what to plant

I had grand plans of what to plant with lists and all, but lost it in moving,
so I had to choose all the plants again,
so I went to several family members and asked them what they would want to eat,
and got lots of blank stares

the humans also had no clear answer,
some did want 5 different types of meat, but I can't do that here...

so I had to decide on my own,
there are a few ways to go about deciding,
you can pick to grow what does very well in your area and just learn to like eating it, 
you can grow what you normally cook for dinner,
or go for neat plant breeding projects...

now this is primarily a survival garden, so I went for mostly safe things to grow (as in very rare to get a crop failure)

so I decided that I would grow squash for a plant breeding project, and to feed myself
I planted about 50 bowls of them, each bowl of 3 plants should provide somewhere from 5 to 500 pounds of squash, the output of them is greatly variable depending on conditions, I think that I set up conditions good, but either way I hope to get enough to live on for the year,
they are almost all from the butternut type of squash, and the reason for this is that it is highest in sugars, and I also want to cross the squash to the wild perennial squash. (it is a very fun project if I can get it to work)
I need at least 3 from that family to make it work, so I planted 20 types

also planted some corn, yet again for a plant breeding project
the weather here is kind of odd, it is very dry most of the time, but it does rain in the winter,
so all the local weeds grow in a very long sort of spring,
the ground is wet but it does frost about every 3rd night,
so I need a cold tolerant corn that can take frost and can also finish up in about 3 months,
now there are corn plants that can do all 3 of the things I need, so all they need is mixing,
and I have a plot that I hope will do that well, it is mostly sweet and flour corn that I am doing it with,
this corn will allow me to grow corn with out any sort of watering system,
this would be very very good for more people than just me.

the other thing I did was to want onions,
they are pricey at the store (at least for organic)
so I planted about 800 of them,
the gofer has got about 15 so far (one today)
and many are going to seed way to early,
I am hoping to get one a day for the year to harvest, and I am trying to assume the year is 400 days long as far as how much food to grow

also planted potatoes,
no idea how many to expect to harvest,
but I planted about 35 pounds of potatoes
here is one that should be especially tasty

and to cheer myself up I wanted something fast to grow so that I did not have to wait till fall to harvest anything,
what I did not plan on was what do you do with a few hundred radishes all at once,
they do boil up just like turnips, but I can only have that for so many meals, 
most of them went to seed before I could eat them,
here are them setting seeds

some of the onions visible off to the left in the picture,
my new plan is to eat the radish sprouts from the extra seeds

I also planted things like chuffa so that I will have enough to replant in large quantities next year,

I planted garlic because it is easy and fun, and yes, that is a ground cherry that planted itself on the left side

and I want to grow cookies, and I need them to be gluten free,
so I planted a patch of sorghum and corn

also wanted pickles, so I planted cucumbers

and silverline melon because I am not allergic to it,

and also a few other melons that others can have (I also want more seeds from them for a future seed company I may end up starting)

and I planted other things that I am sure I will find later and remember that I planted it,
like the peas (ha, remembered one)

and there are things I planted that just never came up (like the tomatoes that I will not talk of again, but others did come up and are doing fine)

the wire is there to keep the birds from eating the seeds as they come up

so I guess what I am trying to say is that I just planted what I wanted to at the time without a great plan,
I bet I could have made better plans if I had tried, but I was tired from all the moving and no one else had any ideas (other than the peas, but you can't live on peas).
and I am sure I can live on potatoes, onions, squash, and a bit of corn.

I think now it is time to go clean air filters