How to grow your own food if you don't have a lot of space and the best plants to plant in regards to self-sufficiency and your own food supply.
If your garden space is limited, this is the number one thing to consider when planting.
Look at how the amount of harvest you'll get from one plant. For example: lettuce will only produce one head, where as a bean plant will produce much more than one bean.
If I had to pick only one plant to plant I would pick an heirloom green pole bean for 3 specific reasons. (Ya knew the heirloom part already, but the rest of these are pretty important too).
3 Reasons Heirloom Green Pole Beans is the #1 Self-Sufficient Plant
For limited space you want to grow vertical plants in order to get more harvest.
A pole bean is a vining plant, meaning it needs something to climb up. If you don't give something for that plant to grow and climb up, it will remain stunted and you won't get as large of harvest or crop off of it.
I swear, in the spring after the bean plant has developed it's first set of true leaves, you'll see the little tendril or vine shoot out, as soon as you put up your trellis, pole, or support for it to climb, literally, you can watch it grow overnight.
You will get a larger harvest off of a pole bean plant than you will a bush bean. If you put them side by side (which I've done), per plant, I get at least three times as many beans off of a pole bean plant than I do a bush variety.
Beans are really great for your soil is because they help fix nitrogen back into your soil. If you don't have really soil or nitrogen depleting crops, the beans will help put nitrogen back into the ground.
My favorite trellis system right now has been the teepee system.
My third reason for the pole bean is because are pole beans can be used and harvested as a fresh green bean, a dried bean, and your seed source, all from one plant.
With two 12 foot rows or approximately 18 plants, we get enough beans to can 65 pints, a couple of gallons of dried beans for eating and seed for the following year. Always save enough seed for at least two years worth of planting.
Dried beans if stored in the dark, dry, and away from high temperatures, will remain viable for at least five years. Be sure to rotate your seed stock.
How to seed save when you have two kinds of beans growing together
Beans are self-pollinating for the most part, which means they don't cross pollinate with another. You can plant them and not worry about them cross-pollinating with other varieties, however, over time, they will begin to cross a little bit.
We plant each type of bean away from one another and seed save from the plants farthest apart from one another and aren't showing any signs of beginning to cross. If your neighbor is planting a different variety of bean, don't worry about.
However, if you're worried about them cross-pollinating being in the same garden, you can stagger plant. You plant one variety of bean first, about two weeks before the other variety. The very first beans that form are the ones you'll seed save, because they formed before the other variety has blossomed.
You can also use this method, the stagger method, with squash, which are cross-pollinating and require more work in order to seed save.
The second plant I'd pick is a tomato plant. Specifically an heirloom paste tomato. Tomatoes are so versatile in both the ways you can eat them and preserve.
Tomatoes can be grown in pots. I've had the best luck and the largest harvest by planting my tomatoes in the ground and deep, so their roots have plenty of room.
I usually plant 20 tomato plants. I always plant a paste tomato. Paste tomatoes are the best for making sauces and canning because they have more flesh and less water, so they don't take as much cooking down time.
Ways to Preserve Tomatoes
We grow all the ingredients in our salsa, 50 jars canned this year (except the vinegar)
Stewed tomatoes – can be made into sauce, put into stew, and soups
Tomato sauce – base for ketchup, spaghetti sauce, barbecue sauce, pizza sauce (here's how to make and can tomato sauce
Use green tomatoes for fried green tomatoes, green tomato pickles, grated green tomatoes in place of zucchini in bread, sun dried tomatoes (see why I say tomato as your second pick)
One other plant I'd add in if you're short on space is pepper plants. A few pepper plants are prolific, easy to seed save, and they're small enough to grow in pots.
Help for growing your own food in The Made-From-Scratch Life
- Create your own custom heirloom garden with planting and harvesting charts. Trouble shoot common gardening problems with natural solutions. Discover the many benefits of growing your own food, with solutions if you don’t have a large yard or any growing space.
Heirloom seed sources
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
Seeds for Generations -ran by a small family, who have also helped me on this website and other projects. I really love to support a single family and small operation.
Down to Earth Seeds
Anyone in your local area who saves seed
The one veggie giving us the most bang for the space is Swiss chard. It’s one of the highest micro-nutrient foods, tastes great and does well most of the year. Spinach also is fantastic…but bolts to seed during the hot summer months. The chard on the other hand does well uncovered in all seasons, except in the dead of winter.
Last season we switched some of our raised beds to wood chip coverings after watching the Back to Eden documentary…and they did awesome. We’re sold on growing with wood chips.
If you want to give your backyard some colorful pop, check out rainbow chard.
Great blog!
Thanks for the info and sharing. I do enjoy spinach and have grown that, but the leafy greens just aren’t great candidates for year round eating (with canning/preserving) with one growing season here as the beans and tomatoes. But, they’re definitely part of our garden!
I love to garden, cook and bake “from scratch”, ferment and can my garden bounty. And I would love to get some of your Tarheel green pole bean seeds. I would need your address to send a SAS envelope. I did preorder your book for my Kindle Order #D01-1711806-9559367
Helga,
Thank you so much! The form and instructions are at the bottom of this page http://madefromscratchlife.com/bonuses/
Just put your info in it and you’ll get all the bonuses and instructions for the seeds.
Agree regarding the beans and the tomatoes (though I have appalling skill at killing tomato plants!), but DH doesn’t like peppers so I’d add edible-pod peas.
lol, Cynthia,
It took me a couple of seasons (aka years) to get my tomato growing skills down. Pea pods are another great option, too.
Hi Melissa,
I preordered your book and should receive it today and I did sign up for the bonuses but have not received and email or link to download them as of yet. Did I miss something?
Thank you for all the podcasts and emails, love all you are doing.
Deb MacArthur
Deb, just sent you an email! Let me know it you don’t get it and thank you so much for ordering!!
I ordered and I have received your new book, The Made from Scratch Life. How do I get my bean seed?
Marsha,
I just sent you an email with the info!
Hi Melissa! You sent me the Tarheel Pole Beans and I planted them a few weeks ago and they’re growing like crazy!!! yay
I’m far off from harvest, but how do you cook your pole beans? Are they edible raw? Do I have to blanch and remove a skin?
thanks 🙂
Jennifer,
Happy dance! I don’t eat them raw, when they’re young, just string and snap and cook like a regular green bean. You can let them mature and then shell them out and use them as a white bean. To shell them, just split them open and pop out the white bean inside (they’re ready to shell when the bean is big and bloated inside the pod, often the pod will be closer to yellow than green)
It has been a while since you posted this but I would LOVE to get some of your pole bean seeds. I do have 2 of your books (Hand Made and the garden planner). I would happily pay you for the seeds. Is there any chance I could acquire some?