To highlight how much food it’s possible to grow in a small space, I’ve weighed the harvests and calculated their value – first from my balcony in London and then my back yard in Newcastle.
The London Balcony
In London I had a 9 foot x 6 foot north-west facing foot balcony, 5 south facing window sills, 3 north facing window sills, and a small patch of concrete outside the front door.
On 1 May 2010 I started weighing the harvests.
After one year, the total value grown was £899.99 ($1,480), weighing 83.66 Kg
A summary of everything I grew (including 144 packs of salad and 113 punnets tomatoes) can be seen here. Details of the harvests, month by month can be seen here.
The Newcastle Backyard
When I moved to Newcastle, I repeated the experiment in the backyard of the house we were renting.
After six months, the total value grown was £548 ($879), weighing 53.6 kg (118 lbs).
See what I grew here.