Small Backyard Garden Harvest In The City

The following is an update on my small backyard garden harvest in the city. Growing food is so beneficial for us on many levels. The most obvious one is that after you plant some seeds, eventually you will receive a lot of food. This small act of growing our own garden is going to help everyone on this Earth effortlessly. No one will starve when we are all self-sufficient and abundant. 

This year has not been an easy year for gardening. Several factors were not taken into consideration. The biggest one of them is the obstruction of large trees in my backyard. Despite the space in the backyard being small, our fences are covered with trees. The intention of the previous owners was to create some level of privacy. However, in the short time I have been here, the trees have grown very large. 

On both sides we have branches extending into our neighbours backyard. The height of one tree is taller than our bedroom window on the second floor. Without even realizing this as a factor, I lost a lot of sun exposure for my plants. It was too late when I realized what was going on to cut the trees.

When Should I Prune My Trees?

In Early Spring Or Mid To Late Fall

It is not good to cut branches off of trees in the summer. The best time to do this is either early in Spring or coming into late Fall. Right now in October is a good time to take care of this. 

In the next week or so I will take care of pruning in preparation for the next year. With that said, when you garden pay attention to everything around it. We did not want to cut anything to maintain our privacy. Unfortunately this cover came at a cost, losing sufficient sunlight. This one mishap resulted in some of my plants not flourishing. However, it does not mean that nothing worked out.

Should I Allow Animals To Eat Vegetables In Your Garden?

Use Discernment

Aside from the situation of shade, I have watched animals nibbling on my vegetables. Instead of scaring them off I let them eat and they ate. The animals pulled out all of my cantaloupes except for one as well as the butternut squash. I only ended up with one large one. I lost two tomato plants as well as all but one of my green bell pepper plants, which remains.

Only one green bell pepper plant is growing very nicely. Squirrels live in the trees and several of them hang out in our space, running over the pergola and fences as well as falling asleep. Also, bunny rabbits are often found lounging and nibbling in the garden. However, rabbits are so cute and barley eat anything anyway so I have no desire to shew them off. Rather than scaring them off, they are free to hang out, lounge and feel at home.  

What Does My Vegetable Garden Look Like?

An Abundant Vegetable and Herb Garden

The pictures you see are from two weeks ago. Since then there has been a significant change. The green bell peppers are showing up and more flowers are blooming. My tomatoes look like a professional green thumb did the work. 🙂  

Small Backyard Garden Harvest In The City

Preparing Pasta Sauce For Winter

The tomatoes growing in the backyard look amazing and taste delicious. There are so many tomatoes showing up that I am picking some off on a daily basis and using them in meals.

I have about 10 tomato plants growing, even after losing two that were pulled out. Out of the 10, half of them are over 10 feet tall. Yes, they are growing high. They have almost reached to the top height of our pergola and are still growing. At least 80-100 tomatoes are ready to be harvested, not including approximately 20 already consumed. The abundance just keeps on coming. 

Although the butternut squash plant did not fully work out, I was fortunate to receive one butternut squash. The picture shown above is from 3 weeks ago. It grew much larger and I pulled it out. This was before any damage was done to it or an animal took it away. There are two more that grew but they went missing. 

What Is Growing In Your Backyard?

How A little Hard Work Goes A Long Way

Growing Tomatoes

This season I will make a few jars of pasta sauce from my small backyard garden harvest in the city. After gathering 100 tomatoes or more, I will be able to make up to 3-4 large mason jars of homemade sauce. Purchase my Authentic Homemade Vegetarian Cookbook to make some for yourself. Thank you for your support.

The four large mason jars of pasta sauce can be used for approximately 20-25 meals. Only one jar is needed to make a whole vegetarian lasagna, which can deliver up to 12 servings. This is just an estimate. Aside from already using several tomatoes in meals that have been consumed, there is still so much remaining to make extra dishes in the future. 

The savings on the tomatoes alone is around $80 or more. If I purchased 100 tomatoes in the grocery store, it would probably cost $80. Meanwhile, here in the backyard, it continues growing and saving money. It is only a guess that I have 100 tomatoes growing. In actual fact it seems like a lot more. 

Leafy Green Collards

Green collards are another gem of a vegetable to grow in your backyard. Growing this dark leafy green is such an easy plant to work with. All you need to do is plant  one collard stem with roots growing at the bottom and place it in the ground. By doing this one small and simple act, expect to receive many many collard leaves in return. This is only one small fraction of what I have received so far with the green collards. There is a whole new batch of leaves waiting to be picked. 

One bunch of collard leaves cost between $3.00-$5.00 at the grocery store. As of now, I have pulled out four batches of leaves. There is a full batch waiting to be consumed as of today, which makes it 5 batches. Before the end of October I will have another 6th batch. So on average that is about $30.00 in savings.

