Gardening Cheatsheets

Hi all!

I am a newbie, in fact, I don't even have access to a small plot as I live in a big city.... but! I plan to move to the country side end of next summer, and hopefully get a small piece of land where I can start growing and gardening stuff. I have been reading a lot about permaculture and biointensive gardening, and I think this is possibly what I am going to use in the future in combination, at least in the beginning. Now, as a newbie, there are many general concepts that I am learning and that make a lot of sense, for example companion planting, and like that many more things... but when it comes to more concrete stuff, I lack the knowledge, the example again of companion planting, knowing what it is and what is good for, but not having the knowledge of what specific plants work well with others , etc. The previous one was just an example, but there are many more areas where specific knowledge is required, for instance: what is the right time for planting whatever plant, water requirements of different plants, etc.

So I was wondering, do you guys know of a wesbsite/book/whatever that has handy cheatsheets or something similar that newbies can use as a reference as we go through the learning process?

Cheers

A lot of these things depend on where you are.  If you are local to central Texas, there is a wonderful planting calendar produced by a local organic nursery that covers pretty much everything, but someone in Iowa or Nebraska wouldn't find it very helpful.  Do you know in general where you will eventually be gardening?

Casie Becker wrote:A lot of these things depend on where you are.  If you are local to central Texas, there is a wonderful planting calendar produced by a local organic nursery that covers pretty much everything, but someone in Iowa or Nebraska wouldn't find it very helpful.  Do you know in general where you will eventually be gardening?

Hi Casie, thanks for your reply!

I roughly know the area, it is going to be somewhere in Spain, possibly a mild area for Spain's standards, not in the South, and not close to the sea, so some sort of Mediterranean/Continental type of weather.

Thinking about this, I just remembered this topic https://permies.com/t/61417/permaculture-projects/Climate-analogues-find

I don't know if it exactly qualifies as a cheat sheet, but it might help you find things like gardening blogs in similar conditions.   I get useful information from several other countries who share my common problems.

Try the agriculture department of a nearby university. They often have very good planting guides & information about what works in your area. Just be aware they usually recommend chemicals. There are better more natural ways found here on permies.

I still use the companion plants cheat list from the old German classic book Der Biogarten by Marie-Luise Kreuter. In the book there's lots of ideas for companion plants. I'm not going to copy them here, it's perhaps a bit too detailed (and yes, copywrited). What goes with what and what repels what are IMHO not that clear cut, it's a matter of what suits your situation and climate.

But the shorter version is something I find is very good for beginners and versions of it can be found in many places so I don't think breaking any copywrite laws by writing it here:


Good neighbours:
Early carrot - onion
Late carrot - leek
French beans - beetroot - savory
Celeriac - leek
Carrot - lettuce - chives
Tomato - parsley
Tomato - celeriac
Lettuce - radish- kohlrabi
Cabbage - french beans
Cucumber - dill


Bad neighbours:
Lettuce - parsley
Florence fennel - tomato*
French beans - onion
Tomato - peas
Beans - peas
Potato - sunflower
Tomato - potato
Cabbage - mustard


*a very bad combination, I find florence fennel seedlings withering if I try to grow them in my greenhouse where there's tomatoes but recover if i remove them from the greenhouse

A fellow permie, Daron Williams, actially just started his own with a website. He's got quite a few articles now about homesteading, and each comes with it's own cheatsheet. There's an article about "Stating your homestead" and one about using fall leaves, and a few about perennial vegetables. I think he'll be putting out a new article with cheatsheet every week.

Here's his thread on permies https://permies.com/t/96779/Wild-Homesteading-Work-nature-grow

And here's his webpage: http://www.wildhomesteading.com

And, like othere's said, your county gardening extension is a great place to look for local information. Seed companies sometimes have planting calendars that are regional. And, look for gardening websites in your areas. Search for things like "Gardening to Do lists for Name-of-State" or "lists for month in Name-of-state" etc. I know of a few for the Pacific NOrthwest region. If you share your general location, I could add this thread to the relevant regional forum here on permies so hopefully some locals can chime in with recourses!

I think Carol Deppe 'The Resilient Gardener' is a great entry-level book.

Urban gardening might be best done by emulating examples, in which case Youtube and Vimeo are good resources. I know Bill Mollison covers Urban gardening in his Global Gardener videos on vimeo.

Companion planting results can be hit and miss or will only work in certain regions, so old, local gardeners are a great resource in this respect.

Most urban areas have community gardens and these will show you plants that work in your area, as well as access to gardening know-how, seeds and cuttings.