Backyard Farm

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Grow More Food

I'm trying to grow as much  of our food as I can for a couple of reasons.  First locally produced food is better than food that has traveled, it's fresher, more delicate.  And what is more local than your own backyard?  Fresher food = more nutrients.

Growing your own gives you more choices of obscure and heirloom varieties of plants.  Some of the most beautiful, most flavorful varieties are just not practical for large scale growers.

Gardening is good for you!  It's good exercise.  It produces good food for you to eat.  And it feeds your soul.  It is elemental.  It puts you in touch with the cycles of nature.

 

What's New Down on the Farm? 

Some recent entries from my Backyard Farm blog

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Winter Planning for Spring / Summer Growing 

This is the time of year when the seed catalogs start to arrive. I love to indulge in plant fantasies fueled by the almost pornographic photos of tomatoes and all manner of fruit and veg pictured in these catalogs.

I will undoubtedly order plenty of seeds and plants for the summer, but I am also going to try to increase the amount of "automatic" food I have in my yard.

I came across an article on perennial vegetables recently. Vegetable that propagate themselves either by root spreading or reseeding so that you build a perpetual food source.

Here's the list of suggestions, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Cardoon: Though it looks like an artichoke plant, cardoon differs from its more familiar cousin in that it is primarily the midribs of the leaves that are eaten, rather than its flower buds.

Traditionally, cardoon leaves are blanched by being bent over and buried under the soil, though they don't have to be. Sliced and cooked cardoon midribs taste like a plateful of artichoke hearts. Only one or two plants are needed to produce a pile of midribs.

French sorrel: The leaves of French sorrel add a lemony tang to soups and salads. In mild climates, the leaves are edible year-round, especially on varieties that never flower. Cutting back the flower stalk will ensure a long supply of tender greens.

Jerusalem artichoke: (a.k.a. sunchokes) The Jerusalem artichoke grows 4 to 12 feet tall and produces small flowers resembling wild sunflowers. Its tubers are crisp, nutty and sweet, and can be eaten raw, baked, boiled in soups or mashed along with potatoes. When harvesting, simply leave some tubers in the ground to produce the following year's crop. (If the tubers are not thinned by harvesting, Jerusalem artichokes can spread rapidly.) Inulin, a storage starch in Jerusalem artichokes, can cause gas, especially for those unaccustomed to eating them. Inulin is believed to improve the body's ability to absorb calcium, and to increase beneficial microbes in the digestive tract.

Lovage: Lovage is a large celery-like perennial that grows up to 6 feet tall. Its flavor is very intense. The young leaves and stems lend themselves well to soups (later growth is too strong-tasting to eat), and the seeds can be used for flavoring. In cold areas lovage, like French sorrel, is often one of the first greens to emerge.

Mashua: An Andean root crop, mashua is a relative of the nasturtium. Mashua is a vigorously growing vine; give it a trellis to climb. Its red and yellow blooms are favorites of hummingbirds. After the frost kills the aboveground part of the plant, it's time to dig out the long, white, fingerlike tubers, which can be baked, roasted or put in a soup. Mashua has a unique peppery flavor. Plants produce dozens of tubers; the best can be saved and replanted like potatoes, but since it is hard to find all the tubers, mashua, like the Jerusalem artichoke, often becomes a "true" perennial, regrowing from unharvested tubers.

Nettle: Be warned that nettles are covered with stinging hairs; wear gloves and use scissors to harvest the leaves and fresh shoots. A quick cooking will take away the sting, and the cooked tender leaves and shoots taste like spinach. Steam, boil or use like spinach. Nettles are high in protein, vitamins A and C, iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium and fiber. Nettles spread by both rhizome and seed, forming a dense patch.

Oca: Another Andean root crop grown similar to potatoes. The tubers are harvested at the end of the growing season. Yields will be higher if tubers are dug and replanted. Oca not only tastes delicious both raw and cooked, but it also produces high yields in small spaces. With leaves that look like clover, oca grows in clumps about 1 foot high. The California coast is one of the few locations suitable to grow oca in North America because oca does not begin to form tubers until late in the summer, and then still needs at least two to three frost-free months to ripen them fully.

