Go Food Gardening

Your Grocery Bill is Going to Change

The prospects do not look too good for food prices in the near future. U.S. farmers continue to suffer from the worst drought to hit them in the last half century. And as the U.S. is a major food exporter this is affecting food prices across the globe.

And on the local front the steep increase in production costs and ever increasing fuel price (a major input cost in commercial farming) is already filtering through to the consumer.

How will you deal with the rising costs?

By doing something proactive your grocery bill can actually go down whilst food prices skyrockets.

For starters, grow more veggies. Not by increasing the size of your food garden but by increasing the harvest from your existing garden. The easiest way to do this is to space your crops according to their nutrient needs and your soil quality. For example, if you have a poor soil don't grow veggies with a high nutrient demand.

Next, grow better veggies. Better quality equals better nutritional value. Meaning you'll harvest more nutrients and vitamins from the same area. The easiest way to do this is to plant according to the seasons and to grow crops adapted to your climate. For example, don't grow cool season crops in summer.

And finally, grow your soil. A healthier soil will result in more and better veggies. It is the key to more and better vegetables. Start by cutting down on chemical fertilizers and by making your own compost. There are as many compost making systems as there are food gardeners. The best systems pack punch by using a combination of proven compost making techniques.

So what specifically will you do to beat the rising food prices?

Three Dreadful Food Gardening Maladies

Most activities work better when there is a grand scheme guiding them than when they just sort of happen in a haphazard way. There's no doubt that an overarching design is absolutely necessary when it comes to complex projects like building a house or manufacturing a cell phone. When it comes to seemingly simpler projects like food gardening, however, it can be tempting to just "wing it" and hope there will be a positive outcome.

Food gardening takes up valuable time, so that time should be put to its most efficient use. I have yet to find a successful food gardener that does not have a grand scheme or system. And by successful I mean someone who, first and foremost, produces better quality than supermarket veggies. And secondly, who consistently, week after week, feeds her family from the food garden with a healthy variety of crops.

What's more, I have yet to find a successful food gardener who uses exactly the same system as everybody else. And by "everybody else" I mean the one-shoe-fits-all food gardening approaches you'll find in the media. The successful food gardener continuously adapts her system to suit her time constraints, her garden and her personality.

When you "wing it" you are prone to three dreadful food gardening maladies. The first is the dreadful "worse-than-supermarket" quality and prices. Next is the debilitating "feast-or-famine syndrome". And lastly there are the destructive pest and disease invasions. These three maladies almost always occur together. They almost always destroy the food garden, and the food gardener's spirit.

Where and when do you wing it? What is the price you are paying for winging it? What can you do to stop winging it?

Discover How To Put Home-Grown Veggies on Your Table

The most productive growing season is summer. We can grow a bigger variety and get a bigger harvest in summer than we can in any other season; with a lot less effort. The secret however is to get off to a good start in spring. If you wait until summer you'll miss the boat.

As you know, food gardening is a craft, and the best way to learn any craft is to learn it from a master. And in spring each year a few lucky people get the opportunity to join my food gardening bootcamp and become master themselves.

The bootcamp kicks off with a 1-Day workshop on the 29th of September. Presented against the backdrop of my own working food garden, the workshop gets you off to a flying start and equips you with the much needed practical food gardening skills such as planning, soil analysis, bed preparation, sowing, thinning, watering, etc.

At the end of the workshop you enrol in the self-study program which gives you the step-by-step instructions and the theoretical underpinning for mastering the proven Go Food Gardening system. This enables you to start your own composting system and to experience the thrill and satisfaction of putting home-grown crops on the table on a continuous basis.

Last but not least, and perhaps the most valuable of all, you also get five weeks of coaching support to help you sort out any problems you may encounter in your food garden.

Booking is essential. Visit www.herbclass.com/foodgardeningbookings.html

Food Gardening Guide - Week 11/2012

To understand the thinking behind this guide and to discover how to set-up and manage an abundant organic food garden, enrol in the Go Food Gardening e-Class.

Weather permitting, and where possible, I try to garden by the moon. The days indicated with some activities are therefore the best moon gardening days.

