A man from East Tampa, Florida, has built a thriving garden for himself using his federal stimulus check and is now almost self-sufficient.
Michael Chaney, know to his friends as 'Spirit Mike', decided that the money sent to him by the US government should go towards investing in his future as opposed to being spent in the here and now. As a result of his success, he is now teaching others in his community how to expand their own gardens, saving them a lot of money in the process.
Spirit Mike says that he has long been interested in gardening, but it wasn't until lockdown that he had the time and motivation to really expand his own 0.3 acres of Florida land. Using the stimulus check, he was able to buy the basic tools and gardening equipment to start his project and he now grows everything from peppers, to aubergines, to papayas, to apples, and even sugar cane, amongst many other delights.
On top of the vegetable and fruit growing Spirit mike also has 9 chicks, which he feeds with larvae that are grown in a special bin.
Speaking to a local radio station, Spirit Mike says that his favourite grow is his moringa trees. Moringa fruit is extremely high in vitamin C and is also said to be an anti-depressant and have anti-inflammatory properties. Spirit Mike also believes that eating the moringa fruit has helped him lose weight, he says:
"That is the Michael Jordan and the Kobe Bryant together. I specifically picked these types of fruits [dwarf plants] because they grow fruit fast. If you were stranded somewhere and all you have is this and water you would not only survive, you would thrive. I don't work out. All I did was add this to my diet and add flax seed fibre and I lost 65 lbs."
Spirit Mike focuses upon biointensive gardening, which means that you plan to get as much nutrients out of the ground in as small a space as possible. He also elaborated on how the garden functions by making sure that every by-product can go into building up another element of the garden, which in turn saves a significant amount of money. He explained:
"My aim is to make my food cost zero. So, my food scraps go into the soldier fly larvae bin, they eat that and produce more larvae. Those larvae get fed to the chickens. The chicken produces eggs, I sell the eggs and eat the eggs; life is good."
Spirit Mike also stresses that in order to run a biointensive garden, pre-planning is key, he notes:
"It's very important that you plan your garden. Do your research before you put a dollar down because you want your dollar to go as far as it can."
[h/t: The Mind Unleashed]
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