Hello Friends,
We’ve officially wrapped up the growing season here at Harmony Grows Garden. I just wanted to take a moment to talk about what we accomplished over the course of about four and a half months this year. First let me say I am infinitely grateful for those of you who were able to contribute your time, energy, and prayers to this effort. This endeavor simply would not be possible without your help. I’m very proud of what we have already accomplished together.
As some of you know, I am a bit of a data nerd, so throughout the season I have been diligently tracking our harvests and distribution patterns. I do this mainly for fun, but it can also be a truly helpful resource for future planning. This data can be used to measure and compare the productivity of plants- which helps determine future planting patterns and allows us to estimate potential yields. This has been my practice both professionally and personally for the past several years and may help to explain my tendency to overplant tomatoes, (you’ll see what I mean below). Our plants all went in at the very end of June, between planting and our final harvest we were able to collect 207 pounds of fresh, organic produce. Here’s the breakdown of our harvests:
Most of what we collected was taken directly to Green Good Neighbors for their weekly distribution while the remainder was shared with and enjoyed by the volunteers. Here’s the break down for you:
To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect this first year. With the ground movement that came with construction we faced some challenges. By the time we had the ground leveled for planting we had already missed the first month and a half of the growing season. At that point we were so eager to get the plants in the ground that aside from tilling, very little prep work was done to the land. The most surprising challenge we faced, and one I had never experienced before was the “bathtub effect”. About a week after we finally planted, we experienced a steady downpour for what felt like two weeks straight, (this might be an exaggeration, but not by much). Our garden area was thoroughly tilled while the surrounding property had been recently flattened by a steamroller. This essentially turned our garden into a bathtub; the rainwater saturated the soil and remained contained because the surrounding area was less porous and permeable. Essentially it turned our garden into a pit of quicksand. We couldn’t step foot inside for a week or two, I tried but sank and lost a shoe! But even with the rough and uncertain start, we still managed to have a decent season and a great new beginning to this project!
Next year we are changing the location of the garden. If you make it out to the property, I encourage you to look out at the field in front of the building. There are four posts marking the approximate area of the 2022 garden. You’ll see that it is astonishingly larger than what we planted this year. This increase is to accommodate our continued giving, a CSA program, and a community garden. These are three projects that will increase local food security and encourage responsible, regenerative, food production within our community. I can’t wait to see what we are able to do with this property in the coming years. Having access to this land is truly a blessing and we are not taking it for granted. Please feel free to reach out if you would like to get involved in this project- we would love to have you join us!
Love,
Kristy
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