Weighing in on your garden

I;m so desperate for my farm to start 'producing', I've started keeping track of eggs since April 15th. LOL. I dumped some 3.5 year old, badly stored tomato seeds into a flat of peat to see how many would germinate. All of them did, about 80 seeds or so. -wowza-. I'm going to separate them all and put them into dirt containers to sell, methinks!

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 was thinking of making a spreadsheet to track the production of each plant and the chickens. The garden spreadsheet will be cross referenced with a garden plot to find the best areas and light exposure for each plant for best production. The chicken tracking will be just for me because my sister in law turned me into a spreadsheet nerd. I'll try to find my scale too as counts won't work well for things like green beans. So yeah, I'm in.

This is awesome!

I love seeing how organized people are while others, like me, are just willy nilly about it. Sweeeeet

Sweetened wrote:This is awesome!

I love seeing how organized people are while others, like me, are just willy nilly about it. Sweeeeet

call me willy

I am tentatively in on this. We will have roughly 5 acres in herbs and vegetables this year, and the plan is to record weekly harvests. But every year the plan is to record everything, and it seems to be one of the first things that goes to the wayside! So far this year, I've kept on top of egg records since Jan 1st, so we'll see.

Country Thyme Farm wrote:I am tentatively in on this. We will have roughly 5 acres in herbs and vegetables this year, and the plan is to record weekly harvests. But every year the plan is to record everything, and it seems to be one of the first things that goes to the wayside! So far this year, I've kept on top of egg records since Jan 1st, so we'll see.

Oh that's awesome, glad to have you in on this!

KatuskiFarms wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

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.

Update
Here are squash, peas, tomatoes sprouting in my control group ( paper towel) and test group (straw). I feel satisfied with results. Grain farmer friend said that wheat finished with Latrell would show because peas are very sensitive.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

That's awesome news. I will be germination testing next year.

Beginning April 15th, Ending April 20th (so just shy of an actual week), results below

Item	This Week	Last Week	Total
Eggs	111	N/A	111

I have already harvested 3 large salads from the lettuce in the greenhouse. I have no idea what it weighed, but that counts, right! I wish the whole thing was full of lettuce instead of flowers for the town. Next year, I am putting and end to the flowers and growing more food!!!

I'm going to try and keep track too! I've had two gardening seasons so far where I live now, and the first was much better than the second - however I had a baby in July, so the garden didn't get the attention it deserved during prime growing time. I'm bad for keeping track of things - my goal is to provide the bulk of the veggies for my family.

In order to do that, I found that growing variety is as important as quantity - keeps things interesting in January! I have a small root cellar, and I focus on growing as many root-cellar appropriate things as possible, since canning is energy intensive (for the stove, for me!). I like root cellaring because you can pack it and that's it! I keep taters (4 kinds), celeriac, carrots, two kinds of beets, onions, and rutabaga. This year, I'm adding sunchokes and winter radishes. I grow kale and swiss chard as "frosty-greens", since they last longer into the fall then other greens. Freeze a few summer favourites (green beens, peas, corn), can tomatoes (plain and as ketchup, salsa) and we're good to go for the winter. I'm a BIG root cellaring advocate!

Prairie_Crocus wrote:I'm going to try and keep track too! I've had two gardening seasons so far where I live now, and the first was much better than the second - however I had a baby in July, so the garden didn't get the attention it deserved during prime growing time. I'm bad for keeping track of things - my goal is to provide the bulk of the veggies for my family.

In order to do that, I found that growing variety is as important as quantity - keeps things interesting in January! I have a small root cellar, and I focus on growing as many root-cellar appropriate things as possible, since canning is energy intensive (for the stove, for me!). I like root cellaring because you can pack it and that's it! I keep taters (4 kinds), celeriac, carrots, two kinds of beets, onions, and rutabaga. This year, I'm adding sunchokes and winter radishes. I grow kale and swiss chard as "frosty-greens", since they last longer into the fall then other greens. Freeze a few summer favourites (green beens, peas, corn), can tomatoes (plain and as ketchup, salsa) and we're good to go for the winter. I'm a BIG root cellaring advocate!

