200 Things: Garden

By Sharon Astyk. Reprinted with permission.

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Take an introduction to permaculture class, or read up on permaculture. Toby Hemenway’s book Gaia’s Garden: An Introduction to Home-Scale Permaculture is an excellent start. Begin replacing ornamental plants with edibles that are also beautiful.

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If you are concerned with having to grow much of your food and don’t have a lot of space, prioritize root crops, especially potatoes and sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes can be grown in much of the northern half of America), rather than small grains, and beans, instead of meats. The people at Ecology Action, who have done more than almost anyone to figure out how to grow the most food in the least space recommend that 60% of your land be in cover crops, 30% in root crops and 10% in everything else.

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Grow only or mostly open pollinated varieties of plants and practice seed saving. It may take some experimentation to find suitable varieties, but the security of saving your own seed is worth it. Seed saving does take practice, so start early. Check out Suzanne Ashworth’s Seed to Seed for ideas, but beans and peas are an excellent starting place. Overwintering biennials like carrots and cabbage is easier than it sounds, so don’t assume you can’t save such seed. Join Seed Savers Exchange

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Connect with local garden clubs and beautification projects, and encourage them consider replacing street trees and public landscaping with edible trees and shrubs.

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Start a new trend. Grow food plants in the shape of a V, or spelling out “Victory.” Bring back the Victory Garden!! Encourage victory gardens in your neighborhood.

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Encourage your local religious community to reconnect with the agrarian roots of your faith. Every religion has harvest and planting rituals, traditions associated with spring and rebirth, etc… Create special gardens for religious holidays and community festivals to grow some of the food to be used in these. Share it publically, or donate it to the poor in your community.

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Make compost tea out of your weeds. Many weeds contain useful trace minerals, and they’ve already absorbed some of your soil fertility. Dump them in a bucket of water, allow it to sit for a couple of days, and then fertilize plants.

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Urine is sterile, and a person’s yearly output can provide a good part of the fertility for 1/2 acre. Pee in a bucket, jar or commode, and fertilize your garden with liquid gold, diluted 1 part pee to 10 parts water.

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Encourage useful plant volunteers, and learn to propagate more plants by cuttings, layering and grafting. Plant your extras, or share them with neighbors and friends.

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Many unusual fruit trees have few pests or disease issues, unlike some of the more common varieties. Consider trying pawpaws, medlars and quinces as well as apples, peaches and plums.

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Barter your gardening skills, or offer them as gifts. Offer to put in a food garden for your neighbor, either in trade for something or as a gift, perhaps for an anniversary or child’s birthday. Or ask a neighbor to do you a favor, and let you garden on some spare lawn in exchange for help maintaining the property. Do whatever you have to get people growing food, even if it is a little sneaky.

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Now is the time to get comfortable with season extension techniques to keep your supply of fresh food going as long as possible. Build a greenhouse or a strawbale coldframe. Put up floating row covers or a hoophouse.

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