The Modern "Victory Garden"

The strength and length of available sun is obviously ramping up significantly.   In addition, the arc of the sun in the sky has moved higher such that the sun is now starting to clear the tall trees that surround our property occassionally.     The greenhouse and back garden beds in particular are showing real appreciation for the infusion of solar energy.   The greenhouse plantings and trays of seedlings have just taken off this week.   In fact, I need to harvest the kale plantings soon and the onion seedlings really should be planted out into the garden this coming weekend.   A sure sign that spring has really arrived - is the rhubarb is up in force. 

I found the first spear of asparagus poking through the soil this past weekend too!    It’s small and does not show up well in a photo, but like the rhubarb it makes me happy as they are the first substantial crops of the early spring garden.      

The replacement raspberry plants were supposed to arrive on Friday but did not.   With my husband’s help we forged ahead despite that to largely finish up the raspberry patch rejuvenation project on Saturday.   The big thing still on the to do list (besides planting the replacement plants) was to construct the supports for the raspberry beds.   Together we got them constructed and installed in no time at all.    

Today, the raspberry plants finally arrived and I made a point to leave work on time so I could get home before dark and plant them up.   No pictures to share because it was getting dark by the time I finished, but they are all in.   Now the only task I have left to do on this spring project is to reinstall the drip irrigation hose down the bed of raspberries.   Hopefully these newest bare root plants will all break dormancy and help fill in the missing portions of the raspberry bed.         

It’s a good thing the early spring crops are taking hold and starting to produce.   The inventory of freezer items from the garden is getting down to a low level because we have been leaning on them so hard for months now.   The canned items are less depleted overall but certain items (like dilly green beans) have long been used up.   The pickled peppers on the other hand have been hardly touched.   They taste great but honestly, we prefer diced frozen (roasted and raw) peppers and I am having a hard time finding ways to work them into our menus.   If you have any great ideas to share on this – I would love to hear them.   The late fall/winter crops are essentially done for the year with the exception that I still have some over wintered carrots to harvest, and there are parsnips still in the ground too - but they are going to seed and need to just be pulled.   I think the preserved supply level was just about right this year and we have not been wanting for much of anything as a result.   The only storage/preserved crop that is running out far too soon this year are the onions.   2009 was a rather bad production year for onions for some reason.   We used up the storage onions a while ago and have been using my freezer supply of diced onions but they too are fast running out and the green onions in the garden and greenhouse are still too small yet to harvest.   We may have to actually reduce down (possibly even stop) the onion usage for cooking for a while.   Now that is a true hardship because I use onions in just about everything I cook it seems.   Hopefully the green onions will get a kick-start from the increasing sun energy and I will not have to endure the onion drought for too long.   To avoid having this problem in 2010, I am planting significantly more onions and hedging my bets by planting not only onions started from seeds, but also sets, and my usual multiplier onion patch as well.   Keep your fingers crossed for me that 2010 is a better onion year altogether.            

Got any good ideas on how to incorporate pickled peppers into our evening meals?

This coming weekend is a fairly big one in my seed-starting schedule.   Mid February is when I start my spring crops of broccoli and swiss chard, and the main crops of celery and tomatoes.   The tomatoes are the biggest part of that mix because I am not only starting seedlings for my own garden, but for my sister’s garden as well.   Over the past several year’s it has become a bit of a tradition that I also gift my staff at work with free tomato (and later pepper) starts.   That tradition started because (at a minimum) I start at least twice as many plants as I actually want to go into the garden.   I substantially over plant (particularly tomatoes) because there are so many opportunities for seedling death along the journey from seed to productive plant – poor germination, seedling diseases, repotting shock, and death from problems once the seedlings actually go into the garden proper.   Not to mention the occasional mishap death such as the time I accidentally tripped while carrying a large tray of beautiful seedlings – flipping them over so they landed upside down and crushed the entire lot of them.   It happens.   Some years you lose a lot along the way, other years hardly any.   So I mitigate my risk by planting at least twice as much as I need and then once I am sure all my needs (and my sister’s) have been taken care, I give the rest of the seedlings away to my staff, co-workers and several friends.   This annual spring plant give away has become so popular that I plant even more than the doubled amount, just to be sure I will not disappoint by not having any extras.         

