In 2012 I was able to grow 2,028 pounds of vegetables in our backyard garden. Not only was it a crazy undertaking, but it was an amazing amount of fun. We’ve moved twice since then {you can read all about the house where this all started, and the HOA house if you’re interested} and now that we have finally settled in to our new life here on the East coast, I thought it might be fun once again to keep a tally of all the glorious fruits and vegetables we are able to harvest in a growing season.
I set my garden budget this year at $500 for seeds, compost, and garden supplies like a new bulbs for my grow lights, an indoor/outdoor thermometer, a new garden cultivator, and a set of row covers {which I didn’t end up using this past spring but I’m pretty sure I’ll need them this fall}. At last count, we have spent $412 getting our garden up and running for the 2018 season.
And then if you add in the cost of Manny, our Mantis 4-Cycle Tiller Cultivator into the equation, it actually brings our garden expenditures up to $811 for the year. In my mind, Manny was a long term investment, and although technically I didn’t need a tiller {I could have dug everything by hand I suppose, or paid someone to dig up our garden beds} but to me, it was totally worth every penny.
There has been such a steep learning curve {more than I expected actually} and even though starting a garden from scratch seemed like a relatively easy thing to do, it’s been a harder than expected to stay on track this year. There have been so many distractions pop up over the past few months, it borders on insanity here some days.
Learning out how to deal with the insect and critter population, all the digging, planting, weeding, chopping/stacking firewood, finding sticks for trellises, not being willing to shell out $430 for the sprinkler guy to come out and “open” the pipes up for the season {apparently people open and close/blow out their pipes here every year in the NE}. We didn’t know we were supposed to call and “get on the list” for a spring opening {$250} and so if we wanted sprinkler guy to come out there would have been an additional $180 charge {travel time for his crew} to come out.
There are something like 100 sprinkler heads {Oh my word!} on the property and the system is kind of funky and since sprinkler guy was the one who originally installed the systems on our street, he and his crew service our entire road all on the same day every year {closing and opening}.
Who knew? Yada yada yada… The HH was finally able to figure out the system on his own last week and spent half the day inspecting all the sprinkler heads. Because we live in the woods, we have a well, so luckily we don’t have to pay for water. That being said, although it would have been nice to have the sprinklers up and running sooner, the vegetable garden has flourished without the aid of any additional water.
Pretty crazy if you ask me. The humidity and the brief rain showers that seem to happen every 5 days or so seem to be working out just fine {water wise} for the garden. Maybe we won’t need to run the sprinklers at all, or maybe just a handful of times a year. Who knows? Apparently though the August heat can be brutal around here though so we will just have to wait and see.
Ideally, my goal was to see if I could grow 500 pounds of garden goodness in our first year at the new {and hopefully forever} property. Here we are the middle of July and I am just now beginning to feel like maybe this won’t happen. I hope I can pull it off, but if I can’t I’m not going to beat myself up about it too much.
I also thought it would be cool to try and sell at least $500 worth of our extra garden goodness at the end of our driveway at a pop up farm stand to help recoup the money spent on our vegetable garden. So far I’ve only sold $18 worth of extra vegetables. I have only put my little stand up twice though because the idea was that I would only sell what was truly extra produce.
I know that as the season progresses I’ll have extra to sell, but how much money I’ll actually be able to make is yet to be seen. I do think I could have planted more vegetables though {root crops fore sure} and hopefully once all the garden beds are installed {later this fall} I’ll be able to plan better for next year’s growing season.
Vegetable gardening…. It truly is an awesome hobby, and every year is different, that’s for sure!
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The backyard vegetable garden tally of 2018:
Beets 14 pounds 5 ounces
Blueberries 3 ounces
Green Onion/Scallions 12 ounces
Lettuce 11 ounces
Sugar Snap Peas 1 pound 2 ounces
Swiss Chard 5 pounds 14 ounces
Turnips 9 pounds 3 ounces
Herbs
- Basil 1 pound 5 ounces
- Chives 4 ounces
- Mint 2 ounce
- Oregano 13 ounces
Total Food Harvested in 2018 34 Pounds 10 Ounces
Total Eggs Collected in 2018 {with 7 hens} 0 {the ladies are just 13 weeks old}
Total spent growing 34 pounds 10 ounces of food this year $811.00 {goal is to get this to even out to $1.00 a pound or less}
Gardening, there’s never a dull moment. 😉 Keep Calm and Dig on! Enjoy the weekend everyone,
~Mavis
If you are new to gardening or just want to learn more about organic gardening, my #1 favorite garden book is The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food
Mim says
Your garden looks great! I just harvested my first peppers and broccoli, and got to taste the first ripe red raspberry of the season — heaven. Now if the tomatoes would only start to ripen. Patience, patience, I know.
