Weighing in on your garden

I was hoping someone would be interested in participating in this with me!

This year, I want to get a sense of what my gardens produce and what I can/should do with the yield. Each harvest, I want to take record of how many oz. or lbs. of each piece of produce I take in. I will also include egg tracking effective May 1st (since I'm way behind on that, and won't be keeping more eggs for hatching at that point.

Anyone interested in participating?

Of course, this is all if the snow ever leaves me.

I thought about that last year. I would really love to know how much I produce. The problem is, I have several gardens and I plant A LOT of things. Last year I estimated my cucumbers to be about 500 or so pounds and likely that many tomatoes. I had a 400 foot row each of corn, peas, and potatoes. As much as I want to participate, the task is pretty daunting and I will just have to be happy knowing that I produce, eat, store and share a lot of good food! I look forward to seeing what you can do though!

I will participate! First I have to live trap all the deer in the area and weigh them. Then I must plant a garden, watch the deer mow it to the ground, and weigh the deer again at end of season. This will help me determine the pounds of produce I produced, and fed to the deer.

Next I must live trap all the bears and examine between their toes for squished in produce. Then I must plant my garden and at various times capture the bears again, scrape the fruits and plants out from between their toes that they ground in there while tromping, like idiots, through my garden. I must weigh this squished muck. This will help round out my produce estimates.

Plant peas. Shoot the dog. Harvest peas. If I don't want to shoot the dog, kiss the peas goodbye. He eats all the peas.

On second thought, no, I don't want to play. I'm taking my marbles and going home.

uno wrote:I will participate! First I have to live trap all the deer in the area and weigh them. Then I must plant a garden, watch the deer mow it to the ground, and weigh the deer again at end of season. This will help me determine the pounds of produce I produced, and fed to the deer.

Next I must live trap all the bears and examine between their toes for squished in produce. Then I must plant my garden and at various times capture the bears again, scrape the fruits and plants out from between their toes that they ground in there while tromping, like idiots, through my garden. I must weigh this squished muck. This will help round out my produce estimates.

Plant peas. Shoot the dog. Harvest peas. If I don't want to shoot the dog, kiss the peas goodbye. He eats all the peas.

On second thought, no, I don't want to play. I'm taking my marbles and going home.

Uno, it sounds like you need to fill your freezer with deer pepperoni. Mmmm, so good!

You got that right, Sucellus!

Sweetened wrote:I was hoping someone would be interested in participating in this with me!

This year, I want to get a sense of what my gardens produce and what I can/should do with the yield. Each harvest, I want to take record of how many oz. or lbs. of each piece of produce I take in. I will also include egg tracking effective May 1st (since I'm way behind on that, and won't be keeping more eggs for hatching at that point.

Anyone interested in participating?

Of course, this is all if the snow ever leaves me.

I'm in. I'm a new to gardening on a large scale though and so far have had many issues. If I get 1 lb of peas this year I will consider it a success.

Do you have any more info on what you'll be recording? Or how to participate?

That's awesome! This year, with any luck, I'll be running three gardens.

I'm going to record number of plants I plant and of what variety. If I'm smart enough, I'll record the transplant date and date of first harvest from the plants, but I wouldnt bet on me being that in depth.

Primarily, for produce, I'll record my daily harvest weight amounts per type of plant and variety (share per week), and I'll probably record eggs and meat as well. Any diseases or troubleshooting as well or things I try I'll share.

Sounds good. 3 gardens? I'm jealous. I went to Edmonton for a 2 day seminar called Farm School 2013. It is put on annually by Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Assoc. It was 1 hour sessions on everything related to getting commercial. Market Gardening, u-pick, intro veg production, intro strawberries, intro haskaps, Soil and Water, Pests and Disease, Cottage Wine Industry, business startup and marketing etc.

I learned much. I know now that I cannot get serious till next year due to all the soil prep needed at my place. Did you know that when the pros add manure they leave it fallow first year and by harvest next year it will be safe.

Oh yeah.
Check this blog out to see how this neat lady uses all she grows. She even has gardens strictly for produce for her milk cow during the winter. I love how she writes. Down to earth common sence. I learn a lot from her posts, and she always gets back to my questions/comments. I really like her.

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KatuskiFarms wrote:Sounds good. 3 gardens? I'm jealous. I went to Edmonton for a 2 day seminar called Farm School 2013. It is put on annually by Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Assoc. It was 1 hour sessions on everything related to getting commercial. Market Gardening, u-pick, intro veg production, intro strawberries, intro haskaps, Soil and Water, Pests and Disease, Cottage Wine Industry, business startup and marketing etc.

I learned much. I know now that I cannot get serious till next year due to all the soil prep needed at my place. Did you know that when the pros add manure they leave it fallow first year and by harvest next year it will be safe.

I would love to attend something like that. I was considering doing that with a potato garden, having 2 gardens to rotate back and forth, but I have oooodles of rabbit manure which can go in and will start doing 2 manure piles. One to rot, one to not. BAHAHA -- sorry, funny in my head.

There's a family in Oregon (?) who farm their 1/10th acre intensively and yeields 99% of their own vegetables, milk and eggs (only purchase grains) and they make almost 30,000 a year off porch sales. On 1/10th? Surely on 1/4 to 1 acre I can do the same. I want to have a total of one acre dedicated to gardens, maybe another acre to things like blueberries, pears and so on.

I need to find a canning mentor, that is -really really- important for me. Learning from a book is something I don't do well. I'm a hands on brains in type of learner. I don't want to waste any produce this year.



