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 June 2011. (Here are the results for 2008 and the results for 2009. We rested in 2010.)
Summer is finally here in our corner of the Pacific Northwest: The birds are chirping, the insects are humming and the garden is producing.
June started cold and wet but has gradually warmed enough to make Kris think this year’s garden is going to be successful. And she needs a successful summer after two straight years of poor tomato harvests — our pantry needs restocking! But those tomato crops are a long way off. At the moment, we’re enjoying our strawberries, peas (both snow and snap), and the lettuce from the window box we keep inside under a fluorescent shop light.
The tomatoes have burst into blossom, promising heavy harvests in late summer
The strawberries have been a morning staple this month (mixed into yogurt with homemade granola), and the peas are delicious straight from the vines or cut for a crispy addition to our salads. But as much as we like these early crops, the best is yet to come. The zucchini are almost big enough to harvest — maybe this weekend — and the currants are ripening to a gorgeous ruby red. The promises inherent in blossoming crops are making our mouths water: cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, blackberries, raspberries and elderberries, as well as peppers and pumpkins are all blooming like mad. (Do your job, bumble bees!)
Simon stands guard by the pumpkin plant
From the herb garden, we’re harvesting basil and oregano. The oregano gets dried in the sun, and the basil is added fresh to pasta and pizza. Meanwhile, the apple, pear, and plum trees show potential for sizable crops — if the weather cooperates.
Drying oregano in the sun (between two window screens)
You may remember that we cut the berry canes back hard this year. Well, you’d never know it to look at them! They’re out of control! We’re expecting a small berry crop this year, but I need to get out there and tie up the canes before they take over the neighborhood. And we spent some time this month weeding our patch of young blueberry bushes and adding bark mulch. The mulch was our only garden-related expense for June ($36), but I think we’ll need to actually add another layer in July.
Despite being cut back hard, the blackberries are eager to produce.
Based in part on GRS reader feedback, we’re looking for some help with the yard and shrub maintenance since I’ll be traveling more. That will leave Kris able to focus her energies on the food and flowers as the summer continues. Altogether, she estimates we had about eight hours of garden-related labor this month.
Our potato patch is enthusiastic this year
Our harvest for June included:
- Romaine-type lettuce for six big salads, roughly equivalent to one head = $1.49
- 3.38 pounds (1.535kg or about 4 pints) @ $2.99/pint for local organic at our farm stand = $11.96
- 1.10 pounds (0.501kg) peas (snow and snap) @ $1.69/pound = $1.86
- Oregano and basil = roughly $0.75
That’s a total of $16.06 worth of food harvested from our garden in June, but it’s barely getting started. The next few months should see a bounty of tasty, low-cost food. Yum!
Simon patrols the herb garden to keep it free of squirrels
Yearly Totals
Here are this year’s totals through the end of June. (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.)
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 admire you guys for doing this. Wish I had the gardening gene, but it seems to have skipped me…
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I decided to try growing potatoes in tires this year. Someone I used to work with said her family would build towers out of tires to grow their potatoes. I planted the potatoes in the ground and covered them with compost. After they were about a foot tall I added a tire and filled it with dirt. You have to be careful to always leave about half a foot of green above the tire. As they grew I added tires to keep up with them. Right now I’m on the third tire and about to add the fourth. As the potato stems are buried they turn into roots which turn into potatoes. I’m about four feet high and still going. She said they would get 50-100 lbs of potatoes out of each tower. I can’t wait to see. It’s an eyesore, but a good way to recycle tires from any tire place. I also saved using an entire row in the garden to grow them.
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Only some varieties do that, though, so if you don’t get the yield you expect, don’t give up!
I do tire stacks (and one plastic garbage can, in a place visible from the alley) and my yield is never great because we have full shade – but it’s more than I got in full shade in the ground, with a lot less work. This year we’re putting guinea pig cage bedding directly in there with them, and it seems to be working great.
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Thanks! I planted russet potatoes. Do you know how well they do? I like your idea with the guinea pigs.
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Deep South, we have had tomatoes for weeks, bunches of squash and peppers. The farmers markets have blueberries and blackberries. It’s been great, even without rain.
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And the cucumbers and peaches.
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I’ve only gotten a few tomatoes so far. It’s been really helpful for me to do a garden update on my blog too – keeps track of what’s going on and motivates me to go bigger/better!
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looks great. There is also savings in not driving here or there to buy food.
