The 2011 Harvest Summary

The 2011 growing season is clearly winding down at this point. There are only a few things left in the garden now including Kale, Pak Choi, Lettuce, and Carrots. Those veggies are still alive, but aren't really growing anymore. I've hacked up all the rest of the vegetation and put it in a new compost pile for the winter. The new pile consists of the recently cut up garden vegatation, the contents of the compost can from throughout the spring/summer/fall, the previous compost pile contents (stuff that was in the compost can but wasn't fully rotted in the spring), and leaves from my front yard on top. You can see that pile on the left side of the picture below.

With the majority of the harvest complete, I've "published" the 2011 harvest spreadsheet. It shows how much of each vegetable we produced here at the homestead and its approximate value. If you're too lazy to look, there was about 120 pounds of produce harvested, with an approximate market value of $300. That is a similar haul to 2010, which is surprising considering that the growing season (especially early) wasn't all that great. I'm consistently impressed with how much produce you can get from a pretty small area. The actual square footage of planted beds in the garden (not including paths) is probably around 160 square feet. Thats an average of 3/4 lb per square foot!

In terms of which crops did well, the best performers were:

• Peppers (all varieties)
• Kennebec Potatoes
• Pole beans, especially the Blue Lake variety
• Kale
• Garlic

On the other end of the spectrum, the disappointments were:

• Corn
• Melon
• Red Norland Potatoes
• Rapini
• Brussels Sprouts (again)