Something that distinctly resembles winter has come upon us in Jacksonville – finally.  The weather has been at or near freezing and we may actually see some more frosts in the next week or two.  On Thursday, there might even be brief flurries of snow (even if its doubtful that any will survive long enough to hit the ground.)

This summer, we decided to start up a backyard farm of our own, but as you can see from the title of the post, our yield wasn’t too significant before the really cold weather came to settle in.

I don’t feel too bad about the effort though, because we didn’t really spend much money or time on the project.  Aside from a few seeds and a few plastic pots, I don’t think we actually bought anything like soil or fertilizer or pest control.

We also went in with a pretty wild yard.  Whoever lived here before us never really took care of the place (renter!), and we inherited something that resembles a sub-tropical jungle.  The potato vines and dollar weeds are everywhere, and any spot that wasn’t picked regularly would soon be overrun by the established plants.

Well, after a summer, fall, and now a winter of hacking away and rooting out those pests, we actually have a few spots that will be freed up for future planting.

In addition, we’ve got some sort of relative yardstick for measuring and comparing the sun and rain situation of various locations.  The tomato vines originated on one side of the deck rail, but they ended up growing toward a different side of the rail.  The next ones will be closer to that final spot, especially since that’s where the three tomatoes grew – yeah, on the spot we didn’t plant them!

If the frost is done by February, we may be able to get 10 months of growing this year.  With a bit of luck and the knowledge gained, this might actually have a significant impact on my annual food budget!