Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - CSA- who does it?

rhines81 · October 25, 2015

I live in a rural area 90 minutes from Philadelphia and 90 minutes from NYC. So many random things can happen, especially in the 'tourist' seasons ... 98% caused by out-of-towners with not the same morals as the local folk.
I do absolutely lock my car doors, because they have garage door openers in them which provides open access to my house. There have been many times where my house has gone unlocked, but being smart and not having a false sense of security in this day and age can prevent isolated random things from getting out of control.
As for the CSA idea --- to me it sounds like a 'time share' ideology which I would never buy in to. I have a 21x36 garden space and grew a tremendous amount of food that 30% was given away, 20% was probably wasted due to my own learning process which left 50% of that space that was fully enjoyed by my belly! Better planning with crop portions and timing, I could fully get by with 1/2 the space and probably still produce what I did this year with even more variety. I grew waaaay too many tomatoes and an overabundance of cucumbers, more space would be dedicate to other vegetable varieties. I grew just about the right amount of beans/peas, but more could have been done in that same space. Beets and carrots can take up too much space for the long grow time they require. Lettuce and radishes are a very quick crop that can be increased with alternate planting times. I learned a lot this year, next year I will do much better, but I am sure I will still have some more lessons. Conservatively I would say that you would need about 200 sq ft of grow space per share, not including walking/row space.

October 25, 2015	#24
rhines81 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Zone 5A, Poconos Posts: 959	I live in a rural area 90 minutes from Philadelphia and 90 minutes from NYC. So many random things can happen, especially in the 'tourist' seasons ... 98% caused by out-of-towners with not the same morals as the local folk. I do absolutely lock my car doors, because they have garage door openers in them which provides open access to my house. There have been many times where my house has gone unlocked, but being smart and not having a false sense of security in this day and age can prevent isolated random things from getting out of control. As for the CSA idea --- to me it sounds like a 'time share' ideology which I would never buy in to. I have a 21x36 garden space and grew a tremendous amount of food that 30% was given away, 20% was probably wasted due to my own learning process which left 50% of that space that was fully enjoyed by my belly! Better planning with crop portions and timing, I could fully get by with 1/2 the space and probably still produce what I did this year with even more variety. I grew waaaay too many tomatoes and an overabundance of cucumbers, more space would be dedicate to other vegetable varieties. I grew just about the right amount of beans/peas, but more could have been done in that same space. Beets and carrots can take up too much space for the long grow time they require. Lettuce and radishes are a very quick crop that can be increased with alternate planting times. I learned a lot this year, next year I will do much better, but I am sure I will still have some more lessons. Conservatively I would say that you would need about 200 sq ft of grow space per share, not including walking/row space.