2009 garden so far

This year I thought it would be interesting to keep track of input output of my garden(s).  I'm going to have two: the one I worked on together with my neighbor, Amber,  last year, and one I'm going to do with my father on his church's land.   The second one I ethically couldn't do, if there was a scramble for land to garden on, but despite the stories I've read about how more people are gardening to save money, half of these church plots are still untaken.   Maybe more than half.  So there is room for me.  Anyway, I thought my dad could teach me some things about gardening and it would be a fun thing to do with him.

I'm also going to be getting fresh, organic produce from a local CSA, Trillium Haven Farms.  I'm hoping between these three sources I will have enough tomatoes to do lots of canning for next winter and I will have lots of root veggies to take me through at least late fall.  

So, what have I done so far?  Well, back in February, I put my seed order together, and those seeds have arrived.  I bought one seed starter kit and my mother-in-law bought me another one plus some organic seeds. I used the first one to plant flower seeds I harvested last fall: sunflowers, cosmos, marigolds, hollyhocks, and this funky pod plant I've sort of coveted on my many walks around the neighborhood.  

The sunflowers, so gorgeous in their self-situated beauty (in my neighbor's yard), have not germinated well at all.  I had two come up, and one is already toast.  Of all the seeds, the gaillardia packaged seeds have done the best so far - that's the one in the front, second from the left.  I'm probably going to plant more sunflowers this week and hope I get a few more plants.  

This week I went and got a selection of small peat pots from Meijer because I wanted my tomatoes to do as well as they could, including on the transition from pot to garden.  Some of the seeds will have to be sown directly, including the peas and potatoes which I will be putting shortly, but some of them need a bit of extra TLC and a bit longer growing season.

I also found someone on Craigslist who was giving away horse manure, so we took the truck and got two loads.  It was surprisingly un-gross, I assume since it's just partly digested grass.  I spread that all over my small garden plot, grateful for the volume, the price, and the lack of plastic bags to throw away after.  I started to dig it in on Thursday, and discovered a bunch of rocks which will have to be sifted out of the soil before I can turn over the manure and add more.

So far, the costs this year are as follows:

Money:

• $34.51 - seed order
• $8.42 - incubator 
• $5.46 - peat pots + 1 packet zucchini seeds (all 20% off)
• $1.50 seed potatoes (I'm going to try using small potatoes that have already sprouted in my basement and see if that works)
• $5.50 - gas for truck (2 24 mile round trips @ $2.00, averaging 19 miles to the gallon)

Total: $55.39

Sweat:

• 1 hour choosing seeds (more browsing, but I'm counting that as entertainment)
• .5 hour planting flower seeds
• 5 hours picking up and spreading manure.

tags: gardening  garden  planting  manure