I have been reading Reduce Footprints for a while now, but recently started joining in with the Change the World Wednesday series. This week’s challenge is this:
Develop a strategy that will ensure you and your family enjoy local produce next winter.
Perfect timing as I know spring will be here shortly, but to look out my window today this is what you would see.
So much for having another outdoor lunch
Winter won’t be here much longer and I have already made plans to increase the amount of home grown foods I will have this year. What I don’t grow I will purchase in larger quantities at the farmer’s market when that is open. Purchasing a freezer to store my bounty in this year will increase the amount of food I will have available all winter. I am still hoping to find one through Craigslist or Freecyle, but once the garden starts producing if I haven’t found a used one I will have to cave and buy it new.
As soon as I can get around again, with the melting of this snow, I will be purchasing some scrap wood to make a window box for inside. My window is 48 inches wide and 6 inches deep so it will hold a good sized planter to grow greens such as lettuces and spinach to snip and eat year round.
Here is the list of the plants I will be growing this year:
- Adding 100 strawberry plants to what I already have
- I had one pepper plant last year, having saved the seeds from each one I will increase that number exponentially.
- blueberries
- I’m trying a cold hardy kiwi, not sure how that will work so wish me luck.
- blackberries
- red raspberries
- seedless grapes
- onions, several varieties
- carrots
- cheddar and regular cauliflower
- cabbage
- celery
- edamame
- ground cherries
- radishes
- spaghetti squash
- pumpkins
- leeks
- tomatoes and cherry tomatoes
- melons (watermelon, cantaloupe)
- peas
- cucumbers
- beans
- lettuce
- spinach
- and luffa squashes, I want to sell these to offset the costs of increasing the garden
I am still debating on growing potatoes but that’s a possibility as well. I will have to make a decision on potatoes pretty quickly with the growing season almost upon me.
My hope is to fill my freezer and pantry and then help supplement my children’s freezers as well. It will all depend on how the weather is this year and if our strategies from last year continue to keep the wildlife from eating everything I plant.
I try to think of wildlife each year, along with the bird feeders I am hoping sunflowers will grow this year to have sunflower seeds for myself and the wildlife. Last year the intense heat shriveled the sunflowers, resulting in zero seeds collected.
I saw an innovative way to grow potatoes in my reading yesterday – using an old washing hamper (well a new one would work too, but that would be wasteful). You just keep adding soil. Made me wish I had a garden.
I’ve seen that too and if I do grow potatoes I will be using a basket as well. Our ground is very hard and needs to be built up as no one has farmed it in generations. It would take a lot to put in a raised bed for potatoes, but not if I use the hamper idea.
Hmmmm… I may give that a try. I tried buckets last year but they didn’t have good enough drainage and all the potatoes rotted. But I’ve got an old plastic laundry basket that I salvaged from the alley so perhaps that’s just the thing to do with it!
What a great plan. I need to pay better attention to my garden this year, and plan better for next winter. Have you thought of getting free pallets for wood? I use pallets quite often, even made an outdoor table last year.
I am hoping to find pallets, but if I can’t I’ll resort to buying some scrap wood to make it. I’ve drooled over pallet tables myself they really are gorgeous.
Re growing potatoes. I have found old tonne bags really good. I grew several kilos of “Pink Fir Apple” potatoes in one last year. Just keep topping up with any soils and some grass cuttings as the potatoes grow.
Thanks for the advice, I may decide to tackle potatoes after all this year. I’m wondering though, if grown in a hamper, could you continue to grow potatoes indoors as well?
Don’t see why not. I see you have started a Community garden…brilliant! I also see you have problems with Chipmunks and deer. It makes our rabbit and occasional badger problem look a bit tame! ( the badgers are only a problem in dry weather when they come to dig up the worms in our moister earth – and this being England those circumstances are infrequent!) The very best of luck with your community garden. I am growing a similar list of veg to you, with a few exceptions. I also grow a lot of different beans, to eat both fresh and dried. Gill
Good luck to you with your garden as well. My one daughter-in-law and I are the only two who like beans so I will be keeping that rather small.
