Fall is Here ... Time to Bring Plants Inside! 🍂

One of my dreams is to grow 100% of the produce that we consume or sell -- It would be a difficult, but exciting goal!

A practical strategy to work toward this goal would be to simplify our diet and quit eating whatever we don't grow ourselves. This way, if we really want to eat sweet potatoes, we have to learn how to grow them. If we want to eat our own apples, we have to figure out what kind of apple will actually grow here. In the meantime, peaches grow here easily, so we can just eat more peaches.

Later on, whenever we fill out our orchard to make a food forest, we'll need to figure out what kind of ground cover and medium height bushes will grow here too.

At the same time, there are some things that simply cannot stay outside all year here. Anything made for a tropical or moderate climate, such as medjool dates or bananas, need shelter from the harsh temperature swings here in central Texas. During my first winter here ... the temperate was 70° F (21° C) on Saturday, then it dropped below 20° F (-6° C) the following Sunday morning. That kind of drastic swing would freeze or shock to death any plants designed for moderate / temperate weather.

As you can probably tell by the photos, we haven't gotten a chance to set up a greenhouse yet (but it's high on our priority list 😉).

My reasons for bringing these inside include: keep tropical plants alive (i.e. medjool dates), develop root systems for my cuttings (i.e. rosemary and willow) so they can hit the ground running in the Spring, or continue growing herbs (i.e. basil and wormwood).

A greenhouse would be nice, but it's not completely necessary. As long as you have a nice sunny spot in your house, you can probably keep your basic plant alive throughout the harsh winter months, and even continue to cultivate and harvest throughout that time. Work with what you have!

On a larger scale though, I think it is best to focus on whatever will grow and survive year-round in whatever climate you inhabit. Here in central Texas, we need to focus on trees/plants that are hardy enough to survive our harsh weather changes.

Some winners for us so far have been: Peaches, Mulberries, Plums, Pomegranates, Asparagus and a variety of herbs.

What are some low maintenance edibles that grow abundantly in your area?

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