Pepino dulce: The pepino plant actually produces a fruit rather than a vegetable, although unripe fruits are sliced and eaten like cucumbers. When ripe, pepino fruits are about the size of a large tomato with beautiful yellow skin bearing purple, gray or green stripes. The flesh tastes similar to cantaloupe. Like the tomato, the pepino benefits from staking. A frost below 28 degrees will kill the pepino to the ground, but it will resprout in the spring if the roots weren't damaged.

Tree collards: Tree collards produce a kale-like brassica leaf year-round in cooler climates. The leaves are good steamed, braised and in soups, stews and casseroles. Tree collards may not be as productive where summers are hot. Tree collards can be left to spread out along the ground, eventually occupying a large area with a mini-thicket 3 feet tall or so. Alternatively, where space is tight, tree collards can be trellised.

Yacón: An aster, and yet another Andean root crop, yacón produces small, football-like tubers that are mostly eaten raw, similar to a jicama. Yacón is crunchy, juicy and a bit sweet, lending itself to crudites. Yacón grows into a lush 6-foot-tall shrub. The large storage tubers form below a crown of smaller tubers, which are broken apart and replanted at harvest. Like Jerusalem artichokes, yacón contains inulin.

You Will Get Hooked on This 

There is nothing like the feeling of being able to go out into your yard and bring in fresh, delicious, nutricious, beautiful fruit, vegetables and herbs.

I love it and I look forward to this kind of fun all winter long. Actually during all but the coldest weeks of winter I can still gather some hardy greens and some herbs like rosemary.

Let's Get Growing! 

Some Books to Help You Get Started

Here are some of the books I have found most helpful and inspiring.

Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook

This book is my inspiration. It profiles classic kitchen gardens and give tons of tips onhow to build your own potager.

Amazon Price: $23.07 (as of 12/27/2009) Buy Now

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

Peak oil inspired. Opinionated advice from a long time Oregon gardener, who now resides in Tasmania.

Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 12/27/2009) Buy Now

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Natural Gardening

Steve Slomon's classic work. Advice for gardening in the Pacific Northwest.

Amazon Price: (as of 12/27/2009) Buy Now

All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!

Easy step by step gardening. Lots of good advice on plant spacing.

Amazon Price: $13.59 (as of 12/27/2009) Buy Now

New Guestbook 

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Sustainable Gardening ala Garden Girl 

Check out Garden Girl's Backyard Farm

Garden Girl 5 min Promo

Garden Girl's TV show sample.PLEASE FORWARD THE LINK and POST IT every where! Remember to leave comments here, it does matter! Also check out Patti Moreno's website at www.gardengirltv.com THANK YOU!

Runtime: 301
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Organic Gardening News 

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What I'm Growing This Year 

What Did I Forget?

  • Vegetables
    tomatoes
    eggplant
    spinach
    peas
    beans
    carrots
    turnip greens
    arugula
    beets
    brussels sprouts
    kale
    chard
    pumpkins
    acorn squash
    zucchini
    lettuces
    corn
    peppers
    wheat
  • Herbs
    basil
    tarragon
    dill
    cilantro
    parsley
    oregano
    rosemary
    sage
    lavender
  • Flowers
    borage
    zinnias
    calendula
    marigolds
    sunflowers
  • Fruit
    raspberries
    blueberries
    strawberries
    apple
    persimmon
    (apple and persimmon were just grafted and will not bear fruit for probably 3 years)

Tools to Get You Started 

Buy the best tools you can afford, you won't be sorry.

Seymour Structron Bow Rake #BR16

Amazon Price: $38.75 (as of 12/27/2009) Buy Now

Fiskars Long Handle Digging Shovel #9668

Amazon Price: $34.68 (as of 12/27/2009) Buy Now

Union Tools V-Blade Garden Hoe

Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 12/27/2009) Buy Now

Fiskars Garden Fork #9666

Amazon Price: $41.79 (as of 12/27/2009) Buy Now

by lisapdx

Hello world. I'm trying to grow as much of my own food as possible in my Backyard Farm
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