For 2010 I need 36 tomato plants (composed of several varieties) to cover my sister’s needs and my own.   I will be planting a total of 144 plants (or 2 full trays of twelve 6-packs) to provide for our actual needs, loss protection, and the big plant give away.   In addition, I will also be starting 24 broccoli, 24 celery (2 varieties), and 24 swiss chard plants – basically doubling the amount of each that I actually need.   Combined, I will have three full trays of 72 planting cells each.   In preparation for this weekend, I set the trays out and filled them with the empty plastic starter cells.    

I have enough plastic starter cells for this current wave of seed starting, but am getting very low on them.   I reuse them over and over again, but occasionally they just get so worn out or damaged that I have to discard them.   Apparently, there has been enough attrition that I am getting down to a somewhat low supply of them.   I may have to stop by the local nursery center soon and pick up a few to shore up my inventory again.   As for larger sized pots used later for repotting, I have quite a big stash of those due to the generosity of several people who know I use them and bring me their extras - which I then rinse out and reuse (many times!).

Lots of seeds to get started this weekend, but there are also lots of seedlings that are in the shop from the first couple of waves of seed starting.   The kale and Chinese cabbages that I started in mid December will be moved out to the green house this coming weekend where they will permanently take up residence.   The Merlot lettuce that I planted last Saturday from seeds sent to me by Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog – are showing some really good emergence.   As of this evening (Wednesday), all the cells have at least one plant emerging.   

The super early tomato crop (Siletz) planted on January 22nd is coming along nicely.   They are forming their first true leaves.                       

The onions (Walla Walla and Candy) that were planted on January 17th worried me a little because initially the germination was not strong in two out of the four containers.   They seem to have gotten with the program though and all four trays now have a good stand of onion seedlings in them.

The lettuces (Super Gourmet Blend) and pac choi (Ching Chiang) that were planted at the same time as the onions are also coming along well.                      

Not pictured but also doing well – are the kale (Improved Dwarf Siberian) and cabbages (Tronchuda and Savoy Ace) that I started on January 30th. 

Things get a lot busier from here on out.   The shop growlight set up will be full up with seed trays, the greenhouse will start absorbing the overflow as I shuffle older plants out of the way to make room for the next wave of seed starting, and the garden bed prep tasks will ramp up in preparation for the first early crop plantings.                            

For those of you starting your own seedlings this year, how are things progressing for you?

I was hoping to be able to make significant progress on turning over the large 40-foot long by 4-foot wide bed of crimson clover green manure/cover crop this weekend.   Unfortunately, the weather is not being very cooperative.   Woke up to a drizzling rain that is leaving everything too wet to mess with.    Hopefully, I will get a break either today or tomorrow that is long enough and dry enough to allow me to make at least some progress on this task before the weekend is out.    

Spent some time in the shop this morning bottom watering the trays of seedlings I have going under lights, used scissors to snip away extra seedling sprouts from each cell pack to allow the stronger plant in each cell to grow on, and I did a little rearranging under the lights to make room for the next round of starts that I was scheduled to get started today.    I have two trays each of Candy and Walla Walla onion seedlings.   Strangely, one tray of each variety is sprouting beautifully and the other is looking rather spotty in germination.    Here’s a tray of the Candy onion seedlings which are doing quite well.  You can see a tray of Walla Walla onions behind it that are doing less than spectacularly in emerging.                     

But just one over from it is another tray of Walla Walla’s that are doing just fine and are giving me reasonably good emergence.                                  