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I’ve been pleased with how much salad greens I’ve been able to grow just on the fire escape of my tiny NYC apartment. I’ve had at least 10 salads from the arugula and mesclun seeds I planted, with no maintenance really. I also grew a few radishes and have some peas growing out there too. I guess 10 organic salads are only worth about $5-10 but I also didn’t have to carry it all up 5 flights of stairs from the grocery store
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I really like these posts. My grandparents were big into growing different kinds of fruit and them drying them. A lot of my coworkers down here in texas have fig trees. I am thinking about putting one or two in next winter, because they are so good!
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Texas is great for pecan trees too, and peaches
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I’m really glad you’re doing these posts this year. I sort of have a garden this year. It’s all in containers but I think I might actually get a reasonable harvest this year (mainly tomatoes, peppers & snap peas). It’s our first summer in this house and we have a short growing season (New England). But now I know where I want to install a raised bed next spring.
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I think doing some kind of gardening is hugely important. The primary benefit is to realize just how much goes into producing one head of lettuce in terms of water and time—two months and lots of water—compared to picking it up at the supermarket for $2. It is important that we don’t take our food supply for granted. Second of all, I think it is important to have at least one say in one’s food supply instead of just outsourcing the whole deal. You only need to go back a hundred years to reach a point when _buying_ groceries was considered somewhat unusual.
This year I’ve started a container garden made of self-watering 5 gallon bucket systems that I built myself. The self-watering aspect is the most successful method in terms of dealing with 100F heat days without dousing the area in water.
From a financial aspect, each bucket can produce about $1 worth of groceries per month. You’d need to save and invest $400 in the stock market to make a similar return, so the “return on investment” is pretty high considering that a self-watering container can be made in about 15-20 minutes.
Finally, by growing your own you have a better idea of whether your food was sprayed with pesticides or genetically modified. With store bought you never know.
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*pets Simon*
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This is the third year my wife and I have had a garden. Each year we learn more about what works in our area and what does not. We also do a better job of planning, so we put in less work and actually get a better yield. This year looks to be our best yet.
Also, walking out into my garden to put together a fresh salad just makes me happy.
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Can you describe how you plant/grow your strawberries? I have a hard time with mine always drying out.
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There is a product called agri-gel. It will hold moisture in the plants (any plant) to prevent drying out. another thing to use with or without agri-gel is straw or grass clippings. This helps retain moisture for those berries. You can google agri-gel; for the amount you wind up using for your plants, it is well worth the cost, which isn’t much anyway (about 15 bucks for I think 1/2#). Hope this helps.
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My best advice is NOT to plant your strawberries into one of those terra cotta “strawberry pots” that have multiple levels with holes for the plants. Terra cotta dries out very quickly and unless you install a perforated PVC pipe down the center for watering, it’s hard to get water all the way down. Our berries are planted among our rose bushes; the berries and roses get watered at the same time. A soaker hose is best, but not essential.
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We are in our second year of gardening our small garden plot. We learned two important things last year.
One was to grow flowers to bring beneficial bugs. Starting from nothing last year, we had a lot of bug problems. This year, we started the flowers early, and not many problems at all.
The second thing was to get the biggest “bang” for our buck/space. Even though I loved growing potatoes and pumpkins last year, it makes more sense to grow more densely to get the most out of our small space.
This year we planted a LOT more tomato plants (we used them all last year, so I’m hoping to can something this year), plus lots of lettuce, kale, carrots, peppers, basil, parsley, cucumbers, and acorn squash (on a trellis), plus continuing our strawberry tubs. Even with the strange weather, things are coming along nicely. I agree with Shawn… gotta love walking out the back door for salad fixins!
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Simon is such a handsome fellow – and a hard worker, clearly. Sending chin-scratches to him from Chicago.
Oh, and your garden looks great, too!
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You mentioned mulching; If you and/or your neighbors don’t use alot of chemicals, and you’re not worried about the look, you can use grass clippings for mulch. That will save 36 bucks!
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BTW,
start round 2 of your plantings now. Lettuce, spinach, kohlrabi and the likes,
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Our garden on the east coast has been doing well too. The weather has been much more cooperative this month. It seems to rain every 4 to 5 days so it only needs a watering one day in between.
The peas have been delicious so much so that we often just eat them raw. I amended the soil with lots of nutrients to improve the flavor of the veggies and it’s been a success so far. By sampling the sugar levels in the veg, I compare to the Brix index, which charts sugar levels that leads to better tasting food.
The real test will be on the tomatoes. That’s the crop that I wait for all year and refuse to indulge in tomatoes any other time of the year.
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I envy you your peas–I had a nice batch coming up until one fine morning when my dog ate them all. Funny–he left the rest of the garden alone, just went for the peas.
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Dogs…. sheesh :/
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Very envious! I’ve been slowly expanding my garden and my skills, but am about to sell my house and move to a rental house (with yard!) in another country. It’ll be an adventure to re-learn what’s possible there.
