That's a great list, and we grow them all. Cutshaw makes the best pie, for sure! But I would have to add potatoes as my #1 pick, because 1) they last so long, 2) they can be prepared so many different ways, and 3) I could eat them every day without tiring of them. 😊
Nice work, I too am getting old, been gardening most of my life, 40 years now and every year I'd turn a few more ground beds into planters so I could still do it in my old age. Mid 60's now and it's all planters basically 40 or so I'm guessing with 4 beds turned into a sea of big buckets for my potatoes. Still at it, still having fun and every winter I can't wait to get out there in the spring. Happy gardening everyone and for me anyways I hope 2025 is as good as 2024.
G'day from Queensland, we live and breathe mulch. It helps retain moisture, suppresses weeds and builds humus. The problem is that the chooks (chickens) can scatter an hours work to the 4 points of the compass in 5 mins! They do far more good than harm though. We have it easy compared to you though because we can grow bananas and papaya here all year round. Fellow gardeners can learn something from each other whatever their climatic conditions. Great fun watching you, stay safe 😊
Shout out to Queensland, To grow bananas...Well think of us next week when the snow is forecast to hit. Happy gardening and thank you for visiting my garden story.
Greetings from SE Missouri, i got 80 bags of leaves from a neighbor last year & ended up making some great soil after i ran it through my chipper & compost cycle. This year we picked up chickens & made friends with some folks that raise show horses, I now have access to literally tons of horse manure & am super excited to see how we grow this upcoming year. New subscriber & looking forward to checking out your content. Love easy ways to make less work of gardening while also reducing our waste stream.
Welcome and your garden sounds wonderful. We celebrate subscribers gardens every Saturday and I hope you will share yours also. No obligation. Folks just email photos once in awhile. Thank you for stopping by and stay warm with this cold blast that is coming. Happy New Year.
Be sure to find out from the horse owner who they're buying their feed from... Forever chemicals are coming through in the peroquat and other herbicides commercial growers use to grow animal feed... I put a pu truck of pure composted horse manure on my new asparagus garden and 80% of the plants never even came up. The rest were straggling along the first couple years.
@@bosatsu76 I’ve heard some sad stories about people buying manure from horse farms using grazon on their pastures. Gardens totally dead for years, it pays to be careful! Some people have suggested planting some sacrificial plants in the soil to see how they do before spreading on beds
1 pound of dry beans as the calories of about 11 pounds fresh, carol deppe says that she gets 20 pounds of goucho bush beans for 100 feet of row (equivalent of 220 pounds of fresh beans) dent corn can produce a lot of food for the amount of space it takes up, 1 pound of dent corn has about the calories of 4.5 pounds of orange sweet potatoes, apparently reeds yellow dent corn ears Can weigh 1.5 pounds. These things can store for years without electricity. Peanuts, tree nuts and other oilseeds are even much higher calories than the things previously mentioned. They can produce a lot of calories for the amount of space they take up, nut trees can take years to bear you only have to plant them once, apples arent as high in calories as the dey crops i mentioned but they produce so much it more than makes up for often pounds per square foot of tree canopy, some varieties can store for a year.
My list looks like yours, but I grow seminole pumpkins instead of butternut. We have enough seminole and cushaw squash plus sweet potatoes to carry us through the winter, with plenty to share 👍
the Seminole Indian pumpkin is when it's about the size of a tennis ball and it's still green you can eat it just like fresh squash and you can cook it the same way you can slice it and fry it up or you can do it down with onions and you can't tell the difference between yellow squash and that I grow them every year and I love them and they will keep for up to a year if you keep them in a cool dry place@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant
I love my Seminole Indian pumpkins they last a long time down here south Alabama as long as you keep them in a cool dry space. And I just love the idea that I don't have to plant squash anymore because I can eat the ones that are tennis ball size cut em up just like squash and cook them the exact same way you can either fry them or you can stew them with onions you can't tell the difference
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant You might want to try South Anna Butternut. It is a cross between a Seminole Pumpkin and Watham Butternut. They are very prolific and taste great. I have been growing them for about 8 years now and have shared the seeds with a few people. They love them and share the seeds with others. They do grow a very long vine.
Potatoes are on my list. Plant them and wait and harvest. Garlic is very easy to grow. It is not necessary nutrient dense, but if you manage it correctly you never have to buy garlic or seed garlic again. Most alliums don’t have an issue with critters and pests, so garlic, onions, shallots and leeks. Pests and critters make some crops variable. We were growing 20 to 40 butternut squash and 5 to 6 pumpkins each year, until a raccoon decided it was good eating. This year we got 5 butternut and no pumpkins.
I grow a lot of stuff and for me sweet potatoes are hands down lowest maintenance, highest yield and longest lasting crop I grow. The sweets often last over a year stored in the basement. Some only start to push slips then which I can snap off and root for the new spring planting.
We have been blessed to have large harvest of sweets every year and we sure do like them, even eating them cold with no seasonings. Thank you for stopping in for a visit.
I appreciate you video. I like your very candid and straight forward way you convey the information. You are the first person I have heard that mentioned Cusha Squash, I grew up in Louisiana and our Cajun neighbor grew them and cooked them for us to try really good stuff prepared the right way!
I know when most people want to show their gardens they will show perfect weed free pics. I appreciate everyone showing how it is I’ve watched you for awhile and do wood chip mulch leaves and natural amendments as possible letting nature do it’s thing.
I am really trying to show just what is going on without all the walking around. I don't have time to fancy up the garden before we film so shows what it shows. Thank you for noticing and visiting.
