More on Planning a Grocery Garden

You are reading this article because you need to provide more nutritious and healthy produce for your family. Okay, so it's April and just a little bit late for the planning, but it's better late and never!

Take a look at your seed and gardening catalogs. We love pouring over them, but not just because we love to look at the lovely pictures, and envision harvesting the food and setting our table. We know there's a very real chance that the only food we can afford in the nearby (unfortunately) future, that is healthy and non-contaminated, is what we grow.

So it's time to start asking ourselves (and yourselves) questions:

• How much room do you have to plant? Step outside, and look around. Potted tomatoes and peppers might do well along the driveway. That empty spot on the front "lawn" might love an apple or filbert tree. What about windowsills that get 4-8 hours of sunlight in the Summer? Or a corner of your living room where you can place a grow-light? Can you share some space in a neighbor's yard or in a community garden? Look at all of your possibilities.
• Are you willing to learn - not just about what to plant, but how to increase a harvest, keep out pests, prevent diseases, PLUS preserving your harvest by canning, dehydating, freezing, and so forth.
• Do you have the money? Sure, you MIGHT be able to do a bare-bones garden for almost no money, but can you feed your family on possibilities?
• Think about the food groups: starch/grain, vegetables, fruits, calcium, proteins, and fats. Can you provide a good variety in each? Make a list. Figure out how many different plants you can grow to provide enough healthy variety to your diet so you don't get bored with just what you've grown/produced.
• What you can't grow, can you provide in bulk? (Wheat, Rice, Salt, Olive Oil, etc)
• What about non-edibles, like cotton, bayberry bushes for candle wax, etc.... have you considered them?

Get the family together and talk about this. No, it's not too late to start planning. No matter where in the world you live, you can start a garden at any time. Even inside! So check back here often for solid information, but get going on your backyard grocery!

(Note: we live in the Northern Hemisphere, in Colorado in the United States, so most of our information will be geared to Summer (June, July, August). Refigure it for your location, if necessary.)

Our Seed Order Jan 2009

Okay, we placed our first order of seeds with "Seeds of Change" and they arrived very quickly. Here's what we ordered:

PACK, CORN, SWEET, BLACK AZTEC
S10626 - bought 2 packs at $3.29 = $6.58
From their website (with editing):
Black Aztec Sweet Corn
Grows 4-5 feet
This remarkable variety was introduced in the 1860s by seedsman John Gregory. Classic, vigorous sweet and flour corn produces 8" ears with white kernels during the milk (eating) stage, then a deep blue black when dry. / So, good for roasting fresh, and left to dry on the plant, good for storing to make cornbread or chips. / Planting Depth: 1/2" / Soil Temp. for Germ.: 60-85°F / Days to Germ.: 4-12 / Plant Spacing: 12" / Days to Maturity: 70-95 / Full Sun / Moderate Water / Pack weight 21gms~ 100 seeds


PACK, BEAN, SOYBEAN, EDAMAME SAYAMUSUME
S15907 - bought 2 packs at $3.29 = $6.58
From their website (with editing):
Edamame Sayamusume
Max16-20
"Very productive and flavorful edamame of buttery sweetness on a 16-20" plant. Vivid green pods have three large beans each. A highly nutritious bean that is rich in protein, calcium, potassium, phytoestrogens, and many vitamins. Light pubescence on the pods. / Planting Depth: 1" / Soil Temp. for Germ: 60-80°F / Days to Germ: 7-15 / Plant Spacing: 3-6" / Days to Maturity: 75-85/ Full Sun / Moderate Water / Pack weight 21gms~ 150 seeds


PACK, BEAN, TEPARY, SONORAN GOLD
S10616 - bought 2 packs at $3.29 = $6.58
From their website (with editing):
Sonoran Gold Bush Tepary Bean
2-3 ft.
Native to the Sonoran Desert, this drought-tolerant, golden, dry soup bean was developed by the Papago tribe and has over 30% crude protein. Sow 6 seeds per foot directly in soil in rows 18-36 inches apart when danger of frost has passed. Watering tips. During germination, keep entire seedbed evenly moist. Water infrequently and deeply throughout the season. Harvesting tips. Harvest when pods turn brown and start becoming brittle. Finish drying indoors in a ventilated area. Put dry pods in feed sack or pillow case and jog in place on top of it to separate seeds from pods. / NOTE: These are supposed to produce less gas/flatulence than other beans. Sure are hoping that info is right! / Planting Depth: 1-2"/ Soil Temp. for Germ.: 70°F/ Days to Germ.: 9 / Plant Spacing: 2-4" / Days to Maturity: 80-90 / Full Sun / Less Water / Drought Tolerant / Pack weight 21gms ~ 70 seeds


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I placed the order over the phone - 1-888-762-7333 - man who answered was very nice. Said all three were in stock, and we should have in 3-4 business days. We did.


