Growing & seeds — producing your own food
The 📷 links open the Wikipedia article with pictures, offline via the local Wikipedia server. The Kiwix server must be running for this (it normally starts automatically). Pictures are only available with the Wikipedia package in the "Complete" profile (with pictures), downloaded via DATEN-LADEN.bat.
An honest calculation first
An adult needs around 800,000 kcal a year (about 2,200 kcal a day). In a home garden, potatoes yield about 2–3 kg per m², i.e. around 1,500–2,200 kcal per m². With potatoes alone you would need around 350–550 m² of well-tended land per person.
So a home garden does not feed anyone completely. It supplements your supplies with vitamins, freshness and variety and makes them last longer. Therefore: supplies first (chapter 3), then the garden, then wild plants (chapter 28).
Right away and without a garden: sprouts on the windowsill. Lentils, mung beans, chickpeas, cress or radish seeds in a jar provide vitamin C after 2–5 days, even in winter. A kilo of seed lasts for weeks. Rinse twice a day. Cook bean sprouts (except mung beans) before eating.
The climate where you live
Frost and planting dates depend heavily on location and altitude. Find out now and note them here:
- Hardiness zone of your home: …… (winter lows: …… °C)
- Last frost in spring: …… · first frost in autumn: ……
Example: mild Central Europe (approx. 400–500 m altitude, hardiness zone ≈ 7b, lows around −13 to −15 °C):
- Last frost: until the "Ice Saints" (mid-May). Plant frost-sensitive crops (tomatoes, beans, squash, cucumbers) outdoors only after that.
- First frost: usually from mid/late October
- Summers warm and often dry, so collect rainwater (water butts, IBC tank) and mulch.
Open-pollinated instead of F1 — the most important point
- F1 hybrids (it says so on the packet) give high yields in the first year. But their seeds produce uneven, often weak plants the following year.
- Open-pollinated (true-breeding) varieties can be propagated yourself every year, so you no longer depend on shops.
- Suppliers (open-pollinated, organic), for example: Bingenheimer Saatgut, Dreschflegel, Culinaris (Germany), ProSpecieRara (Switzerland), Arche Noah (Austria) — or open-pollinated seed suppliers in your country. Build up a stock for 2–3 years now.
Proven open-pollinated varieties
The variety names below come from the catalogues of the (German-speaking) suppliers mentioned above; in other countries, ask local seed savers for regionally proven varieties.
| Crop | Varieties (open-pollinated) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Potato 📷 | Linda, Bamberger Hörnchen, Sieglinde | calories, stores well; propagated via tubers |
| Bush bean 📷 | Saxa, Maxi | fast, easy seed saving |
| Dry bean | Borlotto, Cannellini | protein, keeps for years |
| Runner/pole bean | Blauhilde, Neckarkönigin | high yield on little space |
| Pea 📷 | Kleine Rheinländerin, Blauwschokker | early, self-pollinating |
| Tomato 📷 | Matina, Rote Murmel, Ruthje | resistant to late blight (wild tomato "Rote Murmel") |
| Squash 📷 | Uchiki Kuri (Hokkaido), Butternut "Waltham" | keeps 4–6 months |
| Kale 📷 | Halbhoher grüner krauser | winter harvest down to −15 °C |
| Leek 📷 | Blaugrüner Winter | stays in the bed over winter |
| Lamb's lettuce 📷 | Dunkelgrüner Vollherziger | winter salad |
| Carrot 📷 | Nantaise 2, Rodelika | stores in sand |
| Beetroot 📷 | Ägyptische Plattrunde | stores well, leaves edible |
| Onion 📷 | Stuttgarter Riesen | stores well |
| Chard 📷 | Lucullus | can be harvested almost all year round |
| Jerusalem artichoke 📷 | (tubers) | perennial, grows almost anywhere; caution: spreads aggressively |
Seed potatoes keep only for a limited time: every year set aside part of the harvest as seed potatoes (egg-sized, cool and dark, 4–6 °C).