With the windows you have in the background you could make "winter boxes (mini green house on the ground) and grow year around of things like cabbage (1 head is 0:04 3 meals for a family) would allow for a late season of potatoes or sweet potatoes (expanded wire in the bottom to keep varmints out) beets year around in most growing seasons.
Yes, yes and yes...I have beets and cabbages growing and cold frames. Those are screens in the background and I leave some for reference so people can follow what is growing where. You are right about the plants. Thank you for visiting my garden story.
@ I figured as much, but was also giving ideas to people who are learning from your page. I thank you for your page of teaching people how to grow food as the prices rise and poised to go higher as the farm land are becoming less productive because the chemical farming is gradually killing the soil to the point of reducing the yields they once did. I'm a huge fan of the statement "grow food not lawns!" because one is productive the other is an expensive. Your leaf mold method is a fantastic way of growing food.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant I have been following the "Back to Eden" method (wood chip gardening) for about 16 years now. It's the same thing but with wood chips. I do mulch leaves and make leaf mold compost that's added to the garden in the late fall/early winter before adding a new layer of chips for the mineral content of the leaves. With what I see happening to our food source/supply I encourage all to grow something and teach their kids how to grow food.
@@tommybeebe4571 Leaves, wood chips and Ruth Stout Hay...I started mixing anything and everything organic I could get my hands on. layering on top at least 4 inches thick. It all mixes together and feeds the life in the soil. I wish I had known about this 50 years ago. But now the hardest work I do is harvest and that is for real. Thank you again.
I hear ya about critters. Seems like a slew of rabbits, opossums, raccoons plus field rats & mice found my in-ground garden this year. My raised bed garden areas weren't really affected. And wire caging is a lot of work for the in-ground garden area. In our country neighborhood there was a lot of tree-ed areas being cleared for folks building houses so the wild life that lived in those trees-ed areas sure got stirred up & many came to my land.
I had to fence the entire garden and put a hot wire around the base but the voles and mole still get in. I use castor oil and that helps but the one year they ate my entire sweet potato patch...Thank you for sharing and for visiting my garden story.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant I raise them in tubs on blocks, easy on the back and no critters (+ a mongoose family under the house which does loads to keep the rodents, snakes,et-cet down).
If you combine baking soda with flour or any grain and put in containers that keeps rain out but has a mouse sized hole, it will kill mice, rats and other rodents but hurts nothing else.
Sure would like a soil temp reading where deep mulch is vs isn't. Same inside your cold frames throughout the winter. Would anticipate deep mulch warms the soil in winter and keeps it cool in summer.
I did a summer temp reading. It was over 100 that day and under the mulch was about 80. I was amazed. The soil has never frozen under the mulch where it was 4 inches thick and the same with the cold frames. See your garlic comment.
The only reason potatoes were not on the list is because we can't eat the greens, but they are easy to grow in the mulch for sure. Thank you again and Happy New Year.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant They are on my list, but we all look at things differently. First time watching you, but a I have watched a couple more and liked them all. I also subscribed. You have a Blessed new year !
I love seeing all the gardens. I can't figure out what is going on-my organic sweet potatoes mold instead of growing slips. Potatoes are my favorite calorie-dense food. They spurred the massive population explosion in Ireland (before the blight) that changed this area from a tribal-mud-hut-living sparse people into a thriving civilization. Potatoes and greens of all sorts are growing like gangbusters during this mild, warm winter (zone 9). I would also add one or two varieties of dried pole or bush beans to your list Although I love green beans, they don't provide many calories. In addition to lots of nutrient-dense vegetables, we live on calorie-dense beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and whole grains without any meat, dairy, eggs, or oils. I hope to grow more dried beans and small grains in my zone 6 farm garden next summer. I'm going to buy your book.
@@suzyq6767 Hi! I had the same problem starting SW potatoe slips. I figured it was because my house is so cold. Bought seed heating pad and I had slips coming out my ears! Might help!
Yes and we do also. We can't eat the greens so they just missed my list. I also get a bunch of volunteer amaranth each year. Thank you for sharing and visiting my garden story.
After a dna test to confirm some metabolic issues, I am at a loss. Problems with oxalate and sulphur and solanine prevent me from thriving on any of these foods. But bless you for the mulch lessons. We don't need fire to make ash, haha.
Great list, but I would swap out the Butternut squash with Zucchino Rampicante. It's resistant to bugs and is a heavy producer. You can eat them when they are green (similar to Zucchini) or golden (similar to winter squash). They last a long time and the seeds are all in the bulb at the end for easy collection.
For me.. hailstone radish and white turnip Several varieties of sweet potato and potato. Carrots. All kinds. Georgia Candy roaster. Mashed potato squash, delicata squash. No idea on the caloric density of the delidata. I eat enough that its caloricaly signifigant.😅 Rhubarb. Not calorie dense but so versitile and yummy.
