The last of the organic gardening series by Rene of Budget Saving Mom:

How To Be Self Sufficient When You Garden:

We try to be pretty self sufficient, and grow most of the fruits and vegetables that we use throughout the year. We also raise our chickens, guineas and ducks which provide meat and eggs throughout the year. There are a few items that we have to buy each year. We are not able to grow enough potatoes, apples, peaches or pears. So, I include room in my budget to purchase these additional foods.

I buy potatoes when I can find them on sale throughout the year. Apples and pears take up more room to grow than I have, and I am very fortunate to live only a couple of hours from the mountains, where we are able to purchase these organically and in bulk each fall at a very reduced price. I dehydrate and freeze this fruit each year. I absolutely love this time of year. My daughters and I can homemade applesauce, apple butter, cinnamon apples and more. We have the best time together. We work for about a week with the apples and pears each fall. It always feels like the beginning of the holiday season, and the house smells so good! (Peaches come in during the summer, and we buy these locally and preserve them while we are preserving the rest of our garden.)

So, how do I ensure that we have enough food to feed our family with the rest of our fruits and vegetables? This is really important to us, because we do actually rely on our garden (and birds), as our main sources of food.

We have many, many berry bushes around our house. I make sure that we harvest all of the gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries and strawberries throughout the summer, and then freeze or dehydrate the extras to last throughout the year. We eat berries almost daily in smoothies, so we need quite a few. I also like to use the dehydrated ones in our homemade granola.

I have slowly added plants over the years, until we now have enough berry plants to provide for our family. (Hint: Huckleberries are not my favorite berry (taste wise). However, they grow for months, and produce a HUGE harvest per plant. They are literally one of the first plants that starts producing berries in the spring AND the last plant to stop producing at the end of the summer/early fall. I love the amount of healthy berries that they provide. I use these in my smoothies with a few other berries whose taste I prefer, and it really helps to stretch my other berries.)

For all other fruits and vegetables, I have tracked the produce that is produced for years, and how much our family needs each year. It is important to track how much food you make each year for several years. Why?? It is common to have 2 normal years, followed by a bumper crop year, and followed by a really slow year. As you track the produce that you produce, you will learn how much produce you need to plant to ensure that you have the amount of produce needed. If you are interested in seeing how we keep track of our food, and determine the amount to plant, click here. Also, if you are interested in seeing how we plan our garden, click here.

To learn how to raise your own chickens, you can check out my seven part series about how to raise chickens here. Chickens can be really useful for a garden. You can feed them your vegetable scraps and bugs from the garden. You can also release them after your summer garden. They will eat your weeds and seeds and till your garden for you.

We actually let them into our garden even during the summer months using a chicken tractor, and they slowly work and fertilize the soil for us. They find the bugs that would overwinter underground and eat them, and the soil is so loose, rich and ready for planting after they are finished. Plus, we are able to enjoy organic, range fed eggs for free throughout the year. (After the cost of feed for the chicks.)

A Few More Tips

Drying Herbs Without A Dehydrator:

Organic dried herbs can be expensive to buy. However, it is REALLY easy to dehydrate and preserve your herbs that you grow during the summer. Go here to check out how to dehydrate and preserve your herbs without a dehydrator.

Succession Gardening For Small Gardens:

If you are growing a garden in a small area, succession gardening is a great way to grow more produce throughout the year. You just plant produce throughout the year. For example in the spring, plant your peas and other cool weather plants, then pull those up and plant a summer garden. Pull up your summer garden and plant your fall and winter garden. I love using succession gardening, and in the area of the country where I live, I am able to enjoy fresh vegetables throughout the year.

How To Make Newspaper Pots

When you are starting your seedlings, a very economical, easy and green way to make pots, is through making newspaper pots. When you are ready to plant your seedling you just pull off the bottom of your pot, and plant them in the ground. You can check out my video tutorial about how to make newspaper pots here.

How To Use Cornmeal to Control Weeds & Attract Good Worms:

This is a pretty neat trick to help your plants really thrive. Check out how to use cornmeal to attract good worms and keep out the weeds around your plants here.

Rene is due any day now with a baby boy and is on total bed rest, I believe. She’s helping with the preserving as much as she can from a sitting position – this gal is dedicated! Do say a prayer for her and her little one to be born, David. Thank you!

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Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

If you’ve missed the rest of the organic gardening series from Rene of Budget Saving Mom, click here to catch up.