2010 Harvest

This lovely, frosty, wet, cold morning seems the perfect time to reflect on my garden harvest for the past year and plan for a bigger one in the coming year.
I had success with bell peppers of different varieties - standard and mini. They kept on going through the hot summer and into the fall (the last stragglers are out there under a sheet right now). The Basil did well; it has dried in the cupboard and is ready for winter use. 

The big winner of course was eggs! Oddly enough, the "crop" that required the biggest initial outlay of both time and money ended up producing effortlessly with minimal further intervention on my part.
The monthly egg tally:
May (the 1st month of laying): 4
June: 25
July: 43
August: 51
September: 53
October: 50
November: 45
December: 37
Grand Total: 308 eggs
Just like fruits, vegetables and herbs, chickens and eggs come in many varieties. This spring, a few new chickens will join the flock to bring variety to the harvest.  

In planning the food crops, I am enjoying the catalog from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. The descriptions and photos are lovely and they offer a great variety of rare and heritage seeds. I will order some from them as well as shopping locally for seeds and starter plants. In December, I layed the foundation of a new garden, "lasagna" style with layers of leaves / newspaper / compost / newspaper / leaves / newspaper / leaves / hay, shavings, poop mixture from the chicken house. This will sit for a few months until I add several inches of soil and more compost before planting the spring garden. This should be an especially fertile garden which I hope will lead to much better yields than in past years. 

Here are some more garden photos from 2010.

Best wishes to all the gardeners for a bountiful 2011!