They are from the same seed packs so it is not seed issue, same germinating soil mix, same bottom watering regimen, and I have been rotating them around to ensure varied exposure to the overhead lights.   Regardless, I am getting more than enough of both varieties to sprout and grow that it really is inconsequential… just a bit of a puzzler.                

Started 6 six-packs of seeds this morning - following my seed starting schedule.   Planted 2 six-packs of kale (Improved Siberian), 2 six-packs of cabbage (Tronchuda), 1 six-pack of pac choi (Ching Chiang), and 1 six-pack of cabbage (Savoy Ace).   There were covered with a humidity dome cover and put on the heat mat to germinate.                    

The kale and Chinese cabbages I started in December are coming along nicely.   I took them outside to give them a thorough watering and took this picture to show how much they have continued to grow.                             

In about two weeks, I will move them out to the greenhouse and plant them up in one of the large containers.   By mid February the sun strength and day length will decidedly be on the upswing and they should be able to grow on in the protected environment of the greenhouse without the aid of lights.     

Ground hog day is coming up on February 2nd and Punxsutawney Phil will once again make his appearance to predict if we are in for six more weeks of winter.   I don’t take much stock in the weather forecasting skills of a giant rodent, but Groundhog day does have some significance for the vegetable gardener.   February 2nd is not only “Groundhog Day” but also marks the mid-point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox – a point in time also known as Imbolc.    By the time February 2 arrives, we have completed the most difficult portion of our ascent out of winters darkest point (December 21st – winter solstice), and are heading towards the longed for beginning of spring (March 21st – spring equinox). It’s a time of optimism because the low point of winter is behind us and we can feel, taste, and see the promise of spring just around the corner.   It’s also the point in time where items that I have overwintered in the garden or the green house begin to respond to the increasing sun strength and day length by putting on a more substantial amount of growth.   It’s truly the turning point of winter and I look forward to it each year.

Popped out to the shop this evening after dinner and checked in on the Chinese cabbages and kale plants I repotted last Saturday morning, and the seed trays I started Sunday of pac choi, lettuces, and onions.   I took the humidity dome cover off of the seedling trays and raised up the bank of lights, so that I could take this picture of the first seedlings to emerge for 2010.  The pac choi and lettuces are sprouting fast.                                    

There are a few onions germinated as well, but they are just barely getting started with emergence.   I popped the cover back on and will leave it there through tomorrow - probably remove it on Friday if enough seedlings have emerged.   Leaving the plastic tray covers on too long is a common and often fatal mistake.   The high humidity and heat retention created by the dome really helps with speedy germination, but is a breeding ground for fungus and disease.   I try to remove the cover as soon as the majority of the seedlings are emerged to get them into good air circulation quickly.         

The seedlings I started in mid December of kale and Chinese cabbages were four weeks old this past weekend and really needed to be repotted into larger containers.   When I popped them out of the starter cell pots to repot them, the roots were definitely looking crowded.   Typically when you repot seedlings they will suffer a little from transplant shock and languish a few days before getting on with their growing process.  But not these plants!   I was pleasantly surprised at how much they had grown in just the past few days - despite the indignities of having their roots messed with.   The kale looks quite happy…          

 …and the Chinese cabbage is down right giddy with new growth already! 

They obviously needed the fresh soil and additional root room.   These should be ready about mid February for planting up in the containers in the greenhouse.  

Healthy young plants and emerging seedlings always lift my spirits up.   There is nothing quite like a splash of verdant new growth to brighten up a dark winter evening.

We have had a long string of record setting cold days this past week.   Approximately 10 days of over night lows of 18 degrees or lower and day time temperatures that did not make it up to freezing level.   The coldest temp I observed at our place was 12 degrees.   While we get these cold snaps occasionally, they usually happen in late January and early February – not in December.   I was not as proactive in response to the forecast warnings as I should have been.   I missed my opportunity to put some grow tunnel covers up over the outside beds at the outset of the cold snap.   There really are not very many crops in the outside beds that are not winter hardy and/or belowground in soil storage (carrots and parsnips).   However, by not covering the semi hardy crops I pretty much sentenced them to death by freezing.   I have been going to work and returning home at night in the dark, so it was not until Saturday morning that I was able to make a good assessment of the damage.                                         

The celery had been going for an extremely long period of time this fall, but the extreme cold (and for a period of many days) definitely finished them off.      

