The season of giving is upon us! And friends, do I have some giving for you. This week I’m doing a couple of great giveaways just in time for you to show some holiday love to your favorite gardener. If you win and decide your favorite gardener is you and you’re keeping the loot, no one will judge. Promise.
Today, I’m happy to be sharing Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Crops at Home. If you’ve been a reader for a while, you might remember the authors, Colin and Brad, from my original giveaway post of this same book last summer. They are the founders of the Seattle Urban Farm Company, and have written Food Grown Right, a really excellent beginner’s guide to backyard-scale edible gardening.
When Seattle Urban Farm Co. asked if I would be interested in doing a second giveaway of the book and I was like, “Do cabbageworms in my bok choy drive me crazy? Of course I would!”
That’s Colin and Brad.
Food Grown Right is optimum for new-ish veggie gardeners. If you already have a giant bookshelf full of gardening how-to, how-come and oh-now-what? books, you may find the info in Food Grown Right to be a little duplicative, but you might also appreciate having all the basics, from layout, planning and irrigation options to crop-specific growing information nicely laid-out and condensed into one easy to use reference.
Find a slightly more comprehensive review at my original post, or check out what other people think.
Year Round Vegetable Gardening Like The Pros
So, the season of giving is fine and all, but it’s also the season of garden planning, right? This is when the seed catalogs arrive, and the graph paper comes out and everything is all full of potential. So while I had Brad and Colin on email, I also asked how they manage their year-round gardening and came away with some great tips.
Year round planning for year round harvesting.
If you strive to eat from your garden year-round as a cold-season gardener, right now is the best time to take stock of your successes and challenges. Look around your garden and ask how you’d like things to be different this time next year. What are you already out of and what aren’t you loving enough to actually go pick in the rain? I can already tell I need to figure out a way to get more giant kohlrabi in my life.
It’s hard to imagine since nary a spring pea has been planted, but if you want to eat your own cabbage in December you have to be kinda aware of that goal…the prior December. Why? Well, in the Pacific Northwest at least, the fall and winter crops usually go into the same ground that held the earliest spring crops. So when you are thinking about how much space to give to peas and spring radishes vs. tomatoes and cucumbers, you should keep in mind that your fall garden will probably be bounded by the space you gave to spring. By the time the summer crops wrap up it will be too late for most fall and winter crops to go in.
If that kind of seasonal think-ahead seems daunting, don’t worry, it becomes much more normal after you’ve been through the rhythm a few times. It might also help to see how everything sort of fits together. My free Year Round Planting Guide spreadsheet may help with that. Just scroll down until you see it about half way down the Downloadables section.
In the meantime, incorporate these Pro Tips for Year-Round Gardening from Brad and Colin into your four-season planning.
How should a beginning gardener who wants to begin planning and planting for year-round growing in the maritime northwest get started?
Eliot Coleman’s book Four Season Harvest is a detailed introduction to the principles of year-round growing; I strongly recommend that anyone interested in growing fall and winter crops check out this book. Our book also gives you fall and winter planting suggestions in the Month-by-Month chapter, so is a good resource to have on hand.
What is the one thing beginning gardeners get wrong when growing crops for fall, winter and over-wintered harvest?
The biggest mistake we see with beginners growing fall and winter crops is that they assume that they’re actually growing the crops in the fall and winter. To have a successful winter harvest, you need to be growing your crops in mid-summer through early fall (mid-July- September). This way, they’re sized up and almost ready for harvest before the low light levels of October set in. Because of the cool weather, fall crops don’t bolt or lose eating quality through the winter. Winter gardening is kind of like turning your vegetable plot into a giant refrigerator. If you plan properly, you can be harvesting from the garden all through the cold season and into the early spring!
What can a gardener do to ensure a great cool-weather growing season next year?
Start planning early! Planting for your fall and winter crops starts in mid-July, with the bulk of the crops planted in late August and early September. As your spring crops mature and are ready to be removed from the garden, some space will open up for fall crops. Early June is a good time to talk to nurseries and find out if they carry fall vegetable starts, and a good time to buy or order seeds for your fall crops.
