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235 comments on DrumBeat: September 21, 2007

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Will on September 21, 2007 - 3:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Phineas,

A couple of things... the Rodale book is good. It will give you a fine start. But don't lose the Cornell link. It has a very nice search function and our ancestor ag-folks were very clever. So when you have the inevitable pest problem, or mildew in the squash, give the old ways a trial. They work.

Another step would be to accumulate local weather information. Not just frost dates, but daily highs/lows, insolation values, rainfall tables, insect hatch dates and so on. Your university extension service will have this info and they will be on the web. Also get a seed sowing calculator. They are cheap slide-rule things where you set the spring and fall frost dates and it backs into sowing/harvesting schedules. Get over to your new property and record the sun-shade situation, before the leaves fall.

An aside... don't dink around with commercial greenhouse starts. The real fun of gardening begins in January when you order seed. There's amazing stuff out there. With good soil and pest management you will eat like a king.

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phineas gage on September 21, 2007 - 11:48pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Will,
thanks for your advice. I'm someone with no prior experience and who has small children at home and a busy job, so reading your link and post is a little bit intimidating. But I do have a goal to produce 10% of the food my family consumes by two years from now so I'm realizing there's a lot to it. I expect a lot of failure in the first year but hope to learn and do better in year two. I live in southern ohio, 40 to 45" of rain in a typical year, good soil, zone 6. I plan to can and freeze food to attain this goal. I live right in town, just outside of downtown so having animals is not possible, at least not yet. If I get my garden up to the 1000 to 2000 sq ft range and have a couple fruit trees and a couple berry bushes, is 10% a realistic goal for a family of four?

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feonixrift on September 22, 2007 - 1:12am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

2000 sq ft? You might well be able to hit 90-100% with that eventually, assuming you like potatoes, vegetables, fruit and beans. 10% in two years sounds eminently reasonable to me.

My little Zone 9 or 10 porch, well, that likely won't hit 10% unless I work really hard at it. This summer I managed a whole two radishes, so I've a long way to go.

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235 comments on DrumBeat: September 21, 2007

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