The lettuces are similarly (not surprisingly) completely taken down by the freeze as well.   The kale behind them looks a little ragged too but holds the promise of a potential bounce back.

The brussel sprouts have just a few more harvests of sprouts left on them.    They were pretty frozen on Saturday morning but are such hardy plants that I was not despairing of them being down for good.             

This afternoon (Sunday) the temperature actually moved up to 40 degrees and while the ground is still frozen solid, the plants had a chance to unthaw.     As I expected, the brussel sprouts lost a few of the lower leaves, but the sprouts are fine and I was able to harvest a nice amount for dinner this evening.                          

The kale plants bounced back too.

And the January King cabbages are okay as well.                              

These are a really tough cabbage plant and are excellent for over wintering as a result.    The jury is still out on the Beira Tronchuda cabbages.   Unfortunately, the three remaining Ruby Ball cabbages were ruined by the freeze and had to be removed and composted.                 

In the unheated greenhouse, I lost a few of the lettuce plants and the outer leaves on some of the swiss chard, but overall the plants seem to survive fairly well.       

Recognizing I have only a handful of greens producing plants that have survived, I decided to get the grow light going today and start a few cell packs of lettuces, kale, and Chinese cabbages.   Before doing any seed starting, I changed out the grow lights in the light fixture as they were several years old and were losing some of their intensity as a result.   I then planted up four six packs using the very last of my germinating soil mix.               

These were then covered with a plastic dome.                    

And then placed on the heat mat under the grow lights.                     

Overall, considering I did not do much of anything to protect the outside plantings, I was fortunate in that so many of them seem to have survived intact.

There are many of us who have limited space availability for food production gardening and yet still manage to produce a tremendous amount of our own food supply.   This post is part of a blog series devoted to exploring the many techniques available to optimize food production gardening.   There are quite a few topics that relate to this pursuit - including (among others):

• Crop Selection
• Intensive Planting Practices
• Season Extension
• Soil Management & Fertility

The blog series was kicked off by focusing on Crop Selection.   Now we are exploring Intensive Planting Practices.   Intensive planting techniques generally include a combination of planting in raised beds (either double dug or otherwise greatly amended and improved), closely spaced planting, intercropping and succession planting, and the use of vertical growing techniques – all for the purpose of producing the same amount of food in approximately 20% of the space used by traditional row gardening practices.   Last week we focused in on the topic of Raised Beds.   This week we will keep moving through the intensive planting techniques by spending some time discussing closely spaced planting practices.   

Closely Spaced Planting –                   

Taking full advantage of the greater planting area provided by a raised wide bed is the next critical technique of intensive planting.   The idea of closely spaced planting is to take the one-dimensional row planting process and make it two-dimensional by planting the raised bed using within-row spacing in all directions.   This greatly increases the quantity of a crop that can be produced in a given planting area. The plants are spaced such that when mature, their leaves should just barely touch.   This close spacing provides an additional benefit (besides efficient space utilization) in that it provides a mini-climate and living mulch that reduces weed growth and helps hold moisture in the soil.                                  

For those who use the square foot gardening techniques of planting in grids this should not be a new concept.     The square foot method recommends using a grid of squares dividing every square foot into a number of sub-squares appropriate to the spacing of the crop being grown.    Similarly, the Grow Biointensive method employs a hexagonal pattern using various hexagonal and triangular shaped planting jigs with the spacing dictated by what is appropriate for the specific crop.     Wide row gardening uses a scattered broadcasting of seeds that is later thinned using a common garden rake (if needed).   Another variation I have seen is to just plant a traditional row across the width of the bed using the optimal spacing between each seed, then mark the distance from that row to the next row that gives the optimal plant distance and then plant another row and keep doing this until the bed area is planted up.   This year, I have seen one more method that achieves this result – Annies Granny has created her own tissue paper seed mats which do a great job of ensuring optimal spacing.            