Planting Activities

• Start sowing peas. Best days: Mon.
• Sow root crops: beetroot, carrots, radish and turnips. Best days: Mon, Fri & Sat.
• Sow legumes: broad beans. Best days: Mon.
• Sow/plant bulb crops: chives and garlic chives, garlic, leeks, onions. Best days: Mon, Fri& Sat.
• Plant chilli peppers. Best days: Tue - Thu.
• Sow or plant flowering annuals. Best days: Fri & Sat.
• Take cuttings of perennial herbs. Best days: Mon.
• Repot pot-bound herbs. Best days: Mon.

Growing Activities

• Do your daily observations. First note the general appearance of crops, and then start looking at detail.
• Note any pests and tasks such as watering, thinning and weeding that needs to be done.
• Water daily if needed. Best days: Mon.
• Weeding. Best days: Fri - Sun.
• Trim plants where needed to increase their growth. Best days: Tue - Thu.
• Pests and Diseases. Best days for control measures: Fri - Sun.

Harvesting Activities

• Daily Needs. Harvest daily for the table as needed.
• Harvest for storage (those crops that store well). Best days: Tue - Thu.

Composting and Mulching

• Make compost and mulch beds. Best days: Fri - Sat.

Food Gardening Guide - Week 9/2012

To understand the thinking behind this guide and to discover how to set-up and manage an abundant organic food garden, enrol in the Go Food Gardening e-Class.

Weather permitting, and where possible, I try to garden by the moon. The days indicated with some activities are therefore the best moon gardening days.

Planning Activities

• Finalize sowing and planting plans for autumn and winter, including succession plantings.

Digging

• Prepare beds for planting using 'subsequent bed preparation' technique. Best days: Tue - Sat.

Planting Activities

• Last sowing of broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Best days: Wed - Thu, Sun.
• Sow successions of: cabbage, cauliflower and kale; kohlrabi, lettuce, morogo, oriental cabbages, rocket, spinach and Swiss chard. Best days: Wed - Thu, Sun.
• Sow lettuce. Best days: Wed - Thu, Sun.
• Plant chilli peppers. Best days: Fri - sun.

Growing Activities

• Do daily observations. First note the general appearance of crops, and then start looking at detail. Note any pests and tasks such as watering, thinning and weeding that needs to be done.
• Water daily if needed. Best days: Tue - Thu.
• Keep weeding. Start with weeds that are in flower, don't allow them to seed. And don't compost any seed bearing weeds. Don't let up your guard. Best days: Mon - Tue.
• Trim plants where needed to increase their growth. Best days: Fri - Sun.
• Fertilize. Check condition of heavy feeders and fertilize them if needed with a good quality, water soluble, organic fertilizer. Best days: Tue - Thu.
• Pest and Diseases. Check for and control aphids, red spider mite and mildew. If you have fruit trees, start putting out bait to catch the last generation of fruit fly. Best days: Mon - Tue.

Composting and Mulching

• Sow green manures and compost crops. Best days: Wed - Thu.
• Make compost and mulch beds. Best days: Wed - Thu.

7 High-Yield Strategies

"The more you expand the horizons of your imagination, opening new territories and going beyond what you think is possible, the more you open the doorway to unlimited abundance." - Sanaya Roman & Duane Packer

Imagine harvesting nearly half a ton of tasty, beautiful, organically grown veggies from a 5-by-5-meter food garden. 50 kilograms of tomatoes from just 7 square meters, or 10 kilograms of carrots from just 1.4 square meters.

Yields like these are easier to achieve than you may think. The secret to super-productive food gardening is taking the time now to plan strategies that will open the doorway to abundance. And I must stress the importance of doing it now. Getting your planning, bed preparation and first sowings done before mid-March is critical for a super-productive winter garden.

Here are 7 high-yield strategies to expand your horizons and go beyond what you think are possible:

1. Use proven organic gardening principles. Better yet, use a proven system like the Go Food Gardening system. To discover how to set-up and manage a high-yield food garden, enrol in the Go Food Gardening 1-Day Workshop or e-Course. Visit www.herbclass.com/foodgardeningbookings.html
2. Build up your soil. A deep, organically rich soil, teeming with soil life encourages the healthy crops that are super-productive. But please, do your soil building scientifically, not haphazardly.
3. Use non-permanent raised beds. Raised beds as used in the Go Food Gardening system yield up to four times more than the same amount of space planted in rows. They save time too. In one experiment it only took 27 hours over the course of spring and summer to cultivate a 10-by-10-meter garden. The yield was 855kg - that's a year's supply of food for three people from about 3 total days of work!
4. Space smartly. Pay attention to how you arrange the plants to make the most of your space. There's an optimum spacing for each crop. Avoid overly tight spacing which can stress plants making them more susceptible to diseases and insect attack.
5. Go vertical. No matter how small your garden, you can grow more by going vertical.
6. Succeed with successions. This allows you to grow more than one crop in any given space over the course of a growing season. Plan your successions sowings in weeks rather than days. Systematically determine your start and end dates and the best intervals for your garden.
7. Stretch your season. Adding a week or two at the beginning and end of the growing season can buy you enough time to grow yet another succession crop, or to harvest more end-of-the-season crops.

