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Shopping in the Garden

May 17th, 2015 at 01:20 am

We put a lot of money into building raised beds this year, and an additional $75 into bringing in good soil to put on top of our manure and spent bedding and compost. Add to that all the little t's and elbows and splitters, and hose for the irrigation system (which would have been far more without the soaker hoses we had on hand already). And while we just might break even this year, it'll be towards the end of the season. But for the next years our only costs should be seed and a few six packs of transplants.

I have been harvesting 4 types of lettuce, spinach, violas, 3 types of sorrel, and Asian stir-fry greens for the last 3 weeks. It is all cut and come again types of vegetables, so I can't compare it based on heads of lettuce, but based on the packages of organic romaine you can buy at the store that cost $4 and last me 3 days, I have now saved myself $28 in organic lettuce costs with far more variety.

I have harvested and dried enough basil to fill a normal sized spice jar. Ditto on oregano. And I have used enough thyme to correlate to one of those $1 plastic packs they have at the store. So add $13 altogether for that.

Then I harvested enough for one bunch of organic kale, $2.50

Garden savings so far: $43.50.

And that more than pays for half the soil.

Posted in Gardening Organically, Grocery Shopping | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “Shopping in the Garden”

  1. ThriftoRama Says:
    May 17th, 2015 at 02:00 am 1431828049
    1431828049

    I'm glad I'm not the only one to keep track. You must be a few weeks ahead of us, season wise. I'm just starting to harvest herbs and the lettuce is another week off.

    I'm amazed you got off so cheap on extra dirt for your raised beds. Our compost bill has been $400 for each of the past two years. We don't have any animals to produce and can't produce enough compost on site to cover everything. I'm hoping to make more of my own compost this year, so I don't have to buy as much next year!

  2. Amber Says:
    May 17th, 2015 at 04:33 am 1431837225
    1431837225

    My dad loved gardening, this post just motivated me to plant something and get him motivated again.

  3. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    May 17th, 2015 at 02:13 pm 1431872008
    1431872008

    Your stir-fry greens. It isn't bok choi, by chance? I planted bok choi for the first time this year. It didn't occur to me that that might be cut and come. Is it?

  4. rob62521 Says:
    May 17th, 2015 at 06:30 pm 1431887456
    1431887456

    Excellent...glad you are already harvesting and seeing a good return on your money, not to mention healthy eating!

  5. LuckyRobin Says:
    May 18th, 2015 at 07:15 am 1431933309
    1431933309

    Joan, some of it is various versions of choi.

  6. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    May 19th, 2015 at 12:28 am 1431995317
    1431995317

    Sounds like a fun way to "shop" Smile

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