So, the question is, how large should my garden be to keep my family of 4 supplied with the basic vegetables all year? According to http://www.aselfsufficientlife.com/how-big-should-the-vegetable-garden-be.html a 650 square foot garden should be plenty. My garden is going to be 16' by 33'. That's 528 square feet. It's a little short of the 650, but I will be planting much of it vertically. The entire perameter of my garden will be a fence made from upcycling wooden pallets. I'm going to enclose them with slats of wood so that they will hold soil better. They will look similar to this:
The instructions for this pallet garden can be found at: http://lifeonthebalcony.com/how-to-turn-a-pallet-into-a-garden/. My pallets will be completely enclosed except for the top. I am planting all of my vining plants here. This will include squash, zuchini, cucumbers, and cantelope. This will keep most of my produce off of the ground and take up much less space in my garden. The rest of my garden will be 100% containers. I purchased 12 plastic storage containers that are about 24" wide x 36" long x 24" deep. I am covering the entire surface area of my garden with a material that hinders weed growth. In past years, the weeds have been a losing battle. I am not going to deal with them this year! Container gardening has many benefits besides weed control. I have better control over the quality of the soil. Mine will be half potting soil and half compost. Very rich! It will take less water since I am not having to water as large an area and the water is going exactly where I need it to go. Also, I have a hard time bending over to tend to plants planted directly in the ground. This raises them up as high as I need them so it's not so hard on my back and my knees. Some of my containers will continue to be used throughout the winter for winter crops, but the containers that aren't being used can be covered with the lid that came with the storage container to preserve my soil and keep it where I want it. I will also be building some containers from upcycled picket fence that will look similar to this one:
I found this planter at http://www.raisedbedgardenkits.com/urban-vertical-container-garden.asp. Taller plants such as tomatoes and peppers will be planted on the top rows, and shorter plants like lettuce, cabbage, and some herbs will be planted on the bottom rows. I am also growing red and yellow potatoes. They can take up alot of ground space, so I am growing them in large burlap sacks. Each sack should be able to grow anywhere from 50-100 pounds of potatoes. I have 5 sacks started, so I should have plenty of potatoes to last me all year. I am going to be doing alot of canning! To start potatoes, fill the bottom of the burlap sack with about 6" of good soil. I placed 5 small started potatoes in each sack, then covered them with about 3" of soil. I have the sides of the sacks rolled down so they can get light. When the potato plants grow to about 12" I will cover them with more soil until only about 6" of the plant is above the soil line. I will unroll enough of the sides of the sack to hold the soil in place. I will continue doing this each time the plant grows to 12" until the soil line has reached the top of the sack. The leaves that are buried under the new soil will being to take root and grow more potatoes. When the plants leaves start turning yellow it should be time to harvest my potatoes. This can easily be done by dumping the sack out onto a tarp. When the potatoes are all gathered, I will return the soil to the sack to be used next year. This sure sounds better than trying to dig the potatoes out of the ground without damaging them! You can learn more about growing potatoes here: http://greenupgrader.com/11708/4-simple-steps-to-grow-a-hundred-pounds-of-potatoes-in-a-barrel/
I am very excited to get started on my new garden. I will be adding photos as it progresses. My hope is to be able to supply my family with homegrown, organic vegetables all year long. No more supermarket veggies! Nothing tastes better than homegrown veggies!