One thought about excess produce: if the garden stand doesn’t pan out for whatever reason, you may want to consider donating to your local food shelf. We do this with our extra eggs and it is enormously appreciated. Just a thought.
Have a terrific weekend.
Susan Webster says
Mavis, my money is always on you! I believe you will make both goals! The heavier items (for the weight goal) will be coming in soon as well as the vegetables everybody wants.
Hang in there! Hard work always pays off.
Susan
Deborah says
Your garden is awesome! We have been having 100 plus degree temperatures here. We are now on volunteily water rationing. Which means we can’t water the lawns. I’ve been doing good to keep my flowers watered. So far, so good. No garden for us this year. I’m still hoping for a raised bed garden next year, but it’s just too hot right now to work on them. Earlier, we were decluttering in the house. Now, I’m also working on making Christmas gifts again.
Stay cool and have fun!
Karin Carson says
Corn will love and flourish with daily water and the heat, I live in the Interior of BC it has been 35-40 all week and the corn field are going crazy and they are watered every day , the other garden veggies are living the heat and water , it’s cherry season and can get them for $1.00, strawberries have finished and raspberries are mid way, the farmers markets and honour stands are starting to have other items , love the updates . Hope your all well and you can see your living your new home .
HollyG says
Off topic, but what did you end putting in the center of the “two chickens” rug?
Mavis Butterfield says
A big heart. I finished hooking the rug, now I just need to finish the edges and then I will share a photo.
Pauline in Upstate NY says
Hi Mavis,
So glad that HH could do the sprinkler “opening” for himself! Probably this will be obvious to him, but the fall drain/blow out is really important, as those pipes will freeze and break if left with water in them over the winter. Your garden looks terrific! Did you plant enough winter squash to push your total production up to 500 lbs? 😉 Can’t wait to see the coop when it’s done.
Mavis Butterfield says
The squash plants look a small for this time of year but I’m hoping they start growing at a faster rate soon.
Mary Ann says
What do you do with that much mint? I grow it also, have an abundance and could use some ideas for using it.
I add it to ice tea and fruit salad.
Mavis Butterfield says
My daughter likes to make her own mint tea blend {hot}.
Barbars says
Mint can be dried and kept a pretty long time in a jar. We use it to make Taboli. And as a wonderful taste added to stuffed peppers or stuffed squash. Just add a handful on top of the pot
Ida says
I’ve been waiting for your garden update, so I was SO excited to read it when it went up! Your beets look amazing, especially in comparison to the pathetic little crop I have, I would love to read about your best tips on geting a good beet harvest! My own garden goal for this year is a bit more modest than yours, I’m hoping to grow more than my own weight. So far I’m up to 14 lbs, so I still have a fair bit to go… 🙂 In terms of my excess food, I’ve started to make weekly donations to a free harvest market that helps families that cannot afford fresh produce. To fill up a basket of produce and know that it will go to someone that can barely feed their family is so rewarding. Especially as I have my little guy be part of what’s going into the basket each week – he’s only three and it’s lovely to see how generous he is!
Torry says
Ants don’t like mint and so we have been growing more mint each year and hope to totally surround the house at some point. I hate ants in my house. Enough said.
S says
New England gardening really is an exercise in patience because the real bounty (besides early stuff like lettuce, rhubarb, asparagus and the like) doesn’t start producing until August. It seems crazy since we’ve had a nice summer, but this is normal. That said, I will be picking ripe tomatoes, peppers and eggplants throughout September.
Hazel says
Your garden looks great. It’s been a funny year in my garden too- the top soil/compost mix I added last year wasn’t as good as I thought it was and we’ve a very hot, dry summer in the UK- well, for us, anyway! A load of spent mushroom compost has helped and it’s hanging in there but not doing as well as I’d hoped.