What are a few of your favorite cool weather varieties?
For spinach that grows well through the fall and winter and resists downy mildew, try “Lombardia”. Claytonia is an excellent green for winter gardening (similar in taste to lettuce, but will over-winter without protection in our climate). Purple Mizuna is a beautiful, mild-tasting mustard green that also grows well during the fall and winter. “Red Russian” kale is our favorite kale variety; it does well and tastes amazing spring, summer, and fall. “Cherriette” radishes size up quickly and uniformly for September and October harvest.
Thanks, Colin and Brad, for sharing your insights!
Enter To Win A Copy of Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard
Contest open until Tuesday, December 18th at 6 pm. Continental U.S. residents only, sorry international readers. Good luck!
Pssst…you know how I said a couple of great giveaways this week? Check out Thursday’s post. Free organic seeds! That’s all I can say right now.
Update: Contest now closed. Thank you to everyone who entered, and congrats to seed-hoarder Natalie M., the winner. Natalie, check your email for instructions on how to claim your prize!
Biggest challenge? Jeez, I’m still running out to get the morning paper in my slippahs, like I was doing every day year-round in Maui – but we are just unpacking our household in our new home/ranch in the central coast area of Oregon (west of the Tunnel). I know so few of the local plants and pests, but I have way too ambitious plans for a big raised-bed garden here in the PNW, so I nwould really benefit from this excellent book’s help!
My challenge is my day job, and finding time to reap my harvest and process it when the plants decide to become ready. I suppose what I need is*time* more than advice, but I’ll take any good tips on crops that come out of the dirt quick, clean and edible, or crops that I can ignore with impunity (like good ole chard). Brad and Colin are adorable; they can drop by for a drink on the patio any time.
Not enough space for what I want to plant and not enough sunny spots for sun loving plants.
my biggest problem is money. I live in a rental and have to follow the “landscaping rules” and other such nonsense which means container gardening, to which I don’t really object but buying the supplies to seriously get started seems to be a large investment.
Budgeting (I want to try everything) and pest control. Keeping deer out without expensive deer fencing.
I’m still working on figuring out the whole year round gardening thing–which I really want to master.
My biggest challenge is making myself go outside and garden in July in the Southern California heat. By August, I’ve usually had it with the heat and don’t want to plant anything.
Space is my biggest challenge. We love on an urban lot and there isn’t much room so it’s hard to find space in the summer for fall/winter vegetables. Maybe it’s more of a planning challenge, but I’ll blame the urban lot.
This year, my biggest challenge was planting way more than I could keep up with in terms of weeding, watering, and even eating!
My biggest challenge in planning my garden is, well, planning…tends to be a bit willy-nilly.
Deer were my biggest problem — now it’s the dog we got to chase the deer. That and watering in the heat of summer. I had great dreams of a winter garden this year in my little front yard vegetable patch but only the swiss chard is still standing and a few lonely tufts of arugula. I covet your garden and now I covet Colin and Brad’s.
My biggest challenge is figuring out where the sun hits through the big trees and tall house in different seasons – it changes drastically through the year. This, and the slugs! And how to compensate for a North facing slope.
So far I have only been dreaming of year round gardening – I have had some kind of mental block in getting started. You have me all inspired now !
Our biggest challenge is our yard is nothing but clay! We may have to resort to raised beds.
Trying to figure out where to put everything to accommodate all of the pest and disease issues I’m having between my small backyard plot and community plot and still have some sort of crop rotation.
Keeping the edible front yard looking okay so the neighbors don’t report us. Fruit bushes, colorful lettuces? Still haven’t gotten it right.
Heat Heat Heat….and drought. I live in south Texas.
Critters everywhere!
My biggest problem is the space I have for gardening (not much), it’s proximity to the back alley (adjacent), and the fact that until I started my garden in 2011, this little dirt patch was mostly weeds and had never been cultivated. Also there was the problem this summer of days and days of 100+ temps, no rain, and beating sun (I live in western NE at 4000 feet).