However, things have changed. Now that we know we can't put the house on the market until June, which means it might not sell until later. We can't plant the corn, and don't have enough tubs to plant the beans. So... we've placed the beans in plastic bags and seal-a-meal'd them. They will definitely keep until our 2010 homestead garden.

Planting the Three Sisters Way

This first pic is the northside of our Three Sisters patch (2008). Very close to the house. You can see the sunflowers in the back and the corn in the front.

Have you heard of the Three Sisters?

From (http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html): The Iroquois believe corn, beans and squash are precious gifts from the Great Spirit, each watched over by one of three sisters spirits, called the De-o-ha-ko, or “Our Sustainers". The planting season is marked by ceremonies to honor them, and a festival commemorates the first harvest of “green” corn on the cob.

Native American People used corn as the staple in their diet. Parched corn plus prevented starvation for many days. Corn was boiled, roasted and also ground and used as flour for many dishes. Corn was easy to store by braiding the leaves and hanging upside down from rafters. Husks for used as dolls, masks and mats. Corn stalks could be used as fuel. Keep a watch on the corn, and soon after you see the silks and pollen (which gets everywhere!), watch for the cobs. After a while you'll get the hang of seeing the brown silk tassles, and the feel of the cobs, you'll know when to harvest.

Pumpkins (or other winter squash) provide the ground cover. The pumpkins from even a couple of centuries ago weren't our jack-o-lantern but more of a crookneck. Pumpkins could be stewed or dried to use during the coming winter. Not sure if the seeds were roasted, or just kept for planting the next year.

Fresh young beans were cooked in stews, while the dried beans provided meals later - rehydrated for soups and stews, or ground into flour. Great source of protein when meat was scarced. The vines were braided together and also hung from the rafters. Pole beans, chosen appropriately, will use the corn stalks as a trellis without strangling the stalk. Planting the corn with plenty of room in between will help you find the beans. Once they start flowers, keep careful watch. They will quickly become edible size and ready for eating as cooked "green beans". If you plan to dry the beans, leave them alone until harvesting the corn, to dry on the vine. Still, keep a watch on them so that predators don't steal them or they don't split once they've dried.

Sunflowers have recently been found to do excellently in this arena. They break down the earth with their strong roots, and stretch out to provide a living trellis for the beans. The sunflowers are harvested when the back of the heads turn brown and bend from the weight of the seeds. Cut the stalk near the ground, hang upside down, with paper bags around the head to catch the seeds as they dry. Good for snacks, but also good for grinding into flour, and making sunflower seed oil.

Why companions? The squash/pumpkin provides ground cover to keep moisture in, and the prickles of the leaves and vines prevent predators (like raccoons) from getting to the corn. The corn provides stalks for the beans to climb. The beans fix nitrogen into the soil, which the corn needs. Together, this is companion planting at it's best. PLUS, when you mix corn, squash and beans in your diet, they make a complete protein. Also called succotash, which we don't like, but we do make our own various recipes even tastier!

For our 2008 Three Sisters Patch, here's what we did...

CORN: We started the seeds indoors about 2 weeks before we planned to plant them. We used jiffy pellets then placed them inside jiffy pots so that there would be no problem with transplanting (corn doesn't like transplanting). The corn is planted first, giving it time to grow. Space it out well so that they don't crowd each other. Be sure to pick a corn that has hearty stems that will be needed to support the beans. Plant only one corn to avoid cross-pollination (unless that's what you're going for).

MAMMOTH SUNFLOWERS: We sowed these seeds directly into the ground, about a week after the corn. Be sure to get them at the North side of the corn patch because they will get taller than the corn (depending on the variety you choose). Give them a little more room than the corn.

SQUASH: The winter squash comes next. Don't plant summer squash as they don't vine out. These benefit from starting indoors. Choose something leafy and vining, and something that you like to eat. Pumpkins, Mexican X-Top (cushaw), butternut, spaghetti - they all seem to do well. EXCEPT: choose only one to avoid cross pollination (we planted a lot of different kinds last year and goodness... what a mess). Sow one seed per 4 corn seeds. Be careful not to step on the squash vines because they will get on your paths. The light spiney-ness will help keep critters like raccoons off of your corn. They will NOT keep the birds out!

