New Gardens

This is what my garden looked like this summer. Hubby built me three new garden boxes, 3'x10' in one long row along the fence there, and in the back you can see my gorgeous new wooden compost pile. I'm not using food scraps in it at the moment because there is a municipal compost program here, and it's just easier than trying to keep the critters out of it, but for garden trimmings, grass clippings and fall leaves it's just the ticket. This year I grew potatoes, green and yellow zucchini, kale, black krim tomatoes, carrots, snap beans, straight neck squash, cucumbers and onions. There was a lot of bed space that wasn't well used, but it wasn't bad. I got 50 lbs of food out of there this year, just including the stuff I remembered to weigh (not beans munched on here and there, or a handful of kale and a zucc hastily picked for dinner). Next year I plan to use all three beds more fully and the potatoes will be in a separate "tire tower", so hopefully the yields will be even higher. I want to get a good kitchen scale and keep a log book beside it and keep track of every ounce of edibles that come from the dirt here. My fairly modest goal is a pound per sq. foot, so 92 lbs of food. I think it's doable. There are some old window panes in the garage that I'd like to rig up into a little hot bed to keep hearty greens going longer into the fall, I also want to try letting some carrots winter in the ground.