Garden Yields – 7-Oct 2008 to 30-Jun 2009
Ten months into this permaculture garden project, and we’ve cracked the 100Kg yield mark. The garden is producing 10Kg of food each month on average from its 686 sq. feet (64 sq. metres) of garden beds, most of this being annuals, as the majority of fruit trees are far too young still. This average should increase next year!
The projected yield for this year should be just over 137kg, so we’ll see how close to this figure we get.
Here is a table showing the total yields for each month:
| Summary | |
| No of Days | 269 |
| Yield (g) | 101,648 |
| Month | Yield (grams) |
| Jan | 22,203 |
| Feb | 10,860 |
| Mar | 11,018 |
| Apr | 3,748 |
| May | 15,566 |
| Jun | 11,251 |
| Jul | – |
| Aug | – |
| Sep | – |
| Oct | 11,252 |
| Nov | 6,149 |
| Dec | 9,556 |
| Monthly Average | 10,160 |
| Annual Forecast | 137,984 |
I’ve included this graph to visually represent the yield for each month, the bars in the graph are colour-coded by season:
Dec-Feb (yellow-Summer)
Mar-May (orange-Autumn)
Jun-Aug (brown-Winter)
Sep-Nov (green-Spring)
The yields are fairly consistent, some failures on my behalf with succession planting (a system of planting in succession, where new plants immediately replace ones removed, this necessitates having plants ready to put in when other ones yield their harvest and die back) possibly account for the April and November drops. The very high January peak is due to my first big potato harvest for the year, it sent the figures upwards!
I expect that in the next year, as the young fruit trees mature, that the average yields for each month will be raised significantly. Also, this has been a year of experimentation to see what grows and what doesn’t, so there will be necessary revisions to ensure that I don’t spend time, effort and garden space growing plants that don’t do so well in the cold Melbourne climate.
If you’re wondering exactly what has come out of the garden to date, here is the breakdown by variety. Please note, there were some losses – which were not included, but can be accounted for, like most of my fig, cherry and mulberry harvest being consumed by family members before I had a chance to weigh them. Then again, leaving fresh fruit in a bowl on the kitchen table is kind of tempting for anyone passing by, and not such a good idea…
| Variety | Yield (g) |
| apples (pink lady) | 211 |
| apricots | 7,360 |
| babaco | 7,557 |
| bitter melon | 214 |
| blackcurrants | 4 |
| blueberry | 20 |
| broad beans | 8,925 |
| carrot | 3,760 |
| celery | 963 |
| chilli | 131 |
| climbing beans | 3,426 |
| cucumber | 998 |
| figs | 407 |
| garlic | 56 |
| globe artichokes | 1,372 |
| grapes (sultana) | 3,306 |
| kangkong (water spinach) | 249 |
| lettuce | 2326 |
| mandarine | 16,380 |
| mulberry | 168 |
| nectarine | 594 |
| peaches | 189 |
| pepino | 1,578 |
| pomegranate | 2,526 |
| potato (desiree) | 6,297 |
| potato (kestrel) | 1,388 |
| potato (kipfler) | 7,834 |
| potato (red rascal) | 934 |
| potato (russet burbank) | 5,925 |
| radish | 173 |
| raspberry | 709 |
| raspberry (large) | 141 |
| snow pea | 901 |
| strawberry | 1,414 |
| sweet corn | 539 |
| tomato | 9,864 |
| zucchini | 2,809 |
| Grand Total | 101,648 |
There’s plenty more to come still, with about 60 days to go. I’ve decided to utilise a whole 400 litre compost bin, full of compost, as a space to grow more potatoes. They’re on their way, sprouting, and they should produce quite nicely, sitting in a pile of plant food!
I’m slowly working out ways of utilising every spare bit of space to grow things in, so, while this is work in progress, once it’s all optimised with the most appropriate plant species in the right locations, it will be producing as well as it can. It will be interesting to compare the difference in the harvest the same time next year.
There are thoughts of turning the water garden into an aquaponic system, where the water is pumped through gravel beds growing lettuce. This will take a bit of time to set up right, but it’s on the cards. Stay tuned!
Next Page – 12. Out Of The Cold
