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Home Food Production in Northwest Michigan. Reasons for growing:. -Aesthetic -Nutrition -Exercise -Save $ -Tradition -Neighborly Competition. Where to begin? First, assess. . -Soil samples, source of water, hours of sunlight, budget, etc. Then, project.
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Reasons for growing: -Aesthetic -Nutrition -Exercise -Save $ -Tradition -Neighborly Competition
Where to begin? First, assess. -Soil samples, source of water, hours of sunlight, budget, etc.
Then, project. • Make projections about appropriate usage, probable costs and yields, development over time. • Onestudy found that “Altogether, the (home) gardens had an AVERAGE VALUE OF $0.74 / square foot of garden area, and a MEDIAN VALUE OF $0.62 / square foot of garden area… For a modest-sized garden, 200 square feet in size, that's a return of $148 in the first year. For larger gardens, 500-700 square feet in size, that's a return of $370-$518 in year one, alone!” -osumg.blogspot.com • What does your dream garden look like and produce?
Start with just one thing, then go from there. • radical home ec. • teal farm • 1/10th acre urban farm • It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the options; just build it one project at a time.
Resources at hand… • Natural building materials onsite – stones, sticks, clay? • Neighborly support – resource sharing. • Local garden suppliers/landscapers: - TC: 4 Season Nursery, Garden Goods, Pine Hill Nursery, Manitou Gardens, Grand Traverse Nursery - Williamsburg: Barker Creek Nursery -Suttons Bay: Plant Masters -Other: Oikos Tree Crops
Compost: make your setup convenient Home compost piles have a tendency to go by the wayside. Make sure you choose a setup that you will be comfortable tending to. The site of a mismanaged compost pile can cause a breakdown of morale. Check out the compost workshop scheduled for June 14th at the SEEDS Farm with Carter’s Compost and Mike Davis.
Garden to Table • You will not have time to do it all. • Preserve a few things that you really love: kraut, pickles, jam, pesto, tomato sauce, etc. • Don’t – worry about making something different every day • Do - have your friends over to cook the produce for you.
Crop Mapping & Record Keeping Rotating crops from year to year is critical to disease prevention and soil health. Creating a crop map can be a useful tool and informative to look backupon as the seasons go by. Keep records of other information that interest you. The more data you have on your garden the better.