Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.

I have about eighty buckets (10-litre/2.5 gal each.)
This area lets me do a "summer mode" with tomatoes,
capsicums, etc, and then a "winter mode" with leafy
greens like spinach, lettuce, etc.

For these two situations, what are good choices for
nutritional efficiency?

It is winter (in this part of the world) right now.

Thanks...


--
Get Credit Where Credit Is Due
http://www.cardreport.com/
Credit Tools, Reference, and Forum

if by nutrition you mean your nutrition, plant greens. They give you
the most vitamins and minerals for the calorie. And if you plant
cabbage, it will give you a lot of food as well per square foot.

No idea what those 'good choices' would be b/c I never had 80, 2.5 gallon
buckets worth-of dirt.

If I did, I'd might be inclined to try bush-type seeds, like protein-rich
string beans or dwarf cucumbers or carrots.


"Antipodean Bucket Farmer" wrote in message
...
Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.

I have about eighty buckets (10-litre/2.5 gal each.)
This area lets me do a "summer mode" with tomatoes,
capsicums, etc, and then a "winter mode" with leafy
greens like spinach, lettuce, etc.

For these two situations, what are good choices for
nutritional efficiency?

It is winter (in this part of the world) right now.

Thanks...


--
Get Credit Where Credit Is Due
http://www.cardreport.com/
Credit Tools, Reference, and Forum

For the most nutrition in winter I like kale, you can even harvest under
snow.

"Antipodean Bucket Farmer" wrote in message
...
Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.

I have about eighty buckets (10-litre/2.5 gal each.)
This area lets me do a "summer mode" with tomatoes,
capsicums, etc, and then a "winter mode" with leafy
greens like spinach, lettuce, etc.

For these two situations, what are good choices for
nutritional efficiency?

It is winter (in this part of the world) right now.

Thanks...


--
Get Credit Where Credit Is Due
http://www.cardreport.com/
Credit Tools, Reference, and Forum

Antipodean Bucket Farmer wrote:
Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.

I have about eighty buckets (10-litre/2.5 gal each.)
This area lets me do a "summer mode" with tomatoes,
capsicums, etc, and then a "winter mode" with leafy
greens like spinach, lettuce, etc.

For these two situations, what are good choices for
nutritional efficiency?

There are plenty of books on strategies to get
the most out of your garden.

One approach is to judge growth rates. Pick
fast growing like radish and slow growing like
corn and plant them close together. The radish
is harvested before the corn has grown tall enough
to shade the radishes out of growth. My folks
did that in gardens before I left for college.

In decorative gardening shade is used as a tool
so why not in food gardening as well. Pick some
tall plants that like direct light, medium ones
that like partial shade, low ones that like mostly
shade. Plant them close together. I do some of
this with flowers so it should work with veggies.

How about long term vs short term? Plant a
perennial in each bucket. When they have little
folliage plant some annual in the same bucket.
Nut trees might give really good long term
nutrition per-bucket but I don't think that's the
same as the per-meter you asked about.

Antipodean Bucket Farmer wrote:

Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.

I have about eighty buckets (10-litre/2.5 gal each.)
This area lets me do a "summer mode" with tomatoes,
capsicums, etc, and then a "winter mode" with leafy
greens like spinach, lettuce, etc.

For these two situations, what are good choices for
nutritional efficiency?

It is winter (in this part of the world) right now.

Thanks...

What foods do you like to eat? Which ones grow in your climate and
soil? Can you preserve the crops? You can check the nutritional
value of foods here. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_s.pl

Then plan nutritious meals with a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Think different colors. Plant a small quantity of something new to
see if you like it and whether it grows well.


--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral, 48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)

On Fri, 8 Jul 2005, Antipodean Bucket Farmer wrote:

Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.


I have this Summer for the first time starting looking seriously
at this question and have come to a sarcastic, but seemingly very
accurate answer: Grow weeds, such as dandelion!