The Loss And Growth Of Celery 

The celery planted in the ground grew very nicely. However, it was planted next to the butternut squash. This vegetable takes up a lot of space. Without realizing, I planted the celery a little too close to it. As a result the leaves from the squash grew over the celery and stunted the celery from growing. 

The disadvantages of a small backyard is not having enough space to grow vegetables that need the room. Fortunately I planted some seeds in a small pot and that grew a lot of celery leaves. I cut them off and made salads and other dishes. Now there are new stems and leaves growing to pick off again.

Chives

This herb is effortless to grow because it grows fast, like weeds. Chives are an easy onion to plant because once again, they grow without much effort. By accident I must have dropped chive seeds in the space where the pergola is without noticing. 

This year a batch of chives sprouted from the ground and just grew. This portion was cut weeks ago and now a new set of chives have sprouted again. In the Summer and Fall I do not need to buy onions if I have chives. Even though they are not the same as the taste and texture of red or white onions, they still bring in an onion flavour to your meals.

Peppermint Is Excellent

With an overflow of peppermint growing there is no shortage of peppermint tea. Peppermint is excellent to grow because it is a low maintenance job. You only need to plant it once and then be on your merry way. Year after year you will receive plenty of mint in return.

One cup of peppermint tea in a trendy coffee shop is around $3.00-$4.00. The amount of peppermint I have growing is over $500 worth of peppermint tea. This is an underestimation. 

Who says you need to sit at a pretentious place to pay 100 times more for something when you can grow it for free in your backyard? Not that I do not sit in a trendy coffee shop, I do, on occasion.

Spending money like this though is simply not worth it, especially if you are in debt. Then the purchase is a waste of money. Grow peppermint instead, specifically for women. It is a great hormone regulator. Eating them fresh gives your mouth a tasty minty breath. Plus you are saving a lot of money.

Thyme

Another herb that has yielded an excellent return this year is thyme. It needs an average amount of sunlight and will expand and grow very quickly. This year alone has resulted in three large batches of thyme at a time. Before the end of this fall I will be able to harvest one more large batch. 

Thyme is such a nice smelling herb. It can go in any dish and add great flavour to your meals. This herb is very expensive at the grocery store. A small amount of thyme, approximately 20g, can cost $3.00-$5.00. I have so much thyme growing that there is enough to make one large jar of dried thyme and use it for a whole year. The amount that is growing is equivalent to $100.00 worth of thyme purchased at the grocery store, if not more.

Basil

Alongside thyme, Basil is an excellent herb to grow in your garden. The basil I grew this year has also given a lot in return.

 

Basil is very good to consume for men as well as women. Rather than growing peppermint only, men should consider growing some basil. It is very good for their overall health. Again, similar to thyme, basil is not cheap, although a little less expensive than thyme. You can purchase 28g of basil for about $3.00-$4.00. However, there is approximately $100.00 worth of basil in my garden and more fresh leaves continue to grow.

How Much Money Can You Save Growing Herbs and Vegetables?

Saving A Lot Of Money Growing Your Own Food

When you decide to grow your own vegetables in a big city expect great results from your small backyard garden harvest. You are saving a lot of money when you grow your own garden. This year I spent around $50.00 on my garden. Some of it was on soil and buying a cantaloupe, butternut squash and basil plant. I cannot remember what else, but I did not spend over $50.00. As mentioned in when it rains it pours, almost all of the water used for this garden is rain water. Therefore I did not spend money on watering my garden.

In return I am receiving over $800.00 back from growing my own herbs and vegetables. That is a huge return and savings.

Small Backyard Garden Harvest In The City

In Summary-Small Backyard Garden Harvest In The City

My backyard is relatively small and the results of my vegetable garden is tremendous, despite what I lost along the way. Imagine for those of you with a larger backyard how much food you can grow and how much money you can save. The outcome is phenomenal. Several people in North America are literally sitting on a gold mine and do not even know it. 

Even if many do, they do not act upon it. We cannot complain about food shortages and high cost of food prices when many of us are not doing anything about it. This is a practical and long lasting solution to one of the world’s biggest problems. Grow your own food and reap the rewards of a small backyard garden harvest in the city.

Small Backyard Garden Harvest In The City

By growing your own food you can make your own meals, eat well and live abundantly. You are also passively yet actively helping everyone around you because you are self-sufficient. 

Please purchase an Authentic Homemade Vegetarian Cookbook to receive some of my delicious recipes. They start from beginner and work their way up. Also check out my gardening blogs to learn how I have been able to grow a rich herb and vegetable garden from scratch. Enjoy the fruits of your labour.

This is not the end. As we start this process of gardening, it continues to be ongoing and changes every year. Have a positive outlook on the resources you have and maximize them for your benefit as well as your family. 

See you soon.

October 4, 2023