Welcome to the GRS Garden Project. Every month, my wife and I track how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for May 2011. (Here are the results for 2008 and the results for 2009. We rested in 2010.)
In my mind, Oregon has mild springs: plenty of rain, sure, but also lots of sunshine and hints of the summer to come. Since we started the garden project, though, that just hasn’t been the case. Our springs have mostly been cool and moist — just like our winters.
May was again — surprise! — cool and moist. There were some sunny days, and our rainfall was around average, but the temperature was much cooler than normal. (Well, long-term normal, not recent normal.) Still, our garden isn’t as stunted as it has been in years past.
The state of the garden
Despite the weather, our garden is thriving. As you’ll recall, Kris bought lots of “starts” at the garden show on the last day of April. She set out the tomatoes to harden off (allowing them to become acclimated to the great outdoors), and eventually moved them to the garden. From seed, she planted green beans, cilantro, cucumbers, zucchini, and pumpkins. She also planted nasturtiums — edible flowers — from seed. And sunflowers (though we don’t plan to eat those!)
Indoors, we’ve been growing lettuce, which is rare for us. We’ve tried lettuce (and carrots) before, but for some reason, we never have success. But our friend Craig, who is a fantastic gardener, gave us some lettuce seeds saved from last year’s crop. We planted them indoors and now have quite a crop.
For the first time, we’ve grown lettuce that actually tastes okay. It’s not great, but at least it’s not bitter. Meanwhile, some of the cucumbers are still under cloches (made from two-liter soda bottles) because it’s been too cold.
Kris has been hoeing her garden and performing routine maintenance. I haven’t had time to tend to my berries (the blueberries are overrun with weeds!), though I did find time to trim the tall grass in the caneberries and grapes. And last weekend, Kris and I spent half an hour working together to tie up the blackberry canes.
Interlude
While working on the berry canes last week, we disturbed a nest of baby spiders. “Holy cats!” I said. “Look at those guys. There must be a hundred of baby spiders.”
“They’re not really babies,” Kris said. “They’re more like teenagers.”
“I wonder what they eat,” I said. And then I had a thought. I ran inside to grab my camera so that I could shoot the following short video.
I went outside this morning to look at the spiders again, but they were gone — every single one of them. I don’t know enough about spider life to know if they were eaten, washed away by rain, or simply grew up and moved off of their mother’s fencepost.
Monthly totals
Our costs in May were relatively low when compared to past years. Kris spent about six hours working on the food crops this month. “I’d love to spend more,” she tells me, “if the weather would cooperate.” It looks like she’ll get her wish. The forecast for this weekend is sun, sun, sun — and the long-range forecast looks promising, too. I spent about an hour in the garden, giving us a total of seven hours worked this month.
Our only monetary cost was $10 that Kris spent on a large rhubarb plant, which she’s installed in a corner of the garden. (I’ll never know why, though!)
During the month of May, we harvested three things:
- 1.95 pounds (0.886kg) of asparagus at $2.99/pound = $5.84
- lettuce for two salads (we’re not going to track the “profit” from our lettuce, though we’ll write about how much we use)
- some chive blossoms for chive blossom vinegar, which Kris will use for marinades and salad dressings
June’s harvest will be our first of any size for the year, as we begin to pick the ripening berries. And, of course, July and August will bring us a bounty of fruits, vegetables, berries and herbs!
Yearly Totals
Here are this year’s totals through the end of May. (Note that I’ve started a Google spreadsheet to keep track of this data. Posting a screenshot of this is much easier than updating an HTML table by hand.)
As you can see, we’ve spent a lot less on the garden this year than in past years. That’s because we haven’t spent anything on infrastructure. In 2008 and 2009, we had some major expenses for hoses and tomato cages and so on. We’ve had none of those costs this year. In theory, our infrastructure costs should be minimal now that we own most of the things we need to grow our garden.
