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Still questing
9 Mar 2021 08:56 pmNo, not questioning. Questing. I am still trying to get the right mix of foods growing in the garden for me.
Rule One: If you don't like it, don't grow it.
Unless of course, you are growing it for a loved one who does like it. Allergies play into this as well. We don't grow peppers or any capsicum family members. And there are other things we don't care for. But capsicums can kill in our household.
Rule Two: Have a plan. You don't want to leave tons of empty space for weeds but you don't want plants so crowded that they don't produce much.
Rule Three: Plant enough to cover both you and the critters. It's okay to thin stuff. Don't overdo, but plant extra. If nothing else, give it to your neighbors. Make a friend.
Rule Four: Harvest what you plant at the optimum time. And don't forget that half the year you will not have a garden, so put some by. Whether you dry, can, freeze or ferment, set some aside for winter.
Rule Five: Check your larder over winter. Did you have too much of one thing and not another? Did things go south on you? Make notes for improvement but don't berate yourself. Weather will cause an abundance of one kind of vegetable and not another. Compost is always an option. Here's a link to some one else's blog: https://theelliotthomestead.com/2021/02/mid-winter-eating-from-the-root-cellar/
Remember that Imbolc (Ground Hog Day) is the halfway point for your larder. It will help you plan. My Sister-in-law is also a homesteader. She plans out every meal for three months at a time. They butcher animals so her freezers must be organized to keep food going year round. Cycle through the oldest food first. Cycling is another skill to develop. Dates, labels, cupboard arrangements, whatever works.
I'm sure I can think of other rules. This year, I set out to have a garden similar to Lynn Gillespie's 2017 garden on https://thelivingfarm.org High Performance Garden Series. With the exception of Bok Choi and Peppers, I hope to plant something similar. Since I don't like kale (Dwarf Bread), I am going with collard greens for the freezer. Her space and mine are not identical but I'll give it a go as a benchmark on my soil. Fertilizer is my bane. I don't have any. By the time I buy some, it will cost more than the food I grow. That's my fear.
The library is my best resource. I picked up the Home Grown Pantry again and I have Markham's Mini Farming on a 1/4 acre on order interlibrary loan. My goal is still 500 pounds of food but with the Brood X coming, all bets are off, as I've mentioned previously. My plans are drawn. I have a three ring binder that I keep each year's information in. I move crops around but don't really rotate them per se. You should know or learn the difference between cool weather crops and warm weather crops. Also learn which plants like full sun and those that tolerate shade. Learn your land. What part has sun at Equinox but not at Midsummer's? Know your area's frost dates. The type of soil you have, clay loam, or sand. The pH will help too. If your county or town has an ag extension, ask them if there is free lead testing available. We had ours done for free. We know all the metal contents of our soil. If your soil is contaminated, you can always go with a raised bed garden or containers. Another helpful bit of information is whether your crop is a heavy or light feeder. Legumes give off nitrogen to the soil from the air so they don't need nitrogen. Tomatoes and lettuce need calcium. I use eggshells. If your water or soil is alkaline, calcium will not go into a usable form for the plants. Therefore you'll need a spray like Bioguaard to spray the leaves. These are all part of an education. There is a lot to learn. I grew up with perfect soil and water so I never learned anything until I moved to a place without naturally occurring topsoil. You're never too old to learn.
I have another useful chart for season extension. It tells me how many weeks to plant ahead of my frost date inside the house under grow lights. Each type of vegetable has a number of weeks that it should be planted ahead of that frost date. And until last year, I did not know there was a difference between agricultural zones and frost dates. Your zone tells you what the coldest winter temperature could be. That is important for perennials whose roots could be damaged if the ground becomes frozen too deep. Trees are based on zones they do well in. The average last frost date could be the same for you and me, despite being in different zones. Technically the average last frost date is May 15th for where I live. Yes, some years it was April 30th and other years, June 7th. It's just an average. Plants need to be hardened off before you transplant them to their summer home. By looking at the weather forecast, you can wait, if needed, to put them into the ground. You can also transplant them into bigger pots if they need to wait longer than you'd hoped. There is a lot to learn. I don't know it all. I'd have to say that despite gardening for 45 years, I've learned more in the last three than the previous 42 combined. Experimenting is also a good way to learn. You won't learn if you don't fail. Fortunately, we still have grocery stores for when that happens.
The area from my sketch is prepared. Friday is a new moon. If you chose to follow "planting by the moon", it is a good time to plant cool weather leafy greens. I was excited to find out that science has now confirmed why planting by the moon works. The carbon cycle is governed by the moon, just like the tides. I'm sure they have more to find out still but it's tried and true. Been used for a long, long time. I'll be planting part of that outside bed as well as planting my tomatoes, basil, marigolds, and other edible flowers in the house.
More hoops will get added to the outside bed and a cover when temperatures start to dip. The warm weather indoor plants will be put on a special plant heating mat because I don't have an available sunny warm window. The basement is too cool for them to germinate. Root crops will get planted on the quarter moon, the following week. It's time to start growing.