Potatoes are calorie king here in VT and grow super easily under leaf mulch lightly pressed into the soil. I want to get into true potato seed and select my own landrace variety. Amaranth is an easy winner too, I'm gonna try sorghum this year, bigger grain. Sunchokes make me fart, but they grow strong and are the best backup prepper crop. Super easy to leave a patch of land to be entirely sunchokes in case shit truly hits the fan. Winter squash is obviously great, butternut do well here but I want to explore more, enjoyed the kabocha varieties I tried one season. Also curious about red curry, heard a lot of good things. Maybe start with a Lofthouse grex and a few other varieties and select for my own grex landrace. Mmm, grex landrace, the peak of natural gardening imo, even more important than building soil. Good soil doesn't make bad genetics perform past the limits of their code, their code is inherently weak and the final product will be less nutritious, even from deep leaf mulch soil. Most heirlooms are genetic relics, totally out of sink with the ongoing evolutionary arms race happening between crops and pests\disease. Selecting for max yield lowers nutrition and flavor as a general rule. Allowing death to rule the initial round and then selecting for flavor and survival is the way to create strong allies and rediversify the genome of that species. It's a direct form of rebellion against big ag using the power of life itself. Same as using leaves to feed and protect the soil to grow your own food, that is a powerful form of rebellion. Nothing is more direct than shifting the production of our needs from the global machine to direct interaction with the biosphere around us. Gotta adapt techniques to suite different ecosystems, but then mindset of seeking harmony is the same :)
The only reason potatoes were not on the list is because we can't eat the greens, but they are easy to grow in the mulch for sure. Sunchokes and Amaranth are in our garden also. Thank you for sharing and Happy New Year.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant Good point. I haven't grown sweet potatoes here, only in hotter climates. I should get a short-season variety and get started on that, best overall calorie crop imo bwcause of wating the greens like you said. And it's nice they can be eaten raw if need be.
I planted the seeds from a butternut a couple of years ago and got 60 big butternut, which I shared. I planted them the next year and was getting an early 30 just to start when I saw a video on toxic squash syndrome. You can get sick from squash crossed with another variety. So I pulled out the early 30 and planted seeds from the store a little late. I only got 8 tiny butternut. But what I learned was that you just need to cut off a little bit of the squash and put it on your tongue. If it tastes bad, throw the whole thing away. If it doesn't, it is all right to eat. But it makes it hard to share them. I wouldn't want to make someone sick. Fortunately we planted two beds of sweet potatoes. We have 4 big boxes under the shelves in the garage. Some are almost the size of footballs. Others are small. All will taste good. As far as critters, we have some fruit trees. Summer 2023, all the fuyu persimmons were eaten by animals - probably rats. We had already caged the tree but it only made it hard for the raccoons and not the rats. Summer 2024 we bought a diatomaceous earth puffer and 5 pounds of cayenne on Amazon. We filled the puffer with cayenne and puffed the tree about 5 or 6 times over the summer. We got a great crop. We both ate 3 fuyu persimmons every day for almost 3 months. In several previous years the tree produced 500 to 700 persimmons.
Good to know about your rat battles. Up in Ontario 🇨🇦 we had Norway rats for the 1st time ever in the garden. I never knew how much hatred one could have for rats and how much damage they do. The dumb Cardinals were in cahoots with the rats, I’m sure of it! 😂 2025 is the comeback year…it has to be lol. I’m going to 1/4 hardware cloth my entire property and fill it with Siamese cats. They don’t eat my passion fruit, figs, peppers, tomatoes…😂
I don't cure butternut squash or sweet potatoes. They both keep for about a year without it. Cushaws only keep about half that long. The title says "calorie dense". I wouldn't put squash or pole beans in that category, though they can be productive crops. Agree on the sweet potatoes, though. For me the most calorie dense crops (in no particular order) are sweet potatoes, field corn, and wheat. My climate doesn't really suit white potatoes--too fast from frost to high heat, but they would be a great choice if it did. It's really hard to beat grains for calorie production, which is why civilization has been so dependent on them for thousands of years. In terms of consistently producing high quality food, I would put in welsh onion (Allium fistulosum). Only 32 calories per 100g, but it produces green onions year round, indefinitely as long as you only trim the tops rather than pulling the plants.
Excellent points. I was looking at the total amount each plant can produce for very little work. Like corn very much but only 1 to 3 ears per plant. I succession plant corn for multiple harvest for sure. Thank you so much for your tips.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant Just to clarify, when I say corn, I mean field corn for grain, not sweet corn for fresh eating. Since it doesn't really need to be fresh picked to be at maximum quality, field corn doesn't benefit all that much from succession planting. I should consider that next time I plant sweet corn, though. The field corn does produce only one high quality ear per plant, but I can still get about a five gallon bucket full of corn from five 25-foot rows, which is tens of thousands of cornbread calories.
@@bobbun9630and 5 25 foot rows is 2 years worth of about 15 vegetables you can grow simultaneously using companion planting. That’s a lot of space for one 5 gallon bucket of corn which is probably a 1/3 that at best in corn meal ,that would only cost about $40 for a gallon buckets worth. When all the other possibilities far exceed that cost.
@@Just_A_Name14 That's a common way to account for cost, but it's not the best way to do so. When you grow your own food, your diet tends to change. I wouldn't eat that much corn if I was just buying corn meal, so while I can't pin down exactly what item the corn replaced, it was definitely something more expensive than corn-by-the-sack. The better way is to just save receipts (both for garden and grocery expenses), add them up, and compare before and after. Grains actually increase slightly in volume when you grind them, by the way, so no. A five gallon bucket of raw field corn is slightly more than that in corn meal. I normally account using weight, though. According to my records, my actual last field corn harvest, after processing, was roughly 15.5kg, or about 53,000 calories. That's about twelve percent of a year's food for one person, and on 30" spacing those rows took about 315 square feet of space for four months of the year. If you can beat that with miscellaneous vegetables planted at any density, please make the video and show us. That said, the space isn't critical, as that leaves me with plenty of room to produce those vegetables elsewhere.