Sowing and planting calendar (example: mild Central Europe)
Adapt to your location: later at higher or colder sites, earlier at very mild ones.
| Month | Sow/plant outdoors | Start indoors | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feb/March | Broad beans, spinach (under fleece) | Tomatoes, peppers (from mid-March) | Kale, leeks, lamb's lettuce |
| April | Potatoes, peas, carrots, onions, lettuce, radishes | Squash, courgettes (end of April) | Spinach, radishes |
| May (after the Ice Saints) | Plant out beans, squash, courgettes, tomatoes | – | Lettuce, radishes |
| June | Kale, leeks, beetroot, chard, bush beans (2nd sowing) | – | Peas, early potatoes |
| July | Lamb's lettuce, winter radish | – | Beans, courgettes, tomatoes |
| Aug/Sept | Lamb's lettuce, spinach, winter onions, garlic (Sept/Oct) | – | Potatoes, squash, carrots, dry beans |
| Oct–Jan | Plant garlic cloves | Sprouts | Kale, leeks, lamb's lettuce, stored crops |
Saving your own seed
| Easy (self-pollinating) | Medium | Difficult |
|---|---|---|
| Beans, peas: let the pods dry on the plant | Lettuce: cut off the seed heads, shake out | Squash/courgettes: cross-pollinate, grow only one variety per species. Never eat bitter courgettes or squash (cucurbitacins, can arise from home-saved seed, life-threatening) |
| Tomatoes: ferment the seeds with the pulp for 2–3 days, wash, dry | Beetroot, chard, carrot, onion: biennial, only flower in the 2nd year | Cabbage: biennial, crosses with all brassicas |
Storage: dry, cool, dark. In a screw-top jar with a silica gel sachet. Viability (years, roughly): onion/parsnip 1–2 · carrot, lettuce 3 · bean, pea 3–4 · cabbage 4–5 · tomato 4–6 · squash/cucumber 5–6. Germination test before sowing: 10 seeds on wet kitchen paper, count after one week.
Keeping the soil fertile
- Compost: kitchen waste, leaves, grass cuttings, manure → humus after 6–12 months. No dog-poo residues on vegetable beds (parasites).
- Mulching with grass cuttings or straw retains moisture and suppresses weeds.
- Crop rotation: don't grow potatoes, tomatoes and cabbage in the same spot every year.
- Nettle liquid manure (1 kg nettles to 10 l water, ferment for 1–2 weeks, water with it diluted 1:10) is a free nitrogen fertiliser.
- Companion planting: carrots + onions, tomatoes + basil, beans + savory. The plants keep pests away from each other.
Preserving the harvest
- Storing: potatoes, carrots, beetroot, cabbage, apples in the cellar at 2–6 °C. Carrots and beetroot in damp sand. Store apples separately from potatoes, because the ethylene from apples makes potatoes sprout.
- Lactic fermentation (no electricity, very safe): shred white cabbage, 15–20 g salt per kg, knead until juice comes out, press firmly into the jar, keep under the liquid. 1 week at room temperature, then store cool. Also works with carrots, cucumbers and beans. Blanch beans for 5 minutes first and cook them before eating, because fermentation does not reliably break down the bean toxin phasin. Sauerkraut is rich in vitamin C.
- Drying: beans, herbs, apple rings, mushrooms. Airy, shady, below 40 °C.
- Canning/bottling: fruit, jam, acidified tomatoes (1 tbsp bottled lemon juice per 500 ml, because only that has a consistent acidity) and pickled vegetables in a water bath. Beans, carrots, meat and soups (low-acid) only in a pressure canner, otherwise there is a risk of botulism and thus danger to life. Exact times in the knowledge package "USDA Guide to Home Canning" (offline).
Chickens (eggs)
Three to four laying hens produce about 700–900 eggs a year and eat kitchen scraps. Keeping poultry often has to be registered with the authorities, even for a few birds — example Germany: registration with the veterinary office is required for every flock. Check the rules in your country. With dogs in the household: fence the run securely.
Read on offline
Knowledge packages (via DATEN-LADEN.bat): Gardening Q&A (gardening.stackexchange), Gardenology (plant encyclopaedia), Gutenberg agriculture books, Survivor Library (historical instructions on farming, preserving, beekeeping), Wikipedia articles on every variety. German speakers also have the old German gardening handbooks in the library (chapter 30).