What I Hope to Do

Last year was my most successful garden for years and certainly my most organic. Once things got started we had a plethora of vegetables and fruits and for many months every meal contained two or three foods from the front yard of our suburban Birmingham home. Marci has agree to a modest expansion and so this year we will have about twice as much space.

This year I want to build on that success:
1) Grow more types, better quality food and have an all season garden right through the fall and winter too.
2) Grow enough food that the calories would feed at least one adult.

The goal isn't to produce all of the food that we eat, but to produce enough food that the calories in the food would be enough to support us. I hope to share food with friends and family like I did last year.

One Kilogram of vegetable or fruit contains 4000 calories.
If you allow 2000 calories a day per person, then to take into account peeling and processing, you would need 225 kilograms or 500 lbs of food to support a person for a year.

My stretch goal this year then is to grow 500 lbs of food in my front yard in 2010.

I will share my experiences, both good and bad, on this blog. If you have some good advice or ideas on how to improve my suburban garden or want to share your experience join with me on the blog.

Suburban Farmer Amos