Size of your garden and your preserving methods.

[Bootsy]

I'm reviving this thread as I've only just found it.

Edible growing area about 1,500sq ft of vegetable space and a fruit (trees and soft fruits) wildflower area of about 4,000sq ft. Most of the garden (nearly 3/4 acre) is trees, shrubs, perennials, flowers and lawns.

We don't grow a vast variety of veg nowadays as the work is getting too hard for us. So root vegetables are no longer grown (they're very cheap to buy anyway).

We grow a large variety of green and yellow beans, marrows, zucchini, tomatoes, artichokes (both globe and Jerusalem), onions, garlic, cauliflower, broccoli, chillies (only hot ones), apples (eating and cooking), pears, plums, rhubarb, blackberries, raspberries, passionfruit - may have forgotten some

Soft fruits are frozen whole

Garlic needs nothing done and lasts until the next crop

Our passionfruit are not particularly tasty so we give them away

Eating apples are eaten or sold and cooking apples are cooked down and frozen

Pears are eaten and sold (some are frozen)

Tomatoes (these are black ones), plum toms are frozen and others are eaten or sold

Chillies are eaten (we eat a lot) or preserved in coconut oil and a lot of plants (only Naga chillies) are sold to the Bangladeshi community

We eat a vast amount of beans and used to blanch and freeze the surplus but now sell the surplus

The surplus beans can be quite a lot and this was one day's pickings (picked three times a week in height of season)

All proceeds from sales go to a local charity (mentally handicapped children) and the taxman adds another 25% to whatever we give to the charity (it's called Gift Aid).

All other edibles are eaten by us apart from rhubarb which is either eaten, frozen or sold.

 

[roadrunner]

I don't know the size of my garden, but it's kind of irrelevant since most of the space is not used for gardening fruits/veggies, rather most of my garden I give up to the critters and let them have at it....

However, on a few occasions I've produced so many tomatoes that I had to preserve them or they'd all had gone bad. Since I'm a hiker I dehydrate a lot and I ended up dehydrating the tomatoes. I had dehydrated tomatoes for about a year; I imagine if I were to use my entire garden area for produce I could make a lot...

P.S. I have an Excalibur dehydrator, much like this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z915M...nt=&hvlocphy=9011564&hvtargid=pla-83822833526

 

[vette-kid]

Now let's see pictures. Not all at once, just a few at at time. I want to know how my effort compares.The 8500 square feet can produce a great amount of food.

I live in one of the best growing areas in Canada. The properties in the sub division are quite large usually about 1/3 of an acre, and have good soil and nary a garden. Grass only. Comments are it takes too much work. I am of the opinion that vegetable gardening is Canada is a dying art.

I know this is an old post, but an interesting thread. It's interesting what people consider a large lot. I've always considered 1/3 acre to be small. We are a little over at .41ish. We have just enough space for the kids to play and a small garden area. The garden is about 20x20. Unfortunately we have reclaimed water irrigation, so only items that will be peeled or cooked grow there. I am trying a pepper plant, but I'm going to be testing the water periodically and may not eat the peppers. That area also houses a sago, canna lilies and an azalea.

I'd love to have 20x20 dedicated to produce plus some fruit trees and banana mats outside of that. Once I retire I'd love to grow more of what we eat (5.5 years to first retirement! )

 

[Bootsy]

I suppose that things are different here in the UK as we are only a small island. Our garden happens to be bigger than normal as we are in the countryside. 83% of the population in England live in urban areas and have small gardens. Of the remainder half live in rural towns. (published government stats for 2014).

Generally gardens over here are used as gardens and any play areas for children are usually just making use of the garden without damaging plants.

A very large proportion of homes use their gardens for growing (not necessarily edibles) - but we do have the right climate to encourage that. . Things tend to grow easily