Gardening Self-Sufficiency And Time
(This is a stock photo. Our water storage system isn’t as pretty. – grins)
The Dear Wonderful Hubby and I have a goal to be self-sufficient with our gardening.
Eventually.
If there’s ever a time when we can’t buy or otherwise obtain soil, fertilizer, water, containers and other gardening necessities from others, we want to still be able to grow vegetables and berries.
I hope that day never comes but we’re preparing for it. Just in case.
This preparation takes time. And resources. And expertise.
It isn’t an overnight, install it and be done process.
Making leaf mold, for example, takes at the minimum two years.
My first attempt was a disaster. I didn’t add enough water. The leaves didn’t break down.
I’m trying again and that will take at least another two years.
Putting together a rain water retention system, as another example, takes expertise and money. We’re building this system over time, adding rain barrels and storage containers to it every year.
Building a base of perennial vegetables and berries involves a GREAT deal of learning and babying the plants those first few years and money to buy the seeds/starts. I find we can only add a couple perennials every year to our garden successfully.
Self-sufficiency with gardening isn’t an easy overnight type of thing.
But then gardening isn’t an easy overnight type of thing.
(grins)
We can do this!
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Gardening – Saving Seeds
It is moving into Fall/Autumn in my part of the universe and it is time for some intense seed saving.
I like to save seeds as early as possible in the season because then I’m assured I’ll have seeds for next year and can relax a bit. But some plants like butternut squash can take all season for their seeds to ripen.
And we wish to ripen those seeds on the plant for as long as possible. That increases the probability those seeds will be viable as the plant has put maximum energy into creating them.
I save my seeds in cleaned-out plastic condiment containers, the type we get with take-out orders. I then put those condiments in old metal cookie/biscuit tins and store them in the cooler basement.
I usually have a gazillion seeds. So I usually plant extra in the Spring because…I can and because that ensures at least some of them will be viable.
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A Gardener’s Learning Curve
Gardening is a skill. And as with any skill (including writing), there’s a learning curve.
The first vegetables I grew as an adult were tomatoes. And that was ALL I grew in that first year.
I needed the time to learn how to tend to the soil, how to water the tomato plants properly, how to stake them, how to attract pollinators, when to harvest their fruit and then their seeds, how to prepare the bed for the next year and so on.
I made mistakes. Some plants died. All plants grew…not terrifically. (sheepish grin) The harvest was…underwhelming.
I learned from those mistakes and the following year, the tomato growing went MUCH better.
So much better that I decided to grow green beans also.
And I made mistakes with those plants also.
I learned. I became a better gardener.
I added another type of vegetable to the garden. And the process repeated.
If this was your first year gardening and your harvest was underwhelming or completely nonexistent, know that is normal.
That is expected.
Your mistakes this year will make you a better gardener next year.
(smiles)
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