Wow! I'd love to see your garden and your root cellar. Love visiting the plots of others as I ALWAYs walk away with lots of new knowledge!
Love it!

I would also love to root cellar, my basement works well, but not when it's even remotely warm. I would love to do something like put a shipping container underground for storage purposes.

Here's an update!

Item	This Week	Last week Week	Total
Eggs	118	111	229

Prairie_Crocus wrote:I'm going to try and keep track too! I've had two gardening seasons so far where I live now, and the first was much better than the second - however I had a baby in July, so the garden didn't get the attention it deserved during prime growing time. I'm bad for keeping track of things - my goal is to provide the bulk of the veggies for my family.

In order to do that, I found that growing variety is as important as quantity - keeps things interesting in January! I have a small root cellar, and I focus on growing as many root-cellar appropriate things as possible, since canning is energy intensive (for the stove, for me!). I like root cellaring because you can pack it and that's it! I keep taters (4 kinds), celeriac, carrots, two kinds of beets, onions, and rutabaga. This year, I'm adding sunchokes and winter radishes. I grow kale and swiss chard as "frosty-greens", since they last longer into the fall then other greens. Freeze a few summer favourites (green beens, peas, corn), can tomatoes (plain and as ketchup, salsa) and we're good to go for the winter. I'm a BIG root cellaring advocate! [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Now thats something I never thought about. Thanks for the noodle scratcher. I was going with the freezing method, I don't can well actually I can't can. Its snowing here right now my bottom lip is dragging on the floor

KatuskiFarms wrote:

Wow! I'd love to see your garden and your root cellar. Love visiting the plots of others as I ALWAYs walk away with lots of new knowledge!
Love it!

Message me if you're coming through SW Saskatchewan in the fall. My root cellar is small, but it works well. I pack the veggies in damp peat moss in 5-gallon buckets, and then stack them 2-high. Alot of food in a tight space. Not much to look at, but your really don't need alot of space. I recommend reading "Root Cellaring" by Mike and Nancy Bubel. They have some good plans for someone who wants to build and also good ideas for using existing space in your average home.

AND - Sweetened, how many hens to you have laying? Were they laying all winter, or just coming back into lay now?

Ooo oo, depending where in south west sask you are, perhaps I could come see as well! Sorry to invite myself. I have that book on my Amazon wish list!

As for the girls, I have about 40 laying hens, soon to be reduced a bit while some of the little ones grow out. They laid all winter, not every day, but I had 8-10 a day in the worst weather in the worst light, and I didn't supplement them with lighting at all. I want my girls to have that down time if they need it and to keep hens willing to lay in the winter times.

The numbers should be more prolific, I have stars marked for days with broken eggs. I have a banty that'll be hitting the dirt very soon for her unbreakable egg eating habit.

That's about the same size as my flock - I'd say I'm getting a comparable number of eggs. I use lighting in the winter to encourage winter laying, since most of my egg sales are in the winter (I take them to the curling rink - captive customers!). However, I've found that the forced winter laying results in some pretty ragged worn out hens in the spring. A few are running so low that I usually loose a few in April. They are starting to look alot better now!

And - I am about an hour N of Swift Current. Garden lovers are always welcome to visit!

Planted some potatoes, peas, beets and what I think are radish seeds. I ended up with 2 unmarked jars of seeds, I can't even begin to remember what the other jars might be. Also sowed the 10 Broccoli seeds Swamp Hen sent me.

Item	This Week	Last Tally	Total
Eggs	154	229	383

Boy did I fall off the band wagon or what. I'll restart again June 1st I suppose.

Well thats not too bad I so far only have 2 tomato plants planted, I think I am going to be lacking in this years weigh in, oops. I did have a really nice Ton turkey that we ate for monday dinner that weighed in at 15.2lbs? Does that count?

Ruffledfeathers wrote:Well thats not too bad I so far only have 2 tomato plants planted, I think I am going to be lacking in this years weigh in, oops. I did have a really nice Ton turkey that we ate for monday dinner that weighed in at 15.2lbs? Does that count?

