Fran Farmer wrote:
songbird wrote:
....
i need a lot more room.

How many people are you feeding 'Bird?

2 here and 20-40 others at various times, not
full production by far as we don't use all the
space available for veggie production. we have
much more space in perennials and a huge area
covered by crushed limestone. perhaps 60-70 sq m
total spread among many different garden patches
and some of them not particularly hard pressed
for production. i don't interplant intensively
and i try different things and some of those
trials are left for the critters or buried to
feed the worms.


You must have a huge harvest.

not really, last year was the worst for the dry
bean and most of the regular veggies, some did ok
but quite a few were trimmed back by the woodchucks
before they made it to productive size. some rotted.

considering how little i did last year it wasn't
any loss to me. my time was well rewarded by the
strawberry patches and the other things i was doing
and growing.

i'd guess our complete harvest last year was
something like:

- 150kg of tomatoes of which i buried 135kg due to rot
- 125kg of strawberries
- 40kg green and red peppers
- 15kg dried beans
- 10kg of green and wax beans
- 10kg rhubarb
- 10kg of beets
- 10kg onions
- 5kg winter wheat
- 5kg winter rye
- 5kg turnips
- 5kg rutabagas
- 2kg garlic
- 1kg peas/pea pods
- 10 squash of various sizes
- 20 fennel bulbs

it was a very off year for many plantings because
of the amount of woodchuck feasting we supported
(often multiple raids). the lettuces and bok choi
never had a chance to grow above a few inches, most
of the peas too. then in the mid summer we had a
lot of rain and not much sunshine. rot set in a
few places.

the beans i'd normally shell out three to four
times what i got (30-40kg). and i didn't plant
the back old grape trellis with climbers like i
did the year before. i was having a hard time
getting done what i did get done with my hand being
broken.

i may have a lot of bean varieties, but in most
cases i only plant a few rows of some of them and for
the new ones i've only just got them started now. to
grow them out for any quantity would take a huge
amount of space, which i don't have. the main patches
of one variety beans are the pinto beans, lima beans
and some greasy beans on the fence. almost every
single bean plant was eaten by woodchucks once or
twice.

most of the strawberry harvest i was calling people
to come pick because i had so many that i wasn't able
to keep up. usually i'd pick them and give away
what was extra. i still made 24 liters of freezer jam
(that i gave away the first half because i made it
the same day the small tornado came through the
neighborhood and took the power out -- jam didn't
set right). i think i'll be lucky to get half that
this coming year because of how that back patch has
been treated and taken over by other things.

every season is a new adventure that is for sure.
i have to be patient yet, spring won't be here
for a while...


songbird