Final word
This garden project is not a formal experiment. Kris and I are long-time hobby gardeners, and we have set ways that we do things. This year, we’re trying to incorporate some new ideas from GRS readers, but most of the time we’ll do things the way we have for more than 15 years.
We’re not trying to be 100% organic (though we are mostly organic through our normal practices). Nor are we trying to be 100% frugal. Instead, we’re trying to see just what our garden costs and produces based on our normal habits. We hope the results of this experiment will help us find new ways to economize and to improve our crops.
You can read about my goals for this series in The year-long GRS project: How much does a garden really save?
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I really enjoy your garden updates.
On the east coast, our weather has been alternating between a week of sun and week of rain. We are in the sun cycle right now so everything is growing like crazy. I did some major work on improving the soil quality last year so everything is in high octane growing mode. So far I’ve harvested lots of basil, parsley, cilantro, spinach, lettuce, rosemary, onion tops, dill, chives, and oregano. Every week I’ve been cutting the oregano back to dry it out so I will have a big stash for this Winter. Peas should be ripening soon. With the exception of my peach trees, all of the other fruit trees haven’t done particularly well. My bee hive has more than doubled its population so I’m hoping the bees will do some amazing feats of pollination on the veggies. We harvested some propolis wax from it and will trying out lip balm and soap projects with it.
After fixing the soil, I’ve been experimenting with a foliar spray and compost tea to add more nutrients to the plants. Some of the chicken manure has decomposed so I will be adding that to the flower beds.
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LOL, this is the first time I’ve been able to interest my husband in GRS.
He’s very pleased that you don’t kill the spiders, since they get rid of a lot of pests both for the garden and in general, like mosquitos. I’m scared to death of spiders, but we’ve developed a method where he comes running at the panicked yell of “FRIEND!” to save me from them, and in return I don’t do anything to them. It’s not a scalable arrangement, but it works well for us.
He is sorry that he can’t identify them better-he’s not so familiar with Pacific Coast spiders, but he says they’re a type of orb spider.
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Nice work!
And good on you for obviously you are someone who values life, even something as ‘small’ as spiders…. yes, many would have did the horrible thing, that is, to kill them.
In a way, this good will come back to you, as spiders will help keep the population of harmful plant destroying insects in check! Spiders are not pests!
Best Wishes to You!
Stop Animal Abuse
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Why are you not tracking the profit from the lettuce?
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Rhubarb is one of my all time favorite fruits. I love rhubarb pie! A word of warning, watch it carefully; it will take over as much space as you let it.
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I grow lettuces in my window box every summer. That’s about the extent of my gardening. I would like to do more but have no idea what I’m doing. anyone wants to point me to some beginning gardening blogs or resources, that’d be great.
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The books “Bountiful Container” by McGee and Stuckey for container gardening, and “All New Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew for outdoor worked for me. Happy gardening!
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I would kill those spiders so fast! Holy baloney just watching that video scared me
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Hah! I read spider and quickly scrolled past the video – couldn’t even bring myself to watch. Spiders creep me out so much.
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Keep the lettuce out of hot/warm temperatures and it shouldn’t taste bitter. You can also try to find a slow to bolt variety, which should help. It really should only be grown in the spring and fall.
The gardens looks beautiful!
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I just started a little container garden in the back yard this year. It was really late to be getting started (planting season in Phoenix is much earlier than everywhere else), but I bought a few plants, put them in pots that I had on hand, and we’ll see how it goes. I consider it sort of a trial run before I put in raised beds — make sure I’ll actually get off my butt to do the work needed to make it happen.
I (trans)planted six tomatoes, one squash, and two strawberries.
So far, we have gotten three berries (very sweet!), and two tomato plants each have three tiny green tomatoes on them. Maintenance has been easy, and I have someone who knows stuff offer to help build beds, so bigger and better should be in the works.
I’m pretty sure that if I find the correct information (as opposed to gardening information that is published for “everyone”), that I can grow year-round—or close.
