The youngsters

One of the things we're still learning and trying to practice is using what we grow. The biggest challenge seems to be when everything starts to grow in, it looks so beautiful that you don't want to mess it up. It might sound crazy but perhaps that's some of the suttle differences between farming and growing edible landscapes. When you take time & energy assisting this living plant to grow to it's potential and you love helping it just a much as you love eating it, then you can reach a 'fork in the road' so to speak about your garden. When you pull or harvest a plant, there's a blank spot left and if you harvest a lot you could end up with a bunch of holes. We do practice harvesting off of the plants while they grow but there are mostly annuals and have a much shorter lifespan that trees & shrubs so eventually they will have to go. Here's the solution we've come up with so far- have some up and coming youngsters ready to fill in. If we're going to maximize our efficency of the garden and our yeild, then it works to always have a 'bench' of veggies. It does mean more planing, this is the 3rd season we've been attempting to get this really working and were getting better. The picture above is part of the next round for summer. Not shown is about 200 or more starting plugs of herbs you'll see later but these are enough to start this segment of the blog.
Knowing what grows in the upcoming season and what you'll have room for are some of the things to brainstorm. The great news is as soon a you learn to balance it all, it comes together smoothly. Its like learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time.




-- Posted from the field