How much food can you grow at home?

Here's a video of what one woman did to answer the question, "How Much Food Can I Grow Around My House?"



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Positive Benefits of Tending Your Garden.

More people are thinking about about growing their own food. Our cultural climate has shifted. Emphasis on food quality and ethical growing practices are increasing. More people want to buy locally grown food. They see the benefits that gardens, especially food-growing gardens, can bring. But you don't necessarily have to eat good food to receive its healing benefits.

Consider one benefit of gardening that is rarely considered.

Exercise.

Gardeners tend to take the physical therapeutic aspects and benefits of gardening for granted. In addition to creating a myriad of emotional and social benefits, the health benefits of being outdoors, breathing fresh air and doing physical work cannot be overlooked.

As you probably know, health professionals say you should perform some form of aerobic activity on a daily basis. As a healthy lifestyle activity, gardening can offer significant health benefits to people of all ages. So start to take advantage of the positive benefits of gardening.

It's time to get yourself outside in the garden and get started. Start planning now!

Dry Farming

The weather doesn't always co-operate by raining when our gardens need water.

I have a few old books on dry-farming saved in my Google Library. These books were written over 100 years ago. They contain ideas you can use today to grow vegetables if you live in a dry climate or are growing under drought conditions.

Here's an excerpt from "Dry Farming" by John A. Widtsoe...

DRY-FARMING, as at present understood, is the
profitable production of useful crops, without irrigation,
on lands that receive annually a rainfall of
20 inches or less.

In districts of torrential rains,
high winds, unfavorable distribution of the rainfall,
or other water-dissipating factors, the term "
dry-farming " is also properly applied to farming
without irrigation under an annual precipitation of
25 or even 30 inches.

There is no sharp demarkation between dry- and humid-farming.
When the annual precipitation is under 20
inches, the methods of dry-farming are usually
indispensable. When it is over 30 inches, the
methods of humid-farming are employed; in places
where the annual precipitation is between 20 and .
30 inches, the methods to be used depend chiefly
on local conditions affecting the conservation of
soil moisture.

Here's a link to the Dry Farming Books in my Google Library. These are the complete books readable online or downloadable as a PDF.

Urban Permaculture