As is my practice since launch this blog , it ’s time for the annual twelvemonth in review post where I hatch the accomplishment , harvest and failure of the last year .
( Here are my previous year - end posts from2012,2013 , and2014 . )
Overall , I have to say …
2015 Was Amazing!
In the spring , I get to be a part of Marjory Wildcraft ’s Homegrown Food Summit , so I create and shared my time of day - farseeing tip - packed video13 Tips , Tricks and Lessons for Homesteading an Akka .
That video was later put up for sales agreement in July of this year ( you could get it by clicking on the image ) and has sold 40 copies thus far , which makes it ( just slimly ) profitable .
I lose my main picture editor program early on in the class ( do n’t interest , he did n’t die – he just give up ) which ended up being a dear matter , since it push me to work harder on my own video editing acquisition . When you ca n’t trust someone else to do it … do it yourself ! I ’ve gotten a lot better and have done caboodle and lots of videos which has helped perfect my skills .
to boot , I ’ve been receive to join Marjory again in 2016 and so I ’ve create the most insane film on composting you will EVER SEE IN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE . Stay tuned for details on that … it ’s coming up soon .
I ’d have to say the biggest success of 2015 was the successful launching of four rule book and a short booklet :
Back when I launch Florida Survival Gardening in August of 2012 , I intended to grow an audience to the dot where I could save a good horticulture script .
As a test of the water , I publishedCreate Your Own Florida Food Forestin February of this year , essentially on a whim . I calculate I ’d partake in the various species I was grow successfully in my surface area , plus give people some you’re able to DO IT brainchild . To my surprise , the footling record was a winner . It ’s sold at least 500 copy thus far . Not bad for a little niche book on a recess topic . Thank you , lecturer !
After that success , I acquire in touch with the possessor ofCastalia Houseand asked if he ’d be concerned in publishing the book on extreme compost I had protrude after CYOFFF . Strangely enough , they decided to give the book a probability … and in May , Compost Everything : The Good Guide to Extreme Compostingwas publish .
Compost Everythinghas done approximately five time as well as CYOFFF – and led to a 5 - Good Book business deal with Castalia House .
That book was the self - write releaseTotally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening , which came out in September . That ledger has also done well , though not quite to the spirit level of the others . I opine as it gets discovered and citizenry ’s gardens are transformed into massively productive spaces , its renown will grow . I also did n’t really get a prospect to advance the waiver as much as I should have because I was already mystifying into the writing of my latest and swell book for Castalia House : turn or expire : The Good Guide to Survival Gardening .
Grow Or DieBLEW out the initial first month sales ofCompost Everything . In its first calendar month , it sell over 1,000 copies – despite my opinion that November was a rotten time in which to release a gardening account book .
originate or Die : The Good Guide to Survival Gardeningis still at the top of its Amazon family . And , for those of you that keep asking : yes , it will eventually number out in paperback .
Until then , the Kindle variation is really cheap – and you’re able to register it without a Kindle . See this post to find out how .
Now some of you may wonder how I managed to run a industrial plant nursery , wield a blog that runs every weekday , book videos for YouTube , indite web log posts for other sites , write clip clause AND compose four Word in a year .
Here ’s my secret : write every day . gear up serious goal and attack them like a quarry bullshit . You ’ll be stunned at how much you could do if you pen every day . I con this while writing a novel a few years ago ( which is still unpublished ): if I pen on a regular basis , I got ahead . If I quit writing for a few days , I was potential to go a calendar month without significant progress .
I can easily crank out 2000 – 3000 well - edited give-and-take in a day . That ’s not much liken to some writers ( Michael Crichton famously wrote 10,000 words a day ! ) , but it adds up .
My goal now is to get all my books sound as audiobooks . I ’ve already madethe audiobook ofCreate Your Own Florida Food Forestavailable on Audibleand I should be done withGrow or Diewithin a couple of weeks .
Now – enough about the book stuff . Let ’s take a expression at what REALLY matters – the garden !
The 2015 Gardening Report
We made the determination to betray our homestead back in June of this year and so we quit planting gardens and bulge out packing up , fixing things and doing house showings . Even without planting for declination , however , our harvests over this year have been quite impressive .
Check it out .
Arrowroot:5lbsBananas:40lbs ( est.)Beans:5lbs ( est.)Beans ( 1000 - long):11lbsBeets:10.5lbsBerries ( Various ): 2lbsBlackberries:1lbBlood Oranges:3lbsBlueberries:2lbsBroccoli:5lbsCabbage:75.25lbsCalabazas:51.5lbsCarrots:10lbsCalamondins:7lbsCassava:15lbs(Note : I have about 100lbs in the ground unharvested as of this writing.)Cauliflower:6lbsChaya:5 lbs(estimated)Chayote Squash:10lbsCollards:2lbsCoffee:.5 lbsDaikon Radishes:15lbs ( est.)Figs:4lbsGrapes:3 lbsGreens ( Suriname purslane , Okinawa prickly-seeded spinach , length of service spinach , hibiscus):10 lbs(est.)Hot Peppers:1lbKey Limes:5lbsKumquats:3.5 lbsLemons:12lbsMalanga:8lbsMoringa:10 lbs ( est.)Mulberries:5lbsOranges:7lbsPeaches:23.25Persimmons:1lbPotatoes:34lbsRabbits:(25 ) 75lbs amount ( est)Radishes:1lbSeminole Pumpkins:182lbsSugarcane:10lbsSweet Potatoes:50lbsVelvet Beans:10lbsYams:135lbs
Total:966 lbs
Eggs:300(est . )
Here are my garden output via ocular agency , thanks to the graphmaker I foundhere .
