Well, I haven't really been writing at all for about the past six months or so. Please bear with me as I get my writing wings back in shape. My daughter and her four children moved in with us in September of 2013. Her boyfriend moved in a couple of weeks later. Our household has been in the usual disarray that accompanies four very small children. I really just didn't have time to do any writing for a while.
Not that I felt like writing. I struggled all through this past winter and spring with severe pain. I fell down several times due to pain in my feet, which caused me to break my right ankle and injure both feet seriously, as well as both knees. Taking more pain medication makes me tired and more depressed, so it wasn't until my feet and ankle got a little better that I've been feeling more like myself again. However, during this period of time I spent a lot of time trying to come up with a possible way for me to make more income. With our daughter and her family here, our financial situation became almost overwhelmingly meager, and I was trying to think of anything I could do to help.
I don't have the ability to work full-time, or even part-time really, on a regular set schedule, because my disabilities keep me down and out some days. I never know when those days are going to be, but I know I will eventually feel better again. I lived on a farm most of my life, and I thought a lot about what types of things I used to do as a young mother to make extra money for my children's school clothes and supplies. Many of those things, I don't do now for ethical reasons. For example, I used to raise rabbits, chickens, ducks, and turkeys for meat and egg production. I no longer feel killing animals to eat is something I want to participate in. I wouldn't mind raising a few chickens for the eggs for my family, but not on a scale large enough to make any money off it. I live in a city, but I am located on a county island within the metropolitan area. This makes zoning laws much more flexible, but my neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate a lot of chicken or other livestock noises. I want to be a good neighbor, so I knew that this wouldn't help me now.
However, I also used to raise watermelons and other types of melons, tomatoes, or other specialty crops and sell them beside the road on the farm for extra money. Unfortunately, my current property has no good garden soil, and putting in raised beds would only net us about enough produce to fill our own needs, and wouldn't save us much money when we factored in the price of the supplies and labor necessary to carry that out. It would be more nutritious, and organic. I do grow tomatoes and herbs each year, and a few other things in tiny beds, but I wouldn't have the physical stamina needed to harvest and prepare a large amount of produce every day in the summer time, so again, this didn't fill the bill as far as my current situation goes.
I have also propagated plants I have on my property and sold those from time to time on a very small scale, but I thought this would be something I would be able to do if I kept the scale small enough. This might actually work. And the physical labor can be done when I was at my peak energywise and painwise, because I could work from my home, and make my own schedule. I was also motivated by the dire situation of our wild pollinators and honey bees, who are dying all over the globe in significant numbers. If I could grow organic transplants, maybe I could save some of them, as well as make some money. I tried to get funding for a kickstarter project to support me financially in my start-up, but the funding was unsuccessful. I was pretty depressed that the project didn't get funded, but it forced me to start thinking on a much smaller scale. I managed to scrape together enough cash, including a loan from my brother, to buy seed and supplies to start 600 six-packs of transplants for the fall planting season. We garden year-round here in Southern California, so there is always a time to be growing something. I chose all certified organic, open-pollinated seed, mostly heirloom varieties, of vegetables, herb, and flower seed for fall planting.
So now, I am in the process of filling pots with dirt, and planting seeds. I am feeling fairly well again, and my daughter moved out the first week of August, so I find myself with much more time available again. I am much happier in the garden anyway, so spending a little extra time out there is good for me, and helps reduce my pain level, up to a certain point. I know if I overdo it, I will pay later, so I pace myself very carefully. I am thrilled that I am able to be doing this now, and hope it continues until the payoff, when I actually begin selling my transplants. Some of the seed I'm planting now, like some herbs for example, will not be large enough to sell until this coming spring, but most will be ready the middle of October or a little later, depending on the weather. It is still touching 100 degrees most days right now, and that is just too hot to plant some fall crops, because they won't germinate in weather that hot. This necessitates me waiting a week or so until the weather cools down for most of them. If I plant them too soon, the heat could kill them. If I wait too late, everyone will have already bought their plants for fall, and I won't find any customers.
I am working on coming up with vendors right now, too. This gets me out in the community and talking to people again, which is also good for me. If you are in the local Bakersfield area, and would be interested in purchasing plants just email florasorganics@gmail.com and I'll email you a flyer with more information about them. I'll try to keep you updated about the project without spamming you to death with it. If you want, you can also follow Flora's Organics on twitter or facebook at @FlorasOrganics and http://facebook.com/FlorasOrganics and you will automatically receive updates on the project, as well as cool organic gardening advice and tips.
