if all goes as planned, I will be doing things differently next year regardless. This year, I've been making many, many new beds, and I have quite a few plants I wanted to get into the ground before this winter. So I bought a fair amount of materials just to get things started....4 yards of aged (app. 7 months) mushroom soil, bags of stuff that a garden center was deeply discounting to move it out, a few bales of straw, stuff like that. This year, I also bought plants for the veg garden, as we'd just moved in, and I didn't have time to do the seed thing.

But I've been collecting and finding sources for compostable materials like crazy, so between now and next spring, I hope to have all the new beds ready to go. Same with the veg garden....now that we're settled in here, I'll have the time to scan catalogs and buy seeds.

Well, that's the plan, at any rate. :)))

Absolutely Pat.

The gov can print all the money it likes. (Well, used to be the fed printed money. Now all that needs to be done to create billions is to magnetize a silicon chip.)

But worthless paper or electronic fiat money can't fix all our woes.

We are in a world of trouble. We have many areas eating away at our survival...

Peak oil and the depletion of ALL fossil fuels including uranium.

Dwindling potable water.

Overpopulation.

A lying, delusional government that can't get to work on restructuring our society, as it can't even admit there is a problem.

A defective model for long term population support that requires constant consumption and unsustainable growth at the expense of sound, long term economic practices.

Future food shortages. Food that is unhealthy and a mindset to 'poison for profit.' Food that is unaffordable.

Global unrest and resource wars brewing.

Edible landscaping will be most important to feeding what is left of us when TEOTWAK arrives.

I got a late start as I knew nothing about food production before 2/11/08 and by the time my garden was ready to accept some seeds the summer was about a quarter over. But, as the saying goes...better late than never.

I am adding more next year...just wish I had more land!

I supplement my garden with foraging.

Foraging is for those that love to reap what they have not sown...

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There are lots of fruit trees in my local and some of em are abandoned or neglected so I make good use of their produce.

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Lots of these blew down with the remnants of the last hurricane. Even if they have trouble ripening from being too green, they can be cooked.

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This summer I have added many new fruit tree to my 'adopted orchard' that others planted then abandoned.

I got 3 mulberry trees, 6 apple trees. 4 big juicy Europeans and seckel pear trees, an apricot tree, 2 peach trees, 7 black walnut trees, 3 pawpaw trees, hickory and butter nut trees, yew bush and a hawthorn.

Also some wild brambles and herbs like purslane and dandelion and rocket. And not to forget lots of wild grapes.

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Now, foraging does not always yield Martha Stewart quality produce. But that is the beauty of being a forager. We can take what others may overlook and get nourishment from it. And it yields some sort of strange satisfaction is stealing food back from the ants after they have stolen so much food from some of us.

Take this nasty looking apple. When I play doctor with it, I get half an apple and it taste good.

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So if your local is conducive to foraging, study it up and have many options for food production available to you if the world starts decomposing around you.

Edible landscaping will be most important to feeding what is left of us when TEOTWAK arrives.

Here are 3 good books for those interested in developing an urban homestead.

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Not-Lawns-Neighborhood-Community/dp/193339207X

http://www.amazon.com/Gardening-When-Counts-Growing-Mother/dp/086571553X

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Sufficient-Suburban-Gardener-Jeff-Ball/dp/0878574573

I think we have a real food crisis brewing for the world. Not enough young farmers replacing the old, we will run low of fertilizer as the NG dries up and that food which is grown is devoid of nutrition and not healthy. And to make matter worse, fewer people can even afford to buy produce.

With the recent food shortages in the news I have to wonder as Richard Heinberg brought up "Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?"

"The average American farmer is 55 to 60 years old. The proportion of full time farmers younger than 35 years of age has dropped from 15.9% in 1982 to 5.8% in 2002. Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?" from "Peak Everything" by Richard Heinberg

"Amish farmers can't compete in conventual agriculture farming. 40 years ago 90% to 95% of the Amish were farmers. Today less than 10% are farmers." from: "How the Amish Survive" DVD

And even if the farmers keep up with production, many people cannot afford the high prices of produce. At Krogers a butternut squash was $7, a large apple was $1.85, a rutabaga was $3, one medium size potato was $1.04, an artichoke near $5 and a lemon was $1.35, a bag of cherries was $14.75, ONE organic yam was $8.25.

