Week 1-3
Week 4-6
Here it is 5/30/12
6/11/12
Create a plan
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Tuesday, June 19, 2012 /
Once you have an idea of what your family eats most and what you would like to plant create a plan. Find a sunny location in your yard and measure out how much space you have. Our garden this year is 50' x 34'. We have a lot more room to grow but wanted to start small.
When trying to layout each plant there are two major things you need to know; average spacing needs for that plant as well as companion plantings.
Plant Spacing
http://www.postoilsolutions.org/documents/spacing.pdf
Companion Plants
| Plant | Companion(s) and Effects |
| Asparagus | Tomatoes, parsley, basil |
| Basil | Tomatoes (improves growth & flavor); said to dislike rue; repels flies & mosquitoes |
| Bean | Potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower, cabbage, summer savory, most other veggies & herbs |
| Bean (bush) | Sunflowers (beans like partial shade, unless you live up north, sunflowers attract birds & bees for pollination), cucumbers (combination of heavy and light feeders), potatoes, corn, celery, summer savory |
| Bee Balm | Tomatoes (improves growth & flavor). |
| Beet | Onions, kohlrabi |
| Borage | Tomatoes (attracts bees, deters tomato worm, improves growth & flavor), squash, strawberries |
| Cabbage Family (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi) | Potatoes, celery, dill, chamomile, sage, thyme, mint, pennyroyal, rosemary, lavender, beets, onions; aromatic plants deter cabbage worms |
| Caraway | Loosens soil; plant here and there |
| Carrot | Peas, lettuce, chives, onions, leeks, rosemary, sage, tomatoes |
| Catnip | Plant in borders; protects against flea beetles |
| Celery | Leeks, tomatoes, bush beans, cauliflower, cabbage |
| Chamomile | Cabbage, onions |
| Chervil | Radishes (improves growth & flavor). |
| Chive | Carrots; plant around base of fruit trees to discourage insects from climbing trunk |
| Corn | Potatoes, peas, beans, cucumbers, pumpkin, squash |
| Cucumber | Beans, corn, peas, radishes, sunflowers |
| Dead Nettle | Potatoes (deters potato bugs) |
| Dill | Cabbage (improves growth & health), carrots |
| Eggplant | Beans |
| Fennel | Most plants are supposed to dislike it. |
| Flax | Carrots, potatoes |
| Garlic | Roses & raspberries (deters Japanese beetle); with herbs to enhance their production of essential oils; plant liberally throughout garden to deter pests |
| Horseradish | Potatoes (deters potato beetle); around plum trees to discourage curculios |
| Hyssop | Cabbage (deters cabbage moths), grapes; keep away from radishes |
| Lamb's Quarters | Nutritious edible weeds; allow to grow in modest amounts in the corn |
| Leek | Onions, celery, carrots |
| Lemon Balm | Here and there in the garden |
| Marigold | The workhorse of pest deterrents; keeps soil free of nematodes; discourages many insects; plant freely throughout the garden. |
| Marjoram | Here and there in the garden |
| Mint | Cabbage family; tomatoes; deters cabbage moth |
| Nasturtium | Tomatoes, radish, cabbage, cucumbers; plant under fruit trees; deters aphids & pests of curcurbits |
| Onion | Beets, strawberries, tomato, lettuce (protects against slugs), beans (protects against ants), summer savory |
| Parsley | Tomato, asparagus |
| Pea | Squash (when squash follows peas up trellis), plus grows well with almost any vegetable; adds nitrogen to the soil |
| Petunia | Protects beans; beneficial throughout garden |
| Potato | Horseradish, beans, corn, cabbage, marigold, limas, eggplant (as a trap crop for potato beetle) |
| Pot Marigold | Helps tomato, but plant throughout garden as deterrent to asparagus beetle, tomato worm & many other garden pests |
| Pumpkin | Corn |
| Radish | Peas, nasturtium, lettuce, cucumbers; a general aid in repelling insects |
| Rosemary | Carrots, beans, cabbage, sage; deters cabbage moth, bean beetles & carrot fly |
| Rue | Roses & raspberries; deters Japanese beetle; keep away from basil |
| Sage | Rosemary, carrots, cabbage, peas, beans; deters some insects |
| Soybean | Grows with anything; helps everything |
| Spinach | Strawberries |
| Squash | Nasturtium, corn |
| Strawberry | Bush beans, spinach, borage, lettuce (as a border) |
| Summer Savory | Beans, onions; deters bean beetles |
| Sunflower | Cucumber |
| Tansy | Plant under fruit trees; deters pests of roses & raspberries; deters flying insects, also Japanese beetles, striped cucumber beetles, squash bugs; deters ants |
| Tarragon | Good throughout garden |
| Thyme | Here and there in garden; deters cabbage worm |
| Tomato | Chives, onion, parsley, asparagus, marigold, nasturtium, carrot, limas |
| Valerian | Good anywhere in garden |
| Wormwood | As a border, keeps animals from the garden |
| Yarrow | Plant along borders, near paths, near aromatic herbs; enhances essential oil production of herbs |
Once you have these two resources in hand its time to start flipping through your seed catalogs and laying out your garden. Below you will see what we started with this year. But remember, be flexible. You may have to make some adjustments along the way but at least you have a great starting point.
