Vegetable growing: What would you teach?
Good points made by Matron in her “Food Security” post of Nov 12 (can’t link direct, but it’s a short scroll down her main page):
“There will come a time in the not too distant future when supplies of water and fuel become scarce that we will all need to grow our own food. Most people in the UK have no idea how to do that, and therefore it will be up to you and I – the food growing bloggers – to show them how, before they all starve to death!”
I wish this were melodramatic, but I don’t think it is. And it got me thinking: if I were suddenly required to help people grow food – en masse – would I be up to it?
Specifically, what could I do? What specific tips would I hand out to would-be vegetable growers in the post-oil era?
Reams of detailed, complex advice would be too much for a total beginner (remember how that felt?). But trite, obvious stuff is also clearly pointless.
After much thought, I reckon my initial, brief ‘Here’s what you need to know’ checklist would look like this:
- Prepare to irrigate. You’ll need access to water and you’ll have to water crops MUCH more than you think
- Get a horse, or befriend an equestrian. The only way to keep up soil fertility, when fertilisers have vanished or become too expensive (already happening), will be to add TONS of compost and manure year-round
- KILL ALL CABBAGE WHITE BUTTERFLIES ON SIGHT
If you had to give three specific bits of help/advice to a total vegetable virgin – once the oil and fertilisers have gone – what would they be?
Interesting question .
Here are my three for starters .
Do not let weeds get you down , we are looking to grow veg not have a show garden .
Start with easy crops , big seeds like beans , spuds , fartichokes , onion sets .
Read all you can , use your library and learn from others .
November 19th, 2009 at 8:52 am
Like the ‘big seeds’ advice, Paul. I’ve noticed that the more bland/tasteless/unpleasant the vegetable, the easier it is to cultivate.
More evidence of that Divine sense of humour.
November 19th, 2009 at 11:29 am
I think my first piece of advice would be to prepare the ground. I’ve had failures this year because of the fertility of the soil so it’s important to get as much goodness into the area as possible.
Secondly, I would advise growing things that you know you like to eat. If it’s a case of ‘needing’ to grow food then there’s no point in growing something you’ve never eaten before in case you don’t like it.
I would also advise to find out about storing and preserving so that the crops grown can be eaten year round.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
If conditions were really bad my advice would be to focus on root vegetables the first season for their calories and ability to withstand storage. Like you said, availability of water is extremely important and as John suggested, read, read, read.
Of course, we will probably be robbed of our food stuff long before we ever get a chance to teach if times get really tough.:) Very few people grow their own food in my area, and even fewer seem to show any interest in learning how to…leastwise any that I have met. All that dirt, it’s full of germs you know.:)
November 19th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
If food does begin to be in short supply home gardening will hardly be the answer. There is little chance of meeting a person’s caloric needs from very small plots of land. However as a thought exercise*:
1) Grow high calorie, productive foods (a kin to Mike’s root veg suggestion)
2) Use species and varieties that can survive low fertility conditions (reducing the need to support that horse)
3) Select plants that are drought hardy if possible (cowpeas and not common beans, etc.) to reduce your dependence on irrigation
*However, all of these suggestions rely on home gardeners now. Without hardy, reliable, open pollinated varieties of veg (and grains) there is no chance of people in the future supporting themselves from their own land (regardless of the scenario). We currently rely almost entirely on seed saving, home gardeners to maintain this diversity. Large corporations and agro-business are certainly not interested in preventing their disappearance.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Couldn’t agree more, Save Seeds. Of course you’re right – this is a thought experiment, not a reality questionnaire!
Seed saving is desperately important, so that we CAN support ourselves in future should we need to (and I fear this is only too likely). For UK readers, I strongly recommend Real Seeds for open-pollinated varieties if you’re only just starting this.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Grow what you will eat!
Compost, compost, compost.
Don’t do it alone – ask questions, make friends, share crops and seeds.
November 19th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
So, Soilman – apocalypse when? Just wondering how much work to bother putting into my media/teaching career, if we’re going to face a Death of Grass scenario in the next 18 months.
As you know, I’m not much of a gardener…
November 19th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Hiya Simon
Yeah, well. I know it comes across as a bit dippy-sounding. And I often laugh out loud when I read some of the alarmist shit I write…
… and yet. There is a germ of real concern here, you know. Peak Oil isn’t theoretical. It may be further off than the doom-mongers say, but it WILL happen (everyone agrees the amount of oil in the earth’s crust is finite – even the Saudis).
