I think this may be the last of any veggies my garden will produce this year. All in all, it was a great experience. This was my first year doing it and I think it was a very successful try. My garden size is 12’x16′. We incurred some initial set up expenses such as:
$45 machine rental for lifting the sod that was there
$90 for 3 tons of top soil,
$120 picket fencing to border it. I have a toddler and two dogs that needed to be kept out, besides the bunnies.
$50 Other miscellaneous such as tools, chicken wire fence, etc.
For a total of $305. The plants cost me $14 and probably spent an additional $10 on seeds. If I amortize the initial set up costs through 5 years, I can say that gardening this year cost me around $85. Considering that we contemplated joining a CSA around us at a cost of $390 per half share, then we did very well.
Now this doesn’t include water cost from watering the plants but I didn’t notice an irrational increase on my bill, so I am going to write off that cost. I am also not going to count my husband labor for setting up the garden or my time spent weeding and harvesting the vegetables. Did I get more than $85 dollars worth of veggies? I certainly think so. I had 2 cherry tomato plants, 4 plum tomato plants, 10 pepper plants, 4 zucchinis, 2 cucumber, 2 cantaloupe, 3 eggplants, 3 broccoli, 3 brussels sprouts, lettuce and green beans. All of these plants produced very well and I had tons and tons of vegetables this summer. I was also able to can and freeze a lot of these vegetables, therefore I should also benefit from it in the fall and winter.
I do plan to do things differently next year, change plant arrangements and plant choices, more broccoli, more green beans, not as many zucchini plants. I am glad I finally have the time to have my own home garden. It not only helped me save money by growing my own vegetables but it also served as an entertainment outlet for myself and my little one. My husband has suggested that next year I actually weigh what I harvest in order to have a better idea of how much value was created.