@ you can’t even compare garden and grocery receipts bc that’s two different categories. You’re investing in long term opposed to shopping randomly through the year on a need/want basis. That’s not even getting into nutrient density or variations of quality based on your chosen method of growing opposed to the suppliers. Everyone’s expenses their vary drastically. Most people over pay for what is needed to actually produce the given crop. You’re basing a lot of calories on high carb in corn opposed to more protein and less calories. You choose your diet how you see fit though 🤷🏻♂️
Go to a clean park and rake some up to take home. 👍 Especially the 1/2 decomposed leaf mold around trees in forests. 👍 Bring a tarp, using your inner landscaper rake it full of leaves and drag it full home if it’s not far. I would use buckets or wheelbarrow for the leaf- mold as it gets heavy. The best stuff has the tiny white filaments of fungus (underneath rotted wood) that are actually the nutrient highway for your plant roots. Don’t buy Mycorrhizae, it’s a marketing scam and most are dead die to their temperature sensitivity when they arrive. The local forest provides it (in the leaf-mold) and it’s the right local variety of fungus suited for your soils. ❤ Leave litter and especially leaf-mold are turbo boosts for soil health and thus plant health and thus animal health and thus yours too. ❤
As a kid many years ago, we would take the pickup truck through the neighborhoods with the big trees and people would have these bags of leaves set out waiting for us to take!! ( gotta know when garbage pick up is) I used to have a van and did the same. A couple of years I was able to get truck loads of leaves dumped by the city. My neighbors do not mind if I rake their leaves up and take them.
Do you live where the ground doesn’t freeze and you don’t have snow? What does your temperature run in the winter. We can’t grow anything in the garden in Eastern Washington state in the winter.
Northeast Oklahoma, the ground does freeze from time to time but not under the deep mulch or in the cold frames. I hope you have garlic in to take advantage of the frost. Thank you for visiting my garden story.
@@iuaislamf a cutting from a sweet potato vines. So one vine can be turned into a multitude of slips. The leaves are edible, also. Great in a stir fry.
@@genevievebarker943 Yes they are and I forgot to add that. I nibble on the young ends while I work in the summer garden. Thank you for reminding us and for visiting.
I can’t find those cusha melons using that or variants of that spelling. Please tell us the Latin name for those (or other more common names.) Thank you.
We now only grow Asparagus beans. Snap beans are to much trouble. One arched cattle-panel with the beans on it, will yield more beans than our family of 4 can eat.
That's a great list, and we grow them all. Cutshaw makes the best pie, for sure! But I would have to add potatoes as my #1 pick, because 1) they last so long, 2) they can be prepared so many different ways, and 3) I could eat them every day without tiring of them. 😊
Potatoes didn't make my list because we can't eat the greens, but yes they are awesome and grow easily in the deep mulch. Thank you.
Nice work, I too am getting old, been gardening most of my life, 40 years now and every year I'd turn a few more ground beds into planters so I could still do it in my old age. Mid 60's now and it's all planters basically 40 or so I'm guessing with 4 beds turned into a sea of big buckets for my potatoes. Still at it, still having fun and every winter I can't wait to get out there in the spring. Happy gardening everyone and for me anyways I hope 2025 is as good as 2024.
Nice, Happy New Year and Happy Gardening.
BTW, I like your style and voice. Easy to listen to.
Thank you for the kind words, I am glad you stopped in for a visit.
G'day from Queensland, we live and breathe mulch. It helps retain moisture, suppresses weeds and builds humus. The problem is that the chooks (chickens) can scatter an hours work to the 4 points of the compass in 5 mins! They do far more good than harm though. We have it easy compared to you though because we can grow bananas and papaya here all year round. Fellow gardeners can learn something from each other whatever their climatic conditions. Great fun watching you, stay safe 😊
Shout out to Queensland, To grow bananas...Well think of us next week when the snow is forecast to hit. Happy gardening and thank you for visiting my garden story.
Greetings from SE Missouri, i got 80 bags of leaves from a neighbor last year & ended up making some great soil after i ran it through my chipper & compost cycle. This year we picked up chickens & made friends with some folks that raise show horses, I now have access to literally tons of horse manure & am super excited to see how we grow this upcoming year. New subscriber & looking forward to checking out your content. Love easy ways to make less work of gardening while also reducing our waste stream.
Welcome and your garden sounds wonderful. We celebrate subscribers gardens every Saturday and I hope you will share yours also. No obligation. Folks just email photos once in awhile. Thank you for stopping by and stay warm with this cold blast that is coming. Happy New Year.
I am jealous!!!! But I will get more leaves in 2025 !! Had knee surgery and my goodness did it set me back.
Be sure to find out from the horse owner who they're buying their feed from... Forever chemicals are coming through in the peroquat and other herbicides commercial growers use to grow animal feed... I put a pu truck of pure composted horse manure on my new asparagus garden and 80% of the plants never even came up. The rest were straggling along the first couple years.
@@bosatsu76 I’ve heard some sad stories about people buying manure from horse farms using grazon on their pastures. Gardens totally dead for years, it pays to be careful! Some people have suggested planting some sacrificial plants in the soil to see how they do before spreading on beds
Careful with fresh manure-it has a lot of grass and weed seeds
1 pound of dry beans as the calories of about 11 pounds fresh, carol deppe says that she gets 20 pounds of goucho bush beans for 100 feet of row (equivalent of 220 pounds of fresh beans) dent corn can produce a lot of food for the amount of space it takes up, 1 pound of dent corn has about the calories of 4.5 pounds of orange sweet potatoes, apparently reeds yellow dent corn ears Can weigh 1.5 pounds. These things can store for years without electricity. Peanuts, tree nuts and other oilseeds are even much higher calories than the things previously mentioned. They can produce a lot of calories for the amount of space they take up, nut trees can take years to bear you only have to plant them once, apples arent as high in calories as the dey crops i mentioned but they produce so much it more than makes up for often pounds per square foot of tree canopy, some varieties can store for a year.