I personally most often use a combination of the square foot grid system and wide row block planting.   I have also used the multiple rows method a time or two but it is not my usual method.   My bed widths and lengths are all in increments of 4 feet - so it makes it very easy to employ the square foot method of using a grid of squares and sub- squares.   I use block planting for large beds of spinach, carrots, garden peas, and bush beans.    In this next picture, you can see some of both methods.   The broccoli (with the copper collars) in the foreground is planted in 1 foot square grids.   Behind it is a block planting of spinach.                                       

This is one area of my gardening that I can stand to most improve upon and as such, it represents my best opportunity to further increase my yields.   Specifically, I am guilty of doing two things:

1. When I use broadcast block seeding for spinach and carrots I tend to not do the required rake thinning or I am not aggressive enough with it when I do.   The consequence is that I often end up with areas in the bed that are too closely spaced, which causes plants to be small and not reach their potential. 
2. My trenching method for planting potatoes produces a reliable crop of potatoes each year but it leaves a wide section between each trench that is essentially unused.   I should be getting much more production out of each 100 square feet of growing bed than I currently am.   For example, in 2009 I had 208 square feet of bed area planted in potatoes and I got a yield of 120 pounds (would have been about 140 but I lost some to late blight).   This works out to approximately 70 pounds per 100 square feet of growing bed.   An average expected production for potatoes per 100 square feet of intensively planted growing bed should be 200 lbs!   Obviously, I can do better than I am on this crop.

My plan to address these issues is to continue using broadcast seeding for beans and peas because the size of the seed makes it very easy to do a good job of spacing with them and I have had no issues with those two crops.   For the spinach and carrots, I may give Annies Granny’s tissue paper seed mats a try or go the route of the multiple rows method.   I am not a fan of the square foot grid method for large plantings of these closely spaced crops because it is just too time consuming to do a large area in this manner.   As for the potatoes, I am going to give a deep grid planting a try.   John Jeavon’s recommends just planting potatoes as you double dig, placing the seed potatoes on the top of the lower trench of loosened and amended soil and then covering them with the soil from the next trench’s upper level as you work your way down the bed. He recommends spacing 9 inches and then offsetting the next trench to create the Biointensive hexagonal grid pattern.   I think it would be simpler to use a 12-inch spacing and just do a typical square foot gardening squared grid.   I am not sure if I will do a full double dig on the potato beds, but at a minimum I will do a full u-bar aeration and then plant them deeply on the grid spacing.    I will likely need to add a heavy mulch layer to get full production out of the bed since I will not be backfilling a trench.   I will have to think about what to use for that layering because when I have used straw for that in the past, I ended up with an explosion in the slug population.                       

Do you use closely spaced planting techniques? 

In order to thrive, plants need to be in soil that is within a certain range of PH levels.   If it is too high (alkaline) or too low (acidic) for that plant then it will not be able to avail itself of required nutrients from the soil.   Most vegetables and fruits prefer a range from 6.0 to 7.0 with some of the more notable exceptions being potatoes (which prefer a slightly more acidic soil of 5.5 to 6.0) and blueberries / cranberries (which prefer a much more acidic condition of 4.0 to 5.0).                   

Each year in the fall, I do a check of the garden PH levels to determine if adjustments are needed.   Last year when I did this, most of the regular garden beds indicated a need to have some dolomitic lime added to raise the PH level and the blueberry / cranberry areas indicated a strong need for sulfur to be added to lower the PH level.   The adjustment indicated for the blueberries and cranberries was pretty significant so a complete correction was not attempted but rather a step down in the PH level with a plan to continue adjustments in the future.   Adjusting more than 1 point in a given time period can cause undue stress on plants and it is generally advisable to try and improve the PH level over a period of time rather than to attempt extreme adjustments all at once.       

