Anthony Deaver

So I've already told you I cheated and bought some 'fac­tory' grown plants from one of the mega stores. ¬†Now it's time to cal­cu­late the total costs so far this year that have gone into the garden.

 

Mint	$3.69	 	Parsnips	$1.59
Basil	$3.69	¬†	Car­rots	$0.97
Cilantro	$3.69	 	Squash	$1.69
Jalapeno Pep­per	$3.69	¬†	Zuc­chini	$1.69
Thyme	$3.69	¬†	Cucum­ber	$1.69
Oregano	$3.69	 	Green Onion	$1.89
Pars­ley	$3.69	¬†	Corn	$2.87
Dill	$4.69	 	Bush Bean	$0.99
 	 	 	Shell Peas	$1.69
¬†	¬†	¬†	Let­tuce 1	$1.69
¬†	¬†	¬†	LIt­tle Gem Lettuce	$2.19
 	 	 	Spinach	$2.99
 	 	 	Beets	$1.69
¬†	¬†	¬†	Bell Pep­per	$1.69
 	 	 	Edamame	$2.99
 	 	 	Radish	$1.89
Total	$26.21	 	 	$28.51

 

 

So for the plants and seed alone we are at ¬†$54.72. ¬†Add the pel­let tray I bought for $9.99 to start the seed inside we come to a total of $64.71. ¬†Con­sider that we've spent close to $100 for veg­eta­bles and herbs so far this year. ¬†The biggest prob­lem with the exper­i­ment this year is I'm so far behind. ¬†It's already mid-​​june and I still don't have every­thing in the ground. ¬†I'm begin­ning to won­der if the entire effort is worth it so far for the year. ¬†

 

Any­way, to sum up for now:

 

Total spent to date: $64.71

Time spent: ~4 hours

Sav­ing to date: $0

 

 

God, I am so far behind on writ­ing this it isn‚Äôt funny. So on that note, here we go.

The econ­omy has hit hard and close to home. In fact it‚Äôs hit dead cen­ter. Which makes it a per­fect time to bring an idea I‚Äôve been hav­ing for a lit­tle while. It starts with a per­sonal dream and a desire to get back to my roots a lit­tle. Now before I get too sen­ta­men­tal and goopy let me explain. The exper­i­ment orig­i­nally was going to be to see if we could go the sum­mer with­out buy­ing ANY veg­eta­bles of herbs. Now the plan was to plant at the first oppor­tu­nity, how­ever I ended up get­ting sick in the mid­dle of April with the flu and then an ear infec­tion so I got behind. Then the weather and try­ing to find work put me far­ther behind.

ANYWAY, I have man­aged to get some trac­tion on the project and have begun the process of curb­ing our spend­ing. How­ever to try to get a lit­tle caught up, I cheated a lit­tle. I bought herb plants from Home Depot. I know, I know. It‚Äôs about 4 times more expen­sive than plant­ing BUT, it turns out they are about the same price as buy­ing a pack­age of herbs from the gro­cery. SO! With that in mind, and con­sid­er­ing that the plants will con­tinue giv­ing for months (hope­fully year round if I bring them in in the fall) I think the cost is worth it get gain some ground.

Here are a few pho­tos of the herbs on the front porch:

¬†¬† Ger­man Thyme	¬†¬† Arugula!
¬†¬†¬† ¬†¬† Giant Mint	¬†¬†¬† ¬†¬† Jalapeno Pep­per
¬†¬†¬† ¬†¬† Toma­toes!	¬†¬†¬† ¬†¬† The Porch

In addi­tion I‚Äôve planted the seeds for the veg­etable gar­den into one of those pel­let green­houses. As of last week they looked like this:

 

 

I‚Äôll try to take some updated pho­tos tonight. Next steps: plant the seedlings into the gar­den space, and plant the lettuces.

I‚Äôll also tally up the expen­di­ture thus far, includ­ing all seeds and sup­plies as well as a run­ning tally of the veg­eta­bles bought to this point this year. I‚Äôm hop­ing that within the next month that cost will slowly shrink.