For instance: zucchini, tomatoes (Roma & other varieties), greenbeans, soybeans(edemame (sp?)) in several batches throughout the season, strawberries and red raspberries. Everything can be started as as seeds in mid-April under a grow lamp in the closet. .

Next year, we will be planting 3 year concord & niagara grapes, and possibly a blackberry bush or two.

As I look outside, it is snowing. I am dreaming of Spring already, and this is our first week of snow!

~M

I have since used it here in North Carolina and it really does work. It allows me to grow more in less space which is really really nice.

Definitly worth looking into if you are looking for ways to increase yield out of a container garden. For my family I can plant just 2 tomatoe plants to keep us going all summer.

I have really enjoyed these posts as I have always wondered how much I really do save. I think I need to hit up some herbs too.

Keep the posts coming…

We don’t do any gardening currently, but I do have plans to do square-foot gardening. Step 1: start composting. Step 2: build two small square-foot plots, and build from there. Step 3: consider planting an avocado tree.

Hopefully I can get motivated to DO it. With lots of projects around the house, a part-time job, and a 2-year old, it’s tough.

Now I have to go google the “quick no-knead bread” recipe that someone else mentioned…

I’ll keep adjusting my garden menu to find what works, then buy the rest fresh from road side vendors. The best of both worlds.

Have a look at “Square foot gardening” if you are interested in increasing your yields in small spaces.

I did one garden patch too late in the year to get anything out of it this year, but I got the experience to try again next year. Next year I’m planting tomatoes, peppers, onions, and maybe garlic and basil (depending on how space works out) in the small patch outside our kitchen window, plus I’m putting squash and a potato pile in the back corner of our property. We might also prepare our front yard to be turned into a garden next year.

At first I was wary about the response from neighbors to winter squash in my flower bed last year, but I got so many positive comments that I planted another corner with corn this year and grew onions and garlic in the first flower bed. For next year I’m considering removing the front lawn (about 10′ x 10′) and planting tomatoes and peppers. Some neighbors have asked if I’m worried about people stealing the produce, but it hasn’t happened yet.

By continuing to expand into every available bit of dirt and sunlight, I’m hoping that within 2 years I’ll be growing at least half of our produce for the year.

Be sure to plug that indoor grow light into a kill-o-watt meter to add it to the costs!

Apparently a sort of simultaneous pre-digestion AND preservation goes on that leaves the vegetables in a fit state for consumption for far longer than they’d last even in a root cellar. You also get more nutritional benefit–more bang for your buck or return for your effort, as it were.

I want to own the book soonish and start experimenting with this stuff myself. I’ve already obtained kefir grains through a listing on Freecycle, and I want to play around with piima next, since that’s one method of obtaining whey. I’ve always hated pickles but I’m curious to know whether it was the vinegar turning me off and whether I’d like lacto-fermented stuff better. I already know I like sour cream and can stand to eat plain yogurt so… we’ll see.

But, if you like pickling, the book’s worth checking out and there’s your answer for how to keep scads and scads of produce. A root cellar may not be practical for some people, especially if they have cats.

Oh, I forgot. Compost. There’s a nifty gadget you can get now, sort of an indoor compost cooker, and it’s electric but uses very little power. But it heats your kitchen scraps to just the right temperature to let you compost *everything* leftover, even meat and dairy.

Presto… free fertilizer, and way better for you in the end. I believe it was U of Calif. at Davis where they tested organic veggies versus conventionally fertilized, and the organic were more nutritious across the board. Only stands to reason: the native fare of plants all over the world is what’s left over of the rotting remains of other living things.

And I see someone’s written about manure. Here’s a tip: You should not be using raw manure anyway, whether or not it’s got bad germs in it. Organic farmers always rot manure down before they use it because the fresh stuff burns plants. Think about what dog doo does to your lawn if you leave it on the grass and you’ll get the idea.

What’s put E. coli on organic produce in the past several years has not been the fertilizer that organic farmers use, but runoff from cattle feedlots, where cows’ GI tracts are irritated by the grain they eat and they are more susceptible to virulent strains of E. coli.

When I was married back in the mid-nineties, we attended an herb fair in downtown Savannah, at which I purchased several plants, including a baby bay tree. That little stick and three leaves grew into a small bush over the next four years. I was amazed at how pretty it was. You know how bay leaves in the grocery store are small and light green in color? These leaves were at least two and a half inches long, usually three, and dark green and glossy. When I pruned the tree the air around it exploded in bay scent. Good old regular Laurus nobilis. I can’t imagine how long the leaves in the grocery store have been sitting in storage. I’d guess maybe two years or more.

I experienced similar results with the other herbs I grew. The difference in color, scent, taste, and quality were just astounding.

If you’re buying it in the grocery store, you’re being ripped off. Even if it’s a dollar a bottle on clearance. Perhaps especially then.

Personally, I enjoy the alone time in the garden weeding. For some reason, my kids don’t like to bother me when weeding (perhaps because I will put them to work). I think the manure is worth the extra effort of weeding.

My own gut feeling is that if more people gardened, prices would actually decrease on some items.

For example, when we order our garden seeds, we often consult with our friends who garden. We try not to overlap, which allows our little group to swap certain seeds, saving everyone money. Similarly, some of us have rototillers — others don’t. If all of our neighbors gardened, we could swap equipment around during the season, saving each other money.

Interesting question.

What I mean is, does this sort of thing only work so long as very few other people take advantage of it as well?

We pretty much use whatever we harvest, but if I ever feel overwhelmed, I take the excess to work or the neighbors. It’s always appreciated.