What Is Yield?
Is it the produce that you can eat? Is it a marker of SUCCESS? Is it the only thing we should go by? What else can you take from your vegetable garden that is PRODUCE? What other types of YIELD can our gardens give us?
The producing potential of most vegetable plants can be understated especially when talking in terms of EDIBLE PRODUCE. We are often hearing about Yield in relation to Input/Output measurements. How much food did we get in return for my investment. Is my garden successful in Yield? What actually is Yield?
I’ve been thinking and watching for a long time now, the idea or SUCCESSFUL GARDENING and RETURN OF INVESTMENT via edible food. If this is what we are basing our SUCCESS on, then my garden isn’t as SUCCESSFUL at YEILDING than I thought. Or, am I looking at things differently than perhaps I should be. We can’t see what we don’t know is there. Let me show you something onetime.
For instance, consider the vegetable seedlings you just purchased from the garden centre. These seedlings have outgrown their containers, were left in the car on a hot day, and you got them on Sunday and still need to get the kids ready for school Monday, you forgot to water them etc. Oh deary me, life can be harsh sometimes. So, we nurture them back to health and place them in the garden to bring forward Life and Love.
Produce: Renewing of Life. Hope and Upfulnes.
Another “Produce” is when we have a bare area in our gardens, perhaps mirroring our lives even, and we simply plant it out with either flowers or edibles or both. Providing plants to mitigate open baren spaces…Or is it??
Produce: Abundance of Life and Colour
Another one is, a fruit tree needs to be pruned but you aren’t sure on what, when, where or how to do this. So, you research, talk to experts and learn.
Produce: Learning a New Skill , apropos to this is Meeting New People/Friendships
After a week of work and Life, we often take refuge in our gardens. We do this to distract ourselves or simply stop and breathe. This isn’t just time wasting, maintenance or distraction.
Produce: Enjoyment and Peace
One more is coming home from the garden centre with some veg seeds from a friend or grower since the seedlings aren’t ready just yet. You must provide an enriched environment for successful growth. You must also overstand this will take time and calmness.
Produce: Patience and Understanding
When a plant or tree you have looked after all it’s life, finally gives up the Ghost and you get sad and disappointed from the loss. You Grieve and when ready, head to the garden centre to replace the loss.
Produce: Love and Loss, Understanding of Life Cycles
Perhaps your garden and veg are looking beautiful one day and the next, chewed and beaten down from pests. Maybe a disease like Powdery Mildew has taken over your favourite Pumpkin patch. Or, Rats are running wild and trying to reclaim your yard as theirs only. Since we don’t use poisons or traps, we must learn to embrace these changes and realise we are not the only Life within our gardens.
Produce: Balance, Sharing and Caring for Life
So you see, if we look at things differently than what we have been taught, perhaps your garden has just quietly and softly demonstrated some important life lessons and most importantly TYPES OF YIELD that can come from your garden. Don’t let the pursuit of Aesthetics and Produce Volume SUCCESS weaken your potential for REAL and PURPOSEFUL SUCCESS! Forget about your worries for a moment and go and produce something amazing! Stop and smell your roses and ALWAYS, ALWAYS give thanks for Life and Love.
Ras Mark SUBURBAN FARMER