2020 has been an interesting year with COVID-19 and limited food supply in grocery stores (whether the stores ran out or were limiting purchases). I always knew we relied far too much on the grocery stores for our food and throughout the years, I knew we needed to provide for ourselves as much as possible. We used to live in the country with ample room to grow healthy and nutritious food for my family, but circumstances brought us into the city. City living often brings with it limited space for gardening, and we unfortunately continued to rely on the grocery stores year round, the farmers markets in the summer months and what little we could grow around our yard. Convenience is easy. I liked the convenience of running to the store whenever I needed to but this reliance on mass industries to provide food for us I knew eventually would pose a problem. I slowly drifted away from growing our own food thinking either that it was too inconvenient to have a large garden in the city or that it just was not possible. I know I am not alone in feeling this way. I have talked to many people and a lot of us had the same thoughts – we thought our yards were not large enough and we hate depending on someone else for our food and COVID-19 reminded us of that. We all agreed that there has to be something we can do, even living in the city.
And there is. It is so easy to grow your very own veggies in the city. Through trial and error over the past 5 years, I have learned a lot of what works for growing vegetables in the city and what does not work as good. Growing in planters, raised flower beds, and even 5-gallon pails all work wonderfully when space is limited — the options really are endless. All you need are a few containers or an area in your yard to plant, some seeds, dirt, sunshine and water and you can grow the most delicious tender lettuce you ever had… tomatoes that ripen on the vine and taste like no other… zucchini that you can pluck from the vine small or large for cooking and baking with… carrots that taste like actual carrots and potatoes that the skin just wipes right off and tastes unbelievable when cooked and tossed with a bit of butter. Beans that are so delicious even the pickiest of eaters will enjoy… peas that kids love picking and taste best raw and so much more. You really can grow a summer’s bounty of delicious veggies for your family. We sometimes have to be creative and the more we can provide for our families, the better.
I am so excited that we have moved to a home with a large yard that once our landscaping is complete, we will have a wonderful space for gardening! In the meantime though, we are able to grow enough veggies to eat throughout the summer and have some to can and preserve to enjoy through the long cold winter months with various flower pots and a garden plot. We also have raspberry canes that we have planted, blueberry and honeyberry (also known as haskap or honeysuckle) plants. We have several strawberry runners as well that will produce berries between June and August. We have planted two apple tree seedlings as well this spring, though seedlings will not start producing apples for 5 to 6 years.
The garden plot is new for us and is our first year having one. This spring we have been fortunate enough to be able to have access to a garden plot in our community that we can grow some delicious vegetables in. As I mentioned, in addition to the garden plot, we have various flower pots around our yard filled with veggies like potatoes, lettuce, peas, peppers, watermelon, pumpkins and zucchini. My daughter also decided to try planting cauliflower (though they usually attract the cabbage moth like other plants from the brassica family). Potatoes are super simple to grow in a large flower pot – pour dirt just over half full in the pot, place the potato in and top with dirt and water as needed. I especially love growing zucchini in flower pots as the vines drape down the sides and they are so easy to maintain, grow, and pick.
Let’s get started! Today, we began our garden. In our garden plot, we get 2 boxes to grow in — a rectangular one and a hip-height square one. First, we had the task of pulling the weeds!
After we had the weeds pulled we mixed in some compost and leveled it off.
Ready to plant! We put things like lettuce, spinach and onions in the square planter and cucumbers, potatoes and other root vegetables and herbs in the rectangular one.
It was such a warm day, we watered everything as we planted. We also labelled our rows, simply with large wooden sticks (like jumbo popsicle sticks that we got from the local craft store) and wrote with a permanent marker. Then we knew what we planted where so when we would pick the weeds, we knew what to watch for!
We planted zucchini in our square planter as well so it could drape over the side and less likely to be mowed!
Our garden – all planted and watered. It took us 4 hours to complete.
We planted cucumbers, various herbs, carrots and beets, green and yellow beans and one 2kg bag of red pontiac potatoes.
The pioneers in the 1800’s and earlier always had a large garden to be able to provide vegetables through the summer and enough to have during the winter months. They did not have such easy access to store bought food like we do today, so they had to plan what they were going to grow, plant seeds, work hard through the summer to have beautiful gardens, work just as hard in the fall to harvest the garden and then store as much as they could by drying, placing in the attic or root cellar to keep during the winter or even preserve and can.
The garden may be planted or plans to start a garden are in the works, but how much do you need to plant exactly to be able to have food all winter long? Well, that depends on what vegetables your family enjoys. The best way to determine how much you need to grow to feed your family is to keep a gardening journal and record what you planted and how much of each vegetable was planted, how many pounds you harvested and how long it lasted before you ran out.
Here is a good starting point:
* Beans – about 15 plants per person (I usually plant about 2 to 3 packages)
* Beets – about 30 plants per person
* Broccoli – about 3 to 5 plants per person (though these can be tricky to grow because of cabbage moths and butterflies laying their eggs in them, which also applies to brussels sprouts and cauliflower) When I do plant broccoli, I do not plant the next year because I found the cabbage moths were much worse the next year.
* Cabbage – about 2 to 3 plants per person (these too attract those pesky cabbageworms and cabbage moths. I never plant cabbage for this reason.)
* Carrots – about 100 seeds per person (1/4oz of seeds will feed a family of 4)
* Corn – 1/2 lb per family (I tend to start corn indoors in March so the corn has a head start and better opportunity to fully produce in case of a cold fall)
* Cucumbers – about 3 to 6 plants per family (we plant much more because we like to make pickles)
* Lettuce – 4 to 5 plants per person (we often plant 2 packages in the spring and replant every 2 weeks so we always have a lettuce supply) If it is super hot, be sure to water often otherwise lettuce gets bitter.
* Onions – 12 to 15 plants per person
* Parsnips – 12 to 15 plants per person (I like adding parsnips to soups and stews just like carrots)
* Peas – about 120 plants per person
* Peppers – 3 to 5 plants per person
* Potatoes – about 15 plants per person
* Spinach – about 15 plants per person
* Squash/Pumpkin/Zucchini – about 10 per family
* Tomatoes – about 10 plants per family
* Turnips – about 1/4 lb of seeds per family (though I love turnips, my family does not so I do not plant them. Plus turnips like radishes often become full of worms and I will not use chemicals so I simply do not plant them)
* Melons – about 3 per person
This year, I know we will fall short on having produce for the winter, but we will do our best to grow as much as we can so we have homegrown produce for as long as we can. We will preserve and can what we can and even chop, shred and freeze so we can enjoy our summer produce during the winter months.
Are you gardening this summer? What have you planted?
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours