We're looking at getting our first frost in less than a month's time, and this weekend, we start ripping out the old plants and getting the garden ready for late fall and winter. That means that I've been gathering data and reviewing plans for next spring already, especially in figuring out what to plant.
Last winter, when I was planning our expanded garden areas, I got stuck on figuring out how many plants of each kind to put in. Okay, I first got stuck on what to plant. It's all those gorgeous garden catalogues! They tempt me with pretty pictures of this and that. I think I finally figured out a system that has worked for us. Figure out what you eat--and what you might. This is the real starting spot. Yes, it's really fun to grow spring peas and watch something in your garden grow fast and be all pretty and edible quickly, but if no one eats them (*coughmykids*), then they're a waste of money and garden space. I sat down and went through old shopping lists to see what I wrote down over and over again. That not only helped me figure out what to plant but about how much we went through in year. Then, you need to think about what your family might eat. Start with something in the same family. If they like kale chips, they might like collards. If they like cherry tomatoes, they might like eating tomatoes (Brandywine, my all-time favorite, was the first fresh tomato I could get my husband to eat). Honestly, only try a couple of new things because you don't want to end up with tons of something you have to put up only to find out the family hates it. I put in zucchini for the first time in forever this year only to find out just how much my family doesn't like it. Good thing the ducks like it! That, and I found an amazing zucchini-tomato salsa recipe that my son absolutely loves (the picky son who doesn't like much of what I can). Start with a chart. I used Melissa Norris's chart for figuring out how much to plant, and honestly, I scaled it down a touch from her numbers. I knew that, being disabled, I would love to grow enough to feed us all for a year, but that's just not happening. Not with having to feed three teens! There are other charts available on Pinterest and around the internet, and if all else fails, it's fun to see what was recommended in the old Victory Garden pamphlets. One thing that I found with the charts is that they can be based on more than you usually eat. If you don't do several tomato-based dinners every week, then you might not need to put up quite that much sauce. That's where starting with your old grocery lists really helps. Jump in and plant. In all reality, once you have some decent numbers, just run with them. Plant your seeds and seedlings, making sure to plant a few extra due to some not making it, and go with it. In reality, some things will go wrong while other things turn into weeds. That's gardening. Whatever you plan, understand that Nature will mess with that plan a lot. This last summer, I planted 16 broccoli plants and lost all but one (I took notes, and I have plans for next year on that!). That was seriously disappointing, but that's gardening. I also planted my usual 3 squash plants per hill, and the buttercups and pie pumpkins went weed-level wild. I had no idea that squash could grow quite like that! We got a bumper crop of squash, but the brassicas all got devoured before I could save them. Gather data along with crops. Now, if you really want, you can keep exact numbers, but I've just been putting on my garden spreadsheet how much we've been harvesting from each crop (massive, a lot, decent, not much, a little). That's helped me document what grows well where since we were experimenting a bit with a few new beds, and it's helped me figure out which varieties grow best here. Our roma tomatoes just never flourished. Never really grew big, didn't seem happy. Our cherry tomatoes and brandywines, on the other hand, grew like weeds and have had amazing flavor. Put up your harvest, and put it in a spreadsheet. This is my new trick this year that I'm really excited about: harvest spreadsheet! As I've been putting foods up, from canning to dehydrating to freezing, I've been tracking how much I've been making. Then, I'll keep track on when we run out. That way, I can plant more accurate numbers next year. So, for example, I have put up 14 pints of tomato sauce so far this year (I know, not the most impressive numbers, but I had surgery this fall, and that's really slowed me down). Now, I figure that we make spaghetti about three times a month, so I would need 36 pints of sauce for a year's worth. I'm curious to see how long these 14 jars last, though. If they get me halfway or more through the year, then I know my 36 pint number is wrong. Same with all the other produce I've put up. Have I frozen enough green beans? Probably not, but this way, I can see how long they last and have an idea of how much more to plant next year. Complicating this figuring is that my sons tend to be blind when looking for stuff in the pantry or freezer, so I'm also going to take into account any serious lag when they don't use up the last jar because they don't see it or think they'll get in trouble if they do. Even taking that into account, though, I should be able to figure out how much to plant and put up next year. Always, take time to self-reflect and ask for feedback. This is the stage I'm in right now this fall as I start putting up apples. I've been asking all three kids what they would like more of all year, and I've pretty consistently been hearing that they want more apple pie filling (and the pies to go with that), apple butter (that one was a surprise to me), more jams of all kinds, and pumpkin butter. Getting feedback and taking notes on it, particularly with the zucchini salsa being such a hit, has been an important part of the process this fall. The bigger part has been self-reflection, though. What have I been able to do? Nowhere near as much as I'd hoped last winter and spring, that's for sure. What have I regretted? Losing so many of the plums I bought, losing the dang broccoli. What would I do differently? Plant the potatoes differently next year and plant more. It's important to make notes of these kinds of questions and what the answers seem to be. I have a garden binder with worksheets, planting calendars, and lots of notes, and then I have my Google Drive spreadsheets so my husband and I can both add to them as needed. I really recommend having a garden binder or journal where you can write down your data but, more importantly, your self-reflections and realizations. So, we'll see how the rest of this gardening season goes and how things end up next year. Post in the comments any lessons you've learned from this year's garden that you'd like to share, even if it's something as simple as never plant broccoli and other brassicas you don't plan on spraying every day to save from the dang cabbage worms.
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I have been toying with starting up a separate blog for our small urban farmstead for awhile. My surgery three weeks ago has made a lot of things more difficult, but that is one of the reasons why I have been thinking of writing it all down.
In the coming weeks, I will be writing about how to plan how much to plant, what it's like to can when disabled, how to organize information for the urban farm, and more. I'm pretty excited about this! Please join us on this journey. |
CarinaI'm a 40s something disabled mom living the life on our small urban farm. Archives
April 2022
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