Even the young ones can help out around the garden.
In difficult economic times, people turn to ways they can save on necessities. Food is an important and significant part of a family's monthly budget, and saving on it can free money for other items. Planting a garden may cost more money in the first year than what is saved, because of the need to build the infrastructure. After that initial startup, feeding a family of four for less dollars is a very workable concept. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Give yourself enough room to plant. A 160-square-foot plot can feed four people for the summer and fall, while a 1,100-square-foot one will do so for a year. Planting "up" with extensive trellising adds tremendously to the amount of food you can produce from the same size bed. Place the trellis so the plants receive the maximum sun without blocking other plants. Secure all trellises to ensure that they do not fall down from the weight of the plants. Plants that are nutritious, easy to grow and work well with trellising are pole beans and peas, cucumbers, melons, squashes, vine tomatoes and tomatillos.
2. Before planting, draw out a plan for the garden, making sure you have space for the food your family most likes to eat. For example, according to Ed Hume Seeds, you would need at least a 20- to 30-foot row of leaf lettuce to feed four people, and 10 to 15 tomato plants.
3. Prepare the garden site in advance. For maximum plant productivity growth the garden must be in full, daylight sun with no encroaching tree roots to steal nutrients, and well-drained. The soil must have a good amount of organic material either naturally or added into it via quality compost. The garden should be close enough to the house to have an adequate water supply if extra water is necessary and to encourage daily maintenance visits.
4. Choose vegetables with a multiple harvest. Beans, beets, carrots, leafy vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce and spinach, kohlrabi, radishes, rutabagas and turnips all give the opportunity for successive crops in one season.
5. Inter-crop your vegetables. Shade-tolerant plants such as beets and chard can nestle under taller plants such as peppers. Narrow plants such as leeks, shallots, garlic and onions are planted between leafy vegetables. Inter-cropping allows you to grow twice as many plants in the space of one.
Tags: plants such, feed four, feed four people, four people, leafy vegetables