Do your homework
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Thursday, June 14, 2012 /
The first step to a great garden is research.
Whether you want to provide enough food for your family just for the season or be able to can enough to get through winter you first have to determine what you eat.
First take inventory.
I spent a month taking inventory on what we eat in terms of fruits and veggies, what we like and what we wish we had more of. I also reviewed prices at our local grocery store and farmers market to determine what we spend the most on. The spring starts us out with fresh asparagus, which has been growing like weeds in our front flower bed. Then strawberry season greets us with jar after jar of homemade jam. In the summer months we love to grill squash and egg plant, potatoes and peppers, corn on the cob and fresh green beans. And typically we end the season with roasted winter squash and warm pumpkin pies. With all this in mind I want to make these the devoted crops for our first year with a few extras thrown in to try out.
Second sustaining your family.
After taking inventory on what we eat next was to determine how much we would have to grow to provide for our family. While researching online I came across the Pennsylvania Victory Garden Handbook from 1944. It contained the following table which started as a preliminary guide.
You can read the entire book with the following link. http://www.earthlypursuits.com/VictoryGardHandbook/VGHv.htm
Since this is our first garden we had to scale back greatly from this chart but this gave us a new perspective as to how much food it takes for a person to survive for one year. It is also necessary to determine the average yield per plant which you can find on the table below.
You can visit the full document at the following link through Iowa State University http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM819.pdf
These guides as well as your knowledge of what your family consumes should provide you with enough information to get started on a plan.
Whether you want to provide enough food for your family just for the season or be able to can enough to get through winter you first have to determine what you eat.
First take inventory.
I spent a month taking inventory on what we eat in terms of fruits and veggies, what we like and what we wish we had more of. I also reviewed prices at our local grocery store and farmers market to determine what we spend the most on. The spring starts us out with fresh asparagus, which has been growing like weeds in our front flower bed. Then strawberry season greets us with jar after jar of homemade jam. In the summer months we love to grill squash and egg plant, potatoes and peppers, corn on the cob and fresh green beans. And typically we end the season with roasted winter squash and warm pumpkin pies. With all this in mind I want to make these the devoted crops for our first year with a few extras thrown in to try out.
Second sustaining your family.
After taking inventory on what we eat next was to determine how much we would have to grow to provide for our family. While researching online I came across the Pennsylvania Victory Garden Handbook from 1944. It contained the following table which started as a preliminary guide.
You can read the entire book with the following link. http://www.earthlypursuits.com/VictoryGardHandbook/VGHv.htm
Since this is our first garden we had to scale back greatly from this chart but this gave us a new perspective as to how much food it takes for a person to survive for one year. It is also necessary to determine the average yield per plant which you can find on the table below.
These guides as well as your knowledge of what your family consumes should provide you with enough information to get started on a plan.
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Wednesday, June 13, 2012 /
Victory Gardens...
what is a victory garden by definition:
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in United States,... during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. (as defined by wikipedia)
what a victory garden means to me:
Self-reliance. In today's society where jobs are hard to come by and the price of everything going up I want to get back to my ancestral roots and provide food for my family and my community on my land with my own two hands.
who I am and why I'm doing this:
My educational background is in architecture and have spent the last 5 years doing landscape design for commercial and residential clients. I have a passion for sustainability and lowering our impact on the environment.
My husband and I, both mid-westerners, met while attending college in Philadelphia where concrete is the norm. After 8 years out there we couldn't take it and packed up and traveled back to the mid-west. We eventually settled on a 1930's farm house in Michigan, which we have spent the last 358 days restoring. At this point we still have thousands of days left to go but are enjoying every minute... well almost every minute.
I have always been interested in living a more simple life. I was inspired by my great aunt and uncle who live in the U.P. with no electricity, no gas, no phone... nothing. They live off their land. Garden all their own food, cut all their own wood and live a simple and fulfilled life in a beautiful home... and I think I need to mention that they are now in their 80's. It is a lot of hard work but I found it to be peaceful.
We are starting our first garden together in our new home this year. Our goal is to provide food for ourselves during the summer/fall season along with canning and freezing enough to get through to next spring (along with a few rows extra to donate to our community). I'm sure our garden isn't big enough this year but we will make it larger in size each year until we reach our lot limit.