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Here in Kansas, we had a couple of rainy weeks but now it’s turned hot, hot, hot! As in, 90F+ daily. We planted our garden in new raised beds on our deck this year in the hope that woodchucks, deer and squirrel won’t climb the stairs to help themselves. After just a month of growing, we’re harvesting lettuce, and the spinach is about to come on. The beets, carrots and onions are looking good, and today I saw the first blossoms on our cucumbers, zucchini, crookneck squash, cherry tomatoes and Mortgage lifters! We even have knee-high corn plants in the 4×6′ plot my husband dug in the back yard. Oh, and as luck would have it, when we ripped out the old flower beds next to our house this spring in preparation for exterior painting, we found a grapevine, two blackberry bushes and a raspberry bush that had been hidden behind shrubs when we bought the place! We’re excited that we’ll be saving so much on produce this year now that we’ve cancelled our CSA membership and should have enough to preserve for the winter. All thanks to you for the inspiration!!!
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These garden updates are so fun…especially for apartment dwellers that can live vicariously through you
Last year I did tomatoes in a container garden and our apt building actually has a lemon tree that no one harvests but me, so I get a little gardening in but I’d love to have a huge backyard! I’m so glad you guys don’t kill spiders, & the video was really fun to watch. My point of view is if they’re outside, more power to them, but if they cross the threshold into my house they’re fair game! My mom used to grab them with a tissue and throw them back outside rather than killing them.
Also — re: the new rhubarb plant, have you ever had rhubarb pie? It’s amazing.
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rhubarb pie with raspberries! (or strawberries if you don’t have raspberries)
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Rhubarb crisp is amazing too–just use an apple crisp recipe and replace all or some of the apple with rhubarb. (if the recipe calls for lemon juice, cut that out as well or it’ll be way too tart).
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I too always enjoy the garden updates. Fascinating video – I shared it with my 6-year-old. Thanks for the providing the sense of scale!
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I have to say I enjoy your garden updates as well. We just started getting into growing. We’ve been documenting our entire process through our video blog.
We’ve been doing aquaponics. Building inexpensive systems at home and growing our own produce. I have to say, we save quite a bit. We’re in Northern California, so the climate isn’t too different from Oregon. We’ve had great success and love growing! If you get some time, check out our progress!
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Ryan, I’ve been intrigued by Aquaponics for awhile, so I’ll be checking out your website some more. Meanwhile, a question for you – what is your garden zone? Do you have to heat the area where your aquaponics is set up? I want to set one up in SW VA (zone 6) at some point but am concerned that I’ll have to spend a fortune on heating the space. I’ve thought about doing a small tilapia pond just over the summer.
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De:
Thanks for giving the site a look!
We are in Northern California (Zone 9). We only need to be mindful of the water temp for the fish; tilapia are more of a warm water fish. Other than that, we run as any normal garden. We have videos on our systems in greenhouses, indoors, and outdoor barrelponics.
If costs of keeping the water warm are an issue, a different variety of fish could be used. Email anytime or hit the forums.
Most of all, enjoy!
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After stumbling on J.D.’s post, I’ll gather some of our financial data, in regards to costs and power consumption, and get them posted.
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I’ve really enjoyed growing lettuce in cold frames, and I bet those would work great in Portland too. In the NC Piedmont (zone 7) where my “city” garden is, we set up 3 cold frames each fall and grow lettuce, mesclun, celery, swiss chard, bok choi, and parsley. Even in February we can get a little bit of food out of them. Also it just makes me happy seeing all the pretty green underneath the glass
In our “country” garden in SW Virgina we are experimenting this year with Shiitake mushrooms, parsnips, peanuts (likely fail), okra, cucumbers and sweet potatoes, in addition to the usual suspects of corn, tomatoes, squash, and garlic, leeks and onions. Harvesting snow peas and the tail end of Swiss chard from the zone 7 garden this week.
