What Should I Grow in my Garden?

Hello again faithful readers! (aka mom)

First thing’s first, I’ve discovered the bible (or at least the beginner’s bible) of self-sufficient living : John Seymour’s « The Self-Sufficient Live and How to Live it ». It’s a wonderful ressource that covers everything self-sufficient from gardening, to taking care of animals, producing energy, brewing beer and making your own bricks! It’s quite the ressource!

This being said, while in my younger days, Thursday nights were usually synonymous to the big « University students night out », my Thursday night was spent flipping through the pages of this wonderful book. Following this « crazy Thursday night » and conversations with my friend, I now have a much better « macro » picture of what self-sufficiency is, what it takes to achieve full self-sufficiency (100%) and the types of self-sufficiency (personal or community self-sufficiency), and I think I’ve decided that for this summer, the main goal will be to explore vegetable self-sufficiency (or at least to be produce most of my own veggies, to store them and to have some for more that just the growing season.

Veggies – Man and Woman’s Best Friend

Ok, this first exercise is just a brainstorm to see which types of veggies I want to see in my garden :

1. Tomatoes
2. Carrots
3. Lettuce
4. Cabbage
5. Turnips
6. Potatoes
7. Green Peppers/Red Peppers (more on those later)
8. Broccoli
9. GARLIC! (Has anyone ever tasted organic, fresh garlic before? It’s to die for! Well, not really, not much is really worth dying for, but just trust me, if you haven’t tried it, you haven’t truly lived!)
10. Celery
11. Cucumber
12. Onions
13. Zucchini
14. Parsnips
15. Spinach (spinach!)
16. Asparagus
17. Beans
18. Eggplants! (And one vegetable to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them)

And don’t forget the small seperate herb garden :

1. Basil
2. Oregano
3. Parsley

Wow, just by making this short wish list, I see it’s grown quite big! I can’t wait to start to do the planning for it. In the coming weeks, I’ll try and learn more about planning the garden, quantities needed, intercropping and all the rest!

Ok, let me know if I’ve missed out on some awesome veggie that I should add to the list! Talk to you tomorrow!

Vegetably yours,

Mathieu