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10 Comments

1. Just what I needed to read! Looking forward to next segment.

2. Agree with everything you said except for the part about forgoing any season extension or greenhouse techniques. Although there is truth to the notion that these play a bigger role if one is growing for market and needs to speed up the date when they will have marketable produce, I find season extension techniques invaluable in my far north(zone 3-4) region of VT. I’m not talking about using external heat sources but just covering with ag fabrics or unheated “tunnels”. I have found these offer many benefits including harvesting a crop in a bad(cold and wet) season, disease and insect protection and even protection from hail storms which we get a lot of. Especially with the really weird weather we’ve been getting lately including record breaking cold in early fall, row covers or unheated greenhouses will make a big difference. It also allows one to continue to grow some crops such as hardy kales, chard, spinach etc into very cold snowy weather while covered. As well, using row cover over strawberries for the winter provides great protection.

   In addition, I was totally spoiled by only growing tomatoes in my large greenhouses which protected the crop from late blight to a good degree. Growing field tomatoes here, especially organically, is difficult due to our now persistent late blight. When I’m growing on my own land again I hope to build a small greenhouse especially for the tomatoes(and peppers, eggplants and other crops that will benefit). Otherwise I think you’re spot on with all of your other observations. And in Maine you’ve got both FEDCO and Johnny’s! How lucky!

3. This article has a wonderful “live according to the seasons” message with a connection to the rhythms of life!

   The rough calendar is easily readable, and may be especially helpful to new or newer gardeners who are trying to wrap their minds around the seasonal mechanics of gardening.

   Also an excellent reminder that we should stock up on the supplemental supplies needed to feed garden plants directly (or support the soil otherwise such that one feeds the soil in order to feed the plants).

   Our family gardens year round, and we do use seasonal extenders with excellent success. We also have chickens, and wouldn’t be without them! But… We live in a different part of the country. Our environment is such that our hens can easily forage. Food supplementation increases egg production, but they do quite well without much intervention.

4. Here is one of my favorite gardening books. It goes month by month. I adjust which months I follow depending on which gardening zone I am in. Definitely helpful and there are a number of inexpensive used copies available.

   https://www.amazon.com/New-Victory-Garden-Bob-Thomson/dp/0316843369/ref=asc_df_0316843369/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312111868535&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5223868437088905807&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029400&hvtargid=pla-568766686453&psc=1

5. Here in Alaska we need our poly tunnel. If I grew only in the ground without the help of the tunnel the crops we could grow would be limited to potatoes, lettuce, beets, cabbage and carrots.

   With the tunnel we can have beans tomatoes and lots of other tasty vitamin filled foods.

   When your growing season is so short the only to get an abundant harvest is to grow under glass or plastic.

6. Thank you for sharing this. Its nice to get new perspectives which stimulate new ideas for our place. I appreciate it.

   We’re watching a redoubt blizzard-type snowstorm by the birthplace of my blog name. Enjoying living a prepared life.

7. Thanks for the much needed information and experience. Without food, there ain’t no future. And you are in zone 5, where the season is very short. I might have missed it, but did not see any reference to a now more likely solar minimum, and even shorter growing seasons. If the severity of the colder weather proves out, how would we compensate? I planted mostly short season cold weather varieties. My potatoes were very small, but the turnips were huge. Beets were small as well…. but the chard was massive… Spring took off with a spring, yet the 20 degree cooler than last summer, changed the game.

   I believe any and all methods to compensate for cooler growing seasons should be considered, yet I have little experience here. A green house can only be only so large, and materials in the future for hoop houses and other such structures may not be available.

8. Tunnel Rabbit makes a good point about the limits of the size of a greenhouse. One option is the use of hydroponics systems which can produce many multiple times the food bounty of traditional soil-based agricultural methods. In well-managed and tightly controlled environments, the multiple for salad greens can be 40x and potentially 50x the production rate.There are lots of design ideas, and each one has its merits for specific types of plants. Hydroponic growing, in our experience, is not suited to all types of garden plants, but it does work really well for several. Our strategies combine hydroponics and soil-based growing, as well as greenhouse and outdoor growing. We find that we are constantly learning and adapting, and very much appreciate the generous sharing of information — ideas, problem solving, the works — by the editors and the readers!

9. Chicken breed is very important if you are homesteading. Domesticated breeds tend not to be strong foragers and not to go broody. We have found that the heritage breeds are much stronger foragers and seem to do better in extreme climates.

10. I erred by not mentioning the importance of row covers and ‘caterpillars’ in providing a few extra degrees when you need it most. Remay or Typar or Agribon or even clear well-ventilated plastic keep early tender plants out of the wind and bugs away when necessary. Plants also can weather temps dropping to 28F and come back mightly, when under a row cover. I’ve also cut a few pieces of good strong wire and buried the edges of a propped up row covers to advantage. Again, I suggest getting Johnny’s catalogue to see pictures of various row cover options. Yes, this stuff is a plastic derivative but it can be reused over many years if carefully handled.

    We burn well over 4 cords of firewood to heat our small energy efficient home. Taking out the ashes of the stove every week or so gives us the opportunity to collect ‘biochar’. For us biochar is the small pieces of unburned firewood sifted out of the ashes that we collect and placed in a separate bucket. Early spring we inoculate the char pieces by peeing on them, giving them a nice charge of nitrogen as well as other minerals. Then we sprinkle the biochar on our garden beds, cover them with a row cover – in this case plastic is best. This will help warm the soil, provide ‘micro-tenements for our soil microbes, as well as fertilizer for the crops to come.

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