I've put out a garden for the past decade or so.  Generally, I only plant several kinds of peppers and sweet potatoes.  We'll eat fresh peppers through the summer, I'll can around 30-40 pints of Jalapenos for use throughout the year, and the sweet potatoes I dig will last until about April.  We only eat sweet potatoes about once a week, even love I really enjoy them.  The sweet potatoes are super easy, and I plan on expanding the number I plant this coming spring.  I know there's not a lot of nutritional value in jalapenos, habaneros, chili, or green bell peppers, but they are nice to liven up the taste of other dishes.  I'll keep planting them.  

I've also planted green beans, tomatoes, onions, cauliflower, cantaloupe, and watermelon with varying success.  I prefer to not use any pesticides on my garden, so some of these have been difficult.  


But, for a sustainment garden,thinking about work input vs. caloric benefit- what's some of the best plants?  Corn seems like output for the work required.  2 billion Chinese can't be wrong about rice, but our environment here isn't idea for it.

You might try lima beans.  Mine produce pretty well, and you should do even better in KY.  Onions you mentioned already.  Carrots!  (I broadcast the seeds carefully into a prepared bed, rather than trying to line up the tiny seeds in a row.)   Also a variety of greens.

I’m in zone 8 in Georgia. Best investment about 15 years ago was to plant 8 blueberry bushes and a couple chestnut trees. I also have a couple Asian pear trees and a few persimmon trees. Fills a small chest freezer every year. I plant a few tomatoes, a few different types of peppers, and a few weird Korean plants for my wife (perilla, balloon flowers, Korean musk melons). I’ll be starting slips for Asian sweet potatoes later this month and planting them in March. I will be planting a mess of asparagus this year (takes a couple years to develop), but they live about 25 years, so I’ll never have to worry about them again.  I forgot to mention okra. Real easy to grow here.

One of my pet peeves is the “preppers ” who buy all the seeds for the end of the world but don’t have a garden. Seeds degrade, and it takes experience and a huge garden to become self sufficient.

OP - If you want cauliflower and broccoli and few pests you have to plant it very early so it can mature before the majority of the critters come around. I too use very little in pesticides, none at all when anything is blooming in my garden or my fruit trees. I'll be starting my seeds under lights here in a few more weeks to be able to get plants in the ground somewhere around the 1st week in March. Broccoli & cauliflower will stand cold temps, even a little snow on them. If we get ice coming, I'll cover them with clear plastic cups till that danger has passed. It's usually muddy when I plant too and I have to go back and hoe some just as soon as it's dry enough.

If I get the plants in the ground in the first half of March, I'm usually picking broccoli by early May and cauliflower a little later. We soak our broccoli and cauliflower in a sink of salt water for about an hour and any critters will come out. I usually have to sprinkle a little Sevin dust on the small plants to keep the deer from eating them as they are about the only fresh, green thing growing in March around here but bugs aren't usually a problem.

My wife and I started some raised beds a few years ago.
I had really good luck with tomatoes and red cherry peppers.
It's hard to find cherry peppers in DE and as an Italian we use them in a lot of dishes, so it made sense to grow some.
I also did well with spices; rosemary, oregano, basil, and parsley.
My squash didn't do much, but I think I planted it too late.

I'd like to expand this year and maybe even start some stuff in the house first.
This year I want to try some fruits and maybe some beans.
This thread also makes me think I should get some broccoli going.  I'm subscribed to hear more info!




@BigKnuckles I'd like to hear some more about this.  What's it like to maintain them?  How long until they produce?
I've been wanting to do this, but I'm not sure how much space is needed.  I'd like to try raspberries and/or blackberries, too.
Any chance of a pic of your bushes?

Bushes are really scraggly right now.
Scraggly Blueberries
I’ll try to post some better pictures a little later. Computer’s on the fritz.
In the meantime how about a tray or two of chestnuts. We have 2 trees.
If you do them, theees an outfit in Florida that has revived a blight resistant strain
Of American chestnuts. Mine are Chinese.
A tray of chestnuts

Blueberries:
Make sure you get varieties developed for your area.
Get 2 or 3 varieties.  They need to cross pollinate.
Some have big berries, some small. Read up on the varieties before buying.
I fertilize after picking the berries and when the blooms start using azalia fertilizer.
Send a sample of your soil to your extension office so they can ph it. It will help you
build the right soil to get a lot of berries.  Don’t trim them until you get an idea how the
berries grow. Then later trim the dead wood out to make picking easier. This years new
branches are the next years producers.  First few years I watered then every other day. Now, I rarely water them.
I would guess the tallest branches are 8 feet tall.
We don’t net them, so I go out early every morning to pick them as they turn. You can pick them as they
plump and turn red, and they will be blue by the next morning. I probably got 15 gallons or so this
year before quitting and letting the birds finish them off.
Just a glimpse

My son works at a nursery. He is adamant about not using 7 dust.

