Every year my son, Josh, and I try to grow a bigger and better garden.
This year is no different. We are in the process of enlarging the garden by cutting down some of the trees near the garden and adding on to, and moving where it is needed, our fence around the garden.
We would like to have that whole area that we are adding to the garden be filled with raised beds. We will do this as we are able but it will be a big job. It may be next year before we have them all done but we will work toward our goal and accomplish it.
Last year we planted more cabbage than ever before and it STILL was not enough. Course part of the reason was that our chickens got into the garden and made complete pigs out of themselves by eating numerous heads of cabbage as well as some other vegetables.
So, this year we decided to plant a LOT more cabbage as well as other crops.
We are hoping to have a root cellar/storm shelter ready before Fall in which to store as much of our garden produce as possible for eating throughout the Winter months.
I read recently that for every $60 spent on seed and plants that you can harvest as much as $2,000 worth of food.
THAT is incentive enough for everyone to plant and grow something for their family to eat. With food prices being about triple what they were just a few short years ago we all need to do what ever we can to save money.
Growing your own food also ensures that you and your family are getting the freshest, most nutrient dense food possible without the loss of nutrition that comes with long transportation, picking while green and covering with waxes like you find at the market.
This year Josh and I have been doing some studying to try to determine which crops produce more for the space they require & the time needed to grow.
Beets & turnips-
as you can eat both tops and bottoms without a lot of waste
- they are fast growing and fit in anywhere. They also make good markers of where you have planted other crops as they come up fast and mature fast so they will show you where you have already planted and yet they will be out of the way fast for the other crop to mature.
- plant plenty and grow them up on to fences, fence panels or netting of some kind. The trick is to grow them up so you have room to plant a LOT more and harvest a LOT more
We also are looking at crops that are easy to store in a root cellar in order to cut down on any processing needed.
Our freezer went this year without warning and we had $1-2,000 worth of food put aside, in order to be stocked up for emergencies,. that was lost.
This was food that we have bought on sale, had given to us or grew ourselves. It didn’t cost us that much at the time but to replace it would. We cannot afford that so we want to use methods where we will not have to worry about that happening again.
We hope to pick up another freezer if we can find a good deal but we don’t ever want to rely on just that 1 method of food storage again as the loss of all of that food hit us hard
Here are some of the crops that we have found to be good for storing in a root cellar
Onions
Garlic
Winter Squash
