Sunday, January 4, 2009

The 2008 Tally

So it looks like I managed to get 255 lbs of food from the garden this year. For anyone that's interested, the breakdown goes like this:

Apples - 121.6
Potatoes - 62.4
Tomato - 13.2
Strawberries - 11.2
Peas - 8.8
Cabbage - 6.2
Cukes - 5.1
Corn - 4.9
Soup peas - 3.7
Leeks - 3.4
Carrots - 3.3
Lettuce - 2.9
Garlic - 2.7
Spinach - 1.7
Onions - 1.4
Turnip - 1.3
Pear - 0.6
Radish - 0.4
Scallions - 0.4
Parsley - 0.1


Aside from the apples, the garden was a bit of a disappointment. A very cold spring and summer led to very little corn, no squash at all, and a dismal tomato harvest. This summer is supposed to be warm. Let's hope for a decent spring as well.

I'm not going to grow corn anymore, and let the "experts" in the valley do it for me. Corn takes up too much room for what I get.

I'm going to plant more varieties of squash this year. I've fallen in love with butternut squash ravioli. Butternuts don't do well around here I've heard, but there are other flavorful squash that I'm going to try instead. I'm going to start the squash indoors from now on, as well. I don't have good luck getting it to sprout in the ground.

Eating veggies as they ripen in the garden was a big challenge this year. I need to find more uses for the food I have, preserve more, and take the time to make those veg side dishes.

One reason for the huge apple harvest was my attention to pest control. I'll be at it again this spring, putting socks on the apples. Trapping the mice will be a major challenge this year.

So assuming no major climate disasters, I'm going for 350 pounds of food from the garden in 2009.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My garden didn't fair really well. I was very disappointed as is usual. I tried some permanent beds but didn't get far with that. The veggies were good in those beds though. I didn't get a good crop of potatoes but my sisters did so got some sacks from them. I have a lovely root cellar that usually remains quite empty because I don't get much. We have had some really cold weeks here 30˚ below F and the stuff in my root cellar froze. I will be getting a heat lamp on a thermostat for it for next year. I think my biggest problem is management; too much going on with what I am trying to do. I am building things to start egg production which meant building the coop. I have to do another one this summer and next to have an ongoing egg production the size I want to have. That takes from the garden management. I think if I spent more time tending what I have, I would get more in the end. We also need to eat stuff fresh. Spaghetti squash grow well here and take up a good portion of garden for where I am trying to establish fruit trees. I should weigh the fruits of my labours so I know if things are improving. It looks like you did pretty well, but I don't really have anything to go by.

Sinfonian said...

That's great that you got so much from your garden. And that's a good increase goal for 09! I didn't weigh mine but I'm sure it was under 100 pounds given what I grew. Oh well, if you feed a good percentage of your family's needs from your garden, that's what counts right!?!