2014 growing 50-90% of your own food support group

I'm also pouring over seed catalogs to find open pollenated/heirloom seeds to replace some of my favorite hybrids, and looking for varieties that are better suited to the zone we moved to.

And I'm going to start learning about seed saving so that I (fingers crossed) never have to buy seed again.

I haven't been fortunate enough to beat the diseases that plague my garden for the past 4-yrs..I plan on doing the back to eden garden method this year in hopes this will better my chances in the years to come..I bought garden bags for now to plant my tomato and pepper plants until next year after the mulch has time to do its thing..

I have several raised beds with a Greenhouse thats all fenced in to protect it from critters and deer that like to roam my yard.

.I planted a Fruit orchard of apple,peach,pear,cherry,mulberry...several blackberry,raspberry,blueberry,elderberry,juneberr y bushes..grape vines,rhubarb,strawberry patch,herb & mint garden,asparagus,horseradish.

Maple trees that we can tap.

I have wild raspberry,blackcap,dandelion,black walnut,acorns,lots of wildlife thats all around us,fishing.

I have Chickens for eggs..meat if we had to but I only have 8-chickens and 1-guinea hen.

We are going to add more chickens..my son wants to raise (40 or more)pheasant this year..

We are going to add more fruit trees,blueberry's,prima cane blackberry's,strawberry plants,mushroom spores,artichokes...looking into what nut trees grow in my zone.

We are starting from scratch here at our place. The garden has been fallow for probably a decade, so we have to re-break and try to incorporate as much of our inherited manure pile as possible. We are going to be pretty busy getting the livestock side of the ranch going, so gardening will be a lower priority this year.

We'll mostly be gunning for high value produce (tomatoes, cantaloupes), as well as a few root crops for storage (beets, turnips) and greens which are overpriced in the store and easy to grow (kale, chard). Sweet corn is a must grow of course as it's not readily available. No point in growing potatoes or carrots as they are cheap and always available.

We also want to start establishing raspberries, haskap, apples, pears, plums and asparagus as those take a few years to get going.

For meat we have 1/4 beef left in the freezer which hopefully will hold us over until we can start slaughtering lambs. With 50 ewes it's a lot cheaper to keep and butcher our own lamb than to buy any other meat - however it's not worth slaughtering until September so that's a long time for 1/4 beef to last. We may need to fill in with some purchased meats in between.

We are planning on getting the old chicken coop running again too with laying hens, for our eggs, and the wife has her heart set on meat rabbits to break up the lamb and beef diet.

So this year I think we are on track for 50% meat, 50% veg. Future years we should hit 100% meat easily (true 100%, our pasture, our hay) and only have to deal with the storage issues with vegetables. We have to dig a root cellar to store our vegetable crops properly.

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While I would love to achieve 50% food sufficiency for the two of us, realistically it's not going to happen. We have a huge garden, chickens, fruit trees, and berries but that won't come close to 50% of what we consume in a year. We can't at present supply our milk, meats (other than 15 chicken dinners), seafood, spices, sugar, salt, vinegar, coffee, flour, rice, mustard, oil, butter, chocolate, peanuts, etc. If I took today's meals and snacks as an example we would have supplied about 15%. If bartering were in the picture we could probably raise it to 20%.

This year we're focusing on composting, saving seeds, doubling the size of the garden, making the greenhouse more productive, adding fencing and preparing pasture/housing for future pig, cow, etc and to continue on a path to become as food sufficient as we can reasonably achieve. We are in our 60's and realistically expect to reach around 50%. Getting above that would probably take a drastic change in our eating patterns or a shtf situation in which case we would rely on preps for the food we cannot provide.

I had 2 crop failures last year, (and I know why) so only got about 1/3 of my yearly food, the new area caught me off guard, I will likely do way better this year, as well as growing all my own food. I plan on growing enough seeds to start a seed company for a cash income, I just hope it works out well

This is one of our big goals as well. We have always done a mix of seeds and starts from friends and nurseries (at least not Walmart )without a lot of thought.

I would like us to be pretty self reliant in vegetables, but it's still a learning curve. We will probably be done with "traditional" vegetables in the next 6 weeks. I need to start planting tomatillos, heat resistant tomatoes, and tropicals. We spent half a week at the lake and half a week in the city and both GFB and I are still working in the per diem "pools" for our occupations, which cuts into the time we have for tending gardens. I am investigating perennial vegetables, water vegetables, and more tropicals. WE have chaya, also chayote, sweet potatoes, katuk, and a potted orchard of 3 peaches (currently growing green peaches) 9 appples (4 are 3 years old and 5 are 15 months old) a dwarf fig, yacon, and a tropical tree collard.In ground we have some mediocre performing mulberries and Asian plums. I have 5 more apples on order for delivery in December, also have on order a plumcot, Chinese yam, another fig, and a gunnora. Will be planting baby corn in the city as the feral cats at the lake try to climb the stalks. Also need to get yardlong beans, southern peas, more pigeon peas, and Seminole pumpkin planted. Need to investigate small-tree nuts for the tropics.
GFB doesn't care for breadmaker bread or crockpotted food and with only 2 city size lots to work on, the travelling we do and restrictive legislation in the city I don't see us ever producing milk, meat or eggs.