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This year I made my first raised bed- I have 2 regular dug beds but this was to go under a tree where I couldn’t dig properly because of roots. Turns out I really really suck at woodwork.
My plants are doing pretty well this year. I’m growing sweetcorn in my new bed along with sunflowers (this year I got a taste for sunflower seeds!), carrots with salad crops, hopefully leeks (not many have survives to my dismay) and some butternut squash which I need to get round to planting out.
It’s difficult to me because all the gardening I do is 30km away at my parent’s house, while I’m in the concrete jungle of central London. I keep meaning to hook up with some guerilla gardeners and keep forgetting. Boo.
Setbacks this year- the driest English spring since records began. We had to drain one of our water butts because it was leaning against the shed and making it warp. The other two are still pretty full though and I don’t do much watering so I should be fine.
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I like fresh food as much as most people do. What this article and many articles about growing your own food do not take into account is how much it costs in your personal time. Your time should have a dollar value. When you multiple the dollar time value of the 71.5 hours as stated in 2009 that would cost $715.00 if you stated your time was worth $10/hour. When you add this to the actual cost, it is not a profit to grow your own food today. I still grow a very few items because I love the taste of fresh tomatoes. I do this because it is a conscious choice I make instead of thinking this will save me money.
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unless you consider gardening to be a leisure activity, and even possibly replacing activities that would cost money (hiking – gas cost; socializing – restaurant bills; sports – equipment or ticket prices etc.)
If you really want to get creative
with the accounting, maybe the time spent on gardening is actually a gain in $ (avoid spending on something else that would take the time).
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But I enjoy gardening, it’s good for my mental wellbeing and it’s exercise so it’s taking the place of activities that would cost me money and provide the same effect.
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The wifey would love to get a garden with some fresh herbs going, but alas, we’re apartment dwellers.
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Do you have a balcony? Amazing what you can do–window boxes with salad greens, radishes, baby beets, swiss chard, herbs. You can grow potatoes in five gallon plastic pails (we use the pails our kitty litter comes in)–each pail will give you a couple meals worth of “baby potatoes”, the kind you pay a premimum for in the store. We use a couple molded plastic kiddie swimming pools to grow stuff in as well–carrots, spinach, etc. Now, this is mostly for the pleasure of growing our own, but even in an apartment, it can be done.
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I just received my second Minifarmbox raised bed today and it’s pouring rain in the Bay Area, ugh! In June!
My husband got me a stainless steel kitchen rack, put it in the garage with inexpensive grow lights and warming mats (<$70 total set up).
I use the little peat pellets from Jiffy and buy the replacements at Home Depot or online, about 10¢ each. Seedpackets are between 1.79-2.99 here and I use seeds for more than one year pretty successfully by keeping them in a plastic shoebox in the fridge.
I have had no pest problems this year with my raised bed (about 24" high) and it looks great in the garden.
We're fortunate to live in Zone 15 (Sunset) so we can garden almost year round (except today apparently
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Love the spider video! Love that you let them live! The only spiders I kill in my garden are the Black Widows, which seem to be quite prevalent here in middle TN. Otherwise, spiders are awesome garden helpers!
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I started greens in self-watering containers in our 3-season porch in early April – moved them outside after May Day, just in time for several hailstorms! But they’re OK. We’ve been eating chard thinnings for about a week now.
Started cold-hardy things (peas, cilantro, parsley, mizuma & bok choi) in planters mid-April, as soon as I could scrape off the snow & add dirt for the seeds, and they are THRIVING – the bok choi already bolted, but we’re having mizuma potato salad tomorrow. Been eating pea green thinnings occasionally for about 3 weeks.
I spent a ton of money last year on strawberry plants, and they are doing great, flowers all over and a few little green berries started.
This year I dropped $10 on a rhubarb plant myself, gave it one of the front-yard stack planters that used to be for greens. Then today I hacked through a huge stand of snakeroot and found the poor, sad, little rhubarb plant a friend’s mom gave me several years ago – I may replant it to the front where it can get some sun.
