Velma and Mac McDaniel of Florida began gardening organically seven years ago after Mac had knee surgery and was told he'd be in a wheelchair for as long as a year. He wanted to set up his garden so he could work on it from the chair. After doing some research on pesticides, he decided to do all he could to avoid using them and began growing vegetables organically and in containers. Today Mac continues to garden 12 to 14 hours a day. Mac makes square tomato cages from hardware cloth and likes for the foliage to hang out of the wire openings. To feed the plants, he applies a fertilizer made from cottonseed meal, fish emulsion and bone meal to the foliage. Mac uses inverted plastic soda bottles to deliver measured amounts of manure, alfalfa and burdock teas to his plants. He makes a natural pesticide from halved garlic cloves and onion skins mixed in a blender with 2 cups water. Set the solution on a shelf overnight, then strain it and add it to 1 1/2 gallons of water to use as an insecticide.
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