*One Circle: How to Grow a Complete Diet in 1,000 S.F.*
If you HAD to garden to survive… If you knew that you could eat only from your garden… Which plants would you grow and how much would you grow of each? This book answers those questions. Author David Duhon provides several planting guides for growing a complete diet in less than 1,000SF.
Let me start by saying that this is NOT a garden book. The author recommends noted gardening books for the reader needing to learn gardening basics. This is book helps the reader to develop a strategy for planting a survival garden. This is a book that shows how to meet 100% RDA nutritional needs from a garden.
Chapter One begins with an list of macro and micro nutrients in a healthy diet for both men and women and outlines specific crops that are nutrient dense, space efficient and that store well without a lot of preservation. The main crops chosen by the author are Collards, Filberts, Garlic, Onions, Parsley, Parsnips, Peanuts, Potatoes, Soybeans, Sweet Potatoes, Sunflowers, Turnips and Wheat. However, the reader also gets suggestions for alternative crops, for taste. 240 of the 1,000SF are allocated to filbert trees.
I was mostly interested in the woman’s prototype diet. 4.45 lbs of food per day, 2,027 calories, 68g protein, 386g carbs, 32g fat including 197% RDA of calcium, 123% iron, and 1356% Vitamin C, The men’s prototype diet is about 30% more of everything.
The author lays out sample planting guides, with two year planting schedules, and suggests keeping things as simple as possible. He assumes an eight month growing season. They are, in my opinion, oversimplified but they answered my question, “How do I get started?” I am not a vegetarian, but in the spirit of learning survival-gardening, I dedicated 1,000SF of my growing area to this plan.
I added two filbert trees that where two years old. I had to order them online. They adapted easily and appear happy in my yard. With any luck I’ll harvest filberts next year.
I added a bunch of tree collards. I’m told that tree collards are perennial in my area – I hope so. I like perennial and self-seeding crops. These are interesting nice looking crops, growing about 5’ tall. I planted them in the front yard, interspaced among ornamental grasses to fill in a few sparse areas. They look right at home and I like that none of the neighbors knew they were edible.
I’ve tried several new recipes for collards, parsnips, soybeans, and turnips. I learned that my family will eat them with a bit of creativity in preparation and seasoning. I’ve started working these crops into our weekly meals.
I planted one sunflower in a square foot and planted a 10’x4’ area. Then I staked the area and tied string around it to support the plants as they grew. My Mammoth Sunflowers grew to about 10’ tall. Once their heads, heavy with seeds fell over, I covered the heads in a brown paper bag to protect them from the birds. I now have 14 gallon-size mason jars filled with roasted sunflower seeds.
I have what I think is enough garlic, onions, parsnips, peanuts, potatoes, sweet potatoes and turnips in my root cellar to feed us for about a year. These crops were prolific in producing even though we didn’t have what I thought was a great growing season. I’ve had to re-think and re-do my cellar area to add more capacity.
I found it easy to grow wheat but not so easy to thrash and process it. It was a lot of work for what seemed like not a lot of berries. I’m looking for a better method for next year.
I haven’t subjected family to eating only these foods, but rather I’m incorporating these foods into our regular meals. But now I have the experience and am confident that I can grow a nutritious garden that will keep us healthy in hard times.
In summary, the garden was easy to plan, plant and grow. The crops are productive and thus far seem to do well in storage. There were few surprises. I recommend this book as a strategy in what to grow for hard times.
The book is published low-budget. 8 1/2” x 11”, typed, double spaced with 1/2” margins. Very few line drawings. No eye candy. Spiral bound. Black and white. Paper card stock cover. 195 pages. But it is chocked full of substantive, well researched info. (with footnotes and a bibliography). Contributions from John Jeavons.
Available on Amazon. More expensive than the average gardening book, but well worth the money for the nutrition info and plans, in my opinion.
https://www.amazon.com/One-Circle-Grow-Complete-Square/dp/9996395707/ref=sr_1_5
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