Organic Gardening in Action!
Organic Gardening, or creating your very own food forest involves a little planning to produce such results! Go here for how to create your own food forest, for ideas on perennials that can provide food each time you head outdoors. Below we have examples of what we consider to be the most important annual food crops for the organic garden part of your backyard food forest.
Include your favorites, of course!
FOOD FOREST ESSENTIALS
For Your Organic Garden
Silver Edged Squash
Silver edged squash / pepitas
Gorgeous, right?! This is an easy, beautiful and unusual squash to grow. What is especially wonderful is that inside that pretty, silver-edged seed is a pepita!
MORE NUTRITION FOR YOUR FAMILY GARDEN!
As you plan your garden or food forest this year, consider the silver-edged squash to round out the nutrition you want to provide for your family!
PEPITAS:
Aka pumpkin seeds, these are great sources of omega 3s, some zinc and protein - a great complement to round out your garden plans - especially now that we need to think of a variety of foods that we will actually eat!
Pepitas can be grown in a season - you could start them now and have some by fall 2020!
NUTS:
Except for peanuts (that grow in the ground) most nuts require a tree - and years of growth -to produce them. Pepitas grow in a season - similar to a pumpkin or any other kind of squash!
60 lb Pumpkin grown with only a Giant Pumpkin Seed, Compost and Water
You can grow
the biggest pumpkin ever!
Be the envy of all your gardening neighbors this fall by growing the BIGGEST pumpkin ever!!
How do you do it?
- Start with large seeds (Big Max) and
- Eliminate all competing pumpkins.
With only one pumpkin on the vine, all the nourishment can go to the one pumpkin.
The trick to this is providing nourishment.
Compost provides the best nourishment! Here is a quick and easy method to get you started making compost!
MORINGA Leaves
Ok, moringa might actually be a perennial, not an annual, but it is fast-growing like an annual and great for food so I thought it should be included in our top organic gardening plants to include in your food forest!
Moringa is being grown in areas where there is a scarcity of food as it grows quickly and every part of this tree is edible!
It does have a slightly mustardy flavor, but we use it instead of or in addition to romaine in a salad, or gather and wash leaves to stir-fry into some pastured eggs. Delicous nutrition - I noticed a difference in my energy level after including 1-2 servings a day of this nutritious plant!
(TBH I didn't get that same increase in energy from the organic dried powdered moringa I tried for two weeks!)
MORINGA Flowers
We use moringa flowers as a lovely garnish when coupled with the leaves - be sure to save some to produce seeds later!
BIG MAX PUMPKIN
60lb Pumpkin grown in compost
How to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever!
Silver Edged Squash for Pepitas to nourish your family this fall
Questions? email me at cynthiac@socalgardenhealth.com