Friday, December 31, 2010

Our *Don't Buy Vegetables In 2010* Challenge.

So the year 2010 is over, how did we do with our challenge?  I am very pleased to say that we succeeded.

During the year Hubby bought a small bag of onions so I had some to take to a family gathering and I bought a 10kilo bag of potatoes from Spud Shed to use as seed potatoes.  That is all the vegetable stuff that we bought during 2010.

Just about all the vegetables that we ate here were grown here but there were a few exceptions as in stuff from the pig food crates and stuff that people gave us.  Daughter L gave us a few bags of onions, for example.

Will I do the same challenge next year?  No.

I will definitely grow most of our vegetables but I will also not feel too bad if I buy a bag of carrots.  I have had a lot of trouble growing enough carrots so as to not have to skimp on using them and as I can buy big bags quite cheaply I will do that if I need to.  I don't have many out there now and we are going without them with roasts and a lot of salads because of this.

I don't think we missed out on too much.  Hubby would have liked more fresh tomatoes during Winter but he understood why there weren't many there.  I could do with more, bigger lettuce now, and the above mentioned carrots.

We had a lot of stuff not come up, Slater's ate a lot, cows got in and ate stuff, chooks got out and ate stuff.
A lot of failures along the way...nothing too bad though and I suppose I have learnt heaps throughout the year.

I'm glad we tried.  I class it as being successful.  It was sometimes fun, it got me out in the fresh air more than I might otherwise have done.  There were times that I swore, times that I wondered whose *stupid* idea it was, times that I was pretty proud of myself. 

I think it was a very good result to what was a pretty challenging challenge.  Yay Me, Yay Hubby for his support and garden building skills. Yay to us!

3 comments:

  1. Could he make a little mini-greenhouse for the tomatoes? I read about a woman in the northern US who had a HUGE greenhouse and did not want to spend money heating it. So, she used rabbits to heat it. The ammonia was killing the plants. THEN, she put in something to divert the ammonia and keep the heat. It was soooo complicated but interesting. Just thinking maybe you could put it near animals but never in contact with their poop. I wish I had a small greenhouse for germination and seedlings.I have collected glass doors for just this purpose.

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  2. Well done Barb & Hubby.
    I would like to continue as well in 2011 however my success/failure will very much depend on how much work I have.
    Aiming for 50% self sufficiency from the garden.
    Cheers

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  3. Hi Linda. That, a bigger green/hothouse, has been on the list for a couple of seasons now but he hasn't started it yet. I figure he's more willing to go without than build something. I have a small one for starting seeds but not big enough for his tomatoes as well. It might be if I ate fresh tomatoes...but I don't...lol.

    Good one Nicole, anything is better than nothing and 50% is great.

    Barb.

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