What’s a “tonne bag” ?
how amazing! that’s a very interesting (and delicious) list of produce. When i lived in Dublin, a flatmate grew some zucchini in our back garden. I didn’t think it would grow in the city centre, but it grew like crazy!
You know, growing things in a city yard really isn’t that hard, a lot more people are doing it. Zucchini is one I considered, but so many people grow it around here and I don’t eat enough of it to justify planting it this year, I’ll just pick some up at the farmer’s markets to save.
Oh My Goodness … I think I’d love to just “graze” from your garden. I do hope everything comes up and does well. I also hope that you’re able to find a freezer. A couple of week’s ago on my Meet & Greet I featured a blog where a pretty cool video was posted about keeping deer and rabbits (as well as other critters) out of a garden. They had some good ideas: http://greenbugallnatural.com/wordpress/?p=524 I don’t know if they work but it’s certainly worth a try. I’m going to try potatoes and sweet potatoes this year in containers. Hopefully they’ll “work”. Love that you are thinking about the wildlife, too! Can’t wait to see updates throughout the summer about your garden!
Thanks for the tips. I have used human hair for years having been a hairdresser in my previous life, but I will try the dog hair as well this year. Between my son’s new puppy and the new dog grooming business I should be able to get quite a bit. I may try out the bag and CD idea as well especially on the apple trees we planted last year, the deer ate every leaf off each one as fast as they could. I would definitely share with you if you found yourself in my area!
I’m not familiar with cheddar cauliflower. Is it as good as it sounds? I was wondering how much of a problem you have with deer and other things eating you garden? I have tried many things over the years, and haven’t really found an effective deterrent for the deer. We have a regular herd of 10-20 that are in my yard most days, so I may just have too many to overcome. They have discouraged me enough that I’m down to only a couple of tomato plants from a large garden. However, I do try to help my brother-in-law with his garden. He doesn’t have as much of a problem as I do. I wish you great success with your garden this year.
We have 5-6 that are regulars in our field, this past year we were able to protect most things by draping the garden area with bird netting, using small wooden posts to prop it up off the plants themselves. Of course I always added human hair and had to add lime to some plants, (cabbage were being devoured by worms and chipmunks were eating all my strawberries). The apple trees were attacked the most by the deer, other things like the mums I planted in the fall were eaten by rabbits, I didn’t even know they ate mums!
I have one area where the rabbits won’t leave the mums alone. Another area beside the house seems safe from them. I didn’t have much luck with the human hair, but have never tried the dog hair. Maybe I will this year.
Yes, I’m hoping if I get dog hair it will help with the rabbits as well. We are also encouraging the neighbors with dogs to let them run about in the field to leave their scent behind. We only had one dog last summer that ran about, this year we have 3 dogs that live here plus my son’s dog which is here several times a week.
Have you tried fox urine for the rabbits? I’ve never had a rabbit problem, but I’ve heard it works wonderfully.
Cat, I just had to laugh at this, we have fox that run around the field, it doesn’t seem to bother our rabbit population at all. It’s funny our field is a strange place. The only time we ever saw or heard any disagreement between any of the animals was when a groundhog got too close to a den with a baby in it. The mother came out hissing to protect her young. Other than that we can see the deer, groundhog, fox, bunnies, chipmunks etc and they all stay away from each other. They will stop and watch what some of the others are doing, but none attack or chase off any of them. It’s quite entertaining, we can be in the middle of the field weeding or just enjoying a cool evening with all these different animals around us. They watch us as much as we watch them, but it’s a happy co-existence.
We tried fox urine to keep the squirrels out of the cherry trees a couple of summers in a row. The squirrels were not deterred, and it brought every unleashed dog in the neighborhood into our yard, sniffing around! It was actually pretty funny to watch, at least a dozen different dogs over the course of a few days, trying to find the elusive fox!
That would be funny!
Ha! So much for the fox urine “solution”!
You could try it, your cats would love to be entertained by the dogs it attracts.
Ha! As it is, Smoky spends half his day running wildly from window to window signaling the presence of some sort of animal “interloper” in the yard. Any more visitors might just push him (and me) over the edge!
