Planning a Year-Round Garden

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Illustration: Layout of plan for the second year garden.
Illustration: Layout of plan for the second year garden.
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Illustration: Layout of plan for the garden for next year.
Illustration: Layout of plan for the garden for next year.
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Planning, planting and harvesting a year round garden.
Planning, planting and harvesting a year round garden.
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The four-step progression of a self-sufficient garden.
The four-step progression of a self-sufficient garden.
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In the spring the walkways are laid out, and the beds are prepared for planting.
In the spring the walkways are laid out, and the beds are prepared for planting.
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A few weeks battling weeds and tending new plantings in the late spring.
A few weeks battling weeds and tending new plantings in the late spring.
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You won't recognize the place for the bounty come early summer.
You won't recognize the place for the bounty come early summer.
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Keep spaces between rows to a minimum.
Keep spaces between rows to a minimum.
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The late-season potato harvest.
The late-season potato harvest.
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Harvesting carrots in the late, late season.
Harvesting carrots in the late, late season.

Planning a year-round garden, how to plan, plan, and harvest your own food. (See the garden illustrations and photos in the image gallery.)

Planning a Year-Round Garden

Born in 1938, I was a product of the Great Depression. Ben Franklin’s words from another era, “waste not, want not;” are burned into my psyche. How could people have gotten into the dreadful positions in which they found themselves during the thirties? More important, how could I avoid the same kind of pain and struggle if history repeated itself in my lifetime?

Living in New York City in the ’60s I felt even more vulnerable. Remember when the lights went out in the entire Northeast? People were stuck in elevators and subways for hours. If the electricity were off long enough, there would be no water. When the sanitation workers went on strike, garbage piled up on the streets for weeks. Progress … hmm.

What if everything failed, all that we have created in the industrial age-roads and means of transportation, electricity, communications, water delivery, the economic system? The farm in Maine that I purchased in 1969 became the focus of those thoughts. I could walk from New York City to Maine if I had to. I could dip my water out of a hand-dug well that was there. I could become a hunter-gatherer, if need be, on my own and nearby lands. These thoughts relieved my anxiety over being dependent on electricity, municipal water, and the complex and expensive food distribution system. Not only did the notion of independence relieve anxiety, it felt really good. The more I thought about it the better it felt.

  • Published on Feb 1, 1996
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