Only registered students can access all the units. TAP to UNLOCK the Beginner Class Units.In the previous unit you learned about the importance of having a proven food gardening system. If you missed it – please go back to the unit and study it again before you proceed with this unit.
What Makes the Go Food Gardening System Different?
#1: It’s A Whole Interrelated Food Gardening System
Having green fingers does not make one a successful food gardener. What makes one a successful food gardener is using a proven system and executing all the activities in that system consistently well.
The Go Food Gardening System features a sustainable collage of nine interrelated gardening activity cycles which all contribute to the success and sustainability of your food garden.
#2: It’s A Scale-able System
We don’t believe in one-shoe-fits-all food gardening systems. The Go Food Gardening System allows you to start with what you have (and know) and then to systematically grow and build your skill levels; and the size of your food garden.
Putting it another way – it shows you which are the essential activities that you need to start with and which ones you can add along the way. It also encourages you to start with the easiest and most valuable crops and to add the more difficult ones as your skills and experience grow.
#3: Pragmatic Approach
You’ll find hands-on step-by-step explanations wherever applicable and you’ll also find a sound horticultural underpinning for each activity. This enables you to immediately include the activity in your gardening or to adapt it to suit your own garden and personality.
Putting it another way – you’ll gain a realistic rather than a romantic understanding of what it means to live with and from nature.
#4: Good Return on Investment
I’m are sure you’ve heard stories about people who’ve started a food garden and ended up paying hundreds of dollars for one diseased lettuce and a few sad-looking carrots. Believe me, most of those stories are real. You’ll be happy to hear that I don’t believe that your food garden should oil the wheels of commerce, and therefore I show you how to set up and manage your garden for a fraction of the cost of supermarket produce.
Download a detailed PDF flowchart of The Go Food Gardening System
Use this flowchart to plan your own food gardening activities.
5 Key Benefits of The Go Food Gardening System
The results of using the Go Food Gardening System are phenomenal. No two gardens or gardeners are alike but compared to conventional horticulture and gardening practices you can expect the following:
1. From enrollment to harvest in 6 weeks. Simply follow the study program and you’ll have your first pesticide-free crops on the table in 6 weeks. Or even less.
2. Overcome the feast or famine syndrome. With our proven blueprint to overcome the feast or famine syndrome, you’ll consistently put food on the table, year-in and year-out.
3. Turn your kitchen garbage into black gold. Turn that idle compost heap into a vibrant tool to create new growing space… solve garden problems… host beneficial insects… and invigorate soil all year! In fact, you’ll build your soil 60 times faster and increase your soil fertility by up to 100% resulting in healthy, nutritious crops.
4. Beat pests and diseases at their own game – the Earth-Friendly way. With our proven ‘Pest Patrol Checklist’ (see Module 7) you’ll soon have pests looking for ‘greener pastures’ elsewhere.
5. It’s a huge cost saving and it’s the ‘green thing’ to do. Reduce your garden water consumption by up to 70%. And reduce fertilizer purchased by up to 50% – this can be as high as 100%.
Small Scale Community Gardeners and Market Gardeners can also expect to:
- Reduce fossil fuel consumption by up to 95%. This can be as high as 100%.
- Increase caloric production per unit area by 200% – 400%.
- Increase income by up to 100%.
Take Action
1. Take a few minutes to reflect on the features and benefits stated above. Which appeals to you the most?
2. What else would you like from your “gardening system”?
3. Share your thoughts in a Reply below.
I want to be able to walk out into my garden and pick my whole salad fresh.
I have a small veggie garden, but love to expend. But I do not have enough space to grow a variety of veggies and herbs.
So excited! Possibilities are endless! Healthy eating at reduced cost, reduce fossil fuel, water consumption and fertilizer purchased and the ability to share knowledge gained is so motivating!! We all have to eat!! Loving this course, so far!!
I need someone to do the digging!!! I have big plans but no help.
The idea that I will be able to grow something to feed my family. I never considered myself a green thumb, yet after I started to take these courses I have learned that it’s all the the knowledge.
Pest control the natural way is very high on my list, as I have a lot of cats and do not like using pesticides. And saving water is also a high priority.
Hello all,
My garden is the planning and structure phase. It’s been a long time goal to make gardening wheelchair accessible. Building raised beds, and verticle gardens can be a financial speed bump. We have had lots of help with using repurposed fencing, pallets (those without chemical treatments), and containers of all sorts. we are almost ready to get our plant starts going for what we hope will be for fall harvest.
So far it looks like I have been doing things correctly. Will keep you updated on the progress,
My garden is quite chaotic at the moment as I feverishly try to plant ENOUGH plants IN TIME! It is starting to get structure now, and I am excited to learn more gardening techniques. Planning is important, I think, as you need to keep all kinds of things in mind when planting, like companion planting and which plants NOT to plant together. I am very interested in water-saving gardens and also gardens that gives a bigger yield. I tend to plant too many things in a small space and then I loose plants. (Wish I had a farm!).
Hi, I tend to jump in and start guns blazing with my gardening.. I recently relocated all my non edible plants to start a food forest.. and that also made my bunnies go hyper.. they ate allot of my plants.. now with the bunnies at bay.. I am pampering allot of “naturally pruned” plants.. I love having a graphic plan now.. a never ending start and a finish point.. super exited..
Tanya 🙂
Hi
I am excited to learn the foundations that will teach me how to garden correctly. This knowledge I will immediately put into action in assisting a gardener, at an Old Age Home (Lavender Hill Cape Town) in creating a sustainable vegetable and herb garden, providing nutritious produce for the residents. This small venture hopefully in time will expand so that it will become a hub for other folk to learn while volunteering in the garden and in time even expand the garden and area into a small community garden.
To the journey!
Mike
The best thing to me is that I can start with what I have and that I can learn how to make my own compost.
I already have rocket, chives, garlic chives, coriander and Itaian parsley in my garden that is ready to use.
As a person who believe in natural and healthy living, I’m starting to se great potential to grow a lot more veggies in my small garden.
This means that I can make sure we use healthy, organic food for a healthy body.
This lesson gives a good idea on how to grow vegetables. I am going to try and improve my vegetable garden. I have got time for myself now that I am retired. Thanks for the chance to learn more.
Hi there
Am really excited about doing this course not only to be able to have my own organic vegetables but also to be able to share this knowledge with our local Xhosa community and hopefully encourage them to ” grow their own”
Regards
Linda
It’s great having you here Linda and hearing that you intend paying what you learn forward.
Hi
My aim is to become a market gardener. At this moment im still in the process of growing the garden but as a new student hear im starting to see great potential on the small hold that im using. Part of my vision is to break free from the fast paces life that a lot of us find our self in and enjoy life day by day as it was ment to be done. As a persoin with asthma every day that im healthy and about is a great day and thats part of my inspiration to live a slow life.
lastly i dont understand the “feast or famine syndrome” phrase. 😕
Regards
Rainer.
Hi Rainer. Thanks for sharing. It’s great having you here. I’m all for the ‘slow life’ as well. 🙂
The feast or famine syndrome refers to gardeners who plant once and then forget to do follow-up plantings. This result in having a glut of veggies all at the same time (the feast) followed by a long period of no veggies at all (the famine).