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1st S13 £5 prep project.
6 June 2013, 13:20, (This post was last modified: 6 June 2013, 13:29 by Scythe13.)
#1
1st S13 £5 prep project.
This is going to be the first of my super cheap prepping projects.

The basic idea of these is to get people started for a maximum financial cost of what you can find on the floor in a week. Nearly all of these projects will be around the £5 mark, and are designed to help build kit, grow food, store items, make caches, and much more. Anyway, that's enough chatting away. Time to get on with the project.

Please note, these are forum wide projects, so if you're not joining in, then the only reason you're not, is because you've already done it. These are good for both urban and rural preppers. We can't leave our rural brethren out now can we? haha. Right, gone off on one again. Must remain on subject.

Okay, so, here's the breakdown of out findings, £5.00

1. Small Selection of pots from B&Q or local garden centre (£1.50)
2. Packet of Courgette seeds, garden centre (£1.25)
3. Small selection of plant pot bases (£1.00)
4. Ice Cream, garden centre (£1.25) Note, this is vital!!! You'll see why later.
5. Soil, stolen from anywhere covered in ground.
6. Water, from a tap, or the sky.
7. Shopping bag, free from the ground or that draw in the cupboard.

Step 1

Use the shopping bag to load up soil from wherever you're kidnapping it. If you have a dog and are taking the dog for a walk, you can get the soil from a field, and pretend you're carrying dog poo. If you need a digging implement, use a stick. People will thing it's a stick for your pet dog. Once you have a load of soil, enough to fill a pot, you're good to go....nearly. You'll need to find a few stones. Nothing huge. Think, marble sized.

Step 2.

Place your stones in the bottom of the first pot. Usually the smaller pots are best to start plants off in, then transfer them up to bigger pots. See why we bought multiple pots? You can just buy a basic 5 inch deep pot for £0.50ish and go straight to that, but you'll be missing out on a skill base (planting up) gained by doing the whole process. Once you've got a thin covering of stones, look and feel proud of yourself. These stones will stop your soil from washing away when you add water.

Step 3.

Place soil into pot. Don't compress it in there. You want to pat it down firmly, but not ram it down as if you're laying tarmac! Once it's firmly in place, smile again, and admire your handy-work. You did remember to leave about an inch to an inch and a half from the top of the pot empty, right? Phew, I'm glad you did.

Step 4.

Open the seed packet and place 3 seeds in a triangle formation on the surface of the soil. You want them about 2cm apart. Once you have done this, add some more soil. Not loads, just about 1cm to 2cm on top of the seeds, and gently pat that down. This is exciting hu?

Step 5.

Just add water. If you're worried about pouring water on, because you'll displace the soil, place your hand just above the soil and pour the water over your hand. That way the water won't fall far before hitting the soil, thus stopping the force created by gravities acceleration. This serves as a wet reminder not to pour loads of water on, but also not to pour the water from a great height.

Step 6.

Panic. This is where you hope you've already placed the plant pot onto the pot tray/cup. To save money, instead of buying a plant cup tray, just use a saucer for a tea cup. The ideal kind is from your mum's favourite china tea set. Those help increase the plant's growth speed....so I've been lead to believe.

Step 7.

Patience. This is the hardest part to master. The Waiting Game.

Step 8.

Rejoice!!! It's now time to eat that ice cream! MMM Magnum!!!

Step 9.

Wait for the first shoots to sprout. It's a magic moment. You can add the plastic bag around the top of the plant pot, like a bio-dome, if you so desire. I'd recommend using a rubber band to hold it in place. Remember to keep the soil moist, but not really wet.

Step 10.

Get allergy tested for courgettes.

Step 11.

Start learning recipes for courgettes, providing your allergy test came back negative.

Step 12.

Work out how much money you've saved by growing your own courgettes. Then use this money for more packets of seeds for other plants that you eat, and repeat the process.

Step 13.

Send a self addressed envelope to:

Scythe13
8-3-Food (ate-free-food...you like that?)
KickAss Ave
Cheaper-Living-Ton-Ville
Winter-set (like Somerset, but much colder)
P15 5UP

This will get you into the membership club of starting to grow your own food. All for less than £5.00. There is no excuse! I used to spend exactly £5 on a coffee and a slice of cake at Starbucks. Trust me, it's affordable to do this. You really have no excuse.

One tip for those of you who will be doing this on a windowsill, remember to rotate your plants everyday. You don't want your plants having a slant and lean that can offset the balance of the pot and cause it to topple over.

Just thought I'd say, one reason I'm doing this, it's not to teach people to plant seeds. It's to show people how they can make a start on bigger projects, but starting off on a small, affordable scale.

It costs less than £5.00 to start growing your own plants. If you've not started, why not?
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism - Thomas Jefferson
Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
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6 June 2013, 19:09,
#2
RE: 1st S13 £5 prep project.
Good example of a small project.

Go to Aldi for the seeds though. 39p.

The ice cream is less than £1.50 as well.
Skean Dhude
-------------------------------
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin
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6 June 2013, 20:40,
#3
RE: 1st S13 £5 prep project.
Great idea to get you newbies started
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6 June 2013, 21:18,
#4
RE: 1st S13 £5 prep project.
If you're super skint & want to save a few more pennies, get an ordinary tabloid newspaper (sun, star & other crap like those) & take 1 double page. Rip across the whole double page, your strip needs to be roughly 1/3 the height of the page.

Take your ripped strip of paper & wrap it around an ordinary bean tin, leaving about 2 inches over the bottom of the tin. Wrap it around quite firmly, but remember you need to remove the tin again.

Fold the bottom 2 inches inwards to cover the base of the tin & press down firmly on the kitchen table, bench, doorstep etc.. & remove the tin. I always fold the top edge inwards to help keep the shape, but it isn't necessary.

You now have your very own "reclaimed" plant pot & also putting the paper to good use since the printers didn't originally Smile

From here, you can continue on with S13's steps.
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6 June 2013, 23:21,
#5
RE: 1st S13 £5 prep project.
Enjoyed that S13 - a fine boot in the rump! Started a wee host of herbs and such around the house a couple of weeks ago - coming on nicely!

I won't really be able to do much more until we've moved in a couple of month's time and then it'll have to be by roping in a son to build raised beds that I can reach.

Also having a go at something I read somewhere about growing onions from roots and lettuces from stalks. If it doesn't work, it's no loss...



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