And, forgot to say: What a great link. I have been making seed mats/tape for the smaller seeds and lettuces. I plan to let them self seed next year so I don't have to do the work again

That's awesome! This year, with any luck, I'll be running three gardens.

I'm going to record number of plants I plant and of what variety. If I'm smart enough, I'll record the transplant date and date of first harvest from the plants, but I wouldnt bet on me being that in depth.

Primarily, for produce, I'll record my daily harvest weight amounts per type of plant and variety (share per week), and I'll probably record eggs and meat as well. Any diseases or troubleshooting as well or things I try I'll share.

I can can! Lol. I have done some low-acid pressure canning, but last year stuck to salsa and wild black currant jelly. Sooooooo delish!

My farmhouse has the original 1978 jennair glass top stove/grill combo.
Fine and dandy till I want to can with a big pot. Can't do it on my stove.
Soooo, I lit the fire outside in the firepit, put a grill on top supported by metal rods because 5 gallons if water is heavy. Did my open-bath canning outside on the fire! It was perfect. Good salsa too!

KatuskiFarms wrote:I can can! Lol. I have done some low-acid pressure canning, but last year stuck to salsa and wild black currant jelly. Sooooooo delish!

My farmhouse has the original 1978 jennair glass top stove/grill combo.
Fine and dandy till I want to can with a big pot. Can't do it on my stove.
Soooo, I lit the fire outside in the firepit, put a grill on top supported by metal rods because 5 gallons if water is heavy. Did my open-bath canning outside on the fire! It was perfect. Good salsa too!

I hate my glass top stove for canning, I think it might be part of my problem. The other part is the whole "Cover with inch of water" when 'inch' means to the BRIM of my canner with full sized jars.

Maybe that should also be taken into account, what's put up during/after the season!

Yes. I don't actually have a proper open canner. I use a huge soup pot when canning quarts or larger. My glad stop doesn't get hot enough, so that's why the fire outside. Can also use a propane burner ( outside ).
My pressure canner is the biggest one I could find, and so it doesn't work on my glass top either.

I'm in if I can plant anything that is

I forgot to add I'M IN!! I was busy laughing at Uno because I have the same problem with deer that is. My dog isn't particular on veggies maybe thats a good thing.
I too need to get some canning experience. I was hoping my mother in law would help me do that but any threads that provide any additional info would be great being the newbie that I am.

I was thinking of just starting small and getting a plant or 2 but you guys got chatting away there and with other stuff I have been reading I really want my BIG garden back.So between the peppers and tomatos I have started I think I will add in some other stuff as well.

Sweetened are we to photograph our progress ? Or is that too much?

Oh I'm starting to get excited

Ruffledfeathers wrote:I forgot to add I'M IN!!.

Sweetened are we to photograph our progress ? Or is that too much?

Oh I'm starting to get excited

LOL, I'm so glad! If you want to take and share pictures, I'm down with that. I'd love to see how people set up their gardens.

The main thing I can grow here is POTATOES! They grow like mad. I don't even really like them, well, I like them fresh out of the garden, but they stay on my butt for a long time.
Other root things grow ok, beets, carrots, shallots, radishes (as long as they have a short growing season) and I can get peas and greens to grow ok if I plant at the right time. I have had pretty good luck with brocoli and limited success with cauliflower. And that is it, I can't grow anything else. I try corn every year I may try again this year. Year before last I ALMOST had corn!!!
Very warm through the day here in the summer, but it just gets too cold at night for many things. One summer here we had a frost every month in the summer.
So, I many just watch this thread and not participate with my potato weight. Or maybe watching this thread will just depress me as a chew on my root veggies........

Aww coopslave, I can send you some fresh produce via Canada Post. LOL!!

Sweetened wrote:Aww coopslave, I can send you some fresh produce via Canada Post. LOL!!

I don't think it would be FRESH produce by the time it gets here!!!

coopslave wrote:I don't think it would be FRESH produce by the time it gets here!!!

Hah! Self-Highjacking alert! I sold a few trading cards online and shipped one one day after the other. The one I skipped second arrived to BC in 2 days, standard letter post. The one I shipped first (also standard letter post), the guy contact me at 21 days and said it hadn't arrived. I flagged him, refunded him and then 4 days later he wrote me a note and said "Please re-bill me, it arrived today." His location? Alberta. 25 days!!!!!

*** I am passing on this info that I learned at Farm school 2013. This is a warning from 'Growing Forwards Alberta', an Alberta Agriculture Initiative. It sounds like a real issue and the damage can be devastating to your soil. ****



Getting started with what I learned at Farm School:

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Before I spread two round bales of straw on my garden as mulch/ soil enhancer this spring I am doing the following:
These pictures are of a "test seed start" . But I'm not testing the seeds, I'm testing the straw for broadleaf herbicide residue. I learned that nowadays with the stronge herbicide mixes there may be residue on the straw that many garden plants are sensitive too.

I have placed pumpkin, sunflower, dill, tomato, pepper seeds in the moist straw along the edges of container for viewing. I put the same type and amount under paper towel in the other container as a placebo. Placed the containers on top of my incubator for heat.
I hope to see sprouting and growth from both containers equally, if the straw one doesn't grow than I will not be using it in my garden.

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Note: I am only doing this because I have no info on how the wheat straw was sprayed and handled by the farmer.

Another common new problem is herbicide contaminated manure. Many chemicals are sold as effective for several seasons after one spray. Cows/horses/sheep graze on these pastures and poop out herbicide that a gardener unknowingly spreads on their garden. Guess what? All you'll be able to grow there is grass afterwards for several seasons. Some garden plants are more sensitive than others.

Hmmm, this is good to know!