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One of the main issues about gardening/sustainability in the suburbs is space.  Particularly a lack of “farmable” space.

It matters most in terms of how far you want to go with sustainability.  Are you content just sticking your toe into the water, growing a salsa garden, maybe a couple of blueberry bushes?  Or do you want to jump in all the way, getting closer and closer to providing most of your groceries from your yard?

I am fortunate to have 1 acre.  But not all of that is useable for planting.  In fact, although Deanna’s yard is smaller in acreage, she has more sun than I have, and can have a bigger garden.  My garden is smallish because of these:

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And these:

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And these:

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And many, many more, but you get the idea.

I could have some of them removed, and I have had a few taken out over the years.  It still leaves trees, trees, trees.  I’ve never counted them all, but there are dozens and dozens.  It would cost many thousands of dollars and have a shocking effect on our summer cooling bill.  We would also sacrifice a lot of privacy and beauty and lose a lot of wildlife habitat if we started chopping.  It’s a luxury I wouldn’t have if I didn’t have the ability to buy groceries.  If I didn’t have that ability, those trees would come down so I could farm properly, but we’re not to that point yet.

So I am left trying to grow the most I can in the sunny space I have.  Vertical gardening, intensive raised beds, succession planting, etc.  But I have so much to learn.  I never seem to have a big enough crop of anything to “put up” a year’s worth of it, which is the general goal–grow enough to last until the next year’s crop comes in.

I lie. I have enough pickle relish to last for 19 years.

But beyond that, not really enough.

I keep trying, adding here and there to the overall garden space, when a tree falls, or when I decide the kids really don’t need anywhere to kick a ball as much as we need to plant tomatoes.

So instead of bushels of green beans, we have just enough for a big Nicoise today, with fresh tomatoes, some of the dwindling new potato harvest, fresh-laid eggs, bell pepper and cucumber.  A fig tart would be good now the Mission figs have begun to ripen.

But in terms of true self-sufficiency, I fall flat.

I’m a self-sufficiency dilettante.

Do I want the farm lifestyle and all the day-in, day-out physical labor that entails?  That’s a lot of shucking and shelling and coring and slicing and canning and drying.

The answer lies somewhere between yes and no.

Yes, I want more produce from my garden, to the point where we’re pressed to get it all in.  I want a pantry crammed full to bursting with tomatoes and beans and peas and fruit and herbs.  I want to know where my food comes from and want my children to know what it is to work in the garden and kitchen, to know what homegrown tastes like.

No, I don’t want to be a full-time farmer-canner.  I don’t want to take all the trees out and plant the whole yard in crops.

I’m working toward that in-between place, and while I’m not sure what that will be, I think I’ll know when I get there.

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