Part of this is because my youngest has shown remarkable improvement in his behavior over the past year with the deletion of food dyes, preservatives, msg, pasteurized dairy, gluten and gmo's. But, there's still something I am missing and I think part of it might be pesticides/herbicides that are sprayed/absorbed into foods as they grow. We try our best to buy organic as much as possible but if there's anything I've learned, it's that I cannot trust a label to be completely honest with how that plant grew. During the summer I can get veggies from the farmer's market and I do but from mid-October to mid-June, it's slim pickin's and that's the other reason I want to get better at gardening. I hope to fatten our larder choices for that time period.
I'm looking into fall planting for potatoes for next year. I'm going to experiment with some gorgeous purple potatoes the grocery store has this spring. Several of them are already sprouting so I plan to buy about 10# and see what comes of them. It's cheaper to buy them at the grocery store than it is through an online seed potato supplier.
I've started compiling a list of foods we love to eat and eat on a regular basis. From there I will try to map out a way to grow them year round as much as possible. I know with some things it will be impossible but with others, such as broccoli, kale, cabbage and such, I am hoping I can. Our winters are becoming a lot more mild in the past few years and I think with the help of a hoop house (which we have started) I could even possibly grow lettuce and a few other things in there all throughout the winter.
I'm also stoked that I brought home a box of tomatoes from a friend up in Chicago back at the beginning of October. We JUST ate the last tomato 2 days ago. Unfortunately, it was a Burpee "Long Keeper" which is a hybrid but I hope to research and possibly find a tomato that will last that long and still be a heirloom.
So, this week I've started a sweet potato and will grab a few more organic ones at the store to start as well. We have a pile of potatoes that were grown last year that are sprouting. We are going to have a warm (50's) week coming up so we're going to do an experiment and plant them with lots of goat manure and straw.
Early Spring plants:
Lettuce
Kale
Broccoli
Potatoes
Parsnips
Turnips
Carrots
Onions
Peas
Scallions
Spinach
Oats
Late Spring/Early Summer:
Sweet Potatoes
Green Beans
Summer Squash
Tomatoes
Eggplant
Peppers
Lettuce
Carrots
Winter Squash
Celery (have plants growing in pots)
Cucumbers
Okra
Corn (we are going to bag the tassles/silks and hand fertilize them)
Tomatillos
Luffa
Fall planting is going to be more intense this year. I hope to start growing these plants this fall:
Broccoli
Cabbage
Lettuce
Kale
Potatoes*
Garlic*
Parsnips
Turnips
Rutabagas
Asparagus
Carrots
Onions*
Spinach
Are your garden plans changing for this year? Are you doing more or less? Trying out any new produce or techniques this year?
I am going to try for the second yr. to have a garden out at my Mums place. our land is still to risky to plant without us living on it yet. my main goals are to deal with deer first off ! I'm also going to try and just do plants my gramma grew . plants that will over winter and those I can plant straight into the soil from seed. we are zone 4 so not to much grows here for long . also I'm not sure on trying root veggies again this yr. without ditches dug the soil is very wet .when it was a homestead during the depression era my grandparents had ditches dug but they've all filled in .being by the lake it helps in dry yrs but other yrs the soil is very damp.
ReplyDeleteI think gardening in the bush is a hobby more than a sustainable thing and I will still do more wildcrafting than garden .Yet its nice for the kids to have those small things to pick fresh and eat right on the spot like peas , beans etc. but like I said deer first issue ;-)