Harvest 2010
Time. That is the biggest barrier to growing your own food. I was so busy this summer with my Organic Master Gardener and Permaculture Design certificate courses, that I did not have a lot of time to dedicate to my garden.
This was not a surprise because at the beginning of the year, I resigned to the fact that this is my first year trying to garden over top of lawn. I told myself that I was going to be happy with harvesting soil. However, I am pleasantly surprised that I did harvest the following:
- Apples - 20 kg
- Beans (Lima and broad) - 3 kg
- Blueberries - 0.5 kg
- Broccoli - 5 kg
- Chilies - 15 healthy Thai peppers and jalapeños
- Garlic - 8 cloves
- Golden Plums - 12 (the raccoon family got the rest of the bounty)
- Golden Zucchini - 5 kg
- Herbs (Cilantro, Dill, Parsely, Rosemary, Fennel) - about 1 kg
- Leeks - 1 kg (so far!)
- Peas - 3 kg
- Potatoes - 5 kg
- Raspberries - 1 dozen
- Spaghetti Squash - 3 kg
- Strawberries - 1 kg (what the deer didn't get)
- Swiss Chard - 2 kg
- Tomatoes - 15 kg
And of course: Soil!!
Some Lessons learned:
The big one was that I need to harvest those lovely plums before they are perfectly ready because the raccoons are wise and know when they are ready. I went out to prune and harvest the bounty of plums that my wife told me was there and I found a pile of pits and one lonely plum.
Another lesson is that deer will come up onto my back deck and trim all my strawberry plants! That ensured that we did not get more than a kilo of the wonderful strawberries that I brought with me from my community garden plot last year.
I also learned how allelopathic cedars are. I took out a cedar hedge in the spring and tried planting sunflowers; nothing happened. Also I have a row of over-grown cedars on the south side of my house and the garden area that is adjacent to them produced some peas, but nothing else that I tried there worked; even with raised beds.
The last lesson is obvious to all those who are not novice gardeners: You get out what you put in. Related to this is designing a garden with Permaculture principles and Organic Master Gardening practices in mind. That means planting the right plant in the right place; and, dig less, and more organic material (mulch). Building a food garden takes time (years even).
Next Steps
More Harvesting: There are still some zucchinis growing and the leeks will be harvested as I need them.
Garden redesign: Now that I now where the sun falls and I have been hear for a year, I will be constructing some raised beds and re-arranging the layout, so I will be able to yield more food next year.
The row of over-grown cedars are on my hit list. Not to worry, I will use them as I did my hedge for organic material, bank stability, and kindling. I also won four hours of machine time from a silent auction that I want to use to have the poorly graded and settling asphalt pad, on the south side of my house, taken out and removed. That will help fix the water puddles forming next to my garage door and give me a space that I can put some more raised beds.
Lastly, I will be adding some more fencing to keep out the deer. On that note, I am also going to advocate for a local deer cull in my neighbourhood so that hopefully my neighbours and I may enjoy some wonderful venison!