Life lessons learned through freezing rain in Houston. – Mittleider Gardening Method Video Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUgMVL1vbmE&list=PL2cLVMJ…

Off-Grid Homesteading: 1st Year Garden Results

The off-grid homestead garden results are in. Can you believe 25 bushels of tomatoes from just 3 garden rows?! In addition bushels and bushels of other fruit…

Frozen in Houston: Life Lessons Learned

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50 Comments

  • Joe Primal

    Well done! Out here we’re just praying for rain, freezing or otherwise.
    On an FYI note, we went up to the local LDS cannery a couple days ago and
    they told us that they were no longer going to have the ‘can it yourself’
    process available. They will still sell the food but only pre-canned. They
    said the state was just piling on too many regulations for them to
    continue. Yet another example of the government “protecting” us out of our
    freedom. Sad when even a church cannot help their community without
    breaking the law.?

  • Emerson White

    FYI cabbage can take a freeze, it actually improves the flavor. That is one
    of the reasons they do so well here in the far far north; they extend the
    growing season by keeping on after the first frost.?

  • 1Nature Lady

    About 6yrs ago bought $600 worth of flowers and garden starters for Mothers
    Day. It took me 2 days to get everything planted. The next day after
    that…..IT SNOWED and everything died. I learned a hard lesson that day. I
    planted way too soon and the weather is crazy here in Indiana but these
    days it looks like the weather is unstable all over.
    I hope it warms up for you there. I know how it feels to lose all your hard
    work. You have a nice set up for sure.?

  • Love2boat92

    I imagine you have a pile of money in that plastic. Lol. But it is needed
    for the plants to survive. Up in western pa Monday and Tuesday of next week
    we’re expecting -10 to -15 as low temperatures. That doesn’t include the
    windchill…… One word describes it Brrrrrrrr. Lol. ?

  • stricklerville

    Do you ever have issues with winds and keeping the plastic down. I am
    having a hell of time keeping the plastic down, we get winds from 40-60mph
    at times. Thanks.?

  • Erik Salmon

    Very cool to see what to do in case of a freeze for the garden, I am new to
    growing stuff so your videos have helped me start a little solo cup
    orchard. We are moving to another apartment but it has a wrap around porch
    facing south so we will have plenty of light and can do more 🙂 We had the
    same freezing rain here in San Antonio but we use to live in the mountains
    in California so it was no big deal for us.
    ?

  • wncsohn

    Glad to hear the garden & your family made it through. It got down to 0
    last night here in Central AR. We don’t have a garden going, but it was
    challenging keeping the chickens and rabbits comfy.?

  • Bryan Michaud

    Congratulations!
    I live in Maine where mitigating winter conditions is commonplace. Glad to
    know you took the time to prepare for a freeze.
    Once it gets down to 20 below zero, I do put socks on, LOL.?

  • Tom Brueggen

    I’m not encouraging others to do what I did, but I left my garden
    uncovered, and my onions and strawberries fared right through. I did a walk
    around to see where the ice really settled. You have ice all over your thin
    plastic that retains no heat. Was there ice on the ground? My wife has an
    outdoor fish pond and it never even glazed over. It actually froze with the
    Polar Vortex, but not with this little ice event we had. I too had some ice
    on the tops of the beehives (see my video) but no on all hives. Some had
    liquid water on top. I attribute this to the heat of the bees inside.

    One other thing, I recall hearing that ice on plants can actually be less
    damaging than a frost. But I never have read it to confirm it, just heard
    it as a kid. Something to do with the insulating properties of ice vs
    frost. Might look it up. ?

  • FISHBREATHH

    Nice set up. I was in southern Utah and noticed a small green house with
    what looked like some black material hanging inside, I assume to gather
    some heat from the sun. Looked like a good idea.
    Take care?

  • sha whit

    this is going to be a long hard winter. it is -30 here. do not plant early
    unless you put it under green house structures and use heat lamps. cover
    your fruit trees, as frozen buds do not produce fruit! again, it is going
    to be a long hard winter.?

  • ScareCro

    Glad to see your bees are doing ok, between the frozen hive thumbnail and
    your title, I thought they may have died off. Glad to see your other stuff
    is thriving too.?