Funny! We had a beagle once that did that too. When you live in the country any number of animals will attract a beagle. The best one was when he convinced me he needed out only to try to get this huge buck that was in the yard. Realizing he couldn’t reach the buck and seeing the buck looking at him as if he were nuts I went inside and watched from the safe vantage spot of behind the closed door.
Do you take part in a community garden – is it all folks from your building? What a huge variety!
Yes, I cleared the field behind the building last year with my landlord’s permission and began a community garden. We don’t have everyone involved in it yet, but I have heard a couple more tenants want to start growing a few things so maybe in a couple of years it will be what I envisioned for the space.
impressive – sounds like the garden my parents had when I was a kid
By the time I was growing up my grandparents had downsized their garden to have cucumbers, red raspberries, tomatoes and rhubarb. I’ve tried to experiment and get advise along the way since I didn’t have much to learn from growing up.
sounds like you learned well
Thanks, let’s hope
That should keep you busy! Good luck with your freezer search. I found our second freezer on Kijiji a couple of years ago for $5. They were moving and just wanted to get rid if it. That and it was scratched up a bit.
That was quite a deal. I would love to find one for $5. I don’t care about the scratches as I plan to paint it with home made chalkboard paint for the kids to use, and to disguise it some sitting in my one room.
Are you planning a garden as large as your last? I remember your tomato posts quite fondly, even saved a few of your tips for what to do if I am lucky enough to get a good harvest out of tomatoes.
Yes – it might even be a bit bigger this year. We’re still enjoying the fruits of or labours last year, but we need more potatoes. Six rows weren’t enough.
For my boys I’m sure I would never have enough. Both their wives have learned that they will easily eat 5 pounds them selves at one meal
Can’t tell by my boys that they are mostly German with just a touch of Irish in them can you?
Oh no, if I start giving my kids home grown I may be stuck providing all their potato needs, maybe I’ll teach them to grow their own once I try, probably this year too.
sounds amazing! We would plant more if we had the space for it
I’m fortunate, we have quite a bit of land that wasn’t being used behind the apartment building that I was allowed to clear of weeds.
Have you thought about growing potatoes in an old burlap sack? Seems a bit friendlier than an old plastic basket, we may even give it a go this year. Otherwise we are getting ready to plant peas and spring garlic, the snow has long melted and the gardening will soon be underway!
No, I hadn’t thought of that, thanks for a great idea. Good luck with your garden, I wish I could start planting outside but we still have a couple of months to go.
I have applied for an allotment but there is a waiting list of several years for one.
I’m sorry Alex, do you have any where you can stick a couple of plants for now until you get your allotment?
I can be creative and go plant something in the middle of the countryside.
That might work, I was thinking more along the lines of a patio area you could add a few pots. Tomatoes, herbs, greens, even peppers do well in pots.
That would work too
I’m adding eggplant to my list this year. It’s just a try and see sort of thing. Our summers are not exactly hot here, so I’m not sure if they’ll produce. I started a flat of lettuce, kale, broccoli, tomatoes, eggplant, and chard indoors 2 weeks ago. In our area, I can plant out, under a row cover, in early April. My row covers look like plastic tunnels. They add about 2-3 weeks growing time for our garden in early spring, and hasten things like lettuce, so we can begin to harvest for salads in May.
Our goal is to produce almost all of our fruits and veggies in summer and fall (exceptions being melons, peaches, nectarines and some heat loving veggies), and have some greens to pick in very early spring (watercress, sorrel, chard, kale, mustard greens and turnip greens are back now, from fall planting). With our mild winters in Seattle, I can pick as early as March, and as late as November, with some planning ahead. Spring perennials, like sorrel, chives, asparagus, and rhubarb, are always nice, as they’re often ready to harvest before anything newly planted.
I’ve done potatoes in large barrels before. They don’t produce as well as in the ground, but it’s better than nothing.
Good luck with your garden plans.
I’ve had mixed luck with eggplant, but my best results have come when it’s in a hot sunny spot. Denver is a LOT sunnier and hotter than the Pacific northwest, but my advice is to choose the warmest, sunniest spot you’ve got. A south facing slope is ideal. Good luck!