I have yet to fully quantify this formally, but consider the
following thoughts. Weeds grow very well in the local soil
with only minimal maintenance. The need for year-to-year fertilizer
and other soil treatments is almost eliminated altogether. Some,
like dandelions are fully edible. Every part of this plant can be
consumed: leaves for salads; flowers for wines and jams; roasted roots
for coffee like beverage. The jam, by the way, is very tasty. I think
another weed, Rumex acetosa could be quite similar.

I believe you mentioned tomatos. My experience thus far is that this
plant is something more for bragging because it is a greater challenge
than many other common garden plants. I would place them at the higher
end of the maintenance issue and nutritional output could be very poor
without continuous monitoring to ensure high yield.

I do not know much about asperagus, but around here, people are getting
some pretty substantial plants and they eat a good chunck of them. Ditto
for rubarb, which seems to do well with not much more than a lot of
water.

Just another tip.... a friend pointed out that some people in Germany
were trying to maximize potato production by sequentially burying
the plants in dirt. As the season progressed, the pot got
progressively deeper and it finally was filled top to bottom with
potatos. They got a very high yield per square meter by growing up,
as it were. I tried this last year and it kind of worked. We had
really bad weather. This year my garden is 3 times bigger (300 sq
meter), so I did not aggressively pursue this.

I will be curious if an agriculture specialist will pop in with a
list of most nutrition efficient plants (beans, maybe???)...

Dominic

"Antipodean Bucket Farmer" wrote in message
...
Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.

I have about eighty buckets (10-litre/2.5 gal each.)
This area lets me do a "summer mode" with tomatoes,
capsicums, etc, and then a "winter mode" with leafy
greens like spinach, lettuce, etc.


Slightly OT: I'm also maximizing small space and discovered something
interesting last year. Someone gave me a Mennonite cookbook which said that
in poorer cultures, broccoli, bean, and pumpkin leaves are harvested as
vegetables. My crop of broccoli last year yielded enough greens to make up
for their very poor production of heads. I put them in with the beet greens
and used them in vegetable soup. They were great! This year I saved quite a
lot of bolted dark green and red lettuces for soup greens. That doesn't
answer your question - what to plant - but it might point to a way to get
more from what you do plant.

Dominic-Luc Webb wrote:
On Fri, 8 Jul 2005, Antipodean Bucket Farmer wrote:


Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.



I have this Summer for the first time starting looking seriously
at this question and have come to a sarcastic, but seemingly very
accurate answer: Grow weeds, such as dandelion!

Purslane! It's reported to be extremely high in vitamins and minerals
and it grows like a weed because it is a weed. I grow the large leaf
domestic purslane but actually harvest more it the small leaf wild
volunteer purslane. After several years of growing both, I have a lot of
wild crossbreed purslane with medium sized leaves. Purslane is the most
common weed I have, growing in almost every container, pot and bed. Some
people eat it raw but to me that tastes like grass. Cooked it's delicious.


I have yet to fully quantify this formally, but consider the
following thoughts. Weeds grow very well in the local soil
with only minimal maintenance. The need for year-to-year fertilizer
and other soil treatments is almost eliminated altogether. Some,
like dandelions are fully edible. Every part of this plant can be
consumed: leaves for salads; flowers for wines and jams; roasted roots
for coffee like beverage. The jam, by the way, is very tasty. I think
another weed, Rumex acetosa could be quite similar.

I believe you mentioned tomatos. My experience thus far is that this
plant is something more for bragging because it is a greater challenge
than many other common garden plants. I would place them at the higher
end of the maintenance issue and nutritional output could be very poor
without continuous monitoring to ensure high yield.

I do not know much about asperagus, but around here, people are getting
some pretty substantial plants and they eat a good chunck of them. Ditto
for rubarb, which seems to do well with not much more than a lot of
water.

Just another tip.... a friend pointed out that some people in Germany
were trying to maximize potato production by sequentially burying
the plants in dirt. As the season progressed, the pot got
progressively deeper and it finally was filled top to bottom with
potatos. They got a very high yield per square meter by growing up,
as it were. I tried this last year and it kind of worked. We had
really bad weather. This year my garden is 3 times bigger (300 sq
meter), so I did not aggressively pursue this.