Other things are less successful – my son really wanted to plant watermelon and corn and they are both failing badly. But he’s been bringing home plants from the school garden (mint, dill, and marigold) and those are all thriving, so he’s not too sad.
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I love this tip from Mother Earth News.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Grow-It/Growing-Lettuce-Indoors-Small-Space-Gardening.aspx
Would be great for apartment dwellers if you have a south facing window. We are just finishing our second round of lettuce here in Oklahoma. It’s so hot now it’s about done. Today I harvested garlic scapes to make pesto.
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@Austin – maybe because there’s no profit yet
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I plant every spring, but also belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture). My garden is generally speaking, a salsa garden. That way I can make and can all the salsa we could want for the year. We also have green beans, berries, watermelon, and cucumbers. Yum. I love to see how you’re tracking your spending/saving through your garden. I am now convinced that I should track mine as well!
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I’m a mostly first time gardener and just joined a community garden. I have mostly lettuce (tango and romaine) right now but my peas, beans, tomatotes, and zukes have been going bonkers since I fed them some sea kelp. I’m in zone 5 and after a really cold and rainy spring I feel like things are finally growing. We’ve had some 90 deg days so I’m praying the lettuce doesn’t bolt.
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Am having the opposite problem here in NOLA – hot and no rain. Over 100 on Sat, but had our first drizzle in 6 weeks yesterday. Spending prob a fortune on water trying to keep the plants alive. The later plantings (squash, more tomatoes and peppers) just aren’t growing, prob b/c of the heat. The cukes and squash in the back where there’s more shade are doing well, but the front where the only shade in an old oak tree are just getting burned. I’m up to watering twice a day now just to keep them from drooping by the time I get home. The peppers seem the hardiest, but the tomatoes are wilting and dropping leaves. Oh well.
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I found a couple of clumps of those same baby yellow spiders on my shed on Friday, and just like in your yard, the next day they were gone without a trace!
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What J.D doesn’t like Rhubarb? Surprised that it costs $10 for a plant. I just got a few from my father who just split some of his 8 plants that he grows and it is the best in pies. You can mix it with strawberries, cherries, blackberries and more. Just hungry thinking about it.
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what i would love to hear about it how your harvest/cost compares to retail value. i’m always considering putting together a garden and i think the push i need is to see the savings. love to see a graph on that!
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Just got done picking the first strawberries of the year. 94 degrees outside in central Iowa today. Crazy weather in the cornbelt. Cool, wet then hot for couple of days then cool and wet. NWS says hot and small chanch showers this week. Garden needs to play catchup as it has been so cool in April and May. Oh well. Time to get outside and plant, weed and water. Putting in some mint in a planter and starting a groundcherry patch this year. Also Asparagas and new Dill patch. I spose’ now the rest of the summer will be hot and dry since the spring was so cool and wet. At least the yard will slow down so no need to mow so much. Good luck on your prodjects everyone, and good gardening. P.S. Spiders rock! They are great hunters and kill bugs. Let them be.
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No dig gardening!
Here’s a great site to lessen the work and improve the results…
http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/Homepage
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It has been a rough gardening season so far but many cool weather crops like broccoli and lettuce have done well. I am in Sunset zone 2b, Reno, NV, and Memorial Day weekend I ran out once again with cold frames to cover the warm season crops. My beans are sprouting up now and i have cucumber seeds that should sprout any hour now. I am hoping for some hot weather very soon and it looks like summer is really on it’s way now! I would consider lettuce to be my #1 produce cost as a container is $4-$6 now unless you find an occasional sale so I grow many varieties from Mesclun mixes to Buttercrunch and Romaine. Out tomato plants are setting fruit so if it keeps warm we should see a good harvest! Keep posting about the garden. I like to think I’m saving some money as I used to have much more lawn and now have much more vegetables growing!
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