Landrace Gardening: Localize Your Garden
Jul. 14th, 2022 12:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithFolks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. The current batch features landrace gardening.
Landrace Gardening: Localize Your Garden For a Better Harvest
I garden in a cold mountain valley in the desert. My fields are on the very edge of the ecological limits for many species of warm-weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, and melons. Varieties of vegetables and ways of doing things that work for an average gardener in an average climate just don’t work in my garden. There is a saying in the real estate industry that it’s all about “location, location, location.” I think that the saying is even more applicable to gardening. In order to get any harvest at all on many warm weather crops, I have had to develop varieties that are localized to my valley.
There are several interesting ideas you can pursue from any starting point that involves a garden where it's hard to grow vegetables.
1) Modify the plants. This is what landrace gardening is all about. Life is really quite good at adapting, and even better if given a little help. If you know a bit about genetics, that helps in pushing the envelope. Starting with a landrace, grex, or at least a diversity of different seed sources will permit promiscuous pollination. From there it's just survival of the fittest. This works even better if you can create a network of seed-saving gardeners who can pass things along spectra of warmer-colder, wetter-dryer, lower-higher, or whatever.
2) Modify the environment. Humans are amazingly clever at this. Heat sinks can be the wall of your house, a big boulder, a pond, etc. Keyhole gardens not only trap solar heat, they can include compost. Greenhouses and cold frames trap solar heat and block wind. You can even heat them with manure. (Tip: raw manure can generate considerable heat, but is best kept in bins separate from plants. When it cools off, put the compost around the plants and bring in fresh manure for heat.) Walled gardens block wind and catch moisture. Hugelkultur pits provide moisture and nutrients. Many methods will get you 1-3 zones worth of improvement. Stack them and you can get even more. The Winter Harvest Handbook has some great ideas.
3) Quit trying to grow things that don't belong there. Investigate edible plants native to your area. Some may have domestic or semi-domestic cultivars you can buy, like persimmons or pawpaws. If not, you can do things the old-fashioned way and cultivate wild plants, selecting for traits you find desirable. These can be enormously easier to grow than pampered garden vegetables. While I was lugging water to my domestic sunflowers and even most of the weeds were wilting, my sunchokes -- which are prairie plants -- were growing like mad. They're, hmm, shoulder high or so now, about half-grown. I fucking love weedy vegetables. :D I plan to dig up and eat the ones that sprouted in the path. My mulberries also produced a decent crop, though even the wild black raspberries shriveled this year.
Now consider that you can mix and match the above categories much like stacking crop protectors. This gives you even more leeway. For an example, see Russia's citrus project.
Landrace Gardening: Localize Your Garden For a Better Harvest
I garden in a cold mountain valley in the desert. My fields are on the very edge of the ecological limits for many species of warm-weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, and melons. Varieties of vegetables and ways of doing things that work for an average gardener in an average climate just don’t work in my garden. There is a saying in the real estate industry that it’s all about “location, location, location.” I think that the saying is even more applicable to gardening. In order to get any harvest at all on many warm weather crops, I have had to develop varieties that are localized to my valley.
There are several interesting ideas you can pursue from any starting point that involves a garden where it's hard to grow vegetables.
1) Modify the plants. This is what landrace gardening is all about. Life is really quite good at adapting, and even better if given a little help. If you know a bit about genetics, that helps in pushing the envelope. Starting with a landrace, grex, or at least a diversity of different seed sources will permit promiscuous pollination. From there it's just survival of the fittest. This works even better if you can create a network of seed-saving gardeners who can pass things along spectra of warmer-colder, wetter-dryer, lower-higher, or whatever.
2) Modify the environment. Humans are amazingly clever at this. Heat sinks can be the wall of your house, a big boulder, a pond, etc. Keyhole gardens not only trap solar heat, they can include compost. Greenhouses and cold frames trap solar heat and block wind. You can even heat them with manure. (Tip: raw manure can generate considerable heat, but is best kept in bins separate from plants. When it cools off, put the compost around the plants and bring in fresh manure for heat.) Walled gardens block wind and catch moisture. Hugelkultur pits provide moisture and nutrients. Many methods will get you 1-3 zones worth of improvement. Stack them and you can get even more. The Winter Harvest Handbook has some great ideas.
3) Quit trying to grow things that don't belong there. Investigate edible plants native to your area. Some may have domestic or semi-domestic cultivars you can buy, like persimmons or pawpaws. If not, you can do things the old-fashioned way and cultivate wild plants, selecting for traits you find desirable. These can be enormously easier to grow than pampered garden vegetables. While I was lugging water to my domestic sunflowers and even most of the weeds were wilting, my sunchokes -- which are prairie plants -- were growing like mad. They're, hmm, shoulder high or so now, about half-grown. I fucking love weedy vegetables. :D I plan to dig up and eat the ones that sprouted in the path. My mulberries also produced a decent crop, though even the wild black raspberries shriveled this year.
Now consider that you can mix and match the above categories much like stacking crop protectors. This gives you even more leeway. For an example, see Russia's citrus project.