My plan is to plant on black plastic to warm the soil, and cover with a clear plastic row cover that I’ll start the eggplant under, then open the ends for ventilation through the summer. I don’t know if this will work, but it’s a just try and see thing, as I love eggplant!
Good luck with your garden as well. I know there is always a trade off between a warmer climate and having all out winter, but I would be so disappointed if I couldn’t get local peaches and melons!
It’s funny, I had heard growing potatoes in a barrel/basket gave you more potatoes than from the ground. Maybe it depends on what kind of soil you have?
There are things I’d like to plant this year that I just don’t have the energy to start such as eggplant and zucchini. Neither of these are big with my family and I don’t eat a lot of them so I decided to just get a few of each at the market instead and use more of the space outdoors that I have for the things that would cost me more to purchase from the markets. Fruit is one of the costliest which is why I want to grow a lot of fruit.
Definitely, on the cost of fruit. I think we have saved the most by growing so much of our fruit. I cringe when I see apples at 99 cents a pound or higher, when they grow so well in our area. And I think the berries are far superior when you can pick them at their peek, instead of ones picked early so they stay firm an extra couple of days to market.
I desperately had a craving for grapes today. They were on sale for $1.98 a pound! Fruit is definitely more expensive than vegetables around here.
I’m hoping for a better year in the garden, but I fear the weather report just said that unless the mountains get 8 more FEET of snow in the next few weeks (snowball’s chance in you know where) we’re probably looking at severe watering restrictions and the worst drought since the horrible year of 2002 when you practically couldn’t go outside because of all the smoke from the forest fires. Sigh.
But, I guess I’ll just have to do a better job of mulching, step up my drip irrigation systems, and maybe try some shading or something and just see what happens. Last year even the hot weather stuff did poorly because apparently when it’s too hot the plants don’t set on fruit. I’m probably not even gonna attempt anything cruciferous like cabbage, kale, broccoli and the like. Even in a good year it just gets too hot too soon and there’s no way to protect them from the invading aphid army.
I usually plant spinach in the fall and then winter it over, but this year it was just too dry and it all died. I couldn’t bring myself to haul water out there once the hose was shut off. But I’m trying again and have a new batch of spinach seeds in the ground – we’ll see if it gets big enough to eat before it bolts. Peas are going in today or tomorrow – it’s 70 degrees today and they’re saying 74-75 tomorrow. It’s great for biking, but feels a bit ominous as far as the garden (and environment in general) is concerned.
You are having the March weather we had last year. Today the high has been 27, and we are barely going to be above freezing for the weekend and early part of next week. Again, I am reminded of how much water Colorado has to ship to other states, even Mexico. It’s a real shame that you may have to live with drought conditions when your state has so much it could keep.
I was living in Arizona, just outside Phoenix, in 2002. It was crazy, we were hearing about Colorado’s drought and the people around me weren’t conserving a drop of water. I just couldn’t understand the mentality that allows people to waste water when none of what they use comes from their own area.
I saw an article on the Simplicity Institute where they were showing using sheets to cover the area over the gardens held up by poles or tall sticks (like a canopy) to give them the shade they need in the extreme heat, while it may not be the prettiest solution, maybe you could rig something like that up for your garden beds.
One of the neighbors thinks she knows everything about gardening, she refuses to accept advice from the older neighbors who grew up farming, we are currently shaking our heads wondering what she is doing. She tarped over her raised beds to keep the snow from getting to them. She doesn’t have anything wintering over in them, and all we can think is how much water it will take to get her beds ready for planting as they will be so dry from getting no precipitation on them all winter.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you that the predictions are wrong.
I hope you have more luck with actually eating your produce than I did! The taste of home grown vegetables is so much better than what you can buy in most stores and fresher too. I’m not familiar with edamame and ground cherries, what are they similar to?
Edamame is another name for soy beans, and ground cherries is something I just found this year, instead of a tree they grow like ground cover, similar to strawberries which will making me being able to pick them much easier for me. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we have a good year for growing.