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We have been harvesting Lettuce like crazy. This year I have learned that if you want to get to those big, crunchy heads of Romaine or Butter lettuce you have to eat your thinnings and leave just one plant spaced out for a while and it will get large quickly. We also turned our old raised planter into a blueberry and raspberry patch because it get a little too much shade for tomatoes and peppers because certain trees that screen our yard from neighbors have gotten larger. It’s all trial and error. Now I just can’t wait for my apple and plum trees to produce. Hopefully next year! Thanks for sharing the garden project over the last few years. The pictures are a treat as well!
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yay! I always love reading about your gardening adventures and results! yum!
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I planted three different varieties of tomatoes and a bunch of jalepeno and cayenne pepper plants. The tomato plants are FINALLY starting to fruit. I think this summer has been too cool for the tomatoes (good & bad thing), but my peppers are going wild! Does anyone have a hot sauce recipe you swear by
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Great post! Not only is gardening good for the pocketbook but it’s also good for the body and soul. Think of the hours of therapy saved when you can take out your frustrations on weeds (just don’t do any pruning in a bad mood!) I now live in an apartment and grow tomatoes and herbs and such on my south-facing balcony. We have a thriving little crop. My son loves to go pick chives for our salad or basil for fresh pesto or rosemary for roast potatoes. As an additional conservation/money saving effort, we keep a bucket by each shower to collect water while waiting for it to heat up. We’re able to water all of our containers and house plants, as well as rinse dishes for the dishwasher when we know it won’t be run right away. We’ve been reclaiming an average of about 14 gallons per week.
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I will be moving to Hong Kong soon, and currently don’t garden, but is it possible to garden in an apt, and especially with the humid climate? Have any of you had any success in such an environment?
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You can’t grow everything, but some things for sure. Most plants like humidity.
Herbs make the most sense because they’re so expensive to buy and you only use a little at a time. Things like lavender, rosemary, thyme, sage can be grown indoors. Things like cilantro and basil and mint want heat and sun. You can pretty easily grow scallions, dwarf peas, radishes and greens on a balcony.
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When I lived in HKG I had a small lemon tree on the flat balcony. It smelled great and always produced fruit. I also had tomatoes in big pots. I fertilized them with coffee grinds and tea bags, and they lasted for a full year before I started over.
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Good to know. Thanks for both of your tips. Are there recommended places to go in HK to look for the plants (ie for lemons) and seeds for the herbs?
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These photos always make me jealous… I’m from Oregon, and knowing how beautiful it is in the Pacific Northwest this time of year makes me miss it all that much more. I can’t wait to move back when my military obligation is up…
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J.D. and Kris, have you looked into yardsharing? I have a fairly big yard/food growing space and find it much easier to manage when I’m sharing the work with someone else. In past years I’ve had luck finding friends who want to garden in return for a share of the harvest, but this year I wasn’t so lucky. I found yardsharing.org, a Portland organization, online and really wish there was something like that here in Chicago. Since I have no one to help me this year, my veggie garden is pretty small and not very well tended as in years in past.
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Yes, yard sharing is a very good idea, you and your neighbors can grow and share the produce together. Saves a lot of time as well. I like this, and want to implement. Let’s see what my neighbor has to say..
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We’re about a month behind you on the sunny stuff – little green tomatos, very tiny beginning cucumbers.
But the first rush of greens is done – we ate up all the mizuna, i’m making a mess of chard today, and the parsley will probably be done this week (tabouli) before it gets too-too hot and bolts. So I’m cleaning up some spaces to plant fall crops this week.
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I love seeing your garden updates, and the $$/time invested as well. We don’t track our expenses that well, but roughly estimate. For us the lettuces and spinach are having a fabulous year…huge salads daily for lunch & sometimes dinner, so they have paid for them selves many times over. Maybe Next year I should use a spreadsheet. Anyway the relaxation it provides is priceless.
This year looks good for tomatoes, as the plants are rugged and fruiting. Planted them in LY chicken run, so they are nicely fertilized!
New for us this year are brussel sprouts, kale and artichokes.
A tip for mulching strawberries is to use pine needles.
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I am so jealous!
I started my seeds inside in February. Less than half germinated. I used those soil discs, so maybe that was a problem.
Transplanting outside hasn’t done anything yet. Nothing’s grown taller in the 2 months it’s been outside. Our summer squash occasionally puts out a flower, but it’s gone within a couple days. Maybe we have a critter…
I’ve learned a few things that hopefully I can redo next year. I think it’s too late for anything for the summer, because Richmond is beastly hot and dry. Maybe I’ll get something before October/November though.
-j
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