There are two small (relatively inexpensive) tools that I would recommend every gardener have on hand.   One is a good soil thermometer.   The other is a soil PH meter.                                 

They are both readily available at most garden centers.   There are also chemical PH test kits available as well.   Not all meters are of the same quality and reliability.   I have had a few “duds” in my time that read the same no matter which bed it was placed in!   The one in the picture above is the meter I currently use and have found it to be reasonably accurate.   However, if I get readings that indicate an adjustment is needed, I always go back and do a second check to verify the results before proceeding to do an amendment process adjusting PH levels.   In addition to the meters and test kits, you can also take soil samples and submit them to your local cooperative extension service office.  For a small processing fee they will test your soil for PH and nutrient levels etc.,   If you contact them they will provide instructions on how to do this and where to submit the soil for testing.   Here is a link that will help you find a local office near you if you are interested in this.

http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/                                       

To test soil PH using a meter with probe:

• Always thoroughly clean the probe before and after each insertion in soil.   My meter comes with a scrubber pad to initially clean and prep it - I then use a dry paper towel between tests and afterwards to dry it off before putting it away.
• If the soil is soaked from rain then insert the probe several inches (more than 4 inches) into the soil and wait one minute to take the  reading.   If you get a very strange reading, the probe is likely touching a bit of debris.  Pull it out, clean it, and try again somewhere close to the original insertion point. 
• If the soil is somewhat dry, dig a small hole and remove any debris such as rocks or twigs, pour distilled water (preferable) or rain water (second best) into the hole until the soil is thoroughly wet.   Then insert probe and allow one minute before reading.
• For garden beds, take several readings at various places in the bed area and determine the range of readings indicated.   Soil will be different throughout a bed due to a variety of factors and can vary significantly from one part of a bed to another.

This afternoon I took the time to test all of my garden beds and more permanent container plantings.    Including the potted blueberries…                

…. and every one of the other garden beds too.                        

The readings were placed in a spreadsheet that compared those results to the desired PH range for the bed and it’s current or expected future use.     

It appears that all of my adjustments to increase  PH last year worked very well and there are no indications that I should add lime to any of the garden beds at all this year.   However, the beds that will hold the potato patches next year and the cranberry and blueberry planting areas all need additions of garden sulfur to reduce the PH level.   The blueberry and cranberry areas in particular need rather significant reductions still.   I will wait to do the potato beds next spring, as they currently have crops in those beds that prefer the current PH range.   I went ahead and applied garden sulfur to the blueberry and cranberries today though.        

Follow the instructions carefully on the bag regarding how much to apply for a given plant or garden area to adjust the PH level.   If I am adjusting PH upwards, I like to use dolomitic lime  - as it adds calcium and magnesium while also increasing PH.   Again whatever product you need to use, follow the directions carefully on how much to apply.

Have you tested the PH levels in your garden?

I am constantly working to obtain the greatest food production possible from our limited growing area.   I don’t have the luxury of expanding my garden much beyond what I currently have - because it would require cutting down significant portions of our wood lot to provide needed sun exposure.   We like our trees and the beautiful setting they create for our home, so that is not a good option.   Instead, I work with the area of our property that gets adequate sun exposure and use various techniques to optimize food production therein.   There are many of us who have limited space availability for food production gardening and yet manage to produce a tremendous amount of our own food supply.   Over the next several weeks, I thought I would devote some of my blogging time to exploring the many techniques available to optimize food production gardening.   There are quite a few topics that relate to this pursuit - including (among others):

• Crop Selection
• Intensive Planting Practices
• Season Extension
• Soil Management & Fertility

