Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

I’ve certainly sold produce and flowers at yard sales. Tomatoes and peppers are prolific, easy to pick, and easy to sell. Plants that are abundant and easy to divide (i.e day lilies and ornamental grasses) are also easy to pot and sell at yard sales.

Also, last year, my brother-in-law leased 1-2 acres of ground to a guy who came and broadcast-seeded pumpkins and ornamental gourds. So the brother-in-law made $$, the leasee made $$ by selling to local grocery stores, flea markets,and roadside stands. That’s also a money maker if you choose to do your own planting, and advertise “pick your own”. People who don’t otherwise have gardens love to come and pick their own stuff. You decide how you want to charge. Low overhead, big profit.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Take a really, REALLY close look at the grass that is light green. Does it appear healthy otherwise, such as supple and shiny? If so, could be new, young growth which is always a lighter green. I don’t think the rain had much to do with it, if it had washed the fertilizer away from one area another area would be showing excessive growth. You could have an iron deficiency which is common in lawn grasses and easy to cure with a bag of “Ironite”. As for the spreader – I have always used a rotary and I NEVER use “weed and feeds” as they are dangerous around the shrubs and trees I value. Rotary spreaders give a much more even rate of application and are much easier to use in my opinion.

A little bit of un-asked-for advice from an old garden center manager: Weed and Feeds are mis-named; they should say “Fertilizer and Broadleaf PLANT Killer”.(not weed killer) They have to be kept OFF of, and out from under, the drip line of any plant, including especially your trees, that you don’t want dead – that includes getting blown there by the wind or washed there by rain. (If you looked at my front yard and drew a picture of the various drip lines of my trees and shrubs and areas UNDER-LAYED by the roots of those trees and shrubs, there wouldn’t be much area safe to use weed and feed on!)

GardenersCardiff answers:

How about living in a moving van? Rent free and stealth and secure. It has to be stealth due to u do not want to be bothered with the idea of not being able to find good long term parking places. Such parking places are likely to be far from your place of work same as affordable rents. And commuting costs money too.

(self composting toilets are not very large and work well)

trailer or RV parks can work sometimes due to lower rents than stick houses. Price and proximity will depend where u go. LA is a very large place and so u must find where u want to be before u can find where u can be. I mean my gosh it would $50 in gas per day to do a normal commute.

Another option is sometimes u can get a gig managing apartments. So u have to collect rents or do yardwork or other stuff and u get a free apartment.

To get an idea of rents or to try and advertise for a unique situation (caretaking, trade work for rent, etc), you can try craigs list:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/

maybe look into the community that this article talks about. If they are not close to where you want to be then they may hook you up with someone that is:
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC35/Arkin.htm

Maybe find community garden space or a co-op to provide free food. Growing indoors on ur own is pretty easy too. DWC buckets are very productive and cheap.

To find a community garden in LA:
http://lagardencouncil.org/index.php?option=com_contxtd&catid=33&Itemid=42

free lunches can also be had at salvation army type places. They will often give u a yearly clothes voucher as well. Or give u one day jobs for pay. Various programs may be available from diverse sources. Ask social services and the salvation army for referrals to other programs as well. Like free electricity or firewood from HEAP.
One source of stuff:
http://www.catholiccharitiesla.org/programs.html

another source of free stuff is freecycle. It is online and in all cities worldwide. In LA i imagine the participation numbers would be immense:
http://www.freecycle.org

here are links to LA forums and such where u can ask for ideas from folks who actually are down there:
http://at-la.com/@la-disc.htm