5 Tips for Building Resilience in Your Garden
Today we want to share with you a special post:
Planting Different Varieties of an Item Can Increase Your Chances of Success
In an organic garden, it is important to be resistant. That means making sure you don't put all your eggs in one basket.
From Garden to Plate – Discover the Best Vegetable Seeds for a Bountiful Harvest!
Gardens can be unpredictable places. And we live in what can sometimes be an unpredictable world. By encouraging diversity in our gardens, we can be sure that we have no weaknesses; we can be sure that even when some things go wrong, others happen.
Choose A Variety of Seed Types and Different Cultivars
The first and probably the most important step in building resilience in your garden is to ensure that there is rich biodiversity within the system.
Increasing biodiversity, when it comes to building resilience, does not simply mean accumulating as many different plants as possible. It is about increasing the number of beneficial interactions between plants (and animals) unique to the ecosystem.
Amplifying beneficial interactions in a system makes it more stable. It means finding a natural balance and working in harmony with nature over time. Therefore, it is essential to choose seeds and plants not only for the benefits of you but also for the garden ecosystem as a whole.
In addition to general ideas about diversity and its benefits to the ecosystem, it is also helpful to think about how you can increase productivity and reduce losses for yourself and your family.
For example, planting only one variety of carrots or tomatoes can mean that you will lose a lot if something goes wrong. Planting two or three different varieties can increase your chances of success. Over time, you can start to see what works well where you live and what doesn't, and you can adjust your options accordingly.
Don't Focus Exclusively on Annuals
Those who are new to growing their own garden generally focus on creating a garden and growing common annual/biennial crops. But annual gardens are a lot of work. And due to unforeseen events and human error, things can often go wrong.
To increase your chances of earning a useful income from your gardening efforts throughout the year, consider abandoning annual production and growing evergreen fruit trees, fruit shrubs, and evergreen vegetables and herbs.
Food forests or forest gardens offer extremely diverse returns, often with much less work on the part of the gardener once established. So these are definitely good growing systems to consider.
Stagger Sowings, Especially Early in the Season
When growing annual crops, time is of the essence. This is especially true when it comes to planting early in the season when sudden, late frosts can occur.
Not sowing or planting at the same time is an important way to minimize risk. Staggered seeding and seeding so that even if the former die from surprising weather events, you will have even more to replace them. Always sow a few more seeds than you think you need.
Consider Growing Undercover And Outside
Many of us are finding our climate to be increasingly erratic and we all know why. It is difficult to predict all weather events in advance.
This week alone, where I live, we would expect to be in the middle of spring and close to our last frost date. A few days before, we were sitting outside, without coats, enjoying the spring sun. But temperatures have dropped as low as 30 degrees in recent nights due to icy Arctic winds, and we feel like we're diving again in winter.
I found that growing up in disguise (in my high tunnel) and outside means, I cover all the bases. And even when some plants are lost, there is still a lot of resistance in the system and I still get good crops in my garden.
If you don't have a covered greenhouse or tunnel, this is definitely something to consider. It can make your growing systems more resilient, as well as increase the variety of crops you can successfully grow throughout the year.
Have Back-Ups and Build In Resilience
Make sure that each element in your garden has multiple functions and that each purpose is served by more than one element.
For example, if you depend on a municipal water supply, ask yourself what you would do if it was closed for some reason. Rainwater harvesting can allow you to create this backup. And careful water management can allow you to create greater resistance over time by more effectively capturing and storing water on your property. This is just an example.
Stacking features and smartly integrating items is another important way to ensure you don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Enjoy This Video Tutorial About Home Food Growing in Unpredictable Weather
Source: Morag Gamble : Our Permaculture Life
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Last update on 2025-01-24 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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