The Sidewalk Farmer: What to Plant?

Gardening with a goal to be sustainable is a little different than if it was a hobby. No one can realistically be an island. I know that there will be things I will have to acquire outside of what my family and I can grow on our little strip of land. So, I think that when picking out things to plant, bartering should be in mind.

I do know that Valencia oranges have a very high value to land used ratio. As for wheat, I would need acres of land to equal the value of my oranges. Bartering is very much based in value even though no money is being used.

Another aspect of value is time. The amount of time I will eventually spend tending to the tree will be minimal. Processing of the oranges in order to make them barter ready is simply picking and bagging. Wheat is very complicated and time consuming if there is no mechanization available.

With an orange tree, there is a one time cost of buying the tree. Digging the hole, adding a bag of compost, and an occasional fertilizing should sum up the amount of work needed to receive fruit year after year. The wheat fields will need to be plowed, seeded, and harvested every season.

Conclusion: I need to decide on planting high value, low workload perennials. Of course, I will plant annuals as well.

When it comes to trees, I have enough land to plant a total of five. I've planted my Valencia already. Next is going to be Anna Apple, Freestone Peach, Cherimoya, and Hass Avocado.