And these high priced produce are being offered when times are still relatively good What will this stuff sell for when gas is $10 or $15 a gallon? Peak oil, peak NG, peak water and food as well as peak uranium will fuel mass starvation as our artificial and unsustainable world decomposes around us.

As people buy less produce due to affordability issues and the produce stops selling and rots on the shelves, the farmers will grow less produce that just rots unsold and less potential farmers will be entering that field.

Book and DVD list. All available from your local library.

Beyond Oil: the view from Hubbert's Peak
by Deffeyes, Kenneth S.
[url]http://www.princeton.edu/hubbert/[/url]

The Coming Economic Collapse - how you can thrive when oil costs $200 a barrel
by Leeb, Stephen

A Crude Awakening - the oil crash
Lava Productions AG, Switzerland DVD
[url]http://www.oilcrashmovie.com/[/url]

The End of Suburbia - oil depletion and the collapse of the American dream
by Greene, Gregory DVD
[url]http://www.endofsuburbia.com/[/url]

Fed Up
[url]http://www.amazon.com/Fed-Up-Angelo-Sacerdote/dp/B000CNGC6G[/url]

High Noon for Natural Gas: the new energy crisis
by Darley, Julian
[url]http://www.highnoon.ws/[/url]

The Long Emergency: surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century
by Kunstler, James Howard

Oil Apocalypse
History channel DVD

Peak Oil Survival: preparation for life after gridcrash
by McBay, Aric

Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world
by Heinberg, Richard

Resource Wars: the new landscape of global conflict
by Klare, Michael T
[url]http://www.amazon.com/Resource-Wars-Landscape-Conflict-Introduction/dp/0805055762[/url]

A Thousand Barrels a Second: the coming oil break point and the challenges facing an energy dependent world
by Tertzakian, Peter

Twilight in the Desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy
by Simmons, Matthew R.
Well written book examining 12 of the key Saudi oil fields.

Who Killed the Electric Car?
Sony Pictures Classics release
[url]http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/[/url]

Zoom:the global race to fuel the car of the future
by Iain Carson and Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran.

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Forgot to mention...

In my local they are stealing iron sewer grates, manhole covers, platinum rich catalytic coverters under the cars.

When your house is empty or up for sale you may have the plumbing ripped out from copper thieves.

They even stole the copper electric cables at a kids baseball field.

And locking gas caps wont help they crawl under the car punch holes in the tank and drain the gas.

And times are still good...what will it be like down the road?

hahah, you wouldn't happen to be a Ron Paul guy would you Allen?

Your post brings back good memories

I'm planning two new beds and planting some fruit trees. I'm also planning to pick up my next door neighbor's leaves as they are gathered. I didn't do that last year because he has dogs, but I'll just have to pick out the dog poo and deal with it.

We have one acre places in my neighborhood and my neighbor's acre is covered in trees. I have a grass lawn, so I have enough grass clippings to make two or three yards of home grown compost. I pick up UCG every day.

I need to rearrange the strawberry beds and try to expand the raspberry beds.

I pay 35 dollars a year for water for irrigation.

I have learned to can and my wife cans peaches and pears. I'm pricing pressure cooker/canners on Amazon. I'm considering renting the neighbor's pasture and raising a cow on it for meat. I'll need another freezer if I do that.

I'm feeling more pressure and more inspiration to help our community become food-independent. Population density of our county is something like 4 people per square mile, virtually all food in the stores comes from at least 100 miles away. There are a handful of people with substantial home gardens growing staples like potatoes and beans but we are the only registered farm with 3/4 acres of market gardens. Despite a lot of rocky territory there is huge potential for more small scale food production here, and the number of people who have come to see our gardens and ask questions about growing has been greater than ever this past year.

We are doing what we can to help people get started composting and growing in their own back yard, have been talking with a group of people about a bi-weekly farmer's market and an online bulletin board for gardeners offering surplus produce, sharing information about where to get sawdust and horse manure and other free fertilizer/mulch materials and how best to use them.

There's a positive side to the economic downturn - the potential for food to make sense again - a return to the small-scale decentralized organic production that existed here fifty years ago, with more community networking, more foraging and more bartering - that future looks rosy.