Grow a pantry where you live
A working garden journal from Turlock, California, written for anyone with a yard, a patio, a balcony, a kitchen counter herb garden, or a community plot and a wish to grow more of what they eat.
Welcome to the garden
Urban Pantry Garden started with a simple question: how much of a kitchen pantry can I grow in a city setting?
Our experiences with our small grow-to-donate organic farm taught us a lot about the when and how of planting. One odd thing is after we drop off vegetables and fruit at a food bank or food pantry, we typically stop at a taqueria on the way home. I’m not sure if it’s because we were hot and tired or because planting for people turns out to be different than planting for us.
In February 2026 my husband Curt woke up paralyzed. He has Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS). Nine months later, he can walk and is around 80%+- of where he was before GBS. While he was recovering from bed to wheelchair to walker to walking, we purchased a house next door to our youngest son, daughter-in-law, and two grandkids. The backyard of that house is our urban pantry garden.
This will be something of a journal, with the when/why/how of growing and preserving. In our grow-to-donate work we see the closer people are to growing food, the more aware they are of healthy eating, great taste in fresh food, and multiple generations of family and friends “projecting” together.
What is a pantry garden?
A pantry garden is a personal approach to supporting what you like to eat, cook, and store. Our selections may be much different than yours. The techniques are common and I’m available to offer ideas for your location. We will consider plants that feed you well beyond the harvest week: things you can dry, freeze, ferment, or preserve. We will also talk about the everyday kitchen plants that make meals better, like herbs, onions, garlic, and micro greens.
Think of it as stocking your shelves from the ground up, one season at a time.
Every city gardener works with a different patch of ground. The journal will share notes for yard, container, community garden, even a pot on the kitchen counter gardening.
What
- I planted and why: crop and variety choices with notes on how they suit your pantry.
- How I set it up: Garden prep, soil, water planning for busy schedules, tools, and amendments.
- How I did it: step-by-step soil prep, seed starting, transplanting, watering, and pest management.
- What it cost: seeds, soil, containers, and supplies, with low-cost and reused options wherever possible.
- What came out of the garden: harvest weights and counts, so we can see what a small space really yields.
- From garden to shelf: drying, curing, canning, freezing, and storing what I grow.
- Simple garden tech: low-cost sensors and tools.
- Lessons learned: the surprises, the do-overs, and what I will change next season.
Grow with us
- Share your garden: tell us what you grow, where, and in what kind of space.
- Trade notes: post what worked, what struggled, and what you would try again.
- Run a side-by-side trial: grow the same variety I am growing and compare results across different yards, containers, and climates.
- Test a tool: try an open-source garden sensor or tracking sheet and report how it works in your space.
- Suggest a topic: tell me what you want the journal to explore next.
Start where you are
You can start with one pot of basil, one bed of beans, or one shared plot. Every pantry begins with a single crop that earns its place on the dinner table. Follow the journal, try something this season, and tell us how it grows.