Rule One: If you don't like it, don't grow it.
Unless of course, you are growing it for a loved one who does like it. Allergies play into this as well. We don't grow peppers or any capsicum family members. And there are other things we don't care for. But capsicums can kill in our household.
Rule Two: Have a plan. You don't want to leave tons of empty space for weeds but you don't want plants so crowded that they don't produce much.
Rule Three: Plant enough to cover both you and the critters. It's okay to thin stuff. Don't overdo, but plant extra. If nothing else, give it to your neighbors. Make a friend.
Rule Four: Harvest what you plant at the optimum time. And don't forget that half the year you will not have a garden, so put some by. Whether you dry, can, freeze or ferment, set some aside for winter.
Rule Five: Check your larder over winter. Did you have too much of one thing and not another? Did things go south on you? Make notes for improvement but don't berate yourself. Weather will cause an abundance of one kind of vegetable and not another. Compost is always an option. Here's a link to some one else's blog: https://theelliotthomestead.com/2021/02/mid-winter-eating-from-the-root-cellar/
Remember that Imbolc (Ground Hog Day) is the halfway point for your larder. It will help you plan. My Sister-in-law is also a homesteader. She plans out every meal for three months at a time. They butcher animals so her freezers must be organized to keep food going year round. Cycle through the oldest food first. Cycling is another skill to develop. Dates, labels, cupboard arrangements, whatever works.
I'm sure I can think of other rules. This year, I set out to have a garden similar to Lynn Gillespie's 2017 garden on https://thelivingfarm.org High Performance Garden Series. With the exception of Bok Choi and Peppers, I hope to plant something similar. Since I don't like kale (Dwarf Bread), I am going with collard greens for the freezer. Her space and mine are not identical but I'll give it a go as a benchmark on my soil. Fertilizer is my bane. I don't have any. By the time I buy some, it will cost more than the food I grow. That's my fear.
The library is my best resource. I picked up the Home Grown Pantry again and I have Markham's Mini Farming on a 1/4 acre on order interlibrary loan. My goal is still 500 pounds of food but with the Brood X coming, all bets are off, as I've mentioned previously. My plans are drawn. I have a three ring binder that I keep each year's information in. I move crops around but don't really rotate them per se. You should know or learn the difference between cool weather crops and warm weather crops. Also learn which plants like full sun and those that tolerate shade. Learn your land. What part has sun at Equinox but not at Midsummer's? Know your area's frost dates. The type of soil you have, clay loam, or sand. The pH will help too. If your county or town has an ag extension, ask them if there is free lead testing available. We had ours done for free. We know all the metal contents of our soil. If your soil is contaminated, you can always go with a raised bed garden or containers. Another helpful bit of information is whether your crop is a heavy or light feeder. Legumes give off nitrogen to the soil from the air so they don't need nitrogen. Tomatoes and lettuce need calcium. I use eggshells. If your water or soil is alkaline, calcium will not go into a usable form for the plants. Therefore you'll need a spray like Bioguaard to spray the leaves. These are all part of an education. There is a lot to learn. I grew up with perfect soil and water so I never learned anything until I moved to a place without naturally occurring topsoil. You're never too old to learn.
I have another useful chart for season extension. It tells me how many weeks to plant ahead of my frost date inside the house under grow lights. Each type of vegetable has a number of weeks that it should be planted ahead of that frost date. And until last year, I did not know there was a difference between agricultural zones and frost dates. Your zone tells you what the coldest winter temperature could be. That is important for perennials whose roots could be damaged if the ground becomes frozen too deep. Trees are based on zones they do well in. The average last frost date could be the same for you and me, despite being in different zones. Technically the average last frost date is May 15th for where I live. Yes, some years it was April 30th and other years, June 7th. It's just an average. Plants need to be hardened off before you transplant them to their summer home. By looking at the weather forecast, you can wait, if needed, to put them into the ground. You can also transplant them into bigger pots if they need to wait longer than you'd hoped. There is a lot to learn. I don't know it all. I'd have to say that despite gardening for 45 years, I've learned more in the last three than the previous 42 combined. Experimenting is also a good way to learn. You won't learn if you don't fail. Fortunately, we still have grocery stores for when that happens.
The area from my sketch is prepared. Friday is a new moon. If you chose to follow "planting by the moon", it is a good time to plant cool weather leafy greens. I was excited to find out that science has now confirmed why planting by the moon works. The carbon cycle is governed by the moon, just like the tides. I'm sure they have more to find out still but it's tried and true. Been used for a long, long time. I'll be planting part of that outside bed as well as planting my tomatoes, basil, marigolds, and other edible flowers in the house.
More hoops will get added to the outside bed and a cover when temperatures start to dip. The warm weather indoor plants will be put on a special plant heating mat because I don't have an available sunny warm window. The basement is too cool for them to germinate. Root crops will get planted on the quarter moon, the following week. It's time to start growing.