Food Gardening Guide - Week 7/2012

My activity checklist for Week 7 (13 February to 19 February) follows below.

To understand the thinking behind this guide and to discover how to set-up and manage a high-yield organic food garden, enrol in the Go Food Gardening e-Class or 1-Day Workshop.

Weather permitting, and where possible, I try to garden by the moon. The days indicated with some activities are therefore the best moon gardening days.

Planning Activities

• Start making serious plans for the autumn and winter garden.

Planting Activities

• Sow successions of beetroot, carrots, and turnips. Start sowing radishes. Best days: Monday.

Growing Activities

• Do your daily observations. First note the general appearance of crops, and then start looking at detail. Note any pests and tasks such as watering, thinning and weeding that needs to be done.
• Water daily if needed. Best days: Monday & Tuesday.
• Keep weeding. Start with weeds that are in flower, don't allow them to seed. And don't compost any seed bearing weeds. Don't let up your guard.
• Trim plants such as annual herbs to decrease their growth. Best days: Wednesday - Sunday.
• Fertilize. Check condition of heavy feeders and fertilize them if needed with a good quality, water soluble, organic fertilizer. Best days: Monday & Tuesday.
• Pest and Diseases. Check for aphids, red spider mite and mildew. If you have fruit trees, start putting out bait to catch the last generation of fruit fly. Best days to control pests: Wednesday - Sunday.

Food Gardening Guide - Week 6/2012

My activity checklist for Week 6 (6 February to 12 February) follows below.

To understand the thinking behind this guide and to discover how to set-up and manage an abundant organic food garden, enrol in the Go Food Gardening e-Class or 1-Day Workshop.

Weather permitting, and where possible, I try to garden by the moon. The days indicated with some activities are therefore the best moon gardening days.

Planning Activities

• Adjust sowing quantities and bed allocations for succession sowings.
• Start plans for the autumn and winter garden. Narrow down overall goals.

Planting Activities

• Sow successions of beetroot, carrots, and turnips. Start sowing radishes. Best days: Saturday & Sunday.
• Sow successions of bush beans. Best days: Saturday and Sunday.
• Sow or plant fruiting crops. In most parts of South Africa it is too late to sow eggplant, sweet and green peppers. But there's still time to plant seedlings or potted plants. The same goes for tomatoes but if you sow a determinate variety you might just make it before winter. Best days: Monday.
• Plant chilli peppers. Best days: Monday.
• Sow or plant flowering annuals. Best days: Monday, Saturday & Sunday.

Growing Activities

• Do your daily observations. First note the general appearance of crops, and then start looking at detail. Note any pests and tasks such as watering, thinning and weeding that needs to be done.
• Water daily if needed. Best days: Monday.
• Keep weeding. Start with weeds that are in flower, don't allow them to seed. And don't compost any seed bearing weeds. Don't let up your guard.
• Trim plants such as annual herbs to decrease their growth. Best days: Wednesday - Friday.
• Fertilize. Check condition of heavy feeders and fertilize them if needed with a good quality, water soluble, organic fertilizer. Best days: Monday.
• Pest and Diseases. Check for aphids, red spider mite and mildew. If you have fruit trees, start putting out bait to catch the last generation of fruit fly.

Harvesting Activities

• Daily Needs. Harvest daily for the table as needed.
• Harvest for storage (those crops that store well - potatoes, sweet potatoes). Best days: Monday - Friday.

Food Gardening Guide - Week 5/2012

After a very busy Week 4, Week 5 is just as exciting in the food garden. It is perfect for a whole range of activities.

Moon planting conditions are ideal for composting and mulching; sowing and planting leaf crops, fruiting crops and flowering crops; harvesting for storage; and fertilizing.

