I re-potted my tomato seedlings today. I had originally planted two of each: Paul Robeson, Break O’Day (both early varieties), Dr. Wychee Yellow (mid-season), Green Zebra and Baker Family Heirloom (both late season tomatoes). Only one of the Dr. Wychee’s came up, but that’s okay. I still have nine healthy tomato plants, all except for one Paul Robeson will be planted in the community plot later in May. The Paul Robeson will be planted in a container on our back porch. I also re-potted four lettuce seedlings. I put them all back under the grow light for a few more weeks. The remaining seedlings (eggplant, hot pepper, cucumbers, kale, lettuce) are still in the peat pots under the grow light.
My seed potatoes came today. Two pounds of Banana fingerlings. I put them on a shallow plate to expose them to light for the next two weeks so they can sprout. Fingers crossed for a better crop this year. More about growing potatoes here.
I used the perfect planting weather today (63F and sunny in the morning and showers in the forecast for the afternoon) to plant peas. I planted two rows (Sugar Snaps) and sowed spinach in between (Giant Noble). I also planted two rows of carrots (Bolero, pelleted) and spring radishes in between (French Breakfast). These are the first crops I sowed in the plot this spring! This evening, we will have our annual gardeners meeting. Spring is officially here.
I finally started my first seeds indoors. I sowed hot Thai pepper and eggplant. Five each (I will only need a couple of plants each). My setup is just one seed tray on a heat mat under a grow light. We have a small space so the seed-starting operation is tucked away in a corner of my son’s room in front of an unused door.
It is cold outside today. Perfect time for a hot cup of tea, my seed box and a stash of seed catalogs. Time to plan the next gardening season.
The first step is to take stock of the previous season, which I kind of do as I go along. I take notes throughout the season and then make a summary in late fall. I reflect on what worked well in the garden and what did not, and take note of what vegetable varieties I would like to grow again this season and in what quantities (same/more/less). Are there any new vegetables or varieties I might want to try this year? Are there any that I will definitely not grow again (because they did not do well, I did not like the taste, they took up too much space, required too much labor, were decimated by pests etc.).
Second, I take inventory of my seeds. I store all my seeds in a single cardboard box and use simple card stock dividers to sort the seeds by vegetable. Every winter/early spring, I go through the box and discard the old seeds and make a list of vegetable seeds I need to buy for the next season.
I then plan the layout of my plot and draw up a planting diagram for the year. I like to rotate crops and this is this year’s plan:
Here is my general plan for the garden plot for 2019:
tomatoes (6 to 8 plants total: 3-4 early, 3-4 mid/late)
For my back porch, I am planning: 1-2 tomato plants (I will select varieties that are suited for containers), 1 hot pepper, 1 mini eggplant, chard, head and/or leaf lettuce, herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary, parsley, basil, mint) and flowers.
Now comes the fun part — I browse the seed catalogs (paper copies and online) and make a preliminary list of interesting varieties to consider. I will then narrow down the varieties and prepare my final seed orders. I have yet to start saving my own seeds. Maybe this is the year?
Growing your own vegetables provides you with healthy, fresh produce. Not to mention the joy it brings to get your hands dirty, smell the freshly turned soil and to see your plants grow and bear fruit. But does growing your own vegetables also make economic sense? After all, you do have expenses as you need to buy seeds and/or seedlings, compost, mulch, tools etc. And then there is the manual labor, even if for most gardeners it is a “labor of love”. Every year, I have the best intention to try to answer this question but every year I fail to record the weight and amount of produce harvested in order to assess the monetary value of my garden. This past season was no different.
I do have numbers for the input though. In 2018, I spent a total of $ 114.07 on seeds, seedlings, seed garlic, seed potatoes and supplies. In detail, I spent the following:
Sand Hill Preservation Center (seeds) 18.00
Fedco (seed potatoes) 18.00
Johnny’s (seeds) 9.45
Home Depot (manure etc., herb seedlings) 29.83
Agricultural Hall Jamaica Plain (2 x hay) 26.00
Burpee (seed garlic) 12.79
I believe I definitely got my money’s worth growing my own vegetables even though I can’t say precisely how much money I saved. In 2018, I bought only one single head of garlic in between the last harvested head of 2017 and the first cured head of 2018 (and we use a lot of garlic, sometimes 6 to 8 cloves in one dish). I did not buy any chard, green beans or cucumbers (or many other vegetables) all through the summer. I make a home-cooked dinner for my family of four almost every night, we rarely eat out (maybe once a month) and order take-out maybe once or twice a year, so there is a lot of cooking in my kitchen. I grew almost all the herbs I used all summer and fall — even though the sage and flat parsley in my plot mysteriously died over the summer (I had potted parsley and sage on the back porch).
I have a few “hard” numbers from my harvests though: I harvested a total of about 25 pounds of cucumbers (from a set of 3-4 plants), a disappointing amount of only about 4 lbs. of fingerling potatoes, about 20 lbs. of tomatoes. My garlic harvest was much smaller this season (about 25 heads) and as of right now (mid-January), I have only 3 full heads left. I harvested about 2 dozen leeks. I have no numbers for the beans (but there sure was a ton of them), beets, salad greens, squash, eggplant, carrots, radishes, asparagus, rhubarb, Brussels sprouts, chard, kale or hot peppers.
Harvest September 5, 2018
I produced about $60 worth of tomatoes alone (again from three plants) , assuming a price of $3 per pound. So, even with a small plot like mine you can grow the variety and the amount of organic, super-tasty vegetables needed to truly supplement your family’s diet over the summer and fall, saving you money.
