How Much Of Your Garden Should Be Food Plants?
If you’re trying to grow most of your own calories, it makes sense to grow calorie-dense food, which especially points to root crops such as potatoes and parsnips.
When growing biointensively, 30% of the land is often allocated for this.
With 60% of land going to ‘carbon’ and 30% going to ‘calorie’ crops, that leaves just 10% for vegetables.
(Link to my medicinal plants list)
I find root vegetables to be some of the easiest to grow.
Garlic is my favorite, although most of us don’t eat enough of it to have it be a big calorie provider. But it’s highly medicinal, and it’s often planted in the fall during the gardener’s less busy time, which is nice.
Potatoes are also a favorite of mine. People say “why would you plant potatoes when you can buy them so cheaply in the grocery store,” but I can grow more nutritious potatoes, and they’re so easy to grow.
And while it’s true that many grocery store potatoes are high in starch and low in nutrients, that doesn’t have to be the case for your potatoes.
They grow over 3000 varieties of potatoes in Peru and some tribes still rely on them for the majority of their calories.
Here’s my video/article where I list my favorite medicinal plants from my garden: