Grow $700 of Food in 100 Square Feet!

Today’s feature is from Mother Earth News with Grow $700 of Food in 100 Square Feet!

You Can Reap Big Rewards With A Small Patch Of Land

If more Americans grew a little food — instead of so much grass — our savings on grocery bills would be astounding.

The total value of the fresh vegetables author Rosalind Creasy grew in her 100-square-foot garden in 2008 was $683.43!

Small yard means small savings? Not so! This article reviews how you can grow quite a lot of food in just a 5 ft x 20 ft space. I know square foot gardening isn’t a new concept, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone break down the amount of money you can save in such a small area. There’s also a spreadsheet download available (listed towards the end of the article) to keep track of what you’ve planted and what the yield was (from Rosalind Creasy’s site here: Edible Gardening).

A few tips listed on the last page of the article:

• Choose indeterminate tomatoes. They keep growing and producing fruit until a killing frost. (Determinate varieties save space but ripen all at once.)
• In spring, plant cool-season vegetables, including lettuce, mesclun and stir-fry green mixes, arugula, scallions, spinach and radishes. They are ready to harvest in a short time, and they act as space holders until the warm-season veggies fill in.
• Grow up. Peas, small melons, squash, cucumbers and pole beans have a small footprint when grown vertically. Plus, they yield more over a longer time than bush types.
• Plants such as broccoli, eggplant, peppers, chard and kale are worth the space they take for a long season. As long as you keep harvesting, they will keep producing until frost.

Please visit the site listed above to view the entire article. Also make sure to check out Grow 100 lbs. Of Potatoes In 4 Square Feet: How To for an impressive potato growing technique.

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