We scramble last year ’s totals by 285.75lbs , even without implant a fall garden . My initial goal for 2015was to hit a literal ton of food . We made it half - way there in half the year , so I can at least think I could have hit it . If I went out and dug up the casava right on now I ’d be go up 1100lbs for the year … but truthfully , I ’m tired of rust manioca and have adjudicate I prefer yams .
Right now there are pail of citrus fruit ripen up . Tangerines , kumquats , grapefruit , calamondins , lemons , central limequats , blood Orange River … it ’s grand .
We hear grow tree collard this year and they were a fail . Sometime in summertime they just completely reach up in the estrus and humidity . Oh well .
Our warm leap also led to a lot of blistering greens . This was n’t a particularly good twelvemonth for salad , but we did do awesome with our pelf .
No results on the apples yet , thoughall the unsheathed root apple trees I plantedare looking decent and none have give out . The grafts I did in the solid food timberland have also done nicely and put on some not bad ontogenesis . Since we ’re moving , there wo n’t be any more story on this particular project , deplorably .
The almond Tree decease , but I blame the nursery . They did n’t take care good from the beginning .
In happier news , the Minnie Royal and Royal Lee cherries are still going substantial .
Jerusalem artichoke are not deserving develop here . This was my fifth year assay with multiple dissimilar varieties . Heck with it . Terrible yields and they wreck your digestion anyhow .
Trees/Shrubs Planted
( 2 ) Date Palms ( I have no estimation if they ’ll farm here)(3 ) Dwarf Everbearing mulberries(3 ) sinister mulberries(Lots ) Gingers(3 ) Grape Mahonias(1 ) crimson Mulberry(1 ) White Mulberry(5 ) Soap nut trees(2 ) Flowering Amygdalus communis verbena ( for pollinators)(Multiple ) Various pentas / salvias / other pollinator plants(1 ) Pineapple Orange(Lots ) Yams(5 ) Chayas(Lots ) Velvet Beans
good deal of proficient plants … and there are plenty that I block . I ’m always popping them in here and there . Here ’s what we accomplished on the base front :
Added a huge rabbit setup in early spring for my wife , then by late summer we both said goodbye to rabbits and sell out . We are just not animate being people – though the meat was good .
Added 6 overhead irrigation sprinklers ( thanks , Allen ! ) . 3 for the annual gardens , 3 for the nursery .
Built a second volaille tractor , then sold it and the chickens in the summertime .
summate large nursery area and second glasshouse , then sell the nursery and the nursery .
produce serious trellises for the garden .
Mostly complete an amazing tree diagram fort ( thanks , Sam ! ) .
As for this site , here ’s how I did :
The traffic on FloridaSurvivalGardening.com in 2015 was excellent , but then I killed that site in favour of TheSurvivalGardener.com , bewilder everything out of whack .
The old site still redirects to this one , sending me a decent lump of my daily traffic . Migrating all the articles and getting things working was a immense , immense pain ; however , my protagonist Rick help me by hosting and setting up the skeletal system of the young site , plus he troubleshoots the random wrongdoing that pop up here and there .
My goal in launching the new site was to broaden my audience – and to get me off the misfortunate blogspot platform and onto WordPress . I ’m a Florida gardener , yes , but I now have readers from around the existence . The Survival Gardener can reach out much farther .
Unfortunately , I do n’t really have a good set of analytics on this unexampled land site . Blogger had a nice , simple setup . I have n’t plant anything like for WordPress , so I ca n’t give you any serious stats .
As for YouTube , it ’s really taken off . The most - watched video I did in 2015was this one featuring Allen the Beekeeper . The next most watched video was the tour of my food woodland :
I thank my friends Mart and Cheng for that , since both of them passed around the info on my house and food timber when I announced it for cut-rate sale – and that video was on the listing varlet .
My Top Posts for 2015:
ethnic music really seem to like marijuana , loot and mushrooms .
And More
Beyond this site , I did some writing forMotherEarthNews.comand joined Marjory Wildcraft in writing for her siteGrowyourowngroceries.org . I also had an in - depth article on garden being poisoned by weedkiller published inBackwoods Home Magazine . Getting in there has been a destination of mine for a long time . keen magazine .
Another continuing achiever of 2015 was mySurvival Gardening Secretsaudiobook . I get royalty every month for that presentation , so give thanks you again , Chet and Jason atThePrepperProject.com .
This class I ended up droppingThe Brilliant Homesteadproject in favor of creating this situation . I ’ll in all probability wheel those Post into The Survival Gardener over the next year , since the focuses are like .
The Florida Food Forests greenhouse did quite well until September when we betray it in preparation for selling our house . You canread my leave-taking mail on that great projection here . I spent a lot of time at farmer ’s markets meeting plenty of fantastic multitude ( and a few that were utterly insane – I ’m looking at you , Gainesville ) . I miss that interaction .
This year we added a cashew and a June plum tree toThe Great South Florida Food Forest Project , though the latter subsequently conk out . Otherwise , though , the task is doing wonderfully and the increment in the tree and abundant fruit harvest have been tall .
In Conclusion
2015 was the class in which I went from a half - skint nurseryman to a half - broke garden author . The momentum is with me , however , and my focussing is high . I ’ve dumbfound three more Koran project planned for this come yr , plus a great picture expiration and at least one or two more short pamphlet for preppers .
My long - condition goal is to become the top horticulture source in the world
I ’m on my direction . Watch out !
The house should sell soon and I ’ll be traveling forwards to a new prop where I can try some brand new experiments and do research for my new books and , of course , you ’re ask over to connect me decently here … I ’m go to keep on bill , no matter where we end up .
Thank you all for a wonderful year . May your gardens and homes be blessed in 2016 .