My biggest hurdle in planning my garden is wanting to fill all the beds, but not being sure what will succeed or what will fail. Also, trying to plan for that moment between seasons when summer crops go out and fall crops go in, without waiting too long or having something that needs to be planted ASAP.
My biggest issue is follow through. I cant spend days and weeks preparing and planting then within a few weeks I get so busy I don’t make time to even water regularly. Last summer I had radishes no one I know could eat because they where too hot.
Buying more seeds than I can plant. Or not planting the seeds that I have! Oy. Also, finding the right spot for things – rotating plants on a three year /season schedule is confusing as heck when you only have two garden plots that get the best sun/water/love mixture necessary to grow plants and they always seem full with last season’s plants.
So let’s just take of the table that i just had major surgery on my right arm and hand, and that creates a whole mess of problems when I look at my graft paper!
Light, not enough sun is my evil enemy. Last winter i spent a ton of time stalking you, and got some great tips from you on how to get around that. With my new found knowledge I dove in, thinking ” how do I steal sun, and transfer it to the shade” Well what I learned is that yes you can grow cantaloup in a container ( thanks to you) but that doesn’t mean you then become an expert on how to grow stuff in the ground. I’m the ‘baby broccoli killer’ you helped talk of the ledge called ” I’m a veggie garden failure” In all seriousness, it’s about spacing, crop rotation and companion planting that I struggled with. Oh wait, isn’t that everything?
Just as the gentlemen say, I look around in late July and think how nice it would be to have fall and winter vegetables, and IT’S TOO LATE. Bummer.
My biggest fall garden challenge is keeping my energy going at the time it really needs to be planted. I end up pretty pooped by late July/August, and putting new baby plants in the ground can feel overwhelming.
Biggest challenge for me is planning on paper and sticking to the design. Just discovered your blog and enjoy reading past articles to catch up and look forward to future ones.
My biggest challenge is determining what seeds/starts to buy which we will actually harvest and eat. The catalogs make everything look so delish, but I have to be realistic. I try to expand my children’s (and partner’s) taste in veggies (and other healthier foods), but sometimes just don’t feel like dealing with the challenge of “I don’t like that”, “that AGAIN?”, etc. So far, we use a lot of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, onions, and sweet peppers – so, despite the gorgeous photos of more exotic veggies in the catalogs, this is what we grow. If I tried something new, like Bok Choy or cabbage or greens, it would just go to waste, which hurts worse when you spend time growing it than when you just buy it from the store!
planting in time…
& not enough winter sun….
My biggest challenge: seed hoarding. No. I really mean that. But, they’ll keep forever in my Ziploc-Tupperware-GE fridge fortress right? Second biggest challenge: not turning every square inch of my lot into edible gardens. I started with an herb /greens garden, added a a ‘regular’ garden with tomatoes, peppers, squash, etc. (which keeps growing larger), then an asparagus bed (that will produce our first harvest this spring!), and then a flower garden (that’s now pocked with broccoli, lettuce, and herbs). When I read your hugelkultur post, I got excited and added two modified hugelkultur beds (wider than normal and with a path up the middle for harvesting). The favas, garlic, grey shallots, multiplier onions, and who knows what else are going nuts. Can’t wait for spring, when the new hugelkultur beds become my curcurbit / roma / cilantro / whever-else-I-can-jam-in-there beds. This summer I tried potatoes too in towers up front amidst my bed of glads and cosmos–the towers were a great disguise and the potatoes were delicious, but the harvest was sad. I’ll modify the method next year and add more (shorter though) towers. So, you can imagine what my husband will say when I tell him the pumpkins need to move up front next year (into the only other bed available without edibles)….Nothing. He’ll say absolutely nothing and throw his hands in the air while laughing. But, I need more room for the broccoli that he loves so much, right? Perhaps a third hugelkultur is REALLY what I need.
How to grow in a north-facing basement apartment in DC… We just moved here! Excited but missing green space. There’s a big urban garden in the park near us, but they close for volunteers after Nov 1… No winter gardening for me 🙁
My biggest challenge is bugs. They will eat any leaf!
