Garden: Difference between revisions

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Test
== General Data ==
== General Data ==
*Last Frost Date: May 13
*Last Frost Date: May 13
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=== Logs ===
=== Logs ===
*[[2020 Garden Log]]
*[[2019 Garden Log]]
*[[2018 Garden Log]]
*[[2016 Garden Log]]
*[[2015 Garden Log]]
*[[2014 Garden Log]]
*[[2013 Garden Log]]
*[[2013 Garden Log]]
*[[2012 Garden Log]]
*[[2012 Garden Log]]
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== Plants ==
== Plants ==
*[[Roma Tomatoes]]
* 5/5 [[Roma Tomatoes]]: The classic garden plant for a reason. Canned tomatoes have bpa, fresh tomatoes are expensive. Growing is easy.
*[[Onions]]
* 2/5 [[Onions]]: I haven't had good luck, but if I could grow them I might bump this up to a 3 or 4. Problem is they are cheap to buy and they keep well.
*[[Soybeans]]
* 4/5 [[Soybeans]]: These are cheap to buy dried. But when I grow them, they are delicious as edamame and they're pretty easy to grow.
*[[Garlic]]
* 2/5 [[Garlic]]: almost the same as onion
*[[Rutabaga]]
* 2/5 [[Rutabaga]]: same as onion, though I would like to figure out how to make saurkraut from the leaves
*[[Carrots]]
* 4/5 [[Carrots]]: Once they're established, they grow easily if they don't have worms. And they're delicious.
*[[Zucchini]]
* ??? [[Raspberries]]
*[[Cucumber]]
* ??? [[Apples]]


== Long term ==
== Goals ==


The objective long term is to be growing a great deal of our own food, >50%. The real trick here is going to be figuring out some of the more complex staples like flour, cornmeal, rice, vegetable oil and tofu. I’m concerned that the ROI after 50% may be minimal because I’m not going to start raising cows or open an olive orchard to get olive oil. A lot of food will simply not be feasible for me to grow.
The long term objective is to grow a significant portion of our food. But that will not be feasible for a while. Eventually I will buy land for Coltend and one of the the first things I will do is start gardening.


One way of looking at this problem is that one square foot is roughly one meal. For a family of 4 this means 365*3*4*.5 = 2737.5 or rough 3000 sq ft of garden space. This means a garden about 50ft to a side with rolling beds, or 5250 sq ft with walk-ways, about 70 ft per side.
For now, the goal is to grow some useful foods and learn from the experience.


Potatoes may also curb this a bit. The trash can method looks like it can produce quite a few potatoes in a very compact space (< 4 sq ft) if I could be growing 50lbs of potatoes in that area, I would be way out ahead in terms of nutrients and calories per sq ft. Also, potatoes can be stored for a long time.
I believe we will stay in our current home for at least another 10 years, maybe more. Eventually, I'd like to convert more of the land to production. I'm not sure how much I can really do, but I should be able to at least triple what I have.
 
I should also be able to go back to doing pots on the roof at some point. Though I don't want to deal with the drip irrigation. I could also build a roof over the porch area and put more plants up there.
 
From a cost standpoint, anything that returns 1/20th of it's value is a win. But since gardens are unreliable, I want to shoot for something more like 1/10th. One wall 4' garden bed wall costs about $8, add the cost of the underlay for wicking and some chicken wire fence and call it $10. Running long rows, say 16ft means 10 sections per bed, or about $100 to build a bed. So it would need to produce $10 in vegetables to be "productive". I should also take the cost of the land into account, but the areas I'm looking at the cost is pennies per sq ft.
 
== Sim ==
I wrote a simulator a while ago that evolved a garden layout from random mutations. I should take another crack at that. Update so that it values less wall area.


Try making seed tape.
== Unresearched ==
== Unresearched ==
*wheat
*wheat

Latest revision as of 19:29, 28 July 2020

General Data

Resources

Logs

Plants

  • 5/5 Roma Tomatoes: The classic garden plant for a reason. Canned tomatoes have bpa, fresh tomatoes are expensive. Growing is easy.
  • 2/5 Onions: I haven't had good luck, but if I could grow them I might bump this up to a 3 or 4. Problem is they are cheap to buy and they keep well.
  • 4/5 Soybeans: These are cheap to buy dried. But when I grow them, they are delicious as edamame and they're pretty easy to grow.
  • 2/5 Garlic: almost the same as onion
  • 2/5 Rutabaga: same as onion, though I would like to figure out how to make saurkraut from the leaves
  • 4/5 Carrots: Once they're established, they grow easily if they don't have worms. And they're delicious.
  • ??? Raspberries
  • ??? Apples

Goals

The long term objective is to grow a significant portion of our food. But that will not be feasible for a while. Eventually I will buy land for Coltend and one of the the first things I will do is start gardening.

For now, the goal is to grow some useful foods and learn from the experience.

I believe we will stay in our current home for at least another 10 years, maybe more. Eventually, I'd like to convert more of the land to production. I'm not sure how much I can really do, but I should be able to at least triple what I have.

I should also be able to go back to doing pots on the roof at some point. Though I don't want to deal with the drip irrigation. I could also build a roof over the porch area and put more plants up there.

From a cost standpoint, anything that returns 1/20th of it's value is a win. But since gardens are unreliable, I want to shoot for something more like 1/10th. One wall 4' garden bed wall costs about $8, add the cost of the underlay for wicking and some chicken wire fence and call it $10. Running long rows, say 16ft means 10 sections per bed, or about $100 to build a bed. So it would need to produce $10 in vegetables to be "productive". I should also take the cost of the land into account, but the areas I'm looking at the cost is pennies per sq ft.

Sim

I wrote a simulator a while ago that evolved a garden layout from random mutations. I should take another crack at that. Update so that it values less wall area.

Unresearched

  • wheat
  • oats
  • rice
  • corn
  • tea
  • nuts(?)
  • blueberries
  • raspberries
  • apples
  • lettuces
  • legumes
    • garbanzo
    • kidney
    • pinto
    • peas
    • red lentils
  • herbs
    • basil
    • dill
  • peppers
    • cayenne
    • chili
    • bell

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