Making sure you have a constant supply of fruits and vegies is all about planning. Growing your own food has a host of advantages – but how do you make sure the supply doesn’t run out? A visit to the local grocery store at any time of year will demonstrate it’s possible to have a regular and reliable supply of fruits and vegies. Farmers grow crops all over the country, and occasionally food is imported so that grocers can supply it year-round. The problem lies in the price of getting the provisions to us, and ultimately it’s we, the consumers, who end up paying for the fuel costs. So how can we address this? The trick is to make sure we continue growing as much as possible of our own fruits and vegies at home over the entire year – and not just a one-off crop.
Planning
It’s all about planning. Start by writing a list of all the fruits and vegies you’d like to grow, concentrating on your favourites as you want to ensure you have them over other varieties. Against this list of plants you should add some basic information on when they grow and how long it takes for them to reach harvest. From this you can begin to look at the best time to sow or plant them and also predict when they’re likely to need harvesting. This can be built easily into a weekly planner. You can then begin to include other information that may be critical to the overall success of the crops – like climate, preparation and timing.
Tip
Nursery and vegie industries don’t work around seasonal calendars, but use week numbers starting with week one in January and finishing with week 52 at the end of December. This system enables you to build a program for planting and growing, which include harvest periods and ensures a constant stream of produce all year. You get to know when to sow or plant your crops and how long each one takes to grow.
Words by Peter Abell