And in western countries, which have taken cheap energy for granted for so long in our food production (not to mention our industry), the price rise in basic foodstuffs is going to be the most painful we face. Because food has been so cheap for so long that almost everyone alive today now takes cheap food utterly for granted. To have to pay a LOT more for something you CAN’T live without will be one hell of a shock.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
PS Read this and weep.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
There’s some very good advice here.I think mine is probably less practical and more about attitude:
1) Grow more of what you like and less (or none) or what you don’t. Just because you have to grow food to eat, doesn’t mean you should end up eating loads of things you can’t stand.
2) Be prepared to try new things, don’t just stick with what you know. There are all sort of interesting, tasty veg out there that you seldom find in the shops which are not too difficult to grow. If it turns out you don’t like it you can try something else next year.
3) Size isn’t everything! Certainly it will be important to optimize yield, but barrowloads of tough, tasteless, oversized veg will only be depressing. Harvest when young, tender and tasty.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:38 am
Here are my tips:
i) make friends with others nearby. You can exchange ideas, crops, seeds etc and you can water/harvest for each other if you have to be away from things for a while
ii) grow a few flowers (eg dahlias). The addition aesthetic componant cheers things up, and the is a subtle pleasure to be had from growing something because you want to rather then need to
iii) if you have grassy bits try and keep the ground flatish so you can quickly mow. Bumpy ground with grass on is a nightmare and will swallow huge amounts of time strimming.
Simon
November 20th, 2009 at 11:50 am
… and assuming we’ll be able to afford the fuel for the strimmer, Simon!!
November 20th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Here, in my neck of the dry woods where water is another scarcity, my answer is mulch, mulch, and mulch some more (this time with horse manure).
Like you, I love horse poop.
November 21st, 2009 at 5:34 am
1) In The first year, when you first dig up your lawn, just grow potatoes. (This maximises your return, ‘cleans’ up the soil and has that wow factor for first time growers. There is an opportunity to build up the nutrients in the soil by composting kitchen wast (including potato peelings)during this year. Also they store well. You will get fed up with just potatoes through that first winter and will be itching to grow something different!)
2)In the second year, grow one third potatoes, one third cabbages and one third other produce like leeks and lettuces etc. This introduces crop rotation which will be an essential element in land management and extends variety while maintaining a long season of food availability.
3) By year three you will have your own ideas or have given up, in which case you will probably have already eaten Soilman’s horse.
November 21st, 2009 at 2:46 pm
1. Garlic is the easiest plant to grow
2. You can’t make a meal out of garlic alone
November 21st, 2009 at 4:40 pm
The first year- actually, the first season- grow a lot of greens. A variety of them. A few types of kale, a few varieties of chard/silverbeet, anything else that looks interesting/you can get some free or traded seeds for. Greens are ready for eating fast, and are what can turn a pantry stocked with nothing but storable grains & dried beans into actual meals. It’s also incredibly encouraging for a first-time gardener to be able to harvest armfuls of produce within a couple of months of planting. Take note of what grows well in your conditions (I learned fast that Red Russian kale grew really, really well year-round in my Sydney backyard, while Lacinato was a total & consistent failure). Then, plant more of what works, and share your seeds with other local gardeners.
Also, plant beans. They’re pretty easy, pretty fast, and will improve the soil where they’re grown. And if you grow enough of them, you can leave some to mature & dry for winter storage.
November 21st, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Great advice here… thanks to everyone for chipping in!
And Mal, don’t even think about it. Nobody eats my bloody horse but me.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:05 pm
My tips would be;
1) Make sure you have storage space for what you grow and no how to preserve it so you have no wastage.
2) Save seeds from everything…it costs you nothing if they don’t grow.
3) invest in some livestock…chickens, bees, horse and goat…this way you have dairy, compost and a grass cutter too!!!!
November 21st, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Sadly I can’t be as pithy as you or as succinct as your respondents here Soilman, so I couldn’t resist giving you my answer over at mine…
Great post and conversation
November 24th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
PS You can link directly to Matron’s original post, it’s just that the template she uses doesn’t have them in the main body. You have to pick it up from the Recent Posts list in her sidebar instead:
http://veggies-only.blogspot.com/2009/11/food-security.html
Voila!
November 24th, 2009 at 3:17 pm