Love this thread!

Our goal is to be 80% self sufficient within 3 years.

Just finished up some new raised beds around the chicken coop & run. Now have approx 800 sq foot of raised beds for things that need more tending.

Planted 12 grapevine in Nov to grow over our arbor. Just picked up some blackberry & raspberry root starts and 3 blueberries that are going in the ground this week.

Once the ground dries a little more this week; using my new hand plow to dig up some beds for larger crops like corn & melons. Approx 2100 sq ft. I can not sing the praises of hand plow/cultivators enough! I'm 5'3" with average strength and it's so much easier than a motorized tiller. Plus, it takes my organic gardening one step further.

Focusing on increasing our yields & seeing how much we can grow to feed our animals too.

Also, I'm putting in a medicinal/ flower/ herb garden. Can't hurt & they are very pretty!

Just got out first Californian buck & doe for breeding and about to pick up another set of New Zealands. The Californians should be ready to breed in another month.

We use drip irrigation & rain water collection off our house due to potential & existing water issues in Texas. We're working to expand this to collect from outbuildings as well.

I'm reworking my terraced gardens. A couple pop bottle tower gardens are in the assembly stage. But most important, I hope to not have to work every beautiful, sunny, perfect soil moisture, wonderful day to garden day during planting season at my regular paying job. Last year it seemed like it was raining or had just rained every single day I had off work.

Several more perennial crops have been ordered. And we plan on adding more hazelnut bushes and reworking some of the fruit crops we currently have planted.

I would like to grow at least 50% of the vegetables and fruits we consume. Last year we ate fresh asparagus for several weeks and a few pounds of raspberries are still in the freezer.

I just don't know if it will be possible with time and physical limitations.

Once you get that parts list,would you please post it on here

We don't raise any animals or chickens for meat,but we never buy any vegetables.We eat them fresh,canned and frozen.All from our garden.

This year we are doubling the garden we had last year, as well as planting several fruit trees.
We still have at least a years worth of jams and jellys left that we made last year.
We still have a lot of green beans left and sweet corn, but we are running low on tomato sauce and chicken.
We are trying to get into raising pigs this year and raise more chickens than in the past and more turkeys.
I will work through the year to build a shelter and fence so next spring we can get a couple of bottle calves.

We're adding extra raised beds this year, where ever I can find space for them (we live in town, on a quarter acre lot). My container gardening effort last year was a bust so I'm hoping to have more success in the raised beds. I'm companion planting to stretch out the use of the space as much as possible. We're doing several varieties of tomatoes, peppers and beans; cucumbers, cabbage, lettuce/spinach/greens, carrots, potatoes, garlic, onions, okra, and herbs like chamomile, basil, echinacea, etc. I am also hoping to start a berry patch along our back fence - currants, raspberries, blackberries and the like. And I'm hoping to plant elderberries along the edge of the woods behind our house. Unfortunately we're nowhere near being able to produce most of the food we eat. I did think about renting a community plot and planting cereal grains and corn, but since we're expanding the garden at our house this year I didn't want to bite off too much.

This year we're adding 2 four hundred gallon containers to catch rain water from the roof for watering the gardens.

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We had a major catastrophe when Karla's jenny got into the fruit trees we planted last year and ate every one down to the ground ( 10 total ), but things happen I guess.

Last week the new order of trees arrived and we planted them in the expanded garden. 4 peach, 2 plum, 2 pear, 2 apple, 10 blackberry plants and 4 grapevines. We plan top ad a few more trees each year and to root our own blackberry cuttings.

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What are your plans for grains? We grow flint corn both for the chickens and cornmeal for us. And this year we're planning to grow a small patch of Sonora wheat. I was curious what others are doing.

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From the picture this is what I figured out.

Smaller radius:
5 sticks @ ten feet each (cut in half)
10 tees
4 end caps
2 elbows (I'm assuming it's elbows that hold it together at the top, though they don't show in the picture)

Larger radius:
3 sticks @ ten feet each (cut in half)
12 end caps

I cannot figure out what the hangers are but I'm thinking plastic pipe strapping would work just fine.

If anyone has modifications or suggestions they would be appreciated.

siletz, with current grain prices, I am not growing but buying grains! I'm glad I leased our grain land to a neighbour for 2 years last year. Otherwise we would probably be looking at a plow down, tillage radish or oats for greenfeed. I believe he is planning oats for greenfeed this year to feed his cattle and try to save enough money to make it worth the rent payment.

However, I am building a small scale oat huller to try to get the hulls off some oats and cook them up as groats or steel-cut. At ~$2/bushel that would be some cheap breakfast! It's a million times less work to buy grain off a neighbour who is combining it, and I would still consider it along the lines of "growing your own food" as you are not paying the markup in the store.

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