This year I tried growing Catalina potatoes which are grown from seed.
Real seed seeds, not seed potatoes. Haven't harvested them yet so can't
report on normal use but I had one extra six pack of potato plants that
I didn't have room to plant. I finally got around to dumping it in the
compost bin yesterday. The six pack (it was the medium sized ones, 36
cells to a 1020 flat) was full of little potatoes! Just packed so full
of little potatoes from a half inch to about a inch and a half that I
had to tear the plastic to get them out. I had no idea that the plants,
which never got more then about six inches tall, would ever produce in
such a tiny container. Just enough for one large serving and they were
delicious boiled and served with fresh parsley and butter. Next year I'
put the extra potato plants in gallon pots and see if I can get a little
more.


I will be curious if an agriculture specialist will pop in with a
list of most nutrition efficient plants (beans, maybe???)...

Dominic



Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”
Cicero

Kathy wrote:
"Antipodean Bucket Farmer" wrote in message
...

Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.

I have about eighty buckets (10-litre/2.5 gal each.)
This area lets me do a "summer mode" with tomatoes,
capsicums, etc, and then a "winter mode" with leafy
greens like spinach, lettuce, etc.



Slightly OT: I'm also maximizing small space and discovered something
interesting last year. Someone gave me a Mennonite cookbook which said that
in poorer cultures, broccoli, bean, and pumpkin leaves are harvested as
vegetables. My crop of broccoli last year yielded enough greens to make up
for their very poor production of heads. I put them in with the beet greens
and used them in vegetable soup. They were great! This year I saved quite a
lot of bolted dark green and red lettuces for soup greens. That doesn't
answer your question - what to plant - but it might point to a way to get
more from what you do plant.



Would that cookbook be 'More With Less' or 'Extending the Table' by any
chance? Those are two of my favorite cookbooks. The MCC (Mennonite
Central Committee) will be or maybe already has released a third
cookbook in the same vein where the theme is seasonal eating which ought
to be perfect for gardeners, called 'Simply in Season'

Troy

"Lorenzo L. Love" wrote in message
ink.net...

Purslane! It's reported to be extremely high in vitamins and minerals and
it grows like a weed because it is a weed. I grow the large leaf domestic
purslane but actually harvest more it the small leaf wild volunteer
purslane. After several years of growing both, I have a lot of wild
crossbreed purslane with medium sized leaves. Purslane is the most common
weed I have, growing in almost every container, pot and bed. Some people
eat it raw but to me that tastes like grass. Cooked it's delicious.

How are you cooking it that you like it so well? I've tried purslane and
mustn't have done it right, because I didn't think much of it.

Kathy

"Troy Lubbers" wrote in message
ink.net...
Kathy wrote:
"Antipodean Bucket Farmer" wrote in
message ...

Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.

I have about eighty buckets (10-litre/2.5 gal each.)
This area lets me do a "summer mode" with tomatoes,
capsicums, etc, and then a "winter mode" with leafy
greens like spinach, lettuce, etc.



Slightly OT: I'm also maximizing small space and discovered something
interesting last year. Someone gave me a Mennonite cookbook which said
that in poorer cultures, broccoli, bean, and pumpkin leaves are harvested
as vegetables. My crop of broccoli last year yielded enough greens to
make up for their very poor production of heads. I put them in with the
beet greens and used them in vegetable soup. They were great! This year I
saved quite a lot of bolted dark green and red lettuces for soup greens.
That doesn't answer your question - what to plant - but it might point to
a way to get more from what you do plant.

Would that cookbook be 'More With Less' or 'Extending the Table' by any
chance? Those are two of my favorite cookbooks. The MCC (Mennonite
Central Committee) will be or maybe already has released a third cookbook
in the same vein where the theme is seasonal eating which ought to be
perfect for gardeners, called 'Simply in Season'

Troy

I don't have it handy, but I think it was in "More with Less" in one of the
sidebar comments under "vegetables". There's lots of info in that book from
missionaries who describe what they learned in other lands from people who
use every scrap and everything from their small vegetable gardens to
survive. It's a favorite cookbook here too. Now that you've told me there
are others, I'll have to go seek them out.

