dan wrote:

I would like to learn, starting from almost total gardening ignorance,
how to grow a substantial percentage of my family's diet in my back
yard.
Any suggestions on good books or other educational resources?

Any comments on Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening" or Jeavon's
"Grow More Vegetables"?


Some things to think about.

1. You need to figure out is how much of various foods do you need to
be reasonably self sufficient -- numbers of quarts and pints for
example.

2. How much space is needed to grow this amount of food. In order to
preserve 60 quarts of green beans you need 200 feet of plants. And
that assumes a fairly decent harvest.

3. How you are going to preserve and store this amount of food.


Why don't you start out by planting a few foods that your family likes
and increase from that. You may find that it takes a lot of time to
produce and preserve food.


--
Susan N.

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who do not.