BEANS: Then comes the beans. Choose a good climbing bean that you like to eat, and hopefully one you can harvest, dry and put up for the Winter. Sow directly into the ground, as these seeds sprout pretty quickly. These beans will wind up the cornstalk. Sometimes they are a little hard to see when harvesting but you just have to be patient and diligent.

Pictures:
This picture (from our Three Sisters garden in 2008) is the corn bed I started inside in flats on Memorial Day - "Early and Often" sweet corn, with string beans and various gourds and squashes.

We planted them outside in these two raised beds (2'x4') on June 08 2008 - plus extra seeds. Covered them with yellow tulle fabric we had bought at a yard sale last year - a whole bolt for $5. The fabric was to make sure no birds stole our seeds. It was very successful.

The next pic is the corn bed about one week later (Jun 17 2008) - unbelievable! Look at the growth!

We added several more Three Sisters raised beds within the next couple of weeks.

Please note that we did sooo many things wrong in 2008. We planted them too close together. We planted them all at the same time. The corn ended up a little stunted because the beans started creeping up before it got established. And we planted too many kinds of squashes. The summer (zucchini and crookneck) rose straight up and pushed away the nearby cornstalks. We got mutants from crossbreeding. It was a mess. But... the corn was sweet and tasty, eaten right there and then, raw. The beans grew fat and strong.

But ... we also didn't protect from weeds enough. While we did get a great harvest from everything, we would have had much more had the bindweed not strangled everything.

We can't raise corn this year (2009) because it can't be moved to our next house, the when we can, we'll make sure to lay down lots of newspaper instead of just one layer. And we'll keep up with the weeding more. Plus we'll space the boxes apart a bit more so that it's not quite a chore to bend over and weed - it's not fun bending over and getting poked in the hind-end with a corn stalk!

Get Your Garden Started

You've decided to start a garden. You might have a corner of your living room where you can put a few pots under a grow light, or you have a greenhouse, a backyard or even a friend's field. This posting will only cover what will go outside. We'll get to container gardening later.

So... what now?

1. You can contact your local Cooperative Extension or Master Gardener program to ask questions specific to your region. Locate your County Extension office through this link: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/
2. You should be aware of your gardening zone. It is important to know your garden zone, because then you will know what plants are well suited for your area. Some zones have changed in the last 16 years -- due to climate change. Take a look at: http://www.arborday.org/media/map_change.cfm to be aware of changes in your area.
3. You need to know your last and first frost date. There is a very slim chance of freeze outside of the last and first frost dates, but it does happen. Last frost dates would occur in the spring and first frost in the autumn.

Now what?

