Quantifying yields of home and community gardens in Laramie, WY

ealth and other benefits associated with gardening are well studied. Less is known about the actual quantity of food that gardens produce. A better understanding of garden yields and factors that influence yields is needed. OBJECTIVES: The Team GROW study examined the agricultural and economic productivity and nutritional significance of home and community gardens in Laramie, WY. Additionally, yield-influencing factors of soil and temperature were compared to yield outcomes to better understand potential causes of garden yield variation. METHODS: Data from the ongoing Team GROW study in Laramie was used to calculate yield, economic value, and nutritional significance of study gardens. A total of 31 gardens were assessed between 2012--2014 with 56 total cases---multiple gardens having participated in 2 or 3 years of data collection. Garden area was measured and study participants weighed and recorded each garden harvest. With this information, harvest amounts were calculated as a yield rate (lb/ft 2). Economic value was assigned to each garden based on farmer's market prices and crops grown in gardens. Nutritional significance of gardens was calculated by weighing harvested crops in the amount of a single serving and then applying that calculation to the total amount of each crop produced per garden. Soil samples were taken in each garden and each year and tested at the CSU soil-testing lab. Temperatures during the harvest season of each year of Team GROW were collected using the Weather Underground historical database. RESULTS: The average garden yield for our study was 0.51 lb/ft 2, comparable to other home and community garden harvest studies and approaching yields typical of conventional farming (0.6 lb/ft2) even despite climatic challenges associated with the area. Nutritionally, study gardens provided an average of 77% of the vegetable servings required for a single adult over the course of an entire year. The average economic value of garden produce was...