Excellent break down. Thank you for adding to this topic and all the great examples.
My list looks like yours, but I grow seminole pumpkins instead of butternut. We have enough seminole and cushaw squash plus sweet potatoes to carry us through the winter, with plenty to share 👍
I will have t try seminole this coming year. Thank you for the tip and for stopping in for a visit.
the Seminole Indian pumpkin is when it's about the size of a tennis ball and it's still green you can eat it just like fresh squash and you can cook it the same way you can slice it and fry it up or you can do it down with onions and you can't tell the difference between yellow squash and that I grow them every year and I love them and they will keep for up to a year if you keep them in a cool dry place@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant
I love my Seminole Indian pumpkins they last a long time down here south Alabama as long as you keep them in a cool dry space. And I just love the idea that I don't have to plant squash anymore because I can eat the ones that are tennis ball size cut em up just like squash and cook them the exact same way you can either fry them or you can stew them with onions you can't tell the difference
@@backwoodscountryboy1600 I ordered some from Amazon last night and look forward to seeing how they do this year. Thank you.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant You might want to try South Anna Butternut. It is a cross between a Seminole Pumpkin and Watham Butternut. They are very prolific and taste great. I have been growing them for about 8 years now and have shared the seeds with a few people. They love them and share the seeds with others. They do grow a very long vine.
Potatoes are on my list. Plant them and wait and harvest.
Garlic is very easy to grow. It is not necessary nutrient dense, but if you manage it correctly you never have to buy garlic or seed garlic again. Most alliums don’t have an issue with critters and pests, so garlic, onions, shallots and leeks.
Pests and critters make some crops variable. We were growing 20 to 40 butternut squash and 5 to 6 pumpkins each year, until a raccoon decided it was good eating. This year we got 5 butternut and no pumpkins.
Potatoes almost made my list but we can not eat the green parts. Thank you for visiting my garden story.
Racoons make decent eating, BTW. 😊
@ We are vegetarian, so that would help us. Lol
@@annmc3878 yummy pumpkin flavoured racoon 🦝
…it didn’t know it was self-seasoning. 😅
❤️
@@markm8188 Especially the gizzard.
Radishes are also medicinal. They contain sulfur which give them that sharp flavor. U can make a decongestant/phlem reducer from them.
Great tip thank you.
I grow a lot of stuff and for me sweet potatoes are hands down lowest maintenance, highest yield and longest lasting crop I grow. The sweets often last over a year stored in the basement. Some only start to push slips then which I can snap off and root for the new spring planting.
We have been blessed to have large harvest of sweets every year and we sure do like them, even eating them cold with no seasonings. Thank you for stopping in for a visit.
I appreciate you video. I like your very candid and straight forward way you convey the information. You are the first person I have heard that mentioned Cusha Squash, I grew up in Louisiana and our Cajun neighbor grew them and cooked them for us to try really good stuff prepared the right way!
I just found Cusha and really like it. Thank you for visiting my garden story.
I know when most people want to show their gardens they will show perfect weed free pics.
I appreciate everyone showing how it is
I’ve watched you for awhile and do wood chip mulch leaves and natural amendments as possible letting nature do it’s thing.
I am really trying to show just what is going on without all the walking around. I don't have time to fancy up the garden before we film so shows what it shows. Thank you for noticing and visiting.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant you welcome !
With the windows you have in the background you could make "winter boxes (mini green house on the ground) and grow year around of things like cabbage (1 head is 0:04 3 meals for a family) would allow for a late season of potatoes or sweet potatoes (expanded wire in the bottom to keep varmints out) beets year around in most growing seasons.
Yes, yes and yes...I have beets and cabbages growing and cold frames. Those are screens in the background and I leave some for reference so people can follow what is growing where. You are right about the plants. Thank you for visiting my garden story.
@
I figured as much, but was also giving ideas to people who are learning from your page.
I thank you for your page of teaching people how to grow food as the prices rise and poised to go higher as the farm land are becoming less productive because the chemical farming is gradually killing the soil to the point of reducing the yields they once did.
I'm a huge fan of the statement "grow food not lawns!" because one is productive the other is an expensive.
Your leaf mold method is a fantastic way of growing food.
@@tommybeebe4571 I have found that by using mulch the hardest work I do is harvest.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant
I have been following the "Back to Eden" method (wood chip gardening) for about 16 years now. It's the same thing but with wood chips.
I do mulch leaves and make leaf mold compost that's added to the garden in the late fall/early winter before adding a new layer of chips for the mineral content of the leaves.
With what I see happening to our food source/supply I encourage all to grow something and teach their kids how to grow food.
@@tommybeebe4571 Leaves, wood chips and Ruth Stout Hay...I started mixing anything and everything organic I could get my hands on. layering on top at least 4 inches thick. It all mixes together and feeds the life in the soil. I wish I had known about this 50 years ago. But now the hardest work I do is harvest and that is for real. Thank you again.