To kick this blog series off, I will focus today on Crop Selection.   Our choice in what to plant greatly determines the success we will experience in producing a greater amount of our own food supply.   There are several things to consider in this process.                                                

Minimizing Waste – Using limited and valuable garden bed space to grow items that ultimately end up not being eaten is contrary to the pursuit of optimizing the garden’s food production capabilities.   I suspicion we have all been guilty at some time or another of growing items that we only marginally like and end up either letting it go to seed or rot on the vine because we just are not interested in using it or even preserving it for later use.   To the extent we can avoid such waste by choosing crops more carefully, the greater our food garden’s actual production will be.   For these reasons, I generally do not grow eggplant, cauliflower, bitter greens, and only occasionally (and in modest amounts) grow beets and kohlrabi.   For the 2010 garden season, I intend to pass on growing beets and kohlrabi altogether to make greater room for more valued crops.                 

 Nutrition Per Square Foot - Some crops are much more dense nutritionally and provide greater value accordingly.     Some particular noteworthy garden produced “Super Foods" include; spinach, blueberries, broccoli, cranberries, kale, winter squash & pumpkins, dried beans, tomatoes, garlic, and onions.   Virtually all plants and fruits are of great values nutritionally, but these particular items are significant in their contribution to good health and should be given some extra consideration in the process of choosing crops for the home food production garden.   Of course, if you do not particularly like to eat any of these items,  then it is wise to remember the goal of minimizing waste by not planting items that will not be fully used – no matter how good for you they are supposed to be!   Luckily, I happen to love all of these super foods and so they have a place in my garden.                         

Yield in Pounds Per 100 Square Feet of Growing Area - If your growing space is limited, then producing as much as possible from that available area is important in the pursuit of producing a greater amount of our own food supply.   I have added to this site a table of average crop yields for a selection of vegetables and grains grown in intensively planted beds.   It gives a good approximation of yield for planning purposes based on a number of assumptions.   Specifically, non-hybrid plant varieties in ordinary soil with sufficient water are assumed.   Obviously actual yields will vary greatly based on actual variety selection, soil condition, sun exposure, and climate etc.   It is quite possible with excellent soil and growing conditions that yields can be even greater than these averages.   You can see from this table that certain crops provide a better yield per 100 square feet of intensively planted growing bed area.   One of the astounding revelations is that chard actually out produces potatoes!

If you adhere to the food pyramid guidelines and serving sizes then you would need 456 lbs of vegetables, 365 lbs of fruits, 250 lbs of grains (wheat, corn, oats, and rice etc), and 159 lbs of protein foods (lean meats, dried beans, dairy, & eggs) for one adult person.    My primary focus and goal is to provide all of our family’s vegetable needs.   To do this and meet the suggested quantities of the food pyramid for my family of two adults and one (almost adult) teenager - I would need to produce 1,368 pounds of vegetables.   Currently, I do produce all of our family’s vegetable needs in that we do not buy any vegetables other than those we consume in meals eaten out (such as restaurants, potlucks, or when eating at someone else’s place).   Obviously, we are not eating the recommended amounts of vegetables as I am only producing between 600 to 750 pounds of produce a year and that does not come anywhere close to the recommended 1,358 pounds of vegetables!   Our daughter will be heading off to college in less than a year’s time so our numbers will be more closely aligned to the recommended amount for two individuals but we will need to change our eating habits too - basically including greater volumes of veggies and lowering our meat consumption.   I will never be able to grow all of our fruit needs on this property given our space limitations, but I can get to approximately 50% with wise planting and crop selection.   My recent additions of bush pie cherries, raspberries, and more cranberries and strawberries should help me work towards meeting that goal.   I need to give consideration to other fruit options that might further increase our production.                

