length of time to harvest, and ease of growing

[astrid]

I have been reading a lot of paw fiction lately, and it seems that many writers talk about gardening but have never done it. There is a lot of info on gardening on the net, so it would be easy for them to improve their knowledge before they write. Some authors do get it right of course, but many don't. One of the common mistakes is underestimating how long it takes til harvest. The quickest growing plants have almost no calories, so would be a waste of space in a paw garden if resources were scarce (eg. lettuce, radishes), only good if you have the extra space, water, energy etc. The next fastest, eg green beans, take about two months to mature but can't be planted til the weather is a bit warm, and they don't have a heap of calories unless you let the seeds get starchy, which takes a few weeks longer. Peas are a good bet, as they can be planted earlier, and make sugar and starch quite early, but they take three or more weeks longer than beans to mature after they have emerged (in other words at least 3 months post sprout time). It would be very easy to starve while waiting. It is also very unlikely that the first time gardener will get much of a harvest anyway. Getting a productive garden is not easy to get right. A lot of the stories have people harvesting a great abundance, with lots of extra stuff to can and dry. At least those stories are good for a laugh. Writing in these difficulties would make the stories more realistic.

[kaijafon]

good points! thanks!

[bretf]

For my stories, when it comes to gardening, if I haven't done it, I don't write it. A lot of other things I've written about come from looking on the web and in books, but not gardening.


I've seen stories where the gardening made me raise an eyebrow. But after years of gardening, I hesitate to question it. I know there so so many different growing conditions everywhere, even in my own area.

My garden, and my dad's freeze, while my brother who lives two miles away doesn't have that happen. He will have ripe tomatoes a good three weeks before me, and both of us got the same plants from our dad. Maybe it's because I use chicken and goat manure, but if that's why, I'd love to see a nutritional analysis of each of them. Anyway, micro-climates thrive here and have been written about numerous times in the gardening section of the local newspaper.

In my own garden, I rip out the pea vines about 3-4 weeks after I've put the beans in the ground. I don't care for starchy peas. Once they get to that point, they are either saved for seed, or fed to the goats.

The green beans, man, I eat huge bowls of them with little else, once they're big enough to pick. I don't know about calories, but I overeat on them.

My life has changed a lot over the years, but there was a time that the chickens, milk cow, and garden provided about 90% of the food on the table. These are the things I try to express in my stories.

[freebirde]

Foods such as radishes and lettuce are cool season crops grown before other crops can be grown. Yes they don't have a lot of calories, but they are not without nutritional benefits. Plus the mental benefit of something fresh after a winter of preserved food. Seeds started early and staggered plantings can provide early and extended harvest.

I too have some gardening stories that make me cringe. The main two are growing apples in a tropical climate and the other is people spending a lot of time and energy looking for mushrooms, a very low calorie and low nutritional food, in survival situations.

[astrid]

I agree, anything fresh would be a heartening addition, if you had enough food already. However,I have read a number of stories where the people were starving and were spending valuable space and energy on lettuce etc.

Given a choice I would rather eat sweet green peas than starchy, of course. Just about nothing in the world better than that. But no matter how you look at it, your stored food has to last not just thru the winter, but also about another three months. Unless you have a greenhouse with lights. Just sayin'.

I lived in Australia for a long time, and the problem there was the opposite - nothing much grew over the summer. Shade cloth helped, but most veg don't do well in the heat, and took enormous amounts of water. If it was a rainy year everything turned to mush with mildew and fungus. Winter was great, but summer was hopeless. It is possible to get speciality seeds for tropical varieties over the Internet, but the nurseries only sold the same stuff we have here. Special stuff was expensive, but I was building up a good stock of saved seeds. One thing I really miss is sweet potatoes. Great crop.