I hear ya about critters. Seems like a slew of rabbits, opossums, raccoons plus field rats & mice found my in-ground garden this year. My raised bed garden areas weren't really affected. And wire caging is a lot of work for the in-ground garden area. In our country neighborhood there was a lot of tree-ed areas being cleared for folks building houses so the wild life that lived in those trees-ed areas sure got stirred up & many came to my land.
I had to fence the entire garden and put a hot wire around the base but the voles and mole still get in. I use castor oil and that helps but the one year they ate my entire sweet potato patch...Thank you for sharing and for visiting my garden story.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant I raise them in tubs on blocks, easy on the back and no critters (+ a mongoose family under the house which does loads to keep the rodents, snakes,et-cet down).
If you combine baking soda with flour or any grain and put in containers that keeps rain out but has a mouse sized hole, it will kill mice, rats and other rodents but hurts nothing else.
Thanks for sharing your tips. I'm much encouraged.
Thank you for stopping in for a visit.
Butternut squash ,sweet potatoes ,collard greens,beans garlic and tomatoes for me in Toronto Canada ….
Good list, thank you.
Sure would like a soil temp reading where deep mulch is vs isn't. Same inside your cold frames throughout the winter. Would anticipate deep mulch warms the soil in winter and keeps it cool in summer.
I did a summer temp reading. It was over 100 that day and under the mulch was about 80. I was amazed. The soil has never frozen under the mulch where it was 4 inches thick and the same with the cold frames. See your garlic comment.
Awesome information, thank you.
Thank you and thank you for stopping in for a visit.
I have white potatoes on my list. All of yours were good picks.
The only reason potatoes were not on the list is because we can't eat the greens, but they are easy to grow in the mulch for sure. Thank you again and Happy New Year.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant They are on my list, but we all look at things differently. First time watching you, but a I have watched a couple more and liked them all. I also subscribed. You have a Blessed new year !
First time viewer and I look forward to watching more- thank you.
Hi and welcome to my garden story. Happy New Year.
Asparagus mulched with 2 bales of straw and Jerusalem artichokes covered with straw
Excellent, happy gardening.
Thank you for sharing your list I'm going to have to try some of them ideas
Excellent, let me know how it works for you.
I love seeing all the gardens. I can't figure out what is going on-my organic sweet potatoes mold instead of growing slips. Potatoes are my favorite calorie-dense food. They spurred the massive population explosion in Ireland (before the blight) that changed this area from a tribal-mud-hut-living sparse people into a thriving civilization. Potatoes and greens of all sorts are growing like gangbusters during this mild, warm winter (zone 9). I would also add one or two varieties of dried pole or bush beans to your list Although I love green beans, they don't provide many calories. In addition to lots of nutrient-dense vegetables, we live on calorie-dense beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and whole grains without any meat, dairy, eggs, or oils. I hope to grow more dried beans and small grains in my zone 6 farm garden next summer. I'm going to buy your book.
@@suzyq6767 Hi! I had the same problem starting SW potatoe slips. I figured it was because my house is so cold. Bought seed heating pad and I had slips coming out my ears! Might help!
Yes and we do also. We can't eat the greens so they just missed my list. I also get a bunch of volunteer amaranth each year. Thank you for sharing and visiting my garden story.
@@lulabelle4760 Great tip, thank you.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Thank you for stopping by my garden story for a visit.
Wow! Thanks for a great list!!
Our pleasure! If we are going to bother planting we want to get a good return. Happy gardening.
After a dna test to confirm some metabolic issues, I am at a loss. Problems with oxalate and sulphur and solanine prevent me from thriving on any of these foods. But bless you for the mulch lessons. We don't need fire to make ash, haha.
LOL...Glad you stopped in for a visit.
What a legend. Thank you 🙏🏽
Thank you for visiting my garden story and happy gardening.
You're right, I wasn't expecting beets would be on the list! lol
Parsnips & carrots. I just leave them in the garden until I'm ready for them!
Maybe not to the list but in the garden for sure. Thank you for stopping in for a visit.
@@cynthiacollins2668 Frosted carrots are so sweet, we also store as much in the ground as possible. Thank you.
Hi Wayland 👋🏿 ❤
Glad you stopped by. I hope you and yours have a safe and Happy New Year and your container garden over flows with goodness.
Great video! Thank you!
Thank you for stopping in for a visit. I hoped folks would find it helpful.
Great list, but I would swap out the Butternut squash with Zucchino Rampicante. It's resistant to bugs and is a heavy producer. You can eat them when they are green (similar to Zucchini) or golden (similar to winter squash). They last a long time and the seeds are all in the bulb at the end for easy collection.
I ordered 2 types last month and have the seeds here to try this coming year. Thank you, I am excited to see what they do in the mulch.
Great information, radishes are good too
We enjoy the radish seed pods as they come on. Thank you for visiting.
If you have easy access, wild edibles are even easier to 'grow' and have a less caloric cost. Generally more nutrients too.
I have a few and dandelions are my favorite. Thank you and Happy New Year.
@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant i hear dandelions are extreme in their multiple uses and values. We don't get them where I'm at. Enjoy.
sweet potatoes
butternut squash
pole beans
cushaw melons
I may be wrong but for us that is the list for this year, and we had all 4 on the Christmas table. Thank you for visiting.
For me..
hailstone radish and white turnip
Several varieties of sweet potato and potato.
Carrots. All kinds.
Georgia Candy roaster. Mashed potato squash, delicata squash. No idea on the caloric density of the delidata. I eat enough that its caloricaly signifigant.😅
Rhubarb. Not calorie dense but so versitile and yummy.