Climate & Growing Conditions – Planting crops that naturally do well in your specific climate and growing conditions will give you a big jump in production.   Devoting a great deal of bed space to plants that fail to thrive because they are out of their preferred element is squandering valuable bed space.   Some crops are just plain worth the extra effort to grow, but the trade off of production capability should be factored into the decision to grow such high maintenance crops.   Similarly, where you grow items in your garden can also greatly influence production capability.   I have one section of garden that gets very good sun and this area is where I plant all the sun intensive crops.   The other section of the garden is bordering on marginal sun exposure and if I want to optimize food production, I need to confine myself to planting more shade tolerant crops there – such as greens and carrots.                                                 

Variety Selection – Carefully choosing varieties that are noted for good production, disease resistance, and with days to maturity that match your area’s growing season and conditions is very important to the pursuit of increasing food production capabilities.   If you are interested in seed saving, then open pollinated varieties will be an important factor in the decision.   However, if you are not planning to save a specific item’s seed, you may find that a hybrid variety offers more vigor and production potential than it’s open pollinated cousins.   That is certainly not always the case since many heirloom varieties meet or exceed their hybrid counterparts in production yield, but in certain circumstances a hybrid is the better performer and should be given some consideration when selecting a variety to grow.                                        

From my perspective, these are some of the more critical elements of crop selection that heavily influence the garden’s utility and productivity.   As I begin the process of choosing crops for the 2010 garden, I intend to think about these considerations and hopefully wind up with even better results next year as a consequence.

Spent a large part of the day in the house doing some cooking and baking.   Among other things, I made a large batch of whole-wheat dinner rolls.   I have not made any kneaded yeast breads in quite a while, but despite the lack of practice they turned out beautiful - light and soft textured.   Enjoyed some of them with dinner tonight but the rest are destined to be frozen in small batches for fast weekday meals.   I also baked a peach pie today using one of the two packages of frozen peach slices.                      

I did get into the garden for a bit today.   In fact, this afternoon I harvested the last big head of Steins Late Flat Dutch cabbage and some carrots.            

Half the head of cabbage and all of the carrots were used to make a vegetable side dish for tonight’s dinner.   Not sure what I will eventually end up doing with the remaining half a head of cabbage – but it keeps very well in the fridge so there is no rush to use it.                            

While outside I took a picture of the broccoli patch.  It is getting close to being done for the season.   There is at least one more harvest of side shoots to be made before pulling the plants up and composting them.            

I have been harvesting from these broccoli plants for several months now, so I definitely got good utility out of the mid-summer planting.   You can probably tell from this photo that we have been getting a lot of rain and wind over the last several days.   The garden and yard are both littered with leaves, evergreen needles, and small branches and everything is thoroughly soaked.   If it ever dries out a bit, I will need to do some raking and clean up work.   For now though, the weather encourages more time inside the house and a little less time outside in the garden.                           

However, despite the rainy, cold, and wet weather, our hardy fuchsia bushes are still blooming prolifically.                                   

You can see the red ones in the background, but these dark and light pink ones are really very exotic.   I love these bushes because they grow reliably year after year and have such showy blooms from the late summer well into late fall.   At some point we will get our first hard frost or freeze and these will be knocked down.   Until then I intend to enjoy them.                        

All in all it was not a very exciting Saturday, but enjoyable nonetheless because it was slow paced and yet productive too.   Sometimes it is nice to just putter in the kitchen for a large part of the day.

There are certain varieties of vegetables that I grow which have earned a place in my "favorites" list and while I may not choose to grow them each and every year, they are sure to return in future seasons.   One of those favorites is Ruby Ball cabbage.   It is a beautiful red cabbage (actually purple but it is referred to as a "red" variety).   What I like about this particular cabbage is that it produces really round solid heads that do not have a large core.   In addition, they are a beautiful plant which is an added bonus.   But best of all, the flavor is sweeter and milder than many cabbage varieties.   Here is a photo of one of the Ruby Ball cabbages that I have growing in my garden.                                      

What did you grow this year (or wish you had) that is a personal favorite?