Monday, December 31, 2012

The Year in Review: Let's Get Data Heavy

GARDENING RESULTS


Crops harvested:

Icicle radishes (10) 2lbs
Cassava 60lbs
Kohlrabi (18) 13.5 lbs
Radishes (21) 1.5 lbs
Endless Salads (10lbs?)
Turnips + their greens (13) 8.4 lbs
Peas 4 lbs
Beets (7) (0.5lb)
Cauliflower (3) 7 lbs
Broccoli (7) 10.1 lbs
Sweet Potatoes 120 lbs
Papaya (15) 26.25 lbs
Florida Cranberry calyxes 1.5 lb.
Bananas (17) 5 lbs.
Lemons (8) 3.5 lbs
White guavas (5) 2.5lbs
Wild Grapes 4lbs
Sugar Cane 20lbs
Beans 15lb
Tomatoes 3 (.5 lb) [TOMATO FAIL!]
Strawberries (dozens) 2lb?
Blackberries (dozens) 1lb?
Blueberries (handful) .5 lb?
Carrots 10lb

Total weight of food harvested: 331.75 lbs

Estimated Egg Count (Chicken and Duck): 2000-2500

TREES AND SHRUBS PLANTED


1 Jujube
1 Apple (from a rootstock cutting)
1 Everbearing Mulberry
8 (at least) Loquats
1 Hachiya Persimmon
2 Peaches (from seed)
5 Pecans (from seed)
5 Figs
1 Tung Oil Tree
5 Pomegranates (4 from cuttings)
1 Black Cherry Tree
1 Chaste Tree
15 Moringa Trees
50 Cassava plants
50 Sugarcane plants
5 Papaya trees
1 Blood Orange Tree
1 Calamondin Tree
5 Citrus (from seeds)
2 Lemon Trees
3 Simpson Stoppers
7 Goumi Berry shrubs
10 Silverthorn shrubs
1 Chinese Chestnut
1 Raspberry
10 Banana Trees
4 Plantain Trees
4 Blueberry Bushes (from cuttings)
Senna Alata Trees (Many - from seed)

INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

Built/Dug 13 new garden beds
Acquired (3) old hot tubs for a new aquaponics system
Acquired (1) Country Living Grain Mill
Added (2) rainbarrels
Converted goat run into a large chicken run
Built high-capacity clothes line
Created sprinkler irrigation system for garden beds
Acquired and repaired tiller
Acquired a StoveTec Rocket stove for emergency cooking
Acquired an egg incubator
Acquired a large stainless sink for butchering/washing

BLOG


Total Posts: 109

Survival Plant Profiles Created: 11
New Videos Posted: 9

Top Posts:

Film Review: Back to Eden

Response from Mayor Dyer on "Illegal Garden"

Video Interview with Jason and Jennifer Helvenston

Cassava: King of Staples

August Natural Awakenings Article (on Toxic Manure)

Survival Plant: Sweet Potatoes

Extreme Composting III

Survival Plant: Shepherd's Needle

Survival Plant: Bananas

Orlando Gardener Fights to Keep His Front-yard Garden

OTHER WRITING


Articles for "Natural Awakenings" Magazine: 12
Articles for "The Marion Gardener:" 11
Articles for Mother Earth News: 1
Articles for local extension office: 1

CONCLUSION:


Overall, a pretty good year... especially considering that my spring garden was mostly destroyed by Aminopyralid-contaminated manure (I'm looking at you, tomatoes!).

The numbers on crops are approximate, since many things were eaten in the garden and never made it to the scale to be weighed. We also didn't bother weighing most of the salads we consumed - or the edible weeds we mixed into stir-fries. Additionally, the fruit trees aren't yielding much of anything yet, since we've only been on this property just over two years. Chill hours last winter were poor so the blueberries also failed to crop well at all... and the blackberries were also smitten by evil toxic manure.

As for the blog, since its official re-launch on August 30th, we've gone from getting a handful of visits a day to averaging over a hundred. Thank you all for stopping by and contributing your thoughts. Gardening - even survival gardening - is much more fun when it's shared.

Have a wonderful New Year - 2013's gardening is going to rock!

-David the Good


Labels: , , ,

4 Comments:

At December 31, 2012 at 8:47 AM , Blogger Ten at Eat Your Sands said...

holy &%$^! Your garden was amazingly prolific!
Also, I may have to swing by your place someday when your new plantings have matured a bit and get some seeds of some of those more exotic fruit trees. There simply is no (cheap) nursery around here to get some of that stuff.
Wow!
-did you check your hot tubs for cracks yet? i heard that's pretty common for recycled tubs.
-did you do a post about your "High Capacity Clothesline"? Maybe I missed it.

Keep up the good work!

 
At December 31, 2012 at 9:05 AM , Blogger Leon said...

wow! someone was quite productive :)

Happy New Year!

 
At December 31, 2012 at 10:32 AM , Blogger David The Good said...

Thank you. You're always welcome to drop in. Write me off-blog and I'll give you contact info.

And on the tubs, I'm waiting for some "aquarium-safe" silicone to arrive in the mail so I can get to work on those. The various jets and drains all need plugging. If the silicone is not enough, I'll get going with epoxy.

The clothesline? I could post on that. It's not a fancy stacked system or anything - it's just a really long expanse with 6 lines attached. Enough for about 4 loads of laundry to hang on. I don't like doing anything half way!

 
At December 31, 2012 at 10:34 AM , Blogger David The Good said...

Happy New Year to you as well - it's been a good one, despite thin work opportunities and a continued economic slump. Writing and sharing the gardening successes and failures has been quite satisfying. And eating the fruit of our labor is also fantastic.

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home

<data:blog.pageTitle/>

This Page

has moved to a new address:

http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com

Sorry for the inconvenience…

Redirection provided by Blogger to WordPress Migration Service