Sounds great! Thank you for sharing and stopping in for a visit.
Potatoes are calorie king here in VT and grow super easily under leaf mulch lightly pressed into the soil. I want to get into true potato seed and select my own landrace variety.
Amaranth is an easy winner too, I'm gonna try sorghum this year, bigger grain.
Sunchokes make me fart, but they grow strong and are the best backup prepper crop. Super easy to leave a patch of land to be entirely sunchokes in case shit truly hits the fan.
Winter squash is obviously great, butternut do well here but I want to explore more, enjoyed the kabocha varieties I tried one season. Also curious about red curry, heard a lot of good things.
Maybe start with a Lofthouse grex and a few other varieties and select for my own grex landrace. Mmm, grex landrace, the peak of natural gardening imo, even more important than building soil. Good soil doesn't make bad genetics perform past the limits of their code, their code is inherently weak and the final product will be less nutritious, even from deep leaf mulch soil. Most heirlooms are genetic relics, totally out of sink with the ongoing evolutionary arms race happening between crops and pests\disease. Selecting for max yield lowers nutrition and flavor as a general rule. Allowing death to rule the initial round and then selecting for flavor and survival is the way to create strong allies and rediversify the genome of that species. It's a direct form of rebellion against big ag using the power of life itself. Same as using leaves to feed and protect the soil to grow your own food, that is a powerful form of rebellion. Nothing is more direct than shifting the production of our needs from the global machine to direct interaction with the biosphere around us. Gotta adapt techniques to suite different ecosystems, but then mindset of seeking harmony is the same :)
The only reason potatoes were not on the list is because we can't eat the greens, but they are easy to grow in the mulch for sure. Sunchokes and Amaranth are in our garden also. Thank you for sharing and Happy New Year.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant Good point. I haven't grown sweet potatoes here, only in hotter climates. I should get a short-season variety and get started on that, best overall calorie crop imo bwcause of wating the greens like you said. And it's nice they can be eaten raw if need be.
I planted the seeds from a butternut a couple of years ago and got 60 big butternut, which I shared. I planted them the next year and was getting an early 30 just to start when I saw a video on toxic squash syndrome. You can get sick from squash crossed with another variety. So I pulled out the early 30 and planted seeds from the store a little late. I only got 8 tiny butternut. But what I learned was that you just need to cut off a little bit of the squash and put it on your tongue. If it tastes bad, throw the whole thing away. If it doesn't, it is all right to eat. But it makes it hard to share them. I wouldn't want to make someone sick. Fortunately we planted two beds of sweet potatoes. We have 4 big boxes under the shelves in the garage. Some are almost the size of footballs. Others are small. All will taste good.
As far as critters, we have some fruit trees. Summer 2023, all the fuyu persimmons were eaten by animals - probably rats. We had already caged the tree but it only made it hard for the raccoons and not the rats. Summer 2024 we bought a diatomaceous earth puffer and 5 pounds of cayenne on Amazon. We filled the puffer with cayenne and puffed the tree about 5 or 6 times over the summer. We got a great crop. We both ate 3 fuyu persimmons every day for almost 3 months. In several previous years the tree produced 500 to 700 persimmons.
Good to know about your rat battles.
Up in Ontario 🇨🇦 we had Norway rats for the 1st time ever in the garden.
I never knew how much hatred one could have for rats and how much damage they do. The dumb Cardinals were in cahoots with the rats, I’m sure of it!
😂
2025 is the comeback year…it has to be lol.
I’m going to 1/4 hardware cloth my entire property and fill it with Siamese cats. They don’t eat my passion fruit, figs, peppers, tomatoes…😂
Your garden sounds wonderful and we like Sweet Potatoes, this year we shared some with the voles. Thank you for sharing and Happy New Year.
Thank you
Thank you for visiting my garden story.
VERY COOL ADVICE THANK U SIR..WOULD LOVE TO HEAR MORE TIPS ON GARDENING HACKS..😊😮😅😊❤❤😂
Welcome to my story. I have over 4 years of hacks almost daily on my channel. Happy New Year and Happy gardening.
composted leaves are the best soy builder and dense nutrients for the ground.
Leave are awesome for sure. Thank you for stopping in for a visit.
I don't cure butternut squash or sweet potatoes. They both keep for about a year without it. Cushaws only keep about half that long. The title says "calorie dense". I wouldn't put squash or pole beans in that category, though they can be productive crops. Agree on the sweet potatoes, though. For me the most calorie dense crops (in no particular order) are sweet potatoes, field corn, and wheat. My climate doesn't really suit white potatoes--too fast from frost to high heat, but they would be a great choice if it did. It's really hard to beat grains for calorie production, which is why civilization has been so dependent on them for thousands of years. In terms of consistently producing high quality food, I would put in welsh onion (Allium fistulosum). Only 32 calories per 100g, but it produces green onions year round, indefinitely as long as you only trim the tops rather than pulling the plants.
Excellent points. I was looking at the total amount each plant can produce for very little work. Like corn very much but only 1 to 3 ears per plant. I succession plant corn for multiple harvest for sure. Thank you so much for your tips.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant Just to clarify, when I say corn, I mean field corn for grain, not sweet corn for fresh eating. Since it doesn't really need to be fresh picked to be at maximum quality, field corn doesn't benefit all that much from succession planting. I should consider that next time I plant sweet corn, though. The field corn does produce only one high quality ear per plant, but I can still get about a five gallon bucket full of corn from five 25-foot rows, which is tens of thousands of cornbread calories.
