Surprises in Growing

I understand why wise market gardeners begin to plan in November. There's a LOT to consider!

Market gardening has always overwhelmed me. Unlike animals, which may have slightly different needs but all, generally, do well with appropriate food, water, and shelter, a gardener deals with dozens of different crops, all ripening at different times, all of which need different heats, different lengths, different yields.

Furthermore, I know so little about growing things. I think something yummy, like a BLT, and realize that, generally, lettuce doesn't ripen in mid-summer. (And before refrigeration, there wouldn't have been much bacon to eat in August anyway!) The year I had my first garden (in Boulder, 2008), I had such delicious lettuce in June, and a friend at church mentioned she wished she had planted more, since it was cooler later than usual. I had no idea lettuce wouldn't just keep on producing until the fall. (It doesn't. Most varieties don't like hot weather.)

Or take potatoes. Don't potatoes sound like a hearty fall meal? Well, I was shocked to learn that potatoes here go in the ground at the end of March and are harvested in June! (Staggered crops after that can go in until early July, then, for fall harvest.) Potatoes in June! I'm shocked.

I have spent the last few days cramming as much knowledge as I can into my head, so I can place a reasonable order for seeds on Monday. My spring last frost date, here on the 38th parallel in Zone 7(ish) is April 27, with a fall first frost date of October 12. However, I think there are frosts on Mother's Day often, so I'll need to watch that.

Between my two seed catalogs (my beloved local Southern Exposure Seed Exchange for most things and the encyclopedia Johnny's Selected Seeds for everything else, including small equipment), and the several books I am studying, I have found a little lapse of helpful information. I'm trying to guess how much an average family might eat of a particular food in a year. Like carrots, I bet we buy a five pound bag every month, so about 60 pounds a year. So, for ten families, I need 600 pounds of carrots. But how much does the average carrot weigh?! I can learn diameter and length, but nary a scrap of information about weight.

Carrots, though, are easy. I could go and weigh a few right now on my little scale.

Harder are snap peas. I'm not sure how many a family could eat in a year (well, in spring and maybe fall, since they die in hot weather). Our family has never had one reach the kitchen, all eaten in the garden, so I think it's a good bit more than we grow now.

But, say, 20 pounds per family, or 200 pounds total. How much does a single bush produce? Ten pounds? Half a pound? It makes a difference!

Or tomatoes. I know I will not be like Guinness Champion Charles Wilber, who grew 1368 pounds on four plants (average: 342 pounds each!). I probably won't even be on the high side of average. But even if I'm half of average, I don't know what average is. The closest I found was a tomato that gave "3/4 of a bushel!" but I don't know how large a bushel is. It sounds like a lot.

These are the sorts of conundrums that I knew I would face. I almost didn't start, until I remembered, "Amy, you are GOOD at details! You LOVE to plan! You are the right person for the job!"

So now, when I wonder about how quickly kale regrows in early spring (my little cut-and-come-again plot last year was my greens delight for months), I just give myself a pep talk, and keep on learning.