  • TRASEGUS TRUNEPP

    Love the clean look! Have a solution to question posted here. For fire
    ants, get regular grits from grocery store and dust them with powdered
    sugar. Generously apply around the fire ant hills at least three days
    before it’s going to rain. They will feed it to the hive including the
    queen and then when they drink water, the grits will explode to 5x it’s
    size and kill them. Worked like magic in North Carolina. Black ants have
    a purpose in breaking down soil, use with caution, don’t kill everything!?

  • LDSPrepper

    Each 18″x30′ box with sawdust and sand costs about $100. The vertical
    growing T-frames cost about $100 too. In each box you could grow 180 pole
    beans (vertical) or 362 beets or 52 broccoli or 720 carrots or 92 corn or
    41 cucumbers (vertical) or any combination of plants. To fertilize it would
    cost about $0.66 per week. My neighbor has the hydro stacks. He wants his
    money back. For an expensive hobby garden it is okay but you can’t grow
    enough to feed a family IMHO w/o spending a fortune.

  • red fred

    thanks again for a great video. 46 30′ beds=2898 linear feat of frames and
    needs $100.00+ of weekly feed at $0.50/pound of 16-16-16 + $13.00/mineral
    packet.add screws,connection and stake lumber, sand and sawdust, and it was
    a lot to lay out.about how much $ of produce per year figured for 13 week
    growing season. what USDA Zone please? I use Sams club weed blocker on top
    of 6+ layers of newspaper, topped off with outdoor carpeting. second season
    with zero weeds.beds sit on cinder blocks.

  • Chiquita Richey

    You needed to hand pollinate the squash. I found a youtube video that shows
    how to do it. It’s not that the method didn’t work. Squash is one of those
    vegetables that requires hand pollinating if you don’t have too many female
    flowers. Hope this helps.

  • Chiquita Richey

    It cost 10 times more trying to buy all the vegetable that you harvest.
    Most people don’t have that many grow box in their yard. Most people start
    off with 1 or boxes and gradually add on to it. It really is not expensive
    at all considering how much harvest you can get. Once you start, it truly
    becomes addictive seeing how much vegetable you can produce. It’s well
    worth it. You can literally slash your grocery bill by starting your own
    vegetable gardening!

  • Steve Sanders

    How much time did it take them to build all of this. What would you
    estimate the cost of all the wood to be. I am trying to decide between
    doing the Mittleider method or going with hydrostacker hydroponics setup
    which will cost me $5000 to purchase for 45 towers.

  • LDSPrepper

    Thank you for asking. It will dramatically extend your growing season.
    Please use the links below the video for more information on the
    in-the-garden greenhouse and view my videos on this in my “Mittleider
    Gardening Method” playlist.

  • 1994abbygirl

    I live in Utah in a very rural small town.For the 6 summers I have been
    here it has been a constant weed issue,the worst is bindweed! I am doing
    Mettleider,but my beds are soil.The more I try the worse it is.We do have
    hoes like yours, the weeds are pretty easy to pull from the beds,but not
    from the walk ways.Bindweed is impossible to kill..I have tried to kill it
    several different ways to no avail! If I could just keep my isles down it
    would be great!The only way to get rid of it is to move!LOL

  • Chiquita Richey

    go to LDSPrepper’s youtube page. Also he and his partner have an awesome
    facebook page called “Mittleider Gardening”. You should check it out.
    Extremely informative an we all share our success stories and also get him
    at any projects that is failing. I had a failure project that became a
    success once I got help on the group. We also show-off our garden & it does
    inspire all of us to push forward and joing in with all the success & pics.

  • bad hat

    yeah I’ve known about about amonia for fire ant stings for over 25 years,
    works sometimes . However that was not the crux of my question. Having
    lived on the Texas Gulf Coast from Winnie to Lake Jackson to Alief and Katy
    I know that if you leave it setting on the ground for any lenght of time
    the Fire Ants will build a mound around it. How do you deal with the mounds
    or nests Is my question.

  • LDSPrepper

    The Mittleider method also works great in any soil bed. No need to build
    boxes like he did. I have tried five different gardening methods. The
    Mittleider method produces the most fruit and veggies at the lowest cost
    per square foot. If you really want to know that you can feed your family
    this is the method I recommend.

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