What You Can Grow in 1/3 Acre

Without using all the land.

Apple, Gala
Artichoke (perennial)
Asian Pear
Basil
Basil, Hot
Basil, Perennial
Basil, Thai
Beans, Green Lake
Bell Pepper, Bonnie Bell
Bell Pepper, Red
Blackberry, both thorned and thornless
Blueberry (4 plants)
Borage (perennial)
Cantaloupe
Carrot (1 plant)
Catnip (2 plants)
Chives
Cilantro
Cucumber, Armenian
Cutting Celery (annual, use stalks or leaves, tastes like celery)
Dill (short-lived perennial, 2 plants)
Eggplant
Epazote (annual Mexican herb, use leaves to season food)
Fennel (perennial)
Figs (not producing fruit, yet)
Garlic
Grapes, Red Flame Seedless
Grapes, Thompson Seedless
Horehound (perennial, between beds 2 and 3)
Laurel, Turkish (bay leaves)
Lemon, Meyer's (done for the season)
Lettuce (2 plants)
Lime, Rangpur (done for the season)
Loquat (might produce fruit, this year)
Lovage
Mandarin Orange, Dancy (done for the season)
Mint, Chocolate (perennial, between beds 2 and 3)
Minutina (grass-like leaves, excellent for salad)
Nectarine
Olallieberries
Onions
Orange (done for the season)
Oregano (Classic Greek, perennial)
Pepper
Pepper, Santiago Hybrid
Pepper, Sweet Cayenne
Peppers, various
Persimmon
Plum
Potatoes
Purslane
Radishes
Rhubarb
Rosemary
Sage (perennial, between beds 2 and 3)
Saluyot (use leaves in cooking, but cook it lightly) aka Mulukhiyah/Malukhiyah, Mallow leaf
Scorzonera (perennial root vegetable, aka Black Salsify -- Scorzonia?)
Sour Orange, Chinotto
Stevia (herb with very sweet leaves)
Strawberries
Tomato
Zucchini

Tags: food, garden

( 13 comments — Leave a comment )

norilana

2009-06-30 09:15 am (UTC)

Wow! That's amazing!

dsmoen

2009-06-30 09:07 pm (UTC)

It's kind of cool to go forage about the yard and see if there's food to be had.

I started using the book Square Foot Gardening years ago (that system uses 4x4' beds), and we keep a compost pile to help fertilize our garden.

It doesn't take a lot of space to grow a significant chunk of what you need food-wise: given that you're vegetarian, probably three 4x4' beds would be enough to provide most of what your household needs during the growing season.

There are people who trade seeds, so it's not even something that needs a lot of cash to do. A little string to mark the beds, some compost, and it doesn't hurt to get a soil testing kit.

lesliev

2009-06-30 11:51 am (UTC)

Did you grow all that?

2009-06-30 07:12 pm (UTC)

We are indeed.

2009-06-30 08:52 pm (UTC)

Wow, I am so impressed! I am nearly there in terms of variety but I have much less space available, and I keep running out of pots. This weekend I had to plant out about 30 seedlings and ended up making most of the pots out of old milk bottles.

2009-06-30 08:58 pm (UTC)

Wow. What a great use for milk bottles. We don't even use all our land -- we have a lawn and birdbaths, and nothing grows under the redwood tree (which is over 100' tall).

Have you seen the book Square Foot Gardening? It talks about using 4' x 4' beds for plants. Part of the genius of this approach is being able to reach everything that you grow, and you can plant multiple beds if you need to.

We do have several raised beds, but we could definitely have more if we wanted to.

I should point out that

rinolj and

almelina do the work: I'm simply not in good physical shape, so my forays into the deep recesses of the garden are somewhat limited.

rinolj

2009-06-30 09:20 pm (UTC)

Square Foot Gardening's author site is one of the resources linked to from my farmers' market page -- the bit that tells people why they have no excuse for not growing something good to eat, even if they have only 4'x4' available, or live in an apartment.

2009-07-01 08:30 am (UTC)

I have been to that site and it is useful. My plan was to do as much permaculture as possible but when you mostly just have bricks to plant on, you have to do what you can. I am busy building some square foot garden type beds out of scavenged pallet wood.

Another thing I use 2l milk bottles for is watering cans. I fill seven a day from the rain water tank and then squeeze the water out through a lid that I pierced many holes into. It takes a bit of practice but seems to give me more control over the fountain of water than pouring does.

asakiyume

2009-06-30 11:58 am (UTC)

Impressive, and delicious.

amberite2112

2009-06-30 02:55 pm (UTC)

yum!

pds_lit

2009-06-30 03:55 pm (UTC)

Yummy!

Strawberries, too

almelina

2009-06-30 05:27 pm (UTC)

We have strawberries in a Mexican pot and some growing as ground cover. A few have fruit...

The blackberries are two types: thorned and thornless. Of the thorned variety, we have a clump of named variety and two that are wild.

Re: Strawberries, too

2009-06-30 09:12 pm (UTC)

Will add strawberries to the list. I actually have it broken down by the various garden plots, area next to the greenhouse, area in front of the greenhouse, etc. -- and warned D. that the list is tentative, a little incomplete, and a bit vague in areas that need fixing (e.g., varieties of tomato, and the correct spelling of the "Scorzonia"/"Scorzonera"/whatever plant. The doc's beta release is clipped to the right side of the refrigerator.

Patches gladly accepted. ;->

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dsmoen

Sounds Like Weird LJ

Strawberries, too

Re: Strawberries, too