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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.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