Kathy

Kathy wrote:
"Lorenzo L. Love" wrote in message
ink.net...


Purslane! It's reported to be extremely high in vitamins and minerals and
it grows like a weed because it is a weed. I grow the large leaf domestic
purslane but actually harvest more it the small leaf wild volunteer
purslane. After several years of growing both, I have a lot of wild
crossbreed purslane with medium sized leaves. Purslane is the most common
weed I have, growing in almost every container, pot and bed. Some people
eat it raw but to me that tastes like grass. Cooked it's delicious.


How are you cooking it that you like it so well? I've tried purslane and
mustn't have done it right, because I didn't think much of it.

Kathy



I just throw it in with what ever other veggies I'm cooking. Squash or
eggplant out of the garden, a bunch of purslane, lots of garlic, put in
a pot with olive oil and sweat it down. Serve over rice or noodles.
Easy, yummy. Sometimes if I'm cooking chicken, I'll split and roast the
chicken on a bed of purslane, onion and garlic.

Lorenzo L. Love
http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food."
George Bernard Shaw

Kathy wrote:
"Troy Lubbers" wrote in message
ink.net...

Kathy wrote:

"Antipodean Bucket Farmer" wrote in
message ...


Hi, Everybody,

My vegetable garden is small, so I want to maximise the
nutrition per square metre of space.

I have about eighty buckets (10-litre/2.5 gal each.)
This area lets me do a "summer mode" with tomatoes,
capsicums, etc, and then a "winter mode" with leafy
greens like spinach, lettuce, etc.



Slightly OT: I'm also maximizing small space and discovered something
interesting last year. Someone gave me a Mennonite cookbook which said
that in poorer cultures, broccoli, bean, and pumpkin leaves are harvested
as vegetables. My crop of broccoli last year yielded enough greens to
make up for their very poor production of heads. I put them in with the
beet greens and used them in vegetable soup. They were great! This year I
saved quite a lot of bolted dark green and red lettuces for soup greens.
That doesn't answer your question - what to plant - but it might point to
a way to get more from what you do plant.

Would that cookbook be 'More With Less' or 'Extending the Table' by any
chance? Those are two of my favorite cookbooks. The MCC (Mennonite
Central Committee) will be or maybe already has released a third cookbook
in the same vein where the theme is seasonal eating which ought to be
perfect for gardeners, called 'Simply in Season'

Troy


I don't have it handy, but I think it was in "More with Less" in one of the
sidebar comments under "vegetables". There's lots of info in that book from
missionaries who describe what they learned in other lands from people who
use every scrap and everything from their small vegetable gardens to
survive. It's a favorite cookbook here too. Now that you've told me there
are others, I'll have to go seek them out.

Kathy



Yes.. I'm not a Mennonite, although I married one. I simply love their
ideals and values. I volunteer on a yearly basis for an auction that
raises money for world relief efforts of the MCC. I run the website for
that sale at www.tcmccreliefsale.org. We've raised about 100,000
dollars this year for those relief efforts from this one sale alone, and
there are sales across the country. You might find one in your area at
www.mcc.org

Troy

Kathy wrote:
"Lorenzo L. Love" wrote in message
ink.net...

Purslane! It's reported to be extremely high in vitamins and minerals and
it grows like a weed because it is a weed. I grow the large leaf domestic
purslane but actually harvest more it the small leaf wild volunteer
purslane. After several years of growing both, I have a lot of wild
crossbreed purslane with medium sized leaves. Purslane is the most common
weed I have, growing in almost every container, pot and bed. Some people
eat it raw but to me that tastes like grass. Cooked it's delicious.

How are you cooking it that you like it so well? I've tried purslane and
mustn't have done it right, because I didn't think much of it.

Kathy
===========
I just have the wild variety and just filled 3, 5 gallon buckets with
the stuff and tossed it. I do eat some in salads though, doesn't add
much taste-wise but I figure the extra vitamins cannot hurt. Never
tried it cooked, guess I'll have to wait for the Purslane to come back
fast and furious, which it will LOL.