Part 2: the vision
We all get excited about the prospects of growing our own food, but let us pause and take a deep breath and realize that we cannot have it all (unless we plant a large garden and have tremendous amounts of time). Let us go slow. For example, if you’re only going to have one 8 foot by 4 foot garden bed do not try to plant watermelons, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, lettuce, strawberries, and carrots. You are going to get frustrated. Instead, just focus on one thing and make it simple. So if you have one garden bed why not take your first year and set your goal to be: “I’m going to learn how to grow and appreciate the mightily good-tasting carrot.” If you do things right you could produce at least 150 carrots in one 8 x 4 bed (and in northern virginia you can do this three times a year in one garden bed). On 21 May 2020 in Northern Virginia I filled up a 21 liter plastic bin, a 2 gallon glass container and a gallon size storage bag with carrots grown in my front yard from one 8x4 bed (for reference the 5 gallon paint buckets at home improvement stores are about 19 liters) [see pictures below]. So some general advice:
If you have one garden bed, plant it with one type of crop and buy everything else you need from the farmers market. Knowing when to sow seeds, when to harvest, how to spot pests, when to water, when to transplant etc. is all different for each type of plant. If you do one type of vegetable, then you just have to learn one set of rules. Think about how much of your life you’ll get back not trying to navigate the internet for advice on five different crops (and the internet advice if wildly inaccurate sometimes).
The next year, you can (and have to) try something else. Beets? Radishes? Beans? Turnips? Cabbages and greens? Tomatoes? Cucumbers? Squashes? [but not fruit… I’ll explain more of that later… it’s just not worth it i promise]
I like to grow vegetables that store well. Lettuce is easy to grow but will rot very quickly, so if you have 32 lettuce plants in one bed you might not get through all of it! Cabbage is a bit tougher to grow but will last for months in the refrigerator and I highly prefer it to lettuce. Carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, and potatoes all last a long time with no modifications. I like these because you pick them and put in fridge with no other inputs (just put potatoes on pantry shelf not in fridge). In contrast, to store tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, and green beans you need to modify them and it takes time and more effort.
With just one thing in the garden you don’t have to spend too much time managing things. If you plant your carrot seeds in March, the bed needs watering, thinning, and some weeding, but you really don’t need to do much more until it’s harvest time in May. Then you plant more seeds, and you’re in the clear until late August. By the end of August you’ll have lots of food.
Spring Carrot Harvest 2020
Bin is 21 liters, jar is 2 gallons, and bag is 1 gallon
Summer Carrot Harvest 2020
Picked from same plot as above (bin is 21 liters)