Why not! Might as well

I have 2 Sweet 100 cherry tomato plants I bought planted, and 3 Silvery Fir Tree plant starts that are all less than an inch tall. My 6.5 week old starts are uselessly pitiful, guess I'm going to find out if I can plant from seed eh? Apperently, there are a people in this area that plant from seed every year and yield well, new moon in June or some such. We sure are going to find out...

I need a green house ready for fall, but I don't think that'll be happening for a couple more years =/. I'm frustrated and disappointed with myself.

Oh Sweetened I know that feeling all to well. I haven't got my deer fence up around my garden yet nor did I get my green house yet but maybe with a stroke of luck I will have something happen, or maybe I will just sit here and b!t*h about how it never happened . Its been storming here all week so it kind of slowed down my progress of finsihing the back porch and getting more fence up for my cows..... and so on.

I don't think I'm actually 'in' this experiment, but I do have my garden in. Such as it is. IT looks like Fort Knox. Everything is wired and netted and wrapped. As for being aesthetically pleasing, nope, not even a bit looking like that. I have black garbage bags flapping on poles to act as scarecrows. There is nothing attractive about a black garbage bag, no matter how you present it. (maybe I should add a bow made of dried grass and some pinecones?)

This year I tried to invent my own seedtape. Using flour and water made a paste and glued spinach seeds to a length of toilet paper, at intervals where thinning would not be an issue. Buried this in a trench, covered, watered. This does not seem to have worked. The toilet paper floated up out of the dirt with the next watering now it looks like someone used my planter box for a toilet. Withered bits of toilet paper here and there. Ick. And I don't think those seeds germinated. Maybe I used too high of quality toilet paper?

But all my ghastly expensive gladiola bulbs have sprouted. Hope deer don't eat them since there is no way to wrap them. Peas up, squash up. Tomaotes planted but looking grumpy. Good old nasturtium seeds popping up. Gordon bless the nasturtiums.

Oh..Sweetened, about burying a shipping container..they are very strong to weight from above, but not so strong to weight from the sides. A buried sea can would require heavy duty reinforcement on the sides to withstand being backfilled against. It can be done, but with extra oomph added. Have you seen where people bury a bus in a side hill, leaving the door exposed and use that as an undergroud bunker/container? The whacky things people do!

Sweetened wrote:

Ruffledfeathers wrote:Well thats not too bad I so far only have 2 tomato plants planted, I think I am going to be lacking in this years weigh in, oops. I did have a really nice Ton turkey that we ate for monday dinner that weighed in at 15.2lbs? Does that count?

Why not! Might as well

I have 2 Sweet 100 cherry tomato plants I bought planted, and 3 Silvery Fir Tree plant starts that are all less than an inch tall. My 6.5 week old starts are uselessly pitiful, guess I'm going to find out if I can plant from seed eh? Apperently, there are a people in this area that plant from seed every year and yield well, new moon in June or some such. We sure are going to find out...

I need a green house ready for fall, but I don't think that'll be happening for a couple more years =/. I'm frustrated and disappointed with myself.

PM me and I can talk greenhouse with you when I have some breathing room after these next couple markets. I can give you some pointers on building a greenhouse super cheap.

As a sidenote, I can already tell I'll fall short on record keeping, the bump on this thread reminds me:

2 pound nettles, 2 pound chives, 1 pound sorrel from the gardens so far, If I can just find time somewhere to finish seeding this damned grain I think we'll finally start catching up on our planting. We finally caved and hired a hand for a couple days a week and she sure has been a life saver!

Country Thyme Farm wrote:PM me and I can talk greenhouse with you when I have some breathing room after these next couple markets. I can give you some pointers on building a greenhouse super cheap.

As a sidenote, I can already tell I'll fall short on record keeping, the bump on this thread reminds me:

2 pound nettles, 2 pound chives, 1 pound sorrel from the gardens so far, If I can just find time somewhere to finish seeding this damned grain I think we'll finally start catching up on our planting. We finally caved and hired a hand for a couple days a week and she sure has been a life saver!

Grats on your harvests! PM Inco,ming.