Excerpt from the report:

This project would not have been possible without the participation of the many gardeners who counted, weighed, and recorded their harvests with us. One of our main goals with this project was to pilot a way for community gardeners to collect and use their own data. While this project focused on measuring food production, similar strategies could be used to quantify food scraps going into the compost pile, rainwater diverted from the sewer system, or the number of people interacting with the garden. We see Farming Concrete as a jumping-off point for answering these types of inquiries in a way that is respectful to the people who are asking and answering these questions. In the tradition of all open source projects, our hope is that communities will be able to build upon what we’ve created–both software and methodology–to achieve their own goals.

Download a copy of the report here. For more reading about the project and its methods, read this paper we published last year in Cities and the Environment. Reports from 2011 and 2010 are here.

If you are a gardener who participated in 2012 and would like to receive a copy of your garden’s report, contact gardens (at) farmingconcrete (dot) org.

We’re busily gathering all of the data recorded this year and entering it into our Barn so that we can send out Harvest Reports to all of the gardens that participated this year. If you plan to enter your Harvest Logs online but need access to the site, contact Eric [eric (at) farmingconcrete (dot) org] for log-in information. You can also mail in your harvest logs. Deadline is December, however feel free to send in your logs as soon as your harvest is complete.

In other news, CropCount was mentioned in an article in Grist on metrics in gardening! Also, if you missed our article published in Cities and the Environment this summer, you can download a free copy here.

This year, our goal is to have at least 100 gardens participating in the Farming Concrete program. You can help us reach this goal by sharing our project with other like-minded gardeners who may not yet be participating in our program (our sign-up form is here).

Prospect Farm gardeners & their scales. Photo credit: Beryl Benbow

BARN IS NOW MOBILE FRIENDLY!
Our data entry site, Barn, now works on smartphones, too! Participating gardeners can now enter data through Harvest Count as they harvest. Contact Eric [eric (at) farmingconcrete (dot) org] for access.

ARE YOU A PARTICIPATING GARDENER?
Let us know how it’s growing! Email jennifer (at) farmingconcrete (dot) org with photos and stories about this year’s harvest. We’ll feature your garden on our website.

Also, remember to send in your harvest logs. Deadline is December 31, however feel free to send us copies as you go.

WE’VE BEEN PUBLISHED!
The Farming Concrete team is pleased to announce our first peer reviewed journal article, entitled Using Citizen Science to Quantify Community Garden Crop Yields, recently published in Cities and the Environment. The paper came out of our presentation at last year’s ACGA conference and covers our community-base science methods, results from 2010 and 2011, how the project has evolved over time, and more. Download a copy of the article here.

PLANNING FOR FALL
If you are one of those gardeners who spent as little time as possible tending to your garden while the temperatures were over 90 degrees, who could blame you? In the words of songwriter Cole Porter, it was just ”too darn hot.” Now that it has started to cool down, it is the time to get back out there and show your garden as much love and enthusiasm as you did at the beginning of this growing season. Cool weather crops for fall harvests can be planted in your garden right now!By planting cold  crops now, you will be harvesting delicious vegetables well into fall.

PLANT THESE VEGETABLES NOW
Basil, Beets, Bush beans, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cilantro, Green Onion, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leaf lettuce, Mustard greens, Peas, Radishes, and Spinach.

Enjoy the last days of summer, start planting more seeds tomorrow, and weigh what you harvest this year. Keep growing!