Whether you are just starting out or a seasoned homesteading veteran, it can be hard to decide which projects to tackle next in your garden. We have built this Growing Cycle tool to help you develop your homestead garden in a logical order so your efforts flow smoothly from one project to the next.
Your Growing Cycle defines 8 key stages along your seasonal journey to creating and using a thriving vegetable garden. These stages have varying degrees of complexity but we know that they are ALL critical to your success. Your performance will therefore always be limited by your weakest stage, so strive for balanced improvement in all stages.
We also know that it is not possible to do or learn everything at the same time. That's why we have outlined key milestones to strive for at each stage along your path. These milestones are ranked as beginner, intermediate, and advanced level accomplishments and they are divided for good reason. You won't benefit from worrying about advanced level concepts before you properly deal with everything at the beginner level.
Growing food is a life long endeavour so their is no need to rush your way through this. Take your time to consider what success means to you in each stage at your current place in life. Then the end result will be a Growing Cycle that works for YOU and helps keep you on track with ore focus and realistic targets for improvement every growing season.
When you are ready to begin, click the big green button below to activate a your personal growing cycle record. Yon will only press this button once, because there is just one record per person. Once you save your first entry, your information will always be here when you log in so you can come back and make edits any time.
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Grower Description
Everyone's growing situation is unique so this section calls for you to identify some of the key factors that should influence your capabilities and your decision making later on in the planning process.
First Name
Last Name
Location
Plant Hardiness Zone
How many years of experience do you have growing your own food?
Stage 1: Survey
The information you gather in this first stage is the foundation for everything to come. If you are starting from scratch, spend some time on your site making observations and taking notes. You won't notice everything in year one but you will start to get a sense of the challenges and advantages of growing in your space. If you are coming back to your space after multiple years of experience, consider how you might master those last few details like planting crops to maximize sun exposure, eradicating all rhizomatous weeds, or reaching peak levels of soil fertility.
Garden Size
Light Exposure
Weed Pressure
Soil Quality
Surveying Focus
Stage 2: Design
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If you can plan it, you can build it, so this is one area where I like to invest a significant amount of time upfront.
In return, we get optimal performance from our garden space and enjoy harvests that are appropriate for our needs. Without careful planning, you can easily waste a lot of time, food, and space. Take your time, crunch the numbers, and record the details so you can make adjustments in the future. Your vegetable garden should be as unique as your personal taste preferences and the qualities of the space you have to work with. Have fun making it a reality.
Seed Selection
Crop Quantities
Site Planning
Designing Focus
Stage 3: Build
Let's turn that plan of yours into something real, but there's no need to rush here. This stage is all about baby steps. You will learn things in your first season that will effect your choices down the road, so don't worry about making all of your dreams come true in year one.
Soil Care
Irrigation System
Infrastructure
Building Focus
Stage 4: Plant
Practice makes perfect when it comes to planting. Since no two growing seasons are ever the same, a good grower is always making adjustments based on the weather. Success comes with attention to detail and the understanding of the conditions each plant needs to get off to a good start.
Direct Seeding
Transplanting
Planting Focus
Stage 5: Grow
Your big improvements in this stage will come from watching and learning. The decisions you make here will depend significantly on your specific location and your past growing experiences. Some simple but consistent record keeping can go along way in helping you become a master of your local growing conditions.
Pest Management
Trellising
Season Extension
Growing Focus
Stage 6: Harvest
There is a lot of variability in the amount of work, time, and attention that different crops require for their harvest. For example, cucumbers should be harvested almost every day in the peak of the season while mature potatoes can be left in the ground and dug out whenever you are ready without any negative consequences. Because of these differences, your crop planning in spring should match the commitment you expect to have to harvesting and record keeping during the summer.
Timing and Frequency
Record Keeping
Harvesting Focus
Stage 7: Store
After putting in the work to grow and harvest all of those beautiful vegetables, it only makes sense to store them properly. Getting started with storage is relatively simple because a significant amount of food can be stored without the use of large refrigeration units. Learn these methods first, and once you are comfortable growing larger volumes of food, seriously consider investing in a large cold storage space, especially if you have a short growing season like us. Our walk-in cooler is one of the best investments we have made in our home food security because it allows us to store large volumes of essential produce throughout our long winter.
Post Harvest Handling
Methods
Storing Focus
Stage 8: Eat
Eating may seem like a bit of an afterthought, but it is just as important as every other stage of your growing cycle. If you are not able to use the food you grow in your kitchen, you might as well just grow a bunch of flowers. Food preparation takes time and practice so like many other stages, it is important to start at the beginner level here and work your way up as you develop more experience and confidence.