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Tuesday 19 April 2016

Self-sufficiency in Austria!! (Garden in north Austria)

Hey!

Now I live in Gmunden, upper Austria (zone 7) and working on a repeat of my self-sufficiency research study.

Having arrived in Austria with my companion, I met this fabulous community garden group of young people, with whom I join forces in growing food and a future food forest.


I wonder how much food can I grow in a small area 40m2.
They kindly borrowed me a piece of land to experiment with this. And we hope to grow some crops like quinoa, millets and amaranth in Austria, besides perennials like rocoto chili pepper, good king henry, oca, skirret, and others!

Exciting times!
Here goes my "simple" plan of annual vegetables, for self-sufficiency:
  • Garlic (60 pieces planted) (estimated yield 365 pieces, one per day, full year) 
  • Pumpkins (2 seelings planted, planned more 5 seedlings) (estimated yield 10-20 pumpkins, two per month, for half a year or more) 
  • Onions (60 pieces planted, in 4m2) (estimated yield 60 onions, one every 3 days, for half a year) 
  • Corn (50 seedlings planted over 3m2) (estimated yield 50 ears, one per week, for half a year) 
  • Potatoes (currently 4m2, planned more 3m2) (estimated yield 2kg/m2), 15kg of potatoes for about half a year 
  • Beans and peas (72 seeds planted over 2m2) (estimated yield 1.5 kg/m2), 3 kg for 30 meals of 100g, twice a week for 3 months (planned more 3m2 of beans), then enough for half a year 
  • Sweet potatoes (area planned 2m2) (estimated yield 1.5kg/m2), 3kg of sweet potatoes for about 4 months 
  • Barley and wheat (planted area 4m2 barley and 2m2 wheat) (estimated yield 0.5kg/m2), 3 kg (two meals a day, for a month) 
  • Quinoa (planted area 3m2) (estimated yield 0.1kg/m2), 300g (about six meals) for a month 
  • Amaranth (planted 3m2) (estimated yield 0.1kg/m2), 300g (about six meals) for a month 
  • Millet (area planned 2m2) (estimated yield 0.2kg/m2), 400g (two meals a week) for a month 
  • Tiger Nuts (to plant 0.5m2, about 40 pieces) (estimated yield 1kg/m2), 500g for a month 
  • Scorzonera, Skirret, Burdock to plant 0.5-1m2 of each (estimated yield 1-2kg/m2 
I hope to experiment with small plots of Salsify, Oca, Ulluco, Yacon, Malabar Spinach, Sea Beets, Miner Lettuce, Groundnut, Buckwheat and possibly Peanuts.

Yeah, it could be peanuts, but slugs are a major challenge in the rainy Austrian summer. Let's see!

More updates in soon!

If you are iterested in buying some of my seeds, please go to http://greenspot.ecrater.com :)