Thanks for the info and the pics!
I'll have to make some room for them, but I think this could be something we'd like at our house.
I'll have to do some research on sun and location.

You’re most likely not going to make up the calories in real time. Stored food though can last you and save you.


I do canning tomatoes, beans, peppers, a couple melons, squash, radishes, sweet potatoes, assorted greens year round in hydroponics, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and then honey from my bees.

Perennials like berries and fruit trees are a beneficial and worthwhile investment if you’re not moving anytime soon.

I’ve been thinking about trying to fit some elderberry bushes somewhere too. I really have to get into making jam, but I really want to go somewhere that I can have livestock.

Good point.  Knowing your bed depth and soil is important when selecting carrot varieties.  Some are long and regular, some are short with broad shoulders, almost like a wedge, for clayey soils.  You'll dial it in over a few years as you see the crops.  I do grow mine in a raised bed.

OP, read up on winter squash. They store well and are very nutritious. There are a ton of different varieties and they taste good.
I have broccoli that is almost ready to harvest and have been eating collards for about two months. We have onions coming along as well as spinach. We try to keep something growing year round. And yes, we are expanding our garden this year. I'll try to get some pics up when it gets daylight.

We plant two 4x12 raised beds with bush beans every year. We can them and they last the three of us through to the next harvest. Easy to grow, but when it's harvest time plan on doing so every day for a couple of weeks and canning every few days. Don't be afraid to plan t them densely. We amend the soil with composted horse manure in the fall, lightly till in the spring, and plant.

Bush beans and San Marzano tomatoes have been huge producers for us.

Anyone starting plants indoors?
My mother-in-law does this and has some goodies for us this year.
We're gonna try growing eggplant for the first time.

I get some stuff going inside, because the season can be short depending on the crop I'm attempting.  But I'm not obsessive about it; I do buy some plants.

Generally,  working with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant seeds will get me some varieties that won't be out at the local nurseries.  Herbs like basil and parsley also can start or stay in pots.

Cabbages and brussells sprouts will transplant well.  Things like beans, peas, nope.  Lettuces, I don't bother, as they sprout so quickly.

ooh!  I forgot about brussel sprouts!
I gotta get those going this year.

Same here. I get so many green beans that by the time the season is over I am absolutely sick of picking and freezing beans. But they sure do taste good in the middle of a blizzard in January.

I saved San Marzano seeds last year and hope I did it right. Be nice to have a safe supply of seeds every year.

Add cabbage and greens and you can pretty much live on it.

Michigan is a big blueberry state, but mostly on the west side of the state. I tried planting blueberries in a raised bed thinking I could change the soil easily from alkaline to the needed acidic soil. Nope. I planted 6 different varieties. Only 2 remain and they have never gotten very big. Been 6 or 7 years since I planted them. Someone who tended the plants on west side of state suggested that all you really need to do is give them lots of nutrients and don't worry about the acid level, but that did not work for me.

I did plant several different varieties of raspberries and 2 types of blackberries (thornless). They like to send roots out everywhere. My advice about these is to have a row off a long way from any garden & so that you can mow around it. They will pop up everywhere! However, these are hands down the easiestfruit I have grown. I do have an issue with yellow jackets and the nasty mean bald faced hornets if you do not pick your fruit earlier in the day (They usually come out later for them, after the bees come to pollinate). One problem with the blackberries in our area is the freezing weather can cause cane damage & you get a much smaller crop.

Other fruit I have tried are dwarf pear, apple, peaches, sour cherries. All require tons of spraying, but you can get organic sprays. You just have to spray a lot.

Grapes are nice because they grow up. They can add shade & a natural screen near your patio.

I have grown Elderberries & Aronia Berries for a while now and they are pretty hardy.

Strawberries grow like crazy & it is hard to keep the birds and small critters away from them, but we do get some good pickings every other day for a month or so.

The honeyberries I planted ended up being yanked except 1 which is still doing well and produces. I also planted 2 beach plums and they are taking over the spot they are in (Have not harvested many of these...they are small and have a large pit, but do taste pretty good).

Just got some red and black currant & a gooseberry plant from a neighbor, plus ordered white currant plants. From my reading, all of these will expand like raspberries. I plan to plant them well away from my gardens!

To keep deer away from my fruit I use Deer Scram & it helps keep some of the other smaller animals away too (Not birds though).

My mom loves rhubarb so we have plenty of this plant too. I can eat some, but not a lot.

One other non fruit mentioned in this thread which I love is asparagus & I planted 3 rows of 10 plants. Plenty for 4 people. You wait 2 years before harvesting for a few weeks then letting them build up their roots. Really takes 3-4 years before you can harvest the entire season. Beetles love them! Make sure to cut them back and clear debris each fall.

I grow up with pole beans instead of bush beans. The vines last longer & you don't have to bend over picking them. A little work pulling vines off the trellis at the end though.

Cucumbers give you tons of cool eating in the summer.

Lots of herbs, both culinary and medicinal, are planted & naturally grow all over my land.

Good luck with your planting!