Kitchen Garden Quantitative Analysis

Take food independence to the max.

BY ESPERANZA PALLANA

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I’ve been maintaining a backyard farm for five years, and it’s grown garlic, or herbs you cook with.

We all like kale in our household, so I figure we each year along with my enthusiasm. can eat it 3 times a week. This translates to 9 cups, This year I’m seeing if its 1,200 square or one whole plant (they’re large). Each plant needs a 15" radius and takes 2 months to mature, so we feet (ft²) of growing space can produce can grow all our kale in 3 rotating beds measuring at least 50% of our household’s food.

60"× 15", containing 4 plants each. Each month

Doing this means calculating with a few key factors: one bed is planted, one is growing to maturity, and the space you have, the nutrient and calorie intake one is harvested. you require, the crops you can grow, and the schedule There are two ways to harvest the kale. You can you can maintain for planting, irrigation, and soil dig it up all at once, then wash, chop, and freeze maintenance. some, or you can harvest the plants continuously

For someone like me, who has a “job job” and is also for about 1 month, picking just the lower leaves in graduate school, it’s a lot to think about. But I’ve while newer ones grow in. Either way, when the relied on two helpful books: David Duhon’s nutrition bed is empty again, you dig up the weeds, amend and garden planner, One Circle,and John Jeavons’ it with compost, and replant with the next crop. mini-farming bible, How to Grow More Vegetables. Transplanted legumes are a good option, and the

There are three people in our household. Given location you transplanted them from can become our ages and activity levels, I require 1,800– 2,000 a new kale bed. calories daily, my husband needs 2,400– 2,800, To provide us all with 1 cup of beans per day, we and my father-in-law needs 1,500– 1,800. For other need to grow 900ft for 3 months. But once the

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nutrients, I referred to the guidelines published beans have dried, we can store them and free the by the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition space for a more diverse range of vegetables. The Board. With that, it’s a matter of breaking out a beauty of both kales and dry beans is that they spreadsheet, looking at possible crops, and working grow in cooler months, which lets you dedicate the out what your garden’s expected yields can supply. summer weather to more finicky specialty crops

In addition, you need to plan crop rotation. Some like squashes, tomatoes, and basil. crops deplete the soil, while others, like legumes, For irrigation, we use drip lines on a timer (see replenish it with nitrogen and improve compost. page 72), which is efficient and inexpensive, and To maintain soil health, you must rotate crops put mulch on the soil to preserve moisture and growing in each location between the two catego- suppress weed growth. Our next steps for water ries. Luckily, crop rotation can also work well with conservation would be collecting rainwater and balancing nutrition. using household graywater.

For example, the many beautiful varieties of kale Each of these considerations, from nutrition to are all easy to grow and nutritionally dense. Just irrigation, is a science in itself. For our household, it 1 cup (uncooked) provides more than your daily has been meaningful to figure it all out, and to reap requirements for vitamins A, C, and K, and good the rewards of delicious food that we have a deep amounts of other nutrients. Combine it each day connection to and understanding of. with 1 cup (cooked) adzuki beans and 1 egg (from our chickens), and you have 48% of the protein you need, 70% of the dietary fiber, and at least half of most essential vitamins and minerals. The calorie total from these three ingredients comes to just 420, but does not include any oils, butter, onions,

Download Pallana’s sample Crop Planner spreadsheet at makezine.com/18/gardenanalysis.

Esperanza Pallana ( pluckandfeather.com) is an urban farmer in Oakland, Calif., who consults with individuals and organizations looking to grow their own food.

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