When I plan my garden, for any season, my biggest frustration is trying to approximate how much harvest I will have. From year to year, any number of factors can contribute to an abundant harvest, a mediocre harvest, or a minimal harvest. Some years I’ll plant something and have more than I can handle. Other years, I’ll over plant and barely get enough to consume, nonetheless preserve. It makes planning very difficult!
figuring out how and where to maximize what little sunlight we get so things actually grow. The only place reliably sunny is on my deck – so planter/pot space is premium.
My biggest challenge is figuring out the right time to plant (and sticking to it) with my spring and winter (or over-winter) veg.
Hmmm. I actually have several challenges that fight over the top spot!! First is finding time to get thing planted WHEN they should be planted! The second is how much to put into the garden beds for a family of three adults and enough to can. Then the bruiser: how do I make it all look picture perfect? I’m TERRIBLE when it comes to creating designs on my own!
I guess my biggest challenge is lack of experience. I read and plan like crazy, but only manage to get about one really good crop per season. This summer it was okra, last winter it was spinach, the summer before it was zucchini. I’d really like to work my way up and get TWO real winners per season. (Or more even? Dare to dream!)
My biggest challenge is time. I want very much to grow as much of my own food as possible, but find I never seem to have enough time to keep up. I need one more person than myself to collaborate with, build raised beds, water, weed, etc. Then I think I would be more successful.
Given we are fairly new at the whole garden thing (although my husband is only new to this climate) I’d say our biggest challenge is planning–knowing which vegetables to grown and when. We’d like to grow year-round in NC and we finally have an acre of land to work with (minus the land the house is on, of course). We’ve experimented the past two seasons and I think we’re ready to kick it up a few notches and learn how to plan the right way, and according to what we want to grow and when those things should be grown in our climate.
Right now, our biggest challenge is bug eggs on the kale under the row cover
Keeping sediment out of the creek fed irrigation system’s collection bucket
I have difficulty pulling out plants to make room for the next season’s crop when the plants are still producing. It feels so wasteful but then I grumble every November about not having planted for winter. With limited space, you just have to make room, I guess.
My biggest challenge is needing more sunlight. The best spot in the yard just isn’t enough for all the plants to get enough light.
Wow, RC, I really “felt” you. I’ve spent the past four years of my beginning gardening experience in a garden that just did not get enough sun, no matter what. I’ve moved now, currently renting, but hope to have at least a small patch of good sun when we finally find a place of our own. You know, you can overcome lots of problems in a garden (soil, wind, space, bugs) but you just can’t make sun.
My biggest challenges are being too optimistic and planting more than I can take care of with my schedule, and the bindweed/morning glory that is all over. I really wish I could make it go away.
My biggest challenge is keeping up with weeding. I can’t do it myself and rely on husband who is ho-hum when comes to weeding. I have been trying to convince him to do the newspaper overlayed with grass clippings. I have a friend who does that and they have a wonderful weedfree garden.
I’ve had near-weed-free beds by mulching with straw, about 6-8 inches deep as soon as plants are up. This really works!
I have a hard time staying on top of weeds (mostly buttercup, reed canary grass and other nasty grasses) because our highly rich and wet soil lets them go crazy.
Brad’s a cool guy! Just participated in the WSU Cultivating Success class with him.
My biggest challenge is starting things from seed. I seem to have about a 50% success rate.
My challenge is no room! We have a condo and the back patio is shady, so I have to grow veg in pots out front. And then that causes problems with getting enough water into them during our hot summers.
My two biggest challenges are the climate and bugs.
Last year was our first year to do a large variety garden and greenhouse business (veggies only) right now, we want to get that down first. Anyway, our biggest challenge was finding the extra time to pick all of the tomatoes (especially cherry). We are going to concentrate next year on the outside garden in not so many varieties, and baby them like crazy. It was our first year to grow lots of different varieties of veggies and we fell in love with growing our own food and food for others.
Our biggest challenge is figuring out successional planting to get the most out of our garden seasons.