Sunday, August 17, 2014

Backyard Gardening in North American Grow Zone 4 (north of 45 parallel)

Backyard gardening in Canada can be a challenge, although most garden variety vegetables can do quite well with a little oversight, and not much care.







This is an account of some successes
and some not so success over several years, but starting with this year's bounty.

Selection of space:

Garden has 3 8 foot x 8 foot plots, with clearance from 12 foot hedge by 6 feet on two sides. Additional plot space is 2 x 8 ft, plus another 4 x 12 foot, and a 6 x 12 foot plot.

So, total, is 64 x 3, + 48 + 16 + 72 sq ft. (metric sizes will follow) to roughly 300 sq ft. total size.

South facing lot (encircled by 12 foot hedge, and large sunshine drinking maple tree compete for sunlight) with 10 hours of sunlight on most of the main sections (8 x8 plots).

Tomatoes are taking about 45%, beans (climbing and bush), 30%, zucchini 10% and rest is some peas, beets, basil and rhubarb.

The total yield of this current planting will be 30 zuchinni, 4 bushels of tomatoes, 1 1/2 bushels of beans, and some peas (2-4 dinners total) and beets (marginal). The sheer amount of tomatoes (mostly Beafsteak, 20% roma), zucchini, and beans means there is for a 2 month span, 5x more than a family of 5 adults (sometimes  6) can consume during that time. Luckily tomatoes, zucchini squash and string beans can be cooked in a chili stew or pasta sauce and be stored.



Pictures:


























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