1. Decide how much room you have. Start small. If you've never gardened before, you might feel overwhelmed when everything is ready to harvest at once. If you aren't prepared to can or dehydrate 30 bushels of tomatoes in one day, rethink your plan.
2. Keep in mind that you might want perennial vegetables and fruits. Where on your "land" can you plant berry brambles or asparagus so that you can leave it forever? What about a miniature apple or pear tree? Think about planting all of your fruit trees in one area (like the front yard) which would leave the entire backyard for vegetable gardening.
3. Grow only those foods you enjoy eating. List your family's favorites: corn, beans, tomatoes, eggplant. If your kids will only eat carrots, give lots of room to several varieties of carrots.
4. Did you decide what to grow? It's March and you should have bought your seeds by now (early January is best)... but that's ok. Order some today. Make sure they are packed for the current year. When you buy seeds online, you'll find they are usually for the current year. There are many sources. Check out this link.
5. Gather your gardening equipment. You'll need a good pair of gardening gloves, spade, watering can, a hoe to break up the soil and keep the weeks in check. This is just a basic list.
6. Prepare your garden area. Make sure it gets full sun nearly all day. Mark where your house (or another structure) casts a shadow in the morning, and again at mid-day and in the evening. Remember that trees that may be bare now will have leaves in the Summer, giving off a big shadow. Are you going to use raised beds because your soil is so bad? Build or buy the raised bed boxes and place them just so. If you're going to use the ground, break up and turn the soil. Add compost or other soil amendments.
7. Look at the backs of the seed packets, in catalogs and everywhere else you can find growing information. Figure out how much space you need and how much you have. Sow accordingly. For example, lettuce can be grown in a solid mat, but peppers and tomatoes need about 2 feet in between each. Pumpkins need about 4 feet plus lots of room for the vines. Carrots need an inch or two in between, depending on the size of the carrot. You get the drift.
8. Think outside of the box. There are many places for climbing plants, like beans, cucumbers, and even those tiny pumpkin vines. Train them up the side of your house, along a porch railing, or up a fence. Herbs like parsley can be placed in flower beds. Blueberry bushes can be planted along the driveway. Thorny blackberries against that fence that the neighbor's kids always want to climb over.
9. Most locations have two main planting seasons: cool (Spring and Fall) and warm (Summer). Cool season crops include broccoli, lettuce, spinach, peas, cauliflower, etc. Warm season crops include cucumbers, beans, corn, squash, melons, peppers, eggplant, okra, etc.
10. Most plants grow best when seeds are sown directly to the ground: corn, carrots, beans, lettuce, etc. I like to start tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, peppers and tomatoes in pellets and pots indoors. That gives them a headstart, especially for plants that need more time than your season allows. There are lots of kits available to help you out. Just ask at a garden center.
11. If you aren't ready to start your own seedlings, there are many places you can buy plantlings ready to put into the ground or potting soil: Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Home Depot, Lowe's, any local nursery, a flea market. You might even check Craigslist for seedlings.
12. Some plants do better when you start them or buy them ready to plant: cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. Cucumbers and squash kinda don't care - either way is fine. Wait to buy the seedlings until your garden area is prepared, and you have the time to plant them. Try to do it within 3 days. Buy healthy strong-looking seedlings, that stand up straight. No yellow leaves or bug holes.
13. Rotate! Don't plant all of your carrots all at once. Plant maybe 20 one weekend, then two weekends from then, plant another 10 or 20, and two more weekends another 10 or 20. That will give you a constant supply of fresh carrots. We plant about 5 radishes every 2 weeks - just enough for Hubby to have a few for salads every once in a while. We plant about 20 bunching onions every 2 weeks because we LOVE them for our salads and cooking.
14. Get your whole family involved. Radishes grow very quickly and almost pop up our of the soil when they are ready. Bean seeds sprout pretty quickly and grow almost measurely daily. Great for children to see. Have the winter squash vines grow starting at each side of a trellis, to meet in the middle, with fruit hanging down. Lean three long sticks together, tie at the top, and plant beans at each stick to grow into a living hideaway teepee. Make a small "corn maze" (pun intended) for your kids to pretend to get lost in.

Don't think of it as a chore. Think of "Backyard Grocery" gardening as...

• a way to provide wonderful produce for your family
• no e-coli to worry about - it's safe (unless you use the wrong manure and let it splash onto your produce!)
• you will fertilize with good organic compost (either you do or buy) so you know your vegetables are getting good vitamins and minerals
• producing your own produce is cheaper in the long run than buying at the grocery store
• no transportation costs or delays from ground to table
• you can eat it freshly picked at it's peak of ripeness
• it's good exercise for the whole family

Do you want to take better care of your family? Find a little bit of land (even 12x12 feet will work) and do something with it. Plant "edibles" instead of flowers, or WITH the flowers.

Intro to the Backyard Grocery Gardening Blog

"During World War I and World War II, the United States government asked its citizens to plant gardens in order to support the war effort. Millions of people planted gardens. In 1943, Americans planted over 20 million Victory Gardens, and the harvest accounted for nearly a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country that year. Emphasis was placed on making gardening a family or community effort -- not a drudgery, but a pastime, and a national duty." From http://www.revivevictorygarden.org/


The picture to the right is our Three Sisters Garden in 2008. Shed, composter and some mini fruit trees in the background.



As a consumer, wife and mother, I got fed up with all of the contaminated produce alerts we got. Can't eat spinach this week. Can't eat grapes that week. Nope - definitely not the strawberries. And now the peanut situation? Argh! I started to watch the PBS show "Victory Garden" in hopes to find more information about food gardening for my family. Boy, was I surprised! The shows that I watched very rarely discusses food gardening. What's up with that? So... I came up with this phrase, "Backyard Grocery" Gardening, in early Summer 2008.

