Overcoming the Drawbacks of Small Scale Urban Homesteading: Planting Choices

The next step to making the most of our land was planting choices. So one of the things I've looked into is what can we grow that produces the best crop for the area grown and what takes up more space and is low yield. This has been somewhat trial and error, especially as I am growing in a completely different climate to the one I spent most of my life learning to garden in. Planting a variety in a small space also seems makes the most production of the space. Things seem to grow better when mixed together and they create a canopy which shades the ground and helps them survive the summer heat.

I've learnt that multipurposing is a great for small spaces and so I've started applying that concept to the garden too. Chard grows well here, but only produces leaves. Beetroot is in the same family, but produces both leaves and a large root. In our climate it can be grown most of the year, so rather than keeping one plant producing I can just keep planting seeds, harvest some leaves as they grow and harvest the root when it's ready.

I use the leaves of broccoli and cauliflower like cabbage and could probably drop growing the kale too.

Kohl rabi provides a large, sweet, swollen stem and again the leaves would be a good cabbage substitute. Sweet potato leaves can be used like spinach.

(The dormant sweet potato shoots have just started growing again now the weather is warming up)

One of the things we often consider is what would be filling if we ran out of money to buy food. The root crops spring to mind first, particularly potato and sweet potato. Sweet potato would be most ideal, but it only has a certain harvest window, whereas I can grow potatoes year round here. Admittedly yields aren't great in the summer drought conditions and only the tops are not edible for anything but the compost bugs. I'm going to be honest here though, we can't produce enough to feed a family of four. I'd probably have to turn the whole garden over to growing them!

Carrots are something we are starting to provide for ourselves year round. I've heard you can eat the tops, but too be honest, the rabbits love them so much they eat them instead.

It's still a work in progress to find the best use of crops. We're trying new things such as okra and are stopping growing the things we don't really eat.

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Here are my previous posts in this series if you missed them:

#1
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@minismallholding/overcoming-the-drawbacks-of-small-scale-urban-homesteading-introduction

#2
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@minismallholding/overcoming-the-drawbacks-of-small-scale-urban-homesteading-using-every-space

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