Table of Contents

First, a little history……
An introduction explaining my path of learning and growing that brought me to the point of writing this book.
1. Sustainable Diet

Definition of a sustainable diet—getting your usual food and drink, your daily sustenance, in a way that also maintains and replenishes the earth. In eating a sustainable diet you would choose food that not only has been grown locally in a sustainable manner, but that can provide the most food value in the least space.

Suggestions are made for beginning your own educational journey into this, including starting a notebook. Being a contributing part of resilient communities is important if the trucks stop coming to the grocery stores. It is necessary to think through how your life will change as you evolve into growing and eating a sustainable diet. Make changes slowly, keeping in mind others who will be affected by your actions.

2. Garden Maps

Making a garden map is important to know how much space you have to work with and to plan your crop rotations. Dividing the space into garden beds of manageable size and considering the paths and their maintenance is explained here. The beds don’t have to be limited to squares and rectangles. I provide maps of one of my gardens and how it changed over the years to accommodate the changing needs of that space. You need to look at your garden and property with new eyes and rethink everything, coming up with a plan that is best for you. In addition to your garden space, you need to think of your property as a whole, so a plot plan is necessary. I like to refer to a plot plan as a permaculture map. Suggestions are here for making that map, including tools that will make the job easier. A permaculture map of my property is shown.

3. Crop Choices

If you want to begin to truly feed yourself from your garden, you need to pay particular attention to crop choices. This is especially true if you want to grow the most food in the least space, while at the same time, feeding back the soil. If you were getting all your nutrients from your garden, the ones most limited would be calories, protein, and calcium. Crops that would supply those needs are identified here, along with resources to check for more information. The intention of this book is to help you identify the issues involved with a sustainable diet and to think through actions you need to take to make your own plan, not provide all the information you need about everything. Crops and varieties are often specific to regions. Learning about the climate in your own area will help you understand things that are happening in your garden. Temperature and precipitation forms are included here. They are the same ones I developed for my DVD Develop a Sustainable Vegetable Garden Plan.

4. How Much to Grow

Use the worksheet provided in this chapter to decide how many pounds of food you would need of each crop you want to grow and how much space it would take. Thoughts about oils and sweeteners are included here. How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons is the reference to consult for crop yields to help you in making your plan.

5. Cover Crops--Planning for sustainability

This chapter will contain information from my DVD Cover Crops and Compost Crops IN Your Garden. I’ll explain how to plan to have these crops in 60% of your garden for the year and how to manage them with hand tools. These crops are food for the soil, and some are food for you, such as wheat, rye, corn and sunflowers. Sustainable Market Farming by Pam Dawling will be mentioned as reference to consult, as well as Managing Cover Crops Profitably. This chapter will include a worksheet for planning soil building crops in 60% of the bed crop months of your garden.

6. Companion Planting

Building the ecosystem is important to the long term sustainability of your food system. Diversity helps to attract beneficial insects to your garden that will help control pests. Some of that diversity is already part of your plan with the cover crops. Flowers and herbs are often things considered when adding companions. Planting several crops together as a guild is an important concept of permaculture. Think past the garden to the borders and to the whole of your property. This chapter will raise awareness of what is possible and suggest resources for further study.

7. Plan for Food When You Want It.

Ya Gotta Have a Plan! That was the working title of my garden plan DVD. Using the Plant/Harvest Schedule and the Plant/Harvest Times forms that I developed for that DVD you can plan your garden to have food when you need it. Rotations are considered, so the crop families are listed, probably in a sidebar. Sample garden plans for different areas and circumstances are here. If necessary, these garden plans will be in a chapter of their own.