None of us in this family had ever had a real garden (as adults) until 2008 when we bought our first house. I had done indoor container gardening throughout many years, but this was the first time we had space! We went nuts... tomatoes, squashes, corn, pumpkins, eggplant... we grew a LOT. Even planted miniature fruit and nut trees, berry brambles and ivy. We made some mistakes (like our 3-sisters patch needed more space in between plants). The ivy died. The berry brambles got mutilated by an un-thinking child. A stranger cut off our filbert tree. Our cranberry bushes died no matter what we did.

We learned. We ate hearty. The few raspberries, blueberries and strawberries we grew were sweet, warm from the sun, and unbelievably wholesome. We ate zucchini, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn and beans almost daily. We stocked our winter pantry with butternut squashes, Mexican X-Top squashes, pumpkins, and sunflowers. And we're even better than ever.

We had planned to do great here in this house! Then we discovered we aren't allowed to keep bees here. Or chickens. We can have 2 ducks and a pig (huh?) but really nothing else. NOT a great place for a homestead.

However, Hubby's office has transferred to a new location - almost an hour away! It IS closer to Hubby's Mom (MIL) who is getting a little older and needs to be checked in on more often. (Gosh I hope she doesn't read this!). So... in order to cut down on the drive time, be closer to MIL, and to homestead the way we want, we're moving. The house will be put on the market June 2009 and hopefully will sell soon after. Thus, we're planting most of our garden in containers so we can take them with us. We're also planting tomatoes, cantaloupes, and other things in the ground here to help (we pray) sell the house. Who wouldn't want a new house that has a grocery in the backyard?!?

We also write a blog at http://www.survival-cooking.com/ which often posts articles about gardening, but we thought it was time to split the blog again. So... as of today March 28 2009, this blog is active! We'll discuss:

• starting seeds
• container gardening
• square foot gardening
• composting
• companion plants
• planting fruit and nut trees and bushes
• raising animals for food

Be sure to follow this blog or bookmark this blog's address so that you can get updates on gardening in today's economy.

Guest posters are always welcome. Please e-mail your article to admin at newviewgroupllc dot com. If we like it, we'll post it!

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Definitions:

• I/Me/Vikki: I'll write 99.99% of this blog. I plan the garden, order or purchase the seeds, and basically tend the garden, with the help of VHTS and Hubby. I don't do any of the heavy work because I'm disabled, but I do as much as I can. I'm a very picky eater so eating fresh veggies and fruit is perfect for my tastes. Just wish we had our own chickens and their eggs!
• Hubby: We've been married since April 2007. My husband has a full-time outside job so doesn't contribute much in the way of writing for this blog. He is learning how to be a father and husband. His family had a garden when he was young but didn't get much hands-on experience. He too wants to eat more healthy. So he helps me garden: he gets more potting soil when we need it, or drills holes in containers for water seepage. He moves the pots around, works the compost, sets up the watering thingies, and so much more.
• VHTS: Very Hungry Tween Son - he turned 12 in 2008 and has a hollow leg. He has a problem with wheat/gluten so we have a strict diet. He loves fresh fruits, and some raw veggies. He has some problems, so is schooled at home. He loves organizing, writing stories, and discussing movies and TV shows (even tho he doesn't watch much TV). He doesn't get an allowance, but does chores like emptying the dishwasher, watering plants, caring for our critters, vacuuming, etc. He also likes to write things for the Kid Whispers blog (http://www.kid-whispers.blogspot.com/) where we also post some of his schoolwork.
• MIL: Mother in Law - Hubby's Mom who lives about an hour from us, where we are now.
• Chihuahua/Spirit/Dog: In October 2008 we got a chihuahua from the humane society. At 4 years old (at that time) she weighs about 10 pounds, is very stubborn and has many bad habits. Her name was Spirit when we got her, and decided to keep it.
• Dal-Rotti-Mute/Sparky/Puppy: On February 16 2009, we got Sparky, who was 10 weeks old at the time. He's a combination of Dalmation-Rottweiler-Alaskan Malamute. He's smart, learns quickly, and even (sometimes) puts his toys away when he's done with them. At 14 1/2 weeks, he weighed 30 pounds! He's going to be huge.

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Check out our other blogs noted at the top of this page!

Blog Starting Soon!

This picture was taken on August 3 2008

VHTS is standing in front of our young 3-Sisters Patch (corn, squash, beans), and a few mini fruit trees - was just before a major growth spurt.

This blog's posts will begin on March 28 2009... follow and bookmark to come back!