We grow only useful things. We grow food in preference to lawn. The average suburban home has around 2500 sq feet of lawn. We have about that much "lawn" in the back yard that now serves as "pasture" for our poultry flock. The front lawn, however, has been turned into raised beds for veggies. There are also avocado and citrus trees out front. We are planning some planter boxes and trellises out there for even more plantings. We have some ornamental and foundation perennials here and there, but for the most part everything we plant has more than aesthetic value.
Homegrown food tastes better because homegrown food is fresher, and in season, which delivers better taste. (Read about tomato harvesting--commercial vs. homegrown.) Homegrown food is also healthier because we can pick, eat, and/or preserve foods when they have their highest nutritional value, that is, when they are ripe and just picked. Homegrown food is safer for our family because they are handled less than supermarket food and have not been exposed to any contaminants--no chemical pesticides, herbicides, growth- or ripening-enhancers, or preservatives. We pick what we need on a given day and bring it in to be prepared. No E. coli.
Where we garden matters. In our Mediterranean climate, most seed packet and catalog info doesn't apply. For us, it's not so much a question of what to grow, but rather what to grow next. With proper planning and crop rotation, we can garden literally year-round. A garden paradise, right? Well, mostly. The increased growing brings increased demand on the soil. Nutrients are constantly used up, and so need constant replacement.We have relied on Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening: Month by Month to guide us on what to grow and when and how.
We are continually building our soil. We are constantly making and adding compost to our soil. We also mulch heavily. We avoid tilling the soil so that the soil food web will remain in tact. "I am starting to believe you about this compost thing," said one of our Kids Garden Club moms a few years ago. She had tried gardening with and without mulch and compost and was learning that compost and mulch make a huge difference in weeding and crop yields.
We water deeply and less frequently rather than shallowly and often. Seedlings and transplants need to be watered just about everyday. The soil around them should never dry out. However, once they are established, they can be "trained" to send roots farther down into the soil for nutrients and water. We accomplish this by watering deeply once or twice per week, depending on the summer heat. Our plants develop deeper root systems and are less susceptible to wilting in the heat and are pulling up nutrients from deep down that would otherwise be unavailable.
We try to work smarter, not harder. Sometimes work makes more work. Tilling your soil every year or every time you plant a new crop makes more work. For one thing, weed seeds that were buried deep in the soil are brought to the surface and sprout. Now you have weeds to pull. A better plan would be to mulch your garden beds regularly, and when you are ready to plant, pull back the mulch and put in your seeds or plants. Little chance for weed seeds to get the sunlight they need to sprout. The soil microbes will be happier and healthier this way, too. When they're happy, your plants will be happier--they'll have fewer pests and other problems. In other words, work with nature instead of against it: you won't have to work so much.
We try to pay attention to our plants and keep notes. We have notebooks in which we have kept notes and diagrams of some of the gardens we have tended. Detailed notes help you to plan future gardens. These days, more and more of our garden notes are on computer spreadsheets. What ever your method, keep good notes on which varieties you plant, what pests or problems the variety has, how much harvest and how soon, and also how the harvest tastes. Some varieties may not do well in your climate, or you may prefer one variety over another for greater harvest or better taste.
We try to keep in mind that failure is part of the process. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." --Henry Ford
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