Remember that my garden is situated on the north-eastern side of Pretoria, so you may have to adjust some activities to suit your garden. If you want to understand the thinking behind these checklists, and get descriptions of the activities invest in the Go Food Gardening e-Class or 1-Day Workshop.

Weather permitting, and where possible, I try to garden by the moon. The days indicated with some activities are therefore the best moon gardening days.

Planning Activities

• Adjust sowing quantities and bed allocations for succession sowings of leafy salad crops; flowering annuals and fruiting crops.
• Start making tentative plans for the winter garden.

Digging

• Remove all disease bearing plants, especially cucurbits that show signs of mildew infestation. Do the same with plants, like beans and cabbages, that have very high aphid populations. Don't compost diseased material, and don't use it as a mulch.

Planting Activities

• Sow or plant fruiting crops. In most parts of South Africa it is too late to sow eggplant, sweet and green peppers. But there's still time to plant seedlings or potted plants. The same goes for tomatoes but if you sow a determinate variety you might just make it before winter. Best days: Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday.
• Sow brassicas: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kale. Best days: Monday - Tuesday.
• Sow leaf lettuce to be harvested as baby leaves. Best days: Monday - Tuesday.
• Plant chilli peppers.
• Sow or plant flowering annuals. Best days: Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday.
• Take cuttings of perennial herbs. Best days: Monday.

Growing Activities

• Do your daily observations. First note the general appearance of crops, and then start looking at detail. Note any pests and tasks such as watering, thinning and weeding that needs to be done.
• Water daily if needed. Best days: Saturday & Sunday.
• Weeding. Don't miss a weed.
• Trim plants where needed to increase their growth. Best days: Thursday & Friday.

Harvesting Activities

• Daily Needs. Harvest daily for the table as needed.
• Harvest for storage (those crops that store well). Best days: Thursday & Friday.

Composting and Mulching

• Sow green manures and compost crops. Best days: Monday & Tuesday.
• Make compost and mulch beds. Best days: Monday - Wednesday.

Food Gardening Guide - Week 4/2012

Week 4 (23 January to 29 January) is going to be a very busy week in my food garden. Moon planting conditions are ideal for bed preparation and sowing leaf crops, so I want to use the opportunity to clear out non-productive plants and get the last of the summer successions in the soil.

My activity checklist follows below. I've also included some general gardening activities for your convenience. Use this checklist to inspire your own gardening activities. Remember that my garden is situated on the north-eastern side of Pretoria, so you may have to adjust some activities to suit your garden. If you want to understand the thinking behind these checklists, and get descriptions of the activities invest in the Go Food Gardening e-Class or 1-Day Workshop.

Weather permitting, and where possible, I try to garden by the moon. The days indicated with some activities are therefore the best moon gardening days.

Planning Activities

• Adjust sowing quantities and bed allocations on crop planning worksheet for succession sowings of beetroot, carrots and bush beans, and for first sowing of turnips; as well as for leafy salad crops.

Digging

• Prepare beds for planting using 'subsequent bed preparation' technique. Best days: Monday to Friday.

Planting Activities

• Sow successions of beetroot, carrots and bush beans. First sowing of turnips.
• Sow brassicas: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower and kale. Best days: Wednesday - Friday.
• First sowing of leaf lettuce to be harvested as baby leaves. Best days: Wednesday - Friday.
• Plant chilli peppers. Best days: Saturday - Sunday.
• Rogue out all disease bearing plants, especially cucurbits that show signs of mildew infestation. Do the same with plants, like beans and cabbages, that have very high aphid populations. Don't compost diseased material, and don't use it as a mulch.

Growing Activities

• Do daily observations. First note the general appearance of crops, and then start looking at detail. Note any pests and tasks such as watering, thinning and weeding that needs to be done.
• Water daily if needed. Best days: Wednesday - Friday.
• Weeds can become troublesome in January as it is at the height of their growing season. Start with weeds that are in flower, don't allow them to seed. And don't compost any seed bearing weeds. Don't let up your guard.
• Trim plants where needed to increase their growth. Best days: Saturday - Sunday.
• Fertilize. Check condition of heavy feeders and fertilize them if needed with a good quality, water soluble, organic fertilizer. Best days: Wednesday - Friday.
• Pest and Diseases. Check for aphids, red spider mite and mildew.

Harvesting Activities

• Daily Needs. Harvest daily for the table as needed.