Got my potato's in the ground and was feeling proud of my garlic. Though it'd be fun to share. Those are Tasmanian Purple garlic that we planted in April and in the trenches we have 2kg of pink eyes, 2 more of Kipfler 2 kg of Purple Saphire and 4.5kg of russet potatoes.

  • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    2 years ago

    Depends on what you are growing what your climate is like and what your dirt is like. The climate where I am is temperate with really mild winters. (it dipped below 0 maybe twice this winter) so I can have something growing all year round. The dirt here is clay so it is hard to work with. Its heavy and hard and acidic so it is hard for roots to grow through it and extract nutrients from it. So I had to do lots of digging and add lots of biological matter (goat and chicken shit, compost, hay, weeds) to make it more fluffy and lime to make it less acidic. It'll take a couple more years for this to be its best. Other gardens I have had the dirt was practically perfect to start with or was already used so it just needed a little boost.

    Our potato patch will probably yield around 100Kg I put probably 20 hrs into prepping the soil and my partner and I put in another 5 or so hours planting this season. I'll probably put in another couple hours weeding, mulching and building up the potato mounds and then harvest in like 3-4 months which will also take a few hours of digging. Potatoes are really easy to grow.

    We'll also be growing beets, corn, celery, carrots, parsnip, peas, peppers, pumpkins and tomatoes. but they aren't interesting at the moment as they are just a flat spot of dirt and little green sprouts in punnets. We also have a herb garden and have put in a few berries this season. I'd say if I was paid minimum wage+50% for my work it would cover most of the regular stuff in supermarket but not the more expensive things like peppers and raspberries and the quality of home grown is streets ahead.

    Occasionally you totally bork things and end up with nothing to show for your work. Last winter our broccoli got eaten by birds and Possums and we got like 5 handfuls of tiny florets. It can be super disheartening but you push through and do better each season.