It's always a good time to plant a garden. Lately seems like a better time than usual, for a variety of reasons.
Many people I know (myself included) are worried about money and food security.
I live in a city, and have a small space (about 7 meters by 7 meters) I use to grow food and save money.
Obviously, where you live, your weather, and what you eat will be important in choosing what you grow. Also important is the prices of other things (for example, I don't grow tomatoes or cucumbers in summer: they're cheap everywhere).
This summer, we had hotter and wetter weather than usual and so I decided to focus most on green beans, winter squash and sweet potatoes. I grew long beans and Okinawan winged beans (instead of normal pole beans) because they are more resistant to mold and pests than normal green beans. Sweet potatoes, we eat the greens too. I probably have gotten 20kg of beans, the sweet potatoes are looking great (I planted purple/purple and normal Japanese white flesh/purple skin versions). The squash are all harvested now and I've probably gotten 50kg. Some rotted already, others have been distributed and we're eating our way through the rest. The picture shows a typical daily midsummer haul with a few figs.
I just put in my fall garden this weekend (started seeds in trays and direct planted starts and seeds)- we are supposed to get extraordinary cold this winter here in my corner of the Southern Hemisphere, and the signs in my garden indicate it's right around the corner. I started some tomatoes (we grow in winter, under cover) but the vast majority is leafies-- cabbage, kale, napa, and also perennial lima beans (what we call Christmas bean, a variegated bean that is great for cooking and likes the cold).
We have many threads about starting gardens, including a recent
Victory Garden thread that started right at the beginning of the pandemic.
Are you planting anything specifically in response to current events?
Have you made any changes in what you usually grow (this summer, which was indeed extra rainy as forecasted, I didn't even try growing things that are affected by mildew, for example)?
Are you new to gardening and have questions about what you're doing? (it just so happens, if you're new to Permies, we have a bunch of good folks who are generous with what they know and ready to help you build a better world in your own backyard).
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