@@bobbun9630and 5 25 foot rows is 2 years worth of about 15 vegetables you can grow simultaneously using companion planting. That’s a lot of space for one 5 gallon bucket of corn which is probably a 1/3 that at best in corn meal ,that would only cost about $40 for a gallon buckets worth. When all the other possibilities far exceed that cost.
@@Just_A_Name14 That's a common way to account for cost, but it's not the best way to do so. When you grow your own food, your diet tends to change. I wouldn't eat that much corn if I was just buying corn meal, so while I can't pin down exactly what item the corn replaced, it was definitely something more expensive than corn-by-the-sack. The better way is to just save receipts (both for garden and grocery expenses), add them up, and compare before and after.
Grains actually increase slightly in volume when you grind them, by the way, so no. A five gallon bucket of raw field corn is slightly more than that in corn meal. I normally account using weight, though. According to my records, my actual last field corn harvest, after processing, was roughly 15.5kg, or about 53,000 calories. That's about twelve percent of a year's food for one person, and on 30" spacing those rows took about 315 square feet of space for four months of the year. If you can beat that with miscellaneous vegetables planted at any density, please make the video and show us. That said, the space isn't critical, as that leaves me with plenty of room to produce those vegetables elsewhere.
@ you can’t even compare garden and grocery receipts bc that’s two different categories. You’re investing in long term opposed to shopping randomly through the year on a need/want basis. That’s not even getting into nutrient density or variations of quality based on your chosen method of growing opposed to the suppliers. Everyone’s expenses their vary drastically. Most people over pay for what is needed to actually produce the given crop. You’re basing a lot of calories on high carb in corn opposed to more protein and less calories. You choose your diet how you see fit though 🤷🏻♂️
I wish, I had lots of leaves, in my yard to compost.
When I don't have enough I look for other organics to add to the top of the garden.
Go to a clean park and rake some up to take home. 👍
Especially the 1/2 decomposed leaf mold around trees in forests. 👍
Bring a tarp, using your inner landscaper rake it full of leaves and drag it full home if it’s not far. I would use buckets or wheelbarrow for the leaf- mold as it gets heavy. The best stuff has the tiny white filaments of fungus (underneath rotted wood) that are actually the nutrient highway for your plant roots.
Don’t buy Mycorrhizae, it’s a marketing scam and most are dead die to their temperature sensitivity when they arrive. The local forest provides it (in the leaf-mold) and it’s the right local variety of fungus suited for your soils. ❤
Leave litter and especially leaf-mold are turbo boosts for soil health and thus plant health and thus animal health and thus yours too. ❤
As a kid many years ago, we would take the pickup truck through the neighborhoods with the big trees and people would have these bags of leaves set out waiting for us to take!! ( gotta know when garbage pick up is) I used to have a van and did the same. A couple of years I was able to get truck loads of leaves dumped by the city. My neighbors do not mind if I rake their leaves up and take them.
Our city has a landscape waste drop-off area. I often bring home leaves, used potting soils, plants, firewood....
I'd have to put potatoes number one. You can live on them, if you have to. Entire countries have done so, historically. Plus, they're tasty!
I didn't just because we can not eat the greens. Good point though. Thank you for visiting.
Do you live where the ground doesn’t freeze and you don’t have snow? What does your temperature run in the winter. We can’t grow anything in the garden in Eastern Washington state in the winter.
Northeast Oklahoma, the ground does freeze from time to time but not under the deep mulch or in the cold frames. I hope you have garlic in to take advantage of the frost. Thank you for visiting my garden story.
@ Absolutely have garlic in the ground which I planted in the end of October. 👍🏻
Just found you❤
Welcome, glad to see you visiting my garden story. What is your favorite crop?
what does 1 slip mean?
@@iuaislamf a cutting from a sweet potato vines. So one vine can be turned into a multitude of slips. The leaves are edible, also. Great in a stir fry.
You might find this helpful. th-cam.com/video/-josUFtmHfQ/w-d-xo.html
@@genevievebarker943 Yes they are and I forgot to add that. I nibble on the young ends while I work in the summer garden. Thank you for reminding us and for visiting.
do you roast the squash seeds
Some but mostly dry to re plant. Thank you for visiting.
My food eats your food!
Your food is right next to my food...LOL. Thank you for visiting.
What was the name of that melon?
Cushaw squash, I miss spoke...Thank you for visiting.
How about sugar beets? They are monsters! 😆
I can’t find those cusha melons using that or variants of that spelling. Please tell us the Latin name for those (or other more common names.) Thank you.
My store at Amazon
amzn.to/3KQh3jo This is where I got them.
What zone are you in?
7 ish depending on the map. Northeast Oklahoma. Thanks for visiting my garden story.
@@waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant Thanks. Wanted to see if it was close to the zone I have 7a. Looking forward to watching more videos.
I am missing potato
Potatoes are a staple in the garden and just missed my list this year. Thank you.
Actually a beet seed is more than 1 plant 2-4 per seed
AI
No AI here at all. It is all me and my garden story. Thank you for visiting.
Asparagus beans grow like weeds
Yes they do and I consider them a pole bean. We like the flavor of the 3 footers for sure. Thank you for visiting.
We now only grow Asparagus beans. Snap beans are to much trouble. One arched cattle-panel with the beans on it, will yield more beans than our family of 4 can eat.
@@charlesdevier8203 how many plants on that one panel?